Castle Sombras. An historical romance

Front matter

'By the same Author THE ROMANCE OF HISTORY MASANIELLO, PRINCE RUPERT BENYOWSKY, MARINO FALIERO BAYARD, LITHGOW, JACQUE LINE DE LAQUETTE, VIDOCQ LOCHIEL, CASANOVA Second Edition Crown 8vo, printed on antique paper, cloth old style. Price 38. 6d. London : GEORGE NEWNES, Ltd. AN HISTORICAL ROMANCE BV HERBERT GREENOUGH SMITH AUTHOR OF " THE ROMANCE OF HISTORY '' LONDON: GEORGE NEWNES, LTD. SOUTHAMPTON STREET, STRAND i895 CONTENTS Chap. 'Page I. The Camp below the Castle i II. The Spy z6 III. A Lovers' Meeting 50 IV. A Game of Dice 71 V. A Blindfold Duel S5 VI. The Devil's Well 100 VII. Woman's Wit 129 VIII. Misunderstood 153 IX. What Happened in the Chapel 166 X. Thryza's Wedding 1 79 XI. At Bay 191 XII. Thereafter

Chapter I The Camp Below The Castle On

a certain autumn evening in the year 1524, a troop of soldiers had halted before a wayside inn among the wilds of Yorkshire. The captain and the sergeant of the troop had taken up their quarters in the tavern, while the men had pitched their tents upon a space of grass ground opposite, on the other side of the road. Between the tents and the road a huge fire had been kindled, round which most of the soldiers were lying or sitting. Some were engaged in eating, drinking, or cooking, while others were scouring steel caps and I A cuirasses, on which the red glow of the firelight shone like blood. Others, again, came and went among the tents, while from the whole camp arose a noise of talking, laughter, and snatches of rough songs, like the buzz of a colossal hive. A few yards beyond the tavern the road turned abruptly to the left, winding round the base of a steep and lofty crag which towered into the air above it.

On the summit of this crag, far up, stood out the towers and battlements of Castle Sombras, black against the sky. The sergeant of the troop was sitting alone on a bench beside the tavern door, before a rustic table, on which stood an empty flagon. He was a man of five and forty, broad and sturdy, whose rugged features, bronzed by years of active service, were half-hidden by a short, stiff beard beginning to turn grey, and lighted by a pair of keen, black eyes. He wore the steel skull-cap and light armour of a foot soldier, and was armed with a long wheel-lock pistol and a plain sword — made for service rather than for show. For some time the sergeant had been gazing in abstraction at the flagon on the table, too much absorbed in his reflections to perceive that it was empty; but at length, on raising it mechanically to his lips, and thereby discovering its condition, he started from his reverie, and, turning on his bench, shouted for the landlord of the tavern, who instantly made his appearance in the doorway.

The landlord's face was round and fat, and looked as if it ought to have been rosy ; but the fact was that he was not a man remarkable for valour, and the presence of the troops disturbed him greatly ; so that his countenance, which generally resembled a hot coal, now looked as if it had burnt out in ashes. The sergeant pointed to the empty flagon. " Good liquor ! " he said, briefly. " Bring me another of the same." "At your service, captain," replied the landlord, with servility. And taking up the flagon, he disappeared into the house. " Captain, eh ? " said the sergeant, with a chuckle. " I, a plain sergeant, look so like a captain that only a soldier's eye can tell the difference. But," he continued, raising his eyes and looking towards the angle of the road, where a sentinel was pacing to and fro, "it is time the captain himself was back from reconnoitring.

I fear he might have spared himself the pains. Dare-devil though he is, he will hardly find the means of taking Castle Sombras." And, lifting his eyes to the black ramparts perched upon the summit of the crag, the sergeant shook his head. The aspect of the castle might well justify his doubts. The crag on three sides was in many parts sheer precipice ; on the fourth side the ascent was easier, but the narrow, zig-zag pathway that led upwards among rocks and boulders crossed at one point a yawning chasm by a drawbridge, which had only to be raised to render all approach impossible. The castle itself, crouching grim and scowling on the summit, looked as much a portion of the crag as if a giant's hand had hewn it from the living rock. Near the foot of the declivity the sergeant could perceive, among the trees, the white spires of an abbey, on which the castle seemed to frown down darkly, like a demon watching the slumber of a saint.

