I
On the fourteenth day of July in the year of our Lord, 1486, in the darkof the night between two o'clock and four, the Young Lovell took theTower of Cullerford, setting fires all round it and beneath it anddriving out all its inhabitants. On the seventeenth, a little beforesix in the morning, he stood on the height of the White Tower and lookeddown into Castle Lovell. This was a very still dawn, the sun beingalready risen, for it was near midsummer. The sea was a clear blue, andin a sky as clear that sun hung, round and pale gold. To the eastward,towards the seas called The Lowlands, were several monstrous greyshapes, going up into the heavens like tall columns in a church andtwisting in a writhing manner as if they had been pallid serpents in anagony. They advanced towards one another as if they had been dancers.Separated again and so ran before the pale sun, that they appeared to besentient beings. But, waterspouts such as these, far out to sea, wereno very unfamiliar sight in those parts during hot weather and no manheeded them very much.
The better to have a sight of this Castle of his--for the greatcourtyard was occupied with many hovels, so that even from on high itwas difficult to see who there was moving--the Young Lovell mounted uponthe parapet of the battlements and stood looking down. He was all inhis light armour, for it would fall to him to be very active that day,so that he had steel only upon his chest, his arms, and the forepart ofhis thighs, shins, and feet. In such accoutrement he could spring veryeasily over a wall five foot in height, and his round helmet was a verylight one of black iron surmounted by a small lion's head.
This Castle that he now looked down upon was a very fair great Castle.The battlements which were a circle of nearly a quarter of a mile, hadin them three square towers of three stories each and two round ones oftwo, the peaked roofs of all these towers being of slate. In the centreof the space enclosed by the battlements rose up the keep, a building offour stories, four round towers being at each corner that spread out atthe top with places for pouring down lead, Greek fire, or large stonebullets upon any that should assault those towers. But, in between thekeep and the battlements, there had gradually grown up a congeries ofhovels like a dirty thatched town. The Young Lovell had never likedthis in his father's day, but then he had been the son and had had nosay in these matters.
This state of things had arisen, although the tenure of the landsappertaining to the Lovells was as follows: that is to say, that in timeof war each of the outer towers should be manned by able-bodied fellowsfrom the one hundred and twenty-seven hamlets, villages, townships, andparishes that the Lovells owned. Thus, giving on the average fivecapable tenants to each of these, there should have been six hundred mento hold the outer walls, being forty men to each of the towers in thewalls and two hundred and eighty for the battlements between. The innerkeep should in such a case be held by the best men-at-arms and theknights and the squires that a Lord Lovell should have about him. Andthe tenure of the six hundred bondsmen from those hamlets and parisheswas such that, by giving their services for indefinite periods duringtimes of war for the defence of that Castle, they were excused allfurther services, or service in any other parts. For it was held, thatthe defence of that Castle was very necessary for the protection of therealm from the false Scots if they should take Berwick and so come downinto England by that way.
That had been the original tenure, but by little and little, when thePercies had had those lands of the Vescis by the treachery of BishopAnthony Bek, they had begun to make changes in these tenures, desiringto have men to accompany them upon journeys whether against the Kings ofEngland or Scotland, as suited their humour. So that in many townshipsand parishes the Percies bargained with their bondsmen for so many days'service in the year and rent-hens and other things. And this thebondsmen had agreed to readily enough. For, on account of the perpetualtakings and re-takings of the town of Berwick by the Scots and theEnglish, there was never any knowing when they might not be called in todefend that Castle for a year's space at a time, and so their farmingswould go to rack and ruin, and their towers, barnekyns and very parishchurches lie undefended at the mercy of the false Scots. And when theLovells had bought these lands of the Percies they had changed thetenure still more, not so much because they desired to ride uponjourneys, for by comparison with the Percies, they were stay-at-homes,but because, as a family, the Lovells were greedy of money and desiredrather the payments of rents and the service of men in their own fieldsthan much military doings.
