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Page 20
'Nay. My venture was South. Farther South than any man has fared, Hugh
and I went down with Witta and his heathen.' He jerked the tall sword
forward, and leaned on it with both hands; but his eyes looked long past
them.
'I thought you always lived here,' said Una, timidly.
'Yes; while my Lady �lueva lived. But she died. She died. Then, my
eldest son being a man, I asked De Aquila's leave that he should hold
the Manor while I went on some journey or pilgrimage--to forget. De
Aquila, whom the Second William had made Warden of Pevensey in Earl
Mortain's place, was very old then, but still he rode his tall, roan
horses, and in the saddle he looked like a little white falcon. When
Hugh, at Dallington, over yonder, heard what I did, he sent for my
second son, whom being unmarried he had ever looked upon as his own
child, and, by De Aquila's leave, gave him the Manor of Dallington to
hold till he should return. Then Hugh came with me.'
'When did this happen?' said Dan.
'That I can answer to the very day, for as we rode with De Aquila by
Pevensey--have I said that he was Lord of Pevensey and of the Honour of
the Eagle?--to the Bordeaux ship that fetched him his wines yearly out
of France, a Marsh man ran to us crying that he had seen a great black
goat which bore on his back the body of the King, and that the goat had
spoken to him. On that same day Red William our King, the Conqueror's
son, died of a secret arrow while he hunted in a forest. "This is a
cross matter," said De Aquila, "to meet on the threshold of a journey.
If Red William be dead I may have to fight for my lands. Wait a little."
'My Lady being dead, I cared nothing for signs and omens, nor Hugh
either. We took that wine-ship to go to Bordeaux; but the wind failed
while we were yet in sight of Pevensey, a thick mist hid us, and we
drifted with the tide along the cliffs to the west. Our company was, for
the most part, merchants returning to France, and we were laden with
wool and there were three couple of tall hunting-dogs chained to the
rail. Their master was a knight of Artois. His name I never learned, but
his shield bore gold pieces on a red ground, and he limped, much as I
do, from a wound which he had got in his youth at Mantes siege. He
served the Duke of Burgundy against the Moors in Spain, and was
returning to that war with his dogs. He sang us strange Moorish songs
that first night, and half persuaded us to go with him. I was on
pilgrimage to forget--which is what no pilgrimage brings. I think I
would have gone, but ...
'Look you how the life and fortune of man changes! Towards morning a
Dane ship, rowing silently, struck against us in the mist, and while we
rolled hither and yon Hugh, leaning over the rail, fell outboard. I
leaped after him, and we two tumbled aboard the Dane, and were caught
and bound ere we could rise. Our own ship was swallowed up in the mist.
I judge the Knight of the Gold Pieces muzzled his dogs with his cloak,
lest they should give tongue and betray the merchants, for I heard their
baying suddenly stop.
'We lay bound among the benches till morning, when the Danes dragged us
to the high deck by the steering-place, and their captain--Witta, he was
called--turned us over with his foot. Bracelets of gold from elbow to
armpit he wore, and his red hair was long as a woman's, and came down in
plaited locks on his shoulder. He was stout, with bowed legs and long
arms. He spoiled us of all we had, but when he laid hand on Hugh's sword
and saw the runes on the blade hastily he thrust it back. Yet his
covetousness overcame him and he tried again and again, and the third
time the Sword sang loud and angrily, so that the rowers leaned on their
oars to listen. Here they all spoke together, screaming like gulls, and
a Yellow Man, such as I have never seen, came to the high deck and cut
our bonds. He was yellow--not from sickness, but by nature--yellow as
honey, and his eyes stood endwise in his head.'
'How do you mean?' said Una, her chin on her hand.
'Thus,' said Sir Richard. He put a finger to the corner of each eye, and
pushed it up till his eyes narrowed to slits.
'Why, you look just like a Chinaman!' cried Dan. 'Was the man a
Chinaman?'
'I know not what that may be. Witta had found him half dead among ice on
the shores of Muscovy. _We_ thought he was a devil. He crawled before us
and brought food in a silver dish which these sea-wolves had robbed from
some rich abbey, and Witta with his own hands gave us wine. He spoke a
little in French, a little in South Saxon, and much in the Northman's
tongue. We asked him to set us ashore, promising to pay him better
ransom than he would get price if he sold us to the Moors--as once
befell a knight of my acquaintance sailing from Flushing.
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