CHAPTER XLIX
THE BATTLE WITH THE WERE-WOLVES
"Let us get out of this hellish place," cried James Douglas so soon ashe had seen with his eyes that which lay within the bedchamber of thewitch woman, and made certain that it was all over with Caesar Martin.
So the three men issued out into the gloom of the night, and madetheir way to the stable wherein they had disposed their horses socarefully the night before.
The door lay on the ground smashed and broken. It had been driven tokindling wood from within. Its inner surface was dinted and riven bythe iron shoes of the frightened steeds, but the horses themselveswere nowhere to be found. They had broken their halters and vanished.The three Scots were left in the heart of the enemy's country withoutmeans of escape save upon their own feet.
But the horror which lay behind them in the house of La Meffraye drovethem on.
Almost without knowing whither they went, they turned their facestowards the west, in the direction in which lay Machecoul, the castleof the dread Lord of all the Pays de Retz. Malise, as was his custom,walked in front, Sholto and the Lord James Douglas a step behind.
A chill wind from the sea blew through the forest. The pines bentsoughing towards the adventurers. The night grew denser and blackerabout them, as with the wan waters of the marismas on one side and thesombre arches of the forest on the other, they advanced sword in hand,praying that that which should happen might happen quickly.
But as they went the woods about them grew clamorous with horridnoises. All the evil beasts of the world seemed abroad that night inthe forests of Machecoul. Presently they issued forth into a more openspace. The greyish dark of the turf beneath their feet spread furtheroff. The black blank wall of the pines retreated and they foundthemselves suddenly with the stars twinkling infinitely chill andremote above them.
They were now, however, no more alone, for round them circled andechoed the crying of many packs of wolves. In the forest of Machecoulthe guardian demons of its lord had been let loose, and throughout allits borders poor peasant folk shivered in their beds, or crouchedbehind the weak defences of their twice barred doors. For they knewthat the full pack never hunted in the Pays de Retz without bringingdeath to some wanderer found defenceless within the borders of thatregion of dread.
"Let us stop here," said Sholto; "if these howling demons attack us,we are at least in somewhat better case to meet them and fight it outtill the morning than in the dense darkness of the woods."
In the centre of the open glade in which they found themselves, theystumbled against the trunk of a huge pine which had been blasted bylightning. It still stood erect with its withered branches stretchingbare and angular away from the sea. About this the three Scots postedthemselves, their backs to the corrugations of the rotting stump, andtheir swords ready in their hands to deal out death to whatever shouldattack them.
Well might Malise declare the powers of evil were abroad that night.At times the three men seemed wholly ringed with devilish cries. Yellsand howls as of triumphant fiends were borne to their ears upon thewestern wind. The noises approached nearer, and presently out of thedark of the woods shadowy forms glided, and again Sholto heard thesoft pad-pad of many feet. Gleaming eyes glared upon them as thewolves trotted out and sat down in a wide circle to wait for the fullmuster of the pack before rushing their prey.
Sholto knew well how those in the service of Satan were able to changethemselves into the semblance of wolves, and he never doubted for amoment that he and his friends were face to face with the directmanifestations of the nether pit. Nevertheless Sholto MacKim was bynature of a stout heart, and he resolved that if he had to die, itwould be as well to die as became a captain of the Douglas guard.
The blue leme of summer lightning momentarily lit up the western sky.The men could see the great gaunt pack wolves sitting upon theirhaunches or moving restlessly to and fro across each other, while fromthe denser woods behind rose the howling of fresh levies, hastening tothe assistance of the first. Sholto noted in especial one giganticshe-wolf, which appeared at every point of the circle and seemed tomuster and encourage the pack to the attack.
ALL THE WILD BEASTS APPEARED TO BE OBEYING THE SUMMONSOF THE WITCH WOMAN.]
The wild-fire flickered behind the jet black silhouettes of the densetrees so that their tops stood out against the pale sky as if carvedin ebony. Then the night shut down darker than before. As thesoundless lightning wavered and brightened, the shadows of the wolvesappeared simultaneously to start forward and then retreat, while thenoise of their howling carried with it some diabolic suggestion ofdiscordant human voices.