So they had had to hire men-at-arms by the year or for life. Thus, inthat Castle, which had been meant to be defended by six hundred men uponvarying services, sleeping on the floors of the towers, or here andthere as they could, the Lovells would have a certain number ofmen-at-arms, but seldom more than two hundred and fifty that dwelt therein the Castle. And because these men-at-arms would have wives andchildren and kith and kin, or they would not stay there, they could notsleep to the number of many families in these towers, whether round orsquare, that went along the battlements. Some of them, it is true, tookthese towers for homes, making great disorder, keeping them very fouland filthy, shutting up the meurtrieres, or slits for arrows, in orderto keep out draughts, and much unfitting that Castle for defence whensieges came. For there, in those towers which should be places ofdefence, there would be warrens of children crying out and shriekingwomen. And other men-at-arms had built them hovels between thebattlements and the keep, building with mud and roofing with rushes, sothat all that space was like a disorderly town with little streets andsties for pigs and middens and filthy water that ran never away.
Thus this place had become a source of manifest danger, but the YoungLovell's father would not clear out all these places, because to himthey were a source of much profit, for he employed the women andchildren and the hangers on and rabble to work in his fields all theyear round, and so he had much money by that means. But because herecognized that his Castle was thus in some danger--for any enemy thatwon on to the battlements might, by casting down a few torches, set allthese roofs on fire, and so the inner keep would stand in the midst of afurnace and all those people within the battlements be burned and slainlike rats in a well--the old Lord Lovell had determined to make a safeplace for himself and for the money that he and his father had hoardedup, being a very vast sum. So he had hired to come to him out of Francean esquire called La Rougerie, being the son of the man that the KingLouis XI of France used to build all his fortresses. So this La Rougeriehad considered very well the situation and extent of this Castle thatupon three faces was thundered upon by the seas at high tide. Then thatLa Rougerie perceived at about ten yards from the North-east end of theCastle, a crag of rock well in the sea even at high tide, in shape likea dog's tooth and nothing useful except to gannets, and not even to themof much use, for they would not build their nests so near the Castle.So this La Rougerie had advised that Lord Lovell that he should buildupon that rock a great slender but very high tower, with walls of stonesix yards in thickness. For the first eighty feet of its height thereshould be no openings at all, not so much as slits for the firing ofarrows. And in the windowless chambers there the Lord Lovell shouldkeep his treasure walled up. And above these there should be rooms forthe guards with arrow holes in the form of crosses, and above thesefairer rooms with somewhat larger windows, where the Lord Lovell and hisfamily might retire, if so be his Castle should be taken, and abovethese dwelling rooms should be attics and granaries where gunpowder andammunition should be stored and arrows and the quarrels of cross-bows,and there the sakers should be kept so that they should not rust uponthe battlements in time of peace. And there were pulleys for hauling upthese cannons on to the battlements above. Seven of these sakers therewere that could cast a bullet weighing thirty pounds of stone or fiftyof iron, in full flight into the furthest part of that Castle upon whichthose battlements looked down as a church steeple looks into thegraveyard. For this tower was intended solely for the protection ofthat lord and his people in case any enemy sho
uld take the Castleitself. They would retreat there by a little narrow drawbridge givinginto a very little door at the foot of the tower, being thirty feetlong, and over a piece of sea that by nature of the currents, and byreason that the Frenchman hollowed out the rocks, ran there almosttempestuously if there were any wind at all, which happened on most daysin these parts. And once there, the Lord Lovell could thunder upon hisCastle thus taken by enemies with cannon balls of stone and iron, witharrows and with iron bolts shot by arbalists. There could not any inchof that Castle go unsearched, for the battlements were one hundred feetabove the keep itself.
This then was the White Tower upon which the Young Lovell stood. Up tothe seaward side of this tower he had come from a boat, just beforesunrise, climbing up iron spikes that were inserted in the mortar forthat purpose, and coming to a very small door in the guard room. Thistower had been held for him by Richard Bek, Robert Bulman, and BertramBullock, who had been its captains, and dwelt there in his father's day,being much trusted by the old Lord Lovell. These esquires, with tenmen, had held this tower very stoutly against them of the Castle thatcould in no wise come to them. To them had resorted ten or fifteenother stout fellows, that had slipped in over the drawbridge or camethere by climbing up the spikes of the seaward wall. They victualledthemselves how they could from the sea; but indeed they had food enoughwithin the tower of the old lord's storing, except that at first theylacked of fresh meat, which in the summer time was a grievous thing.
