The White Rose of Langley Part 31

"Where is thy breeding, churl, to use such thewis [manners] with a lady?" demanded little Roger in a scandalised voice.

"Lady!--where is one?" murmured Edmund, whose eyes were still shut.

"Methinks thou art roused now, Nym," said Constance. "But when thou shalt be a knight, I pity thy squire. Haste, lad, rise and busk thee in silence, but make as good speed as ever thou canst Roger, see he turneth not back to sleep. I go to thy sisters."

"Nay, but he will, an' you pluck him not out of bed!" said little Roger, who evidently felt himself unfit to cope with the emergency.

"Thou canst wring him by the nose, then," said Constance, laughing.

"Come, Nym! turn out--quick!" Edmund turned over on his face, buried it in the pillow, and tacitly intimated that to get up at the present moment was an impossibility.

"He'll have another nap!" said little Roger, in the mournful tone of a prophet who foresaw the speedy accomplishment of his tragical predictions.

"But he must not!" exclaimed Constance, returning. "Then you must pluck him out, and set him on the floor," repeated little Roger earnestly.

"'Twill be all I can do to let him to [hinder him from] get in again then--without you clap his chaucers [slippers] about his ears," he added meditatively, as if this expedient might possibly answer.

Constance took the future master of England by his shoulders, and pulled him out of bed without any further quarter. The monarch elect grumbled exceedingly, but in so inarticulate a style that very little could be understood.

"Now, Nym!" said Constance warningly to her refractory and dilatory nephew, "if thou get into bed again, we will leave thee behind, and crown Roger, that is worth ten of thee. By my Lady Saint Mary! a pretty King thou wilt make!"

"Eh?" inquired Edmund, brightening up. "Let be. Go on and busk thee.

Roger! if he is not speedy, come to the door and say it."

Constance went back to the girls. She found Anne nearly ready, but Alianora, who apparently shared the indolent disposition of her elder brother, was dressing in the most deliberate manner, though Maude and Anne were both hastening her as much as they could.

"Now, Nell!" said Constance, employing the weapon which had proved useful with Edmund, "if thou make not good speed, we will leave thee behind."

"Well, what if so?" demanded Alianora coolly, tying a string in the most leisurely style.

"If I have not as great a mind to leave you both behind!"--cried Constance in an annoyed tone. "I will bear away Nan and Roger, and wash mine hands of you!"

"Please, I'm ready!" announced little Roger in a whisper through the crack of the door, in an incredibly short s.p.a.ce of time.

"Why wert thou not the firstborn?" exclaimed the Princess. "I would thou hadst been! What is Nym about?"

"Combing his hair," said Roger, glancing back at him, "and hath been this never so long."

Constance dashed back into the room with one of her quick, impulsive movements, s.n.a.t.c.hed the comb from his dilatory young Majesty, smoothed his hair in a second, ordered him to wash his hands, and to put on his gown and tunic, and stood over him while he did it.

"The saints have mercy on thee, Nym, and send thee a wise council!" said she, half in earnest and half in jest. "The whole realm will go to sleep else."

"Well, they might do worser," responded Edmund calmly.

The two sluggards were ready at last, but not before Constance had lost her temper, and had noticed the unruffled endurance of Anne.

"Why, Nan, thou hast patience enough!" she said.

"I have had need these seven years," answered the maiden quietly.

"Now, Maude, take thou Lord Roger by the hand; and Nan, take thy sister.

Nym, thou comest with me. Lead on, Sir Bertram; and mind all of you-- no bruit, not enough to wake a mouse!"

"It would not wake Nym, then!" said little Roger.

They crept down the stairs of the Beauchamp Tower as slowly and cautiously as they had come. Down to the little postern gate, left unguarded by the careless sentinel, who was carousing with his fellows on another side of the Castle; out and away to the still glade in Windsor Forest, where Maydeston stood waiting with the horses, all fitted with pillion and saddle.

"Here come we, Maydeston!" exclaimed Bertram. "Now, Madam, an' it like your Grace to mount with help of Master Maydeston, will it list you that I ride afore?"

For it was little short of absolute necessity that the gentleman should be seated on his saddle before the lady mounted the pillion.

"Nay--the King that shall be, the first!" said Constance.

Bertram bowed and apologised. He was always in the habit of giving precedence to his mistress, and he really had forgotten for a moment that the somnolent Nym was to be regarded as his Sovereign. So his future Majesty, with Bertram's a.s.sistance, mounted the bay charger, and his sister Alianora was placed on the pillion behind him.

The next horse was mounted by Constance, with Bertram before her; the third by little Roger, very proud of his position, with Maude set on the pillion in charge of her small cavalier, and the bridle firmly tied to Bertram's saddle. Last came Maydeston and Anne. They were just ready to start when Constance broke into a peal of merry laughter.

"I do but laugh to think of Eva's face, when she shall find neither thee nor me," she said to Maude, "and likewise his Highness' gaolers, waking up to an empty cage where the little birds should be."

Maude's heart was too heavy and anxious about the issue of the adventure to enable her to reply lightly.

Through the most unfrequented bridle-paths they crept slowly on, till first Windsor, and then Eton, was left behind. They were about two miles beyond Eton, when a hand was suddenly laid on Constance's bridle, and the summons to "Stand and deliver!" jestingly uttered in a familiar and most welcome voice.

"Ha, d.i.c.kon! right glad am I to hear thee!" cried his sister.

"Is all well, Custance?"

"Sweet as Spanish must [new wine]. But where is Ned?"

"Within earshot, fair Sister," said Edward's equally well-known and deeper tones. "Methinks a somewhat other settlement should serve better for quick riding, though thine were well enough to creep withal. Sir Bertram, I pray you alight--you shall ride with your dame, and I with the Lady Countess. Can you set the Lord Roger afore? Good! then so do.

Lord Sele! I pray you to squire the Lady Alianora's Grace. His Highness will ride single, as shall be more to his pleasure. Now, d.i.c.kon, I am right sorry to trouble thee, but mefeareth I must needs set thee to squire the Lady Anne."

Semi-sarcastic speeches of this kind were usually Edward's nearest approach to fun. The fresh arrangement was made as he suggested; and though little Roger would not have acknowledged it publicly on any consideration, yet privately he felt the change in his position a relief. Lord Richard of Conisborough was the last of the ill.u.s.trious persons to mount, and his squire helped Anne Mortimer to spring to her place behind him. The only notice which Richard outwardly took of her was to say, as he glanced behind him--

"We ride now at quick gallop; clasp me close, Lady Anne."

They were off as soon as he had spoken--at such a gallop as Anne had never ridden in all her life. But she felt no fear, for the one person in the world whom she trusted implicitly was he who sat before her.

During part of the way, they followed the same route which Le Despenser and Bertram had taken five years before; and Bertram found a painful interest in pointing out to Maude the different spots where the incidents of the journey had happened. Meanwhile a dialogue was pa.s.sing between Edward and Constance which the former had expected, and had made his arrangements for the journey with the special view that her queries on that topic should be answered by no one but himself.

"Ned, hast seen my Lord?"

"But once sithence I saw thee."

"How is it with him?"

"Pa.s.sing well, for aught I know."

"Thou didst him to wit of all this matter?"

"Said I not that I so would?"