His clerk sat beside him, with account-books and parchment spread upon the table, and the head squire, Walter Blunt, a lad some three or four years older than Myles, and half a head taller, black-browed, powerfully built, and with cheek and chin darkened by the soft budding of his adolescent beard, stood making his report.
Sir James listened in grim silence while Gascoyne told his errand.
So, then, pardee, I am bid to take another one of ye, am I? he snarled. As though ye caused me not trouble enow; and this one a cub, looking a very boor in carriage and breeding. Mayhap the Earl thinketh I am to train boys to his dilly-dally household service as well as to use of arms.
Sir, said Gascoyne, timidly, my Lord sayeth he would have this one entered direct as a squire of the body, so that he need not serve in the household.
Sayest so? cried Sir James, harshly. Then take thou my message back again to thy Lord. Not for Mackworth no, nor a better man than he will I make any changes in my government. An I be set to rule a pack of boys, I will rule them as I list, and not according to any mans bidding. Tell him, sirrah, that I will enter no lad as squire of the body without first testing an he be fit at arms to hold that place. He sat for a while glowering at Myles and gnawing his mustaches, and for the time no one dared to break the grim silence. What is thy name? said he, suddenly. And then, almost before Myles could answer, he asked the head squire whether he could find a place to lodge him.
There is Gillis Whitlocks cot empty, said Blunt. He is in the infirmary, and belike goeth home again when he cometh thence. The fever hath gotten into his bones, and
That will do, said the knight, interrupting him impatiently. Let him take that place, or any other that thou hast. And thou, Jerome, said he to his clerk, thou mayst enter him upon the roll, though whether it be as page or squire or bachelor shall be as I please, and not as Mackworth biddeth me. Now get ye gone.
Old Bruins wound smarteth him sore, Gascoyne observed, as the two lads walked across the armory court. He had good-naturedly offered to show the new-comer the many sights of interest around the castle, and in the hour or so of ramble that followed, the two grew from acquaintances to friends with a quickness that boyhood alone can bring about. They visited the armory, the chapel, the stables, the great hall, the Painted Chamber, the guard-house, the mess-room, and even the scullery and the kitchen, with its great range of boilers and furnaces and ovens. Last of all Myless new friend introduced him to the armor-smithy.
My Lord hath sent a piece of Milan armor thither to be repaired, said he. Belike thou would like to see it.
Aye, said Myles, eagerly, that would I.
The smith was a gruff, good-natured fellow, and showed the piece of armor to Myles readily and willingly enough. It was a beautiful bascinet of inlaid workmanship, and was edged with a rim of gold. Myles scarcely dared touch it; he gazed at it with an unconcealed delight that warmed the smiths honest heart.
I have another piece of Milan here, said he. Did I ever show thee my dagger, Master Gascoyne?
Nay, said the squire.
The smith unlocked a great oaken chest in the corner of the shop, lifted the lid, and brought thence a beautiful dagger with the handle of ebony and silver-gilt, and a sheath of Spanish leather, embossed and gilt. The keen, well-tempered blade was beautifully engraved and inlaid with niello-work, representing a group of figures in a then popular subject the dance of Death. It was a weapon at once unique and beautiful, and even Gascoyne showed an admiration scarcely less keen than Myless openly-expressed delight.
To whom doth it belong? said he, trying the point upon his thumb nail.
There, said the smith, is the jest of the whole, for it belongeth to me. Sir William Beauclerk bade me order the weapon through Master Gildersworthy, of London town, and by the time it came hither, lo! he had died, and so it fell to my hands. No one here payeth the price for the trinket, and so I must een keep it myself, though I be but a poor man.
How much dost thou hold it for? said Gascoyne.
Seventeen shillings buyeth it, said the armorer, carelessly.
Aye, aye, said Gascoyne, with a sigh; so it is to be poor, and not be able to have such things as one loveth and would fain possess. Seventeen shillings is nigh as much by half again as all my yearly wage.
Then a sudden thought came to Myles, and as it came his cheeks glowed as hot as fire Master Gascoyne, said he, with gruff awkwardness, thou hast been a very good, true friend to me since I have come to this place, and hast befriended me in all ways thou mightest do, and I, as well I know, but a poor rustic clod. Now I have forty shillings by me which I may spend as I list, and so I do beseech thee that thou wilt take yon dagger of me as a love-gift, and have and hold it for thy very own.
Gascoyne stared open-mouthed at Myles. Dost mean it? said he, at last.
Aye, said Myles, I do mean it. Master Smith, give him the blade.
At first the smith grinned, thinking it all a jest; but he soon saw that Myles was serious enough, and when the seventeen shillings were produced and counted down upon the anvil, he took off his cap and made Myles a low bow as he swept them into his pouch. Now, by my faith and troth, quoth he, that I do call a true lordly gift. Is it not so, Master Gascoyne?
Aye, said Gascoyne, with a gulp, it is, in soothly earnest. And thereupon, to Myless great wonderment, he suddenly flung his arms about his neck, and, giving him a great hug, kissed him upon the cheek. Dear Myles, said he, I tell thee truly and of a verity I did feel warm towards thee from the very first time I saw thee sitting like a poor oaf upon the bench up yonder in the anteroom, and now of a sooth I give thee assurance that I do love thee as my own brother. Yea, I will take the dagger, and will stand by thee as a true friend from this time forth. Mayhap thou mayst need a true friend in this place ere thou livest long with us, for some of us esquires be soothly rough, and knocks are more plenty here than broad pennies, so that one new come is like to have a hard time gaining a footing.
I thank thee, said Myles, for thy offer of love and friendship, and do tell thee, upon my part, that I also of all the world would like best to have thee for my friend.
Such was the manner In which Myles formed the first great friendship of his life, a friendship that was destined to last him through many years to come. As the two walked back across the great quadrangle, upon which fronted the main buildings of the castle, their arms were wound across one anothers shoulders, after the manner, as a certain great writer says, of boys and lovers.
CHAPTER 6
A boys life is of a very flexible sort. It takes but a little while for it to shape itself to any new surroundings in which it may be thrown, to make itself new friends, to settle itself to new habits; and so it was that Myles fell directly into the ways of the lads of Devlen. On his first morning, as he washed his face and hands with the other squires and pages in a great tank of water in the armory court-yard, he presently found himself splashing and dashing with the others, laughing and shouting as loud as any, and calling some by their Christian names as though he had known them for years instead of overnight. During chapel he watched with sympathetic delight the covert pranks of the youngsters during the half-hour that Father Emmanuel droned his Latin, and with his dagger point he carved his own name among the many cut deep into the back of the bench before him. When, after breakfast, the squires poured like school-boys into the great armory to answer to the roll-call for daily exercise, he came storming in with the rest, beating the lad in front of him with his cap.