X.
How Herne the Hunter was himself hunted.
On the guard's recovery, information of what had occurred wasimmediately conveyed to the king, who had not yet retired to rest,but was sitting in his private chamber with the Dukes of Suffolk andNorfolk. The intelligence threw him into a great fury: he buffetedthe guard, and ordered him to be locked up in the dungeon whence theprisoner had escaped; reprimanded the canon; directed the Duke ofSuffolk, with a patrol, to make search in the neighbourhood of thecastle for the fugitive and the friar; and bade the Duke of Norfolkget together a band of arquebusiers; and as soon as the latter wereassembled, he put himself at their head and again rode into the forest.
The cavalcade had proceeded about a mile along the great avenue, whenone of the arquebusiers rode up and said that he heard some distantsounds on the right. Commanding a halt, Henry listened for a moment,and, satisfied that the man was right, quitted the course he waspursuing, and dashed across the broad glade now traversed by the avenuecalled Queen Anne's Ride. As he advanced the rapid trampling of horseswas heard, accompanied by shouts, and presently afterwards a troop ofwild-looking horsemen in fantastic garbs was seen galloping down thehill, pursued by Bouchier and his followers. The king immediately shapedhis course so as to intercept the flying party, and, being in somemeasure screened by the trees, he burst unexpectedly upon them at a turnof the road.
Henry called to the fugitives to surrender, but they refused, and,brandishing their long knives and spears, made a desperate resistance.But they were speedily surrounded and overpowered. Bouchier inquiredfrom the king what should be done with the prisoners.
"Hang them all upon yon trees!" cried Henry, pointing to two sister oakswhich stood near the scene of strife.
The terrible sentence was immediately carried into execution. Cords wereproduced, and in less than half-an-hour twenty breathless bodies wereswinging from the branches of the two trees indicated by the king.
"This will serve to deter others from like offences," observed Henry,who had watched the whole proceedings with savage satisfaction. "Andnow, Bouchier, how came you to let the leader of these villains escape?"
"I did not know he had escaped, my liege," replied Bouchier, inastonishment.
"Yea, marry, but he has escaped," rejoined Henry; "and he has hadthe audacity to show himself in the castle within this hour, and thecunning, moreover, to set the prisoner free."
And he proceeded to relate what had occurred.
"This is strange indeed, my liege," replied Bouchier, at the close ofthe king's recital, "and to my thinking, is proof convincing that wehave to do with a supernatural being."
"Supernatura!--pshaw!--banish the idle notion," rejoined Henry sternly."We are all the dupes of some jugglery. The caitiff will doubtlessreturn to the forest. Continue your search, therefore, for himthroughout the night. If you catch him, I promise you a royal reward."
So saying, he rode back to the castle, somewhat appeased by thewholesale vengeance he had taken upon the offenders.
In obedience to the orders he had received, Bouchier, with hisfollowers, continued riding about the forest during the whole night,but without finding anything to reward his search, until about dawnit occurred to him to return to the trees on which the bodies weresuspended. As he approached them he fancied he beheld a horse standingbeneath the nearest tree, and immediately ordered his followers toproceed as noiselessly as possible, and to keep under the cover of thewood. A nearer advance convinced him that his eyes had not deceived him.It was a swart, wild-looking horse that he beheld, with eyes that flamedlike carbuncles, while a couple of bodies, evidently snatched from thebranches, were laid across his back. A glance at the trees, too, showedBouchier that they had been considerably lightened of their hideousspoil.
Seeing this, Bouchier dashed forward. Alarmed by the noise, the wildhorse neighed loudly, and a dark figure instantly dropped from the treeupon its back, and proceeded to disencumber it of its load. But beforethis could be accomplished, a bolt from a cross-bow, shot by one ofBouchier's followers, pierced the animal's brain. Rearing aloft, it fellbackwards in such manner as would have crushed an ordinary rider, butHerne slipped off uninjured, and with incredible swiftness darted amongthe trees. The others started in pursuit, and a chase commenced in whichthe demon huntsman had to sustain the part of the deer--nor could anydeer have afforded better sport.
Away flew the pursued and pursuers over broad glade and through tangledglen, the woods resounding with their cries. Bouchier did not lose sightof the fugitive for a moment, and urged his men to push on; but, despitehis alternate proffers and menaces, they gained but little on Herne,who, speeding towards the home park, cleared its high palings with asingle bound.
Over went Bouchier and his followers, and they then descried him makinghis way to a large oak standing almost alone in the centre of awide glade. An instant afterwards he reached the tree, shook his armmenacingly at his pursuers, and vanished.
The next moment Bouchier came up, flung himself from his panting steed,and, with his drawn sword in hand, forced himself through a rift in itsside into the tree. There was a hollow within it large enough to allowa man to stand upright, and two funnel-like holes ran upwards into thebranches. Finding nothing, Bouchier called for a hunting-spear, andthrust it as far as he could into the holes above. The point encounteredno obstruction except such as was offered by the wood itself. He stampedupon the ground, and sounded it on all sides with the spear, but with nobetter success.
Issuing forth he next directed his attention to the upper part of thetree, which, while he was occupied inside, had been very carefullywatched by his followers, and not content with viewing it from below, heclambered into the branches. But they had nothing to show except theirown leafy covering.
The careful examination of the ground about the tree at length led tothe discovery of a small hole among its roots, about half a dozen yardsfrom the trunk, and though this hole seemed scarcely large enoughto serve for an entrance to the burrow of a fox, Bouchier deemed itexpedient to keep a careful watch over it.
