Chapter 34

King John. I’ll tell thee what, my friend,
He is a very serpent in my way;
And wheresoe’er this foot of mine doth tread,
He lies before me.—Dost thou understand me?
       –King John.

There was brave feasting in the castle of York, to which Prince John had invited those nobles, prelates, and leaders, by whose assistance he hoped to carry through his ambitious projects upon his brother’s throne. Waldemar Fitzurse, his able and politic agent, was at secret work among them, tempering all to that pitch of courage which was necessary in making an open declaration of their purpose. But their enterprise was delayed by the absence of more than one main limb of the confederacy. The stubborn and daring, though brutal courage of Front-de-Bœuf; the buoyant spirits and bold bearing of De Bracy; the sagacity, martial experience, and renowned valour of Brian de Bois-Guilbert were important to the success of their conspiracy; and, while cursing in secret their unnecessary and unmeaning absence, neither John nor his adviser dared to proceed without them. Isaac the Jew also seemed to have vanished, and with him the hope of certain sums of money, making up the subsidy for which Prince John had contracted with that Israelite and his brethren. This deficiency was likely to prove perilous in an emergency so critical.

It was on the morning after the fall of Torquilstone, that a confused report began to spread abroad in the city of York, that De Bracy and Bois-Guilbert, with their confederate Front-de-Bœuf, had been taken or slain. Waldemar brought the rumour to Prince John announcing that he feared its truth the more that they had set out with a small attendance for the purpose of committing an assault on the Saxon Cedric and his attendants. At another time the Prince would have treated this deed of violence as a good jest; but now that it interfered with and impeded his own plans, he exclaimed against the perpetrators, and spoke of the broken laws, and the infringement of public order and of private property, in a tone which might have become King Alfred.

“The unprincipled marauders!” he said—“were I ever to become monarch of England, I would hang such transgressors over the drawbridges of their own castles.”

“But to become monarch of England,” said his Ahithophel coolly, “it is necessary not only that your Grace should endure the transgressions of these unprincipled marauders, but that you should afford them your protection, notwithstanding your laudable zeal for the laws they are in the habit of infringing. We shall be finely helped if the churl Saxons should have realised your Grace’s vision, of converting feudal drawbridges into gibbets; and yonder bold-spirited Cedric seemeth one to whom such an imagination might occur. Your Grace is well aware, it will be dangerous to stir without Front-de-Bœuf, De Bracy, and the Templar; and yet we have gone too far to recede with safety.”

Prince John struck his forehead with impatience, and then began to stride up and down the apartment.

“The villains,” he said, “the base treacherous villains, to desert me at this pinch!”

“Nay, say rather the feather-pated, giddy madmen,” said Waldemar, “who must be toying with follies when such business was in hand.”

“What is to be done?” said the Prince, stopping short before Waldemar.

“I know nothing which can be done,” answered his counsellor, “save that which I have already taken order for. I came not to bewail this evil chance with your Grace, until I had done my best to remedy it.”

“Thou art ever my better angel, Waldemar,” said the Prince; “and when I have such a chancellor to advise withal, the reign of John will be renowned in our annals.—What hast thou commanded?”

“I have ordered Louis Winkelbrand, De Bracy’s lieutenant, to cause his trumpet sound to horse, and to display his banner, and to set presently forth towards the castle of Front-de-Bœuf, to do what yet may be done for the succour of our friends.”


  By PanEris using Melati.

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