The Gleaming Dawn. A romance of the Middle Ages

Preface

It is often customary with an historical romance to give the authorities upon which the fiction is founded ; but in this case, it will be sufficient to state that the works studied before writing this novel were mostly contemporary and documentary, and that at this period of history, fierce and romantic incident so abounds, that imagination is outbid by fact. All the scenes wherein the action takes place, with one exception, have been visited, and most of the principal characters were very real men and women of the 15th century. May the verdict upon this book be that they are alive again in its pages. Clifton, Nove}>iber, 1896. PAGE i 64 CONTENTS

Chapter I Which Telleth Whence

I AM AND WHO I AM WILL the world ever wot aught of all the wild fury that hath encompassed our lives ? Nay, verily, I mean not the world, but those far away in our English home. The world hath heard of the fury, and hath felt its power ; but as I sit here in this little room on the walls, against which ballista and catapult have hurled in vain their ponderous shot, my thoughts go back to the Lincoln village, my boy hood's home. Pardie ! the days there were sweet, and we knew it not ; and I fain would that the dwellers in and around the old homestead might some day know all the hot life' we have lived since we left that hill above the plain land, and journeyed on down to Oxford ; little recking of how that journey was to be the B entrance into the wide world. By're lady an had we known, we might have shrunk from going onward.

Master Peter would have halted and he had not turned volteface ; for he would have considered the matter ; but step by step we have gone on and on, into fierce dangers and bloody scenes, when we thought that fight on the Oxford road was surely a bloody battle, and it was naught, bills and staves and naught more cruel or deadly, but such weapons that deal blows that a man can lightly ward, but let me not wander on thus without order. To the beginning in this my history ; aye, and the history of a time for discovery and cunning devices, and for hot, quick life, the like will never more be seen. But lest these writings fall into the hands of strangers, and never reach the old home, let me set down clearly here at the beginning, who I am that here write, from whence I am, a stranger in a strange land ; and wherefore I set all these acts down in clear words such as I can command.

And let the last be first here also, let the wherefore come before the whence I am, and who I am, for then peradventure the mighty deeds we have witnessed will awake curiosity even in strangers' minds in the ages to come, should these writings fall into the hands of some of our countrymen. For have not we, a small band of Englishmen, fought through such a time in the world's history, as shall never be again ? And our own people know naught of how we have WHICH TELLETH WHENCE I AM AND WHO I AM 3 bled and suffered, in prisons oft and in battles yet more oft, for freedom's sake ; not of body, though that has been denied many of us, but of soul, of thought. And some of the hardest blows have been dealt us by our own countrymen, who in pay of Holy Church have striven to crush this fierce wuthend race, that the steady, cool courage of we islanders have helped to continue in a straight road to freedom.

And these same countrymen of ours will doubtless take back to our home tales of the race of savages amidst whom we live, and of our ungodliness ; and so their chil dren's children shall deem us also ungodly and liars : for, and we set it not down in words, this account of our adversaries will be all they shall hear of our death combats for the right ; and this, then, is the wherefore I write, looking out from these towered walls of the town of Saaz, over the flat land, away to the mountains that hide the western road, away to the sea that washes England's shores. And now as to the whence I am. It was upon an upland looking out over the low fen country of that England (God protect it in the ages) that I was born. As I write the words how my heart yearns to look out from that hill-top once more.

I could give my right hand, could my left but wield a battle-axe or a sword, to stand there once more as the setting sun lights up our church tower walls on the hillside, with its old, old round tower, that told us of Saxon times, ere the Norman swept up through the Fenland to our Lincoln home. Just beyond the church stood the great manor house that caught the sun's rays ere he could light up the east window of the church. All round it gleamed the waters of the moat, and its strong walls had been a refuge in troublous times, when the drawbridge was drawn up and robber bands had to pass by without booty from its chambers. And our own homestead lay just beneath it, for was not my father, John Penn ing (I bear the same name), bayley to Edward Payne of the manor, but a free man with land and labourers of his own, and doing service to the Squire for pay ment in land and markes, renting fields for the pasturage of his own cattle, but going with his own men under the banner of the Squire to the wars when the king commanded.

