Ivanhoe by Walter Scott (world best books to read .TXT) 📖

let me help myself one way or

another.”

Wamba did him the service he required, and they rode side by side

for some time, during which Gurth maintained a moody silence. At

length he could repress his feelings no longer.

“Friend Wamba,” said he, “of all those who are fools enough to

serve Cedric, thou alone hast dexterity enough to make thy folly

acceptable to him. Go to him, therefore, and tell him that

neither for love nor fear will Gurth serve him longer. He may

strike the head from me---he may scourge me---he may load me with

irons---but henceforth he shall never compel me either to love or

to obey him. Go to him, then, and tell him that Gurth the son of

Beowulph renounces his service.”

“Assuredly,” said Wamba, “fool as I am, I shall not do your

fool’s errand. Cedric hath another javelin stuck into his

girdle, and thou knowest he does not always miss his mark.”

“I care not,” replied Gurth, “how soon he makes a mark of me.

Yesterday he left Wilfred, my young master, in his blood. To-day

he has striven to kill before my face the only other living

creature that ever showed me kindness. By St Edmund, St Dunstan,

St Withold, St Edward the Confessor, and every other Saxon saint

in the calendar,” (for Cedric never swore by any that was not of

Saxon lineage, and all his household had the same limited

devotion,) “I will never forgive him!”

“To my thinking now,” said the Jester, who was frequently wont to

act as peace-maker in the family, “our master did not propose to

hurt Fangs, but only to affright him. For, if you observed, he

rose in his stirrups, as thereby meaning to overcast the mark;

and so he would have done, but Fangs happening to bound up at the

very moment, received a scratch, which I will be bound to heal

with a penny’s breadth of tar.”

“If I thought so,” said Gurth---“if I could but think so---but

no---I saw the javelin was well aimed---I heard it whizz through

the air with all the wrathful malevolence of him who cast it, and

it quivered after it had pitched in the ground, as if with regret

for having missed its mark. By the hog dear to St Anthony, I

renounce him!”

And the indignant swineherd resumed his sullen silence, which no

efforts of the Jester could again induce him to break.

Meanwhile Cedric and Athelstane, the leaders of the troop,

conversed together on the state of the land, on the dissensions

of the royal family, on the feuds and quarrels among the Norman

nobles, and on the chance which there was that the oppressed

Saxons might be able to free themselves from the yoke of the

Normans, or at least to elevate themselves into national

consequence and independence, during the civil convulsions which

were likely to ensue. On this subject Cedric was all animation.

The restoration of the independence of his race was the idol of

his heart, to which he had willingly sacrificed domestic

happiness and the interests of his own son. But, in order to

achieve this great revolution in favour of the native English, it

was necessary that they should be united among themselves, and

act under an acknowledged head. The necessity of choosing their

chief from the Saxon blood-royal was not only evident in itself,

but had been made a solemn condition by those whom Cedric had

intrusted with his secret plans and hopes. Athelstane had this

quality at least; and though he had few mental accomplishments or

talents to recommend him as a leader, he had still a goodly

person, was no coward, had been accustomed to martial exercises,

and seemed willing to defer to the advice of counsellors more

wise than himself. Above all, he was known to be liberal and

hospitable, and believed to be good-natured. But whatever

pretensions Athelstane had to be considered as head of the Saxon

confederacy, many of that nation were disposed to prefer to the

title of the Lady Rowena, who drew her descent from Alfred, and

whose father having been a chief renowned for wisdom, courage,

and generosity, his memory was highly honoured by his oppressed

countrymen.

It would have been no difficult thing for Cedric, had he been so

disposed, to have placed himself at the head of a third party, as

formidable at least as any of the others. To counterbalance

their royal descent, he had courage, activity, energy, and, above

all, that devoted attachment to the cause which had procured him

the epithet of The Saxon, and his birth was inferior to none,

excepting only that of Athelstane and his ward. These qualities,

however, were unalloyed by the slightest shade of selfishness;

and, instead of dividing yet farther his weakened nation by

forming a faction of his own, it was a leading part of Cedric’s

plan to extinguish that which already existed, by promoting a

marriage betwixt Rowena and Athelstane. An obstacle occurred to

this his favourite project, in the mutual attachment of his ward

and his son and hence the original cause of the banishment of

Wilfred from the house of his father.

This stern measure Cedric had adopted, in hopes that, during

Wilfred’s absence, Rowena might relinquish her preference, but in

this hope he was disappointed; a disappointment which might be

attributed in part to the mode in which his ward had been

educated. Cedric, to whom the name of Alfred was as that of a

deity, had treated the sole remaining scion of that great monarch

with a degree of observance, such as, perhaps, was in those days

scarce paid to an acknowledged princess. Rowena’s will had been

in almost all cases a law to his household; and Cedric himself,

as if determined that her sovereignty should be fully

acknowledged within that little circle at least, seemed to take a

pride in acting as the first of her subjects. Thus trained in

the exercise not only of free will, but despotic authority,

Rowena was, by her previous education, disposed both to resist

and to resent any attempt to control her affections, or dispose

of her hand contrary to her inclinations, and to assert her

independence in a case in which even those females who have been

trained up to obedience and subjection, are not infrequently apt

to dispute the authority of guardians and parents. The opinions

which she felt strongly, she avowed boldly; and Cedric, who could

not free himself from his habitual deference to her opinions,

felt totally at a loss how to enforce his authority of guardian.

