IV
The Lady Margaret of Glororem had that day, near dawn, abandoned hopethat the Young Lovell, her true love, would come again, and for thatreason she rode south to Durham to set about the releasing of the LadyRohtraut in good earnest. She had been unwilling to do this before hopedeparted of his returning, because he was her lord and might have plansfor the retaking of his Castle and the rest, and any action that shemight take might hinder these.
She had said that she would ride to Durham on the day when the YoungLovell should have been ninety days away and that was the ninety-first.That night she lay at Warkworth where she had the hospitality of thePercies. She had with her an old lady called Bellingham and three maidswith forty men-at-arms under the direction of the husband of the ladycalled Bellingham, an old esquire who had never come to be a knight, butyet a very honest man and capable for such a post. For if he had littleskill or desire to take fortresses or the like, he could very well setout his men so as to drive off any evil gentry.
And that night the Lady Margaret, after supper--which was late becauseit was the time of the haying when every man of the largest castle mustbe in the fields whilst daylight lasted--the Lady Margaret held a hotdiscussion with the Earl of Northumberland. The Lady Maud his wife wasby, that was daughter to the Earl of Pembroke, and she sought tomoderate at once the anger of that lord and the importunities of thathotheaded damsel. The Lady Margaret would have the Percy raise his manywith cannon and siege apparatus and march against Castle Lovell torelease her aunt, the Lady Rohtraut who was also that Earl's cousin.And so she exhorted him, in the light of a great fire of sea coal, forthe nights were chilly enough if the days were fine.
She said many words in that sense to the Earl before he answered her.At last he spoke to a page standing behind her, that was son to theesquire, John Harbottle, and gave him a key and bade him bring a littlebox that he would find in an aumbry in the tower where his muniments andcharters were locked up. For this Earl, according as he was at Alnwickwhich he did not much love, or at Warkworth where he much delighted tobe, so he moved his window-glass, his muniments and his charters fromthe one Castle to the other, and for their greater safety they wereplaced in the tower called the Bail. Night and day watch was kept inthe chambers that were both above them and below, with the best ancientsand lieutenants that he had, keeping watch upon the men-at-arms. Sohigh a value did his lord set upon his charters.
And when the box was brought to him he opened it with another key andtook out certain old and stained papers and parchments which he badethis lady read. And she could make little of them because there was nolight but the firelight, for the Earl and his wife were accustomed to goto bed after supper.
When she could not read them, the Earl took them from her and read themeasily enough, for he had them nearly by heart, though the writing wascramped and nearly fourscore years of age, or more. And once, whilst heread them, the Earl looked over the edge of a parchment at the LadyMargaret and asked her if she had heard of a Percy called Hotspur. Sheanswered, yes, indeed; so he read out lugubriously what was in thatwriting.
"The King to the mayor and sheriffs of York, greeting: Whereas of ourspecial grace we have granted to our cousin Elizabeth who was the wifeof Henry de Percy, Chevalier, commonly called Hotspur, the head andquarters of the same Henry to be buried: we command you that the headaforesaid, placed by our command upon the gate of the city aforesaid youdeliver to the same Elizabeth, to be buried according to our grantaforesaid." And, with a droning voice the Earl followed other pieces ofthe body of that Henry Percy about the realm, a certain quarter of himhaving been placed upon the gate at Newcastle, another at Chester,another at Shrewsbury, and so on. And when he had done with Hotspur,the Earl went on to read of the fate of the father of Hotspur, Henry,the Fourth Lord Percy of Alnwick. This lord fell at Bramham Moorfighting against King Henry IV, as Hotspur had done at Hately Field,fighting against the same King four years before. This lord's head andquarters were placed upon London Bridge: one quarter upon the gate ofYork, another at Newcastle, and yet further pieces at King's Lynn andBerwick-on-Tweed. Lugubriously and in a level voice this Earl read outall the writs that he had collected, whether by the King's hand or PrivySeal, whether of setting up or for burial. He looked gravely upon theLady Margaret and asked her what she learned from them. And when shesaid that she learned that those Percies were very gallant men, he shookhis head and said that he found from them this lesson, that it is nothealthy for a Percy to rebel against a King Henry that slew a Richard.For, just as Henry IV had put down King Richard II by the aid of thePercies that afterwards rose against him, so King Henry VII had put downand slain King Richard IV on Bosworth Field with the aid of that Percythat there spoke to her. And very surely it would be upon no BramhamMoor or Hately Field that that Percy would fall, for he was determinedto be a very good liege man of King Henry VII and that was all he had toit.
