I must indeed suppose that I did myself choose my path and guide in it the gallant little horse; but, were I to trust merely to the memory of feeling, I should believe that I sat in the saddle like one in a dream, while Charley, with the inward knowledge of some homing pigeon, galloped straight for the place where lay all my hopes and fears. 'T was but twice that I had any sight of my escort—first, turning in my seat as Charley reached the level of the meadow-land below the hill that falls away from the home paddock, I beheld them, close massed in a body, rounding the bend of the fence away to the right above me, and just about commencing the descent; and once again, after the roan had leaped into, and well-nigh miraculously scrambled out of, an ugly and broken gully that lies near half-way between Royston and my father's house. For as Charley heaved his body with a tearing, scratching, and clinging most wondrous cat-like upon the safe ground of the further bank, I looked back once more and spied them bearing off to the left for lower ground and easier passage; but by this they were a straggling rout covering much ground, so hardly already had the pace and distance with the differing weight of riders told upon the various mettle of the horses. Indeed, the next two miles did tell not a little even upon Charley, being a rising stretch of ploughed land in condition very grievous for his smallness of hoof; but coming thereafter to grass, he was mightily refreshed, and cleared two fences and a little bank of earth with bushes atop in his old gay and light-hearted manner.
And after this we were not long in coming to the road, which being in good condition for the season and weather that it was we made the remaining miles at a very pretty pace.
Now the front of the house at Royston Chase stands but a little back from the road, behind great gates of wrought iron, hung upon mighty pillars of carved stone. These stood wide as I galloped up, but the way was barred by two soldiers, of mien immovable as the brazen gates of Gaza. By their black cloaks of fur I knew them to be of that Swedish Regiment of Horse in which Captain Royston held His Highness's commission. They were, however, dismounted for sentry duty—an office for which I could but think them ill chosen when I perceived that not one word of the English language did they understand, and would neither let me pass through the archway into the inner court of the house, nor, when I had come to the purpose of moving further down the road and leaping both hedge and ditch into the orchard, would they let me depart. For one of them did lay a great hand on Charley's bridle, saying something to his fellow in a manner easy of comprehension, though the words were to me without meaning. And I truly believe that I was in that moment very near to discovery of my sex. For answer to his jest I struck the fellow across the face with my loose gauntlet, at the same time with great quickness using both spur and rein, so that Roan Charley in a single movement reared himself almost upright and swerved aside. This, coming right upon the blow he had received, caused the trooper to loose my rein; which before the other could seize we were away at the best pace we could make.
Now, some three hundred yards down the road seemed the lowest part of the bank and hedge enclosing the little field that here divides the beautiful orchard of Royston Chase from the highroad. But even at this point, I thought, the leap was hard for a horse that had already done so much; wherefore I had determined to pass on to that little cross lane that leads from the road to the gate at the lower end of the orchard. But even as I was so resolving I heard behind me the cries and hoofs of mounted pursuers, and in front, coming from the very lane I had purposed using, a patrol of three men of this same Swedish regiment. And so jump we must, or altogether fail, it seemed, in that for which we had ridden so far and so fast. Charley, too, seemed to understand, and for a few strides we both steadied ourselves, taking deep breaths of air and watching the hedge for a thin spot. And I have always thought 't was Charley that found it—a spot where the growth of bramble on the bank's top was so scarce as to let the narrow edge of the earth mound be clearly seen. But whether the will were mine or his, the doing of the matter was Charley's alone, and very well, for a tired horse, was it done. Knowing he could not with sureness clear both ditch and bank in a single spring, and feeling that his mistress did leave the manner of this last and most difficult passage of his hard run wholly to his clever legs and wiser head, my little horse, as if he had been twice the age he was, most soberly took his leap from the roadside, and landed with his four hoofs bunched cat-like in a cluster on the summit of the bank in that place where I have said the growth of brush and bramble was thin. Here, for the space of two heart-beats, he poised himself, in which time he judged so well both his own flagging powers and the wider and unexpected ditch on the further side, that he was able with a second leap to land us safely and gently beyond it on the rain-softened earth of the ploughed field.