What the Young Lovell could not tell was how many men they of the Castlehad, for some reported that they had as few as a hundred and eighty, andothers as many as three hundred. How that might be it was verydifficult to say, for there was a constant coming and going betweenCastle Lovell and Cullerford and Haltwhistle, as well as Wallhouses,where the evil knight, Henry Vesey, had his men. In short, if they hadwithdrawn all their men into Castle Lovell they might have three hundredwell armed between them. And this the Young Lovell thought might be thecase, for when he had taken the tower of Cullerford there had been veryfew men there, or none at all. So he judged that Sir Simonde Veseywould have been forced by agreement to withdraw all his men fromHaltwhistle to the defence of that Castle if Sir Walter Limousin hadagreed to leave Cullerford defenceless. And without doubt, too, theVesey of Wallhouses would have his men there as well. Thus there mightbe as many as three hundred stout fellows there, and that might make theadventure a difficult one, for the Young Lovell had not gathered anymore men himself, though what he had were mostly very proved fightingmen, there being five knights that were his friends, twenty-sevenesquires, one hundred and twenty of his own men, and those the best, andone hundred and seventy that were the picked men of his friends and ofthe Lady Margaret of Glororem.
So he had gone up to the battlements to see how many men he couldobserve in that Castle. But because he could not very well see betweenthe openings in the battlements, he seized his chance and sprang on tothe very top of the stones. He had observed the watchman on the keepbelow him. This man walked regularly from side to side, keeping hiswatch, and at each turn he would be gone regularly for as long as youcould count ninety-eight. So, in the absence of that watchman, he stoodthere and looked down.
But until he stood there many things had gone before; there were so manypeople active about his affairs. There were the Bishop Palatine, SirBertram of Lyonesse, the old Princess of Croy, the Lady Margaret, theEarl of Northumberland, the bondsman Hugh Raket, and the people in theCastle themselves. And all these ran up and down that county ofNorthumberland upon the Young Lovell's affairs.
Let us consider them in that order.
First there was the Bishop Palatine, John Sherwood. He did not stirhimself much. Nevertheless he sent a messenger to the people of theCastle--the Knights of Cullerford, Haltwhistle, and Wallhouses, as wellas the Decies. He warned them that he had given his full absolution tothe Young Lovell, and had accepted his homage as a tenant-in-chief ofthe See of Durham. He commanded them, therefore, on pain of absolution,to evacuate the Castle and lands of that lord. Those in the Castlereplied with an assurance of their ready and prompt obedience to thePrince Bishop. They said that they would immediately set the YoungLovell in possession of all such lands and emoluments as he held astenant-in-chief of the Palatine see. They would do it immediately uponhis producing to them the title deeds and charters of such lands of his.For, as matters were, they did not know which of his lands and townshipshe held of the Prince Bishop and which of the King, their most dreadlord. As for his holdings from the King, those they could not, nay,they dare not, surrender; for these had been adjudged to them by a writfouled in the court of the Warden of the Eastern Marches. That might bea small matter in itself, but, in addition to the assigning of the landsto themselves, there went certain huge fines to the King, as was fit andproper. At that moment they were very ready to surrender their ownholding of the Castle, but they could not themselves pay the fine to theKing, for they had not so much money amongst them. Supposing,therefore, that the Young Lovell held that Castle of the King, theywould be guilty of high treason if they surrendered it without payingthose fines, and they could not pay themselves, neither could they haveany security that the Young Lovell would do so.
So they said they would very willingly surrender all the lands that thatlord held of the Palatine see as the Young Lovell should produce to themhis charters and show which was which.
This was a very cunning answer, for by professing to be so ready tosurrender at the command of the Bishop that prelate was precluded fromproceeding to their instant excommunication which he would have done.That would have caused at least half of their men, if not a greaterproportion, to fall away from them, for there was a sufficiency of pietyleft in the North parts. Moreover, as against that answer, the Bishopwas advised that he could not, as he would willingly have done, send hisown forces with the Young Lovell against the Castle. For it was trueenough that, until the Young Lovell could appeal against that judgmentof the Lord Percy's, those false knights held a certain part of hislands in the interests of the King, so that the Prince Bishop could notwell war upon them.
