the forest had sounded its war-horn, and the woods and heaths and leaf-hidden hamlets gave up their men. they gathered in woodmere valley, foresters, laborers, charcoal burners, breeders of horses, swineherds, and a scattering of broken men. the gentry and their tenants were passably horsed and harnessed; the foresters had their bows; but there was many a fellow who had no more than an oak cudgel or a scythe blade lashed to a pole.
they brought cattle and sheep with them and tumbrils laden with sacks of flour. booths were built, fires lit, scouts sent to watch the woodland ways and the gray menace of troy castle. the vault at woodmere was emptied of its arms, and a new bridge built in place of martin’s single beam.
as for martin valliant, he held aloof from the mesne lords and slept at night across mellis’s door.
now the forest was superstitious, and devout with the devoutness of ignorance. there was no wild thing that could not happen, no marvel that might not be believed. god, the virgin and the saints, the devil and his progeny were part of the forest life, mysterious beings to be prayed to and to be feared. there were holy wells, wonder-working images in more than one of the churches, places that were accursed, goblin stones, devil’s hounds that ran by night, headless horsemen, ghosts, fairies, haunted trees. the people of the forest were obstinate, credulous children. they believed all that the church taught them, even though many a priest spat at his own conscience.
martin valliant had been a priest. he had shed blood, and he slept at night outside the door of a woman’s bed-chamber. the facts were flagrant, fiercely honest. your pious savage does not love honesty; he lives in a world of make-believe; he will not quarrel with imperfections that spue their slime in dark and hidden corners. he will even laugh and delight in the lewd tales that are told of priests. but let some priest be honest, shake off his vows, and declare himself a clean man, then he has committed the unforgivable sin, and any foul sot or filthy hag may sit in judgment upon him.
so it proved with these rough forest gentry. martin valliant had sensed things truly. that sudden shadowy foreboding had heralded a real darkness that was spreading toward him from the mistrusts and prejudices of these common men. they looked at the facts baldly as they would have looked at pigs in a sty. the strange, tragic, sacrificial beauty of the thing was lost on them. to them love was a giggling scrimmage. their religion was so much bogey worship, a rude mysticism that was shaped to suit their lives.
before a day had passed martin valliant found himself outlawed by a vague and reticent distrust. he cast a shadow. the common men looked askance at him and held aloof. the gentry were more open, and more brutal in their displeasure; with them it was not a mere matter of superstition; there were young men among them, and mellis was very comely. and this fellow had the insolence to sleep across her door.
falconer was the only man who spoke to martin valliant, and it was done grudgingly and with an ill grace.
the rest looked through him, over him, at his feet. there was no place for martin at the table that had been set up under a shelter of boughs in the hall. even peter swartz was better treated; he was half prisoner, half comrade, but he drank and ate with them, diced with them, told tales.
martin took his meals on the leads of the tower or in the garden. his heart grew heavy in him, and a kind of fierce sadness showed in his eyes.
these english worthies were ready with their judgments as they sat at table.
“the wench is mad.”
“the fellow is wearing her brother gilbert’s harness.”
“such a thing cannot be stomached, sirs. we lack godliness if we carry such an unclean vagabond with us. my men are grumbling already, and seeing a curse in the fellow.”
“send him back to paradise.”
“the prior will thank you for nothing. one kicks a mangy dog out of the gate, and that’s the end of it.”
swartz listened and said nothing. he was a rough god compared with these boors; he had seen the world and tasted the wine of many countries, and he knew that it is mere foolishness to step in between a clown and his drink.
falconer tried to speak up, but they were against him to a man.
“i choose to live with honest men, sir, not with vermin.”
such was the forest’s verdict.
on the second day the gentlemen of the rose marched into woodmere, sir gregory at their head. there was much cheering, much shaking of hands. “the king was upon the sea.” that night they drank much ale. and women had come from gawdy town, bold-eyed wenches dressed as men. some of the wilder spirits made a rough night of it, shouting, quarreling, and singing songs, and mellis was kept awake by their clowning. nor did martin valliant get much sleep, for he had to take more than one drunken man by the shoulders and prove to him that the threshold of mellis’s chamber was sacred ground.
the coming of sir gregory and the gentlemen from france made matters more sinister for martin valliant. sir gregory was a man of violent self-pride, obstinate as sin, and far more cruel.
he bearded john falconer.
“a pretty chaplain you have found us! this fellow must go, or i’ll not answer for the men.”
“we owe him some gratitude.”
“and for what? bloodying our game for us? dale was a fool in the beginning, and you have been little better than his shadow. i’ll have no women picking and choosing in my company.”
falconer owned as rough a temper as this crop-headed bully, but he knew that sir gregory had the crowd at his back.
“there is no harm done yet. i will speak to the girl.”
“what claim has the wench to be considered?”
“the claim of courtesy—and compassion, sir. look to it, gregory, i will have none of the bully in you; my fist is as heavy as ever it was.”
and there the matter rested for a while.
john falconer did not deceive himself; these mesne lords and squirelings were no children of romance. the wars had bred a savage spirit in the land; the middle age was dying, cruel and brutish in its decadence, and the strong man was not there as yet to smite it down forever with his kingly club. martin valliant would have to go; these men of the forest would not hesitate to sacrifice him.
but mellis?
he hardened his heart, and went in search of her, and finding her in the tower room, he shut the door and spoke out.
