If anybody cares to read a simple tale told simply I John Ridd of the parish of Oare in the county of Somerset yeoman and churchwarden have seen and had a share in some doings of this neighborhood which I will try to set down in order God sparing my life and memory And they who light upon this book should bear in mind not only that I write for the clearing of our parish from ill fame and calumny but also a thing which will I trow appear too often in it to wit—that I am nothing more than a plain unlettered man not read in foreign languages as a gentleman might be nor gifted with long words even in mine own tongue save what I may have won from the Bible or Master William Shakespeare whom in the face of common opinion I do value highly In short I am an ignoramus but pretty well for a yeoman
My father being of good substance at least as we reckon in Exmoor and seized in his own right from many generations of one and that the best and largest of the three farms into which our parish is divided or rather the cultured part thereof he John Ridd the elder churchwarden and overseer being a great admirer of learning and well able to write his name sent me his only son to be schooled at Tiverton in the county of Devon For the chief boast of that ancient town next to its woollen staple is a worthy grammarschool the largest in the west of England founded and handsomely endowed in the year 1604 by Master Peter Blundell of that same place clothier
Here by the time I was twelve years old I had risen into the upper school and could make bold with Eutropius and Caesar—by aid of an English version—and as much as six lines of Ovid Some even said that I might before manhood rise almost to the third form being of a perservering nature albeit by full consent of all except my mother thickheaded But that would have been as I now perceive an ambition beyond a farmers son for there is but one form above it and that made of masterful scholars entitled rightly monitors So it came to pass by the grace of God that I was called away from learning whilst sitting at the desk of the junior first in the upper school and beginning the Greek verb Greek word
My eldest grandson makes bold to say that I never could have learned Greek word ten pages further on being all he himself could manage with plenty of stripes to help him I know that he hath more head than I—though never will he have such body and am thankful to have stopped betimes with a meek and wholesome headpiece
But if you doubt of my having been there because now I know so little go and see my name John Ridd graven on that very form Forsooth from the time I was strong enough to open a knife and to spell my name I began to grave it in the oak first of the block whereon I sate and then of the desk in front of it according as I was promoted from one to other of them and there my grandson reads it now at this present time of writing and hath fought a boy for scoffing at it—John Ridd his name—and done again in winkeys a mischievous but cheerful device in which we took great pleasure
This is the manner of a winkey which I here set down lest child of mine or grandchild dare to make one on my premises if he does I shall know the mark at once and score it well upon him The scholar obtains by prayer or price a handful of saltpetre and then with the knife wherewith he should rather be trying to mend his pens what does he do but scoop a hole where the desk is some three inches thick This hole should be left with the middle exalted and the circumfere dug more deeply Then let him fill it with saltpetre all save a little space in the midst where the boss of the wood is Upon that boss and it will be the better if a splinter of timber rise upward he sticks the end of his candle of tallow or rats tail as we called it kindled and burning smoothly Anon as he reads by that light his lesson lifting his eyes now and then it may be the fire of candle lays hold of the petre with a spluttering noise and a leaping Then should the pupil seize his pen and regardless of the nib stir bravely and he will see a glow as of burning mountains and a rich smoke and sparks going merrily nor will it cease if he stir wisely and there be a good store of petre until the wood is devoured through like the sinking of a wellshaft Now well may it go with the head of a boy intent upon his primer who betides to sit thereunder But above all things have good care to exercise this art before the master strides up to his desk in the early gray of the morning
Other customs no less worthy abide in the school of Blundell such as the singeing of nightcaps but though they have a pleasant savour and refreshing to think of I may not stop to note them unless it be that goodly one at the incoming of a flood The schoolhouse stands beside a stream not very large called Lowman which flows into the broad river of Exe about a mile below This Lowman stream although it be not fond of brawl and violence in the manner of our Lynn yet is wont to flood into a mighty head of waters when the storms of rain provoke it and most of all when its little comate called the Taunton Brook—where I have plucked the very best cresses that ever man put salt on—comes foaming down like a great roan horse and rears at the leap of the hedgerows Then are the gray stone walls of Blundell on every side encompassed the vale is spread over with looping waters and it is a hard thing for the dayboys to get home to their suppers
And in that time old Cop the porter so called because he hath copper boots to keep the wet from his stomach and a nose of copper also in right of other waters his place is to stand at the gate attending to the floodboards grooved into one another and so to watch the torrents rise and not be washed away if it please God he may help it But long ere the flood hath attained this height and while it is only waxing certain boys of deputy will watch at the stoop of the drainholes and be apt to look outside the walls when Cop is taking a cordial And in the very front of the gate just without the archway where the ground is paved most handsomely you may see in copyletters done a great PB of white pebbles Now it is the custom and the law that when the invading waters either fluxing along the wall from below the roadbridge or pouring sharply across the meadows from a cut called Owens Ditch—and I myself have seen it come both ways—upon the very instant when the waxing element lips though it be but a single pebble of the founders letters it is in the license of any boy soever small and undoctrined to rush into the great schoolrooms where a score of masters sit heavily and scream at the top of his voice PB
Then with a yell the boys leap up or break away from their standing they toss their caps to the blackbeamed roof and haply the very books after them and the great boys vex no more the small ones and the small boys stick up to the great ones One with another hard they go to see the gain of the waters and the tribulation of Cop and are prone to kick the dayboys out with words of scanty compliment Then the masters look at one another having no class to look to and boys being no more left to watch in a manner they put their mouths up With a spirited bang they close their books and make invitation the one to the other for pipes and foreign cordials recommending the chance of the time and the comfort away from cold water
But lo I am dwelling on little things and the pigeons eggs of the infancy forgetting the bitter and heavy life gone over me since then If I am neither a hard man nor a very close one God knows I have had no lack of rubbing and pounding to make stone of me Yet can I not somehow believe that we ought to hate one another to live far asunder and block the mouth each of his little den as do the wild beasts of the wood and the hairy outrangs now brought over each with a chain upon him Let that matter be as it will It is beyond me to unfold and mayhap of my grandsons grandson All I know is that wheat is better than when I began to sow it
CHAPTER II
AN IMPORTANT ITEM
Now the cause of my leaving Tiverton school and the way of it were as follows On the 29th day of November in the year of our Lord 1673 the very day when I was twelve years old and had spent all my substance in sweetmeats with which I made treat to the little boys till the large boys ran in and took them we came out of school at five oclock as the rule is upon Tuesdays According to custom we drove the dayboys in brave rout down the causeway from the schoolporch even to the gate where Cop has his dwelling and duty Little it recked us and helped them less that they were our founders citizens and haply his own grandnephews for he left no direct descendants neither did we much inquire what their lineage was For it had long been fixed among us who were of the house and chambers that these same dayboys were all caddes as we had discovered to call it because they paid no groat for their schooling and brought their own commons with them In consumption of these we would help them for our fare in hall fed appetite and while we ate their victuals we allowed them freely to talk to us Nevertheless we could not feel when all the victuals were gone but that these boys required kicking from the premises of Blundell And some of them were shopkeepers sons young grocers fellmongers and poulterers and these to their credit seemed to know how righteous it was to kick them But others were of high family as any need be in Devon—Carews and Bouchiers and Bastards and some of these would turn sometimes and strike the boy that kicked them But to do them justice even these knew that they must be kicked for not paying
After these charityboys were gone as in contumely we called them—If you break my bag on my head said one how will feed thence tomorrow—and after old Cop with clang of iron had jammed the double gates in under the scruffstone archway whereupon are Latin verses done in brass of small quality some of us who were not hungry and cared not for the supperbell having sucked much parliament and dumps at my only charges—not that I ever bore much wealth but because I had been thrifting it for this time of my birth—we were leaning quite at dusk against the iron bars of the gate some six or it may be seven of us small boys all and not conspicuous in the closing of the daylight and the fog that came at eventide else Cop would have rated us up the green for he was churly to little boys when his wife had taken their money There was plenty of room for all of us for the gate will hold nine boys closepacked unless they be fed rankly whereof is little danger and now we were looking out on the road and wishing we could get there hoping moreover to see a good string of packhorses come by with troopers to protect them For the dayboys had brought us word that some intending their way to the town had lain that morning at Sampford Peveril and must be in ere nightfall because Mr Faggus was after them Now Mr Faggus was my first cousin and an honour to the family being a Northmolton man of great renown on the highway from Barum town even to London Therefore of course I hoped that he would catch the packmen and the boys were asking my opinion as of an oracle about it
A certain boy leaning up against me would not allow my elbow room and struck me very sadly in the stomach part though his own was full of my parliament And this I felt so unkindly that I smote him straightway in the face without tarrying to consider it or weighing the question duly Upon this he put his head down and presented it so vehemently at the middle of my waistcoat that for a minute or more my breath seemed dropped as it were from my pockets and my life seemed to stop from great want of ease Before I came to myself again it had been settled for us that we should move to the Ironingbox as the triangle of turf is called where the two causeways coming from the schoolporch and the hallporch meet and our fights are mainly celebrated only we must wait until the convoy of horses had passed and then make a ring by candlelight and the other boys would like it But suddenly there came round the post where the letters of our founder are not from the way of Taunton but from the side of Lowman bridge a very small string of horses only two indeed counting for one the pony and a redfaced man on the bigger nag
Plaise ye worshipful masters he said being feared of the gateway carn e tull whur our Jan Ridd be
Hyur a be ees fai Jan Ridd answered a sharp little chap making game of John Frys language
Zhow un up then says John Fry poking his whip through the bars at us Zhow un up and putt un aowt
The other little chaps pointed at me and some began to hallo but I knew what I was about
Oh John John I cried whats the use of your coming now and Peggy over the moors too and it so cruel cold for her The holidays dont begin till Wednesday fortnight John To think of your not knowing that
John Fry leaned forward in the saddle and turned his eyes away from me and then there was a noise in his throat like a snail crawling on a windowpane
Oh us knaws that wull enough Maister Jan reckon every Oareman knaw that without go to skooull like you doth Your moother have kept arl the apples up and old Betty toorned the black puddens and none dare set trap for a blagbird Arl for thee lad every bit of it now for thee
He checked himself suddenly and frightened me I knew that John Frys way so well
And father and father—oh how is father I pushed the boys right and left as I said it John is father up in town He always used to come for me and leave nobody else to do it
Vaytherll be at the crooked post tother zide o tellinghouse Her coodnt lave ouze by raison of the Chirstmas bakkon comin on and zome o the cider welted
The tellinghouses on the moor are rude cots where the
shepherds meet to tell their sheep at the end of the
pasturing season
He looked at the nags ears as he said it and being up to John Frys ways I knew that it was a lie And my heart fell like a lump of lead and I leaned back on the stay of the gate and longed no more to fight anybody A sort of dull power hung over me like the cloud of a brooding tempest and I feared to be told anything I did not even care to stroke the nose of my pony Peggy although she pushed it in through the rails where a square of broader lattice is and sniffed at me and began to crop gently after my fingers But whatever lives or dies business must be attended to and the principal business of good Christians is beyond all controversy to fight with one another
Come up Jack said one of the boys lifting me under the chin he hit you and you hit him you know
Pay your debts before you go said a monitor striding up to me after hearing how the honour lay Ridd you must go through with it
Fight for the sake of the junior first cried the little fellow in my ear the clever one the head of our class who had mocked John Fry and knew all about the aorists and tried to make me know it but I never went more than three places up and then it was an accident and I came down after dinner The boys were urgent round me to fight though my stomach was not up for it and being very slow of wit which is not chargeable on me I looked from one to other of them seeking any cure for it Not that I was afraid of fighting for now I had been three years at Blundells and foughten all that time a fight at least once every week till the boys began to know me only that the load on my heart was not sprightly as of the hayfield It is a very sad thing to dwell on but even now in my time of wisdom I doubt it is a fond thing to imagine and a motherly to insist upon that boys can do without fighting Unless they be very good boys and afraid of one another
Nay I said with my back against the wroughtiron stay of the gate which was socketed into Cops housefront I will not fight thee now Robin Snell but wait till I come back again
Take cowards blow Jack Ridd then cried half a dozen little boys shoving Bob Snell forward to do it because they all knew well enough having striven with me ere now and proved me to be their master—they knew I say that without great change I would never accept that contumely But I took little heed of them looking in dull wonderment at John Fry and Smiler and the blunderbuss and Peggy John Fry was scratching his head I could see and getting blue in the face by the light from Cops parlourwindow and going to and fro upon Smiler as if he were hard set with it And all the time he was looking briskly from my eyes to the fist I was clenching and methought he tried to wink at me in a covert manner and then Peggy whisked her tail
Shall I fight John I said at last I would an you had not come John
Chraists will be done I zim thee had better faight Jan he answered in a whisper through the gridiron of the gate there be a dale of faighting avore thee Best wai to begin gude taime laike Wull the geatman latt me in to zee as thee hast vair plai lad
He looked doubtfully down at the colour of his cowskin boots and the mire upon the horses for the sloughs were exceedingly mucky Peggy indeed my sorrel pony being lighter of weight was not crusted much over the shoulders but Smiler our youngest sledder had been well in over his withers and none would have deemed him a piebald save of red mire and black mire The great blunderbuss moreover was choked with a dollop of sloughcake and John Frys sadcoloured Sunday hat was indued with a plume of marishweed All this I saw while he was dismounting heavily and wearily lifting his leg from the saddlecloth as if with a sore crick in his back
By this time the question of fighting was gone quite out of our discretion for sundry of the elder boys grave and reverend signors who had taken no small pleasure in teaching our hands to fight to ward to parry to feign and counter to lunge in the manner of swordplay and the weaker child to drop on one knee when no cunning of fence might baffle the onset—these great masters of the art who would far liefer see us little ones practise it than themselves engage six or seven of them came running down the rounded causeway having heard that there had arisen a snug little mill at the gate Now whether that word hath origin in a Greek term meaning a conflict as the bestread boys asseverated or whether it is nothing more than a figure of similitude from the beating arms of a mill such as I have seen in counties where are no waterbrooks but folk make bread with wind—it is not for a man devoid of scholarship to determine Enough that they who made the ring intituled the scene a mill while we who must be thumped inside it tried to rejoice in their pleasantry till it turned upon the stomach
Moreover I felt upon me now a certain responsibility a dutiful need to maintain in the presence of John Fry the manliness of the Ridd family and the honour of Exmoor Hitherto none had worsted me although in the three years of my schooling I had fought more than threescore battles and bedewed with blood every plant of grass towards the middle of the Ironingbox And this success I owed at first to no skill of my own until I came to know better for up to twenty or thirty fights I struck as nature guided me no wiser than a fatherlonglegs in the heat of a lanthorn but I had conquered partly through my native strength and the Exmoor toughness in me and still more that I could not see when I had gotten my bellyful But now I was like to have that and more for my heart was down to begin with and then Robert Snell was a bigger boy than I had ever encountered and as thick in the skull and hard in the brain as even I could claim to be
I had never told my mother a word about these frequent strivings because she was softhearted neither had I told by father because he had not seen it Therefore beholding me still an innocentlooking child with fair curls on my forehead and no store of bad language John Fry thought this was the very first fight that ever had befallen me and so when they let him at the gate with a message to the headmaster as one of the monitors told Cop and Peggy and Smiler were tied to the railings till I should be through my business John comes up to me with the tears in his eyes and says Doont thee goo for to do it Jan doont thee do it for gude now But I told him that now it was much too late to cry off so he said The Lord be with thee Jan and turn thy thumbknuckle inwards
It was not a very large piece of ground in the angle of the causeways but quite big enough to fight upon especially for Christians who loved to be cheek by jowl at it The great boys stood in a circle around being gifted with strong privilege and the little boys had leave to lie flat and look through the legs of the great boys But while we were yet preparing and the candles hissed in the fogcloud old Phoebe of more than fourscore years whose room was over the hallporch came hobbling out as she always did to mar the joy of the conflict No one ever heeded her neither did she expect it but the evil was that two senior boys must always lose the first round of the fight by having to lead her home again
I marvel how Robin Snell felt Very likely he thought nothing of it always having been a boy of a hectoring and unruly sort But I felt my heart go up and down as the boys came round to strip me and greatly fearing to be beaten I blew hot upon my knuckles Then pulled I off my little cut jerkin and laid it down on my head cap and over that my waistcoat and a boy was proud to take care of them Thomas Hooper was his name and I remember how he looked at me My mother had made that little cut jerkin in the quiet winter evenings And taken pride to loop it up in a fashionable way and I was loth to soil it with blood and good filberds were in the pocket Then up to me came Robin Snell mayor of Exeter thrice since that and he stood very square and looking at me and I lacked not long to look at him Round his waist he had a kerchief busking up his smallclothes and on his feet light pumpkin shoes and all his upper raiment off And he danced about in a way that made my head swim on my shoulders and he stood some inches over me But I being muddled with much doubt about John Fry and his errand was only stripped of my jerkin and waistcoat and not comfortable to begin
Come now shake hands cried a big boy jumping in joy of the spectacle a thirdformer nearly six feet high shake hands you little devils Keep your pluck up and show good sport and Lord love the better man of you
Robin took me by the hand and gazed at me disdainfully and then smote me painfully in the face ere I could get my fence up
Whutt be bout lad cried John Fry hutt un again Jan wull e Well done then our Jan boy
For I had replied to Robin now with all the weight and cadence of penthemimeral caesura a thing the name of which I know but could never make head nor tail of it and the strife began in a serious style and the boys looking on were not cheated Although I could not collect their shouts when the blows were ringing upon me it was no great loss for John Fry told me afterwards that their oaths went up like a furnace fire But to these we paid no heed or hap being in the thick of swinging and devoid of judgment All I know is I came to my corner when the round was over with very hard pumps in my chest and a great desire to fall away
Time is up cried headmonitor ere ever I got my breath again and when I fain would have lingered awhile on the knee of the boy that held me John Fry had come up and the boys were laughing because he wanted a stable lanthorn and threatened to tell my mother
Time is up cried another boy more headlong than headmonitor If we count three before the come of thee thwacked thou art and must go to the women I felt it hard upon me He began to count one too three—but before the three was out of his mouth I was facing my foe with both hands up and my breath going rough and hot and resolved to wait the turn of it For I had found seat on the knee of a boy sage and skilled to tutor me who knew how much the end very often differs from the beginning A rare ripe scholar he was and now he hath routed up the Germans in the matter of criticism Sure the clever boys and men have most love towards the stupid ones
Finish him off Bob cried a big boy and that I noticed especially because I thought it unkind of him after eating of my toffee as he had that afternoon finish him off neck and crop he deserves it for sticking up to a man like you
But I was not so to be finished off though feeling in my knuckles now as if it were a blueness and a sense of chilblain Nothing held except my legs and they were good to help me So this bout or round if you please was foughten warily by me with gentle recollection of what my tutor the clever boy had told me and some resolve to earn his praise before I came back to his knee again And never I think in all my life sounded sweeter words in my ears except when my love loved me than when my second and backer who had made himself part of my doings now and would have wept to see me beaten said—
Famously done Jack famously Only keep your wind up Jack and youll go right through him
Meanwhile John Fry was prowling about asking the boys what they thought of it and whether I was like to be killed because of my mothers trouble But finding now that I had foughten threescore fights already he came up to me woefully in the quickness of my breathing while I sat on the knee of my second with a piece of spongious coralline to ease me of my bloodshed and he says in my ears as if he was clapping spurs into a horse—
Never thee knack under Jan or never coom naigh Hexmoor no more
With that it was all up with me A simmering buzzed in my heavy brain and a light came through my eyeplaces At once I set both fists again and my heart stuck to me like cobblers wax Either Robin Snell should kill me or I would conquer Robin Snell So I went in again with my courage up and Bob came smiling for victory and I hated him for smiling He let at me with his left hand and I gave him my right between his eyes and he blinked and was not pleased with it I feared him not and spared him not neither spared myself My breath came again and my heart stood cool and my eyes struck fire no longer Only I knew that I would die sooner than shame my birthplace How the rest of it was I know not only that I had the end of it and helped to put Robin in bed
CHAPTER III
THE WARPATH OF THE DOONES
From Tiverton town to the town of Oare is a very long and painful road and in good truth the traveller must make his way as the saying is for the way is still unmade at least on this side of Dulverton although there is less danger now than in the time of my schooling for now a good horse may go there without much cost of leaping but when I was a boy the spurs would fail when needed most by reason of the sloughcake It is to the credit of this age and our advance upon fatherly ways that now we have laid down rods and fagots and even stumpoaks here and there so that a man in good daylight need not sink if he be quite sober There is nothing I have striven at more than doing my duty waywarden over Exmoor
