Arthur Gilchrist Brodeur

“ Pierre got up from his uncomfortable seat in the embrasure and stretched himself to his full height. He towered above his friend, a man in the prime of life, immensely tall, with the strength and grace of a gladiator. His dark, lean face, clear-cut and hawk-like as any Roman Cæsar's, was bitten deep with the fines of care and fatigue; his great dark eyes were heavy with pain. None would have guessed him a year younger than the light-hearted troubadour.
“Look you, lad,” he said quietly, “Henry is our master, and it is a man's duty to serve his master well. ”

“ Though Aliénor caught the glint of anger in his eyes, her expression never altered from that meek graciousness which made her seem an angel from heaven.
And almost as such the knights of France regarded her in that moment. Adoration of beauty was in their blood; the worship of lovely women, born in the south, had already found its shrines in Paris. Never before had those soldiers seen such loveliness; never again would they see it in any other woman. Emulating her own vassals, they sank to their knees before her. Even Thibault's more stolid easterners felt her spell. ”

“ For the first time Hengist thought of his aging aunt, Finn’s queen. The first outbreak of war, in which Hnaf fell, had cost her the lives of son and brother; now Hengist had slain her husband. Alone in the winter of her years, what joy was left for her? His heart smote him; his grief for his own deed was greater than he could bear.
Finn read his thoughts.
“Grieve not!” he gasped. “You have—borne yourself—like a man! The gods call me—farewell!”
When the old man was dead, Hengist called Oslaf to him, and sent the chief at top speed, on Finn’s horse, to the Jutish hall. ”

“ Till now he had had the strong man's love of life in more than ordinary measure. Fame, the taste of power, the sharp give and take of battle, had been as wine to him. In the friendship of his comrade Cercamon, in the trust and kindness of his lord, he had known joy that to him surpassed all else on earth. Nor was it prison and the threat of death that broke him now, but the certainty that his lord was false. Ay, false. Henry had sold him for a smile from the woman whose lands he coveted. There was no more truth nor loyalty in life. ”

“ In breaking that oath, though we pleased the gods, we were treacherous. The treason of a warrior is not his guilt, but the guilt of his lord, whose order he must obey. Thus on me alone rests all the guilt for our faithlessness and for the death of Finn.
“I can never again lead honorable men—and honorable men ye Danes are, your guilt being on my shoulders. But dishonored men, who, like me, have broken their pledges, I can lead. Ye Jutes, men without honor, will ye take me, who am also honorless, for your lord, as I take you for my warriors?” ”

“ Thibault of Champagne swung about as if he had been struck; his knights reached for their hilts. The Aquitanians, seeing the hostile glances and gestures, grouped about Bertrand of Armagnac as if to form battle-array. Then Cercamon's endurance broke. His whole soul was outraged at the insult; his fiery love of combat and his sensitive honor forced from his lips a reply that he scarce realized before it crossed his lips. But it rang through the hall like a peal of trumpets:
“Nay, the king has chosen like a fool! He has scorned the pure gold, and has chosen the gilded lead!” ”

“ It is a high honor I have prepared for my king.”
CERCAMON felt every eye fasten upon him; the hot, impatient eye full of a boy's curiosity and a boy's restlessness; the gentle, brooding eyes of Countess Alys; the hard, cynical eyes of Thibault; and the unbroken stare of five hundred war-hardened knights of France. These men, untrained to value the polished verse of his southland and flushed with wine—these men he must please. But more than all he must please King Louis; and it was well for him the king was of finer stuff than his nobles. ”

“ You are husband to my uncle’s sister; you have been faithful and gracious to me; you are such a man as the earth has seldom seen. Call off your spears; let my men go in peace. Why should the blood of Jutes stand between us?”
Finn’s eyes glowed.
“Duty to your uncle’s ghost binds you,” he answered slowly. “Duty to those who have taken my wage binds me. Think you I would leave to your swords those Jutes who have served me? This fight must go on till Dane or Frisian fall. Better that the death of one of us should end it than that a thousand men should perish!”
Hengist nodded. ”

“ Cercamon said softly, “for that title of gentleman, which my birth scarce deserves.”
The duchess smiled enchantingly.
“You are a gentleman by nature, which is better than the nobility of birth. Being a queen has taught me much, and not all of it pleasant— But you say I have a prisoner?”
“So I am told, your Grace. One who is my friend.” He did not smile now; his eyes were grave, but full of confidence.
Aliénor nodded, tapping thoughtfully with her slipper.
“You mean?” she parried.
“Pierre Faidit. You mean to have him hanged tomorrow.” ”

“ Then Cercamon had cause to rejoice at the feeble, flickering light cast by the two torches of the guard; for outside their radiance the huge crypt was a black well of darkness, and his own figure, between the Norman and his followers, threw D'Orbec into deep shadow. Letting the wide sleeve of his gown touch D'Orbec's arm, even as the door moved, Cercamon slid his fingers cunningly over the Norman's hilt—the hilt of the great sword stolen from Pierre. Then, thrusting hard with his free left hand, the troubadour flung his foe backward with all his strength, jerking at the hilt with his right. ”

