The Herd Boy and His Hermit | Page 9

their little hearts out, and starving all around unless some good
Christian took pity on them.'
'Was Hal one of these?' asked Lady Anne.
'I tell you, lady, I looked into a church that was full of weeping and
wailing folk, women and children in deadly fear of the cruel,
bloody-minded York folk, and the Lord of March that is himself King
Edward now, a murrain on him!'
'Don't let those folk hear you say so!' laughed Lady Anne. 'They would
think nothing of hauling thee off for a black traitor, or hanging thee up
on the first tree stout enough to bear thee.'
She said it half mischievously, but the only effect was a grunt, and a
stolid shrug of his shoulders, nor did he vouchsafe another word for the
rest of the way before they came through the valley, and through the
low brushwood on the bank, and were in sight of the search party, who
set up a joyful halloo of welcome on perceiving her.
A young man, the best mounted and armed, evidently an esquire, rode
forward, exclaiming, 'Well met, fair Lady Anne! Great have been the
Mother Prioress's fears for you, and she has called up half the country
side, lest you should be fallen into the hands of Robin of Redesdale, or
some other Lancastrian rogue.'
'Much she heeded me in comparison with hawk and heron!' responded
Anne. 'Thanks for your heed, Master Bertram.'

'I must part from thee and thy sturdy pony. Thanks for the use of it,'
added she, as the squire proceeded to take her from the pony. He would
have lifted her down, but she only touched his hand lightly and sprang
to the ground, then stood patting its neck. 'Thanks again, good pony. I
am much beholden to thee, Gaffer Hob! Stay a moment.'
'Nay, lady, it would be well to mount you behind Archie. His beast is
best to carry a lady.'
Archie was an elderly man, stout but active, attached to the service of
the convent. He had leapt down, and was putting on a belt, and
arranging a pad for the damsel, observing, 'Ill hap we lost you, damsel!
I saw you not fall.'
'Ay,' returned Anne, 'your merlin charmed you far more. Master
Bertram, the loan of your purse. I would reward the honest man who
housed me.'
Bertram laughed and said, tossing up the little bag that hung to his
girdle, 'Do you think, fair damsel, that a poor Border squire carries
about largesse in gold and silver? Let your clown come with us to
Greystone, and thence have what meed the Prioress may bestow on him,
for a find that your poor servant would have given worlds to make.'
'Hearest thou, Hob?' said Anne. 'Come with us to the convent, and thou
shalt have thy guerdon.'
Hob, however, scratched his head, with a more boorish air than he had
before manifested, and muttered something about a cow that needed his
attention, and that he could not spare the time from his herd for all that
the Prioress was like to give him.
'Take this, then,' said Anne, disengaging a gold clasp from her neck,
and giving it to him. 'Bear it to the goodwife and bid her recollect me in
her prayers.'
'I shall come and redeem it from thee, sulky carle as thou art,' said
Bertram. 'Such jewels are not for greasy porridge-fed housewives. Hark
thee, have it ready for me! I shall be at thy hovel ere long'-- as Anne
waved to Hob when she was lifted to her seat.
But Hob had already turned away, and Anne, as she held on by Archie's
leathern belt, in her gay tone was beginning to defend him by declaring
that porridge and grease did not go together, so the nickname was not
rightly bestowed on the kindly goodwife.
'Ay! Greasy from his lord's red deer,' said Bertram, 'or his tainted

mutton. Trust one of these herds, and a sheep is tainted whenever he
wants a good supper. Beshrew me but that stout fellow looks lusty and
hearty enough, as if he lived well.'
'They were good and kind, and treated me well,' said Anne. 'I should be
dead if they had not succoured me.'
'The marvel is you are not dead with the stench of their hovel, and the
foulness of their food.'
'It was very good food--milk, meat, and oaten porridge,' replied Anne.
'Marvellous, I say!' cried Bertram with a sudden thought. 'Was it not
said that there were some of those traitorous Lancastrian folk lurking
about the mountains and fells? That rogue had the bearing of a
man-at-arms, far more than of a mere herd. Deemedst thou not so,
Archie?' to the elderly man who rode before the young damsel.
'Herdsmen here are