*V*
The sky, as I told you, rendered a pale light, it being high summer; andI was rather dismayed than pleasured when I saw the moon's pale spherestretching a bow beyond the further hills. The more light, the lesschance of shunning an enemy. Truly, I could have been thankful for alanthorn upon my path, for I had need to go slowly and heedfully, lest Ishould find myself embogged, of which my one experience was more thanenough. I laboured over the ground, making small headway, for where'twas not marshy 'twas rugged and bestrewn with loose stones, and where'twas none of these, I was annoyed with pestering thorns or entangledunderwood. And the short summer darkness was already dissolving withthe dawn.
I looked back over the way I had come, and saw the lake not above twomiles off, below me, and the castle rose-tinted in the sun's ray. Evennow, I thought, the nimble kernes, whose fleetness of foot exceeds thatof a horse, might run me down, if my escape had become known. Iconsidered whether to seek a hiding-place, in some bosky covert or somebrier-clad hole in the hills; but bethought myself that I must then liequiet all day without food, and maybe lose myself when I came forth inthe night. It seemed to me best to keep right on, watching my steps,and shrouding myself with such brushwood and overhanging cliffs as Imight encounter on my way.
Presently after I had thus resolved, I came unawares out of thetrackless ground upon a beaten path, which methought led in thedirection of my course. To follow this path stood me in some danger ofmeeting my foes; yet I should make speedier progress upon it, and havemy eyes for scanning the country instead of for taking heed of bogs orpitfalls. Therefore I cast away all scruples of timidity and struckwith assured gait into the path.
'Twas not long before I repented of my temerity. On a sudden I heard apatter of feet before me, and ere I could slip aside for hiding therecame into my sight, round a bend in the path, a man of lofty stature,running as for a prize. At one and the same instant we halted upon ourfeet, the runner and I, being divided by no more than thirty paces. Ihad but just perceived by his garb that the man was an Irishman when heleapt from the path down a shelving grassy bank at his right hand, andbounded like a hunted stag towards a clump of woodland no great distanceaway.
Bethinking me in a flash that every Irishman hereabout was an enemy, andthat this man, were he to escape, might fetch a horde of his wildfellows upon my track, I sprang after him, in my soul doubting whetherwith my utmost endeavour I could overtake him. For some little time theman outsped me, but coming to the skirts of the woodland he suddenlystumbled, sought desperately to recover his footing, and then sank uponthe ground. Gathering my speed, in four leaps I was upon him, andclosed with him, expecting that he would strive with me for the mastery;but he lay limp and lumpish in my hands, his eyes beseeching mercy. Sostout of frame he was, I was no little amazed at my easy victory, untilI saw by his laboured breathing, the quivering of his nostrils, and thepallor of his cheeks, that he was utterly spent. This put me in aquandary. I had a mind to leave him and go my way; but in a moment Isaw that I might perchance make some profit of him. Taking a portion ofthe cord about my bundle, I bound his hands behind him, and when theheaving of his naked breast was somewhat stilled, I bade him arise andlead me to the English camp, fearing the while lest he should be of thewild barbarians that knew no tongue but their own. But at my words helooked me in the face, and told me that the English were many milesaway, marching northward.
GATHERING MY SPEED, IN FOUR LEAPS I WAS UPON HIM]
I asked him how he knew, whereupon he said that he had himself beenamong them. Questioning him further, by degrees I learnt that he wasone of the band that had followed Kedagh O'Hagan into the field. Twodays before a battle had been fought betwixt the rebels and the army ofmy general, and this man had been taken, but having escaped by night, hehad fled for refuge to the cabin of his sister, whose husband was ahenchman to Rory Mac Shane. The husband being absent, the man hadlearnt in talk with his sister that Mac Shane had gathered his men, withthe intent to fall upon the lake-castle of O'Hagan while he was footingit with the rebels, and to carry away the maiden whom he had sworn towed. At this news the man, in loyal service to his chief, brake fromhis sister, and ran all night over the hills to warn his mistress of theperil threatening her. Being not yet recovered of the fatigue ofmarching and the stress of battle; having, moreover, followed anindirect and winding course to avoid the raiders of Rory Mac Shane, whowere already on foot; the man had overtaxed his strength in running, andso fallen helpless into my hands.
In my course through the world I had gained some skill in reading men,and was not easily deceived when those I had to do with were artless andsimple, not versed in the tricks of courtiers, nor trained to mask theirthoughts like the ambassadors of kings. The man's bearing was honest;his story fitted both with his present sorry case and with what I hadheard before; briefly, I did not doubt him. And when I inquired of himwhere these raiders might be, and he told me that they were not abovethree miles from the place where we then stood, and full in my path, Icould not but look upon this encounter as a fortunate accident for me.
