Beadle's New York Dime Library No. 115 — page 9: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

somewhat bitterly. rifice, but she cannot say she lovesif. Take the sweet and sour together, and give thanks.” There was something in the bower-maid’s hilosophy that suited Gaston, the more so as Jenis was not near him to set him into another bad temper. Therefore, he on'y bowed to the silent figure in black, for the lady seemed resolved to utter no word; and the whole party set out for the church. Arlette and her mistress, in the fashion of the day, rode on pillions behind two of the Master’s retainers, and no accident happened on the way. The church was a venerable gray stone edi- five of the times of Charlemagne, and the priest, as Denis had said, wasin waiting. Gas- ton recognized in bim one Friar Ambrose, a monk who had been placed under suspension for immoral conduct a year before, but who had been restored by his bishop at the intercession of the Master of Coucy. He knew therefore that Ambrose would do anything he was ordered, and it proved cor- rect, The priest rapidly ran over the eee of the service till he came to the questions, which were responded to readily by Gaston. Those addremed to the lady were totally ignored by the silent figure in black, who stood before the altar like a statue. Nevertheless, the responses came in due form; for one of the men-at-arms, at asignal from Gas- ton, made them as boldly asif he had been at the business all his life, and the priest went on with the service as if nothing unusual was hap- epee | till he had formally pronounced the lessing on a new-married couple and the farce was over. Then Arlette swiftly interposed between her mistress and Gaston, who seemed inclined to sole the bride, and said, warningly, ina low one: ‘Your promise, my lord, your promise. For three days she is to be left alone to mourn, On the fourth she is yours.” Gaston looked sulky and undecided, but again he yielded; the strong will of Denis not being near to support him in harshness, Then Arlotte and her mistress swept down the aisle before all the train, leaving the bride- groom looking foolish as he followed in the rear, - and so got to horse and rode silently home. Arrived at the castle, the quick-witted bower- maid gave no more chance for any infraction of the agreement than before, for she hurried her mistress away into the tower as Gaston was dis- mounting, and the servant who was sent after them discovered that the heavy iron-bound door that gave entrance to the whole tower was locked and bolted behind them. This intelligence was, of course, highly irri- tating to the Master, who was, however, obliged to dissemble his anger to avoid looking ridicu- lous before the retainers, who were already tit- tering in secret. He knew the tower door to be a strong one, designed against a siege, and he did not care to have it broken down on his own property, with the gi ee of remending it at considerable ex- pense. He determined to wait till hunger should drive out his prisoners, then to snap them up and have his reven The only thing he ha determined not to do, was to keep his promise. He went to dinner and drank deeply to drown his mortification, then went out into the tilt- yard, which commanded a view of the exterior of the tower, to watch for his game. The lower part of this tower was provided only with loopholes for shooting, but neat the top were several hanging windows et thar from the wall, and at one of these ths Lady Ade- line was tranquilly seated, looking down into the court and sewing at her broidery frame. Arlette was nowere visible, and the angry knight was almost tempted to order the lower door forced, so tranquil did everything appear, when Adeline looked down into the court smiled mockingly at him, and then turned and spoke to some one jn the room. Then, to Gaston’s intense amazement, another female figure, not that Co phic looked down into the court, and the Master of Coucy saw a dark, rich face, with lustrous black eyes, smiling down at him with the same mocking mien. ‘* Who is that girl?’ he panawed) hoerie with anger, 28 ha looked round at his vassals, ‘‘ How came she in the castle? Who let her in?” Instantly there was a commotion in the court as the news spread through the castle, and a crowd of men-at-arms was speedily gathered staring up at the window where the mysterious dark beauty was looking down on them. She seemed entirely unaffected by the ordeal for she looked down as complacently as if used to admiration and stares. But the retainers were completely wonder-stricken. No one had ever seen this dark beauty before, and all were certain that if she entered the castle at all it must have been in the night and by treason. None in the castle seemed to know of the ex- istewce of a hidden passage, for the secret was one only confided