第4章 By The Waters of Death Creek (2)

"Brother, if you would know, of the East also--the East and its wars.""Which have brought us no great luck," answered Wulf,"seeing that our sire was slain in them and naught of him came home again save his heart, which lies at Stangate yonder.""How better could he die," asked Godwin,"than fighting for the Cross of Christ? Is not that death of his at Harenc told of to this day? By our Lady, I pray for one but half as glorious!""Aye, he died well--he died well," said Wulf, his blue eyes flashing and his hand creeping to his sword hilt."But, brother, there is peace at Jerusalem, as in Essex.""Peace? Yes; but soon there will be war again.The monk Peter--he whom we saw at Stangate last Sunday, and who left Syria but six months gone--told me that it was coming fast.Even now the Sultan Saladin, sitting at Damascus, summons his hosts from far and wide, while his priests preach battle amongst the tribes and barons of the East.And when it comes, brother, shall we not be there to share it, as were our grandfather, our father, our uncle, and so many of our kin? Shall we rot here in this dull land, as by our uncle's wish we have done these many years, yes, ever since we were home from the Scottish war, and count the kine and plough the fields like peasants, while our peers are charging on the pagan, and the banners wave, and the blood runs red upon the holy sands of Palestine?"Now it was Wulf's turn to take fire.

"By our Lady in Heaven, and our lady here!"--and he Iooked at Rosamund, who was watching the pair of them with her quiet thoughtful eyes--"go when you will, Godwin, and I go with you, and as our birth was one birth, so, if it is decreed, let our death be one death." And suddenly his hand that had been playing with the sword-hilt gripped it fast, and tore the long, lean blade from its scabbard and cast it high into the air, flashing in the sunlight, to catch it as it fell again, while in a voice that caused the wild fowl to rise in thunder from the Saltings beneath, Wulf shouted the old war-cry that had rung on so many a field--"A D'Arcy! a D'Arcy! Meet D'Arcy, meet Death!" Then he sheathed his sword again and added in a shamed voice,"Are we children that we fight where no foe is? Still, brother, may we find him soon!"Godwin smiled grimly, but answered nothing; only Rosamund said:

"So, my cousins, you would be away, perhaps to return no more, and that will part us.But"--and her voice broke somewhat--"such is the woman's lot, since men like you ever love the bare sword best of all, nor should I think well of you were it otherwise.Yet, cousins, I know not why"--and she shivered a little--"it comes into my heart that Heaven often answers such prayers swiftly.Oh, Wulf! your sword looked very red in the sunlight but now: I say that it looked very red in the sunlight.

I am afraid--of I know not what.Well, we must be going, for we have nine miles to ride, and the dark is not so far away.But first, my cousins, come with me into this shrine, and let us pray St.Peter and St.Chad to guard us on our journey home.

"Our journey?" said Wulf anxiously."What is there for you to fear in a nine-mile ride along the shores of the Blackwater?""I said our journey home Wulf; and home is not in the hall at Steeple, but yonder," and she pointed to the quiet, brooding sky.

"Well answered," said Godwin,"in this ancient place, whence so many have journeyed home; all the Romans who are dead, when it was their fortress, and the Saxons who came after them, and others without count."Then they turned and entered the old church--one of the first that ever was in Britain, rough-built of Roman stone by the very hands of Chad, the Saxon saint, more than five hundred years before their day.Here they knelt a while at the rude altar and prayed, each of them in his or her own fashion, then crossed themselves, and rose to seek their horses, which were tied in the shed hard by.

Now there were two roads, or rather tracks, back to the Hall at Steeple-- one a mile or so inland, that ran through the village of Bradwell, and the other, the shorter way, along the edge of the Saltings to the narrow water known as Death Creek, at the head of which the traveller to Steeple must strike inland, leaving the Priory of Stangate on his right.It was this latter path they choose, since at low tide the going there is good for horses--which, even in the summer, that of the inland track was not.Also they wished to be at home by supper-time, lest the old knight, Sir Andrew D'Arcy, the father of Rosamund and the uncle of the orphan brethren, should grow anxious, and perhaps come out to seek them.

For the half of an hour or more they rode along the edge of the Saltings, for the most part in silence that was broken only by the cry of curlew and the lap of the turning tide.No human being did they see, indeed, for this place was very desolate and unvisited, save now and again by fishermen.At length, just as the sun began to sink, they approached the shore of Death Creek--a sheet of tidal water which ran a mile or more inland, growing ever narrower, but was here some three hundred yards in breadth.They were well mounted, all three of them.Indeed, Rosamund's horse, a great grey, her father's gift to her, was famous in that country-side for its swiftness and power, also because it was so docile that a child could ride it; while those of the brethren were heavy-built but well-trained war steeds, taught to stand where they were left, and to charge when they were urged, without fear of shouting men or flashing steel.