And now I had perforce to choose what I must do. I could not proceed insafety until Mac Shane and his raiders were no longer between me and mygoal, and I considered whether I should hide myself a while, and let theman continue his journey, and so warn his mistress of what was to come;or, making assurance doubly sure, I might hold him in hiding with meuntil the danger of interception was past, then leave him well tied up,and go my way: in which case the lady must remain unwarned. And as Ithought thereon, and my mind's eye dwelt upon that piece of loveliness,forlorn in her ruinous castle, with few to help her, and remembered whatI had been told of this Rory Mac Shane, a violent and besotted savage,on a sudden I felt the blood rush to my temples, and without more ado,scarce knowing what secret motive impelled me, I caught up my prisoner,unloosed his bonds, bade him pluck up heart, and, supporting hishalf-fainting form with my arm, set forth with hasty step towards thequarter whence I had come.
For all that I was cumbered with the poor wretch, I made better speedback than forth, because he knew the way, and avoided rough and quaggyplaces. The morning was yet young, wanting something of four o' theclock when we came to the lake-side, and I felt a passion of wrathspring within me at what had formerly served me well--namely, theculpable neglect of watch and ward upon the castle. There was nolookout man posted upon the keep; not a soul stirring on battlements orin courtyard: a heinous lack of precaution which could not but set onedge the nerves of any man with the least experience of war.God-a-mercy, thought I, is this the Irish manner of guarding fairladies? No eye had spied us as we descended the hillside; and when, atthe water's brink, we set up a loud halloo, we might have been wolveshowling in a wilderness for all the stir we made.
Ofttimes as we came the Irishman had glanced back timorously along thepath, and now he clutched me by the arm and stretching forth his hand,pointed to a regiment of dusky shapes moving against the sky behind us;which seeing, and being in no manner of doubt what they were, I made atrumpet of my hands and let forth a shout like to split my lungs. Andthen, above the broken parapet of the tower, a woman's form appeared,and stood there a brief space at gaze, then vanished from my sight.Still bellowing my loudest, I saw men moving in the courtyard, andpresently from the water-gate the wherry shot forth under the strokes oftwo oarsmen. The Irishman by my side called to them in their owntongue, and they made great haste, and we waded into the lake to meetthem, and leapt into the vessel, which swung about and conveyed us withall speed over the water and through the gate. I perceived thecountenances of these oarsmen how they were blank with stark amazement,their eyes resting upon me as upon one risen from the dead; and thewomen in the courtyard crossed themselves and fell back from me as Ipassed among them, and 'twas told me afterward they held me for awizard.
HE CLUTCHED ME BY THE ARM AND POINTED TO A REGIMENT OFDUSKY SHAPES]
And there at the postern leading into the keep stood my l
ady, verystraight and still, a high colour in her cheeks and a fire in her eyes.I bent myself, saluting her, and said--
"I fear me, madam, I seem thankless in quitting the castle withoutpaying my respects to its fair mistress, but you were, I trust, lappedin quiet slumber when your caged night-bird took wing. Yet am I sooncome back to roost, for it chanced that in my flight I crossed aservitor of yours, and he----"
"And he snared the simple fowl, and brought him to be plucked," shesaid, with a curling lip.
"Simple fool, in good sooth, I may be, madam," said I, "yet 'twas not hecarried me back, but rather that which he carried."
She looked in puzzlement from me to the Irishman, and from him again tome, and I would very willingly have engaged further in tossing the ballbut for the grave news I bore. Breaking off suddenly, I told her withseriousness than within the fourth part of an hour Rory Mac Shane withhis posse of rascals would be at her gates.
"It behoves your folk to show," I said, "that they can fight better thanthey watch; and with your leave, while your man here tells his tale ingross, I will make bold to set things in order for defence."
I did not wait for an answer, but turned abruptly from her (noting howher wrath was kindled against me), and sought my servant and theIrishmen my comrades in captivity. Them I informed of what was toward,and gave commands for the Irishmen to convey to their fellow countrymen.My assured mien and peremptory speech carried it with them, and withMistress Sheila too, who was so much taken aback by my masterfulness, aswell as engrossed with the tale poured out in the Irish tongue by herman, as that she was in a manner fixed and immovable like a monument.
But this posture endured but a little. Being informed of all that hadhappened, she came flying to me in the midst of the courtyard, and awondrous light shone upon her face, and she thrust out her hands towardsme, and cried--
"Oh, sir, I crave your pardon, and I thank you."
I took her hand and kissed it in the manner of a courtier, yet mayhapwith something less formality.
"But haste, sir!" she cried again. "The wherry is yours. Get you, youand your men, to the other side, and escape while yet there is time."
"Madam," I said, "I and my men have no other wish than to serve you."
"I beseech you, endanger not your life in a quarrel that is not yourown," she said.
"I trow I make it my own," said I, with a forthright quick look. Aninstant our glances clung; then she veiled her enkindling eyes, andturning aside hastily, clasped hands with the sour-faced dame who hadnow come forth, a fearsome dragon, from the postern door.