tothe owner of Coucv and the heir of the castle, Guy de Coucy had known , | ‘** She is ready for the sac- crt Se ‘The Severed Fiead. mm ee it, and would probably have revealed it to Gas- ton had he thought of his cousin as next heir; but, expecting to have a son of his own to in- herit the castle, he had told none but his old cousin Baldwin, who was known to be faithful | to death. How the secret bad got into the hands of the Syrian minstrel was indeed a deep mystery, but of all this Gaston knew nothing. fle only re- alized that a strange woman had got into the castle somehow, and he was furious at the way in which he had been deceived. In a great hurry he sent instantly for the captain of the guard, the seneschal, and all persons likely to know anything of the matter, and questioned them closely, but could get no satisfaction. None knew anything of it, and all the while the girl continued to lean her elbows on the sill of the lofty window and look down into the court below, smiling in the same provoking way. The Lady Adeline had retired as soon as this girl came, and was no longer visible. ‘*'You look like the Saracen Princess Aisha, that Renault of the Crest carried away from the old Emir Boabdil,” observed one man a ‘*Seest thou not the gold coins on her forehead and neck, and the heathen rig of the Jezebel?” It was indeed true that the dress of the girl, as far as seen, had a decidedly Oriental appear- ance, but all this gave no clew to her manner of entry into the castle, till some one suggested the calling of old Baldwin, who was accordingly sent for. But then came a fresh surprise to the now thoroughly roused Master of Coucy. Sir Baldwin de Coucy, an old man past seven- ty, who had been judged too infirm to attend to the duties of Castellan, had gone away from the castle, and on horseback, too. Indeed, it soon transpired that the old knight had ridden away on the very night De Coucy chased the Syrian minstrel to St. Pol, had re- mained away till near dawn, and then had re- turned, as erect as a boy of twenty. His little interview with Arlette had also not been wholly unobserved, for one of Gaston’s pet spies had seen the old knight give the maid a letter, of the contents of which he prefessed ignorance, And now Sir Baldwin had totelly disappeared from the castle while the bridal party was at church, taking with him two sumpter horses, a spare charger and his body-servant, Jean Mar- cel, brother of the escaped poacher, Jacques. All these things coming together ou entice, caused that worthy to foam at the mouth with indignation, and put an end to his hesitation about the tower. He determined to force the door at all haz- ards, and gave orders to shoot arrows up at the windows. “To frighten away that impudent heathen baggage,” he said. o sooner did the crossbowmen bring out their weapons to obey orders, than the Saracen gil waved her hand with a mocking laugh, and oy. geigrt leaving them to shoot at stone walls. Meanwhile Gaston, full of fury, ordered a long beam of wood into the hall to batter at the tower-door, when he was met by the objection that said tower-door was at the end of a curv- ing passage, so constructed that no battering- ram could possibly be brought to bear against it. The fact was that this corner tower was built expressly as a last resort for the defenders of the castle when all else was taken—a citadel within a citadel—and was absolutely impregna- ble to anything but a regular scientific assault. The very windows were not vulnerable, for they were too high to be reached save by a seventy foot ladder, and no support could be found for any such on account of the slanting pavement of the court below, designed for that purpose. There was only one method which seemed feasible, and that was to assault the door with axes, which was accordin ly done. Hardly had the assault begun when a shower of dust of quicklime came into the faces of the pioneers from orifices in the walls especially de- signed for that purpose, and sent them out, blinded and tearing their flesh in desperation to ease the pain. ‘. This plan clearly would not work, and Gaston determined to try starvation as a policy, the pie readily that he had failed in everything else. He left orders for a strict watch to be kept on the tower from within and without, and to shoot all intruders on the windows. Then he retired to sulk alone, wishing heartily for the active mind and resolute will of his squire, Denis, now on his way to the city of Orleans. Thus irritated and grumbling to himself, he sat in his great chair in the hall, swigging off bumpers of Burgundy till he per pretty drunk, and finally fell off into a helpless sleep. Then the retainers of Coucy showed just how much respect they had for their master, when they found him asleep and when Denis was not near by to watch them. They knew from