"_La Meffraye! La Meffraye! Meffraye!_"
So to the excited minds of the three Scots the wolf legions seemed tobe crying with one voice as they came nearer. All the wild beasts ofthe wood appeared to be obeying the summons of the witch woman.
The strain of the situation first told upon the Lord James Douglas."Great Saints!" he cried, "let us attack them and die sword in hand. Icannot endure much more of this."
"Stand still where you are. It is our only chance," commanded Sholto,as abruptly as if James Douglas had been a doubtful soldier of hiscompany.
"It were better to find a tree that we could climb," growled Malisewith a practical suggestiveness, which, however, came too late. Forthey dared not move out of the open space, and the great trunk of theblasted pine rose behind them bare of branches almost to the top.
"Your daggers in your left hands, they are upon us!" cried Sholto,who, standing with his face to the west, had a lower horizon and morelight than the others. The three men had cast their palmers' cloaksfrom their shoulders and now stood leaning a little forward,breathing hard as they waited the assault of foes whom they believedto be frankly diabolic and instinct with all the powers of hell. Thisrequired greater courage than storming many fortifications.
Almost as he spoke Sholto became aware that a fierce rush of shaggybeasts was crossing the scanty grass towards him. He saw a vision ofred mouths, gleaming teeth, and hairy breasts, into the leaping chaosof which he plunged and replunged his sword till his arm ached. Mostlythe stricken died snapping and tearing at each other; but ever andanon one stronger than the rest would overleap the barrier of dead anddying wolves that grew up in front of the three men, and Sholto wouldfeel the teeth click clean and hard upon the mail of his arm or thighbefore he could stoop to despatch the brute with the dirk which hegrasped in his left hand.
The rush upon Sholto's side fortunately did not last long, but whileit continued the battle was strange and silent and grim--this notablefight of man and beast. As the youth at last cleared his front of ahairy monster that had sprung at his throat, he found himselfsufficiently free to look round the trunk of the blasted pine that hemight see how it fared with his companions.
At first he could see nothing clearly, for the same strange and weirdconditions continued to permeate the earth and air.
For a moment all would be dark and then flash on continuous flashwould follow, the wild-fire running about the tree-tops and glintingup through the recesses of the woods as if the heavens themselves wereinstinct with diabolic light.
As he looked, Sholto saw his father, a gigantic figure standing blackand militant against the brightest of it. His hand grasped a huge wolfby the heels, and he swung the beast about his head as easily as hewas wont to handle the forehammer at home. With his living weaponMalise had swept a space about him clear, and the beasts seemed tohave fallen back in terror before such a strange enemy.
But what of the Lord James? Overleaping the pile of dead and dyingwolves which his sword and dagger had made, and from which savageheads still bit and snarled up at him as he went, Sholto ran round toseek the young Lord of Avondale. At the first flash after leaving thetree trunk he was nowhere to be seen, but a second revealed him lyingon the ground, with four shaggy beasts bending over him and tearingfiercely at his gorget and breast-armour. With a loud shout Sholto wasamong them. He passed his sword through and through
the largest, andin its fall the wounded monster turned and bit savagely at the foreleg of a companion. The bone cracked as a rotten branch snapsunderfoot, and in another moment the two animals were rolling over andover, locked together in the death grapple.
Once, twice, and thrice Sholto struck right and left. The rest of thebeasts, seemingly astonished by the sudden flank attack, turned andfled. Then, pushing off a huge wounded brute which lay gasping out itslife in red jets upon the breast of the fallen man, he dragged JamesDouglas back to the tree which had been their fortress and propped himup against the trunk.
At the same moment a long wailing cry from the forest called thewolves off. They retreated suddenly, disappearing apparently by magicinto the depths of the forest, leaving their dead in quivering heapsall about the little bare glade where the unequal fight had beenfought.
