CHAPTER 14
If Myles fancied that one single victory over his enemy would cure theevil against which he fought, he was grievously mistaken; wrongs are notrighted so easily as that. It was only the beginning. Other and far morebitter battles lay before him ere he could look around him and say, "Ihave won the victory."
For a day--for two days--the bachelors were demoralized at the fall oftheir leader, and the Knights of the Rose were proportionately uplifted.
The day that Blunt met his fall, the wooden tank in which the waterhad been poured every morning was found to have been taken away. Thebachelors made a great show of indignation and inquiry. Who was it stoletheir tank? If they did but know, he should smart for it.
"Ho! ho!" roared Edmund Wilkes, so that the whole dormitory heard him,"smoke ye not their tricks, lads? See ye not that they have stolen theirown water-tank, so that they might have no need for another fight overthe carrying of the water?"
The bachelors made an obvious show of not having heard what he said, anda general laugh went around. No one doubted that Wilkes had spoken thetruth in his taunt, and that the bachelors had indeed stolen their owntank. So no more water was ever carried for the head squires, but it wasplain to see that the war for the upperhand was not yet over.
Even if Myles had entertained comforting thoughts to the contrary, hewas speedily undeceived. One morning, about a week after the fight, ashe and Gascoyne were crossing the armory court, they were hailed bya group of the bachelors standing at the stone steps of the greatbuilding.
"Holloa, Falworth!" they cried. "Knowest thou that Blunt is nigh wellagain?"
"Nay," said Myles, "I knew it not. But I am right glad to hear it."
"Thou wilt sing a different song anon," said one of the bachelors. "Itell thee he is hot against thee, and swears when he cometh again hewill carve thee soothly."
"Aye, marry!" said another. "I would not be in thy skin a week hence fora ducat! Only this morning he told Philip Mowbray that he would have thyblood for the fall thou gavest him. Look to thyself, Falworth; he comethagain Wednesday or Thursday next; thou standest in a parlous state."
"Myles," said Gascoyne, as they entered the great quadrangle, "I doindeed fear me that he meaneth to do thee evil."
"I know not," said Myles, boldly; "but I fear him not." Nevertheless hisheart was heavy with the weight of impending ill.
One evening the bachelors were more than usually noisy in their end ofthe dormitory, laughing and talking and shouting to one another.
"Holloa, you sirrah, Falworth!" called one of them along the length ofthe room. "Blunt cometh again to-morrow day."
Myles saw Gascoyne direct a sharp glance at him; but he answered nothingeither to his enemy's words or his friend's look.
As the bachelor had said, Blunt came the next morning. It was just afterchapel, and the whole body of squires was gathered in the armory waitingfor the orders of the day and the calling of the roll of those chosenfor household duty. Myles was sitting on a bench along the wall, talkingand jesting with some who stood by, when of a sudden his heart gave agreat leap within him.
It was Walter Blunt. He came walking in at the door as if nothing hadpassed, and at his unexpected coming the hubbub of talk and laughterwas suddenly checked. Even Myles stopped in his speech for a moment, andthen continued with a beating heart and a carelessness of manner thatwas altogether assumed. In his hand Blunt carried the house orders forthe day, and without seeming to notice Myles, he opened it and read thelist of those called upon for household service.
Myles had risen, and was now standing listening with the others. WhenBlunt had ended reading the list of names, he rolled up the parchment,and thrust it into his belt; then swinging suddenly on his heel, hestrode straight up to Myles, facing him front to front. A moment or twoof deep silence followed; not a sound broke the stillness. When Bluntspoke every one in the armory heard his words.
"Sirrah!" said he, "thou didst put foul shame upon me some time sin.Never will I forget or forgive that offence, and will have a reckoningwith thee right soon that thou wilt not forget to the last day of thylife."
When Myles had seen his enemy turn upon him, he did not know at firstwhat to expect; he would not have been surprised had they come to blowsthere and then, and he held himself prepared for any event. He facedthe other pluckily enough and without flinching, and spoke up boldly inanswer. "So be it, Walter Blunt; I fear thee not in whatever way thoumayst encounter me."
"Dost thou not?" said Blunt. "By'r Lady, thou'lt have cause to fear meere I am through with thee." He smiled a baleful, lingering smile, andthen turned slowly and walked away.
"What thinkest thou, Myles?" said Gascoyne, as the two left the armorytogether.
"I think naught," said Myles gruffly. "He will not dare to touch meto harm me. I fear him not." Nevertheless, he did not speak the fullfeelings of his heart.
"I know not, Myles," said Gascoyne, shaking his head doubtfully. "WalterBlunt is a parlous evil-minded knave, and methinks will do whatever evilhe promiseth."
"I fear him not," said Myles again; but his heart foreboded trouble.
The coming of the head squire made a very great change in the conditionof affairs. Even before that coming the bachelors had somewhat recoveredfrom their demoralization, and now again they began to pluck up theirconfidence and to order the younger squires and pages upon this personalservice or upon that.
"See ye not," said Myles one day, when the Knights of the Rose weregathered in the Brutus Tower--"see ye not that they grow as bad as ever?An we put not a stop to this overmastery now, it will never stop."