But in those days when I came from school and good times they were too full of a warmth and fine hearthcomfort which now are dying out it was a sad and sorry business to find where lay the highway We are taking now to mark it off with a fence on either side at least when a town is handy but to me his seems of a high pretence and a sort of landmark and channel for robbers though well enough near London where they have earned a racecourse
We left the town of the two fords which they say is the meaning of it very early in the morning after lying one day to rest as was demanded by the nags sore of foot and foundered For my part too I was glad to rest having aches all over me and very heavy bruises and we lodged at the sign of the White Horse Inn in the street called Gold Street opposite where the souls are of John and Joan Greenway set up in gold letters because we must take the homeward way at cockcrow of the morning Though still John Fry was dry with me of the reason of his coming and only told lies about father and could not keep them agreeable I hoped for the best as all boys will especially after a victory And I thought perhaps father had sent for me because he had a good harvest and the rats were bad in the cornchamber
It was high noon before we were got to Dulverton that day near to which town the river Exe and its big brother Barle have union My mother had an uncle living there but we were not to visit his house this time at which I was somewhat astonished since we needs must stop for at least two hours to bait our horses thorough well before coming to the black bogway The bogs are very good in frost except where the hotsprings rise but as yet there had been no frost this year save just enough to make the blackbirds look big in the morning In a hearty blackfrost they look small until the snow falls over them
The road from Bampton to Dulverton had not been very delicate yet nothing to complain of much—no deeper indeed than the hocks of a horse except in the rotten places The day was inclined to be mild and foggy and both nags sweated freely but Peggy carrying little weight for my wardrobe was upon Smiler and John Fry grumbling always we could easily keep in front as far as you may hear a laugh
John had been rather bitter with me which methought was a mark of ill taste at coming home for the holidays and yet I made allowance for John because he had never been at school and never would have chance to eat fry upon condition of spelling it therefore I rode on thinking that he was hardset like a saw for his dinner and would soften after toothwork And yet at his most hungry times when his mind was far gone upon bacon certes he seemed to check himself and look at me as if he were sorry for little things coming over great
But now at Dulverton we dined upon the rarest and choicest victuals that ever I did taste Even now at my time of life to think of it gives me appetite as once and awhile to think of my first love makes me love all goodness Hot mutton pasty was a thing I had often heard of from very wealthy boys and men who made a dessert of dinner and to hear them talk of it made my lips smack and my ribs come inwards
And now John Fry strode into the hostel with the air and grace of a shortlegged man and shouted as loud as if he was calling sheep upon Exmoor—
Hot mooton pasty for twoo trarvlers at number vaive in vaive minnits Dish un up in the tin with the grahvy zame as I hardered last Tuesday
Of course it did not come in five minutes nor yet in ten or twenty but that made it all the better when it came to the real presence and the smell of it was enough to make an empty man thank God for the room there was inside him Fifty years have passed me quicker than the taste of that gravy
It is the manner of all good boys to be careless of apparel and take no pride in adornment Good lack if I see a boy make to do about the fit of his crumpler and the creasing of his breeches and desire to be shod for comeliness rather than for use I cannot scape the mark that God took thought to make a girl of him Not so when they grow older and court the regard of the maidens then may the bravery pass from the inside to the outside of them and no bigger fools are they even then than their fathers were before them But God forbid any man to be a fool to love and be loved as I have been Else would he have prevented it
When the mutton pasty was done and Peggy and Smiler had dined well also out I went to wash at the pump being a lover of soap and water at all risk except of my dinner And John Fry who cared very little to wash save Sabbath days in his own soap and who had kept me from the pump by threatening loss of the dish out he came in a satisfied manner with a piece of quill in his hand to lean against a doorpost and listen to the horses feeding and have his teeth ready for supper
Then a ladysmaid came out and the sun was on her face and she turned round to go back again but put a better face upon it and gave a trip and hitched her dress and looked at the sun full body lest the hostlers should laugh that she was losing her complexion With a long Italian glass in her fingers very daintily she came up to the pump in the middle of the yard where I was running the water off all my head and shoulders and arms and some of my breast even and though I had glimpsed her through the sprinkle it gave me quite a turn to see her child as I was in my open aspect But she looked at me no whit abashed making a baby of me no doubt as a woman of thirty will do even with a very big boy when they catch him on a hayrick and she said to me in a brazen manner as if I had been nobody while I was shrinking behind the pump and craving to get my shirt on Good leetle boy come hither to me Fine heaven how blue your eyes are and your skin like snow but some naughty man has beaten it black Oh leetle boy let me feel it Ah how then it must have hurt you There now and you shall love me
All this time she was touching my breast here and there very lightly with her delicate brown fingers and I understood from her voice and manner that she was not of this country but a foreigner by extraction And then I was not so shy of her because I could talk better English than she and yet I longed for my jerkin but liked not to be rude to her
If you please madam I must go John Fry is waiting by the tapsters door and Peggy neighing to me If you please we must get home tonight and father will be waiting for me this side of the tellinghouse
There there you shall go leetle dear and perhaps I will go after you I have taken much love of you But the baroness is hard to me How far you call it now to the bank of the sea at Wash—Wash—
At Watchett likely you mean madam Oh a very long way and the roads as soft as the road to Oare
Ohah ohah—I shall remember that is the place where my leetle boy live and some day I will come seek for him Now make the pump to flow my dear and give me the good water The baroness will not touch unless a nebule be formed outside the glass
I did not know what she meant by that yet I pumped for her very heartily and marvelled to see her for fifty times throw the water away in the trough as if it was not good enough At last the water suited her with a likeness of fog outside the glass and the gleam of a crystal under it and then she made a curtsey to me in a sort of mocking manner holding the long glass by the foot not to take the cloud off and then she wanted to kiss me but I was out of breath and have always been shy of that work except when I come to offer it and so I ducked under the pumphandle and she knocked her chin on the knob of it and the hostlers came out and asked whether they would do as well
Upon this she retreated up the yard with a certain dark dignity and a foreign way of walking which stopped them at once from going farther because it was so different from the fashion of their sweethearts One with another they hung back where half a cartload of hay was and they looked to be sure that she would not turn round and then each one laughed at the rest of them
Now up to the end of Dulverton town on the northward side of it where the two new pigsties be the Oare folk and the Watchett folk must trudge on together until we come to a broken cross where a murdered man lies buried Peggy and Smiler went up the hill as if nothing could be too much for them after the beans they had eaten and suddenly turning a corner of trees we happened upon a great coach and six horses labouring very heavily John Fry rode on with his hat in his hand as became him towards the quality but I was amazed to that degree that I left my cap on my head and drew bridle without knowing it
For in the front seat of the coach which was halfway open being of the citymake and the day in want of air sate the foreign lady who had met me at the pump and offered to salute me By her side was a little girl darkhaired and very wonderful with a wealthy softness on her as if she must have her own way I could not look at her for two glances and she did not look at me for one being such a little child and busy with the hedges But in the honourable place sate a handsome lady very warmly dressed and sweetly delicate of colour And close to her was a lively child two or it may be three years old bearing a white cockade in his hat and staring at all and everybody Now he saw Peggy and took such a liking to her that the lady his mother—if so she were—was forced to look at my pony and me And to tell the truth although I am not of those who adore the high folk she looked at us very kindly and with a sweetness rarely found in the women who milk the cows for us
Then I took off my cap to the beautiful lady without asking wherefore and she put up her hand and kissed it to me thinking perhaps that I looked like a gentle and good little boy for folk always called me innocent though God knows I never was that But now the foreign lady or ladys maid as it might be who had been busy with little dark eyes turned upon all this goingon and looked me straight in the face I was about to salute her at a distance indeed and not with the nicety she had offered to me but strange to say she stared at my eyes as if she had never seen me before neither wished to see me again At this I was so startled such things beings out of my knowledge that I startled Peggy also with the muscle of my legs and she being fresh from stable and the mire scraped off with caskhoop broke away so suddenly that I could do no more than turn round and lower my cap now five months old to the beautiful lady Soon I overtook John Fry and asked him all about them and how it was that we had missed their starting from the hostel But John would never talk much till after a gallon of cider and all that I could win out of him was that they were murdering Papishers and little he cared to do with them or the devil as they came from And a good thing for me and a providence that I was gone down Dulverton town to buy sweetstuff for Annie else my stupid head would have gone astray with their great outcoming
We saw no more of them after that but turned into the sideway and soon had the fill of our hands and eyes to look to our own going For the road got worse and worse until there was none at all and perhaps the purest thing it could do was to be ashamed to show itself But we pushed on as best we might with doubt of reaching home any time except by special grace of God
The fog came down upon the moors as thick as ever I saw it and there was no sound of any sort nor a breath of wind to guide us The little stubby trees that stand here and there like bushes with a wooden leg to them were drizzled with a mess of wet and hung their points with dropping Wherever the buttend of a hedgerow came up from the hollow ground like the withers of a horse holes of splash were pocked and pimpled in the yellow sand of coneys or under the dwarf trees ovens But soon it was too dark to see that or anything else I may say except the creases in the dusk where prisoned light crept up the valleys
After awhile even that was gone and no other comfort left us except to see our horses heads jogging to their footsteps and the dark ground pass below us lighter where the wet was and then the splash foot after foot more clever than we can do it and the orderly jerk of the tail and the smell of what a horse is
John Fry was bowing forward with sleep upon his saddle and now I could no longer see the frizzle of wet upon his beard—for he had a very brave one of a bright red colour and trimmed into a whaleoil knot because he was newly married—although that comb of hair had been a subject of some wonder to me whether I in Gods good time should have the like of that handsomely set with shining beads small above and large below from the weeping of the heaven But still I could see the jog of his hat—a Sunday hat with a top to it—and some of his shoulder bowed out in the mist so that one could say Hold up John when Smiler put his foot in Mercy of God where be us now said John Fry waking suddenly us ought to have passed hold hash Jan Zeen it on the road have ee
No indeed John no old ash Nor nothing else to my knowing nor heard nothing save thee snoring
Watt a vule thee must be then Jan and me myzell no better Harken lad harken
We drew our horses up and listened through the thickness of the air and with our hands laid to our ears At first there was nothing to hear except the panting of the horses and the trickle of the eaving drops from our headcovers and clothing and the soft sounds of the lonely night that make us feel and try not to think Then there came a mellow noise very low and mournsome not a sound to be afraid of but to long to know the meaning with a soft rise of the hair Three times it came and went again as the shaking of a thread might pass away into the distance and then I touched John Fry to know that there was something near me
Doont e be a vule Jan Vaine moozick as iver I eer God bless the man as made un doo it
Have they hanged one of the Doones then John
Hush lad niver talk laike o thiccy Hang a Doone God knoweth the King would hang pretty quick if her did
Then who is it in the chains John
I felt my spirit rise as I asked for now I had crossed Exmoor so often as to hope that the people sometimes deserved it and think that it might be a lesson to the rogues who unjustly loved the mutton they were never born to But of course they were born to hanging when they set themselves so high
It be nawbody said John vor us to make a fush about Belong to tother zide o the moor and come staling shape to our zide Red Jem Hannaford his name Thank God for him to be hanged lad and good cess to his soul for craikin zo
So the sound of the quiet swinging led us very modestly as it came and went on the wind loud and low pretty regularly even as far as the foot of the gibbet where the four crossways are
Vamous job this here cried John looking up to be sure of it because there were so many here be my own nick on the post Red Jem too and no doubt of him he do hang so handsome like and his ribs up laike a horse amost God bless them as discoovered the way to make a rogue so useful Goodnaight to thee Jem my lad and not break thy drames with the craikin
John Fry shook his bridlearm and smote upon Smiler merrily as he jogged into the homeward track from the guiding of the body But I was sorry for Red Jem and wanted to know more about him and whether he might not have avoided this miserable end and what his wife and children thought of it if indeed he had any
But John would talk no more about it and perhaps he was moved with a lonesome feeling as the creaking sound came after us
Hould thee tongue lad he said sharply us be naigh the Doonetrack now two maile from Dunkery Beacon hill the haighest place of Hexmoor So happen they be abroad tonaight us must crawl on our bellyplaces boy
I knew at once what he meant—those bloody Doones of Bagworthy the awe of all Devon and Somerset outlaws traitors murderers My little legs began to tremble to and fro upon Peggys sides as I heard the dead robber in chains behind us and thought of the live ones still in front
But John I whispered warily sidling close to his saddlebow dear John you dont think they will see us in such a fog as this
Never God made vog as could stop their eyesen he whispered in answer fearfully here us be by the hollow ground Zober lad goo zober now if thee wish to see thy moother
For I was inclined in the manner of boys to make a run of the danger and cross the Doonetrack at full speed to rush for it and be done with it But even then I wondered why he talked of my mother so and said not a word of father
We were come to a long deep goyal as they call it on Exmoor a word whose fountain and origin I have nothing to do with Only I know that when little boys laughed at me at Tiverton for talking about a goyal a big boy clouted them on the head and said that it was in Homer and meant the hollow of the hand And another time a Welshman told me that it must be something like the thing they call a pant in those parts Still I know what it means well enough—to wit a long trough among wild hills falling towards the plain country rounded at the bottom perhaps and stiff more than steep at the sides of it Whether it be straight or crooked makes no difference to it
We rode very carefully down our side and through the soft grass at the bottom and all the while we listened as if the air was a speakingtrumpet Then gladly we breasted our nags to the rise and were coming to the comb of it when I heard something and caught Johns arm and he bent his hand to the shape of his ear It was the sound of horses feet knocking up through splashy ground as if the bottom sucked them Then a grunting of weary men and the lifting noise of stirrups and sometimes the clank of iron mixed with the wheezy croning of leather and the blowing of hairy nostrils
Gods sake Jack slip round her belly and let her go where she wull
As John Fry whispered so I did for he was off Smiler by this time but our two pads were too fagged to go far and began to nose about and crop sniffing more than they need have done I crept to Johns side very softly with the bridle on my arm
Let goo braidle let goo lad Plaise God they take them for forestponies or theyll zend a bullet through us
I saw what he meant and let go the bridle for now the mist was rolling off and we were against the skyline to the dark cavalcade below us John lay on the ground by a barrow of heather where a little gullet was and I crept to him afraid of the noise I made in dragging my legs along and the creak of my cord breeches John bleated like a sheep to cover it—a sheep very cold and trembling
Then just as the foremost horseman passed scarce twenty yards below us a puff of wind came up the glen and the fog rolled off before it And suddenly a strong red light cast by the cloudweight downwards spread like fingers over the moorland opened the alleys of darkness and hung on the steel of the riders
Dunkery Beacon whispered John so close into my ear that I felt his lips and teeth ashake dursnt fire it now except to show the Doones way home again since the naight as they went up and throwed the watchmen atop of it Why wutt be bout lad Gods sake—
For I could keep still no longer but wriggled away from his arm and along the little gullet still going flat on my breast and thighs until I was under a grey patch of stone with a fringe of dry fern round it there I lay scarce twenty feet above the heads of the riders and I feared to draw my breath though prone to do it with wonder
For now the beacon was rushing up in a fiery storm to heaven and the form of its flame came and went in the folds and the heavy sky was hovering All around it was hung with red deep in twisted columns and then a giant beard of fire streamed throughout the darkness The sullen hills were flanked with light and the valleys chined with shadow and all the sombrous moors between awoke in furrowed anger
But most of all the flinging fire leaped into the rocky mouth of the glen below me where the horsemen passed in silence scarcely deigning to look round Heavy men and large of stature reckless how they bore their guns or how they sate their horses with leathern jerkins and long boots and iron plates on breast and head plunder heaped behind their saddles and flagons slung in front of them I counted more than thirty pass like clouds upon red sunset Some had carcasses of sheep swinging with their skins on others had deer and one had a child flung across his saddlebow Whether the child were dead or alive was more than I could tell only it hung head downwards there and must take the chance of it They had got the child a very young one for the sake of the dress no doubt which they could not stop to pull off from it for the dress shone bright where the fire struck it as if with gold and jewels I longed in my heart to know most sadly what they would do with the little thing and whether they would eat it
It touched me so to see that child a prey among those vultures that in my foolish rage and burning I stood up and shouted to them leaping on a rock and raving out of all possession Two of them turned round and one set his carbine at me but the other said it was but a pixie and bade him keep his powder Little they knew and less thought I that the pixie then before them would dance their castle down one day
John Fry who in the spring of fright had brought himself down from Smilers side as if he were dipped in oil now came up to me all risk being over cross and stiff and aching sorely from his wet couch of heather
Small thanks to thee Jan as my new waife baint a widder And who be you to zupport of her and her son if she have one Zarve thee right if I was to chuck thee down into the Doonetrack Zim theell come to un zooner or later if this be the zample of thee
And that was all he had to say instead of thanking God For if ever born man was in a fright and ready to thank God for anything the name of that man was John Fry not more than five minutes agone
However I answered nothing at all except to be ashamed of myself and soon we found Peggy and Smiler in company well embarked on the homeward road and victualling where the grass was good Right glad they were to see us again—not for the pleasure of carrying but because a horse like a woman lacks and is better without selfreliance
My father never came to meet us at either side of the tellinghouse neither at the crooked post nor even at homelinhay although the dogs kept such a noise that he must have heard us Homeside of the linhay and under the ashen hedgerow where father taught me to catch blackbirds all at once my heart went down and all my breast was hollow There was not even the lanthorn light on the peg against the cows house and nobody said Hold your noise to the dogs or shouted Here our Jack is
I looked at the posts of the gate in the dark because they were tall like father and then at the door of the harnessroom where he used to smoke his pipe and sing Then I thought he had guests perhaps—people lost upon the moors—whom he could not leave unkindly even for his sons sake And yet about that I was jealous and ready to be vexed with him when he should begin to make much of me And I felt in my pocket for the new pipe which I had brought him from Tiverton and said to myself He shall not have it until tomorrow morning
Woe is me I cannot tell How I knew I know not now—only that I slunk away without a tear or thought of weeping and hid me in a sawpit There the timber overhead came like streaks across me and all I wanted was to lack and none to tell me anything
Byandby a noise came down as of womans weeping and there my mother and sister were choking and holding together Although they were my dearest loves I could not bear to look at them until they seemed to want my help and put their hands before their eyes
CHAPTER IV
A VERY RASH VISIT
My dear father had been killed by the Doones of Bagworthy while riding home from Porlock market on the Saturday evening With him were six brotherfarmers all of them very sober for father would have no company with any man who went beyond half a gallon of beer or a single gallon of cider The robbers had no grudge against him for he had never flouted them neither made overmuch of outcry because they robbed other people For he was a man of such strict honesty and due parish feeling that he knew it to be every mans own business to defend himself and his goods unless he belonged to our parish and then we must look after him
These seven good farmers were jogging along helping one another in the troubles of the road and singing goodly hymns and songs to keep their courage moving when suddenly a horseman stopped in the starlight full across them
By dress and arms they knew him well and by his size and stature shown against the glimmer of the evening star and though he seemed one man to seven it was in truth one man to one Of the six who had been singing songs and psalms about the power of God and their own regeneration—such psalms as went the round in those days of the publichouses—there was not one but pulled out his money and sang small beer to a Doone
But father had been used to think that any man who was comfortable inside his own coat and waistcoat deserved to have no other set unless he would strike a blow for them And so while his gossips doffed their hats and shook with what was left of them he set his staff above his head and rode at the Doone robber With a trick of his horse the wild man escaped the sudden onset although it must have amazed him sadly that any durst resist him Then when Smiler was carried away with the dash and the weight of my father not being brought up to battle nor used to turn save in plough harness the outlaw whistled upon his thumb and plundered the rest of the yeoman But father drawing at Smilers head to try to come back and help them was in the midst of a dozen men who seemed to come out of a turfrick some on horse and some afoot Nevertheless he smote lustily so far as he could see and being of great size and strength and his blood well up they had no easy job with him With the play of his wrist he cracked three or four crowns being always famous at singlestick until the rest drew their horses away and he thought that he was master and would tell his wife about it
But a man beyond the range of staff was crouching by the peatstack with a long gun set to his shoulder and he got poor father against the sky and I cannot tell the rest of it Only they knew that Smiler came home with blood upon his withers and father was found in the morning dead on the moor with his ivytwisted cudgel lying broken under him Now whether this were an honest fight God judge betwixt the Doones and me
It was more of woe than wonder being such days of violence that mother knew herself a widow and her children fatherless Of children there were only three none of us fit to be useful yet only to comfort mother by making her to work for us I John Ridd was the eldest and felt it a heavy thing on me next came sister Annie with about two years between us and then the little Eliza
Now before I got home and found my sad loss—and no boy ever loved his father more than I loved mine—mother had done a most wondrous thing which made all the neighbours say that she must be mad at least Upon the Monday morning while her husband lay unburied she cast a white hood over her hair and gathered a black cloak round her and taking counsel of no one set off on foot for the Doonegate
