hinder or
balk one of her sex."
"the hussy!" cried lady loring clenching her broad right hand.
"i would i had been at the side of her!"
"and so would i, since you would have been the nearer me my own.
but i doubt not that you are right, and that maude's wings need
clipping, which i may leave in your hands when i am gone, for, in
sooth, this peaceful life is not for me, and were it not for your
gracious kindness and loving care i could not abide it a week. i
hear that there is talk of warlike muster at bordeaux once more,
and by st. paul! it would be a new thing if the lions of england
and the red pile of chandos were to be seen in the field, and the
roses of loring were not waving by their side."
"now wo worth me but i feared it!" cried she, with the color all
struck from her face. "i have noted your absent mind, your
kindling eye, your trying and rivetting of old harness. consider
my sweet lord, that you have already won much honor, that we have
seen but little of each other, that you bear upon your body the
scar of over twenty wounds received in i know not how many bloody
encounters. have you not done enough for honor and the public
cause?"
"my lady, when our liege lord, the king, at three score years,
and my lord chandos at three-score and ten, are blithe and ready
to lay lance in rest for england's cause, it would ill be-seem me
to prate of service done. it is sooth that i have received seven
and twenty wounds. there is the more reason that i should be
thankful that i am still long of breath and sound in limb. i
have also seen some bickering and scuffling. six great land
battles i count, with four upon sea, and seven and fifty onfalls,
skirmishes and bushments. i have held two and twenty towns, and
i have been at the intaking of thirty-one. surely then it would
be bitter shame to me, and also to you, since my fame is yours,
that i should now hold back if a man's work is to be done.
besides, bethink you how low is our purse, with bailiff and reeve
ever croaking of empty farms and wasting lands. were it not for
this constableship which the earl of salisbury hath bestowed
upon us we could scarce uphold the state which is fitting to our
degree. therefore, my sweeting, there is the more need that i
should turn to where there is good pay to be earned and brave
ransoms to be won."
"ah, my dear lord," quoth she, with sad, weary eyes. "i thought
that at last i had you to mine own self, even though your youth
had been spent afar from my side. yet my voice, as i know well,
should speed you on to glory and renown, not hold you back when
fame is to be won. yet what can i say, for all men know that
your valor needs the curb and not the spur. it goes to my heart
that you should ride forth now a mere knight bachelor, when there
is no noble in the land who hath so good a claim to the square
pennon, save only that you have not the money to uphold it."
"and whose fault that, my sweet bird?" said he.
"no fault, my fair lord, but a virtue: for how many rich ransoms
have you won, and yet have scattered the crowns among page and
archer and varlet, until in a week you had not as much as would
buy food and forage. it is a most knightly largesse, and yet
withouten money how can man rise?"
"dirt and dross!" cried he.
"what matter rise or fall, so that duty be done and honor gained.
banneret or bachelor, square pennon or forked, i would not give a
denier for the difference, and the less since sir john chandos,
chosen flower of english chivalry, is himself but a humble
knight. but meanwhile fret not thyself, my heart's dove, for it
is like that there may be no war waged, and we must await the
news. but here are three strangers, and one, as i take it, a
soldier fresh from service. it is likely that he may give us
word of what is stirring over the water."
lady loring, glancing up, saw in the fading light three
companions walking abreast down the road, all gray with dust, and
stained with travel, yet chattering merrily between themselves.
he in the midst was young and comely, with boyish open face and
bright gray eyes, which glanced from right to left as though he
found the world around him both new and pleasing. to his right
walked a huge red-headed man, with broad smile and merry twinkle,
whose clothes seemed to be bursting and splitting at every seam,
as though he were some lusty chick who was breaking bravely from
his shell. on the other side, with his knotted hand upon the
young man's shoulder, came a stout and burly archer, brown and
fierce eyed, with sword at belt and long yellow yew-stave
peeping over his shoulder. hard face, battered head piece,
dinted brigandine, with faded red lion of st. george ramping on a
discolored ground, all proclaimed as plainly as words that he was
indeed from the land of war. he looked ke
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