CHAPTER 2
From the time the family escaped from Falworth Castle that
midwinter night to the time Myles was sixteen years old he knew
nothing of the great world beyond Crosbey-Dale. A fair was held
twice in a twelvemonth at the market-town of Wisebey, and three
times in the seven years old Diccon Bowman took the lad to see
the sights at that place. Beyond these three glimpses of the
outer world he lived almost as secluded a life as one of the
neighboring monks of St. Mary's Priory.
Crosbey-Holt, their new home, was different enough from Falworth
or Easterbridge Castle, the former baronial seats of Lord
Falworth. It was a long, low, straw-thatched farm-house, once,
when the church lands were divided into two holdings, one of the
bailiff's houses. All around were the fruitful farms of the
priory, tilled by well-to-do tenant holders, and rich with fields
of waving grain, and meadow-lands where sheep and cattle grazed
in flocks and herds; for in those days the church lands were
under church rule, and were governed by church laws, and there,
when war and famine and waste and sloth blighted the outside
world, harvests flourished and were gathered, and sheep were
sheared and cows were milked in peace and quietness.
The Prior of St. Mary's owed much if not all of the church's
prosperity to the blind Lord Falworth, and now he was paying it
back with a haven of refuge from the ruin that his former patron
had brought upon himself by giving shelter to Sir John Dale.
I fancy that most boys do not love the grinding of school
life--the lessons to be conned, the close application during
study hours. It is not often pleasant to brisk, lively lads to be
so cooped up. I wonder what the boys of to-day would have thought
of Myles's training. With him that training was not only of the
mind, but of the body as well, and for seven years it was almost
unremitting. "Thou hast thine own way to make in the world,
sirrah," his father said more than once when the boy complained
of the grinding hardness of his life, and to make one's way in
those days meant a thousand times more than it does now; it meant
not only a heart to feel and a brain to think, but a hand quick
and strong to strike in battle, and a body tough to endure the
wounds and blows in return. And so it was that Myles's body as
well as his mind had to be trained to meet the needs of the dark
age in which he lived.
Every morning, winter or summer, rain or shine he tramped away
six long miles to the priory school, and in the evenings his
mother taught him French.
Myles, being prejudiced in the school of thought of his day,
rebelled not a little at that last branch of his studies. "Why
must I learn that vile tongue?" said he.
"Call it not vile," said the blind old Lord, grimly; "belike,
when thou art grown a man, thou'lt have to seek thy fortune in
France land, for England is haply no place for such as be of
Falworth blood." And in after-years, true to his father's
prediction, the "vile tongue" served him well.
As for his physical training, that pretty well filled up the
hours between his morning studies at the monastery and his
evening studies at home. Then it was that old Diccon Bowman took
him in hand, than whom none could be better fitted to shape his
young body to strength and his hands to skill in arms. The old
bowman had served with Lord Falworth's father under the Black
Prince both in France and Spain, and in long years of war had
gained a practical knowledge of arms that few could surpass.
Besides the use of the broadsword, the short sword, the
quarter-staff, and the cudgel, he taught Myles to shoot so
skilfully with the long- bow and the cross-bow that not a lad in
the country-side was his match at the village butts. Attack and
defence with the lance, and throwing the knife and dagger were
also part of his training.
Then, in addition to this more regular part of his physical
training, Myles was taught in another branch not so often
included in the military education of the day--the art of
wrestling. It happened that a fellow lived in Crosbey village, by
name Ralph-the-Smith, who was the greatest wrestler in the
country-side, and had worn the champion belt for three years.
Every Sunday afternoon, in fair weather, he came to teach Myles
the art, and being wonderfully adept in bodily feats, he soon
grew so quick and active and firm- footed that he could cast any
lad under twenty years of age living within a range of five
miles.
"It is main ungentle armscraft that he learneth," said Lord
Falworth one day to Prior Edward. "Saving only the broadsword,
the dagger, and the lance, there is but little that a gentleman
of his strain may use. Neth'less, he gaineth quickness and
suppleness, and if he hath true blood in his veins he will
acquire knightly arts shrewdly quick when the time cometh to
learn them."
But hard and grinding as Myles's life was, it was not entirely
without pleasures. There were many boys living in Crosbey-Dale
and the village; yeomen's and farmers' sons, to be sure, but,
nevertheless, lads of his own age, and that, after all, is the
main requirement for friendship in boyhood's world. Then there
was the river to bathe in; there were the hills and valleys to
roam over, and the wold and woodland, with their wealth of nuts
and birds'-nests and what not of boyhood's treasures.