As for the Young Lovell's deeds and charters they were hidden up by theKnight of Haltwhistle in his tower at that place, so that, for themoment, he could by no means come at them and it was difficult for theBishop's advisers to say how he might have them again. For they had noteven any certain evidence that those muniments were at Haltwhistle. TheYoung Lovell had the news of Elizabeth Campstones, his old nurse, andshe was a prisoner in the Castle. It was true that the lawyer Stone hadby that time come round to the side of the Young Lovell, and he wasassured that those charters and deeds had been removed to the tower atHaltwhistle. Still he had not seen this done, for they had gone at deadof night.
Therefore the Bishop wrote another letter to them of the Castle, sayinghe was assured that they and no others held all those deeds andsummoning them immediately to surrender. To this the Decies answeredthat he had not those deeds and papers: that they were very certainlynot in that fortress as far as he commanded it: that he would verywillingly surrender them, but he did not know where they were. Heimagined that they might be in the White Tower over which he had nocontrol.
The lawyer Stone said that that might very well be the truth that was inthe Decies' mind. For that ignorant fool was mostly heavy with wine.The evil Knight of Wallhouses had counselled the others that they shouldmake the Decies commander in name of that Castle at the very first, sothat if any penalties should fall on any heads for the seizure it shouldbe on the Decies'. Moreover, they had removed the muniments withouttelling the Decies, so that they might the more easily be rid of himwhen it served their turn.
Thus the Bishop's advisers said that here was a very difficult andlengthy matter to deal with. For if the Bishop should write to any oneof those cunning people for those deeds he would immediately, orbeforehand, pass them on to the other and say he could not surrenderthem since he had them not. If on the other hand he wrote to t
hem allat once they would give the deeds to their wives or to some safe personand so make the same answer. So they must issue writs against all thecounty at the same moment.
So far the Bishop had got in those fourteen days. In the meantime it wasthe turn of the Knight of Lyonesse.
This Sir Bertram rode well attended to the Castle of Warkworth to talkwith the Earl of Northumberland and to lay before him all the truth ofthat matter, and how the King did not wish that the North parts shouldbe enraged against him. And at first the Earl treated this Cornishknight with little courtesy. But very soon that Sir Bertram showed tothe Earl a paper that he had of the King to empower Sir Bertram toremove the Earl from the wardenship of the Eastern Marches if the Earlwould not do all that Sir Bertram bade him. And Sir Bertram proved tothe Earl how necessary it was, the King's purse being at that time in nogood condition, to win the goodwill of the great lords of the North. Hesaid that the Earl might take all that he could get from the poorerpeople, but the nobles he must keep his claws from.
Then the Earl agreed with Sir Bertram upon that matter and they settheir heads together to see what they might do. And here again it wasno easy matter to act by course of law. For there was no doubt that theEarl had given his judgment against the Young Lovell, and there was noprocess that he knew of by which he could reverse a judgment that he hadonce given. The Young Lovell must make an appeal to the King in Counciland that was a long process. The Earl was willing--though notover-willing--to call out his own ban and arriere ban and to take CastleLovell by due course of siege. But, if he did that, he must killutterly the Decies, the two other knights, Sir Henry Vesey ofWallhouses, and the two sisters of the Young Lovell. Moreover, to do asmuch, the Earl must draw off a great number of his men, and he did nottrust some of his neighbours over much. Also, if any one of thosepersons escaped he or she would have cause to begin endless lawsuitsagainst the Percy for slaying the others or even for taking the Castlefrom them. For they had his own writ for holding it. Moreover, theYoung Lovell would by no means hear of the Percy's laying siege to hisCastle. For all that Sir Bertram could say, he declared that if thePercy did this he would fall upon the Percy's forces with his own men.He said that, in the first place it would be black shame to him; in thesecond, the Percy must needs bang Castle Lovell about more than hehimself would care to see, before ever he came in; and finally the YoungLovell shrewdly doubted whether the Percy would ever come out again oncehe was in.