For Master Payne was Knight of the Shire of Lincoln, and thus in duty bound to help the king loyally in all his wars. There were two children born in our little village of Hough on the hill that lyeth not far from the great town of Grantham in Lincolnshire, in the year of grace 1380; for Mistress Payne was brought to bed of her son Peter in that self same year that I was born ; and though nature hath laid the table for two babes, yet in Mistress Payne's case she had provided but scant fare, and so it came about that I, John Penning, and the Squire's son were nurtured at the same breasts, and into our ears were poured all the WHICH TELLETH WHENCE I AM AND WHO I AM 5 dread stories of the troublous times, when the peasantry rose against nobles and king, and men asked why Christ's teaching was hidden under false words of priest and prelate.

In truth the times were hard and fearsome, but we grew up, did Master Peter and myself, into straight lads, able to draw a bow, and twirl a staff, and swing a sword with the tallest on the land. And now Master Peter lived in his own home, and I in mine ; but there was much love between us, and ofttimes for days together we roamed the hillside and fenland, snaring and shooting wild-fowl ; but he was aggrieved at my skill, for my arrow would strike true on the bill of the bird or its head. And when we brought our day's work into hall, his mother and his sister would cull my birds from his, and laugh at his unskill, for he had spoiled good flesh by sending his bolt through it. It was his sister's laughter that galled him most, the fair Ethelred ; and it was her praise I loved to hear ; for her voice was very sweet and low, so tender and full of music like a lute's low note when strings are softly touched.

I see the old manor now, its drawbridge across the wide, deep moat, wherein fish were plenty. Its flank ing gate and inner long court, with great hall running along one side thereof. The living chambers filling in the ends of this courtyard. Oft have I ate of good cheer in that hall, when the steam of the feast rose up to the dark old timbers of the roof; and looked at the upper end of the hall where Master Payne sat with Mistress Payne by his side, and his sons and daughter near him, and his neighbours, and ofttimes a friend from afar, for none rode in over that drawbridge and went away again ere Mistress Payne had set food before them, an she feasted them not. Strangers were hospitably treated, but the times were evil, and it was with a wary eye that passing travellers were greeted ; for many a homestead and many a manor had been attacked in our country for booty, and none knew but he who was fed in the morning might not return at night with a following, to enforce payment for his good company.

And when we rode along the droves and tracks that led away to Grantham town, we had to guard a sharp outlook ; for these lesser roads none looked after now, and all the broad pasturage by the roadside was over grown with brambles, and treeachs, and undergrowth ; so that a man might be called on to stand in the gloaming, ere he knew he was in danger ; or a bolt might whizz past his head, and start his horse into a gallop, and lucky then for him if his steed was a swift one. But we heeded little of these things in our young days, I and Master Peter ; and in our near rambles in the home meads, ofttimes in summer and in autumn would his fair sister be with us, and with no covering to her fair, soft hair, that, gathered be hind, hung in rich, glinting, golden tresses over her WHICH TELLETH WHENCE I AM AND WHO I AM 7 shoulders.

How round and faintly ruddy were her cheeks, and how soft yet full of mirth her blue eyes ! bluer than our summer skies in Lincoln. What right had I to look upon her — her father's servant's son ! Yet had I and Master Peter grown up together, and as children and lads striven together. Nay, and I, as the stronger and bulkier lad, had been entrusted by Mistress Payne with the care of her son when we roved farther afield than in the home meads. And so, though I was but a yeoman's son, yet had I the friendship, aye, and love, of the Squire ; and when Master Peter learnt to read and spell out some Latin of the parish priest, I was allowed to sit by him, and it seemed to me a pleasant thing to know more than my father had known before me, and I treasured up all I could gather of this book lore. But as the time grew on, and the work on my father's fields and bartons grew on me, or I to that, I had like to have lost this near friendship, had not a thing happened that changed my whole life's course.

