The Young Visiters or, Mr. Salteena's Plan

hat grew hottish amongst the flowering bushes. He thought to himsel

hts went

fire rustled down, and the great banners drooped over the tumult, his blood leapt for a moment. But her hair he remembered in its filaments and it blotted out the blue sea that lay below his feet and was more golden than the gold of the broom flowers and the gorse that surrounded him. He thought that, first, he must have the sanction of the Bishop Pal

, she sat looking at him with a queer glance.

bide? Was it with th

d her face exp

e say that I did bide, to save my name?" for he kn

rivener of Embro' could be found to take your bond for a thousand marks. And ye shall send fif

wered, without either j

g voice, "I knew ye had been among the witch-wives; and sh

my face?"

he very still water of old grey rock-pools

t be so," h

n your dad," she cried. "All th

d at her

son?" he said. "That was my fat

side her washing board at the edge of the pool. "They found witch marks upon her. They should have drowned the chil

the Young

the way to the faggots, for they burnt her. And without it, how could he have made his marvellous booties, riding thro' the land of France, from how 'twas to how 'twas, and sacking the marvellous rich and walled cities? And I had thought to have saved you from these hussies, seeing that you might well be of a better race, your mother being of a German house and the Almains, as all the world tells, being foul and dirty in their lives, but almighty pious so that nine crucif

hat I now have to consider is how to take my mother

e I had hopes of you. For your sisters, they were all black Ruffyns, bitter and

aid, "how long may my mother live and abide

d angels holding candles at each corner. And for what was in the chest-the stores of gowns, the furs of zibelline and of marten, the golden chains joining diamond to diamond and pearl to pearl! ... And now she lieth upon a little pallet, and here, upon these bushes, is drying all the linen that she hath. The one gown of scarlet is all that there is for her back, except for the great slit coat that they have given her for fear that she die of the cold. And her little dog Butterfly is all that she hath for comfort, that sits in her sleeve.... But yet I t

?" the Young Lovell asked, "I think that ancie

ree score and twelve years was. For you know that these ladies have never spoken together nor written broad letters since your grandfather Dacre died, and your father, on the day the funeral was, was sacking the castles and houses that were your mother's inheritanc

ell stood up

to get together twenty or thirty lusty bachelors and so we might have burst into this Castle of mine. But if my mother may st

asten all ye may for the sake of

y what is this?"

with the haste and her master's strange looks she did no

that purpose. Richard Bek and Robert Bulmer, poor squires, or almost of the degree of yeomen, had always been captains of the White Tower and in it the dead Lord Lovell had kept his marvellous store of gold-as much as four score thousand French crowns, more or less-and all these were theirs still, with such strong cannon as might well batter down the Castle; only Richard Bek would not do th

e keep the best wine for the last, but

arts, that had been grazing, and when he was on that hors

upon this great horse; for I think my kin will very s

him with a surl

rom thy sisters and their men I may as well go hang, for my occupation will

w. But because the Young Lovell knew that land so well, he threaded Hamewarts between bog and soft places, calling the notes of the chase to hasten him. Thus the great horse breathed deep and made large bounds. And the Young Lovell thought that times were not all that they should be when every footman must run from every gentle upon a horse and upon Lovell ground. For either that man was a felon, which was not unlike, or he feared that the gentle

ith running and leaping. The Young Lovell sat still and looked down upon the hind, for he was never a lord of much haste. And afterwards, the man, with his face still amo

asked him how he came by his three shillings, he said th

h a knave as you, for docking me of my dues, I have never known. You should pay me twelve pence and fiv

ing his arm above his head to shield his eyes from the sun he ga

he said, "ye are

s answer, "get up and kiss my

lst he did his homage and sai

my horse-boy's brother you woul

uld Hugh Raket be away on the hills after a strayed sow or goose, and Richard, his brother, would beg him off from the Young Lovell. Nevertheless, from time to time, the Young Lovell would take a couple or two of hens from him by force, for this

rrup leather and you may have its aid as far as that town is. And, if hidden hereabouts-for you hold this land of me-you have any sword or crossbow or pike or such arms as naughty knaves like you are fo

ng had ordered that none of the simple people, unless they bought a licence

for thyself the pike, I will call thee my man-at-arms, and so you shall have licence to keep all the arms you will in your own steading, which shall much comfort you when you think of the false Scots in the night-time." And at that, calling out, "O joy!" and duck

hree foot long and armed with a hook such as the common sort use in battles to pull knights from off their horses. Bundled together in his arms were a Genoese cross-bow, a great sword and a little dagger, whilst slung across his back was a leather bag filled with such heavy steel quarrels and bolts as should fit the cross-bow. Thes

