Alexander Maclaren - "Expositions of Holy Scripture"

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Wulf the Saxon

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The boy's eyes filled with tears; he dropped on one knee, and seizing
Wulf's hand placed it to his lips, and then without a word sped away,
halting a hundred yards off till Osgod should join him.

"You have made a good choice," Wulf said; "the boy is wholly trustworthy,
and unless his face belies him he is as shrewd as he is faithful. My only
fear in the matter is, that he may be over rash in his desire to carry out
the trust we have given him. Warn him against that, and tell him that
should he be discovered and killed it would upset all our plans."




CHAPTER XV.


A MEETING BY THE RIVER.

During the three days that elapsed between Ulf's being set upon the track
of Walter Fitz-Urse and the departure of the king for the North, the boy
had no news to report to Osgod. The young Norman had not left the bishop's
palace alone. He had accompanied the prelate several times when he went
abroad, and had gone out with some of his countrymen who still held office
at the court. In one or other of the disguises Wulf had suggested, the boy
had hung about the gate of the bishop's palace until late in the evening,
but Walter Fitz-Urse had not come out after dark. On the day before
starting, Wulf was with Osgod when the latter met the boy at the
rendezvous.

After he heard Ulf's report Wulf said: "As we leave to-morrow this is the
last report you will have to make to us. So far it would seem that there is
nothing whatever to give grounds for suspicion, and if, after a few days,
you find that the Norman still remains quietly at the bishop's, there will
be no occasion for you to continue your watch until the time is approaching
for the king's return."

"Yes, my lord. But I cannot say surely that he does not go out of an
evening."

"Why, I thought you said that he certainly had not done so?"

"No, my lord; I said only that I had not seen him. He has certainly not
gone out through the great gates in his Norman dress, but that it seems to
me shows very little. As the bishop's guest he would pass out there, but
there is another entrance behind that he might use did he wish to go out
unobserved. Even at the main entrance I cannot tell but that, beneath the
cowl and frock of one of the many monks who pass in and out, Walter
Fitz-Urse may not be hidden. He would scarce go about such a business as we
suspect in his dress as a Norman noble, which is viewed with little favour
here in London, and would draw attention towards him, but would assume, as
I do, some disguise in which he could go about unremarked--it might be that
of a monk, it might be that of a lay servitor of the palace."

"You are right, Ulf; I had not thought of that. That is indeed a
difficulty, and one that I do not see how you can get over. Are you sure
that he has not passed out by the main gate?"

"I have marked his walk and carriage closely, my lord. He steps along with
a long stride, and unless he be a better mummer than I judge him to be, I
should know him whether in a monk's gown or a servitor's cloak. It is no
easy thing to change a knight's stride into the shuffle of a sandalled
monk, or the noiseless step of a well-trained servitor in a bishop's
palace."

"You are a shrewd lad indeed, Ulf," Wulf said warmly; "and I feel that you
will fathom this matter if there be aught at the bottom. But, as you say,
you cannot watch more than one place."

"The other entrance is not altogether unwatched, my lord. The first day
you gave me my orders I went to one of my cronies, who has shared with me
in many an expedition when our master deemed that we were soundly asleep.
Without, as you may be sure, giving any reason, I told him that I had come
to believe that the Norman I pointed out to him was in the habit of going
out in disguise, and that I was mightily curious to find whither he went
and why, and therefore wanted him to watch, at the entrance behind the
palace. I bade him mark the walk of the persons that went out, and their
height, for the Norman is tall, and to follow any who might come out of
lofty stature, and with a walk and carriage that seemed to accord ill with
his appearance. So each evening, as soon as his house was closed and the
lights extinguished, he has slipped out, as he knows how, and has watched
till ten o'clock at the gate. It seemed to me that that would be late
enough, and indeed the doors are closed at that hour."

"You have done well, Ulf; but has not the boy questioned you as to your
reasons for thus setting a watch on the Norman?"

