The Robber Baron of Bedford Castle

by A. J. Foster and Edith E. Cuthell

  *CHAPTER XVII.*

  _*THE KING IN COUNCIL.*_

  For some time Ralph lay in a precarious state in the house of one of theburgesses of Bedford. The bolt from the cross-bow had given him a nastywound, which it required all the skill of the leech to heal. Moreover,he lay fretting and fuming at the thought that his Aliva was a prisonerin the hands of his enemy, and his mental anxiety seriously interferedwith his bodily recovery.

  As he got better, however, he received visits from many of the principaltownspeople, who were much attached to the house of De Beauchamp, andfull of pity for the young knight.

  "Sir Ralph," quoth one of these grave personages, as he sat solemnlystroking his beard by the pallet where the young man still lay, "if onericher in the experience of years than thou art may be permitted toadvise thee, I would show thee how useless a waste of life and bloodwould be any attempt of thine, unaided, to rescue thy fair lady from herdireful plight."

  "Marry, but have I not learned that lesson already!" ejaculated Ralphirritably; "but whither then to get aid? for get aid I must. Thisemprise is of more worth to me than a dozen lives! Speak you on behalfof your kind, Gilbert the Clothier, the other traders and craftsmen ofthe town? Are ye ready to strike a blow against this tyrant?"

  "I crave thy pardon, Sir Knight, but we are men of peace, unused towarlike weapons, and we have much to lose. With one swoop Fulke deBreaute could burn about our ears all the amassed gain of a lifetime!"

  Ralph shrugged his shoulders impatiently.

  "'Tis vain to speak to barn-door fowls of the liberty of the hawk'sflight!" replied Ralph, somewhat ungraciously. "But, Sir Merchant, ifthe only weapons ye can use be your tools and your measuring-yards, yetmethinks ye have store of wisdom in your heads, in full measure above uswho spend all our wits upon our sinews!" he added laughingly. "Prithee,counsel me."

  "There are none in all the county round, in these days when so many ofour gentlefolks are impoverished with the wars and disturbances of theselast years, who can hope to lift a spear successfully against this richFrenchman," the merchant began. "We must e'en seek aid further afield.Anon I had word brought me that the churchmen brook ill that the learnedbrother of Martin de Pateshulle and Thomas de Muleton lies in thekeeping of the enemy of the Church, and are minded to stir in thismatter with the king."

  "The king!" exclaimed Ralph, half raising himself. "That is in goodsooth good news!"

  "The king holds a council shortly at Northampton, as ye know," Gilbertwent on, "and it is there they purport to lay our case before him andhis barons and bishops assembled."

  "I will to Northampton, then," cried Ralph eagerly. "Certes, I was evenpurposing to go thither ere this unlucky scratch detained me. I soughtthe king's favour to give me some command in this army which is about toinarch for the north."

  "Better turn your lance-point nearer home, Sir Knight," the merchantreplied. "There will be work enow and glory enow to be gotten for allwho list in pulling down this robber Frenchman's stronghold!"

  "I will to Northampton as soon as this leech who holds me in hisclutches gives me leave to buckle on my armour again," Ralph added.

  And so it came about that, not many days later, our hero rode over toNorthampton, where he found the king in council with the bishops,abbots, barons, and justices.

  The council at Northampton.]

  The youthful Henry III. was at this time only seventeen years old,though he had been declared to be of age two years before. His trustedguardian and adviser, Hubert de Burgh, was, however, still with him, andwas present at the council. The old chronicler tells how, while themonarch and his advisers were thus assembled, deliberating on theaffairs of state, news was brought of the raid upon the judges, and ofthe capture of Henry de Braybrooke by William de Breaute.

  Here was an unbearable insult to the royal supremacy. The attention ofthe council was instantly turned from the banks of the Tweed to those ofthe Ouse.

  In the storm of indignation which was aroused by the Robber Baron'slatest misdeed the voice of the Church made itself heard. The judges ofthe land were at that period mostly ecclesiastics. Could they put upwith this indignity to their learned brother? Was not Fulke also adestroyer of abbeys and churches? Had he not pulled down St. Paul'sChurch at Bedford? and had not that impious raid upon St. Alban's Abbeybeen but poorly atoned for by the discipline in the chapter-house? Hadany restitution been made?

  Further, doubtless, the great barons called to their master'scouncil--they whose sires had forced his father to sign Magna Charta onthe field of Runnymede, and who had spilt their blood for the libertiesof England--had somewhat to say against this French upstart, De Breaute,this bastard soldier of fortune, who had ensconced himself in a fortresswhere one of the old Norman families had been established ever since thedays of the Conqueror.

