CHAPTER 10
Perhaps there is nothing more delightful in the romance of boyhood thanthe finding of some secret hiding-place whither a body may creep awayfrom the bustle of the world's life, to nestle in quietness for an houror two. More especially is such delightful if it happen that, bypeeping from out it, one may look down upon the bustling matters ofbusy every-day life, while one lies snugly hidden away unseen by any, asthough one were in some strange invisible world of one's own.
Such a hiding-place as would have filled the heart of almost any boywith sweet delight Myles and Gascoyne found one summer afternoon. Theycalled it their Eyry, and the name suited well for the roosting-placeof the young hawks that rested in its windy stillness, looking down uponthe shifting castle life in the courts below.
Behind the north stable, a great, long, rambling building, thick-walled,and black with age, lay an older part of the castle than that peopledby the better class of life--a cluster of great thick walls, rudely butstrongly built, now the dwelling-place of stable-lads and hinds, swineand poultry. From one part of these ancient walls, and fronting an innercourt of the castle, arose a tall, circular, heavy-buttressed tower,considerably higher than the other buildings, and so mantled with adense growth of aged ivy as to stand a shaft of solid green. Above itscrumbling crown circled hundreds of pigeons, white and pied, clappingand clattering in noisy flight through the sunny air. Several windows,some closed with shutters, peeped here and there from out the leaves,and near the top of the pile was a row of arched openings, as though ofa balcony or an airy gallery.
Myles had more than once felt an idle curiosity about this tower, andone day, as he and Gascoyne sat together, he pointed his finger andsaid, "What is yon place?"
"That," answered Gascoyne, looking over his shoulder--"that they callBrutus Tower, for why they do say that Brutus he built it when he camehither to Britain. I believe not the tale mine own self; ne'theless, itis marvellous ancient, and old Robin-the-Fletcher telleth me that therebe stairways built in the wall and passage-ways, and a maze whereina body may get lost, an he know not the way aright, and never see theblessed light of day again."
"Marry," said Myles, "those same be strange sayings. Who liveth therenow?"
"No one liveth there," said Gascoyne, "saving only some of the stablevillains, and that half-witted goose-herd who flung stones at usyesterday when we mocked him down in the paddock. He and his wife andthose others dwell in the vaults beneath, like rabbits in any warren. Noone else hath lived there since Earl Robert's day, which belike wasan hundred years agone. The story goeth that Earl Robert's brother--orstep-brother--was murdered there, and some men say by the Earl himself.Sin that day it hath been tight shut."
Myles stared at the tower for a while in silence. "It is astrange-seeming place from without," said he, at last, "and mayhap itmay be even more strange inside. Hast ever been within, Francis?"
"Nay," said Gascoyne; "said I not it hath been fast locked since EarlRobert's day?"
"By'r Lady," said Myles, "an I had lived here in this place so long asthou, I wot I would have been within it ere this."
"Beshrew me," said Gascoyne, "but I have never thought of such amatter." He turned and looked at the tall crown rising into the warmsunlight with a new interest, for the thought of entering it smackedpleasantly of adventure. "How wouldst thou set about getting within?"said he, presently.
"Why, look," said Myles; "seest thou not yon hole in the ivy branches?Methinks there is a window at that place. An I mistake not, it is inreach of the stable eaves. A body might come up by the fagot pile to theroof of the hen-house, and then by the long stable to the north stable,and so to that hole."
Gascoyne looked thoughtfully at the Brutus Tower, and then suddenlyinquired, "Wouldst go there?"
"Aye," said Myles, briefly.
"So be it. Lead thou the way in the venture, I will follow after thee,"said Gascoyne.
As Myles had said, the climbing from roof to roof was a matter easyenough to an active pair of lads like themselves; but when, by-and-by,they reached the wall of the tower itself, they found the hidden windowmuch higher from the roof than they had judged from below--perhaps tenor twelve feet--and it was, besides, beyond the eaves and out of theirreach.
Myles looked up and looked down. Above was the bushy thickness of theivy, the branches as thick as a woman's wrist, knotted and intertwined;below was the stone pavement of a narrow inner court between two of thestable buildings.
"Methinks I can climb to yon place," said he.
"Thou'lt break thy neck an thou tryest," said Gascoyne, hastily.
"Nay," quoth Myles, "I trust not; but break or make, we get not therewithout trying. So here goeth for the venture."
"Thou art a hare-brained knave as ever drew breath of life," quothGascoyne, "and will cause me to come to grief some of these fine days.Ne'theless, an thou be Jack Fool and lead the way, go, and I will be TomFool and follow anon. If thy neck is worth so little, mine is worth nomore."
It was indeed a perilous climb, but that special providence which guardsreckless lads befriended them, as it has thousands of their kind beforeand since. So, by climbing from one knotted, clinging stem to another,they were presently seated snugly in the ivied niche in the window. Itwas barred from within by a crumbling shutter, the rusty fastening ofwhich, after some little effort upon the part of the two, gave way, andentering the narrow opening, they found themselves in a small triangularpassage-way, from which a steep flight of stone steps led down through ahollow in the massive wall to the room below.