"I have told him nought beyond what I have said, my lord. He may guess
shrewdly enough that I should not myself take so much trouble in the matter
unless I had more reason than I have given; but we are closely banded
together, and just as I should do, without asking the reasons, any such
action did he propose it to me, so he carried out my wishes. I cannot feel
as sure as if I had watched him myself that Fitz-Urse has not passed out in
disguise unnoticed, but I have a strong belief that it is so. At any rate,
my lord, you can go away with the assurance that all that is possible shall
be done by us, and that even if he pass out once or twice undiscovered
there is good hope that we shall at last detect him."

After again commending the boy, Wulf returned to the palace with Osgod.

"I feel half ashamed of having entertained a suspicion of Fitz-Urse on such
slight grounds, Osgod."

"I think you have done quite right, my lord. You know how the fellow gave a
false report to the bishop of that quarrel with you. At any rate, should
nothing come of it, no harm will have been done. As to the boys, so far
from regarding it as a trouble, I feel sure that they view it as an
exciting pleasure, and are as keenly anxious to detect the Norman going out
in a disguise as you yourself can be. When they get tired of it they will
give it up."

Ulf, at any rate, was determined not to relax his watch during the absence
of the king. The more he thought of it the more certain he felt that if
Walter Fitz-Urse went out on any private business after nightfall he would
use one or other of the entrances at the rear of the palace, and
accordingly next day he arranged that one friend should watch the front
entrance of an evening, while he himself took post behind. As soon as it
was dark he lay down by the wall close to the entrance at which the
servitors generally passed in and out. The moon was up but was still young,
and the back of the palace lay in deep shadow; a projecting buttress
screened him to a great extent from view, while by peeping round the corner
he could watch those who came out and see them as they passed from the
shadow of the building into the comparatively light space beyond.

Many came in and out. The evening was bitterly cold, and his teeth
chattered as he lay, cautiously putting his head beyond the edge of the
stonework every time he heard any one leaving the palace. The heavy bell
had just struck eight, when a man wrapt up in a cloak passed out. He
differed in no respect from many of those who had preceded him, save that
he was somewhat taller. The hood of the cloak was drawn over his head. Ulf
raised himself to his knees and gazed after the figure. The man was walking
more slowly than the others had done, for most of them had hurried along as
if in haste to get their errands finished and to be in shelter again from
the keen wind.

"If that is Fitz-Urse, he is walking so as to avoid the appearance of haste
in case anyone should be looking after him," Ulf muttered to himself. "At
any rate I will follow him, he is more like the Norman than anyone I have
yet seen, though he carries his head forwarder and his shoulders more
rounded." As he watched him, the boy saw that as he increased the distance
from the palace the man quickened his pace, and when he came into the
moonlight was stepping rapidly along.

"That is my man," Ulf exclaimed. "He knows well enough that no one is
likely to be standing at the door, and thinks he need no longer walk
cautiously." Feeling sure that even if the man looked back he would not be
able to see him in the shadow, he started forward at a run, paused before
he reached the edge of the moonlight, and then, as soon as the figure
entered a lane between some houses, ran forward at the top of his speed.
The man was but a hundred yards in front of him when Ulf came to the
entrance of the lane. Just as he turned into it the man stopped and looked
round, and Ulf threw himself down by the side of a wall.

"That settles it," he said to himself. "No one who had not a fear of being
followed would turn and look round on such a night as this."

Ulf was barefooted, for although he generally wore soft shoes which were
almost as noiseless as the naked foot, he was dressed in rags, and a foot
covering of any sort would have been out of place. Always keeping in the
shade, having his eyes fixed on the man he was pursuing, and holding
himself in readiness to leap into a doorway or throw himself down should he
see him turn his head, he lessened the distance until he was within some
fifty yards of the other. The man took several turns, and at last entered a
long street leading down to the river. As soon as Ulf saw him enter it he
darted off at full speed, turned down another lane, and then, when he got
beyond the houses, and on to the broken ground that lay between them and
the river, ran until he was nearly facing the end of the street which he
had seen the man enter, and then threw himself down.

He had scarcely done so when he saw the figure issue from the street and
strike across the open ground towards the water. Crawling along on his
stomach Ulf followed him, until he halted on the bank The man looked up and
down the river, stamped his foot impatiently, and then began to walk to and
fro. Presently he stopped and appeared to be listening; Ulf did the same,
and soon heard the distant splash of oars. They came nearer and nearer. Ulf
could not see the boat, for it was close under the bank, which was some
twenty yards away from him, but presently when the boat seemed almost
abreast of him the man on the bank said, "Where do you come from?"