Then the Lady Margaret said boldly that, for this present King she knewnothing of him, nor either could anybody, seeing that he had reigned buta little while. The Percy made sounds of disagreement and anger, for hewas afraid of having such things said in his Castle, and moreoverdesired to be in his bed.
She exclaimed loudly that she regretted having seen the day when a greatlord should talk of loyalty to a King not a year on the throne, wherethey, the great barons of this realm, had set him. For the Percies werea respectable family though they were not of the standing and worth, inthose parts, of the Eures, the Dacres, or the Nevilles; they hadacquired the most part of their lands by a gradual purchase of BishopAnthony Bek, who betrayed his ward the young Vesey, so that the Veseysever since were poor enough and some of them as they knew had taken toevil ways. Still the Percies had had some very good knights amongstthem, such as that Hotspur and his father Henry, and others.
At that point the Countess Maud sought to calm her, but the LadyMargaret would not be quieted. For she said that this was what all theNorth part was saying, and it was better for the Earl to hear it than tosit all day surrounded by flatterers of the make of John Harbottle andhis like, or than setting up tablets on the walls of towers as JohnHarbottle was doing at Belford, praising the credit and renown of thisEarl.
The Lady Margaret looked a very fair woman and the Earl had an eye forsuch, or very certainly he would have had her taken away, for heregarded himself like a second king in those North parts. Her eyes werevery dark and flashed with the firelight; her black hair fell in twoplaits, one over her back and one over her shoulder, and when shepointed at him her white hand, on which were many rings set with greenstones and red stones, her ample sleeves of scarlet damask touched thefirelit carpet. In the dark hall of that place her angry figureappeared to wave as the flames went over the logs of the sea coal, andover her shoulder looked the white face of the old lady, Bellingham, herduenna, who was much afraid. For the Lady Margaret continued her rudespeeches. She was so vexed that the Percy would not go to the rescue ofher aunt, the Lady Rohtraut.
"Sir Earl," she said, "this is the manner of the governance of thisrealm of England, that, if the great barons dislike a King they set himdown. So they did, for one cause or another, with Edward II and withRichard II and with Henry VI and with Edward V and with Richard III.He, I think, was a very good King; nevertheless you and others betrayedhim on Bosworth Field, God keeps the issue. And when we put down EdwardII we set up Edward III; misliking his grandson we set up HenryBolingbroke instead. And that Bolingbroke, called Henry IV, we did notwell like when we had set him up. Yet I do not blame anyone either forsetting him up nor yet for seeking to force him down again. Forsomebody must be King. He will make fair promises before we come to it,and if he break them afterwards it must be put to the issue of swords,pull devil, pull baker. So this Henry IV was too strong for Hotspur,God rest his soul... Then came Henry V that was a King after my heartand all good people's hearts, and so it went on... But that you, aPercy, should cry out before this King has sat in his
saddle a year,that you are afraid of the fate of your grandsire Hotspur; that I thinkis a very filthy thing and so I tell you. And we of the North parts arenot like to suffer it."
The Percy smiled a red smile in the firelight.