In the early afternoon she came to the hollow and barren entrance where in truth there was no gate only darkness to go through If I get on with this story I shall have to tell of it byandby as I saw it afterwards and will not dwell there now Enough that no gun was fired at her only her eyes were covered over and somebody led her by the hand without any wish to hurt her
A very rough and headstrong road was all that she remembered for she could not think as she wished to do with the cold iron pushed against her At the end of this road they delivered her eyes and she could scarce believe them
For she stood at the head of a deep green valley carved from out the mountains in a perfect oval with a fence of sheer rock standing round it eighty feet or a hundred high from whose brink black wooded hills swept up to the skyline By her side a little river glided out from underground with a soft dark babble unawares of daylight then growing brighter lapsed away and fell into the valley Then as it ran down the meadow alders stood on either marge and grass was blading out upon it and yellow tufts of rushes gathered looking at the hurry But further down on either bank were covered houses built of stone square and roughly cornered set as if the brook were meant to be the street between them Only one room high they were and not placed opposite each other but in and out as skittles are only that the first of all which proved to be the captains was a sort of double house or rather two houses joined together by a plankbridge over the river
Fourteen cots my mother counted all very much of a pattern and nothing to choose between them unless it were the captains Deep in the quiet valley there away from noise and violence and brawl save that of the rivulet any man would have deemed them homes of simple mind and innocence Yet not a single house stood there but was the home of murder
Two men led my mother down a steep and gliddery stairway like the ladder of a haymow and thence from the break of the falling water as far as the house of the captain And there at the door they left her trembling strung as she was to speak her mind
Now after all what right had she a common farmers widow to take it amiss that men of birth thought fit to kill her husband And the Doones were of very high birth as all we clods of Exmoor knew and we had enough of good teaching now—let any man say the contrary—to feel that all we had belonged of right to those above us Therefore my mother was halfashamed that she could not help complaining
But after a little while as she said remembrance of her husband came and the way he used to stand by her side and put his strong arm round her and how he liked his bacon fried and praised her kindly for it—and so the tears were in her eyes and nothing should gainsay them
A tall old man Sir Ensor Doone came out with a billhook in his hand hedgers gloves going up his arms as if he were no better than a labourer at ditchwork Only in his mouth and eyes his gait and most of all his voice even a child could know and feel that here was no ditchlabourer Good cause he has found since then perhaps to wish that he had been one
With his white locks moving upon his coat he stopped and looked down at my mother and she could not help herself but curtsey under the fixed black gazing
Good woman you are none of us Who has brought you hither Young men must be young—but I have had too much of this work
And he scowled at my mother for her comeliness and yet looked under his eyelids as if he liked her for it But as for her in her depth of lovegrief it struck scorn upon her womanhood and in the flash she spoke
What you mean I know not Traitors cutthroats cowards I am here to ask for my husband She could not say any more because her heart was now too much for her coming hard in her throat and mouth but she opened up her eyes at him
Madam said Sir Ensor Doone—being born a gentleman although a very bad one—I crave pardon of you My eyes are old or I might have known Now if we have your husband prisoner he shall go free without ransoms because I have insulted you
Sir said my mother being suddenly taken away with sorrow because of his gracious manner please to let me cry a bit
He stood away and seemed to know that women want no help for that And by the way she cried he knew that they had killed her husband Then having felt of grief himself he was not angry with her but left her to begin again
Loth would I be said mother sobbing with her new red handkerchief and looking at the pattern of it loth indeed Sir Ensor Doone to accuse any one unfairly But I have lost the very best husband God ever gave to a woman and I knew him when he was to your belt and I not up to your knee sir and never an unkind word he spoke nor stopped me short in speaking All the herbs he left to me and all the baconcuring and when it was best to kill a pig and how to treat the maidens Not that I would ever wish—oh John it seems so strange to me and last week you were everything
Here mother burst out crying again not loudly but turning quietly because she knew that no one now would ever care to wipe the tears And fifty or a hundred things of weekly and daily happening came across my mother so that her spirit fell like slackening lime
This matter must be seen to it shall be seen to at once the old man answered moved a little in spite of all his knowledge Madam if any wrong has been done trust the honour of a Doone I will redress it to my utmost Come inside and rest yourself while I ask about it What was your good husbands name and when and where fell this mishap
Deary me said mother as he set a chair for her very polite but she would not sit upon it Saturday morning I was a wife sir and Saturday night I was a widow and my children fatherless My husbands name was John Ridd sir as everybody knows and there was not a finer or better man in Somerset or Devon He was coming home from Porlock market and a new gown for me on the crupper and a shell to put my hair up—oh John how good you were to me
Of that she began to think again and not to believe her sorrow except as a dream from the evil one because it was too bad upon her and perhaps she would awake in a minute and her husband would have the laugh of her And so she wiped her eyes and smiled and looked for something
Madam this is a serious thing Sir Ensor Doone said graciously and showing grave concern my boys are a little wild I know And yet I cannot think that they would willingly harm any one And yet—and yet you do look wronged Send Counsellor to me he shouted from the door of his house and down the valley went the call Send Counsellor to Captain
Counsellor Doone came in ere yet my mother was herself again and if any sight could astonish her when all her sense of right and wrong was gone astray with the force of things it was the sight of the Counsellor A squarebuilt man of enormous strength but a foot below the Doone stature which I shall describe hereafter he carried a long grey beard descending to the leather of his belt Great eyebrows overhung his face like ivy on a pollard oak and under them two large brown eyes as of an owl when muting And he had a power of hiding his eyes or showing them bright like a blazing fire He stood there with his beaver off and mother tried to look at him but he seemed not to descry her
Counsellor said Sir Ensor Doone standing back in his height from him here is a lady of good repute—
Oh no sir only a woman
Allow me madam by your good leave Here is a lady Counsellor of great repute in this part of the country who charges the Doones with having unjustly slain her husband—
Murdered him murdered him cried my mother if ever there was a murder Oh sir oh sir you know it
The perfect rights and truth of the case is all I wish to know said the old man very loftily and justice shall be done madam
Oh I pray you—pray you sirs make no matter of business of it God from Heaven look on me
Put the case said the Counsellor
The case is this replied Sir Ensor holding one hand up to mother This ladys worthy husband was slain it seems upon his return from the market at Porlock no longer ago than last Saturday night Madam amend me if I am wrong
No longer indeed indeed sir Sometimes it seems a twelvemonth and sometimes it seems an hour
Cite his name said the Counsellor with his eyes still rolling inwards
Master John Ridd as I understand Counsellor we have heard of him often a worthy man and a peaceful one who meddled not with our duties Now if any of our boys have been rough they shall answer it dearly And yet I can scarce believe it For the folk about these parts are apt to misconceive of our sufferings and to have no feeling for us Counsellor you are our record and very stern against us tell us how this matter was
Oh Counsellor my mother cried Sir Counsellor you will be fair I see it in your countenance Only tell me who it was and set me face to face with him and I will bless you sir and God shall bless you and my children
The square man with the long grey beard quite unmoved by anything drew back to the door and spoke and his voice was like a fall of stones in the bottom of a mine
Few words will be enow for this Four or five of our bestbehaved and most peaceful gentlemen went to the little market at Porlock with a lump of money They bought some household stores and comforts at a very high price and pricked upon the homeward road away from vulgar revellers When they drew bridle to rest their horses in the shelter of a peatrick the night being dark and sudden a robber of great size and strength rode into the midst of them thinking to kill or terrify His arrogance and hardihood at the first amazed them but they would not give up without a blow goods which were on trust with them He had smitten three of them senseless for the power of his arm was terrible whereupon the last man tried to ward his blow with a pistol Carver sir it was our brave and noble Carver who saved the lives of his brethren and his own and glad enow they were to escape Notwithstanding we hoped it might be only a fleshwound and not to speed him in his sins
As this atrocious tale of lies turned up joint by joint before her like a devils coachhorse mother was too much amazed to do any more than look at him as if the earth must open But the only thing that opened was the great brown eyes of the Counsellor which rested on my mothers face with a dew of sorrow as he spoke of sins
The cocktailed beetle has earned this name in the West of
England
She unable to bear them turned suddenly on Sir Ensor and caught as she fancied a smile on his lips and a sense of quiet enjoyment
All the Doones are gentlemen answered the old man gravely and looking as if he had never smiled since he was a baby We are always glad to explain madam any mistake which the rustic people may fall upon about us and we wish you clearly to conceive that we do not charge your poor husband with any set purpose of robbery neither will we bring suit for any attainder of his property Is it not so Counsellor
Without doubt his land is attainted unless is mercy you forbear sir
Counsellor we will forbear Madam we will forgive him Like enough he knew not right from wrong at that time of night The waters are strong at Porlock and even an honest man may use his staff unjustly in this unchartered age of violence and rapine
The Doones to talk of rapine Mothers head went round so that she curtseyed to them both scarcely knowing where she was but calling to mind her manners All the time she felt a warmth as if the right was with her and yet she could not see the way to spread it out before them With that she dried her tears in haste and went into the cold air for fear of speaking mischief
But when she was on the homeward road and the sentinels had charge of her blinding her eyes as if she were not blind enough with weeping some one came in haste behind her and thrust a heavy leathern bag into the limp weight of her hand
Captain sends you this he whispered take it to the little ones
But mother let it fall in a heap as if it had been a blind worm and then for the first time crouched before God that even the Doones should pity her
CHAPTER V
AN ILLEGAL SETTLEMENT
Good folk who dwell in a lawful land if any such there be may for want of exploration judge our neighbourhood harshly unless the whole truth is set before them In bar of such prejudice many of us ask leave to explain how and why it was the robbers came to that head in the midst of us We would rather not have had it so God knows as well as anybody but it grew upon us gently in the following manner Only let all who read observe that here I enter many things which came to my knowledge in later years
In or about the year of our Lord 1640 when all the troubles of England were swelling to an outburst great estates in the North country were suddenly confiscated through some feud of families and strong influence at Court and the owners were turned upon the world and might think themselves lucky to save their necks These estates were in coheirship joint tenancy I think they called it although I know not the meaning only so that if either tenant died the other living all would come to the live one in spite of any testament
One of the joint owners was Sir Ensor Doone a gentleman of brisk intellect and the other owner was his cousin the Earl of Lorne and Dykemont
Lord Lorne was some years the elder of his cousin Ensor Doone and was making suit to gain severance of the cumbersome joint tenancy by any fair apportionment when suddenly this blow fell on them by wiles and womans meddling and instead of dividing the land they were divided from it
The nobleman was still welltodo though crippled in his expenditure but as for the cousin he was left a beggar with many to beg from him He thought that the other had wronged him and that all the trouble of law befell through his unjust petition Many friends advised him to make interest at Court for having done no harm whatever and being a good Catholic which Lord Lorne was not he would be sure to find hearing there and probably some favour But he like a very hotbrained man although he had long been married to the daughter of his cousin whom he liked none the more for that would have nothing to say to any attempt at making a patch of it but drove away with his wife and sons and the relics of his money swearing hard at everybody In this he may have been quite wrong probably perhaps he was so but I am not convinced at all but what most of us would have done the same
Some say that in the bitterness of that wrong and outrage he slew a gentleman of the Court whom he supposed to have borne a hand in the plundering of his fortunes Others say that he bearded King Charles the First himself in a manner beyond forgiveness One thing at any rate is sure—Sir Ensor was attainted and made a felon outlaw through some violent deed ensuing upon his dispossession
He had searched in many quarters for somebody to help him and with good warrant for hoping it inasmuch as he in lucky days had been openhanded and cousinly to all who begged advice of him But now all these provided him with plenty of good advice indeed and great assurance of feeling but not a movement of leg or lip or pursestring in his favour All good people of either persuasion royalty or commonalty knowing his kitchenrange to be cold no longer would play turnspit And this it may be seared his heart more than loss of land and fame
In great despair at last he resolved to settle in some outlandish part where none could be found to know him and so in an evil day for us he came to the West of England Not that our part of the world is at all outlandish according to my view of it for I never found a better one but that it was known to be rugged and large and desolate And here when he had discovered a place which seemed almost to be made for him so withdrawn so selfdefended and uneasy of access some of the countryfolk around brought him little offerings—a side of bacon a keg of cider hung mutton or a brisket of venison so that for a little while he was very honest But when the newness of his coming began to wear away and our good folk were apt to think that even a gentleman ought to work or pay other men for doing it and many farmers were grown weary of manners without discourse to them and all cried out to one another how unfair it was that owning such a fertile valley young men would not spade or plough by reason of noble lineage—then the young Doones growing up took things they would not ask for
And here let me as a solid man owner of five hundred acres whether fenced or otherwise and that is my own business churchwarden also of this parish until I go to the churchyard and proud to be called the parsons friend—for a better man I never knew with tobacco and strong waters nor one who could read the lessons so well and he has been at Blundells too—once for all let me declare that I am a thoroughgoing ChurchandState man and Royalist without any mistake about it And this I lay down because some people judging a sausage by the skin may take in evil part my little glosses of style and glibness and the mottled nature of my remarks and cracks now and then on the fryingpan I assure them I am good inside and not a bit of rue in me only queer knots as of marjoram and a stupid manner of bursting
There was not more than a dozen of them counting a few retainers who still held by Sir Ensor but soon they grew and multiplied in a manner surprising to think of Whether it was the venison which we call a strengthening victual or whether it was the Exmoor mutton or the keen soft air of the moorlands anyhow the Doones increased much faster than their honesty At first they had brought some ladies with them of good repute with charity and then as time went on they added to their stock by carrying They carried off many good farmers daughters who were sadly displeased at first but took to them kindly after awhile and made a new home in their babies For women as it seems to me like strong men more than weak ones feeling that they need some staunchness something to hold fast by
And of all the men in our country although we are of a thickset breed you scarce could find one in threescore fit to be placed among the Doones without looking no more than a tailor Like enough we could meet them man for man if we chose all around the crown and the skirts of Exmoor and show them what a crossbuttock means because we are so stuggy but in regard of stature comeliness and bearing no woman would look twice at us Not but what I myself John Ridd and one or two I know of—but it becomes me best not to talk of that although my hair is gray
Perhaps their den might well have been stormed and themselves driven out of the forest if honest people had only agreed to begin with them at once when first they took to plundering But having respect for their good birth and pity for their misfortunes and perhaps a little admiration at the justice of God that robbed men now were robbers the squires and farmers and shepherds at first did nothing more than grumble gently or even make a laugh of it each in the case of others After awhile they found the matter gone too far for laughter as violence and deadly outrage stained the hand of robbery until every woman clutched her child and every man turned pale at the very name of Doone For the sons and grandsons of Sir Ensor grew up in foul liberty and haughtiness and hatred to utter scorn of God and man and brutality towards dumb animals There was only one good thing about them if indeed it were good to wit their faith to one another and truth to their wild eyry But this only made them feared the more so certain was the revenge they wreaked upon any who dared to strike a Doone One night some ten years ere I was born when they were sacking a rich mans house not very far from Minehead a shot was fired at them in the dark of which they took little notice and only one of them knew that any harm was done But when they were well on the homeward road not having slain either man or woman or even burned a house down one of their number fell from his saddle and died without so much as a groan The youth had been struck but would not complain and perhaps took little heed of the wound while he was bleeding inwardly His brothers and cousins laid him softly on a bank of whortleberries and just rode back to the lonely hamlet where he had taken his deathwound No man nor woman was left in the morning nor house for any to dwell in only a child with its reason gone
This vile deed was done beyond all doubt
This affair made prudent people find more reason to let them alone than to meddle with them and now they had so entrenched themselves and waxed so strong in number that nothing less than a troop of soldiers could wisely enter their premises and even so it might turn out ill as perchance we shall see byandby
For not to mention the strength of the place which I shall describe in its proper order when I come to visit it there was not one among them but was a mighty man straight and tall and wide and fit to lift four hundredweight If son or grandson of old Doone or one of the northern retainers failed at the age of twenty while standing on his naked feet to touch with his forehead the lintel of Sir Ensors door and to fill the door frame with his shoulders from sidepost even to sidepost he was led away to the narrow pass which made their valley so desperate and thrust from the crown with ignominy to get his own living honestly Now the measure of that doorway is or rather was I ought to say six feet and one inch lengthwise and two feet all but two inches taken crossways in the clear Yet I not only have heard but know being so closely mixed with them that no descendant of old Sir Ensor neither relative of his except indeed the Counsellor who was kept by them for his wisdom and no more than two of their following ever failed of that test and relapsed to the difficult ways of honesty
Not that I think anything great of a standard the like of that for if they had set me in that doorframe at the age of twenty it is like enough that I should have walked away with it on my shoulders though I was not come to my full strength then only I am speaking now of the average size of our neighbourhood and the Doones were far beyond that Moreover they were taught to shoot with a heavy carbine so delicately and wisely that even a boy could pass a ball through a rabbits head at the distance of fourscore yards Some people may think nought of this being in practice with longer shots from the tongue than from the shoulder nevertheless to do as above is to my ignorance very good work if you can be sure to do it Not one word do I believe of Robin Hood splitting peeled wands at sevenscore yards and such like Whoever wrote such stories knew not how slippery a peeled wand is even if one could hit it and how it gives to the onset Now let him stick one in the ground and take his bow and arrow at it ten yards away or even five
Now after all this which I have written and all the rest which a reader will see being quicker of mind than I am who leave more than half behind me like a man sowing wheat with his dinner laid in the ditch too near his dog it is much but what you will understand the Doones far better than I did or do even to this moment and therefore none will doubt when I tell them that our good justiciaries feared to make an ado or hold any public inquiry about my dear fathers death They would all have had to ride home that night and who could say what might betide them Least said soonest mended because less chance of breaking
So we buried him quietly—all except my mother indeed for she could not keep silence—in the sloping little churchyard of Oare as meek a place as need be with the Lynn brook down below it There is not much of company there for anybodys tombstone because the parish spreads so far in woods and moors without dwellinghouse If we bury one man in three years or even a woman or child we talk about it for three months and say it must be our turn next and scarcely grow accustomed to it until another goes
Annie was not allowed to come because she cried so terribly but she ran to the window and saw it all mooing there like a little calf so frightened and so left alone As for Eliza she came with me one on each side of mother and not a tear was in her eyes but sudden starts of wonder and a new thing to be looked at unwillingly yet curiously Poor little thing she was very clever the only one of our family—thank God for the same—but none the more for that guessed she what it is to lose a father
CHAPTER VI
NECESSARY PRACTICE
About the rest of all that winter I remember very little being only a young boy then and missing my father most out of doors as when it came to the birdcatching or the tracking of hares in the snow or the training of a sheepdog Oftentimes I looked at his gun an ancient piece found in the sea a little below Glenthorne and of which he was mighty proud although it was only a matchlock and I thought of the times I had held the fuse while he got his aim at a rabbit and once even at a red deer rubbing among the hazels But nothing came of my looking at it so far as I remember save foolish tears of my own perhaps till John Fry took it down one day from the hooks where fathers hand had laid it and it hurt me to see how John handled it as if he had no memory
Bad job for he as her had not got thiccy the naight as her coom acrass them Doones Rackon Varmer Jan ood azhown them the wai to kingdom come stead of gooin herzel zo aisy And a maight have been gooin to market now stead of laying banked up over yanner Maister Jan thee can zee the grave if thee look alang this here goonbarryel Buy now whutt be blubberin at Wish I had never told thee
John Fry I am not blubbering you make a great mistake John You are thinking of little Annie I cough sometimes in the winterweather and father gives me lickerish—I mean—I mean—he used to Now let me have the gun John
Thee have the goon Jan Thee isnt fit to putt un to thy zhoulder What a weight her be for sure
Me not hold it John That shows how much you know about it Get out of the way John you are opposite the mouth of it and likely it is loaded
John Fry jumped in a livelier manner than when he was doing daywork and I rested the mouth on a cross rackpiece and felt a warm sort of surety that I could hit the door over opposite or at least the cobwall alongside of it and do no harm in the orchard But John would not give me link or fuse and on the whole I was glad of it though carrying on as boys do because I had heard my father say that the Spanish gun kicked like a horse and because the load in it came from his hand and I did not like to undo it But I never found it kick very hard and firmly set to the shoulder unless it was badly loaded In truth the thickness of the metal was enough almost to astonish one and what our people said about it may have been true enough although most of them are such liars—at least I mean they make mistakes as all mankind must do Perchance it was no mistake at all to say that this ancient gun had belonged to a noble Spaniard the captain of a fine large ship in the Invincible Armada which we of England managed to conquer with God and the weather helping us a hundred years ago or more—I cant say to a month or so