“ What was a dowry of more than twenty thousand marks of finest gold beside a beauty which the world could not buy again with all its wealth, if she were no more?
No wonder the boy who bore the crown of France had no eyes for the girl who clung to Thibault's arm, red and white by turns, brutally humiliated, pointed at by Aliénor's scorn. A great pity for Alys welled in the troubadour's heart, and a fierce rage against Aliénor, whom he had served faithfully, but who was unworthy an honest man's regard. ”

“ Guthlaf asserted, “and such an oath binds no man. The duty to avenge a man’s murdered kin comes before any oath—surely before an oath extorted under the threat of Frisian spears!”
“Moreover, we are Danes, not Frisians!” Oslaf cried in sudden rage. “We stifle in this alien land! Are we never to see our homes again? Must we eat the bread of exile and drink our tears forever? Are we to lay our bones in Frisian soil, where none will mourn for us? Does your honor compel us to live in shame and die in misery? ”

“ Lay no hand on a Norman gentleman again, lest that which befall you be a terror to all France. Go to your chamber, and bide there till I send for you!”
Pierre withdrew, his head higher than ever; but his eyes stung with restrained tears of rage and humiliation. Deus! How he had served this tempestuous boy, ay, loved him! What a reward for his labor, his sacrifice, the blood he had gladly given! Shamed before all the court! When he reached the corridor his proud, firm step faltered; he stumbled up the stair to his chamber.
Ormeric D'Orbec, his face swathed in bandages, glared after him. ”

“ From far down the road to the north—in his very path—came the faint jingle of mail, and under it the staccato pound of many hoofs. It was far ahead, but he was out in the open now—between him and those unseen lay no hiding-place, no shred of cover, only the great, flat plain with its young gardens and new crops.
The troop ahead must be hostile, for he was now within the very heart of that country over which Thibault of Champagne ruled from his eyrie of Blois. He must ride back and shelter either in the monastery or in the wood; else they who rode toward him would overwhelm him. ”

“ In their rear the battle still swayed and clamored, Frisians using every moment of respite, Danes holding stubbornly against numbers that now were even, and wondering as they fought why Hengist did not charge.
Raising his wet sword in a commanding gesture, Finn spoke; his voice boomed through the din like thunder through the chatter of a crowd:
“End this slaughter, Hengist! Why should good men die for us? Man to man, blade to blade, let us settle our own quarrel!” ”

“ Young Geoffrey was a spoiled child, whose tyrannous caprice would do more harm in Anjou than a wise ruler could undo. He chafed at the tight rein his older brother held him on, and his resentment was dangerous; but it would be worse to give him his head.
“I am playing a sharp game for high stakes, Pierre,” Henry resumed. “I cannot tell even you what hangs on the turn of the dice. But to win I must be stronger than my foes. If my barons desert me because you, whom they hate, have slain one of them, I shall lose. I shall lose England, Normandy perhaps, Anjou and Touraine certainly. ”

“ Cercamon's report to the duchess concerning Thibault's direct suit to the king had inspired Aliénor to bring her offer, her accusation and her fatal beauty to Blois.
And Thibault glared at Cercamon with a concentrated fury, the threat of which he could not veil before the king had seen it. But Louis only laughed—a laugh which Thibault liked none the better because he could not understand it. He felt that Louis practised on him and had some trick in store; and no man likes less to be tricked than he who has himself intrigued. ”

“ Down the lane between them advanced a dozen men bearing a stout log at a shambling trot.
“Loose!” cried Hnaf. His veteran bowmen at the loopholes flanking the gate drove their shafts at short range into the breasts of those who bore the battering ram. Released by their fall, the log crashed down across their bodies.
At the same moment, as others sprang to pick up the log, Hengist’s archers poured in a volley from the loft-windows. With a cry of consternation—for they had not faced Danes before, and knew not that people’s skill in war—the foremost ranks fell back. ”

“ The sight of the troubadour had blunted the keen edge of his fury. At length he composed himself and spoke, though with some uncertainty.
“His excellence the regent, Abbot Suger,” he said, “has sent me with four hundred spears to escort your Majesty back to Paris. A messenger has come with tidings that cast grave doubts on Count Thibault's loyalty!”
Every man in the company sprang to his feet, the knights of France with exclamations of wonder; the warriors of Champagne with shouts of defiance, pressing round about the seneschal with threatening scowls and hands plucking at their sword-hilts. ”

“ In Henry's own court there were those who guessed much, and shrewdly, concerning this journey to Chinon. For not only princes, but barons, had their spies out, knowing that this year was big with the fate of Europe. Every man who boasted noble blood and had swords to fight for him waited on events to fling himself into the mad scramble for lands and power; every prince watched his barons, fearing to read the treachery he suspected in their hearts. ”