"Then you of the North parts," he said, "women and jackanapes, will dowhat you are held down to do... For I tell you this: this Henry Tudorsitteth so firm in his saddle by my aid that we will break all yournecks or ever you raise them from the dust where you belong. And that Isay to the North parts, brawling and fighting brother against brother asye are ever doing... And this I say to you Margaret Eure and my gentlecousin: that your aunt, who has broad lands should be in prison to yourcousins of Cullerford and Haltwhistle and to Bastards suits well my caseand there she shall stop for me. For she has broad lands and the Lovellshave broad lands and so have the Dacres, to whom she belongs, and whilstthey are at each other's throats it is well for the King in London Townand for me at Alnwick. And I wish you were all at each other's throatsmore than you are; for the King shall have his pickings by way of finesand amercements, and so will I, and so will lawyers and bailiffs andothers, and so ye are weakened the more. And it was for this reasonthat I gave judgment against your true love, the Young Lovell, in myWarden's court, though I knew that judgment should not stand... For Ithink that Young Lovell was a dangerous whelp, with his prating of thisand that, and his being a very good knight and commander. And so Iwould be very willing to pull him down again if the Scots had not hangedhim, as I hope they have. And I have written a broad letter to the Kingin London that these Lovells are a dangerous race with their hearts fullof love for Richard Crookback. If the King do not forbid it, and, ifYoung Lovell shall come again to raise men and march upon Castle Lovell,I will march out with men and cannon and hot-trod and hang him upon thefirst gallows I come to. So say I, Henry, Earl Percy."
The Lady Margaret swallowed her hot rage and considered that she mightbetter sting this lord with a low voice. So she spoke very clearly asfollows:
"Henry Earl Percy, thou art a very filthy knave, and so thou knowest andso know all thy neighbours. Thou wast a foul traitor to Richard; thouart a foul traitor to thy kith and kin and to thy peers. For thoumightest well put down Richard Crookback. That was open to any man thatcould. And thou mightest well set up Henry and seek to maintain himtill he has time to prove himself. But to seek to weaken thy kith andthy kin and thine order and thy kind that he may sit firm rivettedwhether he deserve it or not, with the house of Percy as his flatterers,servants and pimps--that is not a pretty and gallant thing. For mycousin Lovell, I do not think ye dare set out against him, for if yedid, all the North part--and it is not yet so cast down--should riseupon you, and there should not remain, of Alnwick, nor yet of Warkworth,one stone upon another. And for this thing of my cousin and true love,I think you have a little mistaken it. For whiles my true love is awaywe, such as the Eures and the Dacres and the Nevilles and theWiddringtons and the Swinburns and the commoner sort, and the Elliottsand Armstrongs, go a little in doubt. For, if my true love be dead, itis his sisters that are his heirs, and to set them out of that Castlewould be to set down his heirs, which is a thing not to be done. But ifthe Young Lovell should come again I think you should see a differentthing, for there is not one of these people but should rise upon you,aye, and the Prince Palatine. I think you could not stand against usall. For that so they would do I have upon their oaths...."
The Countess Maud said then:
"So there you have the end of it." But the Earl was in haste to seize apoint:
"Then there you are convicted by your own mouth," he said hatefully toLady Margaret. "I hold that Young Lovell to be dead and his sisters'husbands are the heirs of that Castle. How then shall I march upon aCastle that is the lawful property of Cullerford and Haltwhistle upon anidle peasant's tale that a lady there is captive?"
The Lady Margaret made him a deep reverence, leaning back in her scarletgown that had green undersleeves.
"Simply for this," she said, "that there are Percies that would havedone it." Then she laughed; and after she was done with her curtsy thattook a long time, she said:
"So, now I have what I wish, I will get me gone from this your Castle ofWarkworth."
So she made her way to her room that had dark hangings all of thecrowned lion of the Percies. And when she was there she called to herthe old squire, John Bellingham, that had charge of her men-at-arms. Hehad gone to his bed and was some time in coming.
So she bade him rouse all her men because she would ride forth from theCastle. Then he said it would be very dangerous, seeing the darkness ofthe night and the rumours of Scots being abroad. She answered that, ifthe night were dark it would be as hard for the Scots to see them as forthem to see the Scots. And she had chosen him, John Bellingham, to bethe ancient of her men because he was said to possess much knowledge ofthe different ways of that country-side, that never the Scots could cometo him if he had but two minutes' start by night.
