Volume Ii Part 4 (1/2)
”Thou givest us no meat,” said the friar, ”nor wine nor strong drink givest thou unto us. How, therefore, can we remain in thine house?
Nevertheless would I love to abide a short time with thee, to witness thy great might, before which the masters of divinations in other lands have trembled. Verily, I would also show unto thee what thy servant can do.”
”If I were to cope with such as thee, it would only be to show thee thy littleness!” said Michael. ”But thy creed is an abomination to me, and I abhor it. In the meantime call up my steward, and I will order him to provide you with meat and drink.”
The poet now, for the first time, spoke up in the Master's hearing; and, indignant at the steward's design on Delany, he delivered himself with great vehemence.
”Nay, say not so, great Master. The devil hath possession of that man, sure as the stars burn on the morning's brow. He give us meat or drink!
Sooner he will draw forth the crimson current from our veins, and lay us with the dead: Sooner he will rob beauty of her treasure, and deface the image of his Maker. Let us go forth to hill, or dale, or wood, strive with the crow for carrion, or contend with owlets for a mouse; but to be bearded by that same surly beast, the heart of man not brooks it. As for me, I lift my voice, my absolute protest, against the degradation and effect.”
”He is indeed a son of Belial,” said the friar; ”but I have put him in ward, that he trouble us not. Lo, here be the keys of thy castle, which I intend to keep as our surety. Therefore show me the place where thy good things are disposed, and I myself will be steward for a time; for indeed that man of thine is such a son of Belial that a man cannot speak to him.”
The Master's brow lowered with dissatisfaction. His subordinate spirits in whom he trusted had no power over the friar, and other man had he none within the castle, save Gourlay, who was almost as much fiend as man. He therefore intreated the friar to set his steward at liberty, and restore to him the keys, else no meat or drink could be had; and, at the same time, he gave them all warrandice that they should be kindly used.
”My seneschal,” said he, ”is as stubborn and froward as any demon of the pit, nor will he do one kind or fair action save by compulsion. But he dares not disobey me. If he should presume to dispute my orders in the slightest instance, one word from you shall be sufficient, and I will shew you how he shall be requited.”
It was forthwith agreed that the Master should accompany them down to the dungeon, in order to restrain the fury and violence of his servant.
Matters were therefore arranged, and the two prisoners set at liberty.
The steward was sullen and intractable, lying still on the dungeon floor, disregardful of the words spoken to him by the friar; but when he heard the Master's threatening accents he sprung to his feet and came forth, looking at Charlie in such a manner as plainly said, ”I shall be revenged on you.”
The Master then took him to task, demanding by whose orders he had shut up his kinsman's friends in the vault. But he only snarled and gnashed his teeth in reply.
”And then to suffer yourself to be mured up there!” said the Master.
”Ay,” said Gourlay; ”some have won a tilt on the king of the field who never saw the day to win it on another.”
”For the viper blood that venoms thy heart do thou ought amiss to these gentlemen,” said the Master, ”or to this obnoxious thing that is their ward! Wherefore, let me ask, were they compelled to shut you up there?”
The steward only grunted in reply; but the poet came again boldly forward, having been exasperated beyond measure at the steward for his attempt on Delany; and he said,--”Sir knight, in that I'll truly counsel you. At dead hour of night, when all was still, save the snell piping of the frosty wind; even we were all at peace, and quiet lay as did the dead man's bones, but that, between, the friar at equal intervals sent forth his nasal roar, so vehement that the mice, yea, and the starveling rats, ceased from their prowling, listened the dire sound from fleshy trumpet of our mother church, then sought, with stretched forth tail, and nimble foot, the depth profound! There quaking did they lie, like fiends driven from the height to the abyss,--lank make, chilled heart, and grievous length of tail. At that ill hour, in comes this boding owl, this ill-starred man of sin, and straight demands that peerless maiden for your honour's couch. Him we refused--the maiden shrieked for help--he dragged her forth, and on this laurelled head, crowned by the muses with celestial bays, inflicted ruthless wound. The bedesman also fell; but he our friend, the Hector of the hills, wrought his o'erthrow, and circ.u.m-mured him. Thus my say is ended.”
The Master, as the poet spoke, seemed several times so much amused that they expected he would have burst into laughter. But one look of his eye spoke sentences. When he heard that Gourlay had demanded the maid for him, he gave him such a glance as made the wretch almost cower to the earth; and when the poet ended he turned his eyes on Charlie, measuring him from head to foot, and seeming as if he doubted the fact that he or any man could master his redoubted seneschal. However, the Master had seen so much of the group, that he determined, contrary to his custom, to have some amus.e.m.e.nt with them. He therefore ordered his seneschal forthwith to provide all good things for their entertainment.
The stubborn wight made no movement betokening obedience. He stood upright with his dull white face a little elevated, and his eyes turned up below his brows, while those who were next him heard him saying to himself, in accents that creaked in his throat, ”h.e.l.l must be moved for this repast!” The Master heard not this sentence, but noting his steward's indecision, he stamped with his foot, and pointing with his finger, the latter led the way into an antichamber of the same cold and naked appearance with the rest of the apartments of the castle, where, leaving them with a light, the two went away into the great Master's dormitory, ”To cast their cantrips, and bring up the deil.”
”He keeps an unco cauld house this carl,” said Tam, when they were left by themselves: ”I fancy he'll ken brawly he'll hae ane bien eneugh at the hinder-end, and downa bide to see fire in this!”
”He brings me a-mind o' daft Jock Amos i' the Goosegreen,” said Gibbie,--”wha never durst lie down on a bed because his mother died on ane. Whenever he saw a bed wi' white sheets on it he fell a-trembling, and ran to the gate.”
CHAP. III.
Goe fetche mee lofe of your wheitan breide And ane other coppe of wyne; For drynke I quhile myne doublet ryve, For drynke I moste repine.
I fele not corauge in myne herte, Nor mychte into myne honde, If there is nott wytchcrafte forth abrode, There neuir was crafte in londe.
_Ballade of ”Prince Henrie.”_
The morning had by this time dawned on the gray hills of the forest, and that with an aspect gloomy and foreboding. The white snowy clouds had crept down into the bosoms of the hills; and above these clouds were here and there to be seen the top of a mountain crested with its dark cairn, so that the heavens and the earth seemed to be mingled together.
”Gude sauf us!” cried Charlie, as he peeped out at his small crannied window, ”but this is a grim, gousty-looking morning! I wish the prince o' the air be nae fa'en a brewing some o' his h.e.l.lish storms and hairikens on us. If there be spirits moving about on thae hills to-day, they can be nae good anes, ye may see by their look out. Sant Mary be with us! see their drumly heads appear to be raised to double their ordinary height.”
”Be not thou afraid, my son, of the prince of the power of the air, for there is one that is greater than he,” said the friar; ”and though the fiends may for a while muster their fogs, and foment the air with storms, yet will he send forth his angels and scatter them; yea, he will send them forth riding on the whirlwind, and the clouds of heaven shall be their chariots, and the powers of darkness shall fly in dismay before them.”