CHAPTER XXII.
THE SHERIFF.
"The Sheriff, with a monstrous watch, is at the door."
KING HENRY IV.
Two hours' hard riding, considering that the riders were men armed inheavy mail, brought the party into the narrow, ill-paved streets ofKendal, at least two hours earlier than the time specified by SirFoulke d'Oilly, and it was not above ten o'clock of the night whenthey pulled up before a long, low, thatched cabin, above the door ofwhich, a bush and a bottle, suspended from a pole, gave note that itwas a house of entertainment. Flinging his rein to one of half-a-dozengrooms and horse-boys, who were lounging about the gate, the knightraised the latch, and entered a long, smoky apartment, which seemed tooccupy the whole ground floor of the building, affording room for theaccommodation of fifty or sixty guests, on occasion of feasts, fairs,or holidays.
It was an area of thirty or forty feet in length, by ten or twelve inwidth, with bare rough-cast walls, and bare rafters overhead,blackened by the smoke which escaped from the ill-constructed chimneysat either end, and eddied overhead in a perennial canopy of sable. Thefloor, however, was strewed with fresh green rushes, green wreaths andbranches were hung on the rough-cast walls, and a large earthen-vaseor two of water-lilies and other showy wild-flowers adorned the board,which was covered with clean white napery of domestic fabric. At theupper end of this long table, half-a-dozen or eight men were suppingon a chine of hill-kid, with roasted moor-fowl and wild-ducks, thelandlord of the tavern being the bailiff of the town, and having hislord's license to take all small game, save bustard, heron, woodcock,and pheasant, for the benefit of his guest-table.
On the entrance of Sir Foulke, these men rose to their feet; and one,the best-armed and best-looking of the party, seeming to be a secondesquire or equerry, asked him, in a subdued voice--
"What fortune, Sir Foulke; have you got the villeyn?"
"Safe enough, Fitz Hugh," replied the knight; "but he is no merebrute, as you fellows told me, but a perilous, shrewd, intelligent,clear-headed Saxon. He has been advised, too, in this matter, by someone well-skilled in the law, and was, I think, expecting our coming. Ishould not marvel much, if De Taillebois have notice of us. We must bein the saddle again as soon as possible. But I must have a morsel erewe start; I have not tasted aught since high-noon, and then it was buta beggarly oat-cake and a flask of mead. What have you there?"
"Some right good treble ale, beausire; let me fill you a tankard, andplay cup-bearer for once." And, suiting the action to the word, hefilled out a mighty horn of the liquid amber, capped with its snowyfoam, and handed it to the knight, adding, "The supper is butfragments, but there is more at the fire now. I will go to thestables, and see the fresh horses saddled and caparisoned; and as Ipass the buttery and tap, I will stir up the loitering knaves."
"Do so, Fitz Hugh," replied the other; "but hasten, Jesu Maria!hasten! I reckon but half done until we are out of this beggarly hole,and under way for merry Yorkshire. And hark you, Fitz Hugh, let thembring in the prisoner. We must have him along with us; and ten of thebest men, lightly armed, and mounted on the pick of our stud. Ten moremay tarry with the tired beasts we have just used, and bring them onwith the baggage and sumpter horses to-morrow."
Then, as his officer left the hall to attend to his multifariousduties, he quaffed another huge flagon of the strong, heady ale; and,casting himself into a settle in the chimney-corner, what between thewarmth of the fire, grateful after his hard ride in the chilly nightair, and the fumes of the heady tankard, he sunk into a doze, fromwhich he only aroused himself, when, half an hour afterward, in came adozen clumsy village servants, stamping and clattering in theirheavy-clouted shoes, and loaded the table with smoking platters andhuge joints, of which, however coarse the cookery, the odors were anything but unsavory.
To supper accordingly he now applied himself, two or three of the menwho had been with him at the seizure of Kenric, crowding into the roomand taking the lower end of the table, where another great fire wasblazing, and others coming in and out in succession, until all weresatisfied.
