KING JOHN.

A LEGEND OF THE ISLE OF WIGHT.

In the year A.D. 1215, the inhabitants of the few cottages that were at that time scattered along the banks of Whippingham Creek, were thrown into a state of great alarm by the arrival of four large vessels. Most of them fled away, and those that were unable to escape were still more dismayed to hear the chiefs of these intruders and their armed followers conversing together in a foreign language. They made no doubt but that it was another invasion of the Danes, for which they knew the island to be altogether unprepared, as they had been free from their inroads ever since the Conquest.

pos

The Danes, whenever they came, burnt and destroyed whatever they found. The present visiters, however, acted differently. Instead of destroying anything, after turning the inhabitants out, they took session of the cottages, and set to work to make them as comfortable as they could for their own residence; keeping, however, a few of the natives to slave for them in fetching wood and water, under the threat of the utter destruction of their property when they went away.

The strangers, however, did not appear to have the slightest intentions of leaving their present quarters again, but seemed to be preparing to make it their permanent abode; for all that evening men were employed disembarking deer's hides and costly furs, broad pieces of woollen cloth, cooking vessels of all kinds, huge piles of dried venison and hams, together with a number of casks of wine. They were also surprised to see disembark a quantity of most costly armour, such as only the nobility or the most wealthy knights were able to afford.

One of the poor fishermen, who had been thus unceremoniously dispossessed of his dwelling, ventured to hint to the person who seemed the chief of the strangers, and was almost the only one that appeared to be English, that if they intended to make a long stay in the island, there were many fairer and more convenient houses to which he would be happy to conduct them.

"Ha!" said the chief, with an air of offended dignity. "Let me give you this advice,-keep your prattling tongue quiet, and take no notice of what you see or hear, or-" finishing his sentence by signs, putting his forefinger and thumb round his neck, and then pointing up to a large bough of an oak tree that was spreading over their heads. "And now it strikes me," he continued, "that it would not be amiss just to hang one churl at starting; it would make the remainder more respectful and attentive. Here, De Mark, send Gigo here with half a dozen of his men and a halter."

When they had come, he made a sign with his finger, and in an instant one end of the rope was thrown over the bough of the tree, and the other tied in a running noose round the poor fisherman's neck.

"Shall we lift him?" said Gigo, turning to his master to see whether he had changed his mind.

"Lift away," said the chief, looking on with listless indifference. Gigo's assistants quickly hauled upon the loose end of the rope, and the unfortunate man was soon swinging in the air. He struggled

hard, clasping the rope above his head with both his hands, which they had not thought worth the trouble of tying behind him.

"He is a long time dying, my lord. Shall I lower him a little, and take a pull at his legs?"

"No, no; let him enjoy the liberty of kicking as long as he likes." His struggles presently got less strong, and he turned black in the face. "You may lower him down now, Gigo, and throw the carcass away."

"He is hardly dead yet, my Lord. Your Grace must not blame me if he should recover."

"Oh, for the matter of that, I do not care if he does. I only did it for a joke. But here comes the Templar. Well, Anner, what news from Hugh de Boves?"

May it please your Grace, I had letters from him five days since; but I had some difficulty in tracing your Grace's movements. I sought you at the castle; but old De Vernon said that he had received no tidings of you. I think, nevertheless, that he is aware of your arrival here; for, upon being questioned, he acknowledged that he had heard of the arrival of certain strangers in the island."

"It was De Malleone's advice," replied the chief, "that we should not trust our royal self within the walls of Carrisbrook. De Vernon is ill affected towards us. His castle is strong, and rebellion walks abroad in the noonday."

Thus spoke King John, for the chief was none other; and De Malleone added,

"Although De Vernon's grandson is a hostage at Windsor, still, as the welfare of the realm hangs upon our Sovereign's life, we would not that anything should be unnecessarily risked."

Not all the hypocrisy of the Templar and respect for the royal presence could prevent a slight curl of contempt from being visible on his upper lip.

The King, however, marked it not, but asked, "What were the tidings from Hugh de Boves?"

"He writes, that when he showed your signet, vast numbers flocked to his standard from Poictou, Gascony, Louvain, Brabant, and Flanders, and that in a week or two at the latest he will sail for Dover with a powerful host. The time will shortly come when the Barons will be able no longer to boast that they made their King a cipher, the sovereign of no dominions, and a slave to his subjects. But your Grace is ill accommodated here. Shall I summon De Vernon into the royal presence, and tax the Isle of Wight to support its royal guest in a befitting manner?"