ex- perience that the Master weuld vot awake be fore morning, if not disturbed, and therefcre they set to work to clear the eellar of wine enough for a good debauch, in which guard- duty and everything else was soon forgotten. When the beams of the morning sun shone i= on Gaston’s hall next day, they found him asleep in his chair before a table on the dais, over which were scattered the remains of @ feast, while right in front of the knight himself stood his own dagger, stuck into the table and bearing a written scroll of parchment. His re- tainers were scattered over the floor in every state of drunken stupidity, and the sentries he bad set over the tower door were fast asleep om their posts. At last the Master of Couey woke up with a snort and start to stare round him, and his first glance rested on the bright blade of his dagger, buried in the table. here was something peculiarly savage in the aspect of this piece of bright steel, erect before him. It had evidently been driven into the ta- ble on which it stood with a force sufficient to have sent it to the hilt in a human body, and there it was, glittering viciously in the morning sun, as if warning him of the fate in store for himself. There on the table, still tee cut in two by the dagger point, he bebeld the words: **Gaston the Traitor’s heart, if he hurt Adeline de Coucy. GEORGE er ANTIOCH.”’ Gaston looked at these words in silence, sit- ting in his own castle; and his hair began to lift. All the superstilious terrors of the night in St. Pol rushed over him again. CHAPTER IX. THE FIELD OF HONOR. Tue city of Orleans was gay with flags ané tapestry, hanging from every window, while the streets were crowded with gay processions from dawn till dark. The Duke of Orleans, the king’s nephew, had proclaimed a grand tourna- ment for the 14th of July, 1106, in honor of the © anniversary of the capture of Jerusalem; and every ie of prominence in France was ex- ted to take part in it. It was not known for certain, but it was ex-. , that the king himself would be present ward the close of the festivities, which were to last three weeks, and it was announced for a fact that Peter the Hermit, to whose eloquence the success of the Crusade was largely owing, would preach every Sunday in the Cathedral, then newly erected. The common people, who had but little plea- sure in those times, were delighted with the rospect of the pageants and combats, and crowded into the citv from all the country round, The thrifty citizens, whe saw before them much profit in lodging strangers, sent their families into the fields to sleepin greem beoths, while they hung up notices of rooms to let, with as much forethought as that which actuates a modern scaside hotel-keeper in the busy season, Already the town was overflowing with lodgers, and more were coming daily. The Field of Honor was a success from the begin- ning. The buge written placards on the Cathedrab doors that announced the tournament proclaim- ed that the first day would be given to the en- tries of the names of noble knights for the sports, after which there would be single com- bats daily for a week, only the victors in each trial being allowed to participate in the next week’s contests. The victors of the second week were to con- tend together on the third for final victory, and the man who overcame all others was to be crowned the “ First Knight in France” by the hands of the most beautiful lady of the land. For there was to be a contest in beauty, as wel? as valor, each knight having the Da gee of naming the lady he thought excelled all others, and the method of settling the dispute as to ~ nays of beauty had the grand merit of sim- plicity. y The victorious knight was supposed to have the most beautiful lady, and any one who de- nied it was obliged to maintain bis opinion at heen of the lance against him, at his own ril. The only limit to the entries was in the rule that none could be admitted to the contest save those who had borne the Cross at some time. The Count of St. Pol, jolly as ever, was one of the first arrivals in Orleans, with a handsome retinue. He had picked his best men and arm- ed them completely, for he knew that in such a mixed assemblage as that of the Field of Honor, a might have to fight for his quarters if he wert ate. Therefore he rode into Orleans early on the morning of the first day, and at once engagrd & strong and capacious house in the center of the city, next to the Town Hall, or Hotel de Ville, at which the retinue of the Duke of Orleans was already domiciled. St, Pol was an old cam- igner, and he took care that the house he se- lara’ should have few windows near the grounc, and a strong door, for he had made his mind to maintain his tion against comers, no matter what their rank. The worthy knight, having selected lis quam- alt: MIGOOO Cc ss Cc (@) fe (0)