CHAPTER V

THE PARTING OF FEARGUS AND TORFRIDA

Then Duncan went swiftly to tell Feargus, and he was glad beyond measure that his men were to accompany Torfrida.

“Now I need not tell ye, Duncan, to arm ye all with your best and take the fleetest horses, and if Osbert hath laid any trap, seize ye him instantly and, whoever else may escape, let not him. But if he hath with him fifty men, like yourself, ye need fear nothing, for he knoweth well his men who serve for money are no match for thine who serve for love. But all of this thou wottest of thyself: I have little need to tell thee.” So Duncan went forth on the day set for the journey and gathered his men, and Osbert brought his friends also.

Then Torfrida rode out on a horse litter, for she was weak still, and pale; and only two maidens rode with her. Seeing Duncan, she beckoned to him to ride beside her; then speaking in Gaelic, which she was well able to do, her mother having been of the Pictish race, she said, “Duncan, my friend, leave me not to this man, nor let him ride beside or near me, for I loathe him. To him it is we owe the overthrowing of thy chief; do not trust him with thy safety, nor that of thy men; surely great number of warriors he bringeth.”

And Osbert was for setting out on the moment, but Duncan stayed him while he counted his men, then, turning to Osbert, he said—

“The number of my men is but fifty, but thou hast with thee not less than fifty and twenty gentlemen; a halt we will call till my cousin, Alastair, hath fetched hither twenty men of ours.”

Then said Osbert, “I come not here to parley with thee. I speak with thanes and princes, and all such as thou have but to obey: fall in, therefore, behind my men.”

At this Alastair glowered and laid his hand upon his sword, but Duncan, who was of an easier temper, answered—

“Nay, we are all daoine-uasil[4] and of better blood than thine. Thou knowest well, prince, that such parleying as this will avail us nothing. If thou wishest seventy men, seventy let it be, since thy will is higher than that of Penda, who said we might take each of us fifty; but an thou takest seventy or any other number, then will I do likewise; but I must first report me to the king, lest my chief or myself get the blame for the breaking of his orders.”

Then Osbert bit his lip and swore to be revenged on the Pict. So they took each fifty men, and Duncan ordered his company to arrange themselves round the person of Torfrida, he himself riding on one side of her with drawn sword and Alastair on the other, so they had Osbert and his men in front; but Osbert, seeing this, was angry and asked wherefore the Picts had arranged themselves to bring up the rear.

“Nay, prince, thou art the king’s son, methought it fit and proper that thou shouldst ride in front, while I, who am but a captain and a chief’s son, should ride in the rear with the prisoner, leastwise this is after the manner of the Albanich, and king Penda hath no bond from us that we are to live after the customs of the Mercians, but rather our own way. Such is my wish to please thee, however, that if ye like to order my men otherwise ye may do so—thou wilt find them wondrous meek of manner and easy of persuasion.”

Osbert knew this for irony, and answered, “So thou sayest, but, as I have no wish to pick a quarrel with the like of thee, I will allow this point; but I must tell thee, that it is proper the lady should ride with me, who am the chief of the party, and among my thanes, they being of her rank. Otherwise king Sigmund will say we have not shown respect to his daughter, and Penda hath said at all times that the lady Torfrida was to be treated gently and above the common, for he regardeth her greatly.”

“As thou wishest, sir prince, but thou mayest have the ordering of this thing, for my men look upon the maiden as the lady of our chief, Feargus, and therefore their mistress, and the Picts, as ye call them, are ill to give up what is their own.”

Finding all argument vain, Osbert said no more. So they set forth, and the Albanich, with Torfrida in their midst, turned along the road which led to the prison of Feargus, at which Osbert chafed. And Duncan, knowing that it would fetch Feargus to the window, ordered his men to sound their pipes, and so it happened as Duncan had foreseen, for Feargus hearing them, came to watch them, pale and grief stricken, and beheld Torfrida as she rode between his captains, and she him. Then Duncan, though he knew that Penda had denied the parting, ordered his men to halt, but Osbert was for going forward.

“On my head then be it,” said Duncan, taking Torfrida’s horse by the bridle and leading it below his master’s window. Then Feargus fell to greeting, and cried, “My faithful Duncan, I wot well that of thyself thou hast done this thing.”

And Duncan made his men mount on to each others’ backs, and the topmost placed their shields together, and he stood upright in the saddle, Alastair doing likewise, and between them they lifted Torfrida from where she lay sick in the litter on to the shields, till she stood as high as the window of Feargus; then the men, and all they that stood about, cheered, but Osbert chafed and wanted on. Then Feargus seized the great bars that fenced the window, which only perhaps the mighty Duncan and Alastair, of all the mighty men who stood in that throng, could have as much as stirred, but such was the strength of him, and such his love, that the bars shook and bent, then parted asunder from the walls that held them, and he thrust his body through the opening and held her in his arms and often kissed her and she him. But never a word he spake though she wept much, and cried, “Alack, never more shall I behold thee; never more shall we ride a hunting together in the wild wood; never will Torfrida fare with thee to the land of thy kin.”

And fiercely she clung to his neck and wildly wept when they needs must part them. And, as they rode on, the tongue of Feargus was loosened, and lifting his voice he called aloud, “Torfrida! Torfrida!” and so called; and at first his voice was faint and hoarse, but at the last so mighty was the shout that the town rang with it. Till soon she, and they who rode with her, became but as a speck in the far distance, though still his eye seemed to see her through mist and dust, and still he called aloud her name that all the townsmen gathered beneath and thought him mad, and even the king sitting in his hall heard that wild shout and shuddered, and as he lay in his bed through the night it uprose, till the very winds seemed to catch the burthen and shriek “Torfrida!”