"That would be rash, Sir Templar," said de Malleone. "Should our presence here make much stir, we might draw the Runnemede Barons upon us before our scheme is ripe. If De Vernon suspects who the strangers are that have sought refuge in his island, he must be kept silent by threats of vengeance."

Ah," said the King's jester, who stood by, "tell him the joke we played off upon one of his retainers for unnecessarily putting in his word."

"Peace, fool!" said the King, perhaps a little ashamed of what he had done. "Sir Templar, I will intrust you with an embassy to De Vernon. Go and hint to him about the advantages of secrecy in all affairs connected with the King. Speak of those here as friends of the

King. The King himself, mind you, is still at Windsor. On no account give him the slightest cause to suspect that he is any nearer him

than that."

"I will execute your Grace's order," said the Templar; " and if it is your pleasure to let me take twenty of your men with me, I will surprise his castle, and put it out of his power to tell tales to any one." "Act as I direct you, Sir Anner. It is absolutely necessary to the success of our future expedition that our residence here should not be noised abroad. Our sojourn here must be quiet, and perfectly peaceful."

"May it please your Grace," replied the Templar, "I am sorely puzzled to guess where we are to raise our supplies from, if the royal authority is altogether to be hidden in its scabbard. You would hardly like to hear of your caterers paying toll to the Earl of the Isle of Wight for leave to purchase bacon and long-cail in his market of Carisbrook."

"No, no," said a number of voices together; "that cannot be."

"It will never do," said Philip de Mark, "for the King of England, like a greasy burgher, to send his servants to market to buy salt beef and greens. I see a way to raise our supplies by the King's authority, without betraying his presence in the island. Let us not prey close round home like a mangy wolf; but get into our ships occasionally, and go out to sea and rummage the cargoes of the wealthy merchants, as they sail backwards and forewards to Southampton."

"Well contrived, De Mark. You are our best counsellor when we get into difficulties," said the King.

Day after day the King and his attendants spent their time in feasting and drinking deep. Their only other occupation was walking along the sea shore, throwing stones into the water, or practising with their cross-bows at the gulls. Day after day passed, and still no farther intelligence from Hugh de Boves. They did not dare to go much inland, or move far from the secluded spot in which they had established themselves, for fear of exciting attention, and making their residence known; for should the English Barons discover the villainous scheme of their King, who was preparing to invade and lay waste his own kingdom of England with an army of foreign mercenaries, his life would not have been safe.

The King himself would probably have submitted to the conditions of the Magna Charta, had it not been expressly stipulated in it that he should dismiss his Flemish knights, with whom he constantly surrounded his person. One of the clauses went so far as to banish by name several knights, most of them Flemings, who were his chief favourites and counsellors. These were the persons with whom we find him attended in the Isle of Wight. They urged him on to stir up a war against the Barons, by constantly holding up before his eyes the degradation that he had undergone at Runnemede.

"Do not suffer yourself," said they, "to be trampled under foot by your own subjects, and to be made a thing of nought, and a jest in your own kingdom.'

Urged on by these taunts, he had intrusted Hugh de Boves and others to collect an army on the Continent for the invasion of England. They were directed not only to bring with them an army, but any number of women and children, to people the counties of Norfolk and Suffolk, which he intended to lay waste. He had sent also to the Pope, 2 T

VOL. VII.

offering to deliver up his kingdom to him, and hold it under him as his vassal, if his Holiness would give him the assistance and sanction of his name. This was the posture of affairs at the time of which this story treats; hence the strict seclusion in which the King thought it necessary to keep, until he obtained assistance from abroad.

In the course of time, the supplies that they had brought with them began to run short, notwithstanding that every now and then one of the knights or archers shot a deer in the surrounding wood, and that some supplies were daily sent in from the manor of Kerne, which at that time belonged to the Knights Templar.

"May it please your Grace," said De Mark one day, "our time hangs heavy upon our hands. Our provisions are running short, and our wine will be quite out to-night. A pretty bevy of merchantmen left Southampton this morning; the wind has quite fallen, so that they will make but little way. We should soon work up to them with our long oars."

"I wonder how they are manned and armed?" said the King.

"I know them well," answered De Mark ; " they carry few arms, and scarcely men enough to tend the sails. In fact, they have little room for either, staggering as they are under a load of tin, salt beef, and hides. There was one of them seemed to be piled half way up the mast with wool-packs; and it's not at all improbable that we may trip up some foreign ship hither bound laden with wine."

