Hereward, the Last of the English Part 20

So Robert, who might have been a daring and useful friend to his brother, had he been forced to take for granted from birth that he was n.o.body, and his brother everybody,--as do all younger sons of English n.o.blemen, to their infinite benefit,--held himself to be an injured man for life, because his father called his first-born Baldwin, and promised him the succession,--which indeed he had worthily deserved, according to the laws of Mammon and this world, by bringing into the family such an heiress as Richilda and such a dowry as Mons.

But Robert, who thought himself as good as his brother,--though he was not such, save in valor,--nursed black envy in his heart. Hard it was to him to hear his elder brother called Baldwin of Mons, when he himself had not a foot of land of his own. Harder still to hear him called Baldwin the Good, when he felt in himself no t.i.tle whatsoever to that epithet. Hardest of all to see a beautiful boy grow up, as heir both of Flanders and of Hainault.

Had he foreseen whither that envy would have led him; had he foreseen the hideous and fratracidal day of February 22d, 1071, and that fair boy's golden locks rolling in dust and blood,--the wild Viking would have crushed the growing snake within his bosom; for he was a knight and a gentleman. But it was hidden from his eyes. He had to "dree his weird,"--to commit great sins, do great deeds, and die in his bed, mighty and honored, having children to his heart's desire, and leaving the rest of his substance to his babes. Heaven help him, and the like of him!

But he turned to young Arnulf.

"Give me your man, boy!"

Arnulf pouted. He wanted to keep his Viking for himself, and said so.

"He is to teach me to go 'leding,' as the Nors.e.m.e.n call it, like you."

Robert laughed. A hint at his piratical attempts pleased his vanity, all the more because they had been signal failures.

"Lend him me, then, my pretty nephew, for a month or two, till he has conquered these Friesland frogs for me; and then, if thou wilt go leding with him--"

"I hope you may never come back," thought Robert to himself; but he did not say it,

"Let the knight go," quoth Baldwin.

"Let me go with him, then."

"No, by all saints! I cannot have thee poked through with a Friesland pike, or rotted with a Friesland ague."

Arnulf pouted still.

"Abbot, what hast thou been at with the boy? He thinks of naught but blood and wounds, instead of books and prayers."

"He is gone mad after this--this knight."

"The Abbot," said Hereward, "knows by hearing of his ears that I bid him bide at home, and try to govern lands in peace like his father and you, Sir Marquis."

"Eh?"

The Abbot told honestly what had pa.s.sed between Hereward and the lad, as they rode to St. Bertin.

Baldwin was silent, thinking, and smiling jollily, as was the wont of the Debonair.

"You are a man of sense, beausire. Come with me," said he at last.

And he, Hereward, and Robert went into an inner room.

"Sit down on the settle by me."

"It is too great an honor."

"Nonsense, man! If I be who I am, I know enough of men to know that I need not be ashamed of having you as bench-fellow. Sit down."

Hereward obeyed of course.

"Tell me who you are."

Hereward looked out of the corner of his eyes, smiling and perplexed.

"Tell me and Robert who you are, man; and be done with it. I believe I know already. I have asked far and wide of chapmen, and merchants, and wandering knights, and pirate rascals,--like yourself."

"And you found that I was a pirate rascal?"

"I found a pirate rascal who met you in Ireland, three years since, and will swear that if you have one gray eye and one blue--"

"As he has," quoth Robert.

"That I am a wolf's head, and a robber of priests, and an Esau on the face of the earth; every man's hand against me, and mine--for I never take but what I give--against every man."

"That you are the son of my old friend Leofric of Chester: and the hottest-hearted, shrewdest-headed, hardest-handed Berserker in the North Seas. You killed Gilbert of Ghent's bear, Siward Digre's cousin. Don't deny it."

"Don't hang me, or send me to the Westminster miracle-worker to be hanged, and I will confess."

"I? Every man is welcome who comes. .h.i.ther with a bold hand and a strong heart. 'The Refuge for the Dest.i.tute,' they call Flanders; I suppose because I am too good-natured to turn rogues out. So do no harm to mine, and mine shall do no harm to you."

Baldwin's words were true. He found house-room for everybody, helped everybody against everybody else (as will be seen), and yet quarrelled with n.o.body--at least in his old age--by the mere virtue of good nature,--which blessed is the man who possesseth.

So Hereward went off to exterminate the wicked Hollanders, and avenge the wrongs of the Countess Gertrude.

CHAPTER X.

HOW HEREWARD WON THE MAGIC ARMOR.

Torfrida had special opportunities of hearing about Hereward; for young Arnulf was to her a pet and almost a foster-brother, and gladly escaped from the convent to tell her the news.

He had now had his first taste of the royal game of war. He had seen Hereward fight by day, and heard him tell stories over the camp-fire by night. Hereward's beauty, Hereward's prowess, Hereward's songs, Hereward's strange adventures and wanderings, were forever in the young boy's mouth; and he spent hours in helping Torfrida to guess who the great unknown might be; and then went back to Hereward, and artlessly told him of his beautiful friend, and how they had talked of him, and of nothing else; and in a week or two Hereward knew all about Torfrida; and Torfrida knew--what filled her heart with joy--that Hereward was bound to no lady-love, and owned (so he had told Arnulf) no mistress save the sword on his thigh.

Whereby there had grown up in the hearts of both the man and the maid a curiosity, which easily became the parent of love.

But when Baldwin the great Marquis came to St. Omer, to receive the homage of Eustace of Guisnes, young Arnulf had run into Torfrida's chamber in great anxiety. "Would his grandfather approve of what he had done? Would he allow his new friends.h.i.+p with the unknown?"

"What care I?" said Torfrida. "But if your friend wishes to have the Marquis's favor, he would be wise to trust him, at least so far as to tell his name."

"I have told him so. I have told him that you would tell him so."

"I? Have you been talking to him about me?"

"Why not?"