That clear and mild evening, fluted as April by a thrush in the lilacs, Prosper and the Countess walked together on the terrace. A guard or two, pike in hand, lounged by the balustrade; the deer-hound, with his muzzle between his paws, twitched his ears or woke to snap at a fly: it seemed as if the earth, sure of the sun at last, left her conning tower with a happy sigh. It turned the Countess to a tender mood, where she suffered herself to be played upon by the season—L'ora del tempo e la dolce stagione. The spring whimpered in her blood. Prosper felt her sighing as she leaned on his arm, and made stress to amuse her, for sighs always seemed to him unhealthy. He set himself to be humorous, sang, chattered, told anecdotes, and succeeded in infecting himself first and the lady afterwards. She laughed in spite of herself, then with a good will. They both laughed together, so that the guards nudged each other. One prophesied a match of it. "And no bad thing for High March if it were so," said the other, "and we with a man at the top. I never knew a greater-hearted lord. He is voiced like a peal of bells in a frolic." "He's a trumpet in a charge home." "He's first in." "Fights like a demon." "Snuffs blood before 'tis out of the skin." "Ah, a great gentleman!" "What would his age be?" "Five-and-twenty, not an ounce more. So ho! What's this on the road?" The other man looked up, both looked together. The porter came on to the terrace, followed by a dark youth who walked with a limp. "A boy to speak with Messire," said the porter, and left his convoy. "Name and business?" asked one of the guards. "Roy, the page from Starning, to speak with my lord." "Wait you there, Roy. I will ask for you." The guard went off whistling. Isoult fixed long looks again on the two at the end of the terrace. She was nearly done. "You have made a push for it, my shaver," said the second guard, after a study from head to toe. "My business pushed me." "Ah, trouble in the forest, eh? Are the roads clear?" "I met with a company." "How many pikes?" "Nearer sixty than fifty." "Where bound?" "Goltres, I understood." "Who led?" "A black knight." "Ah. Were you mounted, my lad?" "Not then. I was in hiding." "Ah. You know what you're about, it seems." "Yes," said Isoult. The messenger returned. "You are to go and speak to Messire," he said. Isoult saw Prosper coming towards her. Her heart's trouble began; her knees knocked together, she swayed a little as she walked. "That boy's had as much as he can stand," said the guard who had questioned. "What, a'ready?" laughed his mate. "Not beer, you fool—travel. He's extended—he will hardly reach another yard." The fact was wholly, the reasoning partly true. Doubt had lain as dregs at the bottom of the draught which had fed her. Now she was at the lees—brought so low that she had to depend upon the worth of her news for assurance of a hearing. True, she had asked no more, nor looked for it—but you cannot tame hopes. A dry patch in her throat burned like fire, but she fought her way. He was close: she could see the keen light in his eyes. Alas! alas! he looked for Roy. A thick tide of despair came surging over her, closing in, beating at her temples for entrance. She lost her sight, fluttered a very rag in the wind, held out her hands for a balance. Prosper saw her feeling about like a blind man. He quickened. "Danger! danger!" she breathed, and fell at his feet. He picked her up as if she had been a baby and carried her into the house. As he passed the guards one of them came forward to help. "The lad's been pushed beyond his strength, my lord," the man ventured. "So I see," said Prosper, and shook him off. The business must be got through alone. "A great gentleman," said the man to his mate. "But he fags his servants." "Bless you, Jack, they like it!" the other assured him, with a laugh at the weakness of his own kind. Wine on her lips and brows brought her to, but it was a ghost of a boy that lay on the bed and held fixed upon Prosper a pair of haunted eyes. But Prosper stayed at his post. He was very tender to weak things. Here in all conscience was a weak thing! That look of hers, which never wavered for a second, frightened him. He thought she was going to die; reflected that death was not safe without a priest: the thought of death suggested his dream, the dream his old curiosity to see again that which had so stirred him asleep. Well, here she was before him—part of her at least; for her soul, which he had helped her to win, was fighting to escape. The sounds of the duel, the shuddering reluctance of the indrawn breath, the moan that told of its enlargement, these things, and the motionless open eyes which seemed to say, Look! Body and soul are fighting, and we can only watch! turned him helpless, as