A little boy was playing on Athelstane's knee; Rowena smiling and patting the Saxon Thane fondly on his broad bullhead, filled him a huge cup of spiced wine from a golden jug. He drained a quart of the liquor, and, turning round, addressed the friar:--"And so, gray frere, thou sawest good King Richard fall at Chalus by the bolt of that felon bowman?""We did, an it please you. The brothers of our house attended the good King in his last moments: in truth, he made a Christian ending!""And didst thou see the archer flayed alive? It must have been rare sport," roared Athelstane, laughing hugely at the joke. "How the fellow must have howled!""My love!" said Rowena, interposing tenderly, and putting a pretty white finger on his lip.
"I would have liked to see it too," cried the boy.
"That's my own little Cedric, and so thou shalt. And, friar, didst see my poor kinsman Sir Wilfrid of Ivanhoe? They say he fought well at Chalus!""My sweet lord," again interposed Rowena, "mention him not.""Why? Because thou and he were so tender in days of yore--when you could not bear my plain face, being all in love with his pale one?""Those times are past now, dear Athelstane," said his affectionate wife, looking up to the ceiling.
"Marry, thou never couldst forgive him the Jewess, Rowena.""The odious hussy! don't mention the name of the unbelieving creature," exclaimed the lady.
"Well, well, poor Wil was a good lad--a thought melancholy and milksop though. Why, a pint of sack fuddled his poor brains.""Sir Wilfrid of Ivanhoe was a good lance," said the friar. "I have heard there was none better in Christendom. He lay in our convent after his wounds, and it was there we tended him till he died. He was buried in our north cloister.""And there's an end of him," said Athelstane. "But come, this is dismal talk. Where's Wamba the Jester? Let us have a song. Stir up, Wamba, and don't lie like a dog in the fire! Sing us a song, thou crack-brained jester, and leave off whimpering for bygones.
Tush, man! There be many good fellows left in this world.""There be buzzards in eagles' nests," Wamba said, who was lying stretched before the fire, sharing the hearth with the Thane's dogs. "There be dead men alive, and live men dead. There be merry songs and dismal songs. Marry, and the merriest are the saddest sometimes. I will leave off motley and wear black, gossip Athelstane. I will turn howler at funerals, and then, perhaps, Ishall be merry. Motley is fit for mutes, and black for fools.
Give me some drink, gossip, for my voice is as cracked as my brain.""Drink and sing, thou beast, and cease prating," the Thane said.
And Wamba, touching his rebeck wildly, sat up in the chimney-side and curled his lean shanks together and began:--"LOVE AT TWO SCORE.
"Ho! pretty page, with dimpled chin, That never has known the barber's shear, All your aim is woman to win--This is the way that boys begin--
Wait till you've come to forty year!
"Curly gold locks cover foolish brains, Billing and cooing is all your cheer, Sighing and singing of midnight strains Under Bonnybells' window-panes.
Wait till you've come to forty year!
"Forty times over let Michaelmas pass, Grizzling hair the brain doth clear;Then you know a boy is an ass, Then you know the worth of a lass, Once you have come to forty year.
"Pledge me round, I bid ye declare, All good fellows whose beards are gray:
Did not the fairest of the fair Common grow, and wearisome, ere Ever a month was passed away?
"The reddest lips that ever have kissed, The brightest eyes that ever have shone, May pray and whisper and we not list, Or look away and never be missed, Ere yet ever a month was gone.
"Gillian's dead, Heaven rest her bier, How I loved her twenty years syne!
Marian's married, but I sit here, Alive and merry at forty year, Dipping my nose in the Gascon wine.""Who taught thee that merry lay, Wamba, thou son of Witless?"roared Athelstane, clattering his cup on the table and shouting the chorus.
"It was a good and holy hermit, sir, the pious clerk of Copmanhurst, that you wot of, who played many a prank with us in the days that we knew King Richard. Ah, noble sir, that was a jovial time and a good priest.""They say the holy priest is sure of the next bishopric, my love,"said Rowena. "His Majesty hath taken him into much favor. My Lord of Huntingdon looked very well at the last ball; but I never could see any beauty in the Countess--a freckled, blowsy thing, whom they used to call Maid Marian: though, for the matter of that, what between her flirtations with Major Littlejohn and Captain Scarlett, really--""Jealous again--haw! haw!" laughed Athelstane.
"I am above jealousy, and scorn it," Rowena answered, drawing herself up very majestically.
"Well, well, Wamba's was a good song," Athelstane said.
"Nay, a wicked song," said Rowena, turning up her eyes as usual.
"What! rail at woman's love? Prefer a filthy wine cup to a true wife? Woman's love is eternal, my Athelstane. He who questions it would be a blasphemer were he not a fool. The well-born and well-nurtured gentlewoman loves once and once only.""I pray you, madam, pardon me, I--I am not well," said the gray friar, rising abruptly from his settle, and tottering down the steps of the dais. Wamba sprung after him, his bells jingling as he rose, and casting his arms around the apparently fainting man, he led him away into the court. "There be dead men alive and live men dead," whispered he. "There be coffins to laugh at and marriages to cry over. Said I not sooth, holy friar?" And when they had got out into the solitary court, which was deserted by all the followers of the Thane, who were mingling in the drunken revelry in the hall, Wamba, seeing that none were by, knelt down, and kissing the friar's garment, said, "I knew thee, I knew thee, my lord and my liege!""Get up," said Wilfrid of Ivanhoe, scarcely able to articulate:
"only fools are faithful."
