The Camp of Refuge: A Tale of the Conquest of the Isle of Ely

by Charles MacFarlane

  CHAPTER VI.

  IVO TAILLE-BOIS AND THE LADIE LUCIA.

  Within the moated and battlemented manor-house near to the banks of theWelland, which Elfric had stopped to gaze upon as he was travellingfrom Crowland to Spalding, there was held a feast on the fourth dayafter the feast of Saint Edmund, for the said fourth day from the greatSaxon festival was the feast-day of some saint of Normandie or ofAnjou, and the Ladie Lucia, maugre her sorrow and affliction, had givenbirth to a male child a moon agone, and the child was to be baptized onthis day with much rejoicing. Ivo Taille-Bois and his Norman retainerswere glad, inasmuch as the birth of a son by a Saxon wife went tosecure them in their possession of the estates; and the Ladie Lucia wasglad of heart, as a mother cannot but rejoice at the birth of herfirst-born; and her Saxon servants, and all the old retainers of herfather's house, and all the Saxon serfs, were glad, because theirfuture lord would be more than one half Saxon, being native to thecountry, a child of the good Ladie Lucia, the daughter of their lastSaxon lord. So merry were all, that grievances seemed to be forgotten:the Normans ceased to oppress and insult; the Saxons ceased, for thetime being, to complain. The feast was very bountiful, for the LadieLucia had been allowed the ordering of it; and the company was verynumerous and much mixed, for many Saxons of name had been bidden to thefeast, and pledges had been given on both sides that there should be atruce to all hostilities and animosities; that there should be what theNormans called the Truce of God until the son of Ivo Taille-Bois andLucia, the presumptive heir to all the lands of the old lord, should bechristened, and his christening celebrated in a proper manner. No lessa man than the prelate Lanfranc had interfered in making this salutaryarrangement. And for the first time since the death of her father,Lanfranc's fair ward, the Ladie Alftrude, had come forth from her ownmanor-house to attend at the earnest invitation of her cousin the LadieLucia. The Saxon heiress had come attended by sundry armed men and bytwo aged English priests who stood high in the consideration and favourof the potent Lanfranc. When, landing from her boat (the country wasnow nearly everywhere under water), she walked up to the gate of thehouse, and entering, drew aside her wimple and showed her sweet youngface and bright blue eyes, there rose a murmur of admiration from allthat were assembled there: the Saxons vowed in good old English thatthe Ladie Alftrude was the fairest and noblest maiden in all England;and the Normans swore in Norman-French and with many a _Vive Dieu_ thatthey had never beheld anything equal to her either on the other side ofthe seas or on this! Nay, some of the Norman knights, and more than onewhose beard was growing grey while he was yet in poverty or whollyunprovided with any English estate, forgot the broad lands thatAlftrude inherited, to think only of her beautiful face. Yet whenAlftrude kissed her fair cousin and her cousin's child, and sat down bythe side of the Lady Lucia at the top of the hall, it was hard to saywhich was the more lovely, the young matron, or the scarcely youngermaiden.

  "_Benedicite_," said a young monk of Evreux who had come over forpromotion in some English abbey, "but the daughters of this land befair to look upon!"

  "They be," said a starch man in mail, "and they will conquer theconquerors of England, and soon cause the name and distinction ofNorman to be swallowed up and forgotten in the country."

  "Had I come hither before taking my vows at Evreux, the devil mighthave been a monk for me, but I would have been none of it!"

  Peaceably, ay, and merrily, passed off the day. The fair Ladie Alftrudestood at the font, and was one of the sponsors for her cousin'sfirst-born. The banquet succeeded to the baptism, and dancing and musicin the hall followed on the banquet. The old times seemed to be comingback again, those peaceful days of good King Edward, _Coelideliciae_,[105] when every free-born Englishman enjoyed his own, andevery noble thane or earl held hospitality to be one of his primaryduties.