He was roused from his meditations by the sound of a bugle at no great distance off. " Ha ! " he exclaimed. " Here comes the captain." And a few moments later the sentinel at the angle of the road lowered his halberd and saluted, as the captain, with some half a dozen followers, appeared upon the scene. The captain — Captain Hilary Dare— who now approached his comrade, was a man at whom no stranger, and especially no woman, could avoid a second glance. Not that he was handsome — his features were redeemed from plainness only by their sense of power, by the tranquil courage of the large grey eyes, and by the lustre which shone through them of a spirit to which peril and adventure were as the breath of life. He was somewhat taller than the sergeant ; it would have been difficult to say which was the stronger or more wiry.

His arms resembled his companion's, but, in addition to his sword and pistol, he wore a dagger, and in place of the steel skull piece a flat cap of blue velvet, in the crown of which was a steel plate. As he approached the bench on which the sergeant sat, the latter rose eagerly to meet him. " Well, captain," he inquired, " what tidings ? Is it as we feared ? " " It is, Philip," said the other. " All our information is correct. The bridge across the gulf is closely guarded. One man could hold the place against a thousand." The two men sat down upon the bench, and for some minutes there was silence. The sergeant was the first to break it. " Then it is impossible to storm the castle ? " " Impossible ! " replied the captain, with strong emphasis. "If we could only wait and starve them out ! " " Ha !

" said Hilary. " If we could ! But you know our orders — to take the castle if we can without delay, by force or stratagem, but not to waste above two days in the attempt, before continuing our march to Scotland. We must march to-morrow." " True ! " said the sergeant, regretfully. " Well, it's a pity — a sad pity. To have taken Castle Sombras would have been a feat which would have turned me to a captain in good earnest, and the captain to a major. And Sir John Sombras would have been a noble prize ! " " Noble, truly," said the captain, abstrac tedly. He had unbuckled his sword and thrown off his velvet cap, and was half reclining on the bench, with his elbow on the table and his head supported on his hand. His eyes were fixed upon the camp across the road, but his thoughts were evidently far away.

" An outlaw," continued the sergeant, shak ing his clenched fist at the castle on the crag. " A rebel to the King's authority ! The King would give a jewel from his crown to the man who brought him in a prisoner." " True," said his companion. " Our King — King Henry the Eighth, Heaven save him ! — is not the man to let a bold deed pass without reward. There are two things His Majesty admires with all his heart and soul — a brave man and a fair lady." " True," said Hilary Dare, with the same abstraction as before. " And for my part," said Philip, " I share his tastes. What say you, captain ? " The silence that followed this question roused the captain from his meditations, as silence sometimes does when speaking fails. Withdrawing his gaze from the distance, and turning his eyes on his companion, he inquired : — " What did you say ?

" " Heaven save us ! " cried the sergeant. " He has not heard a word of what I have been saying. I said I share the King's tastes, captain. I love a brave man and a fair lady. What say you ? " " Ah ! " said Hilary, with a prodigious sigh. The sergeant stared at him, astonished. " Why, comrade," he said, clapping him upon the shoulder ; " what is the matter with you ? For the last two days you have been as moody as an owl." " I know it," said the captain. " Indeed, for months you have been an altered man. Why, when I think of our campaign last year — how gay you were, how ready at a bumper or a wild song ! And now, though nothing ails you that I know of, you are always dreaming. You are never happy, except, indeed, when you are fighting. You never smile, except when there is danger to be faced, when your life is in your hand, and when every moment threatens you with death."

" Because it is only at such moments that I am diverted from my thoughts." " Your thoughts ! " repeated the sergeant. " Are they so melancholy ? Why ? " Hilary paused before replying. " Listen," he said at last, with the air of one who takes a resolution. " How long have we known each other, Philip ? " " How long ? " replied the other, after a brief consideration. "It is ten — it is eleven years, since we first fought side by side. Since then, we have lived and fought together. We have scarcely been a day apart. Though you are a captain and I am only a sergeant, we have been more than comrades " "True," said Hilary, extending his hand and clasping the sergeant's in a hearty grasp. " True, Philip, we have been friends. We have had no secrets from each other. Have we ? " " None," replied Philip, returning the pressure cordially, " not one."

" Yes," said the other, slowly ; " one ! " The sergeant stared at him. " What do you mean ? " " I have never spoken of it, even to my oldest friend — not even to you, Philip. But I will do so now. And if you choose to laugh when you have heard my story, why, I will forgive you." He paused for a few moments, during which the sergeant strove to guess what was to follow. Then he asked, abruptly : — " How far is it from here to York ? " " How far from here to York ? " returned the other, wondering what the question had to do with the expected revelation. " A two hours' ride, perhaps. Not more." " A two-hours' ride ! " repeated Hilary. " It is just a year since I have been so near the spot which now awakes my memory so keenly. You remember — but why should I tire you with the maunderings of a man who has chanced, like many a better man before him, to fall in love at first sight with a beautiful face ?