In the middle of that dispute came the Countess Maud a knocking at thedoor. She cried out that it was not to be thought of that this ladyshould leave their Castle in that wise. She, the Countess, had done asbest she might to make hospitality for that lady, and it would be an illdiscourtesy if she left them so. This Countess Maud, daughter of SirHerbert Stanley, Earl of Bedford, was of the South parts, and she wasamazed at all these clamours. Indeed she had not well understood allthat had been said, for when the Earl and the Lady Margaret had becomeheated they spoke in the Northern fashion of which she knew nothing. Sothe Countess said again that she had done all she knew to do honour tothat her guest. If she had fallen short of due hospitality, very gladlyshe would amend it. This Countess was a large, white woman that hadonce been very fair. And she wrung her hands.
Then the Lady Margaret laughed and bade peremptorily John Bellingham tobid her men arm themselves and lie all together under arms, for they hadbeen scattered about the Castle. And, at all those noises the women ofthe Lady Margaret awakened and came into the little room where theyslept; two were in their shifts and one had her bed clothes about her.Then the Lady Margaret bade them dress themselves and lie down upontheir beds; but to be ready. After that she answered the Countess Maudthat her entertainment had been such as she had seldom had before,lacking nothing, but with certain dishes added, that in their roughNorth parts they had seldom seen before though they had heard of them.Such were the scents in the water for washing hands, the golden applesof Spain, and the fowl called a Turkey. And indeed the Countess hadmade her great cheer. Nevertheless, since eating these things she andthe Earl had become sworn enemies, and it would be contrary to the rulesof hospitality if she stayed longer in that Castle.
The Countess wrung her hands again and said, "What was this of makingenemies and why could they not live amicably together as cousins did inthe South?" The Lady Margaret laughed and answered that if the peopleof the South were better than they of the North in these matters, thenthey were better than God meant men to be; nevertheless she was glad ofit.
Then came John Bellingham, who by now understood the danger of thematter, to say that the Lady Margaret's men were all together and armedin a room in a wall by the postern gate and at the foot of a stairwayjust beside that lady's chamber-room. Then the Lady Margaret bade himlet her men lie down upon straw in that room; but upon any sound thatthe Percy's men were arming or at any movement of lights in the Castle,he should come at once to her.
Then the Countess Maud asked what was this, for she had not understoodwhat had passed between the lady and her ancient, by reason that theyspoke in the Northern tongue. Then came a knocking at the door and thedame Bellingham said that there stood the Earl Percy in his night-gown.So the Lady Margaret said that was what she feared--that the Earl shouldcome down at night with amorous proposals; but she was jesting. TheCountess did not know this and she went to the door and began to cry outupon that lord for desiring to dishonour her.
Then between the two of them cam
e a great clamour, the Countess holdingto that, and the Earl crying out that she was a fool and that thismatter might lead to the deaths of them all if she would not let himcome in to speak to the Lady Margaret. This the Countess did not wish toallow, for the Countess Maud had no comprehension at all of what allthis trouble was about, and it seemed to her to be nonsense to say, asher lord did, that this matter might lead to the deaths of them all.
Nevertheless, when the Lady Margaret heard those words she laughed verysilently but long to herself. For she knew that now, if she could comeout of the Castle and get safe away, she had a power that might welldrive that Earl to do all that she wished later, or some of it.
Henry, Earl Percy, had indeed said much and so much to his kinswoman inhis anger. For it was indeed his intention, secret but resolute, tobreak the power of all the barons and great nobles in the North, so thatKing Henry VII should be almighty and himself the King's viceregent.When the day came there would be indeed no end to his power in thoseparts, for the King would be very distant and there would be no one tooppose him. So he fomented all the quarrels that he could amongst thesepeople, and he had seen with joy the troubles that were afoot about theCastle Lovell.
But as yet he was not ready; for all these people were still very strongin armed men, wealth and lands, and, if they joined together they mightwell overset both himself and King Henry VII with him. Thus he wishedhe had bitten his tongue out before ever, in his anger, he had revealedwhat was his secret design to his cousin. For the Lady Margaret was agreat gadabout and, if he could not come to her, either to modify whathe had said or to bind her to secrecy, there would not be a Dacre or aEure or a Widdrington that would not soon know the worst of his design.
