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

mind whom,” answered Gurth, who had now got his herd

before him, and, with the aid of Fangs, was driving them down one

of the long dim vistas which we have endeavoured to describe.

“Nay, but I must see the riders,” answered Wamba; “perhaps they

are come from Fairy-land with a message from King Oberon.”

“A murrain take thee,” rejoined the swine-herd; “wilt thou talk

of such things, while a terrible storm of thunder and lightning

is raging within a few miles of us? Hark, how the thunder

rumbles! and for summer rain, I never saw such broad downright

flat drops fall out of the clouds; the oaks, too, notwithstanding

the calm weather, sob and creak with their great boughs as if

announcing a tempest. Thou canst play the rational if thou wilt;

credit me for once, and let us home ere the storm begins to rage,

for the night will be fearful.”

Wamba seemed to feel the force of this appeal, and accompanied

his companion, who began his journey after catching up a long

quarter-staff which lay upon the grass beside him. This second

Eumaeus strode hastily down the forest glade, driving before him,

with the assistance of Fangs, the whole herd of his inharmonious

charge.

CHAPTER II

A Monk there was, a fayre for the maistrie,

An outrider that loved venerie;

A manly man, to be an Abbot able,

Full many a daintie horse had he in stable:

And whan he rode, men might his bridle hear

Gingeling in a whistling wind as clear,

And eke as loud, as doth the chapell bell,

There as this lord was keeper of the cell.

Chaucer.

Notwithstanding the occasional exhortation and chiding of his

companion, the noise of the horsemen’s feet continuing to

approach, Wamba could not be prevented from lingering

occasionally on the road, upon every pretence which occurred; now

catching from the hazel a cluster of half-ripe nuts, and now

turning his head to leer after a cottage maiden who crossed their

path. The horsemen, therefore, soon overtook them on the road.

Their numbers amounted to ten men, of whom the two who rode

foremost seemed to be persons of considerable importance, and the

others their attendants. It was not difficult to ascertain the

condition and character of one of these personages. He was

obviously an ecclesiastic of high rank; his dress was that of a

Cistercian Monk, but composed of materials much finer than those

which the rule of that order admitted. His mantle and hood were

of the best Flanders cloth, and fell in ample, and not ungraceful

folds, around a handsome, though somewhat corpulent person. His

countenance bore as little the marks of self-denial, as his habit

indicated contempt of worldly splendour. His features might have

been called good, had there not lurked under the pent-house of

his eye, that sly epicurean twinkle which indicates the cautious

voluptuary. In other respects, his profession and situation had

taught him a ready command over his countenance, which he could

contract at pleasure into solemnity, although its natural

expression was that of good-humoured social indulgence. In

defiance of conventual rules, and the edicts of popes and

councils, the sleeves of this dignitary were lined and turned up

with rich furs, his mantle secured at the throat with a golden

clasp, and the whole dress proper to his order as much refined

upon and ornamented, as that of a quaker beauty of the present

day, who, while she retains the garb and costume of her sect

continues to give to its simplicity, by the choice of materials

and the mode of disposing them, a certain air of coquettish

attraction, savouring but too much of the vanities of the world.

This worthy churchman rode upon a well-fed ambling mule, whose

furniture was highly decorated, and whose bridle, according to

the fashion of the day, was ornamented with silver bells. In his

seat he had nothing of the awkwardness of the convent, but

displayed the easy and habitual grace of a well-trained horseman.

Indeed, it seemed that so humble a conveyance as a mule, in

however good case, and however well broken to a pleasant and

accommodating amble, was only used by the gallant monk for

travelling on the road. A lay brother, one of those who followed

in the train, had, for his use on other occasions, one of the

most handsome Spanish jennets ever bred at Andalusia, which

merchants used at that time to import, with great trouble and

risk, for the use of persons of wealth and distinction. The

saddle and housings of this superb palfrey were covered by a long

foot-cloth, which reached nearly to the ground, and on which were

richly embroidered, mitres, crosses, and other ecclesiastical

emblems. Another lay brother led a sumpter mule, loaded probably

with his superior’s baggage; and two monks of his own order, of

inferior station, rode together in the rear, laughing and

conversing with each other, without taking much notice of the

other members of the cavalcade.

The companion of the church dignitary was a man past forty, thin,

strong, tall, and muscular; an athletic figure, which long

fatigue and constant exercise seemed to have left none of the

softer part of the human form, having reduced the whole to brawn,

bones, and sinews, which had sustained a thousand toils, and were

ready to dare a thousand more. His head was covered with a

scarlet cap, faced with fur---of that kind which the French call

“mortier”, from its resemblance to the shape of an inverted

mortar. His countenance was therefore fully displayed, and its

expression was calculated to impress a degree of awe, if not of

fear, upon strangers. High features, naturally strong and

powerfully expressive, had been burnt almost into Negro blackness

by constant exposure to the tropical sun, and might, in their

ordinary state, be said to slumber after the storm of passion had

passed away; but the projection of the veins of the forehead, the

readiness with which the upper lip and its thick black moustaches

quivered upon the slightest emotion, plainly intimated that the

tempest might be again and easily awakened. His keen, piercing,

dark eyes, told in every glance a history of difficulties

subdued, and dangers dared, and seemed to challenge opposition to

his wishes, for the pleasure of sweeping it from his road by a

determined exertion of courage and of will; a deep scar on his

brow gave additional sternness to his countenance, and a sinister

expression to one of his eyes, which had been slightly injured on

the same occasion, and of which the vision, though perfect, was

in a slight and partial degree distorted.