Now, even in the brief moment when Charley swayed on the top of the bank and gathered himself for that second spring, I had time (so swiftly works the mind in the tension of danger to be forestalled) to note two things: that my pursuers on their heavy chargers had balked the leap; and that in the orchard, across the little ploughed field and beyond the low fence, were many people, walking to and fro among the fruit trees; and I knew from their carriage, from the sheen of armor, and the gay colors of the various habits, that they were no common soldiers; and as Charley foundered wearily but with great courage through the heavy plough my heart was high with the thought that fortune had brought me the straight road to my end. And then we reached the fence, which proved higher than I had thought; yet did my brave nag pass that too, very cleverly bursting with his knees the highest rail, which he was too tired to overtop, and though he took the grass among the trees beyond with a little stumble, it was his first and last mistake, from which quickly recovering, and, as it seemed, well aware that his work was done, he stood like an image of stone, with forelegs stretched in front and nose near down to his knees.
And then I thought the whole world did heave and turn and swim before my eyes, and all that I saw through the mist of its convulsion was two long, shadowy arms reaching from opposite quarters for Roan Charley's bridle; all I thought, that little was the need to hold a horse that had turned to stone; all I heard, the sound of a voice far off, that said: "The Prince of Orange; there is a plot; look to his safety; search the house, the grounds, or they will slay him." And then slowly the earth settled again to its place, the mist began to clear, and I knew the voice for my own. And I saw, as one that wakes from a dream, that he who held my bridle on the near side was Captain Edward Royston, and straightway I was within a little of so addressing him, but bethought me in time, and, looking round, asked where was the master of the house.
Upon which he replied: "I am Captain Royston; what is to do?"
"Sir," I said, very solemnly (yet, for all the gravity of the case, I was at pains to keep back a smile when I so addressed him, and saw that he knew me not), "Sir, His Highness is in danger. Madam your mother has been by force taken from home, but is now in safety; the servants that you find in your house are evil men, and of the plot."
Then he that held my horse on the off side, whom I afterwards knew for that great person that for discretion I shall still call "Captain Jennings," took his hand from the bridle.
"The lad speaks truth," he said; "a word with you, Captain." With that he drew Ned aside, and while they spoke together ("Captain Jennings" telling, I think, how he feared unjust suspicion of his own connivance if aught befell His Highness) I marked that six Swedish troopers did approach, threading their way through the trees from the gate in the lane that I have above mentioned. Also, between them and me, but nearer by no little distance to where I still sat upon Charley's back, I saw a man stand leaning against the wall of the granary that stands in the orchard, and thus hidden from the advancing soldiers that were still, as I supposed, in pursuit of poor me. And this man, whether from description or from something high and noble in the aquiline countenance of him, I knew at once for William, Prince of Orange. Now, even as I gazed in idleness of wonder on the man I held greatest in the world (for did not Edward Royston serve him with reverence and ardor?), I saw that a little door in the granary, on His Highness's left, was slowly, slowly moving back upon its hinges, and a moment later I had one glimpse of a fat face and a red head peering from the narrow slit of that opening. I thought of Farmer Kidd's tale, and again of Madam Royston's, and straightway drew my sword and clapped heels to my horse. Roan Charley, for all his fatigue, responded very gallantly, and in three of his long bounds we had been beside the Prince, but for a fellow, long, lean, and black-coated, that drew a pistol from under his breast, which he fired in my face in the same moment as he leapt at Charley's head, whereby he undid himself, for, as the horse reared in terror, I, in as much, struck spurs in his sides, and Charley leaping forward, we rode clean over our assailant, whom I struck at wildly with my sword as he fell. Charley must have found foothold upon some part of his body, for I remember still with a thrill of sickness the softness under foot.
Hereafter my recollection of the mêlée that ensued has little clearness; all was noise and confusion, the band of conspirators having burst out from their hiding in the granary in desperate effort to achieve their wicked end even in that eleventh hour and very moment of discovery. And even then they might have found success but for Roan Charley and his rider, which is to me ever a joy to remember; for, though I recall little and confusedly what befell around me, I know that after the fall beneath Charley's hoofs of that rascal (the same that Ned had supposed a very civil servant of his mother), we reached at once the door in the wall of the granary; but not in time to prevent the sortie of three men with sword and pistol in hand (the rest, I believe, came forth by a door on the other side). With two of these His Highness was very speedily and coolly engaged, while the third was aiming a clean downward cut at his head with a great sword whose gleam seems yet burned in upon my eyes as I write and remember. And then, in some manner, Charley and I were upon him, and my blade received the stroke meant for His Highness's unprotected head. And after that I thought something did break (as indeed it did, being the blade of my brother Rupert's sword). I heard the shouts and the running feet of friends closing round, and then all was darkness and nothing.