It was in vain that he attempted to dazzle her with the prospect

of a visionary throne. Rowena, who possessed strong sense,

neither considered his plan as practicable, nor as desirable, so

far as she was concerned, could it have been achieved. Without

attempting to conceal her avowed preference of Wilfred of

Ivanhoe, she declared that, were that favoured knight out of

question, she would rather take refuge in a convent, than share a

throne with Athelstane, whom, having always despised, she now

began, on account of the trouble she received on his account,

thoroughly to detest.

Nevertheless, Cedric, whose opinions of women’s constancy was far

from strong, persisted in using every means in his power to bring

about the proposed match, in which he conceived he was rendering

an important service to the Saxon cause. The sudden and romantic

appearance of his son in the lists at Ashby, he had justly

regarded as almost a death’s blow to his hopes. His paternal

affection, it is true, had for an instant gained the victory over

pride and patriotism; but both had returned in full force, and

under their joint operation, he was now bent upon making a

determined effort for the union of Athelstane and Rowena,

together with expediting those other measures which seemed

necessary to forward the restoration of Saxon independence.

On this last subject, he was now labouring with Athelstane, not

without having reason, every now and then, to lament, like

Hotspur, that he should have moved such a dish of skimmed milk to

so honourable an action. Athelstane, it is true, was vain

enough, and loved to have his ears tickled with tales of his high

descent, and of his right by inheritance to homage and

sovereignty. But his petty vanity was sufficiently gratified by

receiving this homage at the hands of his immediate attendants,

and of the Saxons who approached him. If he had the courage to

encounter danger, he at least hated the trouble of going to seek

it; and while he agreed in the general principles laid down by

Cedric concerning the claim of the Saxons to independence, and

was still more easily convinced of his own title to reign over

them when that independence should be attained, yet when the

means of asserting these rights came to be discussed, he was

still “Athelstane the Unready,” slow, irresolute,

procrastinating, and unenterprising. The warm and impassioned

exhortations of Cedric had as little effect upon his impassive

temper, as red-hot balls alighting in the water, which produce a

little sound and smoke, and are instantly extinguished.

If, leaving this task, which might be compared to spurring a

tired jade, or to hammering upon cold iron, Cedric fell back to

his ward Rowena, he received little more satisfaction from

conferring with her. For, as his presence interrupted the

discourse between the lady and her favourite attendant upon the

gallantry and fate of Wilfred, Elgitha failed not to revenge

both her mistress and herself, by recurring to the overthrow of

Athelstane in the lists, the most disagreeable subject which

could greet the ears of Cedric. To this sturdy Saxon, therefore,

the day’s journey was fraught with all manner of displeasure and

discomfort; so that he more than once internally cursed the

tournament, and him who had proclaimed it, together with his own

folly in ever thinking of going thither.

At noon, upon the motion of Athelstane, the travellers paused in

a woodland shade by a fountain, to repose their horses and

partake of some provisions, with which the hospitable Abbot had

loaded a sumpter mule. Their repast was a pretty long one; and

these several interruptions rendered it impossible for them to

hope to reach Rotherwood without travelling all night, a

conviction which induced them to proceed on their way at a more

hasty pace than they had hitherto used.

CHAPTER XIX

A train of armed men, some noble dame

Escorting, (so their scatter’d words discover’d,

As unperceived I hung upon their rear,)

Are close at hand, and mean to pass the night

Within the castle.

Orra, a Tragedy

The travellers had now reached the verge of the wooded country,

and were about to plunge into its recesses, held dangerous at

that time from the number of outlaws whom oppression and poverty

had driven to despair, and who occupied the forests in such large

bands as could easily bid defiance to the feeble police of the

period. From these rovers, however, notwithstanding the lateness

of the hour Cedric and Athelstane accounted themselves secure, as

they had in attendance ten servants, besides Wamba and Gurth,

whose aid could not be counted upon, the one being a jester and

the other a captive. It may be added, that in travelling thus

late through the forest, Cedric and Athelstane relied on their

descent and character, as well as their courage. The outlaws,

whom the severity of the forest laws had reduced to this roving

and desperate mode of life, were chiefly peasants and yeomen of

Saxon descent, and were generally supposed to respect the persons

and property of their countrymen.

As the travellers journeyed on their way, they were alarmed by

repeated cries for assistance; and when they rode up to the place

from whence they came, they were surprised to find a horse-litter

placed upon the ground, beside