The Prince and the Page: A Story of the Last Crusade by Charlotte M. Yonge (ebook reader .TXT) 📖

this?”  Edward made kind and cheerful reply, that things would look better when they met at Trapani, and then almost lifted the young king into his boat.  Poor youth, he had not yet seen the end!  He was yet to lose his wife, his brother-in-law, and his uncle and aunt, ere he should see his home again.

Richard and Hamlyn de Valence, as part of the Prince’s train, had moved in the procession; and they were for the rest of the day in close attendance on their lord, conveying his numerous orders for the embarkation of the troops on the morrow, on their return to Sicily.  It was not till night-fall that Richard returned to his tent, where John of Dunster was sitting on the sand at the door, eagerly watching for him.  “Well, Jack, my lad, how hast thou sped?” asked he, advancing.  “Couldst see our doleful array?”

“Is it thou, indeed, this time?” said the boy, catching at his cloak.

“Why, who should it be?”

“Thy wraith!  Thy double-ganger has been here Richard.”

“What, dreaming again?”

“No no!  I am well, I am strong.  But this is the land of enchantment!  Thou knowst it is.  Did we not see a fleet of fairy boats sailing on the sea? and a leaf eat up a fly here on this very tent pole?  And did not the Fay Morgaine show us towns and castles and churches in the sea?  Thou didst not call me light-headed then, Richard; thou sawest it too!”

“But this wraith of mine!  Where didst see it?”

“In this tent.  I was lying on the sand, trying if I could make it hold enough to build a castle of it, when the curtain was put back, and there thou stoodest, Richard!”

“Well, did I speak or vanish?”

“Oh, thou spakest—I mean the thing spake, and it said, ‘Is this the tent of the young Lord of Montfort?’  How now—what have I said?”

“Whom did he ask for?” demanded Richard breathlessly.

“Montfort—young Lord de Montfort!” replied John; “I know it was, for he said it twice over.”

“And what didst thou answer?”

“What should I answer?  I said we had no Montforts here; for they were all dishonoured traitors, slain and outlawed.”

Richard could not restrain a sudden indignant exclamation that startled the boy.  “Every one says so!  My father says so!” he returned, somewhat defiantly.

“Not of the Earl,” said Richard, recollecting himself.

“He said every one of the young Montforts was a foul traitor, and man-sworn tyrant, as bad as King John had been ere the Charter,” repeated John hotly, “and their father was as bad, since he would give no redress.  Thou knowst how they served us in Somerset and Devon!”

“I have heard, I have heard,” said Richard, cutting short the story, and controlling his own burning pain, glad that the darkness concealed his face.  “No more of that; but tell me, what said this stranger?”

“Thou thinkest it was really a stranger, and not thy wraith?” said John anxiously.  “I hope it was, for Dame Idonea said if it were a wraith, it betokened that thou wouldst not—live long—and oh, Richard!  I could not spare thee!”

And the little fellow came nestling up to his friend’s breast in an access of tenderness, such as perhaps he would have disdained save in the darkness.

“Did Dame Idonea see him?” asked Richard.

“No; but she came in soon after he had vanished.”

“Vanished!  What, like Fay Morgaine’s castles?  Tell me in sooth, John; it imports me to know.  What did this stranger, when thou spakest thus of the House of Montfort?”

“He answered,” said John; “he did not answer courteously—he said, that I was a malapert little ass, and demanded again where this young Montfort’s tent was.  So then I said, that if a Montfort dared to show his traitor’s face in this camp, the Prince would hang him as high as Judas; for I wanted to be rid of him, Richard! it was so dreadful to see thy face, and hear thy voice talking French, and asking for dead traitors.”

“French!” said Richard.  “Methought thou knewst no French!”

“I—I have heard it long now, more’s the pity,” faltered John, “and—and I’d have spoken anything to be rid of that shape.”

“And wert thou rid?  What befell then?”

“It cursed the Prince, and King, and all of them,” said John with a shudder; “it looked black and deadly, and I crossed myself, and said the Blessed Name, and no doubt it writhed itself and went off in brimstone and smoke, for I shut my eyes, and when I looked up again it was gone!”

“Gone!  Didst look after him?”

“Oh, no!  Earthly things are all food for a brave man’s sword,” said Master John, drawing himself up very valiantly, “but wraiths and things from beneath—they do scare the very heart out of a man.  And I lay, I don’t know how, till Dame Idonea came in; and she said either the foul fiend had put on thy shape because he boded thee ill, or it was one of the traitor brood looking for his like.”

“Tell me, John,” said Richard anxiously; “surely he was not in all points like me.  Had he our English white cross?”

“I cannot say as to the cross,” said John; “meseemed it was all you—yourself—and that was all—only I thought your voice was strange and hollow—and—now I think of it—yes—he was bearded—brown bearded.  And,” with a sudden thought, “stand up, prithee, in the opening of the tent;” and then taking his post where he had been sitting at the time of the apparition, “He was not so tall as thou art.  Thy head comes above the fold of the curtain, and his, I know, did not touch it, for I saw the light over it.  Then thou dost not think it was thy wraith?” he added anxiously.

“I think my wraith would have measured me more exactly both in stature and in age,” said Richard lightly.  “But how did Leonillo comport himself?  He brooks not a stranger in general; and dogs cannot endure the presence of a spirit.”