Malise the Brawny flung down the wolf whose head had served him withsuch deadly effect as a weapon against his brethren. The beast hadlong been dead, with a skull smashed in and a neck dislocated by thesweeping blows it had dealt its kin.
"Sholto! My Lord James!" cried Malise, coming up to them hastily. "Howfares it with you?"
"We are both here," answered his son. "Come and help me with the LordJames. He has fallen faint with the stress of his armour."
After the disappearance of the wolves the unearthly brilliance of thewild-fire gradually diminished, and now it flickered paler and lessfrequently.
But another hail from Sholto revealed to Malise the whereabouts of hiscompanions, and presently he also was on his knees beside the youngLord of Avondale.
Sholto gave him into the strong arms of Malise and stood erect tolisten for any renewal of the attack. The wise smith, whose skill as aleech was proverbial, carefully felt James Douglas all over in thedarkness, and took advantage of every flicker of summer lightning toexamine him as well as his armour would permit.
"Help me to loosen his gorget and ease him of his body mail," saidMalise, at last. "He has gotten a bite or two, but nothing thatappears serious. I think he has but fainted from pressure."
Sholto bent down and with his dagger cut string by string the stoutleathern twists which secured the knight's mail. And as he did so hisfather widened it out with his powerful fingers to ease the weightupon the young man's chest.
Presently, with a long sigh, James Douglas opened his eyes.
"Where are the wolves?" he said, with a grimace of disgust. Sholtotold him how all that were left alive had, for the present at least,disappeared.
"Ugh, the filthy brutes!" said Lord James. "I fought till the stenchof their hot breaths seemed to stifle me. I felt my head run roundlike a dog in a fit, and down I went. What happened after that?"
"This," said Malise, sententiously, pointing to the heaps of deadwolves which were becoming more apparent as the night ebbed and theblue flame rose and fell like a fluttering pulse along the horizon.
"Then to one or the other of you I owe my life," said Lord JamesDouglas, reaching a hand to both.
"Sholto dragged you from under half a dozen of the devils," saidMalise.
"My father it was who brought you to," said Sholto.
"I thank you both with all my heart--for this as for all the rest. Iknow not, indeed, where to begin," said James Douglas, gratefully."Give me your hands. I can stand upright now."
So saying, and being assisted by Malise, he rose to his feet.
"Will they come again?" he asked, as with an intense disgust hesurveyed the battle-field in the intermittent light from over themarshes.
"Listen," said Malise.
The low howling of the wolves had retreated farther, but seemed toretain more and more of its strange human character.
"_La Meffraye! La Meff--raye!_" they seemed to wail, with a curiousswelling upon the last syllable.
"I hear only the yelling of the infernal brutes," said the Lord James;"they seem to be calling on their patron saint--the woman whom we sawin the house of the poor cripple. I am sure I saw her going to and froamong the devils and encouraging them to the assault."
"'Tis black work at the best," answered Malise; "these are no commonwolves who would dare to attack armed men--demons of the nethermostpit rather, driven on by their hellish hunt-mistress. There will bemany dead warlocks to-morrow throughout the lands of France."
"Stand to your arms," cried Sholto, from the other side of the tree.And indeed the howling seemed suddenly to grow nearer and louder. Thenoise circled about them, and they could again perceive dusky formswhich glided to and fro in the faint light among the arches of theforest.
In the midst of the turmoil Malise took off his bonnet and stoodreverently at prayer.
"Aid us, Thy true men," he cried in a loud and solemn voice, "againstall the powers of evil. In the name of God--Amen!"
The howling stopped and there fell a silence. Lord James would havespoken.
"Hush!" said Malise, yet more solemnly.
And far off, like an echo from another world, thin and sweet andsilver clear, a cock crew.
The blue leaping flame of the wild-fire abruptly ceased. The dawnarose red and broad in the east. The piles of dead beasts shone outblack on the grey plain of the forest glade, and on the topmost boughof a pine tree a thrush began to sing.