Away! our journey lies through dell and dingle,
Where the blithe fawn trips by its timid mother,
Where the broad oak, with intercepting boughs,
Chequers the sunbeam in the green-sward alley---
Up and away!---for lovely paths are these
To tread, when the glad Sun is on his throne
Less pleasant, and less safe, when Cynthia's lamp
With doubtful glimmer lights the dreary forest.
-Ettrick Forest-.
When Cedric the Saxon saw his son drop down
senseless in the lists at Ashby, his first impulse
was to order him into the custody and care of his
own attendants, but the words choked in his throat.
He could not bring himself to acknowledge, in presence
of such an assembly, the son whom he had
renounced and disinherited. He ordered, however,
Oswald to keep an eye upon him; and directed
that officer, with two of his serfs, to convey Ivanhoe
to Ashby as soon as the crowd had dispersed.
Oswald, however, was anticipated in this good office.
The crowd dispersed, indeed, but the knight
was nowhere to be seen.
It was in vain that Cedric's cupbearer looked
around for his young master---he saw the bloody
spot on which he had lately sunk down, but himself
he saw no longer; it seemed as if the fairies
had conveyed him from the spot. Perhaps Oswald
(for the Saxons were very superstitious) might have
adopted some such hypothesis, to account for Ivanhoe's
disappearance, had he not suddenly cast his
eye upon a person attired like a squire, in whom he
recognised the features of his fellow-servant Gurth.
Anxious concerning his master's fate, and in despair
at his sudden disappearance, the translated swineherd
was searching for him everywhere, and had
neglected, in doing so, the concealment on which his
own safety depended. Oswald deemed it his duty
to secure Gurth, as a fugitive of whose fate his master
was to judge.
Renewing his enquiries concerning the fate of
Ivanhoe, the only information which the cupbearer
could collect from the bystanders was, that the
knight had been raised with care by certain well-attired
grooms, and placed in a litter belonging to
a lady among the spectators, which had immediately
transported him out of the press. Oswald, on
receiving this intelligence, resolved to return to his
master for farther instructions, carrying along with
him Gurth, whom he considered in some sort as a
deserter from the service of Cedric.
The Saxon had been under very intense and
agonizing apprehensions concerning his son; for Nature
had asserted her rights, in spite of the patriotic
stoicism which laboured to disown her. But no
sooner was he informed that Ivanhoe was in careful,
and probably in friendly hands, than the paternal
anxiety which had been excited by the dubiety
of his fate, gave way anew to the feeling of injured
pride and resentment, at what he termed
Wilfred's filial disobedience. "Let him wander
his way," said he---"let those leech his wounds for
whose sake he encountered them. He is fitter to
do the juggling tricks of the Norman chivalry than
to maintain the fame and honour of his English ancestry
with the glaive and brown-bill, the good old
weapons of his country."
"If to maintain the honour of ancestry," said
Rowena, who was present, "it is sufficient to be
wise in council and brave in execution---to be boldest
among the bold, and gentlest among the gentle,
I know no voice, save his father's------"
"Be silent, Lady Rowena!---on this subject only
I hear you not. Prepare yourself for the Prince's
festival: we have been summoned thither with unwonted
circumstance of honour and of courtesy,
such as the haughty Normans have rarely used to
our race since the fatal day of Hastings. Thither
will I go, were it only to show these proud Normans
how little the fate of a son, who could defeat
their bravest, can affect a Saxon."
"Thither," said Rowena, "do I =not= go; and
I pray you to beware, lest what you mean for courage
and constancy, shall be accounted hardness of
heart."
"Remain at home, then, ungrateful lady," answered
Cedric; "thine is the hard heart, which
can sacrifice the weal of an oppressed people to an
idle and unauthorized attachment. I seek the noble
Athelstane, and with him attend the banquet of
John of Anjou."
He went accordingly to the banquet, of which
we have already mentioned the principal events.
Immediately upon retiring from the castle, the
Saxon thanes, with their attendants, took horse;
and it was during the bustle which attended their
doing so, that Cedric, for the first time, cast his
eyes upon the deserter Gurth. The noble Saxon
had returned from the banquet, as we have seen,
in no very placid humour, and wanted but a pretext
for wreaking his anger upon some one. "The
gyves!" he said, "the gyves!---Oswald---Hundibert!---
Dogs and villains!---why leave ye the knave
unfettered?"
Without daring to remonstrate, the companions
of Gurth bound him with a halter, as the readiest
cord which occurred. He submitted to the operation
without remonstrance, except that, darting a
reproachful look at his master, he said, "This
comes of loving your flesh and blood better than
mine own."
"To horse, and forward!" said Cedric.
"It is indeed full time," said the noble Athelstane;
"for, if we ride not the faster, the worthy
Abbot Waltheoff's preparations for a rere-supper*
* A rere-supper was a night-meal, and sometimes signified a
* collation, which was given at a late hour, after the regular supper
* had made its appearance. L. T.
will be altogether spoiled."
The travellers, however, used such speed as to
reach the convent of St Withold's before the apprehended
evil took place. The Abbot, himself of
ancient Saxon descent, received the noble Saxons
with the profuse and exuberant hospitality of their
nation, wherein they indulged to a late, or rather
an early hour; nor did they take leave of their
reverend host the next morning until they had
shared with him a sumptuous refection.
As the cavalcade left the court of the monastery,
an incident happened somewhat alarming to,
the Saxons, who, of all people of Europe, were most
addicted to a superstitious observance of omens,
and to whose opinions can be traced most of those
notions upon such subjects, still to be found among
our popular antiquities. For the Normans being
a mixed race, and better informed according to the
information of the times, had lost most of the superstitious
prejudices which their ancestors had brought
from Scandinavia, and piqued themselves upon
thinking freely on such topics.
In the present instance, the apprehension of impending
evil was inspired by no less respectable a
prophet than a large lean black dog, which, sitting
upright, howled most piteously as the foremost
riders left the gate, and presently afterwards, barking
wildly, and jumping to and fro, seemed bent
upon attaching itself to the party.
"I like not that music, father Cedric," said Athelstane;
for by this title of respect he was accustomed
to address him.
"Nor I either, uncle," said Wamba; "I greatly
fear we shall have to pay the piper."
"In my mind," said Athelstane, upon whose
memory the Abbot's good ale (for Burton was already
famous for that genial liquor) had made a
favourable impression,---"in my mind we had better
turn back, and abide with the Abbot until the afternoon.
It is unlucky to travel where your path
is crossed by a monk, a hare, or a howling dog,
until you have eaten your next meal."
"Away!" said Cedric, impatiently; "the day
is already too short for our journey. For the dog,
I know it to be the cur of the runaway slave Gurth,
a useless fugitive like its master."
So saying, and rising at the same time in his
stirrups, impatient at the interruption of his journey,
he launched his javelin at poor Fangs---for
Fangs it was, who, having traced his master thus
far upon his stolen expedition, had here lost him,
and was now, in his uncouth way, rejoicing at his
reappearance. The javelin inflicted a wound upon
the animal's shoulder, and narrowly missed pinning
him to the earth; and Fangs fled howling from
the presence of the enraged thane. Gurth's heart
swelled within him; for he felt this meditated
slaughter of his faithful adherent in a degree much
deeper than the harsh treatment he had himself
received. Having in vain attempted to raise his
hand to his eyes, he said to Wamba, who, seeing
his master's ill humour had prudently retreated to
the rear, "I pray thee, do me the kindness to wipe
my eyes with the skirt of thy mantle; the dust
offends me, and these bonds will not 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 his 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.
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