David Ker

“ Welcome, noble Sir Hugo; I have lived long enough, since I have lived to see ye two together once more.”
“Captain, dost thou talk of dying?” cried the Breton man-at-arms beside Hugo, clenching his hands in desperation. “What is to become of us without thee? The world would be empty wert thou gone! Wilt thou, whom no foe ever matched, let thyself be borne down by a paltry sickness?”
“Good Thomelin,” said Bertrand, with a faint smile, “there is a champion named Death, whom none can resist, for he is sent by God. ”

“ If, as ye say, ye have lost all, it fits me better to aid than to punish you. What have ye done amiss?”
“We drove these waggons to the English camp; but what could we do? The spear was at our throats! Leave us our lives, noble knight; we have nought else to lose!”
“As God hears me, who hath delivered me this night,” said the hero, solemnly, “not a hair of your heads shall be touched, and all ye have lost shall be made good, if it cost me my last crown. While Bertrand du Guesclin hath a coin in his purse, any man that is poor and needy is welcome to share it!” ”

“ Just ere Crecy Field was fought, men saw him flitting to and fro in the Haunted Circle, uttering cries that made all hearts fail; and now that he hath shown himself again, no doubt some fresh trouble is at hand. God help us!”
“Of what form is he?” asked the pedlar, his ruddy face paling visibly.
“Like a knight fully armed, but with armour of ancient fashion, and all stained and rusty with lying long in the damp grave. He is ever seen on foot, with visor closed and sword in hand; and, be the moon ever so bright, he hath no shadow!” ”

“ To any man of that age, the voice of a Churchman was as that of God; and Bertrand no more thought of doubting the monk’s words than if they had come down to him from heaven. His heart bounded at the thought that he, the ill-favoured, the mocked, the despised—he, on whom his own parents looked down as a shame to them—should be chosen by Heaven itself for so glorious a task; and it was no disbelief, but sheer astonishment, that fettered his tongue when he tried to answer.
“I the champion of France?” said he at last, with a look and tone of joyful amazement. ”

“ But this mishap, so far from daunting him, seemed to goad him to fury. With a cry of rage he hurled the broken weapon far away, and, springing like a tiger on Du Guesclin, seized him in a clutch that made every joint of his armour crackle.
But this mode of attack was not likely to take by surprise the best wrestler in Brittany. Quick as thought Bertrand dropped his axe, and, in turn, seized his foe in a hug worthy of a Polar bear, and the grapplers swayed to and fro, stamping, struggling, gasping, now one and now the other seeming to have the mastery. ”

“ In our day it would greatly amaze every one to see two generals fight a duel on their own account in the midst of a battle, while their men looked on; but in that age such a thing was an everyday matter.
“Most willingly do I agree, good Sir Nicholas,” said the unknown, courteously; “and if it be my hap to be overthrown, I grudge thee not what small fame may be won by vanquishing Bertrand du Guesclin.”
“Du Guesclin!” echoed Dagworth, as a murmur of mingled wonder and admiration buzzed along the English ranks. “Then am I more highly favoured than I weened. ”

“ Thine is the prize, valiant youth; and my lady shall bind her own favour on thy crest, in token that thou art a true son of our native Brittany.”
“Nay, I claim no prize from your highness,” said Bertrand, with his usual bluntness. “What I did was for honour alone; and all I ask is your highness’s pardon for having presumed to joust at sharp spears with knights, being as yet no knight myself.”
“Nay, if that be all that is amiss, ’tis soon mended,” said Duke John, kindly. “Kneel, brave youth, and take the stroke of knighthood from my hand.” ”

“ To the free-born, high-spirited Hugo this constant sense of being watched and spied upon, and kept in like a chained dog, would have been galling at any time; for he was not only a prisoner but a slave—the slave of those “heathen dogs” whom every Christian of that age, alas! thought himself bound to hate and curse and slay, in place of trying to enlighten them and do them good. But now that he had learned that his brother was alive and near him, and the freedom of which he had begun to despair actually within reach, this degrading bondage became intolerable. ”

“ What know they of how a man feels who has had no pleasure in life from the birth-hour to the grave? They call me ‘Wolf;’ but who made me so? When a wolf tears and slays one of those who have hunted and wounded him, and driven him to lie cold and hungry in his darksome den, what doth he but what yourselves have taught him?”
“Hear’st thou, Tiphaine?” said Du Guesclin, drawing a quick breath as if in sudden pain. “And it is all true, too!”
“Not true of thee, Bertrand; thou hast ever been good to the poor.” ”

“ Yvon, to watch the fit moment for a sally on the English rear, while Du Guesclin pressed them in front.
But only by the slackening of the English war-cry, and the swell of the answering French shout, could the anxious watchers on the walls guess how the fight was going; for of its actual progress little or nothing could be seen. Only at times did they catch a dim and doubtful glimpse of shadowy masses of men surging up against each other, clashing, parting, meeting once more, while a keen glitter of steel ran through the gloom like a shower of flying sparks. ”

