The Butcher And How He Was Cast Into The Vault Of The Curfew Tower

Turning off on the right, the earl and his companion continued to

descend the hill until they came in sight of the Garter--a snug little

hostel, situated immediately beneath the Curfew Tower.



Before the porch were grouped the earl's attendants, most of whom

had dismounted, and were holding their steeds by the bridles. At

this juncture the door of the hostel opened, and a fat jolly-looking

personage, with bald head and bushy grey beard, and clad in a brown

serge doublet, and hose to match, issued forth, bearing a foaming jug of

ale and a horn cup. His appearance was welcomed by a joyful shout from

the attendants.



"Come, my masters!" he cried, filling the horn, "here is a cup of stout

Windsor ale in which to drink the health of our jolly monarch, bluff

King Hal; and there's no harm, I trust, in calling him so."



"Marry, is there not, mine host;" cried the foremost attendant. "I spoke

of him as such in his own hearing not long ago, and he laughed at me

in right merry sort. I love the royal bully, and will drink his health

gladly, and Mistress Anne Boleyn's to boot."



And he emptied the horn.



"They tell me Mistress Anne Boleyn is coming to Windsor with the king

and the knights-companions to-morrow--is it so?" asked the host, again

filling the horn, and handing it to another attendant.



The person addressed nodded, but he was too much engrossed by the horn

to speak.



"Then there will be rare doings in the castle," chuckled the host; "and

many a lusty pot will be drained at the Garter. Alack-a-day! how times

are changed since I, Bryan Bowntance, first stepped into my father's

shoes, and became host of the Garter. It was in 1501--twenty-eight years

ago--when King Henry the Seventh, of blessed memory, ruled the land, and

when his elder son, Prince Arthur, was alive likewise. In that year the

young prince espoused Catherine of Arragon, our present queen, and soon

afterwards died; whereupon the old king, not liking--for he loved his

treasure better than his own flesh--to part with her dowry, gave her to

his second son, Henry, our gracious sovereign, whom God preserve! Folks

said then the match wouldn't come to good; and now we find they spoke

the truth, for it is likely to end in a divorce."



"Not so loud, mine host!" cried the foremost attendant; "here comes our

young master, the Earl of Surrey."



"Well, I care not," replied the host bluffly. "I've spoken no treason.

I love my king; and if he wishes to have a divorce, I hope his holiness

the Pope will grant him one, that's all."



As he said this, a loud noise was heard within the hostel, and a man was

suddenly and so forcibly driven forth, that he almost knocked down Bryan

Bowntance, who was rushing in to see what was the matter. The person

thus ejected, who was a powerfully-built young man, in a leathern

doublet, with his muscular arms bared to the shoulder, turned his rage

upon the host, and seized him by the throat with a grip that threatened

him with strangulation. Indeed, but for the intervention of the earl's

attendants, who rushed to his assistance, such might have been his fate.

As soon as he was liberated, Bryan cried in a voice of mingled rage and

surprise to his assailant, "Why, what's the matter, Mark Fytton?--are

you gone mad, or do you mistake me for a sheep or a bullock, that you

attack me in this fashion? My strong ale must have got into your addle

pate with a vengeance.



"The knave has been speaking treason of the king's highness," said the

tall man, whose doublet and hose of the finest green cloth, as well as

the how and quiverful of arrows at his back, proclaimed him an

archer--"and therefore we turned him out!"



"And you did well, Captain Barlow," cried the host.



"Call me rather the Duke of Shoreditch," rejoined the tall archer; "for

since his majesty conferred the title upon me, though it were but in

jest, when I won this silver bugle, I shall ever claim it. I am always

designated by my neighbours in Shoreditch as his grace; and I require

the same attention at your hands. To-morrow I shall have my comrades,

the Marquises of Clerkenwell, Islington, Hogsden, Pancras, and

Paddington, with me, and then you will see the gallant figure we shall

cut."



"I crave your grace's pardon for my want of respect," replied the host.

"I am not ignorant of the distinction conferred upon you at the last

match at the castle butts by the king. But to the matter in hand. What

treason hath Mark Fytton, the butcher, been talking?"



"I care not to repeat his words, mine host," replied the duke; "but

he hath spoken in unbecoming terms of his highness and Mistress Anne

Boleyn."



"He means not what he says," rejoined the host. "He is a loyal subject

of the king; but he is apt to get quarrelsome over his cups."



"Well said, honest Bryan," cried the duke; "you have one quality of a

good landlord--that of a peacemaker. Give the knave a cup of ale, and

let him wash down his foul words in a health to the king, wishing him a

speedy divorce and a new queen, and he shall then sit among us again."



"I do not desire to sit with you, you self-dubbed duke," rejoined Mark;

"but if you will doff your fine jerkin, and stand up with me on the

green, I will give you cause to remember laying hands on me."



"Well challenged, bold butcher!" cried one of Surrey's attendants. "You

shall be made a duke yourself."



"Or a cardinal," cried Mark. "I should not be the first of my brethren

who has met with such preferment."



"He derides the Church in the person of Cardinal Wolsey!" cried the

duke. "He is a blasphemer as well as traitor."



"Drink the king's health in a full cup, Mark," interposed the host,

anxious to set matters aright, "and keep your mischievous tongue between

your teeth."



"Beshrew me if I drink the king's health, or that of his minion, Anne

Boleyn!" cried Mark boldly. "But I will tell you what I will drink.

I will drink the health of King Henry's lawful consort, Catherine

of Arragon; and I will add to it a wish that the Pope may forge her

marriage chains to her royal husband faster than ever."