"Well, then, you may give orders to prepare," said the King; "but mark, every knight and man at arms must be in disguise, and nothing but Flemish must be spoken whilst we are boarding them."

"Long live King John!" said those around, flourishing their caps in the air. Long live the King, and success to our fishing!

The news that the King had given orders to prepare for a marauding expedition spread like wild-fire through the royal colony. All was now activity; the ships launching, men at arms embarking, and pages running to and fro in search of spears, bucklers, and cross-bows.

They were soon at sea; but no royal pennon fluttered from the mast of King John's vessel. The only thing that distinguished that ship from the rest was the court-jester, who had got up to the top of the mast, as he said, to have the first sniff at the salt beef.

"Uncle John," said the fool, reaching his head down, "shall I tell you what joint of beef you would like to eat up best?"

"What is that?

"

"A baron of beef," replied the jester ; " but you do not know how to carve it when you have got it. The Saxons were the fellows for carving those Saxons were clever fellows."

Explain yourself, most mighty Wisdom," said the King.

Why, look you, uncle, don't you remember how the Saxons invited all the British nobles to dinner at Stonehenge, and then sliced them up with their crooked knives, as if they had been ribs of beef? That was a rare go, uncle. Only think what a feast you might have made at Runnemede, if you had only had a little of my wit, uncle! But perhaps barons are not so easily caught now-a-days: they are getting up to trap. But it may be we will surprise them a little in a few days' time, hey, nuncle? And may be we'll surprise yon skipper, who appears to be sitting on a wool-pack eating his dinner."

* Seaxes, short slightly-curved swords used by the Saxons, from which it is supposed that the name of Saxon is derived.

"Peace, fool!" said the King.

"Ah, nuncle, it's all very well to talk of peace; but that is a very warlike man we are going to attack. Look at him. There he is cutting his bread and cheese with a knife as long as my arm! And what an irascible temperament he has! I can read it in the colour of his beard his hair is as red as brick-dust. Those red men are terribly savage. Let's go and attack one of the other ships, and leave Master Rufus to finish his dinner."

They were now fast approaching the merchant ship that they were in chase of; and King John began to give his directions for boarding her. The men-at-arms lay concealed at the bottom of the King's vessel until the ships actually struck one another. They then sprang up, and leaped on board the red-whiskered man's ship.

The jester had been quite right in his estimate of the courage of the Captain; for, the moment he saw their intention of attacking him, he seized a short spear; and the rest of his crew appeared in arms at the same moment. It was not until the men at arms had sprung out of their concealment, and he saw the utter uselessness of defence, that he threw his weapon down again. While they were rummaging his vessel, however, he showed no signs of fear, but kept boldly demanding of them by what right and what authority they dared to pillage him? and threatening them with the vengeance of the King of England, whose subject he was.

King John's temper could ill brook this language. "Ha! seekest thou my authority?" said he. "Gigo, chop him down with an axe."

This cruel order was obeyed with alacrity, and the ship of the honest merchant was stained with its owner's life-blood. Gigo's assistants threw the carcase overboard, and the ship was allowed to proceed on her voyage.

King John's other two ships were equally successful, and they returned to their master laden with spoil.

The chiefs assembled in the royal vessel to hold a council what was to be done next. If they returned immediately to their old haunts they might be traced by some of those they had plundered. And, should that be the case, the barons with all their host might soon be upon them.

"Now if we sail round the outside of the island," said the Templar, "and return to our old quarters by the narrow strait to the west, it will then appear to these burghers that we are foreigners, and are going to cross the open sea."

"Does any one know the coast well?" asked the King, whose cruelty was alone equalled by his cowardice.

Upon inquiry it appeared that no one on board any of the ships had ever been round the outside of the island. But some of the sailors had heard reports that the voyage round that coast was full of perils. There was one place on the south-east of the island where, they had been told, that sometimes out of a smooth sea a long wave raises itself up like a wall, and, after rising to a great height, curls over upon the luckless mariner, and falls with the noise of thunder. Round the south coast there were said to be many other spots, where, while the wind was lulled, and the sea smooth everywhere else, a violent storm would be raging within its contracted limits. The waves rising up to a great height, and falling over in all directions, to the imminent danger of such vessels as were drawn within its limits by the strength of the tide, or