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In a while Beltane brought them to those high wooded banks betwixt which the road ran winding down to Thornaby Ford that self-same hilly road where, upon a time, the Red Pertolepe had surprised the lawless company of Gilles of Brandonmere; and, now as then, the dark defile was littered with the wrack of fight, fallen charges that kicked and snorted in their pain or lay mute and still, men in battered harness that stared up from the dust, all unseeing, upon the new day.
And divers tales have I heard of this gallows-burner, how that he did, unaided and alone, seize and bear off upon his shoulders one Sir Pertolepe called the 'Red' Lord Warden of the Marches.
"How what do ye there?" cried the archer. "Wait for Red Pertolepe." "Why then, sweet Walkyn, good Walkyn come loose us of our bonds that we may wait with thee " "Nay," growled Walkyn, "ye are the bait. When the outlaws have slain enough of them, Pertolepe's men must flee this way: so will Red Pertolepe stay to take up his prisoners, and so shall I slay him in that moment with this mine axe.
Thus as he lay, staring upwards into the gloom, he was aware of the opening of the iron-clamped door, and beheld his gaoler bearing a lanthorn and behind him Sir Pertolepe leaning on the arm of his favourite esquire, who, coming near, looked upon Beltane nodding right jovially. "Messire Beltane," quoth he, "thou did'st dare set up thyself against Ivo our lord the Duke O fool!
"Yet is my father dead, lord and I am outcast!" said Beda, smiling and fingering his dagger. "So then, will ye slay me, Beda wilt murder thy lord? Why then, strike, fool, strike here, i' the throat, and let thy steel be hard-driven. Come!" Then Sir Pertolepe feebly raised his bloody head, proffering his throat to the steel and so stood faint in his bonds, yet watching the jester calm-eyed.
Come now, ye be hearty fellows and have faces that might be honest, tell me, how long will ye serve the devil?" "Devil? Ha, what talk be this? We serve no devil!" "Aye," nodded Beltane, "though they call him Pertolepe the Red, hereabouts." "Devil!" cried Black Roger aghast. And, falling back a step he gaped in amaze from Beltane to his gaping fellows.
Off rode Sir Fulk, and straightway the pounding hoofs were still, the jingle of bridle and stirrup hushed, and in its place a vague stir of bustle and excitement; of pikemen wheeling right and left to vanish southwards into the green, and of archers stringing bows and unbuckling quiver-caps ere they too wheeled and vanished; yet now Sir Pertolepe stayed four lusty fellows, and beckoning them near, pointed to the prisoners.
And ever as he fought Beltane bethought him of her whose pure lips voiced prayers for him, and his mighty arm grew mightier yet, and he smote and thrust untiring, while Walkyn raged upon his left, roaring amain for Red Pertolepe, and Ulf the strong saved his breath to ply his axe the faster.
"Sweet lord," quoth Beltane, "noble messire Pertolepe, of thy boundless mercy of thy tender ruth grant unto me this boon. When ye shall have done me to death cut off this head of mine and send it to Helen to Helen the beautiful, the wilful in memory of what befell at Blaen." Six days came and went, and during all this time Beltane spake word to no man.
But now Sir Pertolepe, wriggling beneath Beltane's iron foot had unsheathed his dagger, yet, ere he could stab, down upon his red pate crashed the heavy pommel of Beltane's sword and Sir Pertolepe, sinking backward, lay out-stretched in the dust very silent and very still.