we all are in actual audience of death. He sat, therefore, waiting the issue; and if he had any thought at all it was, "God, she was mine once, and now I have let her go!" For we do not pity the dying or dead; but ourselves we pity, who suffer longer and more than they. Presently Isoult fetched a long sigh, and moved a hand ever so slightly. Prosper took it, leaning over her. "Isoult," he said, "child, do you not know me?" He affected more roughness than he felt, as a man's way is. He will always dictate rather than ask. At his words a shiny veil seemed to withdraw from her eyes, whereby he learned that she had heard him. He put the cup to her lips again. Some was spilt, but some was swallowed. She motioned an answer to his question. "Yes, lord," he made of it. "Isoult, I ought to be angry with you," said he; and she looked untroubled at him, too far gone to heed the blame of lords or men. "No, no," her lips framed as she closed her eyes. She fell asleep holding his hand, and he watched by the bed till midnight, warning off with a lifted finger any who came from the Countess for news of him. Hard thinking sped the vigil: he wondered what could have happened to bring her so near her death or ever he could have word of her. Galors, he was pretty sure, had got to work again; it was good odds that he had been running in couple with the lady of the dead knight. Their connection was proved to his mind. Then Isoult, having escaped by some chance, had naturally headed straight for him—very naturally, very properly. It was his due: he would fight for her; she was his wife. Ah, Heaven, but she was more than that! There were ties, there were ties now. What more precisely she was he could not say; but more, oh, certainly more. Weak things moved him always: here was a weak enough thing, white and shadowy in a bed! He felt the stirring of her hand in his, like a little mouse. Poor frightened creature, flying from all the forest eyes to drop at his feet at last! By God, he would split Galors this time. And as for the woman—pooh, give her a branding and let her go. At midnight Isoult woke up with a little cry. Her first words were as before—"Danger! danger!" "You are safe with me, dear," said Prosper. "Danger to you, my lord!" "To me, my child? Who can be dangerous to me?" "Maulfry and Galors. Maulfry most of all." "Maulfry? Maulfry?" he echoed. Ah, the lady! She told him everything that had passed from the hour she left Gracedieu, and even Prosper could not but see that she had had one thought throughout and one stay. Maulfry's smiling treachery had shocked her to the soul; but the very shock had only quickened her alarms about his safety. He could not avoid the reflection that this startled creature loved him. Prosper would have been more grateful than he was, and more shrewdly touched, had he not also felt astonishment (tinged, I think, with scorn) that any one should be anxious about his conduct of the war. Women's ways! As if a man-at-arms did not live in danger; and for danger, pardieu. He did not show any of this, nor did he leave the girl's hand. Besides, the affair was very interesting. So he heard her to the end, adding nothing by way of comment beyond an occasional "Good child," or "Brave girl," or the wine cup to her dry lips. Seeing too how deeply her alarms had sunk into her, he had tact enough not to let her guess his intent, which very nakedly was to follow up Galors towards Goltres or Wanmeeting. Upon this matter he contented himself with asking her one question—whether she had ever heard speak of a knight called Salomon de Born? The answer made him start. Isoult shook her head. "I never heard of him, my lord; but I know that Dom Galors' name is De "Hum," said Prosper; "he has taken all he can get, it appears. And does he still carry the shield and arms he had before?" She told him, yes; and that all his company carried his colours, black and white, upon their banneroles and the trappings of their horses. "In fact our monk sets up for a lord—Messire Galors de Born?" "So he is named among his men, lord," said Isoult. "But wait a minute. Do you know the man's name before he entered religion?" "It was De Born, my lord, as I understood. But I have heard him also called Born." Prosper thought again, shook his head, made nothing of it, and so kept it for his need. Next day before dinner he came into the hall leading a black-haired boy by the hand. He went up to the Countess's chair between the ranked assembly. "My lady Countess," says he, "suffer my page Roy to kiss your hand. He loves me, and I him, if for no better reason than that he does me so much credit. He alone in my father's house has dared it, I may tell you. Take him in then for my sake, madam. The master's master should be the servant's master." |