Read Ebook: Deeds of Daring Done by Girls by Moore N Hudson Gunn Archie Illustrator

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Ebook has 1103 lines and 60786 words, and 23 pages

"Thou art a good lad, and I trust thee"; and as he spoke, my Lord smiled.

True, as I swore fealty to my Lady, I little recked how soon 't would be before I rode away behind her!

Just then the huntsman wound his horn, and we all rode out over the drawbridge and away into the bright sun and green fields a-hawking. We made a merry day of it. The hounds sped before, starting up many a creature that fled affrighted from us.

My Lady rode, not her own palfrey, which was a gentle animal but of little speed, but a chestnut mare, one specially cherished by Comte Gaston, even though she was a thought too light for his bulk.

For many a day the mare had been but exercised about the court, and being a high-mettled creature, soon grew fretted by the flapping of my Lady's habit,--a thing to which she was ill-used.

We were pricking along at a good pace, my Lady having her hands full with holding down the mare, when suddenly from the grass at her very feet darted out a fallow deer, a little thing scarcely more than a month old. The mare started, threw up her head, and ere I knew what had befallen, had wheeled about and started off like the wind.

"Jehan," I heard my Lady call; and turning my own horse about, I spurred him after the flying mare. On we sped; the others, passing through a copse, had missed seeing our plight.

"Hold fast, mistress," shouted I, while I strove with whip and spur to get beside her.

Little by little we crept forward, my horse and I, and after that day I ever forbore to call him a poor thing. First his nose pressed the mare's thigh, and then he came up with the saddle-cloth, and then a bit ahead of that, till I called,--

"Loose your foot from the stirrup, mistress."

Even as I spoke I could see that she did it.

"Lean towards me and drop the reins, mistress"; and as I spoke I switched my poor nag and leaned from the saddle, took my mistress about the waist, and pulled her clear of the mare. It took but a moment more to set her gently on the ground and start after the mare, since I knew, if aught befell her, our day of pleasuring would have but an ill ending. Freed from the flapping of the skirt, she gradually slackened her pace, and erelong I was leading her back to where my Lady stood with the tall marsh grasses waving about her feet.

"Help me to mount, Jehan," saith she, whilst I was turning about in my mind how to urge her to let me ride the mare while she took the steadier horse.

"Pray, mistress," I began; but she cut me short with,--

"Have a care that my cousin knows not of this mishap, since it fairly shames me to think how the mare bested me. But I was not affrighted."

At this she gave a side look at me, but I knew her too well to show that I had noted her white face. I did not answer, but pondered if it was not seemlier to guard my mistress even against herself. When she noted me standing and switching of the grass, she crieth out,--

"Sure, Jehan, it would be an unkind part to tell that I was like to be run with on my f?te day, since all has come out well. Promise now that thou wilt hold thy peace."

So promise I did, and none guessed how near we had come to grief, though my Lord, when we drew up with them, wondered why the mare looked so hard ridden!

'Twas now well on to noon, and we rested by the side of a clear stream, and ate of squirrels fresh roasted, and of little fishes drawn from the brook but half an hour before, and of the honey of the wild bee spread on cakes of white flour, and of spices and of wine.

"Hast had a happy day, little one?" saith my Lord, as we sat 'neath the trees; and my mistress, turning, laid her cheek on his hand and said,--

"Dear Cousin, never can I thank thee enough for all that thou hast done for me"; and the tears like to have fallen.

"To see thee happy gives me all the thanks I crave"; and my Lord fetched a deep sigh, thinking belike of that son whom his own hand had slain.

Then, when the sun grew low, homeward we turned, the pages singing as we rode along,--

"White as a lily, more ruddy than the rose, Brilliant as a ruby that with spark of fire glows, Your beauty and your loveliness to me all peerless shows, White as a lily, more ruddy than the rose. My heart for your heart watches; it pleaseth me to know That to all other lovers the law of love I show. White as a lily, more ruddy than the rose, Brilliant as a ruby that with spark of fire glows."

When we came in sight of the castle of Orthez, there rose from the great chimneys a dark cloud of smoke. The drawbridge fell, and the steward rode forth to meet us.

"Lo, my Lord," he cried, "hasten home. Whilst thou wert absent here hath come a great lord, the Due de Berry, with messages from the King."

"Hath he a great following?" questioned my Lord.

"Seventy lances and thirty sumpter mules. They are cared for, my Lord, and all have supped."