“ Hardly had the last toll echoed through the silent town, when there came a clang and a rattle as the gate was flung open, and, with a deafening shout of “Manny to the rescue!” a mass of armed men burst from the gloomy archway with the rush of a mighty wave right into the midst of the startled French!
Then began a fight such as the oldest warrior there had never seen. In the depth of the cold black gloom, with death hungering for them on either side of the narrow path on which they fought, the contending hosts closed and battled. ”

“ But as the falling-off of the broken helmet showed Bertrand whom he had smitten, the sight seemed to wither his strength, and he let fall his terrible axe, while his foes, seeing him disarmed, closed fiercely round him.
“Back, fellows!” cried Hugo, sternly, as he thrust himself between. “Yield, good Sir Bertrand—yield to Hugo de Claremont.”
“I yield me, rescue or no rescue, sith better may not be,” said Bertrand, hoarsely. “But thy brother—lives he yet? If I have slain him, I shall ne’er have the heart to wield weapon more.” ”

“ The English, on the other hand, knew that if that food reached the town all their toil would be thrown away; and they fought like tigers to beat the assailants back.
“Lads!” roared Du Guesclin, “within yon walls are women weeping over their starving children, and here is the food that can save them!”
Fired by this appeal, the Bretons rushed on again, and the English put forth all their might to bar the way. The fight was at its hottest, when Huon saw his chance, and, flinging open the gate, came like a thunderbolt on the English ranks with a shout of “St. Yves for Bretagne!” ”

“ In truth, the peril of the sword was the least of all the dangers that the combatants braved that night. More than one brave knight on either side was trampled to death in the press; and many a gallant youth who had come into the fray that night with bright eye and bounding heart, eager to win fame and honour, was hurled headlong over the edge of the causeway into the deadly quagmire below, to sink inch by inch in its foul black slime and perish miserably, unaided and unknown. ”

“ But one glance at the harsh but striking features which (as the great captain often said in jest) no man who had once seen them could ever forget, carried conviction to all; and in a moment the savage gang were pressing round him with shouts of rough welcome, the Black Wolf himself being the foremost.
“Let him go free, captain!” cried the robbers; “it were sin and shame to take ransom from him!”
“What talk ye of ransom, lads?” said the chief, with a gruff chuckle. “Here is no question of any man’s ransom but my own; for it is not he who is my captive, but I who am his.” ”

“ Sir Yvon and his lady might have been less slow of belief could they have looked forward into the future barely the space of one long lifetime, to the day when France, in her sorest need, was to find a champion and deliverer, not in a strong and daring young noble, but in a gentle, dreamy, child-like peasant girl of Lorraine, who was destined to lead great armies to victory, capture strong cities, defeat great generals in battle after battle, and hand down to the admiration of all ages, so long as the world should last, the glorious name of Joan of Arc. ”

“ But thou, my Bertrand, whither goest thou?”
“To the English camp,” said her lord, with a boyish grin. “His highness of Lancaster is so gracious as to hold my ugly visage an ornament to his table. Methinks he had gone nearer the mark had he bidden thee in my stead.”
“To the English camp?” echoed Tiphaine, with a slight tremor in her sweet voice. “Promise me, then, my own true knight, that thou wilt fight no combat with their champions, even if they provoke thee to it. ”

“ The bravest and most honourable man alive championing the falsest and most cruel; free Englishmen fighting to bring a gallant nation in bondage to a tyrant; a handful of heroes cutting their way into an unknown land, and braving pestilence, famine, and the attacks of an army thrice as strong as their own, in a quarrel with which they had nothing to do, and for a faithless despot who was all the while overreaching and betraying them—such were the startling contradictions produced by the resolve of a man like the Black Prince to aid a man like Pedro the Cruel. ”

“ Already the precious store-waggons (in one of which Bertrand had gently laid the helpless Wolf) were close to the open gate—and now the foremost was actually within it—and now, amid the whiz of crossbow-bolts from the walls and the hiss of arrows from the plain, the triumphant cheers of the garrison and the savage cries of the baffled pursuers, the heroes of this marvellous feat struggled wearily into the sheltering town, and the gate clanged behind them.
“Spare our lives, noble sir! We have lost all else that we had in the world!” ”

“ Well mounted, and fully armed, the three broke through their disordered assailants like a spider’s web, and more than one stout fellow who thrust himself in their way paid dearly for his rashness.
“Well done, Roland! for a Breton jester, thou hast played right deftly the part of an English man-at-arms!” said the shorter of the two knights—a square, thick-set, powerful man in black armour, with a hoarse laugh. “Lucky for us, in sooth, thou hast learned their tongue so well, when captive among the dogs in Picardy. ”

“ Raoul growled a curse through his barred helmet, and pressed forward to avenge his fallen brother; but the terrible challenger (who seemed to gather fresh strength from every new course) met him with so fierce a shock that it smote down horse and man.
Alain, the eldest, was now left alone, and between him and the Black Champion lay the honour of the day.
As the unknown took his place for this final combat it was noticed that he bent his head forward, and seemed to look keenly at his opponent through the bars of his visor, like an eagle fixing its eye on the prey on which it is about to swoop ”