In the same way the Young Lovell would have no men of the Percy to helphim in the attack on his Castle, for he would not trust the Earl ofNorthumberland. Thus the Knight of Lyonesse did very little of what hewas most minded to do. For he wished not only to help the Young Lovelland so make him a friend to the King, but he desired to reconcile himwith the Earl of Northumberland that there might be peace in the Northparts. However, Sir Bertram achieved this much, that the Young Lovellwould let the Lord of Alnwick be in peace if the Lord of Alnwick wouldlet him be, and that was something gained, for at first the Young Lovellhad declared that he would try it out with the Percy as soon as he hadachieved his first enterprise. But the Percy sent him a very courteousapology, saying that he had delivered his judgment against the YoungLovell only because he must do so as a justice according to the law asthe lawyers advised him and that now he was very sorry that he had doneit.
For now the raider Gib Elliott was boasting in all the market towns thathe had access to, saying that he had held the Young Armstrong prisonerfor three months and had ransomed him in Edinburgh. This ElizabethCampstones, his foster-cousin, had got him to do, sending him word by alittle boy and the promise of fifty French crowns. And indeed he wasvery glad to do it, since it might not only cause strong fellows toresort to him for the renown of it, but it might gain him the friendshipof the Young Lovell, which would be a good thing for his widow when hecame to be hanged at Carlisle.
And everybody was very glad of that rumour--the Bishop Palatine becauseit was more to the credit of the Young Lovell whom he supported; theEarl of Northumberland and Sir Bertram of Lyonesse, because it affordedthem an excuse for writing broad letters to the King and his Council,asking that the former judgment given by the Earl might be reversedbecause of the perjury by which it was obtained. The Young Lovell wasglad of it too. He thought that it was better for his bondsmen thatthey should not believe that their lord had spent three months gazing ona fairy woman. For that otherwise they would believe and that it wassome make of sorcery, for all that the Bishop had given him absolution.The Young Lovell considered that it is not always good for the lowerorders, set in their places by God, to know truths apart from the truthsof Holy Church. For the lower orders have weak brains wherein too muchtruth is like new wine in feeble bottles.
But the Knight of Lyonesse, who had been bidden by King Henry, if hecould, to establish himself in the North parts with lands and worship,and to do it, if possible, without calling upon the King to pay for it,went upon another enterprise before June was fourteen days old. For onall hands he heard that the Lady Rohtraut of Castle Lovell was therichest dowager for lands in all Northumberland, and by the dispositionof his mind he was not desirous of marrying a young girl that might makea mock of him or worse. Moreover, he heard that the Lady Rohtraut was afair enough woman of forty-three, with a good temper if she werewell-used and not dishonoured, and that he thought he could do wellenough. So he was doubly anxious to be of service to the Young Lovell,for, the more he heard of it, the more he was certain that this ladywould make a good match for him, and that so he would please King Henry.
For her lands were broad and mostly fertile for the North; her Castle atCramlin would be a very strong Castle after the Young Lovell hadfinished the repairs to it at his own expense and it stood very handy atthe entrance into Northumberland, so that with help in men from theKing, he might very easily work against troubles in that part, whetherthey came from the North or the South.
So, being in that mind, he went after ten days to pay his devoirs to theold Princess of Croy, for, after he had dwelt with her for one day, hehad considered that she desired to charge him too much for his lodgingand that he could do better for himself at an inn, where he could sendout for his meat and have it cooked by his own man at the common fire.He had enquired of the prices of meat in that town and found that thatwas so.
But now he wished that he had not done that, since he might have gainedmore of the old Princess's favour by paying her exorbitant prices.However, he found that that was not the case, for that Princess had sogreat a respect for money that she esteemed a man the more for beingcareful of his purse strings, even though it hurt her own pocket. Soshe greeted him with pleasure and said that she wished her son, LordDacre, had been another such.
