THE EARL of Mackworth, as was customary among the great lords inthose days, maintained a small army of knights, gentlemen,men-at-arms, and retainers, who were expected to serve him uponall occasions of need, and from whom were supplied his quota ofrecruits to fill such levies as might be made upon him by theKing in time of war.
The knights and gentlemen of this little army of horse and footsoldiers were largely recruited from the company of squires andbachelors, as the young novitiate soldiers of the castle werecalled.
This company of esquires consisted of from eighty to ninety lads,ranging in age from eight to twenty years. Those under fourteenyears were termed pages, and served chiefly the Countess and herwaiting gentlewomen, in whose company they acquired the gracesand polish of the times, such as they were. After reaching theage of fourteen the lads were entitled to the name of esquire orsquire.
In most of the great houses of the time the esquires were theespecial attendants upon the Lord and Lady of the house, holdingsuch positions as body-squires, cup-bearers, carvers, andsometimes the office of chamberlain. But Devlen, like some otherof the princely castles of the greatest nobles, was more like amilitary post or a fortress than an ordinary household. Onlycomparatively few of the esquires could be used in personalattendance upon the Earl; the others were trained more strictlyin arms, and served rather in the capacity of a sort ofbody-guard than as ordinary squires. For, as the Earl rose inpower and influence, and as it so became well worth while for thelower nobility and gentry to enter their sons in his family, thebody of squires became almost cumbersomely large. Accordingly,that part which comprised the squires proper, as separate fromthe younger pages, was divided into three classes-- first,squires of the body, who were those just past pagehood, and whowaited upon the Earl in personal service; second, squires of thehousehold, who, having regular hours assigned for exercise in themanual of arms, were relieved from personal service exceptingupon especial occasions; and thirdly and lastly, at the head ofthe whole body of lads, a class called bachelors--young menranging from eighteen to twenty years of age. This class wassupposed to exercise a sort of government over the other andyounger squires--to keep them in order as much as possible, tomarshal them upon occasions of importance, to see that their armsand equipments were kept in good order, to call the roll forchapel in the morning, and to see that those not upon duty in thehouse were present at the daily exercise at arms. Orders to thesquires were generally transmitted through the bachelors, and thehead of that body was expected to make weekly reports of affairsin their quarters to the chief captain of the body.
From this overlordship of the bachelors there had gradually risena system of fagging, such as is or was practised in the greatEnglish public schools--enforced services exacted from theyounger lads--which at the time Myles came to Devlen had, in thefive or six years it had been in practice, grown to be anabsolute though unwritten law of the body--a law supported by allthe prestige of long-continued usage. At that time the bachelorsnumbered but thirteen, yet they exercised over the rest of thesixty-four squires and pages a rule of iron, and weretaskmasters, hard, exacting, and oftentimes cruel.
The whole company of squires and pages was under the supremecommand of a certain one-eyed knight, by name Sir James Lee; asoldier seasoned by the fire of a dozen battles, bearing a scoreof wounds won in fight and tourney, and withered by hardship andlabor to a leather-like toughness. He had fought upon the King'sside in all the late wars, and had at Shrewsbury received a woundthat unfitted him for active service, so that now he was fallento the post of Captain of Esquires at Devlen Castle--a mandisappointed in life, and with a temper imbittered by thatfailure as well as by cankering pain.
Yet Perhaps no one could have been better fitted for the place heheld than Sir James Lee. The lads under his charge were a rude,rough, unruly set, quick, like their elders, to quarrel, and toquarrel fiercely, even to the drawing of sword or dagger. Butthere was a cold, iron sternness about the grim old man thatquelled them, as the trainer with a lash of steel might quell aden of young wolves. The apartments in which he was lodged, withhis clerk, were next in the dormitory of the lads, and even inthe midst of the most excited brawlings the distant sound of hisharsh voice, "Silence, messieurs!" would bring an instant hush tothe loudest uproar.
It was into his grim presence that Myles was introduced byGascoyne. Sir James was in his office, a room bare of ornament oradornment or superfluous comfort of any sort--without even somuch as a mat of rushes upon the cold stone pavement to make itless cheerless. The old one- eyed knight sat gnawing hisbristling mustaches. To anyone who knew him it would have beenapparent that, as the castle phrase went, "the devil sat astrideof his neck," which meant that some one of his blind wounds wasaching more sorely than usual.
His clerk sat beside him, with account-books and parchment spreadupon the table, and the head squire, Walter Blunt, a lad somethree or four years older than Myles, and half a head taller,black-browed, powerfully built, and with cheek and chin darkenedby the soft budding of his adolescent beard, stood making hisreport.
Sir James listened in grim silence while Gascoyne told hiserrand.