Once he gained a triumph that for many a day was very sweet under
the tongue of his memory. As was said before, he had been three
times to the market-town at fair-time, and upon the last of these
occasions he had fought a bout of quarterstaff with a young
fellow of twenty, and had been the conqueror. He was then only a
little over fourteen years old.
Old Diccon, who had gone with him to the fair, had met some
cronies of his own, with whom he had sat gossiping in the
ale-booth, leaving Myles for the nonce to shift for himself.
By-and-by the old man had noticed a crowd gathered at one part of
the fair-ground, and, snuffing a fight, had gone running, ale-pot
in hand. Then, peering over the shoulders of the crowd, he had
seen his young master, stripped to the waist, fighting like a
gladiator with a fellow a head taller than himself. Diccon was
about to force his way through the crowd and drag them asunder,
but a second look had showed his practised eye that Myles was not
only holding his own, but was in the way of winning the victory.
So he had stood with the others looking on, withholding himself
from any interference and whatever upbraiding might be necessary
until the fight had been brought to a triumphant close. Lord
Falworth never heard directly of the redoubtable affair, but old
Diccon was not so silent with the common folk of Crosbey-Dale,
and so no doubt the father had some inkling of what had happened.
It was shortly after this notable event that Myles was formally
initiated into squirehood. His father and mother, as was the
custom, stood sponsors for him. By them, each bearing a lighted
taper, he was escorted to the altar. It was at St. Mary's Priory,
and Prior Edward blessed the sword and girded it to the lad's
side. No one was present but the four, and when the good Prior
had given the benediction and had signed the cross upon his
forehead, Myles's mother stooped and kissed his brow just where
the priest's finger had drawn the holy sign. Her eyes brimmed
bright with tears as she did so. Poor lady! perhaps she only then
and for the first time realized how big her fledgling was growing
for his nest. Henceforth Myles had the right to wear a sword.
Myles had ended his fifteenth year. He was a bonny lad, with
brown face, curling hair, a square, strong chin, and a pair of
merry laughing blue eyes; his shoulders were broad; his chest was
thick of girth; his muscles and thews were as tough as oak.
The day upon which he was sixteen years old, as he came whistling
home from the monastery school he was met by Diccon Bowman.
"Master Myles," said the old man, with a snuffle in his
voice--"Master Myles, thy father would see thee in his chamber,
and bade me send thee to him as soon as thou didst come home. Oh,
Master Myles, I fear me that belike thou art going to leave home
to-morrow day."
Myles stopped short. "To leave home!" he cried.
"Aye," said old Diccon, "belike thou goest to some grand castle
to live there, and be a page there and what not, and then, haply,
a gentleman- at-arms in some great lord's pay."
"What coil is this about castles and lords and
gentlemen-at-arms?" said Myles. "What talkest thou of, Diccon?
Art thou jesting?"
"Nay," said Diccon, "I am not jesting. But go to thy father, and
then thou wilt presently know all. Only this I do say, that it is
like thou leavest us to- morrow day."
And so it was as Diccon had said; Myles was to leave home the
very next morning. He found his father and mother and Prior
Edward together, waiting for his coming.
"We three have been talking it over this morning," said his
father, "and so think each one that the time hath come for thee
to quit this poor home of ours. An thou stay here ten years
longer, thou'lt be no more fit to go then than now. To-morrow I
will give thee a letter to my kinsman, the Earl of Mackworth. He
has thriven in these days and I have fallen away, but time was
that he and I were true sworn companions, and plighted together
in friendship never to be sundered. Methinks, as I remember him,
he will abide by his plighted troth, and will give thee his aid
to rise in the world. So, as I said, to-morrow morning thou shalt
set forth with Diccon Bowman, and shall go to Castle Devlen, and
there deliver this letter which prayeth him to give thee a place
in his household. Thou mayst have this afternoon to thyself to
make read such things as thou shalt take with thee. And bid me
Diccon to take the gray horse to the village and have it shod."
Prior Edward had been standing looking out of the window. As Lord
Falworth ended he turned.
"And, Myles," said he, "thou wilt need some money, so I will give
thee as a loan forty shillings, which some day thou mayst return
to me an thou wilt. For this know, Myles, a man cannot do in the
world without money. Thy father hath it ready for thee in the
chest, and will give it thee to-morrow ere thou goest."
Lord Falworth had the grim strength of manhood's hard sense to
upbear him in sending his son into the world, but the poor lady
mother had nothing of that to uphold her. No doubt it was as hard
then as it is now for the mother to see the nestling thrust from
the nest to shift for itself. What tears were shed, what words of
love were spoken to the only man-child, none but the mother and
the son ever knew.
The next morning Myles and the old bowman rode away, and no doubt
to the boy himself the dark shadows of leave-taking were lost in
the golden light of hope as he rode out into the great world to
seek his fortune.