  But Ivo Taille-Bois, though he boasted of being cousin to Duke William,was a greedy low-born churl, and therefore he needs must mar thehappiness of his young wife (who ever since the birth of her son hadbeen striving to forget how she had been made his wife), by talking ofhis unprovided brother, who had arrived in England, and was nowtarrying about the Conqueror's court in the hope of obtaining fromLanfranc the hand of his rich Saxon ward. The Ladie Lucia, knowing fullwell how her cousin's heart lay toward Hereward, tried often to changethe strain, but her Norman lord, forgetful even of courtesy to hisguests, would still keep vexing her ear with his brother's suit, andinstead of continuing to be thankful to his saints for his own goodfortune in getting so vast an heritage, and so fair a wife, and then sopromising a child, he spoke as though he should feel himself a beggaruntil all the domains of the Ladie Alftrude were in the hands of hisfamily. An anger that would not be concealed flashed in his eyewhenever he saw any well-fa'red knight or gallant youth discoursingwith Alftrude, and whether it were a Norman or a Saxon his wrath seemedequal. Desperate thoughts and dark designs flitted through his mind. Atone time he thought that now that he had got the young heiress into hishouse he would forcibly keep her where she was until his brother shouldarrive and press his own suit in the ungodly manner of the first Normanconquerors; but he cowered under the dread of Lanfranc and a Normansentence of excommunication, and he saw that the thing was not to bedone without great peril and much bloodshed under his own roof, for theSaxon guests were numerous far above the Normans, and though, mayhap,several of his Norman guests would not have scrupled about the deed ifit had been for their own profit, they could not be expected to concurin it, or even to allow it, when it was only for the profit of him andhis brother. Vanity, thy name was Norman! There was young Guiscard[106]of Avranches, there was tall Etienne[107] of Rouen (and verily a talland well-proportioned young man was he, and one that could talk gliblyboth in English and in French), there was Baldwin of the Mount, a mostnimble dancer, and with a fine gilded cloak over his shoulders and nota crown in his purse (even like all the rest of them); there was oldMainfroy of La Perche, who had followed Robert Guiscard into Italie andGrecia, and had lost an eye and half of a nose in those wars beforeLadie Alftrude was born; and there was old Drogo[108] from Chinon, wholooked as though he had added to his own nose that half of a noseMainfroy had lost (so hugeous and misshapen was Drogo's nose!); and notone of these gay knights but thought that the Lady Alftrude having onceseen and heard him must prefer him to all the world. In their ownconceit they were, one and all of them, already Lords of Ey andhusbands of Alftrude. Judge ye then whether Ivo Taille-Bois could havesafely ventured to stay his fair guest against her will, or shut up hiswife's cousin in close bower for his as yet unknown and unseen brother!

  But there was now in the hall a merrier eye, and one more roguishwithal, than ever shone under the brows of a Norman. The drawbridgebeing down, and the gate of the house wide open, that all who listmight enter and partake according to his degree of some of the goodthings that were provided, a young Saxon glee-man or menestrel cameover the bridge unchallenged, and only paused under the low archway ofthe gate. His dress was tattered and torn, and not free from the mudand slime of the fens, but sweet and clear was his voice, and merry andright old English his song; and so all the Saxons that heard him gavehim welcome, and bade him enter the hall and sing a lay in honour ofthe Ladie Lucia and of her first-born son, who would be good lord toall Saxon folk as his grandfather had been before him. But before goinginto the hall, where the feast was just over, and all the tablescleared, the glee-man went aside into the buttery to renew his strengthwith a good meal, and refresh his voice with a cup of good wine. Whenhe entered the hall the old Saxon seneschal cried, "A glee-man! anotherglee-man come to sing an English song!" The Norman menestrels lookedscornfully at him and his tattered cloak; and the Saxon menestrelsasked of one another who he might be; for none of them knew him, albeitthe menestrels, like the beggars and other happy vagabonds of oldEngland, were united in league and brotherhood, in sort that everymenestrel of East Anglia was thought to know every other menestrel orglee-man of that countrie. But
when the new and unknown comer hadplayed his preludium on his Saxon lyre of four strings, and had sunghis downright Saxon song with a voice that was clear as a bell, and attimes loud as a trumpet, the English part of the company, from thehighest degree to the lowest, shouted and clapped their hands; and allthe English menestrels vowed that he was worthy of their guild; whileeven the Norman glee-men confessed that, although the words werebarbarous and not to be understood by civil men, the air was good, andthe voice of the best. Whether the words were ancient as the music, orwhether they were made in part or wholly for the occasion by thesinger, they went deep into the hearts both of the Ladie Alftrude andthe Ladie Lucia; and while the young matron of the house put a littlering into a cup, and bade her little Saxon page fill the cup with thebest wine, and hand it to the Saxon menestrel, the maiden Alftrude wentstraight to the spot where that menestrel was standing, and asked himto sing his song again. And when the glee-man had knelt on his knee tothe mistress of the house, and had drained her cup of wine until not somuch as the ghost of a drop was left in it, and when he had sung hissong over again, and more deftly and joyously than he had sung itbefore, the Lady Alftrude still kept near him, and, discoursing withhim, took three or more turns across the lower part of the hall. Saxonlords and Saxon dames and maidens of high degree were ever courteous tothe poor and lowly, and ever honoured those who had skill inminstrelsy. At first the Ladie Alftrude smiled and laughed as if atsome witty conceit let fall by the menestrel; but then those whowatched her well, and were near enough to see, saw a cloud on her browand a blush on her cheek, and then a paleness, and a short gasping asif for breath. But all this passed away, and the maiden continued todiscourse calmly with the menestrel, and whenever the menestrel raisedhis voice it was only to give utterance to some pleasant gibe.

