第51章 On Board the Galley(1)

Rosamund was led from the Hall of Steeple across the meadow down to the quay at Steeple Creek, where a great boat waited--that of which the brethren had found the impress in the mud.In this the band embarked, placing their dead and wounded, with one or two to tend them, in the fishing skiff that had belonged to her father.This skiff having been made fast to the stern of the boat, they pushed off, and in utter silence rowed down the creek till they reached the tidal stream of the Blackwater, where they turned their bow seawards.Through the thick night and the falling snow slowly they felt their way along, sometimes rowing, sometimes drifting, while the false palmer Nicholas steered them.

The journey proved dangerous, for they could scarcely see the shore, although they kept as close to it as they daredThe end of it was that they grounded on a mud bank, and, do what they would, could not thrust themselves free.Now hope rose in the heart of Rosamund, who sat still as a statue in the middle of the boat, the prince Hassan at her side and the armed men--twenty or thirty of them--all about her.Perhaps, she thought, they would remain fast there till daybreak, and be seen and rescued when the brethren woke from their drugged sleep.But Hassan read her mind, and said to her gently enough:

"Be not deceived, lady, for I must tell you that if the worst comes to the worst, we shall place you in the little skiff and go on, leaving the rest to take their chance."As it happened, at the full tide they floated off the bank and drifted with the ebb down towards the sea.At the first break of dawn she looked up, and there, looming large in the mist, lay a galley, anchored in the mouth of the river.Giving thanks to Allah for their safe arrival, the band brought her aboard and led her towards the cabin.On the poop stood a tall man, who was commanding the sailors that they should get up the anchor.As she came he advanced to her, bowing and saying:

"Lady Rosamund, thus you find me once more, who doubtless you never thought to see again."She looked at him in the faint light and her blood went cold.It was the knight Lozelle.

"You here, Sir Hugh?" she gasped.

"Where you are, there I am," he answered, with a sneer upon his coarse, handsome face."Did I not swear that it should be so, beauteous Rosamund, after your saintly cousin worsted me in the fray?""You here?" she repeated, "you, a Christian knight, and in the pay of Saladin!""In the pay of anyone who leads me to you, Rosamund." Then, seeing the emir Hassan approach, he turned to give some orders to the sailors, and she passed on to the cabin and in her agony fell upon her knees.

When Rosamund rose from them she felt that the ship was moving, and, desiring to look her last on Essex land, went out again upon the poop, where Hassan and Sir Hugh placed themselves, one upon either side of her.Then it was that she saw the tower of St.

Peter's-on-the-Wall and her cousins seated on horseback in front of it, the light of the risen sun shining upon their mail.Also she saw Wulf spur his horse into the sea, and faintly heard his great cry of "Fear not! We follow, we follow!"A thought came to her, and she sprang towards the bulwark; but they were watching and held her, so that all that she could do was to throw up her arms in token.

Now the wind caught the sail and the ship went forward swiftly, so that soon she lost sight of them.Then in her grief and rage Rosamund turned upon Sir Hugh Lozelle and beat him with bitter words till he shrank before her.

"Coward and traitor!" she said."So it was you who planned this, knowing every secret of our home, where often you were a guest!

You who for Paynim gold have murdered my father, not daring to show your face before his sword, but hanging like a thief upon the coast, ready to receive what braver men had stolen.Oh! may God avenge his blood and me on you, false knight--false to Him and me and faith and honour--as avenge He will! Heard you not what my kinsman called to me? 'We follow.We follow !' Yes, they follow, and their swords--those swords you feared to look on--shall yet pierce your heart and give up your soul to your master Satan," and she paused, trembling with her righteous wrath, while Hassan stared at her and muttered:

"By Allah, a princess indeed! So have I seen Salah-ed-din look in his rage.Yes, and she has his very eyes."But Sir Hugh answered in a thick voice.

"Let them follow--one or both.I fear them not and out there my foot will not slip in the snow.""Then I say that it shall slip in the sand or on a rock," she answered, and turning, fled to the cabin and cast herself down and wept till she thought that her heart would break.

Well might Rosamund weep whose beloved sire was slain, who was torn from her home to fend herself in the power of a man she hated.Yet there was hope for her.Hassan, Eastern trickster as he might be, was her friend; and her uncle, Saladin, at least, would never wish that she should be shamed.Most like he knew nothing of this man Lozelle, except as one of those Christian traitors who were ever ready to betray the Cross for gold.But Saladin was far away and her home lay behind her, and her cousins and lovers were eating out their hearts upon that fading shore.

And she--one woman alone--was on this ship with the evil man Lozelle, who thus had kept his promise, and there were none save Easterns to protect her, none save them--and God, Who had permitted that such things should be.

The ship swayed, she grew sick and faint.Hassan brought her food with his own hands, but she loathed it who only desired to die.The day turned to night, the night turned to day again, and always Hassan brought her food and strove to comfort her, till at length she remembered no more.