Marches and had some Genoese and many gentlemen to help him, though he had not made much of it. The little target had certainly been taken from the Scots, for it was such a one as the Murra

ut the Young Lovell never heeded him till the husbandman spoke; h

een until he spoke and asked the Young Lovell whether he should indeed have leave to bear

id: "Give me the great sword and the dagger. I will ma

intent upon his

rms," he said, "I shall

s sword and he hung the dagger from the belt. He drew the sword from the scabbard to se

used this sword in gentle feats

, "I will not say that; cudg

id. "But now take my stirrup leather and l

of the Comb and Corbit Jock had called the bondsmen of the Castle Lovell together, and of how they had said that in the absence of the Young Lovell they would pay no heriots, nor yet hens, nor yet bolls of wheat. So, when the bailiff of the Castle had come among th

standing upon a little mound at the head of the village. From here these things had been read from time immemorial, even to the oldest ages when it had been called the Wise Men's Talking-place. The lawyer Stone had told them that the heritage of the old Lovell had fallen to those three, the Decies, called now Young Lovell and the husbands of the ladies Isopel and Douce. They had, the lawyer read, fyled a suit against

cunning ones had met him courteously, and said that, for a suit of sorcery, a Warden's Court could not foul or find a bill. It must go before a court of the Bishop Palatine. They had great respect for the Lord Warden, but so it was and his court was only for raidings in the Marches. And for the dispossession of a barony that could on

and pence and whatever was rightfully to be had of them. But first they must be assured of what the King said in his council. E

een cast out of his dwelling in the King's Tower and had gone to live at Beal-but it was a new b

Castle and had gone to the byres of the poor widow of Mart

her all the bondsmen and their sons, and the number of sixty-seven men and all the women had come, being ninety in number, and the more noisy because it was a woman and a widow that the

places all their arms, and had them ready. But the people from the Castle never came again; without doubt they t

the White Tower and still faithful to the Young Lovell would issue behind them into the Castle with their cannons, and so, if they might not take the

op where the heather and marshy ground ceased. They saw before them great plains of green grass with people going about everywhere, and there

t in building, was a little to the South, near the wood called Newlands. Further to the South was the little hamlet of Lucker. He cast his eyes behind him and he frowned. For, apart from the sea and the sky, the two Castles and the islands set in

am, and so they were taking him there. Hugh Raket thought that it was a folly to make such matter of a felon. Let them hang him to the first tree and ride back. For this appeal, before th

eir courts, but hung every man that came before them, it would be much better; for then there would be none of this monstrous ou

s cunning bondsman and gave him all his mind. And then it speedily appeared to him that it was this fellow that had really moved in the resistance to the bailiff, and that Barty of the Comb and Corbit Jock had

ts and what not to the bailiff of the false pretenders, they would have none wh

a great lord, proclaimed with drums upon his hill, he is no person for such scum and vermin as ye are to protest against, or against whom to cry out to lawyers. It is for you to do your services to those whom God for the time sees fit to set over you, and to our Lord the King and the Prince Bishop and the

s, he mumbled that they were very poor folk and could never pay two set

none dare ever come against ye to take what ye have by right or what ye have falsely stolen. I have had complaints against ye, in my father's time, that, in one winter season, you and Barty of the Comb and the other Milburns and Jock Corbit and his fellows and others that are upon my lands, with fellows from Haltwhistle, and God only knows where or under whose leadership (thoug

that he had had ver

ll I know that when ye should have assoiled yourselves by arms, it was my armourer that had made the arms ye wore, and so war-like did ye appear that none came into the field against ye, the complainers being mostly Scots widows that ye had made. God keep and save me!