The upper dress of this personage resembled that of his companion

in shape, being a long monastic mantle; but the colour, being

scarlet, showed that he did not belong to any of the four regular

orders of monks. On the right shoulder of the mantle there was

cut, in white cloth, a cross of a peculiar form. This upper robe

concealed what at first view seemed rather inconsistent with its

form, a shirt, namely, of linked mail, with sleeves and gloves of

the same, curiously plaited and interwoven, as flexible to the

body as those which are now wrought in the stocking-loom, out of

less obdurate materials. The fore-part of his thighs, where the

folds of his mantle permitted them to be seen, were also covered

with linked mail; the knees and feet were defended by splints, or

thin plates of steel, ingeniously jointed upon each other; and

mail hose, reaching from the ankle to the knee, effectually

protected the legs, and completed the rider’s defensive armour.

In his girdle he wore a long and double-edged dagger, which was

the only offensive weapon about his person.

He rode, not a mule, like his companion, but a strong hackney for

the road, to save his gallant war-horse, which a squire led

behind, fully accoutred for battle, with a chamfron or plaited

head-piece upon his head, having a short spike projecting from

the front. On one side of the saddle hung a short battle-axe,

richly inlaid with Damascene carving; on the other the rider’s

plumed head-piece and hood of mail, with a long two-handed sword,

used by the chivalry of the period. A second squire held aloft

his master’s lance, from the extremity of which fluttered a small

banderole, or streamer, bearing a cross of the same form with

that embroidered upon his cloak. He also carried his small

triangular shield, broad enough at the top to protect the breast,

and from thence diminishing to a point. It was covered with a

scarlet cloth, which prevented the device from being seen.

These two squires were followed by two attendants, whose dark

visages, white turbans, and the Oriental form of their garments,

showed them to be natives of some distant Eastern country.*

Note B. Negro Slaves.

The whole appearance of this warrior and his retinue was wild and

outlandish; the dress of his squires was gorgeous, and his

Eastern attendants wore silver collars round their throats, and

bracelets of the same metal upon their swarthy arms and legs, of

which the former were naked from the elbow, and the latter from

mid-leg to ankle. Silk and embroidery distinguished their

dresses, and marked the wealth and importance of their master;

forming, at the same time, a striking contrast with the martial

simplicity of his own attire. They were armed with crooked

sabres, having the hilt and baldric inlaid with gold, and matched

with Turkish daggers of yet more costly workmanship. Each of

them bore at his saddle-bow a bundle of darts or javelins, about

four feet in length, having sharp steel heads, a weapon much in

use among the Saracens, and of which the memory is yet preserved

in the martial exercise called “El Jerrid”, still practised in

the Eastern countries.

The steeds of these attendants were in appearance as foreign as

their riders. They were of Saracen origin, and consequently of

Arabian descent; and their fine slender limbs, small fetlocks,

thin manes, and easy springy motion, formed a marked contrast

with the large-jointed heavy horsastic vows.

Yet so loose were the ideas of the times respecting the conduct

of the clergy, whether secular or regular, that the Prior Aymer

maintained a fair character in the neighbourhood of his abbey.

His free and jovial temper, and the readiness with which he

granted absolution from all ordinary delinquencies, rendered him

a favourite among the nobility and principal gentry, to several

of whom he was allied by birth, being of a distinguished Norman

family. The ladies, in particular, were not disposed to scan too

nicely the morals of a man who was a professed admirer of their

sex, and who possessed many means of dispelling the ennui which

was too apt to intrude upon the halls and bowers of an ancient

feudal castle. The Prior mingled in the sports of the field with

more than due eagerness, and was allowed to possess the

best-trained hawks, and the fleetest greyhounds in the North

Riding; circumstances which strongly recommended him to the

youthful gentry. With the old, he had another part to play,

which, when needful, he could sustain with great decorum. His

knowledge of books, however superficial, was sufficient to

impress upon their ignorance respect for his supposed learning;

and the gravity of his deportment and language, with the high

tone which he exerted in setting forth the authority of the

church and of the priesthood, impressed them no less with an

opinion of his sanctity. Even the common people, the severest

critics of the conduct of their betters, had commiseration with

the follies of Prior Aymer. He was generous; and charity, as it

is well known, covereth a multitude of sins, in another sense

than that in which it is said to do so in Scripture. The

revenues of the monastery, of which a large part was at his

disposal, while