"Ho, ho, ho, ho!" exclaimed Petit-André; "by our Lady of the Gréve, our young soldier remembers us of old. – What! comrade, you bear no malice, I trust? – every one wins his bread in this country. No man need be ashamed of having come through my hands, for I will do my work with any that ever tied a living weight to a dead tree. – And God hath given me grace to be such a merry fellow withal – Ha! ha! ha! – I could tell you such jests I have cracked between the foot of the ladder and the top of the gallows, that, by my halidome, I have been obliged to do my job rather hastily, for fear the fellows should die with laughing, and so shame my mystery!"
As he thus spoke, he edged his horse sideways, to regain the interval which the Scot had left between them, saying at the same time, "Come, Seignior Archer, let there be no unkindness betwixt us! – For my part, I always do my duty without malice, and with a light heart, and I never love a man better than when I have put my scant-of-wind collar about his neck, to dub him Knight of the Order of Saint Patibularius, as the Provost's Chaplain, the worthy Father Vaconeldiablo, is wont to call the Patron Saint of the Provostry."
"Keep back, thou wretched object!" exclaimed Quentin, as the finisher of the law again sought to approach him closer, "or I shall be tempted to teach you the distance that should be betwixt men of honour and such an outcast."
"La you there, how hot you are!" said the fellow; "had you said men of honesty, there had been some savour of truth in it; – but for men of honour, good lack, I have to deal with them every day, as nearly and closely as I was about to do business with you. – But peace be with you, and keep your company to yourself. I would have bestowed a flagon of Auvernât upon you to wash away every unkindness – but 'tis like you scorn my courtesy. – Well. Be as churlish as you list – I never quarrel with my customers – my jerry-come-tumbles, my merry dancers, my little playfellows, as Jacques Butcher says to his lambs – those, in fine, who, like your seigniorship, have H. E. M. P. written on their foreheads – No, no, let them use me as they list, they shall have my good service at last – and yourself shall see, when you next come under Petit-André's hands, that he knows how to forgive an injury."
So saying, and summing up the whole with a provoking wink, and such an interjectional tchick as men quicken a dull horse with, Petit-André drew off to the other side of the path, and left the youth to digest the taunts he had treated him with as his proud Scottish stomach best might. A strong desire had Quentin to have belaboured him while the staff of his lance could hold together; but he put a restraint on his passion, recollecting that a brawl with such a character could be creditable at no time or place, and that a quarrel of any kind, on the present occasion, would be a breach of duty, and might involve the most perilous consequences. He therefore swallowed his wrath at the ill-timed and professional jokes of Mons. Petit-André, and contented himself with devoutly hoping that they had not reached the ears of his fair charge, on which they could not be supposed to make an impression in favour of himself, as one obnoxious to such sarcasms. But he was speedily aroused from such thoughts by the cry of both the ladies at once, "Look back – look back! – For the love of Heaven look to yourself, and us – we are pursued!"
Quentin hastily looked back, and saw that two armed men were in fact following them, and riding at such a pace as must soon bring them up with their party. "It can," he said, "be only some of the Provostry making their rounds in the Forest. – Do thou look," he said to Petit-André, "and see what they may be."
Petit-André obeyed; and rolling himself jocosely in the saddle after he had made his observations, replied, "These, fair sir, are neither your comrades nor mine – neither Archers nor Marshalmen – for I think they wear helmets, with visors lowered, and gorgets of the same. – A plague upon these gorgets, of all other pieces of armour! – I have fumbled with them an hour before I could undo the rivets."
"Do you, gracious ladies," said Durward, without attending to Petit-André, "ride forward – not so fast as to raise an opinion of your being in flight, and yet fast enough to avail yourself of the impediment which I shall presently place between you and these men who follow us."
The Countess Isabelle looked to their guide, and then whispered to her aunt, who spoke to Quentin thus – "We have confidence in your care, fair Archer, and will rather abide the risk of whatever may chance in your company, than we will go onward with that man, whose mien is, we think, of no good augury."
"Be it as you will, ladies," said the youth – "There are but two who come after us; and though they be knights, as their arms seem to show, they shall, if they have any evil purpose, learn how a Scottish gentleman can do his devoir in the presence and for the defence of such as you. – Which of you there," he continued, addressing the guards whom he commanded, "is willing to be my comrade, and to break a lance with these gallants?"
Two of the men obviously faltered in resolution; but the third, Bertrand Guyot, swore, "that cap de diou, were they Knights of King Arthur's Round Table, he would try their mettle, for the honour of Gascony."
While he spoke, the two knights – for they seemed of no less rank – came up with the rear of the party, in which Quentin, with his sturdy adherent, had by this time stationed himself. They were fully accoutred in excellent armour of polished steel, without any device by which they could be distinguished.
One of them, as they approached, called out to Quentin, "Sir Squire, give place – we come to relieve you of a charge which is above your rank and condition. You will do well to leave these ladies in our care, who are fitter to wait upon them, especially as we know that in yours they are little better than captives."
"In return to your demand, sirs," replied Durward, "know, in the first place, that I am discharging the duty imposed upon me by my present Sovereign; and next, that however unworthy I may be, the ladies desire to abide under my protection."
"Out, sirrah!" exclaimed one of the champions; "will you, a wandering beggar, put yourself on terms of resistance against belted knights?"
"They are indeed terms of resistance," said Quentin, "since they oppose your insolent and unlawful aggression; and if there be difference of rank between us, which as yet I know not, your discourtesy has done it away. Draw your sword, or, if you will use the lance, take ground for your career."
While the knights turned their horses, and rode back to the distance of about a hundred and fifty yards, Quentin, looking to the ladies, bent low on his saddle-bow, as if desiring their favourable regard, and as they streamed towards him their kerchiefs,
in token of encouragement, the two assailants had gained the distance necessary for their charge.
Calling to the Gascon to bear himself like a man, Durward put his steed into motion; and the four horsemen met in full career in the midst of the ground which at first separated them. The shock was fatal to the poor Gascon; for his adversary, aiming at his face, which was undefended by a visor, ran him through the eye into the brain, so that he fell dead from his horse.
On the other hand, Quentin, though labouring under the same disadvantage, swayed himself in the saddle so dexterously, that the hostile lance, slightly scratching his cheek, passed over his right shoulder; while his own spear, striking his antagonist fair upon the breast, hurled him to the ground. Quentin jumped off, to unhelm his fallen opponent; but the other knight, (who had never yet spoken,) seeing the fortune of his companion, dismounted still more speedily than Durward, and bestriding his friend, who lay senseless, exclaimed, "In the name of God and Saint Martin, mount, good fellow, and get thee gone with thy woman's ware! – Ventre Saint Gris, they have caused mischief enough this morning."