  Ivo Taille-Bois, albeit he had seen him often under another hood, mightnot know him, and all the English glee-men might continue to wonder whohe was; but we know full well that the menestrel was none other thanElfric the novice. He had found his way unscathed to Ey, and notfinding the Ladie Alftrude there, he had followed her to themanor-house of her fair cousin, well pleased that such a celebrationand feast would make easy his entrance into the house. A maiden ofAlftrude's degree could not travel and visit without a featy handmaidenattendant upon her. Rough men that bend bows and wield swords andspears, and make themselves horny fists, are not fit to dress a ladie'shair or tie her sandals; and well we ween it becometh not priests withshaven crowns to be lacing a maiden's bodice; and so, besides the armedmen and the two churchmen, the Ladie Alftrude had brought with herMildred of Hadenham, that maiden well-behaved and well-favoured andpious withal, whom Elfric was wont to entertain with talk about my LordHereward, as well as of other matters. Now Mildred of Hadenham wasthere at the lower end of the hall, seated among other handmaidens; andas soon as Elfric entered, or, at the latest, as soon as he finishedthe first verse of his song, she knew who the menestrel was as well aswe do. While the Ladie Alftrude was before their eyes, few of the noblecompany cared to look that way or upon any other than her; but if asharp eye had watched it would have seen that Mildred several timesblushed a much deeper red than her mistress, and that the youngglee-man's eyes were rather frequently seeking her out. And at last,when the Ladie Alftrude returned to her cousin at the head of the hall,and the floor of the hall was cleared for an exhibition of dancers, theglee-man, after some gyrations, found his way to the side of Mildred ofHadenham, and kept whispering to her, and making her blush even redderthan before, all the other handmaidens wondering the while, and muchenvying Mildred, for, albeit his cloak was tattered and his hosesoiled, the young menestrel, besides having the sweetest voice, wassurpassingly well-favoured in form and face, and had thehappiest-looking eye that ever was seen.

  The Ladie Alftrude talked long in a corner with her cousin the LadieLucia, and then there was a calling and consulting with Mildred ofHadenham, as though her mistress's head-gear needed some rearrangement.And after this the two cousins and the waiting-woman quitted the hall,and went into an upper and inner chamber, and tarried there for a shortwhile, or for about the time it takes to say a score of _Aves_. Thenthey come back to the hall, and the Ladie Lucia and the Ladie Alftrudesit down together where the company is most thronged. But where is thecuriously delicate little ring that was glittering on Ladie Alftrude'sfinger?... Ha! Ha! we wot well that Elfric hath got it, and otherlove-tokens besides, that he may carry them beyond seas, and bring backHereward to his ladie-love and to England that cannot do without him.But where is that merriest of glee-men?... Many in the hall were askingthe question, for they wanted to hear him again. But Elfric was gone,and none seemed to know how or when he went. Mayhap, maid Mildred knewsomething about it, for when the English part of the company began tocall for the glee-man with the tattered cloak, that he might singanother merry song, she turned her face to the wall and wept.

  Well, I ween, had our simple dull Saxons outwitted the nimble-wittedNormans! Well had the menestrel and the ladies and the waiting-maidplayed their several parts! Could Ivo Taille-Bois but have known hiserrand, or have guessed at the mischief that he was brewing for him,either Elfric would never have entered those walls, or he would neverhave left them alive.