He had sought his bed, but his pillow had seemed to be of nettles, andsince he had discerned that it might be her design to ride away early,he had sought her chamber door to have speech with her. He did not intruth know what to do. He was very willing to have laid her by theheels and to keep her a prisoner in that tower. But he was afraid thatthat might bring about his ears a hornet's nest of his cousins, and evenit might bring him reproof from the King. The King was not at allwilling or ready to have the whole of Northumberland rise upon him atthat time. Nay, Henry VII had bidden him to be very careful that,whilst he weakened these troublesome people as much as he could, heshould rouse their anger as little as he might.
All this, laughing behind the door, the Lady Margaret knew very well,even to the fact that the Lord Percy might come to shutting her up inprison. But she knew that, whilst the silly Countess kept him crying atthe door, he could not bid his men to arm against her, and whilst hermen were armed and his not, he could do little or nothing at all. Theycould all go out at the postern gate and so into the trackless sedges ofthe sea and the marches. Moreover, the Percy and his Countess were suchmarried people that, upon any occasion they quarrelled furiously and atgreat length and so they did now.
For the Countess was well begun upon her grievances such as, as how theEarl had dealt with his lands of her dowry, as to the little attentionhe paid her as his wife, as to the fact that she had no more than fourdamask dresses and, very particularly, as to the store he set by one ofher ladies called Isabel. And at the last she pushed the door toagainst his resistance and set the bar across it.
The Earl thundered upon it very violently but in the end he went away.The Lady Margaret did as best she might to comfort the Countess Mauduntil at last John Bellingham came to tell her that people were astir inthe Castle with some lights, though whether they were about armingthemselves or getting ready for the day and the hay harvest, he couldnot well say. But indeed the Earl Percy had twice ordered his men toarm and seize the lady and twice he ordered them to desist, during thatnight; for he was in a very great quandary.
So the Lady Margaret went down the little stairway, after she had rousedher women, and found her men by the postern gate. The keeper of thegate did not dare to withhold the keys for he knew that they, beingthirty to one, could slay him very peacefully.
When they had walked from the walls of that Castle over the bridge andtwo good gunshots beyond and the day was beginning to break, they allstood together upon a little mound, and the Lady Margaret sent a littleboy called Piers, that was her kinsman and page, back to the Castle toask for their horses. For they could not have taken horses out by thepostern way which went narrowly down twisting steps. She did not thinkthat the Earl would dare to come and take her there. It would have beentoo great an outrage, to set upon a lady of her quality in the open;besides, being thirty and more, they would be able to give account ofthemselves and no doubt get away by tracks that John Bellingham knewvery well. So the ladies sat down upon shields of the men-at-arms, forthe grass was wet with the night's dew, and they watched the dawn comeup over the sea and across the wide stretches of the Coquet river. TheLady Margaret and her handmaidens made merry and played a game withwhite stones that they picked up; but the old lady Bellingham moaned andgrumbled a great deal, for she was weary with having watched and stiffwith the rawness of the air.
So, after a time, when it was quite light, the page called Piers cameback. He reported that at first the Earl had been in a great rage andhad threatened to hamstring all the Lady Margaret's horses; but,afterwards, he had seemed to change his mind and had given orders thatall the horses should be sent out to her. Moreover, he sent her wordthat, if she would come back into the Castle he would give her news ofthe Young Lovell, for his receiver, John Harbottle, had sent him,through the night a messenger from Alnwick with very certain tidings,and these she should have and might make a treaty with the Earl if shewould go back.
But she believed this to be more lying in order to get her back into hispower; so she sent ten of her men to fetch the horses from the Castlegate and very soon they perceived all the horses come round the Castlewall, to the number of thirty-two with eleven mules. The Lady Margaretrode a tall horse called Christopher, a brown, that she loved, and JohnBellingham had another tall horse. But the old lady and the three maidshad mules, and there were seven pack mules that carried the LadyMargaret's hangings, furnishings for her room if she slept in an inn,her dresses and much things of value as she would not willingly leave inthe Tower of Glororem. The men-at-arms rode little, nimble horses, suchas the false Scots had, very fit for picking their way amongst springs,heather and the stones of hillsides. This lady could not bring herselfto believe that her true love was not dead, so that, although shelaughed and jested to keep up the hearts of her maids, as her plain dutywas, within herself she was a very sad woman.