At the bottom of the steps was a heavy oaken door, which stood ajar,hanging upon a single rusty hinge, and from the room within a dull, graylight glimmered faintly. Myles pushed the door farther open; it creakedand grated horribly on its rusty hinge, and, as in instant answer tothe discordant shriek, came a faint piping squeaking, a rustling and apattering of soft footsteps.
"The ghosts!" cried Gascoyne, in a quavering whisper, and for a momentMyles felt the chill of goose-flesh creep up and down his spine. But thenext moment he laughed.
"Nay," said he, "they be rats. Look at yon fellow, Francis! Be'st as bigas Mother Joan's kitten. Give me that stone." He flung it at the rat,and it flew clattering across the floor. There was another patteringrustle of hundreds of feet, and then a breathless silence.
The boys stood looking around them, and a strange enough sight it was.The room was a perfect circle of about twenty feet across, and waspiled high with an indistinguishable mass of lumber--rude tables, ruderchairs, ancient chests, bits and remnants of cloth and sacking andleather, old helmets and pieces of armor of a by-gone time, brokenspears and pole-axes, pots and pans and kitchen furniture of all sortsand kinds.
A straight beam of sunlight fell through a broken shutter like a bar ofgold, and fell upon the floor in a long streak of dazzling light thatilluminated the whole room with a yellow glow.
"By 'r Lady!" said Gascoyne at last, in a hushed voice, "here is FatherTime's garret for sure. Didst ever see the like, Myles? Look at yonarbalist; sure Brutus himself used such an one!"
"Nay," said Myles; "but look at this saddle. Marry, here be'st a rat'snest in it."
Clouds of dust rose as they rummaged among the mouldering mass, settingthem coughing and sneezing. Now and then a great gray rat would shootout beneath their very feet, and disappear, like a sudden shadow, intosome hole or cranny in the wall.
"Come," said Myles at last, brushing the dust from his jacket, "an wetarry here longer we will have chance to see no other sights; the sun isfalling low."
An arched stair-way upon the opposite side of the room from which theyhad entered wound upward through the wall, the stone steps being lightedby narrow slits of windows cut through the massive masonry. Above theroom they had just left was another of the same shape and size, but withan oak floor, sagging and rising into hollows and hills, where the joisthad rotted away beneath. It was bare and empty, and not even a ratwas to be seen. Above was another room; above that, another; all the
passages and stairways which connected the one story with the otherbeing built in the wall, which was, where solid, perhaps fifteen feetthick.
From the third floor a straight flight of steps led upward to a closeddoor, from the other side of which shone the dazzling brightness ofsunlight, and whence came a strange noise--a soft rustling, a melodiousmurmur. The boys put their shoulders against the door, which wasfastened, and pushed with might and main--once, twice; suddenly thelock gave way, and out they pitched headlong into a blaze of sunlight.A deafening clapping and uproar sounded in their ears, and scores ofpigeons, suddenly disturbed, rose in stormy flight.
They sat up and looked around them in silent wonder. They were in abower of leafy green. It was the top story of the tower, the roof ofwhich had crumbled and toppled in, leaving it open to the sky, with onlyhere and there a slanting beam or two supporting a portion of the tiledroof, affording shelter for the nests of the pigeons crowded closelytogether. Over everything the ivy had grown in a mantling sheet--anet-work of shimmering green, through which the sunlight fellflickering.
"This passeth wonder," said Gascoyne, at last breaking the silence.
"Aye," said Myles, "I did never see the like in all my life." Then,"Look, yonder is a room beyond; let us see what it is, Francis."
Entering an arched door-way, the two found themselves in a beautifullittle vaulted chapel, about eighteen feet long and twelve or fifteenwide. It comprised the crown of one of the large massive buttresses, andfrom it opened the row of arched windows which could be seen from belowthrough the green shimmering of the ivy leaves. The boys pushed asidethe trailing tendrils and looked out and down. The whole castle layspread below them, with the busy people unconsciously intent upon thematters of their daily work. They could see the gardener, with bowedback, patiently working among the flowers in the garden, the stable-boysbelow grooming the horses, a bevy of ladies in the privy garden playingat shuttlecock with battledoors of wood, a group of gentlemen walkingup and down in front of the Earl's house. They could see the householdservants hurrying hither and thither, two little scullions atfisticuffs, and a kitchen girl standing in the door-way scratching herfrowzy head.
It was all like a puppetshow of real life, each acting unconsciously apart in the play. The cool wind came in through the rustling leaves andfanned their cheeks, hot with the climb up the winding stair-way.
"We will call it our Eyry," said Gascoyne "and we will be the hawks thatlive here." And that was how it got its name.
The next day Myles had the armorer make him a score of large spikes,which he and Gascoyne drove between the ivy branches and into the cementof the wall, and so made a safe passageway by which to reach the windowniche in the wall.