It is, however, remarkable, as in character with the sensual,self-indulgent, and unrestrained temperament of this most unworthy andunknightly Norman, his race being, of all the northern tribes, thatleast addicted to gluttony and drunkenness, and priding itself onmoderation and decorum at the table, that, notwithstanding his earnestdesire to depart from his somewhat perilous situation, he yet yieldedto his appetites, and lingered over the board, though it offerednothing beyond coarse viands and strong ale, long after the horseswere announced to be in readiness.
At length he rose, washed his hands, and calling his page to replacesuch portions of his armor as he had laid aside, was preparing to movein earnest, when the well-known clash of mail-coats and the thicktrampling of a numerous squadron coming up the village street gavenotice that he was surprised.
The next moment, a man-at-arms rushed into the room, with dismay inhis face.
"Lances, my Lord of d'Oilly," he cried; "lances and a broad banner!There are full fifty of them coming up the street from the northward,and some of the grooms who were on the out-look report more spears tothe south. We are surrounded."
"Call in the men hither from the stables, then; let them cut shorttheir lances to six feet, and bring their maces and battle-axes; wecan make a stout stand here, and command good terms at the worst."
Time, however, was short, and his orders were but partially obeyed,the men coming in by twos and threes from the stables in the rear,looking gloomy and dispirited, when a trumpet was blown clearlywithout, and, the cavalcade halting, in mass, in front of thehostelry, a fine deep voice was heard to cry;
"What men be these? Who dare lift spears, or display banners, in mytown of Kendal, without license of me?"
"It is De Taillebois," said d'Oilly; "it avails nothing to resist.Throw the doors open."
But, as he spoke, the reply of his lieutenant was heard to thesummons;
"We be Sir Foulke d'Oilly's men, and we dare lift spear and displaybanner, wheresoever our lord order us."
"Well said, good fellow!" answered the powerful voice of the oldknight. "Go in, therefore, and tell your lord that the Sheriff ofLancaster is at the door, with fifty lances, to inforce the king'speace; and that he draw in his men at once, or ere worse come of it,and show cause what he makes here, in effeir of war, in my manor ofKendal, and the king's county of Westmoreland."
D'Oilly set his teeth hard, and smote the table with his gauntletedhand. "Curses on him," he muttered, "he hath me at advantage." Then,as he received the summons, "Pray the Lord of Taillebois," he said;"he will have the courtesy to set foot to ground, and enter in hither,that we hold conference."
Again the voice was heard without, "Ride to the bridge, Huon, at thetown end, and call me Aradas."
There was a short pause, and then, as the gallop of a horse was heardcoming up to the house, the orders were given to dismount, linkbridles, and close up to the doors; and at the next instant, Sir Yvoentered, stooping his tall crest to pass the low-browed door, followedby his trusty squire, Aradas de Ratcliffe, and half-a-dozen others ofhis principal retainers, one or two of them wearing knightly crestsupon their burgonets.
The first words the knight uttered, as he raised his avantaille andgazed about him, were "St. Agatha, how hot it is, and what a reek ofpeat-smoke and ale! Open those windows, some of you, to the street,and let us have a breath of heaven's fresh air. The Lord, he knows weneed it."
In a moment, the thick-wooden shutters and lattices, which had beenclosed by those within on the first alarm of his coming, were castwide open, and the spaces were filled at once by the stalwart formsand resolute faces of the men-at-arms of De Taillebois, in suchnumbers as to render treachery impossible, if it had been intended.
Then, for the first time, did Sir Yvo turn his eyes toward theintruder, who stood at the farther end of the hall, irresolute how toact, with his men clustered in a sullen group behind him, and theprisoner Kenric held fi
rmly by the shoulders by two stout troopers.
"Ha! Sir Foulke d'Oilly," he said, with a slight inclination of hishead. "To what do I owe the honor of receiving that noble baron in mypoor manor of Kendal; and wherefore, if he come in courtesy and peace,do I not meet him rather in my own castle of Hawkshead, where I mightshow him fitting courtesy, than in this smoky den, fitter for Saxonchurls than Norman nobles?"
"To be brief, my lord," replied d'Oilly, with a voice halfconciliatory, half defiant, "I came neither in enmity, nor yet incourtesy, but to reclaim and seize my fugitive villeyn yonder, Eadwulfthe Red, who hath not only killed deer in my chase of Fenton in theForest, but hath murdered my bailiff of Waltheofstow, and now hathfled from me, against my will; and I find him here, hidden in an outcorner of this your manor of Kentmere, in Kendal."
