Hereward, The Last of the English

ho, throughout Lent, watched in the church at triple matins, namely, one for the Trinity, one for the Cross, and one for St. Mary; who every day read the Psalter through, and so

riched it so much "that no monastery in England possessed such abundance of gold, silver, jewels, and precious stones," beside that most precious jewel of all, the arm of St. Augustine, which

ter of Coventry; how "his counsel was as if one had opened the Divine oracles"; very "wise," says the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, "for God and for th

rcar, the fair and hapless young earls, always spoken of together, as if they had been twins; a daughter, Aldytha, or Elfgiva, married first (according to some) to Griffin, King of Nor

tory this tale sets forth; their third a

e Viking Earl of Northumberland, and conqueror of Macbeth; and the mother, may be, of the two young Siwards, the "white" and

r own Danes called her, Harold's mother, niece of Canute the Great. Great was Godiva; and might have been proud enough, had she been inclined to that pleasant sin. And eve

her own paternal dowry, and have come down to her in right of her Danish ancestors, and that great and "magnificent" Jarl Oslac, from whom she derived her all-but-royal blood. This is certain, that Leofric, her husband, went in East Anglia by the name of Leofric, Lord of Bourne; that, as Domesday Book testifies, his son Alfga

e of the building is the hall, with door or doors opening out into the court; and sitting thereat, at the top of a flight of steps, the lord and lady, dealing clothes to the naked and bread to the hungry. On one side of the hall is a chapel; by it a large room or "bower" for the ladies; behind the hall a round tower, seemingly the strong place of the whole house; on the other side a kitchen; and stuck on to bower, kitchen, and every other principal building, lean-to after lean-to, the uses of which it is impossible now to discover. The house had grown wit

her hall door, dealing food and clothing to her thirteen poor folk, but in her bower, with her youngest son, a two-years' boy, at her knee. She was listening w

sort of military service to Earl Leofric; Geri, his cousin; Winter, whom he called his brother-in-arms; the Wulfrics, the Wulfards, the Azers, and many another wild blade, had banded themselves round a young nobleman more unruly than themselves. Their names were already a terror to all decent folk, at wakes and fairs, alehouses and village sports. They atoned, be it remembered, for their ear

th of the Bruneswald,-"Whereon your son, most gracious lady, bade me stand, saying that his men were thirsty and he had no money to buy ale withal, and none so likely to help him thereto as a fat priest,-for so he

a malignant spirit, he shouted out my name, an

ground?" shudder

tskins and such like. And lastly-I tremble while I relate, thinking not of the loss of my poor money, but the loss of an immortal soul-took from me a purse with sixteen silver pennies, which I had collected from our tenants for the use of the monastery, and said, blasphemously, that I and mine ha

d her face in her hands; "and more wretched

strange and almost sinister expression, from the fact that the one of them was gray and the other blue. He was short, but of immense breadth of chest and strength of limb; while his delicate hands and feet and long locks of golden hair marked him of most noble, and even, as he really was, of ancient royal race. He was dressed in a gaudy costume, resembling on the whole that of a Highland chieftain. His knees, wrists, and throat were tattoed in bright blue patterns; and he carried sword and dagger,

hat this good fellow was here, and came home as fast as I

she, "that you have rob

oody crow, against whom I have a

dness next? Know you not, that he w

," put in the monk from behind

ll your priest's books upside down in the choir, and they would have flogged us,-me, the Earl's son,-me, the Viking's son,-me, the champion, as I will be yet, and make all lands ring with the fame of my deeds, as they rung with the fame of my forefathers, before they became the slaves of monks; and how when Winter and I got hold of the kitchen spits, and up to the top of the peat-stack, and held you all at bay there, a whole abbeyful of cowards there, against two seven years' children? It was you bade set the peat-stack alight under us, and so bri

Silence, before you burden your soul with an oath which the devils in hell will accept, and

y this, or even by the slightest insult to that clergy whose willing slave she had become, that the only method of reclaiming the sinner had been long forgotten, in genuine horror at his sin. "Is it not enough," she went on, sternly, "that you should have become the bully and the ruffian of all the fens?-that Hereward the leaper, Hereward the wrestler, Hereward the thrower of the ham

es. If I have killed men, or had them

robbed your own father, collected his rents behind his back, taken money and goods from his tenants by threats and blows; but that, after outraging them, you must add to all this a worse

my father?" said

himself is bound to do so, or

will not, and yo

t there is one thing which I must love better th

f the lands and houses and cattle and money which these men wheedle and threaten and forge out of you and my father are really His property, and not merely their plunder? As for your conscience,

it was inwardly. There was silence for a moment.