“child, this man cannot stay with us; he will bring us evil luck.”
“who sent you with that message, john?”
“the whole place is whispering it. it might have been born with the men, but our friends will have none of him.”
she stood at her full height, calmly scorning him and them all.
“what an amazing thing is life! you come to me, and bid me turn on this man, and hound him out as an outcast. am i so vile and heartless a thing, and are men so afraid of the devil that they must throw a sop to him?”
falconer stood his ground.
“you should know the forest, mellis.”
“i know the trees and the glades, the blown leaves and the sunlight, the little streams and the deer—but its men! if these are they, i know them not!”
“valliant has blackened himself in their eyes.”
she flung out her hands.
“and for whom, and for what purpose? i tell you that man has the heart of a child. i was in peril, and he succored me; i was lost, and he gave me his all. nay, more than his all, for in saving me he lost the good will of god’s noble men. and you—you come to me and tell me to spurn him, desert him, because these fools are afraid of the devil. i would rather die than stoop to such shame.”
his face was clouded and stubborn.
“your heart is too kind, because——”
“ah! speak out.”
she went nearer, her eyes dangerously shining.
“i am not afraid, john falconer. tell me i love this man. i do most dearly love him, with all my heart and soul. and who shall cast a reproach at me, or make me believe that there is any man who would have treated me with such sweet, strong faith? i care not what men say. god shall judge. if there is beauty and tenderness and truth in our poor hearts, will he throw us to the dogs?”
“you are mad!” he said miserably.
“mad! then i would that all the world were mad! and if your law is god’s law, then i am a rebel against god. yes, and i would glory in it. i have no more to say to you, john falconer.”
he left her, ashamed, angry, feeling that tragic things were about to happen.
as for martin valliant, he knew what he knew, and his heart was heavy. he thought of the lepers in the wood of yews at paradise, and his lot seemed like unto theirs. love had made him an outcast, a thing of evil omen to be thrust away into the darkness. no one was ready to call him brother or comrade in arms, or to pity him because the man had been stronger than the monk.
he strove bitterly with himself and with his love, but the truth showed him no mercy. it was like the great wooden cross on the black moor, standing bleak and clear against the sunset, bidding mortals remember that christ suffered. he understood why these men hated and mistrusted him, and grudged him the right of guarding mellis.
words were spoken that were meant for his ears.
“the monks of paradise have earned a foul name.”
“they have reared a fine, upstanding rogue in that fellow.”
“old valliant’s son. a pretty mate for mellis dale! what shame for the woman!”
martin valliant could bear no more. if his homage meant shame for her, then it had better end.
he went in search of mellis, but for a long time he could not find her, and the house and island seemed full of fools who stared at him. martin valliant’s humility was in the dust. had he been a fiercer and more carnal man, a strong and striving selfishness might have carried him through; but the rebel spirit faltered in him when voices whispered that the woman suffered shame because he loved her. generous souls are always at the mercy of the meaner and more cunning spirits. a clever lie, like a snake crawling from the mouth of a sorcerer, has bitten many a strong man’s heel.
martin found his love in a far corner of the orchard where an old tree had been blown down, but still lived and threw out green leaves. mellis was seated on the trunk and half among the boughs, so that she was hidden like a bird, and discoverable only by some one who came quite near, for the weeds and grass were rank and tall, and melted into the green of the tree.
he stood before her, sorrowful and heavy-eyed, and she knew why he had come to her and what was in his heart.
“martin!”
her eyes loved him.
“so these clowns have been pulling ugly faces.”
he answered her simply and sadly.
“it may be that the clowns are right. we live our lives among clowns; we must not live too finely, or the clowns will be displeased. is it not a sin to offend even against fools?”
she left her seat on the tree and stood facing him.
“so they would drive you out—send you to beggary or death.”
“they think me accursed.”
her hands went to his shoulders, but his arms remained rigid, and he did not move.
“martin valliant, the rebel in me fights for you. why should we truckle to this clowns’ world? what does it know of my heart or of yours? why, we could go on living to the mean level of the beasts, throwing our pearls in the troughs, forever and ever.”
“but what i was—and what i am!”
“man, man, i love you! is there shame or sin in my eyes? why, there was no true beauty in the world till we began to love each other. and am i to disown you, send you back to your death, because these lords and gentlemen have unclean, grudging hearts? no—by my god, i will not let you go.”
he stood rigid, opening and shutting his hands. his eyes looked into hers appealingly.
“but, child, they speak shameful things.”
“let them call me all the foul names that ever were. am i touched by them? it is for me to choose. and i say to you that they shall not part us. for if you love me, martin——”
she gripped his arms, and her face lay close to his, her lips open, her eyes full of soft gleams. her voice was quick, passionate, and challenging.
“for if you love me, dear——”
he stared at her, head thrown back, his eyes filling with a strange, wild light.
“mellis!”
“death—what would death be? but here is life and desire—and beauty. oh, my heart, play me not false! they shall not take you from me!”
“mellis—dear heart!”
he held her at arm’s length, his face transfigured.
“god help me! if this is sin—then let them write it down against me. why, all that i hold here, the most adorable thing in all the world——”
“martin!”
“the beauty, the mystery of you, the white light in my soul!”
“ah! ah! can mortal men harm us? we will hold to each other, you and i. is not the whole world open, and can these so-called comrades say us nay? where you go, i go also.”
“so be it, child,” he said.