"There is some error here, Sir Foulke," said De Taillebois, firmly."That man, whom I see some one hath brutally misused, of which moreanon, is not called Eadwulf at all, but Kenric. Nor is he your serf,fair sir, nor any man's serf at all, or villeyn, but a freeEnglishman, as any who stands on this floor. I myself purchased andmanumitted him in this July last past, for that he saved the life ofmy child, the Lady Guendolen, at risk of his own. Of this I pledge myhonor, as belted knight and Norman noble."
"I know the fellow very well, Sir Yvo," answered the other, doggedly."Four or five of my men here can swear to the knave; and we have proofpositive that he is the man who shot a deer about daybreak, andmurdered my bailiff on the thirteenth day of September last, in myforest between the meres of Thurgoland and Bolterstone, in Sherwood."
"The thirteenth day of last September?" said De Taillebois,thoughtfully. "Ha! Aradas, Fitz Adhelm, was't not on that day we ranthe big mouse-colored hart royal, with the black talbots, from highYewdale, past Grisdale pike, to the skirts of Skiddaw?"
"Surely it was, Sir Yvo," answered both the gentlemen in a breath.
"There is some error here, Sir Foulke," repeated the Sheriff, "but thelaw will decide it. And now, speaking of the law, Sir Baron, may Icrave, by what right, or form of law, you have laid hands on this man,within the jurisdiction of my manor, and under the shadow of night? Isay, by what warrant have you done this?"
"By the same right, and form, and warrant, by which, wherever I findmy stolen goods, there I seize them! By the best law of right; thatis, the law of might."
"The law of might has failed you, for this time, Sir Foulke."
"That is to say, you being stronger, at this present time, than I,will not allow me to carry off my villeyn, whom I have justly seized."
"Whom you have most unjustly, most illegally, seized, Sir Foulke. Youknow, as well as I, or ought to know, that if you proceed by seizure,it must be upon oath; and none can seize within this shire, but I, thesheriff of it. Or if you proceed by writ _de nativo habendo_, noone can serve that writ, within this shire, but I, the sheriff of it.What! when a man can not seize and sell an ox or an ass, that isclaimed by another, without due process of law, shall he seize andtake, that which is the dearest thing any man hath, even as dear asthe breath of his nostrils, his right to himself, his liberty, withoutany form at all? No, Sir Foulke, no! Our English law presumes everyman free, till he be proved a slave; and no man, who claims freedom,can be deprived of freedom, no, not by my lord the King himself incounsel, except upon the verdict of an English jury. But do Iunderstand aright? Does this man Eadwulf, or Kenric, claim to be free,or confess himself to be a villeyn?"
"I claim to be a freeman, Sir Yvo; and I demand liberty to prove it,"cried Kenric. "I warned Sir Foulke d'Oilly, when he seized me in mycottage by Kentmere, as I can prove by the boy Gilbert, that I am afreeman, and that were I a villeyn and a fugitive, to make a trueseizure, it must be made by the sheriff."
"Ha! thou didst--didst thou. Thou art learned in the law, it seems."
"It behooves an Englishman, beausire, to know the law by which toguard his liberty, seeing that it is the dearest thing he hath, underHeaven. But I am not learned; only I had good advice."
"So it seems. And you deny to be a villeyn, and claim to prove yourliberty?"
"Before God, I do, and your worship."
"Summon my bailiff, Aradas; he is a justice of peace for the county,and will tell us what is needed. I will give you this benefit, SirFoulke, though you are in no wise entitled to it. Because it is on myown ground, and on the person of my own man, you have made thisseizure, I will allow it to stand good, as if made legally, in dueform. Had it been made elsewhere, within the county, I would have heldit null, and committed you for false imprisonment, and breach of theKing's peace. But no man shall say I avenge my own private griefs bypower of my office. Now, bailiff, art thou there?"
"So please you, Sir Yvo, I have been here all the evening, and ampossessed of the whole case."
"Well, then, what needs this man Kenric?"
"A writ, my lord, _de libertate probanda_. I have it here,ready."
