Boy Crusaders: A Story of the Days of Louis IX. Read online

  CHAPTER III.

  THE HEIRS OF THE ESPECS.

  IN the days when the Norman kings reigned in England, the Especs were ofhigh account among the Anglo-Norman barons. Many were the brave andpious men who bore the name; but the bravest and most pious of them allwas that Walter Espec, a great noble of the north, who maintained highfeudal state at the castles of Wark, Helmsley, and Kirkham, and whofigured so conspicuously as chief of the English at the battle of theStandard, and harangued the soldiers before the battle from the chariotfrom which the standard was displayed.

  But not only as a warrior was Walter Espec known to fame. As abenefactor to religion, his name was held in honour and his memoryregarded with veneration.

  It seems that Walter Espec had, by his wife Adeline, an only son, whowas a youth of great promise, and much beloved by his parents. Nothing,however, pleased him more than a swift horse; and he was so bold a riderthat he would not have feared to mount Bucephalus, in spite of heels andhorns. Leaping into the saddle one day, at the castle of Kirkham, andscorning the thought of danger, he spurred his charger beyond itsstrength, and, while galloping towards Frithby, had a fall at the stonecross, and was killed on the spot. Much afflicted at his son's death,Walter Espec sent for his brother, who was a priest and a rector.

  'My son being, alas! dead,' said he, 'I know not who should be my heir.'

  'Brother mine,' replied the priest, 'your duty is clear. Make Christyour heir.'

  Now Walter Espec relished the advice, and proceeded to act on itforthwith. He founded three religious houses, one at Warden, a second atKirkham, a third at Rievalle; and, having been a disciple of Harding,and much attached to the Cistercian order, he planted at each place acolony of monks, sent him from beyond the sea by the great St. Bernard;and, having further signalised his piety by becoming a monk in the abbeyof Rievalle, he died, full of years and honours, and was buried in thatreligious house; while his territorial possessions passed to the Lord deRoos, as husband of his sister.

  Nevertheless, the family of Espec was not yet extinct. A branch stillsurvived and flourished in the north; and, as time passed over, akinsman of the great Walter won distinction in war, and, though a knightof small estate, wedded a daughter of that Anglo-Saxon race theIcinglas, once so great in England, but of whom now almost everything isforgotten but the name. And this Espec, who had lived as a soldier, dieda soldier's death; falling bravely with his feet to the foe, on that dayin 1242 when the English under King Henry fought against such fearfulodds, at the-village of Saintonge. But even now the Especs were notwithout representatives; for, by his Anglo-Saxon spouse Algitha, theAnglo-Norman warrior who fell in Gascony left two sons, and of the twoone was named Walter, the other Osbert.

  While Dame Algitha Espec lived, the young Especs scarcely felt the lossthey had sustained in the death of their father. Nothing, indeed, couldhave been more exemplary than the care which the Anglo-Saxon damebestowed on her sons. In a conversation which Walter Espec held on thebattlements of the castle of Wark, with his brother-in-arms GuyMuschamp, the heir of an Anglo-Norman baron of Northumberland, he laudedher excellence as a woman, and her tenderness as a mother.

  'I was in my tenth year,' said Walter, 'when my father, after havingserved King Henry as a knight in Gascony, fell in battle; and, albeit mymother, when she became a widow, was still fair and of fresh age, awidow she resolved to remain; and she adhered firmly to her purpose. Intruth, her mouth was so accustomed to repeat the name of her deadhusband that it seemed as if his memory had possession of her wholeheart and soul; for whether in praying or giving alms, and even in themost ordinary acts of life, she continually pronounced his name.

  'My mother brought up my brother and myself with the most tender care.Living at our castellated house of Heckspeth, in the Wansbeck, and hardby the abbey of Newminster, she lived in great fear of the Lord, andwith an equal love for her neighbours, especially such as were poor; andshe prudently managed us and our property. Scarcely had we learned thefirst elements of letters, which she herself, being convent-bred, taughtus, when, eager to have us instructed, she confided us to a master ofgrammar, who incited us to work, and taught us to recite verses andcompose them according to rule.'