His investigation completed, he dispatched a sergeant of the guard tothe castle to acquaint the king with what had occurred.
Disturbed by the events of the night, Henry obtained little sleep, andat an early hour summoned an attendant, and demanded whether there wereany tidings from the forest The attendant replied that a sergeant ofthe guard was without, sent by Captain Bouchier with a message for hismajesty. The sergeant was immediately admitted to the royal presence,and on the close of his marvellous story the king, who had workedhimself into a tremendous fury during its relation, roared out, "What!foiled again? ha! But he shall not escape, if I have to root up half thetrees in the forest. Bouchier and his fellows must be bewitched. Harkye,knaves: get together a dozen of the best woodmen and yeomen in thecastle--instantly, as you value your lives; bid them bring axe and saw,pick and spade. D'ye mark me? ha! Stay, I have not done. I must havefagots and straw, for I will burn this tree to the ground--burn it toa char. Summon the Dukes of Suffolk and Norfolk--the rascal archer Idubbed the Duke of Shoreditch and his mates--the keepers of the forestand their hounds--summon them quickly, and bid a band of the yeomen ofthe guard get ready." And he sprang from his couch.
The king's commands were executed with such alacrity, that by the timehe was fully attired the whole of the persons he had ordered to besummoned were assembled. Putting himself at their head, he rode forth tothe home park, and found Bouchier and his followers grouped around thetree.
"We are still at fault, my liege," said Bouchier.
"So I see, Sir," replied the king angrily. "Hew down the tree instantly,knaves," he added to the woodmen. "Fall to--fall to."
Ropes were then fastened to the head of the tree, and the welkinresounded with the rapid strokes of the hatchets. It was a task of somedifficulty, but such zeal and energy were displayed by the woodmen thatere long the giant trunk lay prostrate on the ground. Its hollows werenow fully exposed to view, but they we
re empty.
"Set fire to the accursed piece of timber!" roared the king, "and burnit to dust, and scatter it to the wind!"
At these orders two yeomen of the guard advanced, and throwing down aheap of fagots, straw, and other combustibles on the roots of the tree,soon kindled a fierce fire.
Meanwhile a couple of woodmen, stripped of their jerkins, and with theirbrawny arms bared to the shoulder, mounted on the trunk, and strove tosplit it asunder. Some of the keepers likewise got into the branches,and peered into every crack and crevice, in the hope of making somediscovery. Amongst the latter was Will Sommers, who had posted himselfnear a great arm of the tree, which he maintained when lopped off wouldbe found to contain the demon.
Nor were other expedients neglected. A fierce hound had been sent intothe hole near the roots of the tree by Gabriel Lapp, but after a shortabsence he returned howling and terrified, nor could all the efforts ofGabriel, seconded by a severe scourging with his heavy dog-whip, inducehim to enter it again.
When the hound had come forth, a couple of yeomen advanced to enlargethe opening, while a third with a pick endeavoured to remove the root,which formed an impediment to their efforts.
"They may dig, but they'll never catch him," observed Shoreditch, whostood by, to his companions. "Hunting a spirit is not the same thing astraining and raising a wolf, or earthing and digging out a badger."
"Not so loud, duke," said Islington; "his majesty may think thy jestirreverent."
"I have an arrow blessed by a priest," said Paddington, "which I shalllet fly at the spirit if he appears."
"Here he is--here he is!" cried Will Sommers, as a great white hornedowl, which had been concealed in some part of the tree, flew forth.
"It may be the demon in that form--shoot! shoot!" cried Shoreditch.
Paddington bent his bow. The arrow whistled through the air, andin another moment the owl fell fluttering to the ground completelytransfixed; but it underwent no change, as was expected by the credulousarcher.
Meanwhile the fire, being kept constantly supplied with fresh fagots,and stirred by the yeomen of the guard, burnt bravely. The lower partof the tree was already consumed, and the flames, roaring through thehollow within with a sound like that of a furnace, promised soon toreduce it to charcoal.
The mouth of the hole having now been widened, another keeper, who hadbrought forward a couple of lurchers, sent them into it; but in a fewmoments they returned, as the hound had done, howling and with scaredlooks. Without heeding their enraged master, they ran off, with theirtails between their legs, towards the castle.
"I see how it is, Rufus," said Gabriel, patting his hound, who lookedwistfully and half-reproachfully at him. "Thou wert not to blame, poorfellow! The best dog that ever was whelped cannot be expected to facethe devil."
Though long ere this it had become the general opinion that itwas useless to persevere further in the search, the king, with hischaracteristic obstinacy, would not give it up. In due time the whole ofthe trunk of the enormous tree was consumed, and its branches castinto the fire. The roots were rent from the ground, and a wide and deeptrench digged around the spot. The course of the hole was traced forsome distance, but it was never of any size, and was suddenly lost bythe falling in of the earth.
At length, after five hours' close watching, Henry's patience wasexhausted, and he ordered the pit to be filled up, and every crevice andfissure in the ground about to be carefully stopped.
"If we cannot unkennel the fox," he said, "we will at least earth himup.
"For all your care, gossip Henry," muttered Will Sommers, as he rodeafter his royal master to the castle, "the fox will work his way out."
THUS ENDS THE SECOND BOOK OF THE CHRONICLE OF WINDSOR CASTLE
BOOK III. THE HISTORY OF THE CASTLE
Windsor Castle Page 20