After a little while when John had fired away at a rat the charge I held so sacred it came to me as a natural thing to practise shooting with that great gun instead of John Frys blunderbuss which looked like a bell with a stalk to it Perhaps for a boy there is nothing better than a good windmill to shoot at as I have seen them in flat countries but we have no windmills upon the great moorland yet here and there a few barndoors where shelter is and a way up the hollows And up those hollows you can shoot with the help of the sides to lead your aim and there is a fair chance of hitting the door if you lay your cheek to the barrel and try not to be afraid of it
Gradually I won such skill that I sent nearly all the lead gutter from the north porch of our little church through our best barndoor a thing which has often repented me since especially as churchwarden and made me pardon many bad boys but father was not buried on that side of the church
But all this time while I was roving over the hills or about the farm and even listening to John Fry my mother being so much older and feeling trouble longer went about inside the house or among the maids and fowls not caring to talk to the best of them except when she broke out sometimes about the good master they had lost all and every one of us But the fowls would take no notice of it except to cluck for barley and the maidens though they had liked him well were thinking of their sweethearts as the spring came on Mother thought it wrong of them selfish and ungrateful and yet sometimes she was proud that none had such call as herself to grieve for him Only Annie seemed to go softly in and out and cry with nobody along of her chiefly in the corner where the bees are and the grindstone But somehow she would never let anybody behold her being set as you may say to think it over by herself and season it with weeping Many times I caught her and many times she turned upon me and then I could not look at her but asked how long to dinnertime
Now in the depth of the winter month such as we call December father being dead and quiet in his grave a fortnight it happened me to be out of powder for practice against his enemies I had never fired a shot without thinking This for fathers murderer and John Fry said that I made such faces it was a wonder the gun went off But though I could hardly hold the gun unless with my back against a bar it did me good to hear it go off and hope to have hitten his enemies
Oh mother mother I said that day directly after dinner while she was sitting looking at me and almost ready to say as now she did seven times in a week How like your father you are growing Jack come here and kiss me—oh mother if you only knew how much I want a shilling
Jack you shall never want a shilling while I am alive to give thee one But what is it for dear heart dear heart
To buy something over at Porlock mother Perhaps I will tell you afterwards If I tell not it will be for your good and for the sake of the children
Bless the boy one would think he was threescore years of age at least Give me a little kiss you Jack and you shall have the shilling
For I hated to kiss or be kissed in those days and so all honest boys must do when God puts any strength in them But now I wanted the powder so much that I went and kissed mother very shyly looking round the corner first for Betty not to see me
But mother gave me half a dozen and only one shilling for all of them and I could not find it in my heart to ask her for another although I would have taken it In very quick time I ran away with the shilling in my pocket and got Peggy out on the Porlock road without my mother knowing it For mother was frightened of that road now as if all the trees were murderers and would never let me go alone so much as a hundred yards on it And to tell the truth I was touched with fear for many years about it and even now when I ride at dark there a man by a peatrick makes me shiver until I go and collar him But this time I was very bold having John Frys blunderbuss and keeping a sharp lookout wherever any lurking place was However I saw only sheep and small red cattle and the common deer of the forest until I was nigh to Porlock town and then rode straight to Mr Pookes at the sign of the Spit and Gridiron
Mr Pooke was asleep as it happened not having much to do that day and so I fastened Peggy by the handle of a warmingpan at which she had no better manners than to snort and blow her breath and in I walked with a manful style bearing John Frys blunderbuss Now Timothy Pooke was a peaceful man glad to live without any enjoyment of mind at danger and I was tall and large already as most lads of a riper age Mr Pooke as soon as he opened his eyes dropped suddenly under the countingboard and drew a great fryingpan over his head as if the Doones were come to rob him as their custom was mostly after the fairtime It made me feel rather hot and queer to be taken for a robber and yet methinks I was proud of it
Gadzooks Master Pooke said I having learned fine words at Tiverton do you suppose that I know not then the way to carry firearms An it were the old Spanish matchlock in the lieu of this good flintengine which may be borne ten miles or more and never once go off scarcely couldst thou seem more scared I might point at thee muzzle on—just so as I do now—even for an hour or more and like enough it would never shoot thee unless I pulled the trigger hard with a crock upon my finger so you see just so Master Pooke only a trifle harder
God sake John Ridd God sake dear boy cried Pooke knowing me by this time dont e for good love now dont e show it to me boy as if I was to suck it Put un down for good now and thee shall have the very best of all is in the shop
Ho I replied with much contempt and swinging round the gun so that it fetched his hoop of candles down all unkindled as they were Ho as if I had not attained to the handling of a gun yet My hands are cold coming over the moors else would I go bail to point the mouth at you for an hour sir and no cause for uneasiness
But in spite of all assurances he showed himself desirous only to see the last of my gun and me I dare say villainous saltpetre as the great playwright calls it was never so cheap before nor since For my shilling Master Pooke afforded me two great packages overlarge to go into my pockets as well as a mighty chunk of lead which I bound upon Peggys withers And as if all this had not been enough he presented me with a roll of comfits for my sister Annie whose gentle face and pretty manners won the love of everybody
There was still some daylight here and there as I rose the hill above Porlock wondering whether my mother would be in a fright or would not know it The two great packages of powder slung behind my back knocked so hard against one another that I feared they must either spill or blow up and hurry me over Peggys ears from the woollen cloth I rode upon For father always liked a horse to have some wool upon his loins whenever he went far from home and had to stand about where one pleased hot and wet and panting And father always said that saddles were meant for men fullgrown and heavy and losing their activity and no boy or young man on our farm durst ever get into a saddle because they all knew that the master would chuck them out pretty quickly As for me I had tried it once from a kind of curiosity and I could not walk for two or three days the leather galled my knees so But now as Peggy bore me bravely snorting every now and then into a cloud of air for the night was growing frosty presently the moon arose over the shoulder of a hill and the pony and I were half glad to see her and half afraid of the shadows she threw and the images all around us I was ready at any moment to shoot at anybody having great faith in my blunderbuss but hoping not to prove it And as I passed the narrow place where the Doones had killed my father such a fear broke out upon me that I leaned upon the neck of Peggy and shut my eyes and was cold all over However there was not a soul to be seen until we came home to the old farmyard and there was my mother crying sadly and Betty Muxworthy scolding
Come along now I whispered to Annie the moment supper was over and if you can hold your tongue Annie I will show you something
She lifted herself on the bench so quickly and flushed so rich with pleasure that I was obliged to stare hard away and make Betty look beyond us Betty thought I had something hid in the closet beyond the clockcase and she was the more convinced of it by reason of my denial Not that Betty Muxworthy or any one else for that matter ever found me in a falsehood because I never told one not even to my mother—or which is still a stronger thing not even to my sweetheart when I grew up to have one—but that Betty being wronged in the matter of marriage a generation or two agone by a man who came hedging and ditching had now no mercy except to believe that men from cradle to grave are liars and women fools to look at them
When Betty could find no crime of mine she knocked me out of the way in a minute as if I had been nobody and then she began to coax Mistress Annie as she always called her and draw the soft hair down her hands and whisper into the little ears Meanwhile dear mother was falling asleep having been troubled so much about me and Watch my fathers pet dog was nodding closer and closer up into her lap
Now Annie will you come I said for I wanted her to hold the ladle for melting of the lead will you come at once Annie or must I go for Lizzie and let her see the whole of it
Indeed then you wont do that said Annie Lizzie to come before me John and she cant stir a pot of brewis and scarce knows a tongue from a ham John and says it makes no difference because both are good to eat Oh Betty what do you think of that to come of all her booklearning
Thank God he cant say that of me Betty answered shortly for she never cared about argument except on her own side thank he I says every marning amost never to lead me astray so Men is desaving and so is galanies but the most desaving of all is books with their heads and tails and the speckots in em lik a peg as have taken the maisles Some folk purtends to laugh and cry over them God forgive them for liars
It was part of Bettys obstinacy that she never would believe in reading or the possibility of it but stoutly maintained to the very last that people first learned things by heart and then pretended to make them out from patterns done upon paper for the sake of astonishing honest folk just as do the conjurers And even to see the parson and clerk was not enough to convince her all she said was It made no odds they were all the same as the rest of us And now that she had been on the farm nigh upon forty years and had nursed my father and made his clothes and all that he had to eat and then put him in his coffin she was come to such authority that it was not worth the wages of the best man on the place to say a word in answer to Betty even if he would face the risk to have ten for one or twenty
Annie was her love and joy For Annie she would do anything even so far as to try to smile when the little maid laughed and danced to her And in truth I know not how it was but every one was taken with Annie at the very first time of seeing her She had such pretty ways and manners and such a look of kindness and a sweet soft light in her long blue eyes full of trustful gladness Everybody who looked at her seemed to grow the better for it because she knew no evil And then the turn she had for cooking you never would have expected it and how it was her richest mirth to see that she had pleased you I have been out on the world a vast deal as you will own hereafter and yet have I never seen Annies equal for making a weary man comfortable
CHAPTER VII
HARD IT IS TO CLIMB
So many a winter night went by in a hopeful and pleasant manner with the hissing of the bright round bullets cast into the water and the spluttering of the great red apples which Annie was roasting for me We always managed our evenings work in the chimney of the backkitchen where there was room to set chairs and table in spite of the fire burning On the righthand side was a mighty oven where Betty threatened to bake us and on the left long sides of bacon made of favoured pigs and growing very brown and comely Annie knew the names of all and ran up through the woodsmoke every now and then when a gentle memory moved her and asked them how they were getting on and when they would like to be eaten Then she came back with foolish tears at thinking of that necessity and I being soft in a different way would make up my mind against bacon
But Lord bless you it was no good Whenever it came to breakfasttime after three hours upon the moors I regularly forgot the pigs but paid good heed to the rashers For ours is a hungry county if such there be in England a place I mean where men must eat and are quick to discharge the duty The air of the moors is so shrewd and wholesome stirring a mans recollection of the good things which have betided him and whetting his hope of something still better in the future that by the time he sits down to a cloth his heart and stomach are tuned too well to say nay to one another
Almost everybody knows in our part of the world at least how pleasant and soft the fall of the land is round about Plovers Barrows farm All above it is strong dark mountain spread with heath and desolate but near our house the valleys cove and open warmth and shelter Here are trees and bright green grass and orchards full of contentment and a man may scarce espy the brook although he hears it everywhere And indeed a stout good piece of it comes through our farmyard and swells sometimes to a rush of waves when the clouds are on the hilltops But all below where the valley bends and the Lynn stream comes along with it pretty meadows slope their breast and the sun spreads on the water And nearly all of this is ours till you come to Nicholas Snowes land
But about two miles below our farm the Bagworthy water runs into the Lynn and makes a real river of it Thence it hurries away with strength and a force of wilful waters under the foot of a barefaced hill and so to rocks and woods again where the stream is covered over and dark heavy pools delay it There are plenty of fish all down this way and the farther you go the larger they get having deeper grounds to feed in and sometimes in the summer months when mother could spare me off the farm I came down here with Annie to help because it was so lonely and caught wellnigh a basketful of little trout and minnows with a hook and a bit of worm on it or a fernweb or a blowfly hung from a hazel pulsestick For of all the things I learned at Blundells only two abode with me and one of these was the knack of fishing and the other the art of swimming And indeed they have a very rude manner of teaching children to swim there for the big boys take the little boys and put them through a certain process which they grimly call sheepwashing In the third meadow from the gate of the school going up the river there is a fine pool in the Lowman where the Taunton brook comes in and they call it the Taunton Pool The water runs down with a strong sharp stickle and then has a sudden elbow in it where the small brook trickles in and on that side the bank is steep four or it may be five feet high overhanging loamily but on the other side it is flat pebbly and fit to land upon Now the large boys take the small boys crying sadly for mercy and thinking mayhap of their mothers with hands laid well at the back of their necks they bring them up to the crest of the bank upon the eastern side and make them strip their clothes off Then the little boys falling on their naked knees blubber upwards piteously but the large boys know what is good for them and will not be entreated So they cast them down one after other into the splash of the water and watch them go to the bottom first and then come up and fight for it with a blowing and a bubbling It is a very fair sight to watch when you know there is little danger because although the pool is deep the current is sure to wash a boy up on the stones where the end of the depth is As for me they had no need to throw me more than once because I jumped of my own accord thinking small things of the Lowman after the violent Lynn Nevertheless I learnt to swim there as all the other boys did for the greatest point in learning that is to find that you must do it I loved the water naturally and could not long be out of it but even the boys who hated it most came to swim in some fashion or other after they had been flung for a year or two into the Taunton pool
But now although my sister Annie came to keep me company and was not to be parted from me by the tricks of the Lynn stream because I put her on my back and carried her across whenever she could not leap it or tuck up her things and take the stones yet so it happened that neither of us had been up the Bagworthy water We knew that it brought a good stream down as full of fish as of pebbles and we thought that it must be very pretty to make a way where no way was nor even a bullock came down to drink But whether we were afraid or not I am sure I cannot tell because it is so long ago but I think that had something to do with it For Bagworthy water ran out of Doone valley a mile or so from the mouth of it
But when I was turned fourteen years old and put into good smallclothes buckled at the knee and strong blue worsted hosen knitted by my mother it happened to me without choice I may say to explore the Bagworthy water And it came about in this wise
My mother had long been ailing and not well able to eat much and there is nothing that frightens us so much as for people to have no love of their victuals Now I chanced to remember that once at the time of the holidays I had brought dear mother from Tiverton a jar of pickled loaches caught by myself in the Lowman river and baked in the kitchen oven with vinegar a few leaves of bay and about a dozen peppercorns And mother had said that in all her life she had never tasted anything fit to be compared with them Whether she said so good a thing out of compliment to my skill in catching the fish and cooking them or whether she really meant it is more than I can tell though I quite believe the latter and so would most people who tasted them at any rate I now resolved to get some loaches for her and do them in the selfsame manner just to make her eat a bit
There are many people even now who have not come to the right knowledge what a loach is and where he lives and how to catch and pickle him And I will not tell them all about it because if I did very likely there would be no loaches left ten or twenty years after the appearance of this book A pickled minnow is very good if you catch him in a stickle with the scarlet fingers upon him but I count him no more than the ropes in beer compared with a loach done properly
Being resolved to catch some loaches whatever trouble it cost me I set forth without a word to any one in the forenoon of St Valentines day 16756 I think it must have been Annie should not come with me because the water was too cold for the winter had been long and snow lay here and there in patches in the hollow of the banks like a ladys gloves forgotten And yet the spring was breaking forth as it always does in Devonshire when the turn of the days is over and though there was little to see of it the air was full of feeling
It puzzles me now that I remember all those young impressions so because I took no heed of them at the time whatever and yet they come upon me bright when nothing else is evident in the gray fog of experience I am like an old man gazing at the outside of his spectacles and seeing as he rubs the dust the image of his grandson playing at bopeep with him
But let me be of any age I never could forget that day and how bitter cold the water was For I doffed my shoes and hose and put them into a bag about my neck and left my little coat at home and tied my shirtsleeves back to my shoulders Then I took a threepronged fork firmly bound to a rod with cord and a piece of canvas kerchief with a lump of bread inside it and so went into the pebbly water trying to think how warm it was For more than a mile all down the Lynn stream scarcely a stone I left unturned being thoroughly skilled in the tricks of the loach and knowing how he hides himself For being grayspotted and clear to see through and something like a cuttlefish only more substantial he will stay quite still where a streak of weed is in the rapid water hoping to be overlooked not caring even to wag his tail Then being disturbed he flips away like whalebone from the finger and hies to a shelf of stone and lies with his sharp head poked in under it or sometimes he bellies him into the mud and only shows his backridge And that is the time to spear him nicely holding the fork very gingerly and allowing for the bent of it which comes to pass I know not how at the tickle of air and water
Or if your loach should not be abroad when first you come to look for him but keeping snug in his little home then you may see him come forth amazed at the quivering of the shingles and oar himself and look at you and then dart upstream like a little grey streak and then you must try to mark him in and follow very daintily So after that in a sandy place you steal up behind his tail to him so that he cannot set eyes on you for his head is upstream always and there you see him abiding still clear and mild and affable Then as he looks so innocent you make full sure to prog him well in spite of the wry of the water and the sun making elbows to everything and the trembling of your fingers But when you gird at him lovingly and have as good as gotten him lo in the goby of the river he is gone as a shadow goes and only a little cloud of mud curls away from the points of the fork
A long way down that limpid water chill and bright as an iceberg went my little self that day on mans choice errand—destruction All the young fish seemed to know that I was one who had taken out Gods certificate and meant to have the value of it every one of them was aware that we desolate more than replenish the earth For a cow might come and look into the water and put her yellow lips down a kingfisher like a blue arrow might shoot through the dark alleys over the channel or sit on a dipping withybough with his beak sunk into his breastfeathers even an otter might float downstream likening himself to a log of wood with his flat head flush with the watertop and his oily eyes peering quietly and yet no panic would seize other life as it does when a sample of man comes
Now let not any one suppose that I thought of these things when I was young for I knew not the way to do it And proud enough in truth I was at the universal fear I spread in all those lonely places where I myself must have been afraid if anything had come up to me It is all very pretty to see the trees big with their hopes of another year though dumb as yet on the subject and the waters murmuring gaiety and the banks spread out with comfort but a boy takes none of this to heart unless he be meant for a poet which God can never charge upon me and he would liefer have a good apple or even a bad one if he stole it
When I had travelled two miles or so conquered now and then with cold and coming out to rub my legs into a lively friction and only fishing here and there because of the tumbling water suddenly in an open space where meadows spread about it I found a good stream flowing softly into the body of our brook And it brought so far as I could guess by the sweep of it under my kneecaps a larger power of clear water than the Lynn itself had only it came more quietly down not being troubled with stairs and steps as the fortune of the Lynn is but gliding smoothly and forcibly as if upon some set purpose
Hereupon I drew up and thought and reason was much inside me because the water was bitter cold and my little toes were aching So on the bank I rubbed them well with a sprout of young stingnettle and having skipped about awhile was kindly inclined to eat a bit
Now all the turn of all my life hung upon that moment But as I sat there munching a crust of Betty Muxworthys sweet brown bread and a bit of cold bacon along with it and kicking my little red heels against the dry loam to keep them warm I knew no more than fish under the fork what was going on over me It seemed a sad business to go back now and tell Annie there were no loaches and yet it was a frightful thing knowing what I did of it to venture where no grown man durst up the Bagworthy water And please to recollect that I was only a boy in those days fond enough of anything new but not like a man to meet it
However as I ate more and more my spirit arose within me and I thought of what my father had been and how he had told me a hundred times never to be a coward And then I grew warm and my little heart was ashamed of its pitapatting and I said to myself now if father looks he shall see that I obey him So I put the bag round my back again and buckled my breeches far up from the knee expecting deeper water and crossing the Lynn went stoutly up under the branches which hang so dark on the Bagworthy river
I found it strongly overwoven turned and torn with thicketwood but not so rocky as the Lynn and more inclined to go evenly There were bars of chafed stakes stretched from the sides halfway across the current and light outriders of pithy weed and blades of last years watergrass trembling in the quiet places like a spiders threads on the transparent stillness with a tint of olive moving it And here and there the sun came in as if his light was sifted making dance upon the waves and shadowing the pebbles
Here although affrighted often by the deep dark places and feeling that every step I took might never be taken backward on the whole I had very comely sport of loaches trout and minnows forking some and tickling some and driving others to shallow nooks whence I could bail them ashore Now if you have ever been fishing you will not wonder that I was led on forgetting all about danger and taking no heed of the time but shouting in a childish way whenever I caught a whacker as we called a big fish at Tiverton and in sooth there were very fine loaches here having more lie and harbourage than in the rough Lynn stream though not quite so large as in the Lowman where I have even taken them to the weight of half a pound
But in answer to all my shouts there never was any sound at all except of a rocky echo or a scared bird hustling away or the sudden dive of a watervole and the place grew thicker and thicker and the covert grew darker above me until I thought that the fishes might have good chance of eating me instead of my eating the fishes
