Chaucer and the House of Fame by Philip Gooden

Author:Philip Gooden [Gooden, Philip]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Sharpe Books
Published: 2020-07-19T22:00:00+00:00

De Guyac’s plan was straightforward. It was to use what was offered by this stretch of terrain, with its wide pond and tree-fringed clearing. He’d dismounted from Brun when there were still a good few yards separating man and horse from the boar. Since the last dog had been flung off, none of the others had dared approach. The wounded alaunt was still flailing around on the edge of the pond but those who’d been swimming across it had now emerged, instinctively shaking themselves before going into the posture of attack. The boar snorted and tucked his head closer to the ground.

Once Henri was on his feet he took his sword from its sheath. He carried a boar-spear with his saddle-gear, but it would be no good for what he had in mind. Sending up a prayer to St Hubert, who protects hunting dogs and their masters, he stepped sideways nearer the water. Now he stood with legs braced and sword poised. He spoke to the boar.

“Avant, maistre,” he said, “avant.”

He spoke almost in encouragement, in a whisper.

The boar tensed on his haunches. Now his eyes were rolling.

“Or sa, sa!” said de Guyac. Still he did not raise his voice but uttered with greater urgency, “Avant, maistre, avant.”

He took one step closer to the water’s edge, keeping his gaze fastened on the boar’s writhing, foam-flecked mouth. For an instant it seemed as if time were suspended. Henri was conscious of the contrast between the sky, where summer clouds sauntered across a bowl of blue, and the dark mud which clung to his boots. He saw himself as if from above, approaching the blue eye that lay in the centre of the clearing.

Without warning it happened. The boar launched himself in de Guyac’s direction, driving through the scatter of dogs that lay between man and beast. There was a cacophony of howls and squeals as several of the alaunts threw themselves at the boar. The beast paid them less attention than a man would give to a cloud of midges but, as Henri had expected, the dogs nevertheless slowed the boar sufficiently for him to get to the water’s edge. For a long instant they almost halted the beast altogether.

Moving as quickly as his uncertain footing would allow he half walked, half stumbled into the pond. He’d feared it wouldn’t be deep enough but he was soon up to his chest and had not even reached the middle. He stopped to establish a stable footing – or as firm as the slippery, clogging bottom would permit. The water filled his boots and made his hose cling to his legs, and the rank smell of rot and weed penetrated his nostrils. But de Guyac was oblivious to all this. He was aware only of the boar.

Tearing a path through the dogs, the great beast crashed into the pond, sending up a fountain of water and causing a violent disturbance which nearly knocked Henri off balance. Sensing rather than clearly seeing the whereabouts

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.