The next I knew was a burning in mouth and throat, and awoke to find myself swallowing some liquid, very foul and ill-savored, held to my lips by a gentleman I did not know. I afterwards learned the liquor was Dutch, and called schnapps, the man none other than the great Count Schomberg, late Marshal of France, and once high in favor of His Majesty King Lewis; but now chief in command under His Highness of Orange, having abandoned the highest of military honors and the favor of the greatest King upon earth for the cause of religion.
So, opening my eyes and looking round, when I had done with coughing over that vile liquor, I saw not only that a numerous company stood around, but also that here and there upon the grass among the trees lay several men, in strange and twisted attitudes such as I had never before seen; and something told me that these were dead; and I knew that I was upon a little field of battle, and straightway was like again to have swooned, when one behind me said in the French language and kindly tones, but in manner of speech more guttural than men of that nation do mostly use: "Poor lad! 'T is like enough this is his first sight of blood."
Which words, calling to my mind how I was habited, and the whole memory therewith of the part I played, did somehow stiffen my courage and arouse my spirit, so that I said, with what of hardihood I could bring into the words: "Indeed, I ask your pardon, gentlemen all. 'T was the fatigue, I do suppose, of riding fifteen miles at such a pace, and to the back of that my great fear for the life and welfare of His Highness of Orange. I pray you, tell me," I continued, looking round among the company, "whether His Highness be unhurt?"
And then one came from behind me, and spoke to me in that same voice that had but now pitied me in the French idiom for my first sight of blood-shedding. And when I saw him I knew him for the great Prince I had ridden to defend. This time, however, he spoke in English, using that language certainly with little ease and frequent errors, which yet I shall make no essay to reproduce in this my narrative, lest I should thereby bring something of ridicule into an address ever princely and dignified, and, on this occasion at least, full of grace and courtesy. Much, I know, has been said and written of the harshness of his manner, the bitterness of his tongue, and even of a certain Dutch boorishness in behavior, of all which I saw nothing at our first meeting.
Three months later, when our troubles were well past, Mr. William Bentinck did tell me one afternoon that we walked in St. James's Park, how to this great but somewhat phlegmatic nature the excitement of danger was a kind of stimulant necessary to the bringing forward the lighter and most pleasing qualities of his character; that he had never seen him gayer, more kindly, nor lighter of heart and countenance than in the press of a losing fight, himself dismounted and fighting hand to hand with an advancing enemy, merrily jesting the while his left hand wielded with deadly effect the sword that his right arm was too sore hurt to hold. And I do suppose it was to this quality in him that I owed the sweet and noble charm of his first reception of me.
"Young gentleman," said His Highness, stretching out to me his hand, "it seems that I owe my health and perhaps my life to your timely presence and your sword." And I, here falling upon one knee to receive and kiss his hand, perceived that in my right I still held the hilt of Rupert's toledo, with the three inches of blade that remained to it. "And I hope," continued His Highness, as I let it fall upon the grass, "that the sword has taken all the hurt to itself."
"I thank Your Highness," I answered, as I rose, "I have taken indeed no hurt at all, and should ask your pardon for so unsoldierly swooning in your presence. But indeed 't is the first time I have seen sword drawn in anger, and I had ridden near fifteen miles at extreme speed to warn Your Highness of the plot that was toward."
"And from this good fellow I hear not only of that great and rapid riding, but that you come from my friend, Sir Michael Drayton," said the Prince, indicating with his glance Christopher Kidd, who stood by, loosing the girths of his steaming horse—the only one of my company that had yet overtaken his leader. "Are you then Sir Michael's son?—or, perhaps, his grandson?"
"Neither the one nor the other, sir," I said, glad that he did so form his question; "but I do use to live at Drayton Manor, and Sir Michael is my nearest of kin that lives." And I was glad that Captain Royston was beyond ear-shot, being busy among the prisoners taken, whom very shortly he left in the hands of their guards, and approached the Prince, saluting as he came.
"There are five slain upon the ground, Your Highness," he said, "and seven taken in the act, of whom six bore arms; one of these is even now, I suppose, at the point of death, and one other, I think, has made good his escape, he being the thirteenth, which makes, as far as we are informed, the full tale."
"See that no more slip through your fingers, Captain Royston," replied His Highness, with something of severity; adding more freely that he was indebted to them all for prompt and vigorous defence of his person; then, perceiving that Captain Royston lingered with further matter in his mind, he asked him what it was.