For now the day was falling fast behind the brown of the hilltops and the trees being void of leaf and hard seemed giants ready to beat me And every moment as the sky was clearing up for a white frost the cold of the water got worse and worse until I was fit to cry with it And so in a sorry plight I came to an opening in the bushes where a great black pool lay in front of me whitened with snow as I thought at the sides till I saw it was only foamfroth
Now though I could swim with great ease and comfort and feared no depth of water when I could fairly come to it yet I had no desire to go over head and ears into this great pool being so cramped and weary and cold enough in all conscience though wet only up to the middle not counting my arms and shoulders And the look of this black pit was enough to stop one from diving into it even on a hot summers day with sunshine on the water I mean if the sun ever shone there As it was I shuddered and drew back not alone at the pool itself and the black air there was about it but also at the whirling manner and wisping of white threads upon it in stripy circles round and round and the centre still as jet
But soon I saw the reason of the stir and depth of that great pit as well as of the roaring sound which long had made me wonder For skirting round one side with very little comfort because the rocks were high and steep and the ledge at the foot so narrow I came to a sudden sight and marvel such as I never dreamed of For lo I stood at the foot of a long pale slide of water coming smoothly to me without any break or hindrance for a hundred yards or more and fenced on either side with cliff sheer and straight and shining The water neither ran nor fell nor leaped with any spouting but made one even slope of it as if it had been combed or planed and looking like a plank of deal laid down a deep black staircase However there was no siderail nor any place to walk upon only the channel a fathom wide and the perpendicular walls of crag shutting out the evening
The look of this place had a sad effect scaring me very greatly and making me feel that I would give something only to be at home again with Annie cooking my supper and our dog Watch sniffing upward But nothing would come of wishing that I had long found out and it only made one the less inclined to work without white feather So I laid the case before me in a little council not for loss of time but only that I wanted rest and to see things truly
Then says I to myself—John Ridd these trees and pools and lonesome rocks and setting of the sunlight are making a gruesome coward of thee Shall I go back to my mother so and be called her fearless boy
Nevertheless I am free to own that it was not any fine sense of shame which settled my decision for indeed there was nearly as much of danger in going back as in going on and perhaps even more of labour the journey being so roundabout But that which saved me from turning back was a strange inquisitive desire very unbecoming in a boy of little years in a word I would risk a great deal to know what made the water come down like that and what there was at the top of it
Therefore seeing hard strife before me I girt up my breeches anew with each buckle one hole tighter for the sodden straps were stretching and giving and mayhap my legs were grown smaller from the coldness of it Then I bestowed my fish around my neck more tightly and not stopping to look much for fear of fear crawled along over the fork of rocks where the water had scooped the stone out and shunning thus the ledge from whence it rose like the mane of a white horse into the broad black pool softly I let my feet into the dip and rush of the torrent
And here I had reckoned without my host although as I thought so clever and it was much but that I went down into the great black pool and had never been heard of more and this must have been the end of me except for my trusty loachfork For the green wave came down like great bottles upon me and my legs were gone off in a moment and I had not time to cry out with wonder only to think of my mother and Annie and knock my head very sadly which made it go round so that brains were no good even if I had any But all in a moment before I knew aught except that I must die out of the way with a roar of water upon me my fork praise God stuck fast in the rock and I was borne up upon it I felt nothing except that here was another matter to begin upon and it might be worth while or again it might not to have another fight for it But presently the dash of the water upon my face revived me and my mind grew used to the roar of it and meseemed I had been worse off than this when first flung into the Lowman
Therefore I gathered my legs back slowly as if they were fish to be landed stopping whenever the water flew too strongly off my shinbones and coming along without sticking out to let the wave get hold of me And in this manner I won a footing leaning well forward like a draughthorse and balancing on my strength as it were with the ashen stake set behind me Then I said to my self John Ridd the sooner you get yourself out by the way you came the better it will be for you But to my great dismay and affright I saw that no choice was left me now except that I must climb somehow up that hill of water or else be washed down into the pool and whirl around it till it drowned me For there was no chance of fetching back by the way I had gone down into it and further up was a hedge of rock on either side of the waterway rising a hundred yards in height and for all I could tell five hundred and no place to set a foot in
Having said the Lords Prayer which was all I knew and made a very bad job of it I grasped the good loachstick under a knot and steadied me with my left hand and so with a sigh of despair began my course up the fearful torrentway To me it seemed half a mile at least of sliding water above me but in truth it was little more than a furlong as I came to know afterwards It would have been a hard ascent even without the slippery slime and the force of the river over it and I had scanty hope indeed of ever winning the summit Nevertheless my terror left me now I was face to face with it and had to meet the worst and I set myself to do my best with a vigour and sort of hardness which did not then surprise me but have done so ever since
The water was only six inches deep or from that to nine at the utmost and all the way up I could see my feet looking white in the gloom of the hollow and here and there I found restingplace to hold on by the cliff and pant awhile And gradually as I went on a warmth of courage breathed in me to think that perhaps no other had dared to try that pass before me and to wonder what mother would say to it And then came thought of my father also and the pain of my feet abated
How I went carefully step by step keeping my arms in front of me and never daring to straighten my knees is more than I can tell clearly or even like now to think of because it makes me dream of it Only I must acknowledge that the greatest danger of all was just where I saw no jeopardy but ran up a patch of black oozeweed in a very boastful manner being now not far from the summit
Here I fell very piteously and was like to have broken my kneecap and the torrent got hold of my other leg while I was indulging the bruised one And then a vile knotting of cramp disabled me and for awhile I could only roar till my mouth was full of water and all of my body was sliding But the fright of that brought me to again and my elbow caught in a rockhole and so I managed to start again with the help of more humility
Now being in the most dreadful fright because I was so near the top and hope was beating within me I laboured hard with both legs and arms going like a mill and grunting At last the rush of forked water where first it came over the lips of the fall drove me into the middle and I stuck awhile with my toeballs on the slippery links of the popweed and the world was green and gliddery and I durst not look behind me Then I made up my mind to die at last for so my legs would ache no more and my breath not pain my heart so only it did seem such a pity after fighting so long to give in and the light was coming upon me and again I fought towards it then suddenly I felt fresh air and fell into it headlong
CHAPTER VIII
A BOY AND A GIRL When I came to myself again my hands were full of young grass and mould and a little girl kneeling at my side was rubbing my forehead tenderly with a dockleaf and a handkerchief
Oh I am so glad she whispered softly as I opened my eyes and looked at her now you will try to be better wont you
I had never heard so sweet a sound as came from between her bright red lips while there she knelt and gazed at me neither had I ever seen anything so beautiful as the large dark eyes intent upon me full of pity and wonder And then my nature being slow and perhaps for that matter heavy I wandered with my hazy eyes down the black shower of her hair as to my jaded gaze it seemed and where it fell on the turf among it like an early star was the first primrose of the season And since that day I think of her through all the rough storms of my life when I see an early primrose Perhaps she liked my countenance and indeed I know she did because she said so afterwards although at the time she was too young to know what made her take to me Not that I had any beauty or ever pretended to have any only a solid healthy face which many girls have laughed at
Thereupon I sate upright with my little trident still in one hand and was much afraid to speak to her being conscious of my countrybrogue lest she should cease to like me But she clapped her hands and made a trifling dance around my back and came to me on the other side as if I were a great plaything
What is your name she said as if she had every right to ask me and how did you come here and what are these wet things in this great bag
You had better let them alone I said they are loaches for my mother But I will give you some if you like
Dear me how much you think of them Why they are only fish But how your feet are bleeding oh I must tie them up for you And no shoes nor stockings Is your mother very poor poor boy
No I said being vexed at this we are rich enough to buy all this great meadow if we chose and here my shoes and stockings be
Why they are quite as wet as your feet and I cannot bear to see your feet Oh please to let me manage them I will do it very softly
Oh I dont think much of that I replied I shall put some goosegrease to them But how you are looking at me I never saw any one like you before My name is John Ridd What is your name
Lorna Doone she answered in a low voice as if afraid of it and hanging her head so that I could see only her forehead and eyelashes if you please my name is Lorna Doone and I thought you must have known it
Then I stood up and touched her hand and tried to make her look at me but she only turned away the more Young and harmless as she was her name alone made guilt of her Nevertheless I could not help looking at her tenderly and the more when her blushes turned into tears and her tears to long low sobs
Dont cry I said whatever you do I am sure you have never done any harm I will give you all my fish Lorna and catch some more for mother only dont be angry with me
She flung her little soft arms up in the passion of her tears and looked at me so piteously that what did I do but kiss her It seemed to be a very odd thing when I came to think of it because I hated kissing so as all honest boys must do But she touched my heart with a sudden delight like a cowslipblossom although there were none to be seen yet and the sweetest flowers of spring
She gave me no encouragement as my mother in her place would have done nay she even wiped her lips which methought was rather rude of her and drew away and smoothed her dress as if I had used a freedom Then I felt my cheeks grow burning red and I gazed at my legs and was sorry For although she was not at all a proud child at any rate in her countenance yet I knew that she was by birth a thousand years in front of me They might have taken and framed me or which would be more to the purpose my sisters until it was time for us to die and then have trained our children after us for many generations yet never could we have gotten that look upon our faces which Lorna Doone had naturally as if she had been born to it
Here was I a yeomans boy a yeoman every inch of me even where I was naked and there was she a lady born and thoroughly aware of it and dressed by people of rank and taste who took pride in her beauty and set it to advantage For though her hair was fallen down by reason of her wildness and some of her frock was touched with wet where she had tended me so behold her dress was pretty enough for the queen of all the angels The colours were bright and rich indeed and the substance very sumptuous yet simple and free from tinsel stuff and matching most harmoniously All from her waist to her neck was white plaited in close like a curtain and the dark soft weeping of her hair and the shadowy light of her eyes like a wood rayed through with sunset made it seem yet whiter as if it were done on purpose As for the rest she knew what it was a great deal better than I did for I never could look far away from her eyes when they were opened upon me
Now seeing how I heeded her and feeling that I had kissed her although she was such a little girl eight years old or thereabouts she turned to the stream in a bashful manner and began to watch the water and rubbed one leg against the other
I for my part being vexed at her behaviour to me took up all my things to go and made a fuss about it to let her know I was going But she did not call me back at all as I had made sure she would do moreover I knew that to try the descent was almost certain death to me and it looked as dark as pitch and so at the mouth I turned round again and came back to her and said Lorna
Oh I thought you were gone she answered why did you ever come here Do you know what they would do to us if they found you here with me
Beat us I dare say very hard or me at least They could never beat you
No They would kill us both outright and bury us here by the water and the water often tells me that I must come to that
But what should they kill me for
Because you have found the way up here and they never could believe it Now please to go oh please to go They will kill us both in a moment Yes I like you very much—for I was teasing her to say it—very much indeed and I will call you John Ridd if you like only please to go John And when your feet are well you know you can come and tell me how they are
But I tell you Lorna I like you very much indeed—nearly as much as Annie and a great deal more than Lizzie And I never saw any one like you and I must come back again tomorrow and so must you to see me and I will bring you such lots of things—there are apples still and a thrush I caught with only one leg broken and our dog has just had puppies—
Oh dear they wont let me have a dog There is not a dog in the valley They say they are such noisy things—
Only put your hand in mine—what little things they are Lorna And I will bring you the loveliest dog I will show you just how long he is
Hush A shout came down the valley and all my heart was trembling like water after sunset and Lornas face was altered from pleasant play to terror She shrank to me and looked up at me with such a power of weakness that I at once made up my mind to save her or to die with her A tingle went through all my bones and I only longed for my carbine The little girl took courage from me and put her cheek quite close to mine
Come with me down the waterfall I can carry you easily and mother will take care of you
No no she cried as I took her up I will tell you what to do They are only looking for me You see that hole that hole there
She pointed to a little niche in the rock which verged the meadow about fifty yards away from us In the fading of the twilight I could just descry it
Yes I see it but they will see me crossing the grass to get there
Look look She could hardly speak There is a way out from the top of it they would kill me if I told it Oh here they come I can see them
The little maid turned as white as the snow which hung on the rocks above her and she looked at the water and then at me and she cried Oh dear oh dear And then she began to sob aloud being so young and unready But I drew her behind the withybushes and close down to the water where it was quiet and shelving deep ere it came to the lip of the chasm Here they could not see either of us from the upper valley and might have sought a long time for us even when they came quite near if the trees had been clad with their summer clothes Luckily I had picked up my fish and taken my threepronged fork away
Crouching in that hollow nest as children get together in ever so little compass I saw a dozen fierce men come down on the other side of the water not bearing any firearms but looking lax and jovial as if they were come from riding and a dinner taken hungrily Queen queen they were shouting here and there and now and then where the pest is our little queen gone
They always call me queen and I am to be queen byandby Lorna whispered to me with her soft cheek on my rough one and her little heart beating against me oh they are crossing by the timber there and then they are sure to see us
Stop said I now I see what to do I must get into the water and you must go to sleep
To be sure yes away in the meadow there But how bitter cold it will be for you
She saw in a moment the way to do it sooner than I could tell her and there was no time to lose
Now mind you never come again she whispered over her shoulder as she crept away with a childish twist hiding her white front from me only I shall come sometimes—oh here they are Madonna
Daring scarce to peep I crept into the water and lay down bodily in it with my head between two blocks of stone and some flooddrift combing over me The dusk was deepening between the hills and a white mist lay on the river but I being in the channel of it could see every ripple and twig and rush and glazing of twilight above it as bright as in a picture so that to my ignorance there seemed no chance at all but what the men must find me For all this time they were shouting and swearing and keeping such a hullabaloo that the rocks all round the valley rang and my heart quaked so what with this and the cold that the water began to gurgle round me and to lap upon the pebbles
Neither in truth did I try to stop it being now so desperate between the fear and the wretchedness till I caught a glimpse of the little maid whose beauty and whose kindliness had made me yearn to be with her And then I knew that for her sake I was bound to be brave and hide myself She was lying beneath a rock thirty or forty yards from me feigning to be fast asleep with her dress spread beautifully and her hair drawn over her
Presently one of the great rough men came round a corner upon her and there he stopped and gazed awhile at her fairness and her innocence Then he caught her up in his arms and kissed her so that I heard him and if I had only brought my gun I would have tried to shoot him
Here our queen is Heres the queen heres the captains daughter he shouted to his comrades fast asleep by God and hearty Now I have first claim to her and no one else shall touch the child Back to the bottle all of you
He set her dainty little form upon his great square shoulder and her narrow feet in one broad hand and so in triumph marched away with the purple velvet of her skirt ruffling in his long black beard and the silken length of her hair fetched out like a cloud by the wind behind her This way of her going vexed me so that I leaped upright in the water and must have been spied by some of them but for their haste to the winebottle Of their little queen they took small notice being in this urgency although they had thought to find her drowned but trooped away after one another with kindly challenge to gambling so far as I could make them out and I kept sharp watch I assure you
Going up that darkened glen little Lorna riding still the largest and most fierce of them turned and put up a hand to me and I put up a hand to her in the thick of the mist and the willows
She was gone my little dear though tall of her age and healthy and when I got over my thriftless fright I longed to have more to say to her Her voice to me was so different from all I had ever heard before as might be a sweet silver bell intoned to the small chords of a harp But I had no time to think about this if I hoped to have any supper
I crept into a bush for warmth and rubbed my shivering legs on bark and longed for mothers fagot Then as daylight sank below the forgetmenot of stars with a sorrow to be quit I knew that now must be my time to get away if there were any
Therefore wringing my sodden breaches I managed to crawl from the bank to the niche in the cliff which Lorna had shown me
Through the dusk I had trouble to see the mouth at even the five landyards of distance nevertheless I entered well and held on by some dead fernstems and did hope that no one would shoot me
But while I was hugging myself like this with a boyish manner of reasoning my joy was like to have ended in sad grief both to myself and my mother and haply to all honest folk who shall love to read this history For hearing a noise in front of me and like a coward not knowing where but afraid to turn round or think of it I felt myself going down some deep passage into a pit of darkness It was no good to catch the sides the whole thing seemed to go with me Then without knowing how I was leaning over a night of water
This water was of black radiance as are certain diamonds spanned across with vaults of rock and carrying no image neither showing marge nor end but centred at it might be with a bottomless indrawal
With that chill and dread upon me and the sheer rock all around and the faint light heaving wavily on the silence of this gulf I must have lost my wits and gone to the bottom if there were any
But suddenly a robin sang as they will do after dark towards spring in the brown fern and ivy behind me I took it for our little Annies voice for she could call any robin and gathering quick warm comfort sprang up the steep way towards the starlight Climbing back as the stones glid down I heard the cold greedy wave go japping like a blind black dog into the distance of arches and hollow depths of darkness
CHAPTER IX
THERE IS NO PLACE LIKE HOME
I can assure you and tell no lie as John Fry always used to say when telling his very largest that I scrambled back to the mouth of that pit as if the evil one had been after me And sorely I repented now of all my boyish folly or madness it might well be termed in venturing with none to help and nothing to compel me into that accursed valley Once let me get out thinks I and if ever I get in again without being cast in by neck and by crop I will give our newborn donkey leave to set up for my schoolmaster
How I kept that resolution we shall see hereafter It is enough for me now to tell how I escaped from the den that night First I sat down in the little opening which Lorna had pointed out to me and wondered whether she had meant as bitterly occurred to me that I should run down into the pit and be drowned and give no more trouble But in less than half a minute I was ashamed of that idea and remembered how she was vexed to think that even a loach should lose his life And then I said to myself Now surely she would value me more than a thousand loaches and what she said must be quite true about the way out of this horrible place
Therefore I began to search with the utmost care and diligence although my teeth were chattering and all my bones beginning to ache with the chilliness and the wetness Before very long the moon appeared over the edge of the mountain and among the trees at the top of it and then I espied rough steps and rocky made as if with a sledgehammer narrow steep and far asunder scooped here and there in the side of the entrance and then round a bulge of the cliff like the marks upon a great brown loaf where a hungry child has picked at it And higher up where the light of the moon shone broader upon the precipice there seemed to be a rude broken track like the shadow of a crooked stick thrown upon a housewall
Herein was small encouragement and at first I was minded to lie down and die but it seemed to come amiss to me God has His time for all of us but He seems to advertise us when He does not mean to do it Moreover I saw a movement of lights at the head of the valley as if lanthorns were coming after me and the nimbleness given thereon to my heels was in front of all meditation
Straightway I set foot in the lowest stirrup as I might almost call it and clung to the rock with my nails and worked to make a jump into the second stirrup And I compassed that too with the aid of my stick although to tell you the truth I was not at that time of life so agile as boys of smaller frame are for my size was growing beyond my years and the muscles not keeping time with it and the joints of my bones not closely hinged with staring at one another But the third stephole was the hardest of all and the rock swelled out on me over my breast and there seemed to be no attempting it until I espied a good stout rope hanging in a groove of shadow and just managed to reach the end of it
How I clomb up and across the clearing and found my way home through the Bagworthy forest is more than I can remember now for I took all the rest of it then as a dream by reason of perfect weariness And indeed it was quite beyond my hopes to tell so much as I have told for at first beginning to set it down it was all like a mist before me Nevertheless some parts grew clearer as one by one I remembered them having taken a little soft cordial because the memory frightens me
For the toil of the water and danger of labouring up the long cascade or rapids and then the surprise of the fair young maid and terror of the murderers and desperation of getting away—all these are much to me even now when I am a stout churchwarden and sit by the side of my fire after going through many far worse adventures which I will tell God willing Only the labour of writing is such especially so as to construe and challenge a reader on parts of speech and hope to be even with him that by this pipe which I hold in my hand I ever expect to be beaten as in the days when old Doctor Twiggs if I made a bad stroke in my exercise shouted aloud with a sour joy John Ridd sirrah down with your smallclothes
Let that be as it may I deserved a good beating that night after making such a fool of myself and grinding good fustian to pieces But when I got home all the supper was in and the men sitting at the white table and mother and Annie and Lizzie near by all eager and offering to begin except indeed my mother who was looking out at the doorway and by the fire was Betty Muxworthy scolding and cooking and tasting her work all in a breath as a man would say I looked through the door from the dark by the woodstack and was half of a mind to stay out like a dog for fear of the rating and reckoning but the way my dear mother was looking about and the browning of the sausages got the better of me
