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THE BLACK ARROW
the body of the dead spy, he was able to write these words
upon a corner of the paper:
My Lord of Shoreby, ye that writt the letter, wot ye why
your man is ded? But let me rede you, marry not.
JON AMEND–ALL.
He laid this paper on the breast of the corpse; and then
Lawless, who had been looking on upon these last manoeuvres with some fl ickering returns of intelligence, suddenly
drew a black arrow from below his robe, and therewith pinned
the paper in its place. The sight of this disrespect, or, as it almost seemed, cruelty to the dead, drew a cry of horror from
young Shelton; but the old outlaw only laughed.
“Nay, I will have the credit for mine order,” he hiccupped.
“My jolly boys must have the credit on’t – the credit, brother;”
and then, shutting his eyes tight and opening his mouth like
a precentor, he began to thunder, in a formidable voice:
“If ye should drink the clary wine” –
“Peace, sot!” cried Dick, and thrust him hard against
the wall. “In two words – if so be that such a man can understand me who hath more wine than wit in him – in two
words, and, a–Mary’s name, begone out of this house, where,
if ye continue to abide, ye will not only hang yourself, but
me also! Faith, then, up foot! be yare, or, by the mass, I may
forget that I am in some sort your captain and in some your
debtor! Go!”
The sham monk was now, in some degree, recovering
the use of his intelligence; and the ring in Dick’s voice,
and the glitter in Dick’s eye, stamped home the meaning of his words.
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ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON
“By the mass,” cried Lawless, “an I be not wanted, I can
go;” and he turned tipsily along the corridor and proceeded to
fl ounder down-stairs, lurching against the wall.
So soon as he was out of sight, Dick returned to his hidingplace, resolutely fi xed to see the matter out. Wisdom, indeed,
moved him to be gone; but love and curiosity were stronger.
Time passed slowly for the young man, bolt upright behind the arras. The fi re in the room began to die down, and
the lamp to burn low and to smoke. And still there was no
word of the return of any one to these upper quarters of
the house; still the faint hum and clatter of the supper party sounded from far below; and still, under the thick fall of
the snow, Shoreby town lay silent upon every side.
At length, however, feet and voices began to draw near
upon the stair; and presently after several of Sir Daniel’s guests
arrived upon the landing, and, turning down the corridor, beheld the torn arras and the body of the spy.
Some ran forward and some back, and all together began to
cry aloud.
At the sound of their cries, guests, men-at-arms, ladies, servants, and, in a word, all the inhabitants of that great house,
came fl ying from every direction, and began to join their voices to the tumult.
Soon a way was cleared, and Sir Daniel came forth in
person, followed by the bridegroom of the morrow, my Lord
Shoreby.
“My lord,” said Sir Daniel, “have I not told you of this
knave Black Arrow? To the proof, behold it! There it stands,
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THE BLACK ARROW
and, by the rood, my gossip, in a man of yours, or one that
stole your colours!”
“In good sooth, it was a man of mine,” replied Lord Shoreby, hanging back. “I would I had more such. He was keen as
a beagle and secret as a mole.”
“Ay, gossip, truly?” asked Sir Daniel, keenly. “And what
came he smelling up so many stairs in my poor mansion? But
he will smell no more.”
“An’t please you, Sir Daniel,” said one, “here is a paper written upon with some matter, pinned upon his breast.”
“Give it me, arrow and all,” said the knight. And when
he had taken into his hand the shaft, he continued for some
time to gaze upon it in a sullen musing. “Ay,” he said, addressing Lord Shoreby, “here is a hate that followeth hard
and close upon my heels. This black stick, or its just likeness,
shall yet bring me down. And, gossip, suffer a plain knight to
counsel you; and if these hounds begin to wind you, fl ee! ’Tis
like a sickness – it still hangeth, hangeth upon the limbs.
But let us see what they have written. It is as I thought, my
lord; y’ are marked, like an old oak, by the woodman; tomorrow or next day, by will come the axe. But what wrote
ye in a letter?”
Lord Shoreby snatched the paper from the arrow, read
it, crumpled it between his hands, and, overcoming the reluctance which had hitherto withheld him from approaching, threw himself on his knees beside the body and eagerly
groped in the wallet.