It was in the year 1396 — some eight years after our King Richard had taken the power into his own hands, and by his sternness had got some sense of order in the land, though all the world seemed in a ferment and seething. We heard but little of these matters in our quiet corner of Lincolnshire, but a wandering friar, or cheating pardoner, would bring us word sometimes of how men's faith in Church and king were shaken. And but two years agone we had heard of how the king took no consolation for the death of his good Queen Anne of Bohemia, but now he was away in France to wed another wife, Isabella. Our worshipful Master Payne had been summoned upon urgent and hasty business upon a long and toilsome journey to London, and all things devolved upon Mistress Payne ; for Master Peter thought more of his books than of his herds and flocks, or his men or maidservants — not but these latter were beginning to make him look at them, and they were cheerful and comely ; even I myself found my eyes halting when a fair, rounded maiden was near me.

But Master Peter loved his books, and his brother was but young yet, and most of our elder men had ridden with the Squire, for the roads were dangerous, and in many parts there were companies of peasants that lived by plunder, or, what was worse to armed men, men of standing, who faltered not to ride forth and attack a company of travellers, or even a house, if booty was to be got. So it came about that I was to sleep at the Hall until the master's return, and take upon me some of his overlooking — for though but sixteen years of age yet I rose up to a fair height of some five feet nine inches, and was not of slight build but hardy. And many took me for nigh on twenty, for I was staid for my years.

Chapter II The Attack On The Hall

It was with some joy and pride that I took to my task, and waited each morning upon Mistress Payne for her commands and guidance ; and all went on in a quiet calm, until one day I marked how young Robert Daubeny, our near neighbour, had been walking over our meads in an intrusive manner, and his two serving-men with him. Now this same Daubeny (or, leastways, his father), was at feud with Squire Payne for years past, and some said that he had treated with Master Payne to insure his daughter to young Robert when they were children. But Mistress Payne liked not the match, and would rather the child should grow into maidenhood and have some wit of him to whom she was insured ere she was espoused ; and this refusal of Mistress Payne to grant her daughter unto the Daubenys had aroused their enmity, and they had started afresh the old calumny that some of the Paynes' land was by rights Daubeny territory ; and it was on this debateable land that I had seen Master Robert swaggering past me as though the land was his own.

But when I told Mistress Payne of his arrogance, she answered me, " Anger him not, John ; for they be in fearsome straits for money and men, and none can tell what desperate men may attempt." I did not understand her words, but had heard often that Daubeny was not a king's man, but was very bitter against Lollardy, though none too ready with obedience to the Church's teaching in the matter of good living, and somewhat overfond of coveting other men's lands and goods, and obtaining them by fair means or foul — by the dice-box or force — but fortune had played him foul with gaming, and he was said to be in desperate straits. It was near sundown on a November afternoon, about a week after I had met young Robert Daubeny, when we were hoping to have some news of Squire Payne and his London journey, when there rode into the courtyard a serving-man who bore a message from the Squire that he had arrived safely upon his journey, and was housed at Master Souter's, in the Fleet, and would write anon when he knew of a trusty messenger riding North.

The man said he was riding to York, and had been entrusted with this errand. He rode but a sorry nag, but was well equipped in himself with haubergeon and salet, and armed with short axe and dagger. I liked not the man — he looked about him as he stood in the hall with ferret-like looks — but Mistress Payne bade meat be set before him, and begged he would stay till the morn, as night was falling ; and naught would do but I must take his head-piece, and lighten him of his jacket, that he might be the more in comfort. My questioning, when Mistress Payne had left the hall, led but to doubtful replies, and I found the man knew naught but his message, and that not always the same. So when the maids strewed the rushes for his bed and brought in the coverlets, I had two beds made, that I might keep watch on the messenger from the master ; for all he had told us we knew already, save that we knew not if the Squire had reached the end of his journey.

At eight of the clock the drawbridge was drawn, as it ever hath been, and our well-fed messenger lay himself down to sleep, and I not far from him ; which he liked not, for he asked me if I ever slept in the Hall ? to which I answered, " when the times needed it." He had made excuses to go through the hall, and to the servers' rooms, and I had noted he lingered by the wheel wherewith the drawbridge was raised. In the morning he left us, riding northwards, and yet the man's speech was Lincoln. And that night a strange thing happened, that set us all agog with dread ; for as young Gregory Topps was drawing up the bridge, it fell with a crash when half-tilted. I ran to the door and looked out to see if aught from with out had caused the mishap, but all was still ; but on seeking the cause further I found the rope — and that nigh upon new — -was frayed and worn to one or two strands, as though rubbed with a file or other hard instrument.

