Badger's errand being now accomplished, he led his pony to the clear. There mounting, and accompanied by Grizzly, the return journey commenced at a steady trot, which was never broken until the monastery was reached; and soon each one was at rest. He had thus given a timely warning to the outlawed Saxons, from which it will be seen they were not slow to profit.
CHAPTER XVI.
SIGURD THE VIKING.
"Beware
Of entrance to a quarrel; but being in,
Bear 't that the opposed may beware of thee."
Shakespeare.
Hanging-Brow Scaur, to which allusion has been made, is a huge peak towering high above the Pennine Range, out of which it springs. A rude cultivation obtains to its very summit—such a cultivation as the bleak winds and perpetual cold permit. Ere the advent of the Normans small mountain sheep with the single lamb at their heels had swarmed over its hoary sides, browsing amid its moistureless grass, nipping the fresh shoots during the summer time, and retreating to the lowlands at the advent of winter. The husbandman who reared his humble dwelling beneath its shoulders had frequent need to beware the cold north wind, the drifted snow, and not unfrequently the rushing avalanche. A sluggish, unromantic life was lived, and a precarious livelihood obtained by these hill-folk. The woods ran up the gorges to the foot of the loftiest peak. Coming downwards they spread over the tops of the lower hills until, from gorge to gorge, the forest trees join hands, and an unbroken forest sweeps downwards, gathering density and luxuriousness until it sweeps over the valleys and up the sides of the hills beyond. Inexpressibly lovely especially are these wooded gorges in the summertime, when the fragrant breath of foliage and flower, of moss and lichen, is in the nostril, when the music of rushing cataract and waterfall is in the ear. Buoyant and bracing as an elixir of life is the cool air on these mountain-sides, when the hot breath of July is enervating the dwellers in the valley below. How delightful was my task at this season to carry the consolations of my office to the lonely scattered folk on the hills! How often have I felt my heart expand with lowly adoration when, from the lofty summit of Hanging-brow, I have turned my gaze westward, and far away in the distance my sweep of vision has taken in the coast-line of the Irish sea; whilst north, and east, and south there lay before me a mighty vista of hill and dale and rugged peak! Then, how lovely the magnificent stretch of forest too!—a rich unbroken canopy of green, many-tinted and beautiful, the oak, the ash, the elm, and many others blending their various tints in the lowlands; whilst the fir, the pine, and the mountain-ash belted the forest in the higher reaches. The fleet-footed red-deer might be seen threading their way through the tangled undergrowth, or browsing amid the boulders in the clear, keeping ever a wary eye on the stealthy hunter. Sly Reynard here abounded, and might be seen gliding warily along; and occasionally his fiercer cousin the wolf prowled in fierce loneliness; whilst ceaselessly the woods rang with the songs of her feathered denizens. Birds of rare plumage, too, and shy, such as the jay, the magpie, the thrush, the curlew, the wood-pigeon, with many specimens of the hawk family, were here; whilst the golden eagle wheeled in airy flight round the crown, or moodily perched on some boulder, while his mate patiently hatched her young in the fissures of the rocks, which, steep and high, lined the pathway of the descending waters. But on this eventful day, as the sun reared its blood-red visage above the horizon, and kissed the mountain peak into a ruddy twilight, two Saxon warriors, with broadswords by their sides and battle-axes at their girdles, rounded the peak on the side which overlooked the castle and broad fertile acres which had been comparatively cleared around it. Just the dimmest outlines of this scene were visible; but as the sun mounted higher in the heavens, and his rays swept down from the hills into the lowest valleys, the whole landscape was spread in beauty before them. The castle's noble proportions, here and there also the river's sinuous course, as it threaded in and out amongst the trees, could be seen; whilst farther down the valley the gorgeous masonry of the Abbey peeped through the tops of the trees. With rapt vision, but with very sad hearts, the pair stood together, and watched the marvellous transformation taking place before them.
"Was ever man called to yield so fair a possession before, Wulfhere?" said the chieftain to his comrade.
"Well, truly it is a fair spot—finer, I think, than ever I thought it before. But it may be yours again, and I may get my little patrimony also. So let us not despair."