" " But I assure you," said the sergeant, " that nothing could interest me more." He was leaning forward, listening, with eager eyes, like a man whose curiosity is a good deal piqued. The captain, glancing at his face, saw that he was in earnest. He continued : — "You remember when we were at York, last year ? " "Yes, certainly." " You know the old Church of St. Dominic ? " " No," said the sergeant. " No ; not I. Stay ! Was it not opposite the Spade and Spurs ? " " Yes, it was. I thought you would re member it." " Certainly," said the sergeant, with a smile of satisfaction ; " I remember it per fectly. Oh, yes ; I know St. Dominic's. They sell the best mild ale in England at the Spade and Spurs." " Well," said Hilary, continuing, " it was there one day " " At the Spade and Spurs ? " interrupted his companion.

" No ; at St. Dominic's. It was there that I saw one day a young and lovely lady." " Ah ! " said the sergeant, with a world of meaning in his voice. " Our eyes met. We both forgot the sacred office. Love sprang full-blown be tween us in a single instant. When she left the church, I walked behind her. I would have spoken, but for the presence of the old servant who attended her. Next day, I went to church again. She was there also, and again our eyes met. This time, when we left the church, chance favoured us. The old servant, seized with sudden giddiness, was obliged to rest on a stone bench. I hastened up, with offers of assistance. None was needed ; but I seized the chance to whisper a few words of passion in the lady's ear." " And she listened ? " asked the sergeant. "She was not offended ?

" " I spoke with deep respect — with rever ence. She could not be offended." " Well ? " " She consented to let me plead my cause. Next day, at the appointed hour, she stole away to meet me. Our interview was hurried, for she was closely guarded, and delay was dangerous. But vows — lovers' vows of constancy, of deathless adoration — passed between us. Before we parted we arranged to meet again. But when the time arrived, I waited at the meeting-place in vain." " She did not come ? " " She did not come ! " The sergeant shrugged his shoulders and emitted a low whistle. " Fickle ! " he said. " Fickle, like all the rest of them." " Fickle ! " repeated the other, with such a blaze of anger in his eyes that the sergeant stopped the philosophic wagging of the head with which he had accompanied his aphorism, and stared at him, astonished.

"Oh— ho!" he said, " No— no ! Not fickle. A little changeable " " She had been taken away," continued Hilary, as if speaking to himself. " I know neither by whom nor to what place. As to her history, I know nothing, except that her name was Thyrza, and that she was an orphan and the ward of some great noble." " But the most important thing," said the sergeant, after a brief silence, " you have not told me. What was she like ? " His companion drew a deep breath. " Ah, there," he said, " you ask me more than I can answer, Philip. I am a soldier — not a poet." " Beautiful, you say ? " " Most beautiful ! " " Tall ? " " Tall." " Dark or fair ? " " Her skin was fair, but her hair was black, and her eyes dark and full of flame." " Quiet or lively ? " " Both. She was by nature quiet — even shrinking.

But there was a sleeping lustre in her eyes which told, unless I read them falsely, that when roused by passion, she would be capable of the deeds of Joan of Arc." " A fawn, and yet a tigress," said the ser geant, with approval. " I like them so, my self. Well, comrade," he continued, laying his hand upon the other's shoulder, " will you take my counsel ? " " If it be good, I will." "It is good : that I swear. And it is brief, and therefore should be easy." " Well ? " " Forget her. " Ah ! " said the captain, with a face of pain. " You mock me, comrade. But how can I expect that you would understand ? B Below the Castle What words can give a hint of the least of her perfections, when the very eyes that see them cannot do them justice ? Surely never in the world was there a face so sweet and noble !

And the dazzling whiteness of her skin, set off by the jet blackness of her hair !" At this rhapsody the sergeant looked at his companion with wide eyes. " I thought," he said, slowly — " I thought you said that you were not a poet." " If I am," said Hilary, " then all that is required to be a poet is to be in love with such a lady." " I should like to see her, comrade," said the sergeant. A statement so superfluous made the captain smile at its absurdity. As if there ever breathed a man who would not like to see her ! " You sought for her, of course ? " said Philip. " Of course," returned the other. " For days — for weeks — I strove to trace her. All in vain." "Ah," said Philip, musing, "I remember you were queer about that time. I remember your mysterious disappearances at all hours when you were off duty.