  It was while the brothers Espec were studying under this master ofgrammar, and indulging with spirit and energy in the sports andrecreations fashionable among the boys of the thirteenth century--suchas playing with whirligigs and paper windmills, and mimic engines ofwar, and trundling hoops, and shooting with bows and arrows, andlearning to swim on bladders, that Dame Algitha followed her husband toa better world, and they found themselves orphans and unprotected. Forboth, however, Providence raised up friends in the day of need.Remembering what he owed to his connection with the Especs, the Lord deRoos received Walter into his castle of Wark, to be trained to arms; andanother kinsman, who was a prior in France, received Osbert into hisconvent, to be reared as a monk. The orphans, who had never before beenseparated, and who were fondly attached, parted after many embraces, andmany tears; and, with as little knowledge of the world into which theywere entering as fishes have of the sea in which they swim, each wentwhere destiny seemed to point the way.

  On reaching the castle of Wark, Walter Espec felt delighted with thenovelty of the scene, and entered with enthusiasm upon his duties as anaspirant to the honours of chivalry. Besides learning to carve, to sing,and to take part in that exciting sport which has been described as 'theimage of war'--such as hawking, and hunting the hare, the deer, theboar, and the wolf--he ere long signalised himself in the tiltyard bythe facility which he displayed in acquiring skill in arms, and inchivalrous exercises. Indeed, whether in assailing the pel, or chargingthe quintain on horseback, or riding at the ring, or in the combat atthe barriers, Walter had hardly a rival among the youths of his own age;and, after being advanced to the rank of squire, he crowned his triumphsin the tiltyard by successfully charging on horseback, _a la_ Coeur deLion, with a sword in one hand and a lance in the other.

  But still Walter Espec was unhappy; and, even when his dexterity andprowess in arms moved the envy or admiration of his youthful compeers,his heart was sad and his smile mournful.

  And why was the brave boy so sad?

  At the time when Walter was winning such reputation at the castle ofWark, Jerusalem was sacked by the Karismians. A cry of distress camefrom the Christians in the East; and the warriors of the West wereimplored to undertake a new crusade, to rescue the Holy Sepulchre andsave the kingdom founded by Godfrey and the Baldwins. The warriors ofthe West, however, showed no inclination to leave their homes; and thepope was lamenting the absence of Christian zeal, when a boy went aboutFrance, singing in his native tongue--

  Jesus, Lord, repair our loss, Restore to us thy blessed cross;

  and met with much sympathy from those of his own age. Multitudes ofchildren crowded round him as their leader, and followed his footstepswherever he went. Nothing could restrain their enthusiasm; and,assembling in crowds in the environs of Paris, they prepared to crossBurgundy and make for Marseilles.

  'And whither are you going, children?' people asked.

  'We are going to Jerusalem, to deliver the Holy Sepulchre,' answeredthey.

  'But how are you to get there?' was the next question.

  'Oh,' replied they, 'you seem not to know how it has been prophesiedthat this year the drought will be very great, that the sun willdissipate all the waters, and that the abysses of the sea will be dry;and that an easy road will lie open to us across the bed of theMediterranean.'

  On reaching Marseilles, however, the young pilgrims discovered that theyhad been deluded. Some of them returned to their homes; but the majoritywere not so fortunate. Many lost themselves in the forests which thencovered the country, and died of hunger and fatigue; and the othersbecame objects of speculation to two merchants of Marseilles, whocarried on trade with the Saracens. Affecting to act from motives ofpiety, the two merchants tempted the boy-pilgrims by offering to conveythem, without charge
, to the Holy Land; and, the offer having beenjoyfully accepted, seven vessels, with children on board, sailed fromMarseilles. But the voyage was not prosperous. At the end of two days,when the ships were off the isle of St. Peter, near the rock of theRecluse, a tempest arose, and the wind blew so violently that two ofthem went down with all on board. The five others, however, weatheredthe storm, and reached Bugia and Alexandria. And now the young Crusadersdiscovered to their consternation how they had been deceived andbetrayed. Without delay they were sold by the merchants to theslave-dealers, and by the slave-dealers to the Saracens. Forty of themwere purchased for the caliph and carried to Bagdad, where they wereforced to abjure Christianity, and brought up as slaves.

  Now, among the boys who had yielded to the prevailing excitement, andrepaired to Marseilles to embark for Syria, was Osbert Espec; and eversince Walter received from his kinsman, the prior, intelligence of hisbrother's disappearance, and heard the rumours of what had befallen theyoung pilgrims on their arrival in the East, his memory had brooded overthe misfortune, and his imagination, which was constantly at work,pictured Osbert in the caliph's prison, laden with chains, and forced toforswear the God of his fathers; and the thought of his lost brother wasever present to his mind. And therefore was Walter Espec's heart sad,and therefore was his smile mournful.