He rose to his feet with a somewhat unsettled countenance.
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ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON
“Gossip,” he said, “I have indeed lost a letter here that much
imported; and could I lay my hand upon the knave that took
it, he should incontinently grace a halter. But let us, fi rst of
all, secure the issues of the house. Here is enough harm already, by St. George!”
Sentinels were posted close around the house and garden; a sentinel on every landing of the stair, a whole troop in
the main entrance-hall; and yet another about the bonfi re in the shed. Sir Daniel’s followers were supplemented by
Lord Shoreby’s; there was thus no lack of men or weapons to
make the house secure, or to entrap a lurking enemy, should
one be there.
Meanwhile, the body of the spy was carried out through
the falling snow and deposited in the abbey church.
It was not until these dispositions had been taken, and all
had returned to a decorous silence, that the two girls drew
Richard Shelton from his place of concealment, and made
a full report to him of what had passed. He, upon his side,
recounted the visit of the spy, his dangerous discovery, and
speedy end.
Joanna leaned back very faint against the curtained wall.
“It will avail but little,” she said. “I shall be wed to-morrow, in the morning, after all!”
“What!” cried her friend. “And here is our paladin that
driveth lions like mice! Ye have little faith, of a surety. But
come, friend lion-driver, give us some comfort; speak, and let
us hear bold counsels.”
Dick was confounded to be thus outfaced with his own exaggerated words; but though he coloured, he still spoke stoutly.
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THE BLACK ARROW
“Truly,” said he, “we are in straits. Yet, could I but win
out of this house for half an hour, I do honestly tell myself
that all might still go well; and for the marriage, it should be
prevented.”
“And for the lions,” mimicked the girl, “they shall be
driven.”
“I crave your excuse,” said Dick. “I speak not now in any
boasting humour, but rather as one inquiring after help or
counsel; for if I get not forth of this house and through these
sentinels, I can do less than naught. Take me, I pray you,
rightly.”
“Why said ye he was rustic, Joan?” the girl inquired. “I warrant he hath a tongue in his head; ready, soft, and bold is his
speech at pleasure. What would ye more?”
“Nay,” sighed Joanna, with a smile, “they have changed me
my friend Dick, ’tis sure enough. When I beheld him, he was
rough indeed. But it matters little; there is no help for my hard
case, and I must still be Lady Shoreby!”
“Nay, then,” said Dick, “I will even make the adventure.
A friar is not much regarded; and if I found a good fairy to lead
me up, I may fi nd another belike to carry me down. How call
they the name of this spy?”
“Rutter,” said the young lady; “and an excellent good
name to call him by. But how mean ye, lion-driver? What is in
your mind to do?”
“To offer boldly to go forth,” returned Dick; “and if
any stop me, to keep an unchanged countenance, and say
I go to pray for Rutter. They will be praying over his poor
clay even now.”
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ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON
“The device is somewhat simple,” replied the girl, “yet it
may hold.”
“Nay,” said young Shelton, “it is no device, but mere boldness, which serveth often better in great straits.”
“Ye say true,” she said. “Well, go, a–Mary’s name, and may
Heaven speed you! Ye leave here a poor maid that loves you
entirely, and another that is most heartily your friend. Be wary,
for their sakes, and make not shipwreck of your safety.”
“Ay,” added Joanna, “go, Dick. Ye run no more peril,
whether ye go or stay. Go; ye take my heart with you; the saints
defend you!”
Dick passed the fi rst sentry with so assured a countenance
that the fellow merely fi geted and stared; but at the second
landing the man carried his spear across and bade him name
his business.
“Pax vobiscum,” answered Dick. “I go to pray over
the body of this poor Rutter.”
“Like enough,” returned the sentry; “but to go alone is
not permitted you.” He leaned over the oaken balusters and
whistled shrill. “One cometh!” he cried; and then motioned
Dick to pass.
At the foot of the stair he found the guard afoot and awaiting his arrival; and when he had once more repeated his story,
the commander of the post ordered four men out to accompany him to the church.
“Let him not slip, my lads,” he said. “Bring him to Sir Oliver, on your lives!”
