The White Company

Коллекция текстов · adventure

Chapter I. How the Black Sheep Came Forth from the Fold
The great bell of Beaulieu was ringing. Far away through the forest might be heard its musical clangor and swell. Peat-cutters on Blackdown…
Chapter II. How Alleyne Edricson Came Out into the World
Never had the peaceful atmosphere of the old Cistercian house been so rudely ruffled. Never had there been insurrection so sudden, so short…
Chapter III. How Hordle John Cozened the Fuller of Lymington
It is not, however, in the nature of things that a lad of twenty, with young life glowing in his veins and all the wide world before him, s…
Chapter IV. How the Bailiff of Southampton Slew the Two Masterless Men (1)
The road along which he travelled was scarce as populous as most other roads in the kingdom, and far less so than those which lie between t…
Chapter IV. How the Bailiff of Southampton Slew the Two Masterless Men (2)
“Then we shall have him,” said the other. “It shall never be said, whilst I am bailiff of Southampton, that any waster, riever, draw-latch…
Chapter V. How a Strange Company Gathered at the “Pied Merlin.” (1)
The night had already fallen, and the moon was shining between the rifts of ragged, drifting clouds, before Alleyne Edricson, footsore and…
Chapter V. How a Strange Company Gathered at the “Pied Merlin.” (2)
This loud speech, coming from a man of so formidable an appearance, somewhat daunted the disloyal party, and they fell into a sullen silenc…
Chapter VI. How Samkin Aylward Wagered His Feather-Bed (1)
He was a middle-sized man, of most massive and robust build, with an arching chest and extraordinary breadth of shoulder. His shaven face w…
Chapter VI. How Samkin Aylward Wagered His Feather-Bed (2)
Big John stood waiting in the centre with a sullen, menacing eye, and his red hair in a bristle, while the archer paced lightly and swiftly…
Chapter VII. How the Three Comrades Journeyed Through the Woodlands (1)
At early dawn the country inn was all alive, for it was rare indeed that an hour of daylight would be wasted at a time when lighting was so…
Chapter VII. How the Three Comrades Journeyed Through the Woodlands (2)
“Doubtless you mean no sin,” said Alleyne. “If your words are wild, it is not for me to judge them. Can you not see that there are other fo…
Chapter VIII. The Three Friends
His companions had passed on whilst he was at his orisons; but his young blood and the fresh morning air both invited him to a scamper. His…
Chapter IX. How Strange Things Befell in Minstead Wood (1)
The path which the young clerk had now to follow lay through a magnificent forest of the very heaviest timber, where the giant bowls of oak…
Chapter IX. How Strange Things Befell in Minstead Wood (2)
“That am I; and the son of Edric the Socman, of the pure blood of Godfrey the thane, by the only daughter of the house of Aluric, whose for…
Chapter X. How Hordle John Found a Man Whom He Might Follow (1)
If he might not return to Beaulieu within the year, and if his brother's dogs were to be set upon him if he showed face upon Minstead land,…
Chapter X. How Hordle John Found a Man Whom He Might Follow (2)
It chanced on that very evening that Sir Nigel Loring, having supped before sunset, as was his custom, and having himself seen that Pommers…
Chapter X. How Hordle John Found a Man Whom He Might Follow (3)
Aylward's words were interrupted by an extraordinary hubbub which broke out that instant some little way down the street in the direction o…
Chapter XI. How a Young Shepherd Had a Perilous Flock (1)
Black was the mouth of Twynham Castle, though a pair of torches burning at the further end of the gateway cast a red glare over the outer b…
Chapter XI. How a Young Shepherd Had a Perilous Flock (2)
“Nay, I know him not. I have learned it by looking from my own chamber window and marking these poor monks of the priory, their weary life,…
Chapter XII. How Alleyne Learned More Than He Could Teach
And now there came a time of stir and bustle, of furbishing of arms and clang of hammer from all the southland counties. Fast spread the ti…
Chapter XIII. How the White Company Set Forth to the Wars
St. Luke's day had come and had gone, and it was in the season of Martinmas, when the oxen are driven in to the slaughter, that the White C…
Chapter XIV. How Sir Nigel Sought for a Wayside Venture
For a time Sir Nigel was very moody and downcast, with bent brows and eyes upon the pommel of his saddle. Edricson and Terlake rode behind…
Chapter XV. How the Yellow Cog Sailed Forth from Lepe (1)
That night the Company slept at St. Leonard's, in the great monastic barns and spicarium—ground well known both to Alleyne and to John, for…
Chapter XV. How the Yellow Cog Sailed Forth from Lepe (2)
With a clank of arms, the rough archers and seamen took to their knees, with bent heads and crossed hands, listening to the hoarse mutter f…
Chapter XVI. How the Yellow Cog Fought the Two Rover Galleys
The three vessels had been sweeping swiftly westwards, the cog still well to the front, although the galleys were slowly drawing in upon ei…
Chapter XVII. How the Yellow Cog Crossed the Bar of Gironde
For two days the yellow cog ran swiftly before a northeasterly wind, and on the dawn of the third the high land of Ushant lay like a mist u…
Chapter XVIII. How Sir Nigel Loring Put a Patch Upon His Eye
It was on the morning of Friday, the eight-and-twentieth day of November, two days before the feast of St. Andrew, that the cog and her two…
Chapter XIX. How There Was Stir at the Abbey of St. Andrew's (1)
The prince's reception-room, although of no great size, was fitted up with all the state and luxury which the fame and power of its owner d…
Chapter XIX. How There Was Stir at the Abbey of St. Andrew's (2)
“It will hearten you to know,” he continued, “that I have sure advices that this Henry is a very valiant leader, and that he has it in his…
Chapter XX. How Alleyne Won His Place in an Honorable Guild
Whilst the prince's council was sitting, Alleyne and Ford had remained in the outer hall, where they were soon surrounded by a noisy group…
Chapter XXI. How Agostino Pisano Risked His Head
Even the squires' table at the Abbey of St. Andrew's at Bordeaux was on a very sumptuous scale while the prince held his court there. Here…
Chapter XXII. How the Bowmen Held Wassail at the “Rose De Guienne.”