Sir Bertram had observed a great white mule--the largest he had everseen--to stand before her door, and she told him that she was just aboutto set out upon a journey. For, said she, and her face bore every signof fury, the Young Lovell, as Sir Bertram had heard, had treated herwith lewd disrespect and she was minded to read him a lesson. "Madamand my Granddam and gentle Princess," he had said to her--and shemimicked his tones with so much anger that she spat on each side of her,"my mother has languished in prison during half a year and all that timeyou have done nothing for her."
And now, the old woman said, she was going to do something for herdaughter that the Young Lovell would never dare to do. For upon apillion on that mule, behind her old steward, she was about to ride toCastle Lovell. No guards she would take and no bowman, and there was noother Christian in the City of Durham that dare do as much in thosedangerous lands. And being come to Castle Lovell, she would release herdaughter with her own hands and all alone, and what make of a boastingfool would that Young Lovell appear then!
The Knight of Cornwall, when he heard those words, bent one knee on theground and begged that that Princess would take him with her, for hewould gladly do so much for that fair lady as well as witness thePrincess doing these things. The Princess looked at him sid
eways in aqueer glance and said that he might do if he would bring no men-at-armsto spoil the fame of her feat. He answered that he had the courage forthat, but he said gravely that it might be for the comfort of the LadyRohtraut, who had not the courage of her mother and would fear to travelalone, if his men-at-arms to the number of forty followed behind them,and so, meeting them at Belford or somewhere in that neighbourhood,guarded them on the homeward road. The Princess said that he might dothat.
So they rode out and in four days' time they came to Castle Lovell. ThePrincess was on the white mule behind her steward and Sir Bertram was ona little horse. For, although he would have presented a more splendidappearance to the Lady Rohtraut upon a charger, he did not wish to be atthe charges for horsefeed for such a great animal, whereas the gallowaycould subsist off the grass and herbs that it found by the roadway,though all green things were by that time much withered by the drought.Such weather had never been known in the North parts.
They met with no robbers; only, as they went near the sea to avoid thetown of Morpeth so that the Young Lovell should not hear of thisadventure, he being at Cramlin all this time--near High Clibburn andjust north of Widdrington Castle there met with them Adam Swinburn, abroken gentleman with ten fellows and would have robbed them. But whenhe heard how they were going to rescue the Lady Rohtraut that all theworld was talking of he burst into an immoderate fit of laughter. Forhe had never had such cause for amusement as to see this fat old womanholding on behind a lean old servingman, with a man all in silks andcolours with a great brown beard upon a little horse beside her, hisfeet brushing the ground. And these three were going to storm a mightyCastle that no forces before ever had sufficed to take. So, when he haddone laughing, he rode with them a great piece of the way, even as faras Lesbury and past Warkworth. For he said that if the Earl ofNorthumberland saw them he would certainly rob them and so deprive thatcountryside of a great jest. Sir Bertram found this Adam--who wasred-headed like all the Swinburns--very pleasant company, and when theyparted Sir Bertram swore that when it came to hanging that Adam he wouldpray the King, if he could not save his life, at least to let it be donewith a silken rope.
So, on the fourteenth day of June, at eleven in the morning--and thatwas seven hours after the Young Lovell took and burned the tower ofCullerford--the mule being very tired and the galloway none too fresh,that company of five, men and beasts, climbed wearily up the hill toCastle Lovell. The captain of the tower called Wanshot where the gatewas, let them pass, for he could not see any danger from this old womanand the man in silks. At the door of the keep the Princess slid downfrom her mule, and pushing the guards there in the chest with hercrutch, she went past them into the great hall and the guards let SirBertram follow her. In the hall, and crossing it, they found Sir HenryVesey devising beside a pillar with his sister-in-law Douce that was alittle woman. The Princess with a furious voice bade this Lady Doucefall upon her knees, for this was her granddam. That the Lady Doucedid, for she could think of no reason to excuse her from it.