"From fishing in deep water," a voice replied.

"That is right, come ashore."

The words were spoken by both in a language Ulf could not understand, and
he muttered a Saxon oath. The thought that any conversation Fitz-Urse might
have with a Norman would naturally be in that tongue had never once
occurred to him. Three men mounted the bank. One shook hands with
Fitz-Urse, the others had doffed their caps and stood listening bareheaded
to the conversation between their superiors. It was long and animated. At
first the stranger stamped his foot and seemed disappointed at the news
Fitz-Urse gave him, then as the latter continued to speak he seemed more
satisfied.

For fully half an hour they talked, then the men got into the boat and
rowed away, and Fitz-Urse turned and walked back to the palace.

Ulf did not follow him. The meeting for which Fitz-Urse had come out had
taken place, he would be sure to go straight back to the palace. Ulf lay
there for some time fairly crying with vexation. He had done something, he
had discovered that Fitz-Urse was indeed engaged in some undertaking that
had to be conducted with the greatest secrecy; but this was little to what
he would have learned had he understood the language. His only consolation
was that both Wulf and Osgod had likewise forgotten the probability that
the conversations he was charged to overhear might be in Norman.

Had Wulf still been in London he could have gone to him for fresh
instructions, but he had started at daybreak, and the king's party would
assuredly ride fast. There was no time to be lost. These men had a boat,
and probably came from a ship in the port. Were there really a conspiracy
against the king they might sail north and land in the Humber, though it
seemed more probable that they would wait for his return, for on his
journey he would be surrounded by his housecarls, and there would be far
less chance of finding him alone and unguarded than in London. Had it been
their intention to sail at once for the North, Walter Fitz-Urse would
probably have rowed away with them without returning to the palace. At any
rate it was too important a matter for him to trust to his own judgment,
and he determined to take counsel with his master.

He had not been near the forge since he had begun the search, and was
supposed to have gone down to stay with his family, who lived near Reading.
He had hidden away his apprentice dress beneath some stones in a field half
a mile from Westminster, and he presented himself in this at the forge in
the morning.

"You are back sooner than I expected, Ulf," Ulred said as he entered. "I
did not look for you for another week to come. Is all well at home?"

"All is well, master; but I have a message to deliver to you concerning
some business."

The armourer saw that his apprentice wished to speak to him in private. He
knew nothing of the reason for which Osgod had asked him to release the boy
from his work at the forge for a time, but had quite understood that the
wish to pay a visit to his family was but a cloak, and that the boy was to
be employed in some service for Wulf. Guessing, therefore, that the message
was one that should be delivered in private, he bade the boy follow him
from the forge and took him into the room above.

"What is it you would say to me, Ulf? Mind, I wish to hear nothing about
any private matter in which you may be engaged either by Wulf or Osgod.
They are both away and may not return for a month or more. I judged the
matter was a private one, as Osgod said nought of it to me."

"The matter is a private one, master, but as they are away I would fain
take your counsel on it."

The armourer shook his head decidedly. "I can listen to nought about it,
boy. It can be no business of mine, and unless he has given you license to
speak I would not on any account meddle with the affairs of the young
thane, who is a good lord to my son."

"That he has not done, sir; but I pray you to hear me," he added urgently
as the armourer was turning to leave the room. "It is a matter that may
touch the safety of our lord the king."

The armourer stopped. "Art well assured of what you say, Ulf?"

"For myself I can say nothing, master, but the young thane told me that he
had fears that some attempt or other might be made from the other side of
the sea against the king's life, and that although he had no strong
grounds, he thought that Walter Fitz-Urse, who had just returned here,
might be concerned in it, he having reasons for enmity against the king.
Therefore he appointed me to watch him."

He then related the scene he had witnessed on the river bank the evening
before.

"It is a strange story indeed, Ulf, and whatever it may mean, this meeting
can have been for no good purpose. The secrecy with which it was conducted
is enough to prove it. It is indeed unfortunate that you did not understand
what was said, for much may depend upon it. Well, this is a grave affair,
and I must think it over, Ulf. You have done well in telling me. Has any
plan occurred to you?"