  Prelate and lord both agreed that the most pressing question of the daywas the overthrow of this robber chief.

  When Ralph rode into the ancient town of Northampton, now crowded withthe magnates of the land, he had no difficulty in finding men ofposition and weight who were willing to introduce him, as a scion of theDe Beauchamp family, to the council.

  Henry and his advisers, in earnest discussion over this business ofBedford, were not sorry to find one who was well acquainted with thecastle and its fortifications. Accordingly, when Ralph was presented tothe council, he was received by the young king with much cordiality.Henry III., though one of the few weak-minded monarchs of the strongPlantagenet line, was still so young that his character could hardly besaid to be yet formed, and any mistakes he might make were naturally setdown to his youth and inexperience. This affair of Bedford Castle,however, was an undertaking in which he exhibited all the promptitudeand energy of his predecessors upon the throne. He resolved to attendthe siege in person, and ordered his council to suspend all otherbusiness and direct their attention solely to the means of carrying itout.

  The council of war, or committee, to whom were confided the necessarypreparations, took Ralph into their confidence. They were presided overby no less a personage than Hubert de Burgh himself, who summoned theyoung knight to appear before them in the chamber in Northampton Castle,where they held their conclave.

  Ralph's feelings, as he found himself in the presence of one sorenowned, formerly the governor of Dover Castle, and the custodian inBrittany of King John's luckless nephew Arthur, and the late guardian ofthe king, were those of some shyness. He was a plain, country-bornyouth, unused to courts and dignitaries, and even of late years alandless, penniless knight, one of an outcast family. But the greatjusticiary's manner reassured him.

  "Sir Ralph," he said, "we understand that thou wast brought up inBedford Castle, and art well acquainted with all its parts."

  "Certes, noble Hugh," replied Ralph, "always excepting those portionswhere Fulke de Breaute may have made alterations and additions duringthe last few years."

  "Well answered, and with a caution exceeding thy years, Sir Knight. Sayon--what alterations?"

  "By my faith, I can scarcely tell! But he hath pulled down andwell-nigh destroyed the church of St. Paul, and the stones thereof havebeen used in the castle walls."

  "For new work, mean you, or for the strengthening of old work?" inquiredthe justiciary.

  "That cannot I rightly say," answered Ralph, "for since my uncle wasdriven forth, or rather surrendered to Fulke acting in his sovereign'sname, I have not set foot within the castle walls."

  But he added beneath his breath: "Would I were within at this moment!"

  De Burgh overheard him, and with some surprise.

  "So shalt thou be, and that shortly, and with stout men-at-arms at thyback, an I mistake not. But for the nonce we must learn more aboutthese walls. How sayest thou the castle lieth?"

  "Along the banks of the Ouse, and on the north side of the stream."

  "And its defences--what be they? All say that the keep was indeed builtby thy ancestor Pa
in de Beauchamp, and is strong and not easily to beassaulted."

  "The keep is indeed strong and well built," Ralph replied, "and round itrun a high wall and a deep moat. On the west side only might an attackbe made with any hope of victory, for there lie the bailey yards, thegate-house, and the barbican. Moreover, between the outer and the innerbailey there standeth a tower, which we call the old tower, the like ofwhich, I have heard tell, is not to be found in many castles, and whichcommands the bridge."

  As he spoke Ralph made a sort of rough drawing.

  "Here," he said, "is the keep, upon a lofty mound. On this side only isan entrance possible. We must e'en break through all the outerdefences, and pass on from west to east. But it will be no lightemprise."

  A gleam of pleasure came over the face of the veteran.

  "By the bones of St. Thomas," he exclaimed, "thou showest no meanknowledge or skill, fair sir. Where hast thou learned the art of war?"

  "I have oft heard my uncle tell the story of how King Stephen besiegedthe castle when our ancestor Milo de Beauchamp held it for the EmpressMatilda, nigh upon a hundred years ago," modestly answered Ralph. "Heeven contended that it was so strong that no attack could prevail, andthat had it been better victualled it would never have surrendered. Andthen, noble knight, if I may make so bold as to remind thee, there isthat sad passage in the history of our house which hath been seared intothe memory of my boyhood--I mean when my uncle, Sir William, surrenderedto this same Fulke, who came in the name of our late king, who wasindeed the enemy of our house. Ofttimes hath my uncle gone over thattale with me, and hath showed me how he might yet have held the castlehad he possessed better stores and more men."