"A foolish wish," cried Bryan. "Why, Mark, you are clean crazed!"



"It is the king who is crazed, not me!" cried Mark. "He would sacrifice

his rightful consort to his unlawful passion; and you, base hirelings,

support the tyrant in his wrongful conduct!"



"Saints protect us!" exclaimed Bryan. "Why, this is flat treason. Mark,

I can no longer uphold you."



"Not if you do not desire to share his prison, mine host," cried the

Duke of Shoreditch. "You have all heard him call the king a tyrant.

Seize him, my masters!"



"Let them lay hands upon me if they dare!" cried the butcher resolutely.

"I have felled an ox with a blow of my fist before this, and I promise

you I will show them no better treatment."



Awed by Mark's determined manner, the bystanders kept aloof.



"I command you, in the king's name, to seize him!" roared Shoreditch.

"If he offers resistance he will assuredly be hanged."



"No one shall touch me!" cried Mark fiercely.



"That remains to be seen," said the foremost of the Earl of Surrey's

attendants. "Yield, fellow!"



"Never!" replied Mark; "and I warn you to keep off."



The attendant, however, advanced; but before he could lay hands on the

butcher he received a blow from his ox-like fist that sent him reeling

backwards for several paces, and finally stretched him at full length

upon the ground. His companions drew their swords, and would have

instantly fallen upon the sturdy offender, if Morgan Fenwolf, who, with

the Earl of Surrey, was standing among the spectators, had not rushed

forward, and, closing with Mark before the latter could strike a blow,

grappled with him, and held him fast till he was secured, and his arms

tied behind him.



"And so it is you, Morgan Fenwolf, who have served me this ill turn,

eh?" cried the butcher, regarding him fiercely. "I now believe all I

have heard of you."



"What have you heard of him?" asked Surrey, advancing.



"That he has dealings with the fiend--with Herne the Hunter," replied

Mark. "If I am hanged for a traitor, he ought to be burnt for a wizard."



"Heed not what the villain says, my good fellow," said the Duke of

Shoreditch; "you have captured him bravely, and I will take care your

conduct is duly reported to his majesty. To the castle with him! To

the castle! He will lodge to-night in the deepest dungeon of yon

fortification," pointing to the Curfew Tower above them, "there to await

the king's judgment; and to-morrow night it will be well for him if he

is not swinging from the gibbet near the bridge. Bring him along."



And followed by Morgan Fenwolf and the others, with the prisoner, he

strode up the hill.



Long before this Captain Bouchier had issued from the hostel and joined

the earl, and they walked together after the crowd. In a few minutes the

Duke of Shoreditch reached Henry the Eighth's Gate, where he shouted to

a sentinel, and told him what had occurred. After some delay a wicket in

the gate was opened, and the chief persons of the party were allowed to

pass through it with the prisoner, who was assigned to the custody of a

couple of arquebusiers.



By this time an officer had arrived, and it was agreed, at the

suggestion of the Duke of Shoreditch, to take the offender to the Curfew

Tower. Accordingly they crossed the lower ward, and passing beneath an

archway near the semicircular range of habitations allotted to the

petty canons, traversed the space before the west end of Saint George's

Chapel, and descending a short flight of stone steps at the left, and

threading a narrow passage, presently arrived at the arched entrance in

the Curfew, whose hoary walls shone brightly in the moonlight.



They had to knock for some time against the stout oak door before any

notice was taken of the summons. At length an old man, who acted as

bellringer, thrust his head out of one of the narrow pointed windows

above, and demanded their business. Satisfied with the reply, he

descended, and, opening the door, admitted them into a lofty chamber,

the roof of which was composed of stout planks, crossed by heavy oaken

rafters, and supported by beams of the same material. On the left a

steep ladder-like flight of wooden steps led to an upper room, and from

a hole in the roof descended a bell-rope, which was fastened to one of

the beams, showing the use to which the chamber was put.



Some further consultation was now held among the party as to the

propriety of leaving the prisoner in this chamber under the guard of the

arquebusiers, but it was at last decided against doing so, and the old

bellringer being called upon for the keys of the dungeon beneath, he

speedily produced them. They then went forth, and descending a flight of

stone steps on the left, came to a low strong door, which they unlocked,

and obtained admission to a large octangular chamber with a vaulted

roof, and deep embrasures terminated by narrow loopholes. The light of

a lamp carried by the bellringer showed the dreary extent of the vault,

and the enormous thickness of its walls.



"A night's solitary confinement in this place will be of infinite

service to our prisoner," said the Duke of Shoreditch, gazing around.

"I'll be sworn he is ready to bite off the foolish tongue that has

brought him to such a pass."



The butcher made no reply, but being released by the arquebusiers, sat

down upon a bench that constituted the sole furniture of the vault.



"Shall I leave him the lamp?" asked the bellringer; "he may beguile the

time by reading the names of former prisoners scratched on the walls and

in the embrasures."



"No; he shall not even have that miserable satisfaction," returned the

Duke of Shoreditch. "He shall be left in the darkness to his own bad and

bitter thoughts."



With this the party withdrew, and the door was fastened upon the

prisoner. An arquebusier was stationed at the foot of the steps; and

the Earl of Surrey and Captain Bouchier having fully satisfied their

curiosity, shaped their course towards the castle gate. On their way

thither the earl looked about for Morgan Fenwolf, but could nowhere

discern him. He then passed through the wicket with Bouchier, and

proceeding to the Garter, they mounted their steeds, and galloped off

towards Datchet, and thence to Staines and Hampton Court.