"I thought that you might accompany me, master."

"That would I willingly, but though I have picked up enough of their tongue
to enable me to do business with the Normans at the king's court when they
come in to buy a dagger or to have a piece of armour repaired, I could not
follow their talk one with another. We must obtain someone who can speak
their language well, and who can be trusted to be discreet and silent. Why,
were it but whispered abroad that some Normans are plotting against the
life of the king, there would be so angry a stir that every Norman in the
land might be hunted down and slain. Do not go down to the forge, I will
tell my wife to give you some food, and you had best then go up to the
attic and sleep. You will have to be afoot again to-night, and it were well
that you kept altogether away from the others, so as to avoid inconvenient
questions. I will come up to you when I have thought the matter over."

"Is aught troubling you, Ulred?" the armourer's wife asked when breakfast
was over and the men had gone downstairs again to their work. "Never have I
seen you sit so silently at the board."

"I am worried about a matter which I have learned this morning. It matters
not what it is now. Some time later you shall hear of it, but at present I
am pledged to say no word about it. I want above all things to find one who
speaks the Norman tongue well, and is yet a true Englishman. I have been
puzzling my brains, but cannot bethink me of anyone. Canst thou help me?"

"Except about the court there are few such to be found, Ulred. If Wulf of
Steyning had been here he could doubtless have assisted you had it been a
matter you could have confided to him; for Osgod said that although he
himself had learned but little Norman his master was able to talk freely
with the Norman nobles."

"Ay, he learnt it partly when a page at court. But what you say reminds me
that it was but yesterday afternoon his friend Beorn came into my shop. He
had just arrived from his estate, and said how disappointed he was at
finding that Wulf had left London. I will go to the palace and see him at
once. I know but little of him save that I have heard from Osgod that he is
Wulf's firmest friend, and they fought together across in Normandy and
again against the Welsh. He has been here several times to have weapons
repaired, and knows that Osgod is Wulf's man. I wonder I did not think of
him, but my thoughts were running on people of our own condition."

Ulred at once put on his cap and proceeded to the palace, where he found
Beorn without difficulty.

"You have not come to tell me that the blade I left with you yesterday
cannot be fitted with a new hilt, Master Ulred? It is a favourite weapon
of mine, and I would rather pay twice the price of a new one than lose it."

"I have come on another matter, my Lord Beorn. It is for your private ear.
May I pray you to come with me to my house, where I can enter upon it
without fear of being overheard?"

"Certainly I will come, Ulred, though I cannot think what this matter may
be."

"It concerns in some way the Thane of Steyning, my lord, and others even
higher in position."

"That is enough," Beorn said. "Anything that concerns Wulf concerns me, and
as he is in the matter you can count on me without question."

Upon reaching his house Ulred left Beorn for a moment in the room upstairs,
and fetched Ulf down from the attic.

"This is an apprentice lad of mine," he said, "and as it is he who has been
employed by the Thane of Steyning in this affair, it were best that he
himself informed you of it"

When Ulf had finished his story Beorn exclaimed, "I will go at once, and
will put such an affront upon this Walter Fitz-Urse that he must needs meet
me in mortal combat."

"But even if you slay him, my lord, that may not interfere with the
carrying out of this enterprise, in which, as we know, another of equal
rank with him is engaged."

"That is true, master armourer, and I spoke hastily. I thought perhaps it
was for this that you had informed me of the matter."

"No, my lord; it seemed to me that the first thing was to assure ourselves
for a certainty that the affair is really a plot against the king's life,
of which we have as yet no manner of proof, but simply the suspicion
entertained by my son's master. The first necessity is to find out for a
truth that it is so, and secondly to learn how and when it is to be carried
out; and this can only be by overhearing another conversation between the
plotters. As you have heard, Ulf could have learnt all this if he had but
understood the Norman tongue. Could I have spoken it well enough to follow
the conversation I would not have troubled you, but it seemed to me that at
their next meeting it needed that one should be present who could speak
Norman well. After considering in vain how to find one who should at once
know the Norman tongue and be a true and trustworthy Englishman, my
thoughts fell upon you, of whom I have always heard my son speak as the
companion and friend of his master, and I made bold to come and lay the
matter before you, thinking that you might either take it in hand yourself
or name one suitable for it."