  The end of this interview was that Ralph, in consideration of thevaluable information he had proved himself willing and able to bestow,was admitted to all the deliberations of the council, and was listenedto with attention. Neither his uncle William de Beauchamp, nor hiskinsman at Eaton Socon, had come to Northampton; the latter by reason ofhis age, and the former on account of his sullen despair, and perhapsalso hindered by a latent distrust of the house of Plantagenet, whichhad dealt so ill with him. Thus it happened that Ralph represented, asit were, the De Beauchamp family.

  He was given plenty to do in the way of hastening preparations,moreover, and as his heart was in the work, for Aliva's sake, he wasbusy both night and day.

  His duties brought him into frequent communications with a personage whowas much to the front when any question of a siege was on hand--namely,John de Standen, the chief of the miners. Ralph soon discovered thatJohn had considerable knowledge of Bedford Castle and itsfortifications. This puzzled him not a little at the time, and it wasnot till later on that he solved the mystery.

  When the chief of the miners and his assistants had determined whatsupplies of material were necessary for the siege, royal writs wereissued for their production. Timber was required for the manufacture ofthe bombarding engines or _petraria_, which were to fling great stonesat the castle, and ox or horse hides were needed for the protection ofthese machines. Thousands of quarrels were ordered for the cross-bowsand dart-throwing engines. Iron was ordered in great quantities, to beworked up on the spot, and pickaxes and other tools were not forgotten.

  Moreover, writs were issued to the sheriffs of Hertford, Oxford,Cambridge, Huntingdon, Northampton, Warwick, Leicester, Rutland, Essex,Suffolk, Norfolk, Lincoln, and Middlesex, directing them to send two menfrom each plough-land (the usual division of land in those days) to workthe aforementioned engines. Then the feeding of these men had to beattended to. One Peter Buyam, a Burgundian merchant, was ordered topurchase one hundred and eight casks of wine at St. Botolph's fair, atforty-three shillings and four-pence a cask.

  From St. Briavels in Gloucestershire, the native place of John deStanden, were brought thirty assistant miners. But carpenters,saddlers, and leather-workers, to shape the shields for the engines,were found nearer at hand by the sheriffs of the counties of Northamptonand Bedford, as were also the men who were to fashion the stones to bedischarged from the petraria. The whole of the midlands was astir overthe siege of Bedford Castle.

  Neither was the Church inactive. To show their horror at the outragesof the wicked Fulke, the assembled prelates and abbots forthwith grantedthe king a subsidy of half a mark for each of their plough-lands, andalso sent, for each hide of land held by them, two men to work theengines, taking care, however, to obtain an acknowledgment from the kingthat this was a special grant. The priory of Newenham, which had beenfounded by the De Beauchamps, furnished the stones for the bombardment,and the abbey of St. Alban's naturally took a deep interest in theproceedings, which are fully chronicled in the records of the house.

  No sooner, however, was it known that a Bedfordshire maiden, the LadyAliva de Pateshulle, was a prisoner of the foreign interloper, than allthe men of the county rose to assist in the undertaking. Even ourstalwart friend the Benedictine lay-brother, as soon as--thanks to thecare of Lady Mabel--he had recovered at Eaton Socon from the dastardlywound inflicted by Bertram de Concours, found his way to theheadquarters of preparations.

  Martin de Pateshulle, also, as one of those justices whose writs hadbeen so rudely repudiated by Fulke, was summoned to the council. Thisworthy ecclesiastic, who was none the worse for his overthrow by Williamde Breaute's horsemen, was much concerned over the fate of his niece.

  In him Ralph, tortured by anxiety which he was striving to drown inwork, found a friend and ready sympathizer.

  "My son," said the archdeacon one day at the close of a long sitting ofthe council of war, "thou toilest in this business both as a servant ofHoly Church and as a gallant knight for the rescue of fair lady."

  Ralph sighed.

  "Indeed, venerable father, it is only when my whole heart is busy withmy work that it finds peace. I am torn with doubts and fears concerningher whom I love. Could I but have one word, one token from her! CouldI but hear something of her, were it even ill news! But this silence,it ofttimes is more than I can bear."

  John de Standen, still busy at the table over a rough sketch, looked upat these words.

  "Sir Knight," he said, "thou meanest what thou sayest? Hast a stoutheart? Canst bear ill news?"

  Ralph sprang from his seat, and gripped the king's miner by the arm tillhe winced.

  "Speak, man, I conjure thee! Thou hast heard aught?"

  "Speech is just what is forbidden to me," replied John. "My lips aresealed. All the message I have for thee is: 'Haste, or it may be toolate!' Ask me no more."