I called Master Peter to look, but he laughed and said a mouse or rat had done it ; but I would not be so satisfied. " All the men sleep in Hall to-night," I cried; "and take heed our weapons are at hand." We had good store of both longand cross-bows for each man to handle, and axes and swords, and a lance or two wherewith to push men from the door from the lancets, should they draw near to force entrance. Master Peter laughed at my care, but his brother Edward entered into the provision for defence ; whilst Mistress Payne was overheard to tell her daughter Ethelred, that I did well to be on our guard, though she thought the man who brought the message an honest man. I sent young Harry Halman over to my father's house ere night fell that he should let some of his younger men pass the night with. us, and three came, nothing loth to have good cheer in Hall, by name John Jackman, Nicholas Hyat, and Absalom Millet ; and with four of the Hall men we were a garrison of nine or ten, and we had one soldier amongst us we did not reckon in our company, that did more than all of us at the right nick o' time.

We had got the bridge drawn with a new rope and all quiet and night fallen, when a " hallo " from the other side of the moat called me to the look-out window, and I saw in the cloudy night two on horse back, who hailed me that they were travellers to York, who had mistook their road, and would fain ask if this were the house of Master Edward Payne ; if so, could he entertain them for the night, that they and their horses might rest. I answered by asking their names and whence they came, and as I did so I saw figures creep out of the darkness, and one threw a long pole with a hook at the end on to the drawbridge ; and I saw them pull at it, thinking the -worn rope would give and the bridge would fall. I gave a cry to my men, and Master Peter ran up the door turret steps to where I stood. " Get thy cross-bow and shoot truer than in the meads," I cried, as I saw the figures recede, for I knew they were gone to get planks to bridge our narrow moat.

I hastened down to the lower rooms of the flanking door, where I could use my long bow that would pierce a coat of mail ; but first I called up my men and posted them on either side, and sent one to the top of each tower to hurl stones, of which we happened to have a goodly store, though small, in the courtyard. Four of our men had axes, and I and Master Peter and young Edward swords; but I prayed the Holy Trinity it would not come to this ; our quarrels must keep the men out, for Mistress Payne's sake. She was quickly in hall, and sent her daughter Ethelred to bring the store of arrows ready for use, and then go to her room ; but whilst she stood we heard a dull thud outside, and I hastened to my post and prayed for the clouds to sweep away that I might take aim aright at the robbers. But on my side I could see naught, and all was still, when suddenly with a crash the drawbridge fell, and I saw a figure fall with it into the moat.

Master Peter had winged him, but too late. He had got across, I could see now, upon a thin young tree, and had clambered up to the pulleys of the drawbridge and had hacked our new rope in twain. But I had scarce time to think out this when with a rush from the darkness and a yell came on nearly a dozen men. With a shout to my men I drew three shots into their midst, and a flight of arrows from the gate and some stones from above staid them ; but four or five got across, and their axe-blows fell fast on the stout oaken door. Flattened as they were against it under the deep stone arch our shot passed them, and I rushed for the lances dreading they were too short. Their blows were quicker and quicker. I called to young Hyat and Jackman to stand by and shoot from the first aperture their axes made.

One lance was just long enough to reach them, but not to do much harm. I leant out with my arms to pierce the nearest, and an arrow whizzed past me from the other side of the moat, showing others were waiting for the doors to yield. "Almighty Jesu ! " I thought, "an they break through and do harm to Mistress Ethelred ! " My blood surged within me, and I rushed across the hall to the other tourelle, where Master Peter was helpless ; but they did not expect my lance on that side, and I struck one man just under the neck ; but still the axe-blows fell, when a rush of steaming water came down upon them from above, and with a sudden yell all the men sprang back and our men shot home and three fell, and another rushed for cover. I snatched a cross-bow from young Millet's hands and winged him as he gained the other side of the moat.

