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Updated: May 8, 2025
And Giles thoughtfully touched his arm with tentative fingers. "Why, the torment is apt to change a man," said Walkyn, grim-smiling. "I have tried it and I know."
"And," quoth frowning Walkyn, "I would that Pertolepe's rank carcass smoked with thee!" "Content you, my gentle Walkyn," nodded the archer, "hell-fire shall have him yet, and groweth ever hotter against the day content you. So away with melancholy, be blithe and merry as I am and the sweet-voiced throstles yonder the wanton rogues! Ha! by Saint Giles!
"'Tis well!" sighed Beltane. "Well, master nay, how mean you?" "That being at Barham Broom, they cannot be otherwhere, Roger. Saw you Pertolepe's banner among all these?" "Aye, master; they have set up his pavilion beside the Duke's." "Tell me now," said Beltane, coming to his elbow, "how many men should be left within Garthlaxton for garrison, think you?" "An hundred, belike!" said Walkyn.
A shout among the woods upon their right, a twinkling light that came and went amid the underbrush, and Walkyn appeared, bearing a lighted brand. "Lord," he growled, "here has been devil's work of late, for yonder a cottage lieth a heap of glowing ashes, and upon a tree hard by a dead man doth swing." "Learned ye aught else, Walkyn?"
"Master," said Roger, "'tis true I had a mind to his horse and armour, since we do such things lack, yet would I have saved him alive and cut from my belt another accursed notch " "So art thou a fool, Roger," quoth Walkyn, "for an this knight live, this our refuge is secret no longer." "Ha!" sneered Beltane, "what matter for that an it shelter but murderers and thieving knaves "
Ill deaths, look you, aye, 'tis a cruel death to be burnt alive, Roger!" "To be torn by hounds is worse!" growled Roger. "Nay, my Rogerkin, the fire is slower, methinks I have watched good flesh sear and shrivel ere now ha! by Saint Giles, 'tis an evil subject; let us rather think upon two others." "As what, archer?" "The long legs of our comrade Walkyn. Hist! hark ye to that bruit!
Back fell Walkyn, fierce-eyed and grim yet with teeth agleam through the hair of his beard. "Lord," quoth he, "this man hath slain wife, and child and brother, so do I know him thrice a murderer. Therefore have I set this mark of Cain upon him, that all men henceforth may see and know.
"Lord," spake Walkyn, his voice low and awe-struck, "here is the marsh, a place of death for them that know it not, where, an a man tread awry, is a quaking slime to suck him under. Full many a man lieth 'neath the reeds yonder, for there is but one path, very narrow and winding follow close then, and step where I shall step."
And beside Roger, Ulf the Mighty leaned him upon his axe, and in the ranks despite their bandages stood Orson the Tall and Jenkyn o' the Ford, even yet in wordy disputation. Quoth Beltane: "How many muster ye, Roger?" "One hundred and nine, master." "And where is Walkyn where Giles?" "With Sir Benedict, hard by the gate, master.
So now do I tell thee that Walkyn hath taken and burned Duke Ivo's great Castle of Brandonmere, that Winisfarne city hath risen 'gainst the Duke and all the border villages likewise aha! master, there be scythe-blades and good brown bills a-twinkle all along the marches eager to smite for freedom and Pentavalon when time is ripe!" "Forsooth, is this so? O Roger, is this so in very truth?"
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