at the old miracle-worker's court at Westminster. He

lf? Can you expect that the king, sainted even as he is before

hat man can do for himself in the world with nothing to help him in heaven and earth, with neither saint nor angel, friend or counsellor, to see to him, save his wits and his good sword. So send off the messenger, good mother mine: and I will

gered out o

er for nigh an hour; but at the end of that time she lifted up her head, and settled her face again, till it was like that of a marble saint ove

" said the house stewar

ust that man," she said. "He is too

ened to hang him for talking with my young master, he has never spoken to him, nor scarcely, indeed, to living soul. And one thing there is mak

erved him both as coat and kilt, and laced brogues of untanned hide. He might have been any age from twenty to forty; but his face was disfigured with deep scars and long exposure to the weather. He dropped on one knee, holding his greasy cap in his hand, and looked, not at his lady's face, but at her feet, with a stupid

they tell me that you are

'Tongue sp

herself h

: do you know yo

es

's lodgings i

es

ou be going there

and a

l you be b

e four

my lord and deliver

your M

me Majesty? The

re my

you mea

an han

did I ever hang, or hurt for

he Ear

f thou wilt take this letter safely,

will k

ho

t ladies. There was a cry of angry and contemptuous denial, not unmixed with something like laughter, which showed that Martin had but spoken the truth. Hereward, in spite of al

that Martin saw that he had gone too far. "Ho

id Martin, sullenly, without

ho

carles out

l not touch thee. But how knowe

his hand, took it and looked at it, but ups

er," said he,

?" said Lady Godiva,

d no mother. B

knave? Wilt thou tak

looked at it without rising off

t to thee, I

no father. But Go

he, puzzled and half-frightened; "and how c

et on a hill cannot be hid. On the f

he cast on him a look so full of meaning, that though Hereward knew not what the meaning was, it startled him, and for a moment softened him. Did this man who had sullenly avoided him for more than two years, whom he had looked on as a clod or a post in the field beneath his notice, since he could be of no use to him,-did this man still care for him? Hereward had reason

lose. They followed him to the great gate, and there stopped, some cursing, some laughing. To give Martin Lightfoot a yard advantage was never to come up with him again. Some called for bows to bring him down wi

all, and make your peace with your father

d at him,

feed you like earl's sons: but now I must feed myself; and a dog over his bone wants no company. Outlawed

ou to the world's

company. Go home with you, and those who feel a calling,

plough a

reap an

e a farm

nig

the great gates after him

erved it; a few were hidden by their mothers for a week, in hay-lofts and hen-roosts, till their father's anger had passed away.

d his best horse, armed himself from hea

thereon with his lance-but, till the po

I am Hereward Leofricsson.

hrusting his head out of the wicket, "what is

I will do, unless

Lady and St. Peter would but have mercy on your fair

od an old fool as you. F

nd few dare say him nay, certainly not the monks of Peterborough; moreover, the good porter coul

from his eye and gait, to be a knight t

that is licked off the thor

uppose," said Hereward, "and so must I. So I

again for a week, we would take this hot blood o

u shall have your chance. Every one else ha

n such another fool's back, truss thee up, and lay it on lustily, till thou art ashamed. To

r parents are going to treat me like a man indeed,

E

yself, by outlawing me. Eh? say I in return. Is not that an honor, and

sit there, hand on hip, like a turbaned Saracen, defying God and man; but

his horse, and threw his

lest I cry too. Help me to be a man while I li

the monk swore by all the re

s not been outlawed in his time. My brother Alfgar will be outlawed before he dies, if he has the spirit of a man in him. It is the fashion, my uncle, and I

had it, which I have not. And yet, o

get my Polotaswarf [Footnote: See "The Heimskringla," Harold Hardraade's Saga, for th

of Belial here?" ask

out of the law: and then, if you will give me ten minutes' start, you may put your bloodhounds on my track, and see which runs fastest, they

olemn as he could; but he ended in bursting int

He robs St. Peter on the highway, breaks into his abbey, ins

it," quoth

th him, Brand, my frie

t the well-mailed and armed lad, "without c

be blood shed, and scandal

he would not till he was kill

here, he may be pers

estitu

there was no chance of the doors being slammed behind him), "if either of you will lend me sixteen pence, I will pay it bac