Then the Princess Rohtraut began to call out for the keys of herdaughter's room, and various men came running in as well as the LadyIsopel, that was the other grand-daughter. There was a great noise, andso Sir Bertram of Lyonesse drew Sir Henry Vesey behind a pillar, and ina low voice strongly enjoined on him to let the Lady Rohtraut go. Forhe said that he was the King's commissioner and that all that were inthat Castle were in a very evil case, for very likely it would soon betaken and all the men there hanged. And he said that Sir Henry was in adifferent case from the other leaders and that he, Sir Bertram, promisedto save his life and gain favour for him with the King if he would letthe Lady Rohtraut go. Moreover, he whispered that, Sir Symonde hisbrother being dead, Sir Henry might have his lands and be free to lovehis sister-in-law as he listed. For the rumour went that this evilknight was over-fond of the Lady Douce, and it was in that way ElizabethCampstones saved her life. For, when there was talk of hanging her forhaving talked to the Young Lovell, she told the Lady Douce that shewould inform against her to her husband--which well she could do. So theLady Douce begged her life of the others.
And after Sir Bertram had talked for a time to Sir Henry Vesey, makinghim those fair promises, Sir Henry sent a boy for the keys of WanshotTower. When he had them he begged that Princess very courteously tofollow him, saying that he would take her to her daughter and so set herfree. Then began a great clamour between the Ladies Douce and Isopel.The Lady Isopel said that Sir Henry should not do this, the Lady Doucethat he should, for she was in all things the slave of Sir Henry, andthat the Lady Isopel told her very loudly. But the Knights ofCullerford and Haltwhistle had ridden out to see if they could have newsof the Young Lovell, for they knew that he was gathering his forces tocome against them.
So Sir Henry did not at all heed the clamour of the Lady Isopel, butwalked very grandly before the Princess Rohtraut to Wanshot Tower, andsparks of triumph came from that hobbling old woman's eyes. So when hewas come to the door on the inner side of the wall Sir Henry gave intothe hands of the Princess the two keys, one of that door and one of theroom where the Lady Rohtraut was. Then the Princess went into thattower, and after a space down she came again, and with her were the LadyRohtraut and Elizabeth Campstones. The Lady Rohtraut took nothing awaywith her but the clothes she had on her back. Only in her great sleevesshe had her little lapdog called Butterfly.
They went as fast as they could up the Belford road, for they wereafraid of meeting with Cullerfurd or Haltwhistle. But they had onlybeen gone a little way--the Lady Rohtraut and Elizabeth Campstonesriding on Sir Bertram's galloway--when they came upon Sir Bertram's menthat were riding over the lea to find him.
That was the first sight Sir Bertram had of that lady whom afterwards,to the scandal of all the North parts, he married. For he was accounteda man of very mean birth and she a very noble lady. But he made her avery good husband, doing her proper honour and very ably conducting herlawsuits, so that she had never a word to say against him.
As for Sir Henry Vesey, when the Knights of Cullerford and Haltwhistlecame back, the Lady Isopel cried out against him, calling him a falsetraitor. But Sir Henry said that the King's commissioner had given himvery good reasons why they should let the Lady Rohtraut go. As thus:The Young Lovell, as they had known for a week, held that lady's Castleof Cramlin as well as her houses of Plessey and Killingworth and all herlands. They, on the other hand, held her title deeds, so that was allthey could have. If they could have known of the taking of CastleCramlin earlier, they might have taken it again, by going there in ahurry, but now the Young Lovell sat there, and he was a very difficultcommander, and every day more men came in to his orders. They couldnever get him out of that Castle.
But they held that lady only in order to force her willingly to resignthose very lands to them. What, then, would it avail them to hold herany longer, since, if she resigned them twenty times over, the YoungLovell would never let them go? As for threatening to slay that lady ifthe Young Lovell did not give them her lands, that was more than theydare, so it would enrage all that countryside against them. Even as itwas, some that they had counted on as being their friends had fallenaway and, if that went further, they would never be able to have freshmeat from their towers.
So Sir Henry gave them many excellent reasons for his action. TheKnight of Cullerford would have grumbled against him, for his wife, theLady Isopel, set him to it. But his brother, Sir Symonde, said he haddone very well, for his wife made him say that. The Decies was drunk andtook no part in that council. Moreover, they were all afraid of SirHenry Vesey, and he treated them like children that must do his bidding.