We all guessed that it was a love-affair of some kind, of course, but no one dreamed that it was anything in earnest. And you have never found a clue ? " " None — absolutely none. She was gone as utterly as if she had vanished from the earth, as an angel vanishes to Heaven, or at least had disappeared into some spot beyond my reach, as inaccessible, perchance, as yonder frowning donjon." And the speaker indicated with his finger the castle on the crag. There was a dejection in his words and manner which, even in a man of Hilary's ardent and romantic character, showed ex treme intensity of feeling. It was not lost on his companion. " Courage, comrade, courage," he said, with more show of sympathy than might have been expected from a man whom thirty years of military life had hardened into iron.

" You will find her yet. I shall live to dance at your wedding. Mark my words. I am a true prophet — now and then. But," he continued, willing, with a true instinct, to divert the current of his companion's thoughts ; " touching that same donjon yonder ; our worthy host may tell us some thing. Here he comes." " True — true," said Hilary, rousing him self in an instant, and turning to the host, who was setting a flagon before Philip, " What do you know of Sir John Sombras ? Is all true that one hears about him ? Is he so bold, so terrible, so merciless, as all men say ? " The pallid features of the host appeared to turn a shade more ashen at this reference to the owner of the castle, under whom he lived in fear and trembling. Eager though he was to propitiate his guests, he looked round stealthily, as if dreading to be overheard, before replying to the question.

" You see his castle yonder ? " he said, pointing to it. " Yes." " Do you know what it is called ? " " Yes," said Hilary ; " Castle Sombras, is it not ? " The landlord dropped his voice still lower. " We who live here," he said, " know it by another name." " And that is ? " " The Lion's Den." " The Lion's Den," repeated Hilary. " I like the title. And the owner, doubtless, is the lion ? " The landlord shuddered visibly. " He is more terrible than any lion. If you fall into his power, God save you ! " " Amen ! " said Hilary. " But I do not mean to fall into his power." For some moments there was silence, while all three looked upwards at the castle, black as ink against the evening sky. Hilary was the first to speak. " I think," he said, " that if the Devil himself lived in a castle, it would look like Castle Sombras."

The landlord crossed himself. " The Devil does live there," he said. " Hush ! It is not safe to speak of him aloud. He is not only as bold and cruel, but as cunning, as the very fiend himself." "Well," said Hilary, taking Philip's flagon from the table ; " I should like to see him. Here's to our speedy meeting ! " and he took a deep potation in honour of the toast. The landlord was about to make some reply, when the attention of all three was attracted by an incident which was passing at the angle of the road at which the sentinel was posted. A man, coming down the road in the direction in which Hilary had returned from reconnoitring a little while before, had been encountered by the sentry with his halberd lowered and the challenge : " Who goes there ? Halt ! No one passes here." '2 _. Castle Sombras The man thus stopped wore a soft slouched hat, and a long blue cloak reaching nearly to the heels, and carried, slung across his shoulder, the guitar or cithern of a wandering minstrel.

He replied to the sentry's challenge with an air of real or feigned surprise. " What ! I must not pass ! Why, we poor singing vagabonds pass everywhere, and are welcome." " Not here," replied the soldier, curtly. " Come ! Begone ! " And, as the man still hesitated, he thrust the butt-end of his weapon against his breast, so that he recoiled a pace or two. Even then, however, the minstrel showed a strange persistence, which would speedily have brought the weapon's point against him, had not Hilary, raising his voice, shouted to the sentry, "Let him pass." The soldier raised his halberd, and gave right of passage to the minstrel, who, with a sidelong grin of triumph at the sentry, came forward, saying : " Thanks, noble captain ! " Hilary turned to his companion. " What he says is true," he said.

" These wandering minstrels go everywhere. He may have been inside the castle. He may tell us something." " True," said Philip, with approval. And the two waited for the minstrel to come up. As he did so, it was observed that he was a man of apparently about five and thirty, with a complexion almost as swarthy as a Moor's, a cropped black beard, a pair of restless, glittering eyes, and a broad, powerful frame, which his blue robe ill concealed. His expression was one in which a feigned humility seemed struggling with a native pride and arrogance, and not entirely with success — for the whole aspect of the man, not withstanding his manifest desire to conciliate the observers, had something in it which an observant eye would have found singularly forbidding, and, in common parlance, "bad to quarrel with."