But nobody could get out of me where I had been all the day and evening although they worried me never so much and longed to shake me to pieces especially Betty Muxworthy who never could learn to let well alone Not that they made me tell any lies although it would have served them right almost for intruding on other peoples business but that I just held my tongue and ate my supper rarely and let them try their taunts and jibes and drove them almost wild after supper by smiling exceeding knowingly And indeed I could have told them things as I hinted once or twice and then poor Betty and our little Lizzie were so mad with eagerness that between them I went into the fire being thoroughly overcome with laughter and my own importance
Now what the working of my mind was if indeed it worked at all and did not rather follow suit of body it is not in my power to say only that the result of my adventure in the Doone Glen was to make me dream a good deal of nights which I had never done much before and to drive me with tenfold zeal and purpose to the practice of bulletshooting Not that I ever expected to shoot the Doone family one by one or even desired to do so for my nature is not revengeful but that it seemed to be somehow my business to understand the gun as a thing I must be at home with
I could hit the barndoor now capitally well with the Spanish matchlock and even with John Frys blunderbuss at ten good landyards distance without any rest for my fusil And what was very wrong of me though I did not see it then I kept John Fry there to praise my shots from dinnertime often until the grey dusk while he all the time should have been at work springploughing upon the farm And for that matter so should I have been or at any rate driving the horses but John was by no means loath to be there instead of holding the ploughtail And indeed one of our old sayings is—
For pleasures sake I would liefer wet Than ha ten lumps of gold for each one of my sweat
And again which is not a bad proverb though unthrifty and unlike a Scotsmans—
God makes the wheat grow greener While farmer be at his dinner
And no Devonshire man or Somerset either and I belong to both of them ever thinks of working harder than God likes to see him
Nevertheless I worked hard at the gun and by the time that I had sent all the churchroof gutters so far as I honestly could cut them through the red pinedoor I began to long for a better tool that would make less noise and throw straighter But the sheepshearing came and the hayseason next and then the harvest of small corn and the digging of the root called batata a new but good thing in our neighbourhood which our folk have made into taties and then the sweating of the apples and the turning of the ciderpress and the stacking of the firewood and netting of the woodcocks and the springles to be minded in the garden and by the hedgerows where blackbirds hop to the molehills in the white October mornings and grey birds come to look for snails at the time when the sun is rising
It is wonderful how time runs away when all these things and a great many others come in to load him down the hill and prevent him from stopping to look about And I for my part can never conceive how people who live in towns and cities where neither lambs nor birds are except in some shop windows nor growing corn nor meadowgrass nor even so much as a stick to cut or a stile to climb and sit down upon—how these poor folk get through their lives without being utterly weary of them and dying from pure indolence is a thing God only knows if His mercy allows Him to think of it
How the year went by I know not only that I was abroad all day shooting or fishing or minding the farm or riding after some stray beast or away by the seaside below Glenthorne wondering at the great waters and resolving to go for a sailor For in those days I had a firm belief as many other strong boys have of being born for a seaman And indeed I had been in a boat nearly twice but the second time mother found it out and came and drew me back again and after that she cried so badly that I was forced to give my word to her to go no more without telling her
But Betty Muxworthy spoke her mind quite in a different way about it the while she was wringing my hosen and clattering to the dryinghorse
Zailor ees fai ay and zarve un raight Her cant kape out o the watter here whur a must goo vor to vaind un zame as a gurt toad squalloping and mux up till I be wore out I be wi the very saight of s braiches How wil un ever baide aboard zhip wi the watter zinging out under un and comin up splash when the wind blow Latt un goo missus latt un goo zay I for wan and old Davy wash his clouts for un
And this discourse of Bettys tended more than my mothers prayers I fear to keep me from going For I hated Betty in those days as children always hate a cross servant and often get fond of a false one But Betty like many active women was false by her crossness only thinking it just for the moment perhaps and rushing away with a bucket ready to stick to it like a clenched nail if beaten the wrong way with argument but melting over it if you left her as stinging soap left along in a basin spreads all abroad without bubbling
But all this is beyond the children and beyond me too for that matter even now in ripe experience for I never did know what women mean and never shall except when they tell me if that be in their power Now let that question pass For although I am now in a place of some authority I have observed that no one ever listens to me when I attempt to lay down the law but all are waiting with open ears until I do enforce it And so methinks he who reads a history cares not much for the wisdom or folly of the writer knowing well that the former is far less than his own and the latter vastly greater but hurries to know what the people did and how they got on about it And this I can tell if any one can having been myself in the thick of it
The fright I had taken that night in Glen Doone satisfied me for a long time thereafter and I took good care not to venture even in the fields and woods of the outer farm without John Fry for company John was greatly surprised and pleased at the value I now set upon him until what betwixt the desire to vaunt and the longing to talk things over I gradually laid bare to him nearly all that had befallen me except indeed about Lorna whom a sort of shame kept me from mentioning Not that I did not think of her and wish very often to see her again but of course I was only a boy as yet and therefore inclined to despise young girls as being unable to do anything and only meant to listen to orders And when I got along with the other boys that was how we always spoke of them if we deigned to speak at all as beings of a lower order only good enough to run errands for us and to nurse boybabies
And yet my sister Annie was in truth a great deal more to me than all the boys of the parish and of Brendon and Countisbury put together although at the time I never dreamed it and would have laughed if told so Annie was of a pleasing face and very gentle manner almost like a lady some people said but without any airs whatever only trying to give satisfaction And if she failed she would go and weep without letting any one know it believing the fault to be all her own when mostly it was of others But if she succeeded in pleasing you it was beautiful to see her smile and stroke her soft chin in a way of her own which she always used when taking note how to do the right thing again for you And then her cheeks had a bright clear pink and her eyes were as blue as the sky in spring and she stood as upright as a young appletree and no one could help but smile at her and pat her brown curls approvingly whereupon she always curtseyed For she never tried to look away when honest people gazed at her and even in the courtyard she would come and help to take your saddle and tell without your asking her what there was for dinner
And afterwards she grew up to be a very comely maiden tall and with a wellbuilt neck and very fair white shoulders under a bright cloud of curling hair Alas poor Annie like most of the gentle maidens—but tush I am not come to that yet and for the present she seemed to me little to look at after the beauty of Lorna Doone
CHAPTER X
A BRAVE RESCUE AND A ROUGH RIDE
It happened upon a November evening when I was about fifteen years old and outgrowing my strength very rapidly my sister Annie being turned thirteen and a deal of rain having fallen and all the troughs in the yard being flooded and the bark from the woodricks washed down the gutters and even our watershoot going brown that the ducks in the court made a terrible quacking instead of marching off to their pen one behind another Thereupon Annie and I ran out to see what might be the sense of it There were thirteen ducks and ten lilywhite as the fashion then of ducks was not I mean twentythree in all but ten white and three brownstriped ones and without being nice about their colour they all quacked very movingly They pushed their goldcoloured bills here and there yet dirty as gold is apt to be and they jumped on the triangles of their feet and sounded out of their nostrils and some of the overexcited ones ran along low on the ground quacking grievously with their bills snapping and bending and the roof of their mouths exhibited
Annie began to cry Dilly dilly einy einy ducksey according to the burden of a tune they seem to have accepted as the national ducks anthem but instead of being soothed by it they only quacked three times as hard and ran round till we were giddy And then they shook their tails together and looked grave and went round and round again Now I am uncommonly fond of ducks both roasted and roasting and roystering and it is a fine sight to behold them walk poddling one after other with their toes out like soldiers drilling and their little eyes cocked all ways at once and the way that they dib with their bills and dabble and throw up their heads and enjoy something and then tell the others about it Therefore I knew at once by the way they were carrying on that there must be something or other gone wholly amiss in the duckworld Sister Annie perceived it too but with a greater quickness for she counted them like a good duckwife and could only tell thirteen of them when she knew there ought to be fourteen
And so we began to search about and the ducks ran to lead us aright having come that far to fetch us and when we got down to the foot of the courtyard where the two great ashtrees stand by the side of the little water we found good reason for the urgence and melancholy of the duckbirds Lo the old white drake the father of all a bird of high manners and chivalry always the last to help himself from the pan of barleymeal and the first to show fight to a dog or cock intruding upon his family this fine fellow and pillar of the state was now in a sad predicament yet quacking very stoutly For the brook wherewith he had been familiar from his callow childhood and wherein he was wont to quest for waternewts and tadpoles and caddisworms and other game this brook which afforded him very often scanty space to dabble in and sometimes starved the cresses was now coming down in a great brown flood as if the banks never belonged to it The foaming of it and the noise and the cresting of the corners and the up and down like a wave of the sea were enough to frighten any duck though bred upon stormy waters which our ducks never had been
There is always a hurdle six feet long and four and a half in depth swung by a chain at either end from an oak laid across the channel And the use of this hurdle is to keep our kine at milking time from straying away there drinking for in truth they are very dainty and to fence strange cattle or Farmer Snowes horses from coming along the bed of the brook unknown to steal our substance But now this hurdle which hung in the summer a foot above the trickle would have been dipped more than two feet deep but for the power against it For the torrent came down so vehemently that the chains at full stretch were creaking and the hurdle buffeted almost flat and thatched so to say with the driftstuff was going seesaw with a sulky splash on the dirty red comb of the waters But saddest to see was between two bars where a fog was of rushes and floodwood and wildcelery haulm and dead crowsfoot who but our venerable mallard jammed in by the joint of his shoulder speaking aloud as he rose and fell with his topknot full of water unable to comprehend it with his tail washed far away from him but often compelled to be silent being ducked very harshly against his will by the choking fallto of the hurdle
For a moment I could not help laughing because being borne up high and dry by a tumult of the torrent he gave me a look from his one little eye having lost one in fight with the turkeycock a gaze of appealing sorrow and then a loud quack to second it But the quack came out of time I suppose for his throat got filled with water as the hurdle carried him back again And then there was scarcely the screw of his tail to be seen until he swung up again and left small doubt by the way he sputtered and failed to quack and hung down his poor crest but what he must drown in another minute and frogs triumph over his body
Annie was crying and wringing her hands and I was about to rush into the water although I liked not the look of it but hoped to hold on by the hurdle when a man on horseback came suddenly round the corner of the great ashhedge on the other side of the stream and his horses feet were in the water
Ho there he cried get thee back boy The flood will carry thee down like a straw I will do it for thee and no trouble
With that he leaned forward and spoke to his mare—she was just of the tint of a strawberry a young thing very beautiful—and she arched up her neck as misliking the job yet trusting him would attempt it She entered the flood with her dainty forelegs sloped further and further in front of her and her delicate ears pricked forward and the size of her great eyes increasing but he kept her straight in the turbid rush by the pressure of his knee on her Then she looked back and wondered at him as the force of the torrent grew stronger but he bade her go on and on she went and it foamed up over her shoulders and she tossed up her lip and scorned it for now her courage was waking Then as the rush of it swept her away and she struck with her forefeet down the stream he leaned from his saddle in a manner which I never could have thought possible and caught up old Tom with his left hand and set him between his holsters and smiled at his faint quack of gratitude In a moment all these were carried downstream and the rider lay flat on his horse and tossed the hurdle clear from him and made for the bend of smooth water
They landed some thirty or forty yards lower in the midst of our kitchengarden where the wintercabbage was but though Annie and I crept in through the hedge and were full of our thanks and admiring him he would answer us never a word until he had spoken in full to the mare as if explaining the whole to her
Sweetheart I know thou couldst have leaped it he said as he patted her cheek being on the ground by this time and she was nudging up to him with the water pattering off her but I had good reason Winnie dear for making thee go through it
She answered him kindly with her soft eyes and smiled at him very lovingly and they understood one another Then he took from his waistcoat two peppercorns and made the old drake swallow them and tried him softly upon his legs where the leading gap in the hedge was Old Tom stood up quite bravely and clapped his wings and shook off the wet from his tailfeathers and then away into the courtyard and his family gathered around him and they all made a noise in their throats and stood up and put their bills together to thank God for this great deliverance
Having taken all this trouble and watched the end of that adventure the gentleman turned round to us with a pleasant smile on his face as if he were lightly amused with himself and we came up and looked at him He was rather short about John Frys height or may be a little taller but very strongly built and springy as his gait at every step showed plainly although his legs were bowed with much riding and he looked as if he lived on horseback To a boy like me he seemed very old being over twenty and wellfound in beard but he was not more than fourandtwenty fresh and ruddy looking with a short nose and keen blue eyes and a merry waggish jerk about him as if the world were not in earnest Yet he had a sharp stern way like the crack of a pistol if anything misliked him and we knew for children see such things that it was safer to tickle than buffet him
Well young uns what be gaping at He gave pretty Annie a chuck on the chin and took me all in without winking
Your mare said I standing stoutly up being a tall boy now I never saw such a beauty sir Will you let me have a ride of her
Think thou couldst ride her lad She will have no burden but mine Thou couldst never ride her Tut I would be loath to kill thee
Ride her I cried with the bravest scorn for she looked so kind and gentle there never was horse upon Exmoor foaled but I could tackle in half an hour Only I never ride upon saddle Take them leathers off of her
He looked at me with a dry little whistle and thrust his hands into his breechespockets and so grinned that I could not stand it And Annie laid hold of me in such a way that I was almost mad with her And he laughed and approved her for doing so And the worst of all was—he said nothing
Get away Annie will you Do you think Im a fool good sir Only trust me with her and I will not override her
For that I will go bail my son She is liker to override thee But the ground is soft to fall upon after all this rain Now come out into the yard young man for the sake of your mothers cabbages And the mellow strawbed will be softer for thee since pride must have its fall I am thy mothers cousin boy and am going up to house Tom Faggus is my name as everybody knows and this is my young mare Winnie
What a fool I must have been not to know it at once Tom Faggus the great highwayman and his young bloodmare the strawberry Already her fame was noised abroad nearly as much as her masters and my longing to ride her grew tenfold but fear came at the back of it Not that I had the smallest fear of what the mare could do to me by fair play and horsetrickery but that the glory of sitting upon her seemed to be too great for me especially as there were rumours abroad that she was not a mare after all but a witch However she looked like a filly all over and wonderfully beautiful with her supple stride and soft slope of shoulder and glossy coat beaded with water and prominent eyes full of docile fire Whether this came from her Eastern blood of the Arabs newly imported and whether the creamcolour mixed with our bay led to that bright strawberry tint is certainly more than I can decide being chiefly acquaint with farmhorses And these come of any colour and form you never can count what they will be and are lucky to get four legs to them
Mr Faggus gave his mare a wink and she walked demurely after him a bright young thing flowing over with life yet dropping her soul to a higher one and led by love to anything as the manner is of females when they know what is the best for them Then Winnie trod lightly upon the straw because it had soft muck under it and her delicate feet came back again
Up for it still boy be ye Tom Faggus stopped and the mare stopped there and they looked at me provokingly
Is she able to leap sir There is good takeoff on this side of the brook
Mr Faggus laughed very quietly turning round to Winnie so that she might enter into it And she for her part seemed to know exactly where the fun lay
Good tumbleoff you mean my boy Well there can be small harm to thee I am akin to thy family and know the substance of their skulls
Let me get up said I waxing wroth for reasons I cannot tell you because they are too manifold take off your saddlebag things I will try not to squeeze her ribs in unless she plays nonsense with me
Then Mr Faggus was up on his mettle at this proud speech of mine and John Fry was running up all the while and Bill Dadds and half a dozen Tom Faggus gave one glance around and then dropped all regard for me The high repute of his mare was at stake and what was my life compared to it Through my defiance and stupid ways here was I in a duello and my legs not come to their strength yet and my arms as limp as a herring
Something of this occurred to him even in his wrath with me for he spoke very softly to the filly who now could scarce subdue herself but she drew in her nostrils and breathed to his breath and did all she could to answer him
Not too hard my dear he said led him gently down on the mixen That will be quite enough Then he turned the saddle off and I was up in a moment She began at first so easily and pricked her ears so lovingly and minced about as if pleased to find so light a weight upon her that I thought she knew I could ride a little and feared to show any capers Gee wug Polly cried I for all the men were now looking on being then at the leavingoff time Gee wug Polly and show what thou beest made of With that I plugged my heels into her and Billy Dadds flung his hat up
Nevertheless she outraged not though her eyes were frightening Annie and John Fry took a pick to keep him safe but she curbed to and fro with her strong forearms rising like springs ingathered waiting and quivering grievously and beginning to sweat about it Then her master gave a shrill clear whistle when her ears were bent towards him and I felt her form beneath me gathering up like whalebone and her hindlegs coming under her and I knew that I was in for it
First she reared upright in the air and struck me full on the nose with her comb till I bled worse than Robin Snell made me and then down with her forefeet deep in the straw and her hindfeet going to heaven Finding me stick to her still like wax for my mettle was up as hers was away she flew with me swifter than ever I went before or since I trow She drove fullhead at the cobwall—Oh Jack slip off screamed Annie—then she turned like light when I thought to crush her and ground my left knee against it Mux me I cried for my breeches were broken and short words went the furthest—if you kill me you shall die with me Then she took the courtyard gate at a leap knocking my words between my teeth and then right over a quick set hedge as if the sky were a breath to her and away for the watermeadows while I lay on her neck like a child at the breast and wished I had never been born Straight away all in the front of the wind and scattering clouds around her all I knew of the speed we made was the frightful flash of her shoulders and her mane like trees in a tempest I felt the earth under us rushing away and the air left far behind us and my breath came and went and I prayed to God and was sorry to be so late of it
All the long swift while without power of thought I clung to her crest and shoulders and dug my nails into her creases and my toes into her flankpart and was proud of holding on so long though sure of being beaten Then in her fury at feeling me still she rushed at another device for it and leaped the wide watertrough sideways across to and fro till no breath was left in me The hazelboughs took me too hard in the face and the tall dogbriers got hold of me and the ache of my back was like crimping a fish till I longed to give up thoroughly beaten and lie there and die in the cresses But there came a shrill whistle from up the homehill where the people had hurried to watch us and the mare stopped as if with a bullet then set off for home with the speed of a swallow and going as smoothly and silently I never had dreamed of such delicate motion fluent and graceful and ambient soft as the breeze flitting over the flowers but swift as the summer lightning I sat up again but my strength was all spent and no time left to recover it and though she rose at our gate like a bird I tumbled off into the mixen
CHAPTER XI
TOM DESERVES HIS SUPPER
Well done lad Mr Faggus said good naturedly for all were now gathered round me as I rose from the ground somewhat tottering and miry and crestfallen but otherwise none the worse having fallen upon my head which is of uncommon substance nevertheless John Fry was laughing so that I longed to clout his ears for him Not at all bad work my boy we may teach you to ride byandby I see I thought not to see you stick on so long—
I should have stuck on much longer sir if her sides had not been wet She was so slippery—
Boy thou art right She hath given many the slip Ha ha Vex not Jack that I laugh at thee She is like a sweetheart to me and better than any of them be It would have gone to my heart if thou hadst conquered None but I can ride my Winnie mare
Foul shame to thee then Tom Faggus cried mother coming up suddenly and speaking so that all were amazed having never seen her wrathful to put my boy my boy across her as if his life were no more than thine The only son of his father an honest man and a quiet man not a roystering drunken robber A man would have taken thy mad horse and thee and flung them both into horsepond—ay and whats more Ill have it done now if a hair of his head is injured Oh my boy my boy What could I do without thee Put up the other arm Johnny All the time mother was scolding so she was feeling me and wiping me while Faggus tried to look greatly ashamed having sense of the ways of women
Only look at his jacket mother cried Annie and a shillingsworth gone from his smallclothes
What care I for his clothes thou goose Take that and heed thine own a bit And mother gave Annie a slap which sent her swinging up against Mr Faggus and he caught her and kissed and protected her and she looked at him very nicely with great tears in her soft blue eyes Oh fie upon thee fie upon thee cried mother being yet more vexed with him because she had beaten Annie after all we have done for thee and saved thy worthless neck—and to try to kill my son for me Never more shall horse of thine enter stable here since these be thy returns to me Small thanks to you John Fry I say and you Bill Dadds and you Jem Slocomb and all the rest of your coward lot much you care for your masters son Afraid of that ugly beast yourselves and you put a boy just breeched upon him
Wull missus what could us do began John Jan wudd goo now wuddt her Jem And how was us—
Jan indeed Master John if you please to a lad of his years and stature And now Tom Faggus be off if you please and think yourself lucky to go so and if ever that horse comes into our yard Ill hamstring him myself if none of my cowards dare do it