"With Your Highness's permission I would speak briefly as Edward Royston of Royston, rather than as one holding Your Highness's commission," he said; and, the Prince nodding assent, he went on to express in words very simple and well chosen, the dismay he had felt, and the extreme regret and shame he had suffered, that so wicked an attempt on His Highness's life had been made on his land and under the very walls of his father's house.
Now when the Prince had noted the honesty of his handsome and open countenance, and perceived the simple candor of his address, his heart—by no means the easiest, as I was soon to know, of such access—was a little touched; for, with much benignity, laying a hand on Ned's shoulder, he said very kindly that his satisfaction with the officer was only equalled by his obligation to the host; in proof whereof he then expressed his purpose to entrust to Captain Royston's keeping for the coming night the persons of himself and the seven prisoners. His conference with "Captain Jennings" being but commenced, he purposed after dinner to continue in conversation with that gentleman until a conclusion should be reached; to send him on his way with two troopers as far as Sherborne that same evening; and to return himself to Exeter the following morning, going somewhat out of his way, did nothing intervene to forbid, in order to paying a visit to the venerable Sir Michael Drayton, to whom, said His Highness, he felt himself in much obligation.
At this point he was interrupted by a very dreadful groan from the wounded prisoner, and—"I fear, Captain," he said, "there is one of our prisoners will soon be in stronger keeping than even your fine house and great loyalty can give him. Let us see if anything may be done to lighten his pain." Whereupon His Highness drew near the dying man, who had been moved a little apart from his fellows.
Captain Royston and Mr. William Bentinck, who, with displeasure clearly marked upon his countenance, had followed the Prince's words to his host, joined him by the side of the dying man, of whom my view, as I stood modestly behind, was plainer than I could wish. Indeed it was a dreadful sight that I take no pleasure to recall. His Highness, bending down very tenderly, wiped the bloody foam from the tortured lips; the wandering eyes fixed themselves upon the face of the man they had watched to slay, and then: "The priest—the priest!" said the dying man.
"Poor fool!" muttered Count Schomberg in French; "he fondly hopes a priest might yet bring him to heaven."
"The priest—the priest!" repeated the sufferer, but more faintly.
"A priest may at least smooth his passage from earth," said the Prince, very pitifully, when one stepped out from among the prisoners, saying: "I am a priest. If he needs the comfort of the Church——"
But the dying man interrupted his words. With a last effort he raised himself a little, and said in a stronger voice, but broken with gasping sobs: "It was the priest—it was he that brought me here—brought me to this. God's curse upon him!" And so he died.
But I marked that his eye had not fallen upon him that offered the comforts of religion. This man was tall and dark, of a countenance marked by great nobility, and expressive of a great sorrow, of which I could not readily determine whether the cause were constant or occasional, so suitable did it appear to the lines of a face at once ascetic and severe. There was that in his eyes, dark and deep set, moreover, that drew my gaze in a manner I could by no means account for—which is indeed little wonderful, seeing the man was my mother's son and my father's, and I knew it not. To myself I had just said that the man was not wicked, and but suffered for his evil company, when the Prince addressed him in tones very different from those I had hitherto heard him use: "You keep ill company, Sir Priest," he said.
There was a little pause ere the priest replied, while the two men gazed, each unyielding, in the other's eyes. Then: "That I am not of the company you find me in," said the priest, "is less strange than to find a Prince of Your Highness's descent and marriage alliance consorting with rebels and traitors. In good sooth, I took less pleasure in these misguided and hapless wretches," he went on, speaking with a scornful kind of pity, "than it appears Your Highness does make shift to find in his uncle's rebel subjects. But I will tell Your Highness, more for the satisfaction of my carnal sense of honor than in hope or wish to obtain credence of him, that I had no part or lot in this attempt at wicked murder. Your friends," he added, waving his hand in indication of the officers standing by, "will doubtless tell you that I neither struck blow nor carried weapon. For myself I will add that I knew not the purpose of their gathering."
"I do not believe you," said the Prince.
"I do not expect belief," said the priest, unruffled in his calm.