The evening light was not, however, favourable to minute examina- Castle Sombras tion, and his appearance excited no unusual interest in two out of the three observers. But with the third — the landlord — the case was widely different. At the first appearance of the minstrel — or, rather, at the first accents of his voice — he had started violently. Then he had remained standing motionless, like a man transformed to stone. " Host ! " said Hilary, without turning. " Bring a flagon of good liquor for this minstrel here." "By your leave, captain," said the minstrel, whose keen black eyes were fastened on the landlord, " I will tell him what to bring." And stepping to the landlord's side, he muttered in his ear, " Hush, fool ! I wish to learn with my own eyes and ears what they are going to do.

One word — a nod- — a glance — and you are lost. Begone ! Re member," he said aloud, tapping the landlord on the breast with his forefinger, " burnt sherry — not canary." The landlord almost staggered towards the tavern door. There he paused an instant and cast a glance of terror over his shoulder at the minstrel. " Good heavens ! " he muttered, under his breath, as he disappeared into the doorway. " It is himself! — it is no vision ! It is Sir John Sombras in disguise ! "

Chapter II The Spy The

pretended minstrel turned to the two soldiers. The little scene had passed without attracting their attention, the burly figure of the minstrel, as for the present we will con tinue to call him, having half concealed the shrinking landlord from their view. It was quite without suspicion, therefore, that he was entertaining his formidable enemy unawares, that Hilary, with a gesture of the hand, invited him to seat himself upon a stool on the other side of the table. " Listen," he said, " and answer clearly what I am going to ask you. Are you of these parts, or are you a stranger here ? " The minstrel bent his keen black eyes upon the soldiers. The Spy " I am a stranger everywhere," he said. 1 I am a wanderer — here to-day, gone to morrow. But I know these parts well." " You know the castle yonder ?

You have been inside it ? " " Often," said the minstrel, readily, " Come, then," said the captain, leaning forward, " you can help us. You know the owner — Sir John Sombras ? " The minstrel hesitated, but only for a moment. " Yes," he said. " That is, I have seen him." " You have been inside the castle ; you have played and sung there, I suppose ? You have had opportunities of making observa tions ? " " Yes." " Consider, then," said Hilary ; " what is their strength ? " The minstrel bent his brows as if in deep reflection. "Forty men-at-arms," he said, at length. "Forty!" cried Hilary. "Be careful, rascal. I know there are not half that number." The minstrel's eyes opened wide, with an air of wonder at the other's anger. " Well, captain," he replied, in a tone of deep simplicity ; " doubtless you know best.

I am no soldier. Do you intend," he con tinued, in the tone of one who asks a casual question in which he takes no lively interest — " do you intend to take the castle ? " The captain laughed a little grimly. " Perhaps," he said. " And to take the owner prisoner, no doubt ? " said the other, still more carelessly than before. " Well, I wish you fortune, captain. I am no soldier ; but I never could have believed that Castle Sombras could be stormed. But perhaps," he added, in a voice of the same easy nonchalance, though his eyes were fixed upon the captain's with a gaze which seemed to read his very soul — "perhaps you mean to starve them out ? " The Spy The captain returned the gaze with equal keenness. " No," he said slowly, narrowly observ ing the effect of his remark. "No, we must march to-morrow."

Then, noting the slight movement which the other had been unable to repress, he added, sharply : "What ! you start ? Why do your eyes gleam ? What matters it to you ? " " Nothing — nothing, captain," returned the other, endeavouring to retrieve his in voluntary error by an exaggerated aspect of humility, and at the same time rising from his stool and twitching the strap of his guitar upon his shoulder, as if minded to resume his journey. But if such were his intention, he was disappointed. " Stay, my friend," said Hilary, rising also, and laying a hand upon his shoulder. " Not so fast. Now you have learnt what you desire to know, you are in too great a hurry to be gone. You should act your part more skilfully." " My part ! " returned the other, with an aspect of extreme surprise. " You have betrayed yourself.

You think of going to the castle with these tidings, for which, no doubt, you expect a rich reward." Then, changing his voice to sudden fierce ness, the captain added, " You are a spy ! " The minstrel scowled under his black brows. " Zounds ! " he muttered, with a snarl like that of a trapped wolf. " A spy ! " repeated the captain. " But spies should be too clever to be caught, and you are caught, my friend." He turned and shouted to the soldiers round the fire. Half a dozen of them came running at the sum mons. " Arrest this man ! " he said. But while the words were in his mouth, and before the troopers could rush across the road, the minstrel had had time to get a start of them. He cast a lightning glance about him, and noted that the sentinel who had barred his passage at the angle of the The Spy road alone prevented him from making a bold rush for freedom.