Everybody looked at mother to hear her talk like that knowing how quiet she was day by day and how pleasant to be cheated And the men began to shoulder their shovels both so as to be away from her and to go and tell their wives of it Winnie too was looking at her being pointed at so much and wondering if she had done amiss And then she came to me and trembled and stooped her head and asked my pardon if she had been too proud with me
Winnie shall stop here tonight said I for Tom Faggus still said never a word all the while but began to buckle his things on for he knew that women are to be met with wool as the cannonballs were at the siege of Tiverton Castle mother I tell you Winnie shall stop else I will go away with her I never knew what it was till now to ride a horse worth riding
Young man said Tom Faggus still preparing sternly to depart you know more about a horse than any man on Exmoor Your mother may well be proud of you but she need have had no fear As if I Tom Faggus your fathers cousin—and the only thing I am proud of—would ever have let you mount my mare which dukes and princes have vainly sought except for the courage in your eyes and the look of your father about you I knew you could ride when I saw you and rarely you have conquered But women dont understand us Goodbye John I am proud of you and I hoped to have done you pleasure And indeed I came full of some courtly tales that would have made your hair stand up But though not a crust have I tasted since this time yesterday having given my meat to a widow I will go and starve on the moor far sooner than eat the best supper that ever was cooked in a place that has forgotten me With that he fetched a heavy sigh as if it had been for my father and feebly got upon Winnies back and she came to say farewell to me He lifted his hat to my mother with a glance of sorrow but never a word and to me he said Open the gate Cousin John if you please You have beaten her so that she cannot leap it poor thing
But before he was truly gone out of our yard my mother came softly after him with her afternoon apron across her eyes and one hand ready to offer him Nevertheless he made as if he had not seen her though he let his horse go slowly
Stop Cousin Tom my mother said a word with you before you go
Why bless my heart Tom Faggus cried with the form of his countenance so changed that I verily thought another man must have leaped into his clothes—do I see my Cousin Sarah I thought every one was ashamed of me and afraid to offer me shelter since I lost my best cousin John Ridd Come here he used to say Tom come here when you are worried and my wife shall take good care of you Yes dear John I used to answer I know she promised my mother so but people have taken to think against me and so might Cousin Sarah Ah he was a man a man If you only heard how he answered me But let that go I am nothing now since the day I lost Cousin Ridd And with that he began to push on again but mother would not have it so
Oh Tom that was a loss indeed And I am nothing either And you should try to allow for me though I never found any one that did And mother began to cry though father had been dead so long and I looked on with a stupid surprise having stopped from crying long ago
I can tell you one that will cried Tom jumping off Winnie in a trice and looking kindly at mother I can allow for you Cousin Sarah in everything but one I am in some ways a bad man myself but I know the value of a good one and if you gave me orders by God— And he shook his fists towards Bagworthy Wood just heaving up black in the sundown
Hush Tom hush for Gods sake And mother meant me without pointing at me at least I thought she did For she ever had weaned me from thoughts of revenge and even from longings for judgment God knows best boy she used to say let us wait His time without wishing it And so to tell the truth I did partly through her teaching and partly through my own mild temper and my knowledge that father after all was killed because he had thrashed them
Goodnight Cousin Sarah goodnight Cousin Jack cried Tom taking to the mare again many a mile I have to ride and not a bit inside of me No food or shelter this side of Exeford and the night will be black as pitch I trow But it serves me right for indulging the lad being taken with his looks so
Cousin Tom said mother and trying to get so that Annie and I could not hear her it would be a sad and unkinlike thing for you to despise our dwellinghouse We cannot entertain you as the lordly inns on the road do and we have small change of victuals But the men will go home being Saturday and so you will have the fireside all to yourself and the children There are some few collops of red deers flesh and a ham just down from the chimney and some dried salmon from Lynmouth weir and cold roastpig and some oysters And if none of those be to your liking we could roast two woodcocks in half an hour and Annie would make the toast for them And the good folk made some mistake last week going up the country and left a keg of old Holland cordial in the coving of the woodrick having borrowed our Smiler without asking leave I fear there is something unrighteous about it But what can a poor widow do John Fry would have taken it but for our Jack Our Jack was a little too sharp for him
Ay that I was John Fry had got it like a billet under his apron going away in the gray of the morning as if to kindle his fireplace Why John I said what a heavy log Let me have one end of it Thanke Jan no need of thiccy he answered turning his back to me waife wanteth a log as will last all day to kape the crock a zimmerin And he banged his gate upon my heels to make me stop and rub them Why John said I youm got a log with round holes in the end of it Who has been cutting gunwads Just lift your apron or I will
But to return to Tom Faggus—he stopped to sup that night with us and took a little of everything a few oysters first and then dried salmon and then ham and eggs done in small curled rashers and then a few collops of venison toasted and next to that a little cold roastpig and a woodcock on toast to finish with before the Scheidam and hot water And having changed his wet things first he seemed to be in fair appetite and praised Annies cooking mightily with a kind of noise like a smack of his lips and a rubbing of his hands together whenever he could spare them
He had gotten John Frys best smallclothes on for he said he was not good enough to go into my fathers which mother kept to look at nor man enough to fill them And in truth my mother was very glad that he refused when I offered them But John was overproud to have it in his power to say that such a famous man had ever dwelt in any clothes of his and afterwards he made show of them For Mr Fagguss glory then though not so great as now it is was spreading very fast indeed all about our neighbourhood and even as far as Bridgewater
Tom Faggus was a jovial soul if ever there has been one not making bones of little things nor caring to seek evil There was about him such a love of genuine human nature that if a traveller said a good thing he would give him back his purse again It is true that he took peoples money more by force than fraud and the law being used to the inverse method was bitterly moved against him although he could quote precedent These things I do not understand having seen so much of robbery some legal some illegal that I scarcely know as here we say one crows foot from the other It is beyond me and above me to discuss these subjects and in truth I love the law right well when it doth support me and when I can lay it down to my liking with prejudice to nobody Loyal too to the King am I as behoves churchwarden and ready to make the best of him as he generally requires But after all I could not see until I grew much older and came to have some property why Tom Faggus working hard was called a robber and felon of great while the King doing nothing at all as became his dignity was liegelord and paramount owner with everybody to thank him kindly for accepting tribute
For the present however I learned nothing more as to what our cousins profession was only that mother seemed frightened and whispered to him now and then not to talk of something because of the children being there whereupon he always nodded with a sage expression and applied himself to hollands
Now let us go and see Winnie Jack he said to me after supper for the most part I feed her before myself but she was so hot from the way you drove her Now she must be grieving for me and I never let her grieve long
I was too glad to go with him and Annie came slyly after us The filly was walking to and fro on the naked floor of the stable for he would not let her have any straw until he should make a bed for her and without so much as a headstall on for he would not have her fastened Do you take my mare for a dog he had said when John Fry brought him a halter And now she ran to him like a child and her great eyes shone at the lanthorn
Hit me Jack and see what she will do I will not let her hurt thee He was rubbing her ears all the time he spoke and she was leaning against him Then I made believe to strike him and in a moment she caught me by the waistband and lifted me clean from the ground and was casting me down to trample upon me when he stopped her suddenly
What think you of that boy Have you horse or dog that would do that for you Ay and more than that she will do If I were to whistle byandby in the tone that tells my danger she would break this stabledoor down and rush into the room to me Nothing will keep her from me then stonewall or churchtower Ah Winnie Winnie you little witch we shall die together
Then he turned away with a joke and began to feed her nicely for she was very dainty Not a husk of oat would she touch that had been under the breath of another horse however hungry she might be And with her oats he mixed some powder fetching it from his saddlebags What this was I could not guess neither would he tell me but laughed and called it starshavings He watched her eat every morsel of it with two or three drinks of pure water ministered between whiles and then he made her bed in a form I had never seen before and so we said Goodnight to her
Afterwards by the fireside he kept us very merry sitting in the great chimneycorner and making us play games with him And all the while he was smoking tobacco in a manner I never had seen before not using any pipe for it but having it rolled in little sticks about as long as my finger blunt at one end and sharp at the other The sharp end he would put in his mouth and lay a brand of wood to the other and then draw a white cloud of curling smoke and we never tired of watching him I wanted him to let me do it but he said No my son it is not meant for boys Then Annie put up her lips and asked with both hands on his knees for she had taken to him wonderfully Is it meant for girls then cousin Tom But she had better not have asked for he gave it her to try and she shut both eyes and sucked at it One breath however was quite enough for it made her cough so violently that Lizzie and I must thump her back until she was almost crying To atone for that cousin Tom set to and told us whole pages of stories not about his own doings at all but strangely enough they seemed to concern almost every one else we had ever heard of Without halting once for a word or a deed his tales flowed onward as freely and brightly as the flames of the wood up the chimney and with no smaller variety For he spoke with the voices of twenty people giving each person the proper manner and the proper place to speak from so that Annie and Lizzie ran all about and searched the clock and the linenpress And he changed his face every moment so and with such power of mimicry that without so much as a smile of his own he made even mother laugh so that she broke her new tenpenny waistband and as for us children we rolled on the floor and Betty Muxworthy roared in the washup
CHAPTER XII
A MAN JUSTLY POPULAR
Now although Mr Faggus was so clever and generous and celebrated I know not whether upon the whole we were rather proud of him as a member of our family or inclined to be ashamed of him And indeed I think that the sway of the balance hung upon the company we were in For instance with the boys at Brendon—for there is no village at Oare—I was exceeding proud to talk of him and would freely brag of my Cousin Tom But with the rich parsons of the neighbourhood or the justices who came round now and then and were glad to ride up to a warm farmhouse or even the welltodo tradesmen of Porlock—in a word any settled power which was afraid of losing things—with all of them we were very shy of claiming our kinship to that great outlaw
And sure I should pity as well as condemn him though our ways in the world were so different knowing as I do his story which knowledge methinks would often lead us to let alone Gods prerogative—judgment and hold by mans privilege—pity Not that I would find excuse for Toms downright dishonesty which was beyond doubt a disgrace to him and no credit to his kinsfolk only that it came about without his meaning any harm or seeing how he took to wrong yet gradually knowing it And now to save any further trouble and to meet those who disparage him without allowance for the time or the crosses laid upon him I will tell the history of him just as if he were not my cousin and hoping to be heeded And I defy any man to say that a word of this is either false or in any way coloured by family Much cause he had to be harsh with the world and yet all acknowledged him very pleasant when a man gave up his money And often and often he paid the toll for the carriage coming after him because he had emptied their pockets and would not add inconvenience By trade he had been a blacksmith in the town of Northmolton in Devonshire a rough rude place at the end of Exmoor so that many people marvelled if such a man was bred there Not only could he read and write but he had solid substance a piece of land worth a hundred pounds and right of common for two hundred sheep and a score and a half of beasts lifting up or lying down And being left an orphan with all these cares upon him he began to work right early and made such a fame at the shoeing of horses that the farriers of Barum were like to lose their custom And indeed he won a golden Jacobus for the bestshod nag in the north of Devon and some say that he never was forgiven
As to that I know no more except that men are jealous But whether it were that or not he fell into bitter trouble within a month of his victory when his trade was growing upon him and his sweetheart ready to marry him For he loved a maid of Southmolton a curriers daughter I think she was and her name was Betsy Paramore and her father had given consent and Tom Faggus wishing to look his best and be clean of course had a tailor at work upstairs for him who had come all the way from Exeter And Betsys things were ready too—for which they accused him afterwards as if he could help that—when suddenly like a thunderbolt a lawyers writ fell upon him
This was the beginning of a lawsuit with Sir Robert Bampfylde a gentleman of the neighbourhood who tried to oust him from his common and drove his cattle and harassed them And by that suit of law poor Tom was ruined altogether for Sir Robert could pay for much swearing and then all his goods and his farm were sold up and even his smithery taken But he saddled his horse before they could catch him and rode away to Southmolton looking more like a madman than a good farrier as the people said who saw him But when he arrived there instead of comfort they showed him the face of the door alone for the news of his loss was before him and Master Paramore was a sound prudent man and a high member of the town council It is said that they even gave him notice to pay for Betsys weddingclothes now that he was too poor to marry her This may be false and indeed I doubt it in the first place because Southmolton is a busy place for talking and in the next that I do not think the action would have lain at law especially as the maid lost nothing but used it all for her wedding next month with Dick Vellacott of Mockham
All this was very sore upon Tom and he took it to heart so grievously that he said as a better man might have said being loose of mind and property The world hath preyed on me like a wolf God help me now to prey on the world
And in sooth it did seem for a while as if Providence were with him for he took rare toll on the highway and his name was soon as good as gold anywhere this side of Bristowe He studied his business by night and by day with three horses all in hard work until he had made a fine reputation and then it was competent to him to rest and he had plenty left for charity And I ought to say for society too for he truly loved high society treating squires and noblemen who much affected his company to the very best fare of the hostel And they say that once the Kings Justitiaries being upon circuit accepted his invitation declaring merrily that if never true bill had been found against him mine host should now be qualified to draw one And so the landlords did and he always paid them handsomely so that all of them were kind to him and contended for his visits Let it be known in any township that Mr Faggus was taking his leisure at the inn and straightway all the men flocked thither to drink his health without outlay and all the women to admire him while the children were set at the crossroads to give warning of any officers One of his earliest meetings was with Sir Robert Bampfylde himself who was riding along the Barum road with only one servingman after him Tom Faggus put a pistol to his head being then obliged to be violent through want of reputation while the servingman pretended to be along way round the corner Then the baronet pulled out his purse quite trembling in the hurry of his politeness Tom took the purse and his ring and timepiece and then handed them back with a very low bow saying that it was against all usage for him to rob a robber Then he turned to the unfaithful knave and trounced him right well for his cowardice and stripped him of all his property
But now Mr Faggus kept only one horse lest the Government should steal them and that one was the young mare Winnie How he came by her he never would tell but I think that she was presented to him by a certain Colonel a lover of sport and very clever in horseflesh whose life Tom had saved from some gamblers When I have added that Faggus as yet had never been guilty of bloodshed for his eyes and the click of his pistol at first and now his high reputation made all his wishes respected and that he never robbed a poor man neither insulted a woman but was very good to the Church and of hot patriotic opinions and full of jest and jollity I have said as much as is fair for him and shown why he was so popular Everybody cursed the Doones who lived apart disdainfully But all good people liked Mr Faggus—when he had not robbed them—and many a poor sick man or woman blessed him for other peoples money and all the hostlers stableboys and tapsters entirely worshipped him
I have been rather long and perhaps tedious in my account of him lest at any time hereafter his character should be misunderstood and his good name disparaged whereas he was my second cousin and the lover of my—But let that bide Tis a melancholy story
He came again about three months afterwards in the beginning of the springtime and brought me a beautiful new carbine having learned my love of such things and my great desire to shoot straight But mother would not let me have the gun until he averred upon his honour that he had bought it honestly And so he had no doubt so far as it is honest to buy with money acquired rampantly Scarce could I stop to make my bullets in the mould which came along with it but must be off to the Quarry Hill and new target I had made there And he taught me then how to ride bright Winnie who was grown since I had seen her but remembered me most kindly After making much of Annie who had a wondrous liking for him—and he said he was her godfather but God knows how he could have been unless they confirmed him precociously—away he went and young Winnies sides shone like a cherry by candlelight
Now I feel that of those boyish days I have little more to tell because everything went quietly as the world for the most part does with us I began to work at the farm in earnest and tried to help my mother and when I remembered Lorna Doone it seemed no more than the thought of a dream which I could hardly call to mind Now who cares to know how many bushels of wheat we grew to the acre or how the cattle milched till we ate them or what the turn of the seasons was But my stupid self seemed like to be the biggest of all the cattle for having much to look after the sheep and being always in kind appetite I grew four inches longer in every year of my farming and a matter of two inches wider until there was no man of my size to be seen elsewhere upon Exmoor Let that pass what odds to any how tall or wide I be There is no Doones door at Plovers Barrows and if there were I could never go through it They vexed me so much about my size long before I had completed it girding at me with paltry jokes whose wit was good only to stay at home that I grew shamefaced about the matter and feared to encounter a lookingglass But mother was very proud and said she never could have too much of me
The worst of all to make me ashamed of bearing my head so high—a thing I saw no way to help for I never could hang my chin down and my back was like a gatepost whenever I tried to bend it—the worst of all was our little Eliza who never could come to a size herself though she had the wine from the Sacrament at Easter and Allhallowmas only to be small and skinny sharp and clever crookedly Not that her body was out of the straight being too small for that perhaps but that her wit was full of corners jagged and strange and uncomfortable You never could tell what she might say next and I like not that kind of women Now God forgive me for talking so of my own fathers daughter and so much the more by reason that my father could not help it The right way is to face the matter and then be sorry for every one My mother fell grievously on a slide which John Fry had made nigh the appleroom door and hidden with straw from the stable to cover his own great idleness My father laid Johns nose on the ice and kept him warm in spite of it but it was too late for Eliza She was born next day with more mind than body—the worst thing that can befall a man
But Annie my other sister was now a fine fair girl beautiful to behold I could look at her by the fireside for an hour together when I was not too sleepy and think of my dear father And she would do the same thing by me only wait the between of the blazes Her hair was done up in a knot behind but some would fall over her shoulders and the dancing of the light was sweet to see through a mans eyelashes There never was a face that showed the light or the shadow of feeling as if the heart were sun to it more than our dear Annies did To look at her carefully you might think that she was not dwelling on anything and then she would know you were looking at her and those eyes would tell all about it God knows that I try to be simple enough to keep to His meaning in me and not make the worst of His children Yet often have I been put to shame and ready to bite my tongue off after speaking amiss of anybody and letting out my littleness when suddenly mine eyes have met the pure soft gaze of Annie
As for the Doones they were thriving still and no one to come against them except indeed by word of mouth to which they lent no heed whatever Complaints were made from time to time both in high and low quarters as the rank might be of the people robbed and once or twice in the highest of all to wit the King himself But His Majesty made a good joke about it not meaning any harm I doubt and was so much pleased with himself thereupon that he quite forgave the mischief Moreover the main authorities were a long way off and the Chancellor had no cattle on Exmoor and as for my lord the Chief Justice some rogue had taken his silver spoons whereupon his lordship swore that never another man would he hang until he had that one by the neck Therefore the Doones went on as they listed and none saw fit to meddle with them For the only man who would have dared to come to close quarters with them that is to say Tom Faggus himself was a quarry for the law if ever it should be unhooded Moreover he had transferred his business to the neighbourhood of Wantage in the county of Berks where he found the climate drier also good downs and commons excellent for galloping and richer yeomen than ours be and better roads to rob them on
Some folk who had wiser attended to their own affairs said that I being sizeable now and able to shoot not badly ought to do something against those Doones and show what I was made of But for a time I was very bashful shaking when called upon suddenly and blushing as deep as a maiden for my strength was not come upon me and mayhap I had grown in front of it And again though I loved my father still and would fire at a word about him I saw not how it would do him good for me to harm his injurers Some races are of revengeful kind and will for years pursue their wrong and sacrifice this world and the next for a moments foul satisfaction but methinks this comes of some black blood perverted and never purified And I doubt but men of true English birth are stouter than so to be twisted though some of the women may take that turn if their own life runs unkindly
Let that pass—I am never good at talking of things beyond me All I know is that if I had met the Doone who had killed my father I would gladly have thrashed him black and blue supposing I were able but would never have fired a gun at him unless he began that game with me or fell upon more of my family or were violent among women And to do them justice my mother and Annie were equally kind and gentle but Eliza would flame and grow white with contempt and not trust herself to speak to us
Now a strange thing came to pass that winter when I was twentyone years old a very strange thing which affrighted the rest and made me feel uncomfortable Not that there was anything in it to do harm to any one only that none could explain it except by attributing it to the devil The weather was very mild and open and scarcely any snow fell at any rate none lay on the ground even for an hour in the highest part of Exmoor a thing which I knew not before nor since as long as I can remember But the nights were wonderfully dark as though with no stars in the heaven and all day long the mists were rolling upon the hills and down them as if the whole land were a washhouse The moorland was full of snipes and teal and curlews flying and crying and lapwings flapping heavily and ravens hovering round dead sheep yet no redshanks nor dottrell and scarce any golden plovers of which we have great store generally but vast lonely birds that cried at night and moved the whole air with their pinions yet no man ever saw them It was dismal as well as dangerous now for any man to go fowling which of late I loved much in the winter because the fog would come down so thick that the pan of the gun was reeking and the fowl out of sight ere the powder kindled and then the sound of the piece was so dead that the shooter feared harm and glanced over his shoulder But the danger of course was far less in this than in losing of the track and falling into the mires or over the brim of a precipice
