The House of Walderne Part 17

"Oh, a farmer's boy was driving it into town. We knocked him down, then tied him to a tree. It didn't hurt him much, and we left him a walnut for his supper. Then Hugh put on his smock and other ragtags, and hiding the deer under the hay, drove it straight to the door, and Magog, who loves the smell of venison, took it in, but we made him buy the bulk of the carcase."

"How much did he give?"

"A rose n.o.ble, and a good pie out of the animal into the bargain."

"And what did you do with the cart?"

"Hugh put on the smock again, and drove it outside the northern gate, past 'Perilous Hall,' then gave the horse a cut or two of the whip, and left it to find its way home to Woodstock if it could."

"A good thing you are here with your necks only their natural length. The king's forester would have hung you all three."

"Only he couldn't catch us. We have led him many a dance before now."

When the reader considers that killing the king's deer was a hanging matter in those days, he will not think these young Oxonians behind their modern successors in daring, or, as he may call it, foolhardiness.

Martin was hungry, the smell of the pasty was very appetising, and neither he nor any one else said any more until the pie had been divided upon six wooden platters, and all had eaten heartily, was.h.i.+ng it down with repeated draughts from a huge silver flagon of canary, one of the heirlooms of Herstmonceux; and afterwards they cleansed their fingers, which they had used instead of forks, in a large central finger gla.s.s--nay, bowl of earthenware.

"More drink, I have a jorum of splendid sack in you cupboard,"

cried their host when the flagon was empty.

"Now a song, every one must give a song.

"Hugh, you begin."

I love to lurk in the gloom of the wood Where the lithesome stags are roaming, And to send a sly shaft just to tickle their ribs Ere I smuggle them home in the gloaming.

"Just the case with this one we have been eating. But that measure is slow, let me give you one," said Ralph.

Come, drink until you drop, my boys, And if a headache follow, Why, go to bed and sleep it off, And drink again tomorrow.

Martin began to fear that the wine was suffocating his conscience in its fumes--and said:

"I must go now."

"We will all go with you."

"Magog won't let us out."

"Yes he will, we will say we are all going to Saint Frideswide's shrine to say our prayers."

"The dice before we go."

"Throw against me," said Hugh to our Martin.

"I cannot, I never played in my life."

"Then the sooner you begin the better.

"Here, roaring Ralph, this innocent young acolyte says he has never touched the dice."

"Then the sooner he begins the better.

"Come, stake a mark against me."

"He hasn't got one."

Shame, false shame, conquered Martin's repugnance. He threw one of his few coins down, and Ralph did the same.

"You throw first--six and four--ten. Here goes--I have only two threes, the marks are yours."

"Nay, I don't want them."

"Take them and be hanged. D'ye think I can't spare a mark?"

"Fighting, dicing, drinking," and then came to Martin's mind the words of Adam de Maresco, uttered that very morning, and now he determined to go at once at any cost, and turned to the door.

"Nay, we are all going to see thee safe home. The boves boreales may be grazing in the streets."

"I hear them! Burr! burr! burr!"

Down the stairs they all staggered. Martin felt so overcome as he emerged into the air that he did not know at first how to walk straight, yet he had not drunk half so much as the rest.

"Ce n'est que le premier pas qui coute."

But happily (to ease the mind of our readers we will say at once) he was not to take many steps on this road.

"Magog! Magog! open! open!"

"Not such a noise, you'll wake the old governor above,"--alluding to the master of the hostel.

"He won't wake, not he. It does not pay to see too much. He knows his own interests."

"Past curfew," growled Magog. "Can't let any one out."

"That only means he wants another coin."

"Open, Magog, we are going to pray at Saint Frideswide's shrine for thee."

"We are going to get another deer for thee at Woodstock."

"We are going by the king's invitation to visit the palace, and see the ghost of fair Rosamond."

"We are going to sup with the Franciscans--six split peas and a thimbleful of water to each man."

Even the venal porter hesitated to let such a crew into the streets, but he gave way under the pressure of another coin. Cudgel in hand they went forth, and as they pa.s.sed the hostel they called "Ape Hall" they sang aloud:

Come forth, ye apes, and scratch your polls, Your learning is in question, And while ye scratch, eat what ye catch, To quicken your digestion.

Two or three "apes" looked out of the window much disgusted, as well they might be, and were driven back by a shower of stones.

Onward--shouting, roaring, singing, but they met no one. All the world was in bed. The moon alone looked down upon them as she waded through the clouds, casting brilliant light here, leaving black shadows there.