We hurried forward. As my Lord rode into the court, the Due de Berry cometh through the door to meet him. He was elder than my Lord, and was uncle to King Charles, and a powerful and noble lord. Never had I looked on one so great as he. All France hath heard how he taxed his people and gathered from them great stores of money that he might have gold to buy palaces, that he might get from strange and foreign countries noble pictures with which to deck his walls, and tapestries wrought in coloured threads and gold. Not only these things did he buy, but books enriched with jewels and filled with images of saints and others, coloured with blue, red, and gold. After him rode hundreds of followers when he went to war or travelled abroad in strange countries.

As one looked upon him, his face seemeth harsh at first, yet a smile became it well, and he smiled when he looked on my mistress, as doth everyone who seeth her.

One, two, three days he tarried. 'Twas said that his matters were despatched in one, and true it is that when my mistress was before him, his eyes ne'er left her face.

Right seemly she looketh, thought I, as I stood behind her chair when they supped. Never before had she borne herself so bravely, and rich were the gauds that tirewoman furnished forth. One evening my Lady came into the great hall in a gown of cherry red, made from the thread of the silkworm and wonderous soft and fine. Above this was a long coat with wide pointed sleeves, and it was bound about her with a sash of cloth that shone like silver. Her hair was woven with strings of pearls, large and white, and over her hung a veil like unto a spider's web, set full with shining threads. Well do I remember all this, for it was the first time that ever I had seen such richness of apparel.

Till now we had been friends together, playmates. The priest whom my Lord Gaston had brought to dwell in the castle taught us to read, and when we irked him overmuch sent us packing. Then would we spend the time running over the great old castle, shooting with the bow and arrow, and teaching the shagged greyhounds to fetch and carry.

But from to-day all was different. She was a great lady, and I her page Jehan, to hand her cup, to do her bidding within doors, and to ride at her litter's side or by her saddle when she went abroad, with my sword loosened and hand steady and prompt at her need.

On the fourth day my Lord Gaston rode out with the Due de Berry to see him fare forth. My mistress stood upon the steps as they set out, with her sky-blue jewel in her hair and her cheeks like maybuds. The Due had bent and kissed her hand, and of a truth I heard him say,--

"Farewell, mistress. Thou wilt hear from me again, and that shortly."

She saith never a word, but looked into his face and smiled.

Now once again it was "Jehan here" and "Jehan there," and we fell back into our old ways. I digged and tilled for her the garden patch without the walls of the castle, for this was a year of richness, and my Lady's gillyflowers and lavender, lilies and coriander, showed bright beside the dull potherbs, anise, mustard, and storax, and the beds of leeks, dittany, lettuces, and garden-cress. We had words over the poppies.

"Jehan," saith she, "didst ever see the poppies brighter than they be this spring?"

"Fair they be, mistress, and of a size too, so that the seeds will be choice, and none need suffer for lack of a sleeping draught if they be ill!"

"Mean you to save all the flowers for seeds?"

"Of a truth, yes, mistress, since they be so fine."

"But, Jehan, thou knowest that I love the poppies, and sure they were planted for me."

Now this was true, but the flowers were so exceeding fine, and gave promise of such a crop of seeds, that I fairly loathed to give one up. So I tried to coax Mistress Eleonore with other buds.

"Jehan," suddenly quoth she, "run you to the court and fetch me out a garden tool. I would help thee myself to-day."

I hurried away, as she bade me, and when I got back there she stood in the midst of the poppy-bed, with a wreath of them in her black hair, and both hands full! I stopped short, and she began to laugh at me, looking so like the fairies we hear of dancing in a ring, that though I felt the loss of the poppy-seeds sore, all I could find to say was,--

"Oh, mistress, the seeds!"

"But the flowers are so beautiful, and the seeds but ill-favoured black things, as thou knowest well, Jehan, wherefore I chose the flowers."

There was naught to do but to hope that the buds that were left would bloom freely; and shortly we went back to the castle, for the day was growing warm, the birds had ceased their morning songs, and the wind was no longer sweet and cool. As we reached the gate, there came to us, faint and far away, the sound of a winded horn. We turned, and out over the marches we could see coming many knights, their armour glistening in the sun, and their lances shining like so many points of fire.

"Who be these, think you, Jehan?" said my mistress, as with her wreath of poppies she stood and watched them come. But I knew no more than she, and soon the stranger knights rode by us into the court, each man as he passed doffing his cap to my mistress, who stood tall and smiling, and bowing in her turn.

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