When the sun was off the horizon they broke their fast with small beerand cheese that they got from a husbandman's tower near Acklington, forthey were sticking inland. This husbandman advised them to go by way ofEshot Hill and Helm, for, by reason of the dry weather, the road fromthis latter place to Morpeth was very good travelling, and it ranstraight. The Lady Margaret was minded to sleep that night atNewcastle, which would be twenty-four miles more or less, for she had nohaste to be in one place more than another. She had little pleasure inlife; although she wished to rescue the Lady Rohtraut she thought thiscould only be done by means of the Lady Dacre, her mother, that had beena Princess of Croy. And, from the news she had, it was very unlikelythat that ancient lady would reach her house in the city of Durhambefore that night or the next day.
So, as they rode between the fields, the sun rose up--its rays poureddown fiercely and smote on them. It was marvellously hot weather, sothat those ladies must at first lay off their gray cloaks and then opentheir shifts at the neck and fan themselves with their neckerchers. Agreat langour descended upon the Lady Margaret; her head ached sorelyand her sadness grew unbearable.
And all, even to the men-at-arms and the page Piers, complained of thegreat heat and because they had had little sleep the night before, andthe ladies yawned and half slept upon their mules. So, when they cameto a little green hill where ash trees climbed to the top, the LadyMargaret said, out of compas
sion to them, that when they were at the topof the hill, so that they could see the flat country all round, theymight get down from their horses and mules and sleep the noontide awayin the shade. And so they did.
The men-at-arms got down from the sumpter mules mattresses that theladies might lie upon them, and there, in a shady grove, they lay andslept. The men set their backs against trees and let their heads fallforward between their knees. One or two were set to walk as sentriesoutside that wood, to watch the flat country below, so that no sound washeard in that little wood save the light noises of steel and of bucklesclinking as the watchmen walked. And so they lay a long time, allrecumbent, some covering their faces with their arms, some casting themabroad.
The Lady Margaret awakened from a slumber, and the sun had climbed farround in the heaven. Then she perceived a lady watching her through thetrees and smiling. So beautiful and smiling a lady she had never seen.She stood between the stems of two white birch trees and leaned uponone, with her arm over her head in an attitude of great leisure. TheLady Margaret rose from her mattress and went towards that lady; she hadnever felt so humble, nor had her eyes ever so gladdened her at thesight of the handiwork of God.
Then that lady walked through the wood, very light of foot, so that thelong grass was hardly trampled at all, and no briars caught at her gown.Yet the Lady Margaret could not overtake her. So that lady came to theedge of the wood and the hill to the west, looking over the tower calledHelm, where the white road ran southward and the green lands swung uptowards the distant hilts. And here there was a white charger and agreat company of ladies-in-waiting, all very beautiful, in gowns ofsea-blue silk with girdles of silver and gold. The Lady Margaret hadnever seen so fair a company, though she had seen the Queen of RichardCrookback with all her court. Then it seemed to her that that ladypointed down into the plain as if she wanted to show her lover and herlord. On the road that came from the North, the Lady Margaret perceivedone that she knew for a knight, by the sun upon his armour, and a monkthat walked beside him. And a mile behind, by the cloud of dust thatrose, she knew there were men-at-arms, and perceived their spears abovethe dust. The Lady Margaret knew that this must be the other lady'shusband, for certainly such a troop of fair women would never rideabroad in that dangerous country without men to guard them.
Then she saw that lady riding down the hill, with all her many, towardsthe little figures in the plain; but they went so quickly that it waslike a flight of blue doves in the sunlight below her. Then the LadyMargaret wondered who that lady must be, for she knew of none in thatneighbourhood that could keep up so fair a state, except it were theKing of Scots, and not even he, and that could not be the Queen ofScots, for she was a stout, black lady, whereas this one had been a tallwoman with red-gold hair, such a one as she could have loved if she hadbeen a man. And, at the thought that that woman was going to her loverand her lord, the Lady Margaret wept three or four tears, for that shewould never do herself, and going back to her guards, she upbraided themfor that they had let that lady pass unchallenged. But they said theyhaD seen no one.