"Certainly I will take it in hand myself," Beorn said, "and right glad am I
that you came to me. A matter in which the king's life is concerned I would
trust to no one but myself. And now, how think you shall we proceed? for
it may well be that these plotters may not meet again for some time, seeing
that the king is away."

"So it seems to me," the armourer said; "and, moreover, they may in their
talk last night have appointed some other place of meeting."

"What think you, Ulf?" Beorn said, turning to the boy. "Wulf would not
have chosen you for this business had he not had a good opinion of your
shrewdness; and, indeed, you have shown yourself well worthy of his
confidence."

"I should say, my lord, that I must go on the watch as before. It is most
likely that the Norman will, sooner or later, go out in the same disguise
and by the same way as before, and that the hour will be between seven and
nine in the evening--most likely between seven and eight, in order that he
may return from the meeting before the bishop's doors are closed for the
night."

"I will keep watch with you, Ulf. Were I sure that the meeting would take
place at the same spot as before you should show me where they landed, and
I would lie down there in readiness, but as they may meet elsewhere, it
seems to me that I must post myself by your side."

"It would be better, my lord, if you would take your place on the other
side of the open space, for although I, being small, can escape notice, you
might well be seen by those approaching the door. It will be necessary,
too, that you should put on sandals of soft leather or cloth, so that your
footfall should not be heard. Then, as I follow him, I would run to where
you are posted, and you could follow me, so that you could keep me in sight
and yet be beyond his view, for all our plans would be foiled should he
suspect that he was being followed."

"I will do as you advise. Come with me now and we will fix upon a station
to night, and afterwards you may be sure of finding me there between
half-past six and ten. Should you wish to see me at any other time you will
find me at the palace; I will not stir out between eight and nine in the
morning. I must say I wish it were warmer weather, for a watch of three
hours with the snow on the ground--and it is beginning to fall now--is not
so pleasant a way of spending the evening as I had looked for when I came
hither."

Beorn went out with Ulf, and they fixed upon a doorway some twenty yards
from the street down which the Norman had before gone.

"We must hope he will go by the same way," Beorn said, "for should he turn
to the right or left after issuing from the gate he will have gone so far
before you can run across and fetch me that we may well fail to pick up his
track again. It were well if we could arrange some signal by which you
would let me know should he so turn off. It would not do for you to call or
whistle."

"No, my lord; but I could howl like a dog. He would but think it some cur
lying under the wall I might howl once if he turns to the right, twice if
he turns to the left, and you could then cross the ground in that
direction, and I could meet you on the way without losing sight of him for
long."

"That would do well, Ulf, if you are sure you could imitate the howl of a
dog so nearly that he would not suspect it."

"I can do that," Ulf said confidently. "I have used the signal before with
my comrades, and to make sure will go out to the fields and practise
daily."

A month passed. Harold was still away in the North, and complete success
was attending his journey. The influence of Bishop Wulfstan, who was
greatly respected throughout the kingdom, did much, but Harold himself did
more. His noble presence, his courtesy to all, the assurances he gave of
his desire that all men should be well and justly ruled, that evil-doers of
whatever rank should be punished, that there should be no oppression and no
exaction of taxes beyond those borne by the whole community, won the hearts
of the people. They were, moreover, gratified by the confidence that he had
shown in coming among them, and in seeing for the first time in the memory
of man a monarch of England in Northumbria.

Ulf and Beorn had kept regular watch, but without success, and Ulf's
comrades had as steadily watched the other entrances. Beorn had two or
three conferences with Ulf. He was becoming impatient at the long delay,
though he acknowledged that it was possible it had been arranged that no
more meetings should take place until it was known that Harold was about to
return. The armourer was perhaps the most impatient of the three. He was
doing nothing, and his anxiety made him so irritable and captious at his
work that his men wondered what had come over their master. After fretting
for three weeks over his own inaction, he one morning told Ulf to go to
Beorn and say that he begged to have speech with him. An hour later Beorn
returned with Ulf.

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