"Best let it be, Myles," said Wilkes. "They will kill thee an thou ceasenot troubling them. Thou hast bred mischief enow for thyself already."
"No matter for that," said Myles; "it is not to be borne that they orderothers of us about as they do. I mean to speak to them to-night, andtell them it shall not be."
He was as good as his word. That night, as the youngsters were shoutingand romping and skylarking, as they always did before turning in, hestood upon his cot and shouted: "Silence! List to me a little!" Andthen, in the hush that followed--"I want those bachelors to hear this:that we squires serve them no longer, and if they would ha' some to waitupon them, they must get them otherwheres than here. There be twenty ofus to stand against them and haply more, and we mean that they shall ha'service of us no more."
Then he jumped down again from his elevated stand, and an uproar ofconfusion instantly filled the place. What was the effect of his wordsupon the bachelors he could not see. What was the result he was not slowin discovering.
The next day Myles and Gascoyne were throwing their daggers for awager at a wooden target against the wall back of the armorer's smithy.Wilkes, Gosse, and one or two others of the squires were sitting ona bench looking on, and now and then applauding a more than usuallywell-aimed cast of the knife. Suddenly that impish little page spoken ofbefore, Robin Ingoldsby, thrust his shock head around the corner ofthe smithy, and said: "Ho, Falworth! Blunt is going to serve thee outto-day, and I myself heard him say so. He says he is going to slit thineears." And then he was gone as suddenly as he had appeared.
Myles darted after him, caught him midway in the quadrangle, and broughthim back by the scuff of the neck, squalling and struggling.
"There!" said he, still panting from the chase and seating the boy by nomeans gently upon the bench beside Wilkes. "Sit thou there, thou imp ofevil! And now tell me what thou didst mean by thy words anon--an thoustop not thine outcry, I will cut thy throat for thee," and he made aferocious gesture with his dagger.
It was by no means easy to worm the story from the mischievous littlemonkey; he knew Myles too well to be in the least afraid of his threats.But at last, by dint of bribing and coaxing, Myles and his friendsmanaged to get at the facts. The youngster had been sent to clean theriding-boots of one of the bachelors, instead of which he had lolledidly on a cot in the dormitory, until he had at last fallen asleep. Hehad been awakened b
y the opening of the dormitory door and by the soundof voices--among them was that of his taskmaster. Fearing punishment forhis neglected duty, he had slipped out of the cot, and hidden himselfbeneath it.
Those who had entered were Walter Blunt and three of the olderbachelors. Blunt's companions were trying to persuade him againstsomething, but without avail. It was--Myles's heart thrilled and hisblood boiled--to lie in wait for him, to overpower him by numbers,and to mutilate him by slitting his ears--a disgraceful punishmentadministered, as a rule, only for thieving and poaching.
"He would not dare to do such a thing!" cried Myles, with heaving breastand flashing eyes.
"Aye, but he would," said Gascoyne. "His father, Lord Reginald Blunt,is a great man over Nottingham way, and my Lord would not dare to punishhim even for such a matter as that. But tell me, Robin Ingoldsby, dostknow aught more of this matter? Prithee tell it me, Robin. Where do theypropose to lie in wait for Falworth?"
"In the gate-way of the Buttery Court, so as to catch him when he passesby to the armory," answered the boy.
"Are they there now?" said Wilkes.
"Aye, nine of them," said Robin. "I heard Blunt tell Mowbray to go andgather the others. He heard thee tell Gosse, Falworth, that thou wertgoing thither for thy arbalist this morn to shoot at the rooks withal."
"That will do, Robin," said Myles. "Thou mayst go."
And therewith the little imp scurried off, pulling the lobes of his earssuggestively as he darted around the corner.
The others looked at one another for a while in silence.
"So, comrades," said Myles at last, "what shall we do now?"
"Go, and tell Sir James," said Gascoyne, promptly.
"Nay," said Myles, "I take no such coward's part as that. I say an theyhunger to fight, give them their stomachful."
The others were very reluctant for such extreme measures, but Myles, asusual, carried his way, and so a pitched battle was decided upon. It wasGascoyne who suggested the plan which they afterwards followed.
Then Wilkes started away to gather together those of the Knights of theRose not upon household duty, and Myles, with the others, went to thearmor smith to have him make for them a set of knives with which to meettheir enemies--knives with blades a foot long, pointed and double-edged.
The smith, leaning with his hammer upon the anvil, listened to them asthey described the weapons.
"Nay, nay, Master Myles," said he, when Myles had ended by telling theuse to which he intended putting them. "Thou art going all wrong in thismatter. With such blades, ere this battle is ended, some one would beslain, and so murder done. Then the family of him who was killed wouldhaply have ye cited, and mayhap it might e'en come to the hanging, forsome of they boys ha' great folkeys behind them. Go ye to Tom Fletcher,Master Myles, and buy of him good yew staves, such as one might break ahead withal, and with them, gin ye keep your wits, ye may hold your ownagainst knives or short swords. I tell thee, e'en though my trade bemaking of blades, rather would I ha' a good stout cudgel in my hand thanthe best dagger that ever was forged."
Myles stood thoughtfully for a moment or two; then, looking up,"Methinks thou speaketh truly, Robin," said he; "and it were ill done tohave blood upon our hands."