will pray to St. Peter; and I doubt not he will have patience with thee, for he is very merciful; and after all, thy parent

esiastics so uncanonically

they had just such a son of their own. And beside, Earl Leofric was a ver

dismounted, and halloed to a lay-brother to see to hi

nd he will forgive you, doubtless

t off his head. And, as Uncle Brand knows, I

have borne such a son." groan

Lightfoot, and found Hereward

ked Herewa

ered Brand, and could n

in n

a loud, swaggering

l about it. Thy lean wolf's legs have run to some purpose. Open thy lean wolf's mouth and speak for onc

s well as the wild-

the Prior; "so speak, and

the Strand, and up into the King's new hall; and a grand hall it is, but not easy to get into, for the crowd of monks and beggars on the stairs, hindering honest folks' business. And there sa

old? And where

er eyes downcast, as demure as any cat. And so is fulfilled the story, how the sheep-d

slice of knife, talking such ribaldry of dignities. Dost not know"-and he sank his vo

I will bridle the unruly one." And he went on. "And your father walked up t

said Hereward,

e beckoned him up to sit on the high settle; but he looked straight at the King,

, my Lord

world! O last days drawing nearer and nearer! O earth, full of viol

against my

nt on, and told all his story; and when he came to your robbing master monk,-'O apostate!' cries the bell-wether, 'O spawn of Beelzebub! excommuni

from you, Lord King. Outlaw me this young rebel's sinful body, as by law you can; and lea

all say is so gallant and so fair. O persuade him, father,-persuade him, Harold my brother,-or

harden my father's heart was to set Godwin and Harold on softening it. They ask my

ofricsson," said Brand

sh and blood? Here is this land running headlong to ruin, because every nobleman-ay, every churl who owns a manor, if he dares-must needs arm and saddle, and levy war on his own behalf, and harry and slay the king's lieges, if he have not garlic to his roast goose every time he chooses,'-a

for your running this two years past. You would make as good a talker among the Witan as Godwin himself. You

peak to his own true princess. Why I held my tongue of late was only l

clerk-learning in thy time, I can see, and made bad use of

d voice. "Lord Hereward, I came hither as your father's messenger and serv

s a boy, of enchanters, and knights, and dragons, and such like, and got into tr

ch. He talks as if he knew Latin; and what b

ather, 'justice I will have, and leave injustice, and th

usual, and speaks like a very Solomon. Your Majesty must, in spite of

Surturbrand the housecarle did more; for out he stepped

ling priest! We managed such wild young colts better, we Vikings who conquered the Danelagh. If Canute had had a son like Hereward-as would to God he had had!-he would have dealt with him

ed the King, for old Surturbr

and true; but old age and rough Danish blood has mad

tand a plain man's talk, the two earls yonder do right well, and I say,-Deal by this lad in the good old fashion. Give him half a dozen long ships, and what crews he can get together, and send him out, as Canute would have done, to seek his fortune like a Viking; and if he c

n is right. King, listen to what he say

that? Can you un

ful voice, as he threw into his face and whole figure a look of

himself. "And you thi

t, with an outlandish Norman seal hanging to it, and sent me off with it that same night to gi

ric that, in case he be inclined to turn traitor, and refuse to

lie in wait for thee, now thy life is in every man's hand. If the outlawry is

en ride out to-morrow morning in the face of the whole shire. N

d his shoulders: being v

st, go

why n

he King's writ runs very slowly there, if at

fast friend o

he less for having shown a touch of his own temper

ing the Scots be

ing to settle himself among the Scots. He is your mother's kinsman; and as for your being an outlaw, he wants h

e," said Hereward. "Why

ghed some

for a friend this day? No. God has done what was merciful

ord which seemed likely to soften his own hardness of

n,-any message fr

on

enemy to Holy Church and there

t footman,-Martin you call him? I

rtin w

stion him sharply enoug

is lodging; while the good

ut of the darkness, and followed him in. Then he

age from my lady:

was full

not tell me o

money befo

ld you mistru

d and Lord and conscience; and if he saw but the

Hereward; and flung out of t

took from the Steward, and as much more into the

ad acquired, by long devotion, the donum lachrymarum,-that lachrymose and somewha

hou art repaid; and t

of Peterborough, but, what was more, St. Peter himself; thereby converting into an implacable

rles shall suffer for my sins. I led them into trouble. I am punished. I have made restitution,-at least to St. Peter. Se

ord. O my boy, my boy, thou shouldst hav

off with the ne

urned to his room

y you; to see whether you would force me to fulfil it or not. But you have been so kind that I have half repented of it; and the evil shall

ate fiend, only fit to worshi

re I die. I fear I shall do it; I fear I must do it. Ten years ago com

ound!" quoth Brand. "

itten in the big book, happen it must; if not, so much the better for Goldenborough, for it is a pretty place, and honest Englishmen in it. Only see that there be not too ma

thou sinful boy!

