The Brethren. Генри Райдер Хаггард

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Chapter Two: Sir Andew D’Arcy

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      Godwin dreamed that he was dead, and that beneath him floated the world, a glowing ball, while he was borne to and fro through the blackness, stretched upon a couch of ebony. There were bright watchers by his couch also, watchers twain, and he knew them for his guardian angels, given him at birth. Moreover, now and again presences would come and question the watchers who sat at his head and foot. One asked:

      “Has this soul sinned?” And the angel at his head answered:

      “It has sinned.”

      Again the voice asked: “Did it die shriven of its sins?”

      The angel answered: “It died unshriven, red sword aloft, fighting a good fight.”

      “Fighting for the Cross of Christ?”

      “Nay; fighting for a woman.”

      “Alas! poor soul, sinful and unshriven, who died fighting for a woman’s love. How shall such a one find mercy?” wailed the questioning voice, growing ever fainter, till it was lost far, far away.

      Now came another visitor. It was his father—the warrior sire whom he had never seen, who fell in Syria. Godwin knew him well, for the face was the face carven on the tomb in Stangate church, and he wore the blood-red cross upon his mail, and the D’Arcy Death’s-head was on his shield, and in his hand shone a naked sword.

      “Is this the soul of my son?” he asked of the whiterobed watchers. “If so, how died he?”

      Then the angel at his foot answered: “He died, red sword aloft, fighting a good fight.”

      “Fighting for the Cross of Christ?”

      “Nay; fighting for a woman.”

      “Fighting for a woman’s love who should have fallen in the Holy War? Alas! poor son; alas! poor son! Alas! that we must part again forever!” and his voice, too, passed away.

      Lo! a Glory advanced through the blackness, and the angels at head and foot stood up and saluted with their flaming spears.

      “How died this child of God?” asked a voice, speaking out of the Glory, a low and awful voice.

      “He died by the sword,” answered the angel.

      “By the sword of the children of the enemy, fighting in the war of Heaven?”

      Then the angels were silent.

      “What has Heaven to do with him, if he fought not for Heaven?” asked the voice again.

      “Let him be spared,” pleaded the guardians, “who was young and brave, and knew not. Send him back to earth, there to retrieve his sins and be our charge once more.”

      “So be it,” said the voice. “Knight, live on, but live as a knight of Heaven if thou wouldst win Heaven.”

      “Must he then put the woman from him?” asked the angels.

      “It was not said,” answered the voice speaking from the Glory. And all that wild vision vanished.

      Then a space of oblivion, and Godwin awoke to hear other voices around him, voices human, well-beloved, remembered; and to see a face bending over him—a face most human, most well-beloved, most remembered—that of his cousin Rosamund. He babbled some questions, but they brought him food, and told him to sleep, so he slept. Thus it went on, waking and sleep, sleep and waking, till at length one morning he woke up truly in the little room that opened out of the solar or sitting place of the Hall of Steeple, where he and Wulf had slept since their uncle took them to his home as infants. More, on the trestle bed opposite to him, his leg and arm bandaged, and a crutch by his side, sat Wulf himself, somewhat paler and thinner than of yore, but the same jovial, careless, yet at times fierce-faced Wulf.

      “Do I still dream, my brother, or is it you indeed?”

      A happy smile spread upon the face of Wulf, for now he knew that Godwin was himself again.

      “Me sure enough,” he answered. “Dream-folk don’t have lame legs; they are the gifts of swords and men.”

      “And Rosamund? What of Rosamund? Did the grey horse swim the creek, and how came we here? Tell me quick—I faint for news!”

      “She shall tell you herself.” And hobbling to the curtained door, he called, “Rosamund, my—nay, our—cousin Rosamund, Godwin is himself again. Hear you, Godwin is himself again, and would speak with you!”

      There was a swift rustle of robes and a sound of quick feet among the rushes that strewed the floor, and then—Rosamund herself, lovely as ever, but all her stateliness forgot in joy. She saw him, the gaunt Godwin sitting up upon the pallet, his grey eyes shining in the white and sunken face. For Godwin’s eyes were grey, while Wulf’s were blue, the only difference between them which a stranger would note, although in truth Wulf’s lips were fuller than Godwin’s, and his chin more marked; also he was a larger man. She saw him, and with a little cry of delight ran and cast her arms about him, and kissed him on the brow.

      “Be careful,” said Wulf roughly, turning his head aside, “or, Rosamund, you will loose the bandages, and bring his trouble back again; he has had enough of blood-letting.”

      “Then I will kiss him on the hand—the hand that saved me,” she said, and did so. More, she pressed that poor, pale hand against her heart.

      “Mine had something to do with that business also but I don’t remember that you kissed it, Rosamund. Well, I will kiss him too, and oh! God be praised, and the holy Virgin, and the holy Peter, and the holy Chad, and all the other holy dead folk whose names I can’t recall, who between them, with the help of Rosamund here, and the prayers of the Prior John and brethren at Stangate, and of Matthew, the village priest, have given you back to us, my brother, my most beloved brother.” And he hopped to the bedside, and throwing his long, sinewy arms about Godwin embraced him again and again.

      “Be careful,” said Rosamund drily, “or, Wulf, you will disturb the bandages, and he has had enough of blood-letting.”

      Then СКАЧАТЬ