“Ah! but he fawned upon this one, and thrust his nose into his hand,” said John, “and I think he must have run after him; for it was so long ere he came back to me, that I had feared greatly he was gone, and oh, Richard! then I must have gone too!  I could never have met you without Leonillo.”

By this time Richard had little doubt that the visitor must have been one of his brothers, Simon or Guy, who were not unlikely to be among the Provençals, in the army of Charles of Anjou.  He had not been thought to resemble them as a boy, but he had observed how much more alike brothers appear to strangers than they do to their own family; and he knew by occasional observations from the Prince, as well as from his brother Henry’s recognition of his voice, that the old Montfort characteristics must be strong in himself.  He would not, however, avow his belief to John of Dunster.  Secrecy on his own birth had been enjoined on him by his uncle the King; and disobedience to the old man’s most trifling commands was always sharply resented by the Prince; nor was the boy’s view of the House of Montfort very favourable to such a declaration.  Richard really loved the brave little fellow, and trusted that some day when the discovery must be made, it would be coupled with some exploit that would show it was no name to be ashamed of.  So he only told the boy that he had no doubt the stranger was a foreign knight, who had once known the old Leicester family; but bade him mention the circumstance to no one.  He feared, however, that the caution came too late, since Dame Idonea was not only an inveterate gossip, but was likely to hold in direful suspicion any one who had been inquired for by such a name.

The personal disappointment of having missed his brother was great.  Richard was very lonely.  The Princes, and Hamlyn de Valence, were the only persons who knew his secret, and both by Prince Edmund and De Valence he was treated with indifference or dislike.  Edward himself, though the object of his fervent affection, and his protector in all essentials, was of a reserved nature, and kept all his attendants at a great distance.  On very rare occasions, when his feelings had been strongly stirred—as in the instance of his visit to his uncle’s death-chamber—he might sometimes unbend; and momentary flashes from the glow of his warm deep heart went further in securing the love and devotion of those around him, than would the daily affability of a lower nature; but in ordinary life, towards all concerned with him except his nearest relations, he was a strict, cold, grave disciplinarian, ever just, though on the side of severity, and stern towards the slightest neglect or breach of observance, nor did he make any exception in favour of Richard.  If the youth seldom received one of his brief annihilating reproofs, it was because they were scarcely ever merited; but he had experienced that any want of exactitude in his duties was quite as severely visited as if he had not been the Prince’s close kinsman, romantically rescued by him, and placed near his person by his special desire.  And Eleanor, with all her gentle courtesy and kindness, was strictly withheld by her husband from pampering or cockering his pages; nor did she ever transgress his will.

The atmosphere was perhaps bracing, but it was bleak: and there were times when Richard regretted his acceptance of the Prince’s offer, and yearned after family ties, equality, and freedom.  Simon and Guy had never been kind to him, but at least they were his brothers, and with them disguise and constraint would be over—he should, too, be in communication with his mother and sister.  He was strongly inclined to cast in his lot with them, and end this life of secrecy, and distrust from all around him save one, and his loyal love ill requited even by that one.  It grieved him keenly that one of his brothers should have been repulsed from his tent; an absolutely famished longing for fraternal intercourse gained possession of him, and as he lay on his pallet that night in the dark, he even shed tears at the thought of the greeting and embrace that he had missed.

Still he had hopes for the future.  There must be meetings and possibilities of inquiries passing between the three armies, and he would let no opportunity go by.  The next day, however, there was no chance.  The English troops were embarked in their vessels, and after a short and prosperous passage were again landed at Trapani, the western angle of Sicily.  The French had sailed first, but were not in harbour when the English came in; and the Sicilians, who had brought up the rear, arrived the next day, but still there was no tidings of the French.  Towards the evening, however, the royal vessel bearing Philippe III. came into harbour, and all the rest were in sight, when at sunset a frightful storm arose, and the ships were in fearful case.  Many foundered, many were wrecked on the rocky islets around the port, and the French army was almost as much reduced in numbers as it had been by the Plague of Carthage.

Charles of Anjou remained himself in the town of Trapani, but knowing the evils of crowding a small space with troops, he at once sent his men inland, and Richard was again disappointed of the hope of seeing or hearing of his brothers; for the Prince still forbade all intercourse with the shattered remnant of the French army, justly dreading that they might still carry about them the seeds of the infection of the camp.

The three heads of the Crusade, however, met in the Castle of Trapani to hold council on their future proceedings.  The place was the state-chamber of the castle.

Each prince had brought with him a single attendant, and the three stood in waiting near the door, in full view of their lords, though out of earshot.  It was an opportunity that Richard could not bear to miss of asking for his brothers, unheard by any of those English ears who would be suspicious about his solicitude for the House of Montfort.  A lively-looking Neapolitan lad was the attendant of King Charles; and in spite of all the perils of attempting conversation while thus waiting, Richard had—while the princes were greeting one another, and taking their seats—ventured the question, whether any of the sons of the English Earl of Leicester were in the Sicilian army.  Of Earl of Leicester the Italian knew nothing; but Count of Montfort was a more familiar sound.  “Si, si, vero!”  Sicily had rung with it; and Count Rosso Aldobrandini, of the Maremma Toscana, had given his only daughter and heiress to the banished English knight, Guido di Monforte, who had served in the king’s army as a Provençal.

Richard’s heart beat high.  Guy a well-endowed count, with a castle, lands, and home!  He would have asked where Guy now was, and how far off was the Maremma; but the conference