"Recite it to us then, in God's name, and make service of it; for I amwaxing weary of this matter."
Thus exhorted, the bailiff lifted up his voice and read, pompously butdistinctly, the following form; and then, bowing low, handed it to thesheriff, calling on two of the men-at-arms, whose names weresubscribed, to witness the service:
"King Henry II. to the Sheriff of Lancaster and Westmoreland, greeting--Kenric, the son of Werewulf, of Kentmere, in Westmoreland, has showed to us, that whereas he is a free man, and ready to prove his liberty, Sir Foulke d'Oilly, knight and baron of Waltheofstow and Fenton in the Forest of Sherwood, in Yorkshire, claiming him to be his nief, unjustly vexes him; and therefore we command you, that if the aforesaid Kenric shall make you secure touching the proving of his liberty, then put that plea before our justices, at the first assizes, when they shall come into those parts, to wit, in our good city of Lancaster, on the first day of December next ensuing, because proof of this kind belongeth not to you to take; and in the mean time cause the said Kenric to have peace thereupon, and tell the aforesaid Sir Foulke d'Oilly that he may be there, if he will, to prosecute thereof, against the aforesaid Kenric. And have there this writ.
"_Witness_: { WILLIAM FITZ ADHELM. { HUGO LE NORMAN.
"This tenth day of October, in the year of Grace, 1184. Kendal, county of Westmoreland."
"Well, there is a bail-bond needed, is there not, bailiff?"
"It is here, sir. William Fitz Adhelm, knight, and Aradas deRatcliffe, esquire, both of the county of Westmoreland, are hereinbound, jointly and severally, in the sum of two thousand marks, thatKenric, as aforesaid, shall appear at the Lancaster assizes nextensuing, and show cause why he is a freeman, and not a villeyn, asclaimed, of Sir Foulke d'Oilly, as aforesaid. This is according tothe law of England, and Kenric may go his way until the time of theassize, none hindering him in his lawful business."
"Therefore," said Sir Yvo de Taillebois, "I will pray Sir Foulked'Oilly to command his vassals, that they release the man Kenricforthwith, nor force me to rescue him by the strong hand."
D'Oilly, who, during all these proceedings, to which, howeverunwilling, he was compelled to listen without resistance, had sat onthe settle in the chimney corner, in a lounging attitude, gazing intothe ashes of the wood fire, and affecting to hear nothing that waspassing, rose to his feet sullenly, shook himself, till every link ofhis mail clashed and rang, and uttered, in a tone more like the shortroar of a disappointed lion than the voice of a man, the one word,"_Lachez!_" Then turning to Sir Yvo, he said--
"And now, sir, I suppose that I, too, like this Saxon cur, about whomthere has been so much pother, may go about my lawful business, nonehindering me."
"So much so, Sir Foulke, that if you will do me the favor to orderyour horses, I will mount on the instant, and escort you to theboundary of the shire. You, Kenric, tarry here with my harbinger, andget yourself into more fitting guise to return to the castle. Now,master bailiff, in quality of host, can you not find a flask ofsomethin
g choicer than your ale and metheglin? Ha! wine of Anjou! Thiswill wash the cobwebs of the law out of my gullet, rarely. I was nighchoked with them, by St. Agatha! Sir Foulke, I hear your horsesstamping at the door. Will it please you, mount? It draws nigh tomorning."
"I will mount," he replied fiercely, "when I am ready; and so give youshort thanks for scanty courtesy."
"The less we say, I think, about courtesy, Sir Foulke d'Oilly, thebetter," said Sir Yvo, sternly; "for courtesy is not, nor ever can be,between us two, until I am certified how my dear friend and comrade inarms, Sir Philip de Morville, came by his death in Sherwood Forest."
The baron glared at him fiercely under the rim of his raisedavantaille; then dashed the vizor down over his scowling features,that none might read their fell expression; clinched his gauntletedhand, and dashed it against the shield which hung about his neck, inimpotent fury. But he spoke no word more, till they parted, withoutsalutation or defiance, on a bare moor, where the three shires ofYork, Lancaster, and Westmoreland, meet, at the county stone, underthe looming mountain masses of Whernside.
Wager of Battle: A Tale of Saxon Slavery in Sherwood Forest Page 24