In the Days of Chivalry: A Tale of the Times of the Black Prince

im wood. The party had to dismount and tie up their horses at some short distance from the place; but they had the good

often reduces man almost to the level of the beasts. This old man, who for many years had lived hidden away in this vast forest, might well have lost all but the semblance of humanity; but such was not the case. His eyes had light in them; his very melancholy sh

own mission to have thought to spare for any other concerns. They formed a circle round him, and asked him of th

worse than these, and a quick fierce look passed across his face, and then died out again. The young Prince was courteous and patient: he allowed the old ma

k on the old man's part, but from his inability to put his thoughts into words. Still w

e, so overgrown with brushwood that only those who knew the path thither could hope to penetrate within it. Once there, they felt perfectly safe, and would sleep away the day after one of their raids, remaining safely hidden there till supplies were exhausted, when they sallied forth again. The old woodman showed them the tracks of the party that had passed by that morning, and to the eyes of the Gascon brothers these tracks were plain enough, and they undertook to follow them unerringly to the lair. The old woodman h

g a youth of kindly spirit; but the moment was not prop

e done. You have heard this honest man's tale. Upon the day following a midnight raid they lie close in their cave asleep -- no doubt drunken with the excesses they indulge in, I warrant, when they have replenished their larder anew.

All were as eager as the Prince for the battle and th

st summon our comrades to join us. They

d Bernard, do thou to horse, gallop to them as fast as thou canst, and tell them of the hap upon which we have fallen. Bid them follow fast with thee, but leave the dogs and horses behind with the huntsmen, lest their noise betray our approach. Master Huntsman may seek to withhold them from the quest, but when he knows that I, the Prince, with but four of my comrades to help me, have gone on in advance, and that we are even then approaching the robbers' cave, he will not only bid them all go, but will come himself doubtless, with the best of his followers, and g

eard from the sounds that he had mounted his horse and was galloping in the direct

robbers' track; but he knew the determined nature of the Prince, and did not venture open remonst

be -- without it there could be no glory; but that danger shall not be added to by any hardihood such as my royal Sire would chide in me. Trust me; I will be prudent, as I trust I may yet

in beside him, he could certainly make sure of one thing -- that he himself did not survive his royal master, but died at his side fighting for his safety. The younger spirits thought only of the glory of victory. John, with his feebler physique and

through the labyrinth of the gloomy forest. Neither John nor any of his companions had ever been here before. The dense wood was gloomy enough to be almost

e been broken. Mute and breathless, John and his companion stole up. They found that they had now reached the edge of a deep ravine, so thickly wooded as to appear impassable to human foot. But just where they stood t

ince, in a whisper. "Let us softly recon

ous tone. "Sweet Prince, stay you hither, where the rest will doubtless find us. It

e land lay, and what was the chance of capturing the band unawares. In particular they desired to note whether there were any other pathway into it, and whether, if

lved down gradually, thickly covered with bushes and undergrowth; but on the opposite side, as the Gascon boys discovered, the d

eep banks thickly overgrown, and we know that there is but this one path. On the other side it is a sheer drop; a goat could not find foothold. If we can but tak

light which in after days men learned to

hey will have their arms beside them, and will spring from their slumber to fight like wild wolves trapped; but I trow the victory will lie with us, and he who fears may stay away. Are we not all clad in leather, and armed to

tiously; "methinks I hear a sound appr

ole twenty stood at the head of the pathway, together with the Master Huntsman, and some half-dozen stout fellows all armed with

the other, as quickly as might be. Down went the gallant little band -- with the exception of two stalwart huntsmen and four of the younger amongst the boys, who were left to guard the head of the path -- not knowing the risk they ran: whether they would find an alert and well-armed foe awaiting them at the bottom, or whether they might fall upon the enemy unawares. Very silent and cautious were their movements. The Huntsman and

to the Prince to approach. Edward at once did so, and Gaston and Raymond followed him

th in a sound sleep, their mouths open, their breath coming noisily between their parted lips. There were no dogs to be seen. Nothing broke the intense stillness that prevailed. It was plainly as the old woodman had said. Their nocturnal raid had been followed by a grand caro

the hour of action; and softly rising to his feet, he made a sign to h

the poor, who slay the defenceless, who commit brutal outrages upon the persons of women and children, deserve naught but death. Let them fight like men;

f at least two of the foe before the alarm was given, the Prince raised his voice in a shrill battle cry, and dashing down the

on the other, and with a sharp cry of astonishm

slumbers the robber crew within the cavern, and with the alertness that comes of such a lawles

inside the cave itself, and luckily enough it was upon the prostrate figure of the chief of the band that his eye first lighted. Before the man could spring to his feet, a blow from that long shining knife had found its way to his heart. The other hun

usty satellites, who had the strength of men, as well as the trained eye, quick hand, and steady nerve that belong to their calling in life. Then, again, the dress of these huntsmen was so like in character to that worn by many of the band, that the robbers themselves suspected each other of trea

h of a man, and that wonderful hereditary fighting instinct, which was so marked in his own sire, seemed handed down to him. He took in the whole scope of the scene with a single glance. Wherever there was an opening to deal a fatal blow, that blow was dealt by the Prince's trusty blade. It almost seemed as though he bore a

e on at them. They were but half armed, and the terror and bewilderment of the moment put them at great disadvantage; but amongst those who still retained their full senses, and could distinguish friend from foe, were three brothers of tall stature and mighty strengt

turn to the others, round whom the fight still raged, though with far less fierceness than at first, when these new adversaries set upon them from behind. John was the only one who had seen the approach, and he only just in time to give one warning shout. Before the Prince could turn, an axe was whirling in the air above his head; and had not John flung himself at that instant upon the Prince, covering his person and dragging him aside at the same moment, a glorious page in England's history would

ere sore beset with their powerful adversaries, and would scarce have lived to tell the tale of that fell struggle had not help been nigh at hand from the Master Huntsman. But he, missing the Prince from the cave's mouth, a

r lay dead on or about the rocky platform, where the fiercest of the fighting had been. They had slain each other as well as having bee

indeed been theirs, but something of the sense of triumph was dashed as they bore

w engrossed in striving to relieve the sufferings of his wounded comrades by seeing their wounds skilfully bound up by t

on the floor of the cave; and after fruitless efforts to revive him, the Prince commanded a rude litter to be made wherein he might be transported to the Palace by the huntsmen who had not taken part in the struggle, an

racking and hunting a boar in the forest, was astounded beyond all power of speech by seeing a battered and ghastly procession enter the courtyard two