“Mon Dieu! Alleyne, saw you ever so lovely a face?” cried Ford as they hurried along together. “So pure, so peaceful, and so beautiful!” “I…
Chapter XXIII. How England Held the Lists at Bordeaux
So used were the good burghers of Bordeaux to martial display and knightly sport, that an ordinary joust or tournament was an everyday matt…
Chapter XXIV. How a Champion Came Forth from the East
The Bordeaux lists were, as has already been explained, situated upon the plain near the river upon those great occasions when the tilting-…
Chapter XXV. How Sir Nigel Wrote to Twynham Castle
On the morning after the jousting, when Alleyne Edricson went, as was his custom, into his master's chamber to wait upon him in his dressin…
Chapter XXVI. How the Three Comrades Gained a Mighty Treasure (1)
It was a bright, crisp winter's day when the little party set off from Bordeaux on their journey to Montaubon, where the missing half of th…
Chapter XXVI. How the Three Comrades Gained a Mighty Treasure (2)
“Kind stranger,” answered the pilgrim, “you have unwittingly spoken words which are very grievous to me to listen to. Yet I should be loth…
Chapter XXVII. How Roger Club-Foot Was Passed into Paradise
It was evening before the three comrades came into Aiguillon. There they found Sir Nigel Loring and Ford safely lodged at the sign of the “…
Chapter XXVIII. How the Comrades Came over the Marches of France (1)
After passing Cahors, the party branched away from the main road, and leaving the river to the north of them, followed a smaller track whic…
Chapter XXVIII. How the Comrades Came over the Marches of France (2)
It was indeed a singular scene which met their eyes. The room was a long and lofty one, stone floored and bare, with a fire at the further…
Chapter XXIX. How the Blessed Hour of Sight Came to the Lady Tiphaine
Sir Tristram de Rochefort, Seneschal of Auvergne and Lord of Villefranche, was a fierce and renowned soldier who had grown gray in the Engl…
Chapter XXX. How the Brushwood Men Came to the Chateau of Villefranche
It was late ere Alleyne Edricson, having carried Sir Nigel the goblet of spiced wine which it was his custom to drink after the curling of…
Chapter XXXI. How Five Men Held the Keep of Villefranche
Under the guidance of the French squire the party passed down two narrow corridors. The first was empty, but at the head of the second stoo…
Chapter XXXII. How the Company Took Counsel Round the Fallen Tree
“Where is Sir Claude Latour?” asked Sir Nigel, as his feet touched ground. “He is in camp, near Montpezat, two hours' march from here, my f…
Chapter XXXIII. How the Army Made the Passage of Roncesvalles
The whole vast plain of Gascony and of Languedoc is an arid and profitless expanse in winter save where the swift-flowing Adour and her sno…
Chapter XXXIV. How the Company Made Sport in the Vale of Pampeluna
Whilst the council was sitting in Pampeluna the White Company, having encamped in a neighboring valley, close to the companies of La Nuit a…
Chapter XXXV. How Sir Nigel Hawked at an Eagle (1)
To the south of Pampeluna in the kingdom of Navarre there stretched a high table-land, rising into bare, sterile hills, brown or gray in co…
Chapter XXXV. How Sir Nigel Hawked at an Eagle (2)
As he spoke, the vast throng of Spaniards and of Frenchmen trooped across the plain, with brandished arms and tossing banners. All day long…
Chapter XXXVI. How Sir Nigel Took the Patch from His Eye (1)
It was a cold, bleak morning in the beginning of March, and the mist was drifting in dense rolling clouds through the passes of the Cantabr…
Chapter XXXVI. How Sir Nigel Took the Patch from His Eye (2)
As he spoke, the two wings of the Spanish host, consisting of the Knights of Calatrava on the one side and of Santiago upon the other, came…
Chapter XXXVII. How the White Company Came to Be Disbanded
Then up rose from the hill in the rugged Cantabrian valley a sound such as had not been heard in those parts before, nor was again, until t…
Chapter XXXVIII. Of the Home-Coming to Hampshire
It was a bright July morning four months after that fatal fight in the Spanish barranca. A blue heaven stretched above, a green rolling pla…