Lothrop Publishing Company first edition - 1898
This book is a collection of four short stories - The Deserter and A Day in the Wilderness, both set in 19th century America; and two set in 15th century England - How Dickon came by his Name and Where Avon into Severn Flows. I am only concerned with, and have only read, the latter two.
How Dickon came by his Name is a simple tale of a young Shropshire boy, born c.1461, a smith's son, in the service of a border's robber-baron Sir Watty Curdle, who raided defenceless folk from his castle of Egswith. Dickon gets caught up in one raid, but - in helping an even younger boy to escape (I kept thinking he would turn out to be a she!) - he and this Andreas find themselves footsore and near frozen outside a monastery gate. Momentarily supported with some food (including a boar slain by Dickon), they are later surrounded by fierce-faced bowmen. By good fortune, these are henchmen of a stately figure of a young knight, tall and proudly poised. A red cloak and fur tippet were cast over his shining corselet. this young man had a broad brow under his hanging hair, and grave, piercing eyes... Recognize him yet? Well, here's a clue: now that he stood cloakless, one of his shoulders was revealed higher than the other.
Yes, it is none other than the Duke of Gloucester, aged just 25. When Dickon said he would prefer death to continued service under Sir Watty, Gloucester shows more than a touch of humour: Why, Sir Watty hath outstripped thee in that race. I set his head up on a pole in Craven market-place this morning...thou shalt be Dickon of Tannenbaum and wear my boar's head in exchange for that other thou didst slay, and hold thyself my man. Seven years later, on bloody Bosworth field, Dickon was struck down with his master. The King was killed, but Dickon survived, and taken to Leicester Abbey to be cured of his wounds. Then to London, to link up once more with Andreas Mayer, who, now a skilled craftsman in the printing trade, was working for the aged Master Caxton. Dickon eventually retired and dies as Sir Richard Tannibow, chief of the domain of Egswith. Thanks are due, in a great deal, to Richard Duke of Gloucester, later King Richard III.
Where Avon into Severn Flows also concerns the Duke of Gloucester. This time, the hero is a boy of fifteen, working in the scriptorium of Tewkesbury Abbey. Hugh Overton, already a trained writer, is to be caught up in the maelstrom of the Battle of 1471. He had been a monk's boy in all these later years of peace, since his father, the poor saddler, fell in his Nevill livery on Hedgely Moor, away in the farthest north. Now, with sounds of a conflict again outside the abbey walls an unaccustomed heat tingled in his veins...who would be a stoop-shouldered scribe, a monk, or even a mass-priest when there were harnesses to wear, horses to mount, yew bows to bend till the shaft trembled in the strain?
Now - the foreign woman - Queen Margaret is at the gates, with the Duke of Somerset, her son the Prince Edward, and the great Earl's daughter, the Lady Anne. King Edward is in pursuit and the morrow would see battle joined. With the abbey Sacristan, Hugh is allowed into the town. A strange knight, young and of slight form...his uplifted visor framed a face of small features and soft lines, with saddened eyes, asks for a letter to be written They return to the scriptorium, where Hugh pens the letter, adds a superscription, Sir Hereward Thayer, Knt., and the knight disappears with it.
On the following morning, Hugh again creeps out of the abbey. This time he witnesses John, Earl of Devon greet Queen Margaret, Prince Edward and their entourage. The battle commences and soon the Lancastrians are in full flight, many to take refuge within the abbey walls. The Abbot gets King Edward's promise of sanctuary for the Lancastrians; a promise soon broken. Hugh is summoned to attend the Duke of Gloucester as the scrivener for the trial; he is accompanied by Sir Hereward, disguised as a morris-dancer. They realise that the platform being constructed is a scaffold, where presently axes shall hew flesh and blood, not logs. Sir Hereward whispers, "Whither go we; into the very tusks of the boar?" The Earl Marshal of England, appears, accompanied by the nineteen year-old Duke. Hugh looked at the youthful face of the latter: It was a thin, thoughtful face, dark of skin and with a saddened air. The bended nose was long, the point well out in air to bespeak an inborn swiftness of scent. And above, wide apart, there burned a steady flame of great-hearted wisdom in two deep iron-gray eyes which embraced all things, searched calmly and comprehended all things.
Twenty-two of nearly two score and ten are sent to the block. Although Sir Hereward is unmasked, his Lady Kate does enough to get her spouse spared. Then Gloucester, on appraising the quality of the letter writing, asks who was the scribe. Hugh is put forward. Gloucester is impressed: This night I'll beg him of the Abbot, and he shall be of my house-hold at Baynard's. What future lay ahead for Hugh, the reader will never know, as the author ends his short account there.
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