His Highness turned from him in a disgust I thought very discourteous, and at once directed Captain Royston to see them all under lock and key. And so the prisoners were hurried off to the house, and I stood wondering had I ever before set eyes on this naughty priest, when the Prince approached me, saying, as if nothing had interrupted our conversation: "I am sorry you have broke your sword, my pretty lad." And as he spoke there gathered around us some half-dozen of the officers and gentlemen that were there—Count Schomberg, to wit, and Mr. Bentinck, with him that we addressed as "Captain Jennings," and one that I was soon to know as M. de Rondiniacque, and some others. "But that loss," His Highness continued, "is easier repaired than the cleaving asunder of my poor brain-pan had been, which was like enough to come about, gentlemen, I take it, but for the lad here and his horse and sword."
"It is very true, Your Highness," said M. de Rondiniacque; then addressing me, he observed, courteously enough, but with something of raillery in his tone, that, if the guard I had used was not altogether of the schools, it had yet saved His Highness's life as surely as could the interference of a ma?tre d'escrime.
"You are a good Protestant, M. de Rondiniacque," said the Prince, "and therefore, I make sure, read your Bible well and often." And at this the little company laughed as at an excellent jest. "You will no doubt have observed in the course of that reading that the pebble and the sling of the son of Jesse were sufficient to the overthrow of a most mighty man of war, even as this youth's sword came between my person and death, while the ma?tre d'escrime was not in the way."
His Highness here turned again to me, detaching at the same time his own sword from his side. He then drew it from its sheath, and, laying that upon the grass, wiped the blade very carefully with his handkerchief. And I do think the significance of that action would have made me well-nigh faint with sickness, with that poor fellow that had died in cursing some priest lying so near and so still, had not His Highness straightway handed me the hilt of the weapon that slew him.
"I prithee, good lad, take this in place of that which is broken," he said.
And then I forgot the dead man, and grew first hot and then cold for the great kindness shown to me. I dropped upon my knee, and—"I humbly thank you, sire," I said, "for so great an honor."
He reached out his hand to raise me.
"Kneel not to me, boy," he said; "nor call me sire. I am no king. But I hope you will keep the sword. 'T is a good blade."
"'T is the same," said Mr. Bentinck, "that His Highness did use at the siege of Maestricht, the day he received the musket-ball in his arm."
"You speak truth, friend William," replied the Prince. "That was an unlucky siege. I hope the sword will not bring you my ill-fortune, young gentleman; for I am at times an unlucky soldier. But, indeed, it is Count Schomberg here must bear the blame of Maestricht."
"Did he run, sir?" I asked with simple curiosity, as I gazed in wonder at the famous veteran.
"Ay, that he did," said the Prince, with a smile of much amusement, and also with something, I thought, of bitterness in the little lines about his lips; "for he was on the other side and ran after me. King Lewis has done me one good turn. His breach of faith with the Huguenots has made us friends. Is it not so, Count?" With which words he stretched a hand to the late Marshal of France; and then, turning again to me, he raised and gave me the scabbard of the sword, saying as he did so: "If you ever need good office of me, lad, bring me that sword as pledge of the boon you would have, even as we read in the romances was the custom of the princes of olden time. I have said it is a good blade, and I will buy it back with anything that lies in my power."
"Your Highness makes too much of my poor service," I said, as I thrust the sword in its sheath. "I did but what lay on me as a duty."
"I could wish all men did so much," he answered. "Will you have a commission in my army?"
"Commission!" said Mr. William Bentinck, with a kind of grunting laughter. "Commission! Why, 't is only a boy!
"I am no boy, sir," I replied. "But, indeed I doubt I am not man enough."
"Ah, well," said His Highness, "there is time enough. Princes, my good lad, are of all men the most exacting. Where we have encountered one act of good service we have ever an eye to receive more."
But here an orderly officer approaching from the house cut short this interview, no little to my satisfaction, although standing apart I could not but hear his report, which he said he had been bidden by Captain Royston to deliver to His Highness. It seems that, upon the noise of the fighting in the orchard coming to the ears of the troopers that were off duty and dining in the great kitchen of the house, they had turned out helter-skelter and run to our assistance, thus leaving for some minutes house and stable unprotected. When all was over, and the men settled again to duty and leisure, it was found that one horse was gone from the stable, another man's cloak, and the helmet of a third; the conclusion being, in short, that the escaped conspirator had passed that way, and was the thief. Which matters did afterwards prove not only true, but of much import to the fortunes of Drayton and Royston.
And thereafter came Captain Royston himself from the house to bid His Highness and following to dinner. To which His Highness bidding me with the rest, we left the orchard, and through the gardens drew near to the house.