The door was then opened; one of the men took Dick by either arm, another marched ahead with a link, and the fourth,
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THE BLACK ARROW
with bent bow and the arrow on the string, brought up
the rear. In this order they proceeded through the garden,
under the thick darkness of the night and the scattering
snow, and drew near to the dimly-illuminated windows of
the abbey church.
At the western portal a picket of archers stood, taking what
shelter they could fi nd in the hollow of the arched doorways,
and all powdered with the snow; and it was not until Dick’s
conductors had exchanged a word with these, that they were
suffered to pass forth and enter the nave of the sacred edifi ce.
The church was doubtfully lighted by the tapers upon
the great altar, and by a lamp or two that swung from
the arched roof before the private chapels of illustrious families. In the midst of the choir the dead spy lay, his limbs piously
composed, upon a bier.
A hurried mutter of prayer sounded along the arches;
cowled fi gures knelt in the stalls of the choir, and on the steps of
the high altar a priest in pontifi cal vestments celebrated mass.
Upon this fresh entrance, one of the cowled fi gures arose,
and, coming down the steps which elevated the level of
the choir above that of the nave, demanded from the leader of the four men what business brought him to the church.
Out of respect for the service and the dead, they spoke in
guarded tones; but the echoes of that huge, empty building
caught up their words, and hollowly repeated and repeated
them along the aisles.
“A monk!” returned Sir Oliver (for he it was), when he had
heard the report of the archer. “My brother, I looked not for
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ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON
your coming,” he added, turning to young Shelton. “In all civility, who are ye? and at whose instance do ye join your supplications to ours?”
Dick, keeping his cowl about his face, signed to Sir Oliver to move a pace or two aside from the archers; and, so soon
as the priest had done so, “I cannot hope to deceive you, sir,”
he said. “My life is in your hands.”
Sir Oliver violently started; his stout cheeks grew pale, and
for a space he was silent.
“Richard,” he said, “what brings you here, I know not; but
I much misdoubt it to be evil. Nevertheless, for the kindness
that was, I would not willingly deliver you to harm. Ye shall
sit all night beside me in the stalls: ye shall sit there till my
Lord of Shoreby be married, and the party gone safe home; and
if all goeth well, and ye have planned no evil, in the end ye
shall go whither ye will. But if your purpose be bloody, it shall
return upon your head. Amen!”
And the priest devoutly crossed himself, and turned and
louted to the altar.
With that, he spoke a few words more to the soldiers, and
taking Dick by the hand, led him up to the choir, and placed
him in the stall beside his own, where, for mere decency,
the lad had instantly to kneel and appear to be busy with his
devotions.
His mind and his eyes, however, were continually wandering. Three of the soldiers, he observed, instead of returning to
the house, had got them quietly into a point of vantage in
the aisle; and he could not doubt that they had done so by
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THE BLACK ARROW
Sir Oliver’s command. Here, then, he was trapped. Here he
must spend the night in the ghostly glimmer and shadow of
the church, and looking on the pale face of him he slew; and
here, in the morning, he must see his sweetheart married to
another man before his eyes.
But, for all that, he obtained a command upon his mind,
and built himself up in patience to await the issue.
CHAPTER IV
IN THE ABBEY CHURCH
In Shoreby Abbey Church the prayers were kept up all
night without cessation, now with the singing of psalms, now
with a note or two upon the bell.
Rutter, the spy, was nobly waked. There he lay, meanwhile, as they had arranged him, his dead hands crossed upon
his bosom, his dead eyes staring on the roof; and hard by, in
the stall, the lad who had slain him waited, in sore disquietude,
the coming of the morning.
Once only, in the course of the hours, Sir Oliver leaned
across to his captive.
“Richard,” he whispered, “my son, if ye mean me evil, I will
certify, on my soul’s welfare, ye design upon an innocent man.
Sinful in the eye of Heaven I do declare myself; but sinful as
against you I am not, neither have been ever.”
“My father,” returned Dick, in the same tone of voice, “trust
me, I design nothing; but as for your innocence, I may not forget that ye cleared yourself but lamely.”
“A man may be innocently guilty,” replied the priest.
“He may be set blindfolded upon a mission, ignorant of its
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