better course before the visible anger o

bondsmen and my Castle very strong? Where should ye be if I had no lead upon my roofs, and the rain and frost destroyed my towers? Ye would be men undone, for the false Scots would come burning and slaying, and the Lords Percy should take

pon his knees befor

hould not pay ye all that we owe. Then indeed were we al

rder ye might well profit, murder me ye would, you an

with his hands held up, and

d token of Antichrist, the dragon of Satan, the basilisk of death, and the aspic of the sinner that shut his ears to the teachings of life. And have I not seen all these trampled beneath the feet of the Saviour in stone set upon the church door? And shall I be like unto the aspic and pass from life to hell ... the aspic that shutteth his ears? Alas, no! I do know that there are set over me, God and

d Lovel

ur lesson, the mass prie

ce was softened, and hoping, by means of his brothe

or a half tithe; then Sir John, the mass priest, for a whole. Then there are the market dues of Belford-for God His piteous sake, ah gentle lording, set us up here in Castle Lovell a market where we may sell toll free-we of the Castle. Now if I will sell some bolls of wheat and ship them to the Percies at King's Lynn, I must pay river dues at Sunderland according to the brass plate that is set in the Castle wall at Dunstanburgh. And if I pay that due it is claimed of me again a second time by the Admiral of the Yorkshire

is great hatred, and partly because he knew his lord did not love this Ear

dsman. But the Young Lovell heard only parts of what the peasant said, for he was nearly los

filthy barn leaning against my Castle wall, and before the barnekyn a heap of dung and a shed that might harbour five goats. The whole is not worth to him ninepence by the year, and it is far from his house and of no use to him. Yet, though I would well and willingly buy this of him, and my father would have bought it of his father that there we might have a market holden, ye know very well that this Corbit Jock will not sell and I have no power to take it from him. For, though I might get a broad letter from the King in his Council to take this mound by force, and to pay him full value, yet such a letter must cost me much gold, and it is doubtful if the King's writ, in such matters, runneth in these North parts. In the country of France, as I heard when I was there of the Sieur Berthin de Sill

ertain things, such as selling by the year to third parties of the rights to collect his dues, whether on malt, hens, salt, housing and of other things. And these new methods, of which mostly he had heard in the realms of France, Gascony and Provence, had worked well enough, for his incomings had been settled and the buyers of his rights had neith

Corbit Jock. The only persons that might know of this passage had been the dead lord and Young Lovell himself. The Decies might know of it, for the dead lord had prat

errifyingly and surprisingly within the Castle whilst all the men-at-arms could be drawn off from those parts with a feigned attack on the outer walls. Or, if by chance there were men in that passage and guarding it, they could put into it a great cask of gunpowder and so kill them all. It was a task much easier than my lor

t the edge, or the head of a missal. At first, hearing that the White Tower was held for him with its gold and cannons, he had thought that, going by sea into that place, which was like a citadel

eat cost-for the building of castles is no light work to a lord, however rich. Moreover, his sisters would certainly set his mother in whats

ss cost, come to his desires. And so he cast about for a cunning device by the means of which

came to a brook which was a bowshot from the frowning and high tower of Belford monastery. This was so new that the stones were still white

t a certain place of which I will warn you later. And each man shall be armed as he is when he goes against the Scots. Then they shall come into my service for four or five days each, as if it were harvest time and they doing their services due to me. Then they shall sack a tower and have their sackings. And of the prisoners that they take in another place they shall have the ransoming, unless I prefer to hang those prisoners. In that case I will pay them w

s of words. But the Young Lovell was a very sober, hardy and cunning lord. In all that he said he had his purpose. So that, before the peasant could speak and ask him f

e-and, full surely I will not live if I fail-ye must all of you pay double, rent-hens, deodands and all. For then shall my sisters be my lawful heiresses and you must pay to them firstly all that you owe upon my father's death and then all that you owe upon mine who am your rightful lord. So you will be in a very pitiful case if I die, and it will well repay you to fight well for me. Mark that very carefully

nestly upon his bondsman

king of castles. But I have to think what is good for me to do for my people. For your good is mine and I study how to bring it about. And that I learned of the Lord

pon the monastery whose wall, like a cast

igned to speak of. But of this, gentle lording, you may make sure that, at eight of the clock a fortnight hence, I will meet you at any

Scotland or Heathenesse or the South, whatever his enterprise. But, since he was a better hand at grumbling at taxes than in praising his lord, he got little of it out. Nevertheless