ward! Come back

horse through the gateway,

s my sin, and no man's else. And heavy penance w

ur

m hither to be a monk. Alas! alas! How long wil

thee," quoth the Abbo

feed in the dewy grass; the blackbird and thrush sang out from every bough; the wood-lark trilled above the high oak-tops, and sank down on them as his song sank down. And Hereward rode on, rejoicing in it all. It was a fine world in the Bruneswald. What was it then outside? Not to him, as to us, a world circular, sailed round, circumscribed, mapped, botanized, zoologized; a tiny planet about which everybody knows, or thinks they know everything: but a world infinite, magical, supernatural,-because unknown; a vast flat plain reaching no one knew whence or where, save that the mountains stood on the four corners thereof to keep it steady, and the four winds of heaven blew out of them; and in t

ai, fol m

s, por fo

ative hills. No; he would go off to the Orkneys, and join Bruce and Ranald, and the Vikings of the northern seas, and all the hot blood which had found even Norway too hot to hold it; and sail through witch-whales and icebergs to Iceland and Greenland, and the sunny lands which they said lay even beyond, across the all but unknown ocean. He would go up the Baltic to the Jomsburg Vikings, and fight against Lett a

ay gold abou

buy half No

s, the enchanters he might meet, the jewels he might find, the adventures he might essay, he held that he must succeed in all, with hope and wit and a strong arm; and forgot altogether that, mixed up with the cosmogony of an infinite flat plain called the Earth, there was joined also the belief in a flat roof above called Heaven, on which (seen at times in visions through clouds and stars) sat saints

ws not where he shall pass the night, he was aware of a man on foot coming up behind him at a slow, steady, loping, wolf-like

hold, he was none other

cross at seeing any visitor from the old world which he had ju

he seemed, like a hound, to perspire through his mouth, for he answered

it till I was chained up in some rat's-hole with a half-hundred of iron on my

hy art

am going

id Hereward; "what

for you,"

ha

ur inn, fight your enemies, cheat your friends,-anything and ev

ppery one, I expect," said Hereward, l

they seem. I can keep m

y secrets, I shall expect to kn

ant can always know his master's secrets if he likes. Bu

ine, man, or I shall r

ightfoot can follow. But I will tell you one secret, which I n

ead and

and the Church laid on him a penance,-all that they dared get out of him,-that he should give me to the monks, being then a seven-years' boy. Well, I grew up in that abbey; they taught me my fa fa mi fa: but I liked better conning of ballads and hearing stories of ghosts and enchanters, such as I used to tell you. I'll tell you plenty more whenever you're tired. Then they made me work; and that I never could abide at all. Then they beat me every day; and that I could abide still less; but always I stuck to my book, for one thing I saw,-that learning is power, my lord; and that the reason why the monks are masters of the land is, they are scholars, and you fighting men are none. Then I fell in love (as young blood will) with an Irish lass, when I was full seventeen years old; an

made thee take

e you a

ut speak out like a man. What canst see in me that

n they told me not to speak to you; I held my tongue. I bided my time. I knew you would be outlawed some day. I knew you would turn Viking and kempery-man, and kill giants and enchanters, and win yourself honor and glory; and I knew I should have my share in it. I knew

d Hereward, pulling up his horse, and fran

he said, "amen; and true man I will prove to you, if you will prove true to me." And he dropped quietly

es' thought. "If I have robbed a church, thou hast robbed one too. What i

with silver, and butted with narwhal ivory. This handle was evidently the work of some cunning Norseman of old. But who was the maker of the blade? It was some eight inches long, with a sharp edge on one side, a sharp crooked pick on the other; of the finest steel, inlaid with strange characters in gold

single blow. Devils and spirits forged it,-I know that; Virgilius the Enchanter, perhaps, or Solomon the Great, or whosoever's name is on it, graven there in letters of gold. Handle it, feel its balance; but no,-do not handle it too much. Th

axe. But he had hardly less doubt of the magic

are both well armed; and having neither wife nor child, land nor beeves to lose, ought to be a match

neswald, and northward again through merry Sherwood,