Page:A C Doyle - The White Company.djvu/309

Rh to the making of war! But there, down in the dingle, is the church of Cardillac, and you may see the inn where three poplars grow beyond the village. Let us on, for a stoup of wine would hearten us upon our way.'

The highway had lain through the swelling vineyard country, which stretched away to the north and east in gentle curves, with many a peeping spire and feudal tower, and cluster of village houses, all clear cut and hard in the bright wintry air. To their right stretched the blue Garonne running swiftly seawards, with boats and barges dotted over its broad bosom. On the other side lay a strip of vineyard, and beyond it the desolate and sandy region of the Landes, all tangled with faded gorse and heath and broom, stretching away in unbroken gloom to the blue hills which lay low upon the furthest sky-line. Behind them might still be seen the broad estuary of the Gironde, with the high towers of Saint André and Saint Remi shooting up from the plain. In front, amid radiating lines of poplars, lay the riverside townlet of Cardillac—grey walls, white houses, and a feather of blue smoke.

'This is the "Mouton d'Or,"' said Aylward, as they pulled up their horses at a whitewashed straggling hostel. 'What ho there!' he continued, beating upon the door with the hilt of his sword. 'Tapster, ostler, varlet, hark hither, and a wannion on your lazy limbs! Ha! Michel, as red in the nose as ever! Three jacks of the wine of the country, Michel—for the air bites shrewdly. I pray you, Alleyne, to take note of this door, for I have a tale concerning it.'

'Tell me, friend,' said Alleyne to the portly, red-faced innkeeper, 'have a knight and a squire passed this way within the hour?'

'Nay, sir, it would be two hours back. Was he a small man, weak in the eyes, with a want of hair, and speaks very quiet when he is most to be feared?'

'The same,' the squire answered. 'But I marvel how you should know how he speaks when he is in wrath, for he is very gentle-minded with those who are beneath him.'