Quick as thought I crossed the hall, got my long-bow and bounded to the top of the tower. By our blessed Mother of God there stood Mistress Ethelred and a serving-wench with another great pot of scalding water ready to hurl on the next comers. How I praised God for her foresight, but looked eagerly out ; in good luck I did so, for I saw three or four figures steal across, and my shaft followed them, aye, and tripped one at least in his run, or his shriek meant nothing. Would the moon had got atwixt the clouds ; I had perchance had more game to my bow. I thought not of Mistress Ethelred nor of myself, for I was standing fully up above the battlements when an arrow whizzed between her head and that of the maid's. I crushed her down beneath the parapet, the first time since boyhood my hands had rested on her, and I looked out toward whence the bolt had come, but could see naught.

My heart beat quicker than it had done as I watched like a sleuth hound. My God ! if I could go down and hunt the wretch that nigh had slain my mistress's daughter ; and as I watched I thought I saw a movement on the ground as of a body low on its belly. I watched, it was as a log. I watched still, with thumb on mine arrow ; it moved ! and in a second I saw it spring upright as the good bolt pierced it. I thanked God for that shot as I have never thanked God more earnestly for a shot since, though many a man has had need to rue my old Lincoln shooting. Still I waited ; but naught else moved, and I turned to Mistress Ethelred ; but she and the wench had crept down from the tourelle stairs. Again I looked forth from the tower, but all now was still, and I too followed them into the hall. One axe-blow had pierced the door, and we should need another rope, but that was all the hurt on our side ; but " we shall want to go grave-digging in the morning," I said, as we all gathered together in the hall ere I sent two to keep watch on either tower until morning broke.

When the knaves had gone to their posts and some to lie down in kitchen and outbuilding within cry, Mistress Payne with her daughter by her hand walked across to me ; she held forth her right hand, and I doffed my cap ere taking it, doubtful ; for though she had cuffed me as a boy, she had ne'er yet given me her hand as a friend ; but still she held it forth, and I took it, and she pressed mine warmly as she said : " The master will reward thy courage." " Nay, nay," I said heartily ; " but the courage of thy daughter saved us ; her forethought and the boil ing water, just in the nick o' the moment." Then Mistress Ethelred let go her mother's hand and reached her soft white palm, all trembling, forth to mine ; but mine dropped by my side, till the sight of it nerved me, and I felt that little, tender, yielding hand in my own, and I trembled more than I had in the fight, and said naught ; I felt the hand with drawn but not the touch of it, that bided with me. Aye, I feel it now as I now lay down my pen, all these long years after that glorious night. C

Chapter III Oxford Ward And The Raid Of The Men Of Berk'ele

Y. ERE the sun had risen I and Master Peter and three of the knaves let down the bars from the door, and drew the beam that had stood us in good stead, and sallied out. Lying deep in the water was the bold fellow that had clambered on to the bridge and cut the rope. We hooked him out, and then went to the other side and found three others lying in the wet dew that was red with their blood ; one wretch was scalded badly about the face with Mistress Ethelred's cooking water, small wonder he had shrieked in his agony ; further afield were two others, furthest of all he that had crept on his belly and sent the shot nigh her head. Thus we had six graves to make ; but we lightened the matter by making one, just below the moat, between our wall and the churchyard, not to give them holy ground.1 1 The sexton living in 1890 discovered near here the skeletons of several bodies lying in one grave, a fact which archæologists could not explain, but which this history makes clear.

IO, I warned the men to tell the women-folk naught of all this, or the wenches would dream the wraiths of the men would haunt them. Inwardly I liked not that Mistress Ethelred should know how her hand had injured any one. We found naught on the men to lay bare whose men they were, all foreigners to our parts ; they might be but a band of marauders living on plunder, but I had my dubious thoughts that Master Daubeny knew somewhat of this attack, but I held my peace thereon. Was it booty they sought, or was it the body of Mistress Ethelred to hold in bond, and was that arrow sent for her heart because they were e'en foiled of their prey ? If it were so I had not to complain of that night's work, for when Master Peter was to go to Oxford in the next year, nothing would do but I must go with him, for he had not been in health of late ; and when Master Payne had returned from London town, and had heard of our exploits, he had asked me what I would and in his power he would grant it : but I had asked naught, and now came this request that I should go to Oxford and become a learned man to watch over Master Peter, though from what I had heard from wandering friars, I was more like to learn fighting than much learning, save that I shut myself off my fellows, that I was not like to do, though Master Peter might.