Nevertheless I must needs go out being young and very stupid and feared of being afraid a fear which a wise man has long cast by having learned of the manifold dangers which ever and ever encompass us And beside this folly and wildness of youth perchance there was something I know not what of the joy we have in uncertainty Mother in fear of my missing home—though for that matter I could smell supper when hungry through a hundred landyards of fog—my dear mother who thought of me ten times for one thought about herself gave orders to ring the great sheepbell which hung above the pigeoncote every ten minutes of the day and the sound came through the plaits of fog and I was vexed about it like the letters of a copybook It reminded me too of Blundells bell and the grief to go into school again
But during those two months of fog for we had it all the winter the saddest and the heaviest thing was to stand beside the sea To be upon the beach yourself and see the long waves coming in to know that they are long waves but only see a piece of them and to hear them lifting roundly swelling over smooth green rocks plashing down in the hollow corners but bearing on all the same as ever soft and sleek and sorrowful till their little noise is over
One old man who lived at Lynmouth seeking to be buried there having been more than half over the world though shy to speak about it and fain to come home to his birthplace this old Will Watcombe who dwelt by the water said that our strange winter arose from a thing he called the Gulfstream rushing up Channel suddenly He said it was hot water almost fit for a man to shave with and it threw all our cold water out and ruined the fish and the spawningtime and a cold spring would come after it I was fond of going to Lynmouth on Sunday to hear this old man talk for sometimes he would discourse with me when nobody else could move him He told me that this powerful flood set in upon our west so hard sometimes once in ten years and sometimes not for fifty and the Lord only knew the sense of it but that when it came therewith came warmth and clouds and fog and moisture and nuts and fruit and even shells and all the tides were thrown abroad As for nuts he winked awhile and chewed a piece of tobacco yet did I not comprehend him Only afterwards I heard that nuts with liquid kernels came travelling on the Gulf stream for never before was known so much foreign cordial landed upon our coast floating ashore by mistake in the fog and what with the tossing and the mist too much astray to learn its duty
Folk who are ever too prone to talk said that Will Watcombe himself knew better than anybody else about this drift of the Gulfstream and the places where it would come ashore and the caves that took the indraught But De Whichehalse our great magistrate certified that there was no proof of unlawful importation neither good cause to suspect it at a time of Christian charity And we knew that it was a foul thing for some quarrymen to say that night after night they had been digging a new cellar at Ley Manor to hold the little marks of respect found in the caverns at highwater weed Let that be it is none of my business to speak evil of dignities duly we common people joked of the Gulpstream as we called it
But the thing which astonished and frightened us so was not I do assure you the landing of foreign spirits nor the loom of a lugger at twilight in the gloom of the winter moonrise That which made as crouch in by the fire or draw the bedclothes over us and try to think of something else was a strange mysterious sound
At grey of night when the sun was gone and no red in the west remained neither were stars forthcoming suddenly a wailing voice rose along the valleys and a sound in the air as of people running It mattered not whether you stood on the moor or crouched behind rocks away from it or down among reedy places all as one the sound would come now from the heart of the earth beneath now overhead bearing down on you And then there was rushing of something by and melancholy laughter and the hair of a man would stand on end before he could reason properly
God in His mercy knows that I am stupid enough for any man and very slow of impression nor ever could bring myself to believe that our Father would let the evil one get the upper hand of us But when I had heard that sound three times in the lonely gloom of the evening fog and the cold that followed the lines of air I was loath to go abroad by night even so far as the stables and loved the light of a candle more and the glow of a fire with company
There were many stories about it of course all over the breadth of the moorland But those who had heard it most often declared that it must be the wail of a womans voice and the rustle of robes fleeing horribly and fiends in the fog going after her To that however I paid no heed when anybody was with me only we drew more close together and barred the doors at sunset
CHAPTER XIII
MASTER HUCKABACK COMES IN
Mr Reuben Huckaback whom many good folk in Dulverton will remember long after my time was my mothers uncle being indeed her mothers brother He owned the very best shop in the town and did a fine trade in soft ware especially when the packhorses came safely in at Christmastime And we being now his only kindred except indeed his granddaughter little Ruth Huckaback of whom no one took any heed mother beheld it a Christian duty to keep as well as could be with him both for love of a nice old man and for the sake of her children And truly the Dulverton people said that he was the richest man in their town and could buy up half the county armigers ay and if it came to that they would like to see any man at Bampton or at Wivelscombe and you might say almost Taunton who could put down golden Jacobus and Carolus against him
Now this old gentleman—so they called him according to his money and I have seen many worse ones more violent and less wealthy—he must needs come away that time to spend the New Yeartide with us not that he wanted to do it for he hated countrylife but because my mother pressing as mothers will do to a good bag of gold had wrung a promise from him and the only boast of his life was that never yet had he broken his word at least since he opened business
Now it pleased God that Christmastime in spite of all the fogs to send safe home to Dulverton and what was more with their loads quite safe a goodly string of packhorses Nearly half of their charge was for Uncle Reuben and he knew how to make the most of it Then having balanced his debits and credits and set the writs running against defaulters as behoves a good Christian at Christmastide he saddled his horse and rode off towards Oare with a good stout coat upon him and leaving Ruth and his head man plenty to do and little to eat until they should see him again
It had been settled between us that we should expect him soon after noon on the last day of December For the Doones being lazy and fond of bed as the manner is of dishonest folk the surest way to escape them was to travel before they were up and about towit in the forenoon of the day But herein we reckoned without our host for being in high festivity as became good Papists the robbers were too lazy it seems to take the trouble of going to bed and forth they rode on the Old Yearmorning not with any view of business but purely in search of mischief
We had put off our dinner till one oclock which to me was a sad foregoing and there was to be a brave supper at six of the clock upon New Yearseve and the singers to come with their lanthorns and do it outside the parlourwindow and then have hot cup till their heads should go round after making away with the victuals For although there was nobody now in our family to be churchwarden of Oare it was well admitted that we were the people entitled alone to that dignity and though Nicholas Snowe was in office by name he managed it only by mothers advice and a pretty mess he made of it so that every one longed for a Ridd again soon as ever I should be old enough This Nicholas Snowe was to come in the evening with his three tall comely daughters strapping girls and well skilled in the dairy and the story was all over the parish on a stupid conceit of John Frys that I should have been in love with all three if there had been but one of them These Snowes were to come and come they did partly because Mr Huckaback liked to see fine young maidens and partly because none but Nicholas Snowe could smoke a pipe now all around our parts except of the very high people whom we durst never invite And Uncle Ben as we all knew well was a great hand at his pipe and would sit for hours over it in our warm chimneycorner and never want to say a word unless it were inside him only he liked to have somebody there over against him smoking
Now when I came in before one oclock after seeing to the cattle—for the day was thicker than ever and we must keep the cattle close at home if we wished to see any more of them—I fully expected to find Uncle Ben sitting in the fireplace lifting one cover and then another as his favourite manner was and making sweet mouths over them for he loved our bacon rarely and they had no good leeks at Dulverton and he was a man who always would see his business done himself But there instead of my finding him with his quaint dry face pulled out at me and then shut up sharp not to be cheated—who should run out but Betty Muxworthy and poke me with a saucepan lid
Get out of that now Betty I said in my politest manner for really Betty was now become a great domestic evil She would have her own way so and of all things the most distressful was for a man to try to reason
Ziderpress cried Betty again for she thought it a fine joke to call me that because of my size and my hatred of it here be a rare get up anyhow
A rare good dinner you mean Betty Well and I have a rare good appetite With that I wanted to go and smell it and not to stop for Betty
Troost thee for thiccy Jan Ridd But thee must keep it bit langer I reckon Her baint coom Maister Ziderpress Whatte mak of that now
Do you mean to say that Uncle Ben has not arrived yet Betty
Raived I knaws nout about that whuther a hath of noo Only I tell e her baint coom Rackon them Dooneses hath gat un
And Betty who hated Uncle Ben because he never gave her a groat and she was not allowed to dine with him I am sorry to say that Betty Muxworthy grinned all across and poked me again with the greasy saucepan cover But I misliking so to be treated strode through the kitchen indignantly for Betty behaved to me even now as if I were only Eliza
Oh Johnny Johnny my mother cried running out of the grand showparlour where the case of stuffed birds was and peacockfeathers and the white hare killed by grandfather I am so glad you are come at last There is something sadly amiss Johnny
Mother had upon her wrists something very wonderful of the nature of fallal as we say and for which she had an inborn turn being of good draper family and polished above the yeomanry Nevertheless I could never bear it partly because I felt it to be out of place in our good farmhouse partly because I hate frippery partly because it seemed to me to have nothing to do with father and partly because I never could tell the reason of my hating it And yet the poor soul had put them on not to show her hands off which were above her station but simply for her childrens sake because Uncle Ben had given them But another thing I never could bear for man or woman to call me Johnny Jack or John I cared not which and that was honest enough and no smallness of me there I say
Well mother what is the matter then
I am sure you need not be angry Johnny I only hope it is nothing to grieve about instead of being angry You are very sweettempered I know John Ridd and perhaps a little too sweet at times—here she meant the Snowe girls and I hanged my head—but what would you say if the people there—she never would call them Doones—had gotten your poor Uncle Reuben horse and Sunday coat and all
Why mother I should be sorry for them He would set up a shop by the riverside and come away with all their money
That all you have to say John And my dinner done to a very turn and the supper all fit to go down and no worry only to eat and be done with it And all the new plates come from Watchett with the Watchett blue upon them at the risk of the lives of everybody and the capias from good Aunt Jane for stuffing a curlew with onion before he begins to get cold and make a woodcock of him and the way to turn the flap over in the inside of a roasting pig—
Well mother dear I am very sorry But let us have our dinner You know we promised not to wait for him after one oclock and you only make us hungry Everything will be spoiled mother and what a pity to think of After that I will go to seek for him in the thick of the fog like a needle in a hayband That is to say unless you think—for she looked very grave about it—unless you really think mother that I ought to go without dinner
Oh no John I never thought that thank God Bless Him for my childrens appetites and what is Uncle Ben to them
So we made a very good dinner indeed though wishing that he could have some of it and wondering how much to leave for him and then as no sound of his horse had been heard I set out with my gun to look for him
I followed the track on the side of the hill from the farmyard where the sleddmarks are—for we have no wheels upon Exmoor yet nor ever shall I suppose though a dunderheaded man tried it last winter and broke his axle piteously and was nigh to break his neck—and after that I went all along on the ridge of the rabbitcleve with the brook running thin in the bottom and then down to the Lynn stream and leaped it and so up the hill and the moor beyond The fog hung close all around me then when I turned the crest of the highland and the gorse both before and behind me looked like a man crouching down in ambush But still there was a good cloud of daylight being scarce three of the clock yet and when a lead of red deer came across I could tell them from sheep even now I was half inclined to shoot at them for the children did love venison but they drooped their heads so and looked so faithful that it seemed hard measure to do it If one of them had bolted away no doubt I had let go at him
After that I kept on the track trudging very stoutly for nigh upon three miles and my beard now beginning to grow at some length was full of great drops and prickly whereat I was very proud I had not so much as a dog with me and the place was unkind and lonesome and the rolling clouds very desolate and now if a wild sheep ran across he was scared at me as an enemy and I for my part could not tell the meaning of the marks on him We called all this part Gibbetmoor not being in our parish but though there were gibbets enough upon it most part of the bodies was gone for the value of the chains they said and the teaching of young chirurgeons But of all this I had little fear being no more a schoolboy now but a youth wellacquaint with Exmoor and the wise art of the signposts whereby a man who barred the road now opens it up both ways with his fingerbones so far as rogues allow him My carbine was loaded and freshly primed and I knew myself to be even now a match in strength for any two men of the size around our neighbourhood except in the Glen Doone Girt Jan Ridd I was called already and folk grew feared to wrestle with me though I was tired of hearing about it and often longed to be smaller And most of all upon Sundays when I had to make way up our little church and the maidens tittered at me
The soft white mist came thicker around me as the evening fell and the peat ricks here and there and the furzehucks of the summertime were all out of shape in the twist of it Byandby I began to doubt where I was or how come there not having seen a gibbet lately and then I heard the draught of the wind up a hollow place with rocks to it and for the first time fear broke out like cold sweat upon me And yet I knew what a fool I was to fear nothing but a sound But when I stopped to listen there was no sound more than a beating noise and that was all inside me Therefore I went on again making company of myself and keeping my gun quite ready
Now when I came to an unknown place where a stone was set up endwise with a faint red cross upon it and a polish from some conflict I gathered my courage to stop and think having sped on the way too hotly Against that stone I set my gun trying my spirit to leave it so but keeping with half a hand for it and then what to do next was the wonder As for finding Uncle Ben that was his own business or at any rate his executors first I had to find myself and plentifully would thank God to find myself at home again for the sake of all our family
The volumes of the mist came rolling at me like great logs of wood pillowed out with sleepiness and between them there was nothing more than waiting for the next one Then everything went out of sight and glad was I of the stone behind me and view of mine own shoes Then a distant noise went by me as of many horses galloping and in my fright I set my gun and said God send something to shoot at Yet nothing came and my gun fell back without my will to lower it
But presently while I was thinking What a fool I am arose as if from below my feet so that the great stone trembled that long lamenting lonesome sound as of an evil spirit not knowing what to do with it For the moment I stood like a root without either hand or foot to help me and the hair of my head began to crawl lifting my hat as a snail lifts his house and my heart like a shuttle went to and fro But finding no harm to come of it neither visible form approaching I wiped my forehead and hoped for the best and resolved to run every step of the way till I drew our own latch behind me
Yet here again I was disappointed for no sooner was I come to the crossways by the black pool in the hole but I heard through the patter of my own feet a rough low sound very close in the fog as of a hobbled sheep acoughing I listened and feared and yet listened again though I wanted not to hear it For being in haste of the homeward road and all my heart having heels to it loath I was to stop in the dusk for the sake of an aged wether Yet partly my love of all animals and partly my fear of the farmers disgrace compelled me to go to the succour and the noise was coming nearer A dry short wheezing sound it was barred with coughs and want of breath but thus I made the meaning of it
Lord have mercy upon me O Lord upon my soul have mercy An if I cheated Sam Hicks last week Lord knowest how well he deserved it and lied in every stockings mouth—oh Lord where be I agoing
These words with many jogs between them came to me through the darkness and then a long groan and a choking I made towards the sound as nigh as ever I could guess and presently was met pointblank by the head of a mountainpony Upon its back lay a man bound down with his feet on the neck and his head to the tail and his arms falling down like stirrups The wild little nag was scared of its life by the unaccustomed burden and had been tossing and rolling hard in desire to get ease of it
Before the little horse could turn I caught him jaded as he was by his wet and grizzled forelock and he saw that it was vain to struggle but strove to bite me none the less until I smote him upon the nose
Good and worthy sir I said to the man who was riding so roughly fear nothing no harm shall come to thee
Help good friend whoever thou art he gasped but could not look at me because his neck was jerked so God hath sent thee and not to rob me because it is done already
What Uncle Ben I cried letting go the horse in amazement that the richest man in Dulverton—Uncle Ben here in this plight What Mr Reuben Huckaback
An honest hosier and draper serge and longcloth warehouseman—he groaned from rib to rib—at the sign of the Gartered Kitten in the loyal town of Dulverton For Gods sake let me down good fellow from this accursed marrowbone and a groat of good money will I pay thee safe in my house to Dulverton but take notice that the horse is mine no less than the nag they robbed from me
What Uncle Ben dost thou not know me thy dutiful nephew John Ridd
Not to make a long story of it I cut the thongs that bound him and set him astride on the little horse but he was too weak to stay so Therefore I mounted him on my back turning the horse into horsesteps and leading the pony by the cords which I fastened around his nose set out for Plovers Barrows
Uncle Ben went fast asleep on my back being jaded and shaken beyond his strength for a man of threescore and five and as soon he felt assured of safety he would talk no more And to tell the truth he snored so loudly that I could almost believe that fearful noise in the fog every night came all the way from Dulverton
Now as soon as ever I brought him in we set him up in the chimneycorner comfortable and handsome and it was no little delight to me to get him off my back for like his own fortune Uncle Ben was of a good round figure He gave his long coat a shake or two and he stamped about in the kitchen until he was sure of his whereabouts and then he fell asleep again until supper should be ready
He shall marry Ruth he said byandby to himself and not to me he shall marry Ruth for this and have my little savings soon as they be worth the having Very little as yet very little indeed and ever so much gone today along of them rascal robbers
My mother made a dreadful stir of course about Uncle Ben being in such a plight as this so I left him to her care and Annies and soon they fed him rarely while I went out to see to the comfort of the captured pony And in truth he was worth the catching and served us very well afterwards though Uncle Ben was inclined to claim him for his business at Dulverton where they have carts and that like But I said you shall have him sir and welcome if you will only ride him home as first I found you riding him And with that he dropped it
A very strange old man he was short in his manner though long of body glad to do the contrary things to what any one expected of him and always looking sharp at people as if he feared to be cheated This surprised me much at first because it showed his ignorance of what we farmers are—an upright race as you may find scarcely ever cheating indeed except upon marketday and even then no more than may be helped by reason of buyers expecting it Now our simple ways were a puzzle to him as I told him very often but he only laughed and rubbed his mouth with the back of his dry shining hand and I think he shortly began to languish for want of some one to higgle with I had a great mind to give him the pony because he thought himself cheated in that case only he would conclude that I did it with some view to a legacy
Of course the Doones and nobody else had robbed good Uncle Reuben and then they grew sportive and took his horse an especially sober nag and bound the master upon the wild one for a little change as they told him For two or three hours they had fine enjoyment chasing him through the fog and making much sport of his groanings and then waxing hungry they went their way and left him to opportunity Now Mr Huckaback growing able to walk in a few days time became thereupon impatient and could not be brought to understand why he should have been robbed at all
I have never deserved it he said to himself not knowing much of Providence except with a small p to it I have never deserved it and will not stand it in the name of our lord the King not I At other times he would burst forth thus Threescore years and five have I lived an honest and laborious life yet never was I robbed before And now to be robbed in my old age to be robbed for the first time now
Thereupon of course we would tell him how truly thankful he ought to be for never having been robbed before in spite of living so long in this world and that he was taking a very ungrateful not to say ungracious view in thus repining and feeling aggrieved when anyone else would have knelt and thanked God for enjoying so long an immunity But say what we would it was all as one Uncle Ben stuck fast to it that he had nothing to thank God for
CHAPTER XIV
A MOTION WHICH ENDS IN A MULL
Instead of minding his NewYear pudding Master Huckaback carried on so about his mighty grievance that at last we began to think there must be something in it after all especially as he assured us that choice and costly presents for the young people of our household were among the goods divested But mother told him her children had plenty and wanted no gold and silver and little Eliza spoke up and said You can give us the pretty things Uncle Ben when we come in the summer to see you
Our mother reproved Eliza for this although it was the heel of her own foot and then to satisfy our uncle she promised to call Farmer Nicholas Snowe to be of our council that evening And if the young maidens would kindly come without taking thought to smoothe themselves why it would be all the merrier and who knew but what Uncle Huckaback might bless the day of his robbery etc etc—and thorough good honest girls they were fit helpmates either for shop or farm All of which was meant for me but I stuck to my platter and answered not
In the evening Farmer Snowe came up leading his daughters after him like fillies trimmed for a fair and Uncle Ben who had not seen them on the night of his mishap because word had been sent to stop them was mightily pleased and very pleasant according to his town bred ways The damsels had seen good company and soon got over their fear of his wealth and played him a number of merry pranks which made our mother quite jealous for Annie who was always shy and diffident However when the hot cup was done and before the mulled wine was ready we packed all the maidens in the parlour and turned the key upon them and then we drew near to the kitchen fire to hear Uncle Bens proposal Farmer Snowe sat up in the corner caring little to bear about anything but smoking slowly and nodding backward like a sheepdog dreaming Mother was in the settle of course knitting hard as usual and Uncle Ben took to a threelegged stool as if all but that had been thieved from him Howsoever he kept his breath from speech giving privilege as was due to mother
Master Snowe you are well assured said mother colouring like the furze as it took the flame and fell over that our kinsman here hath received rough harm on his peaceful journey from Dulverton The times are bad as we all know well and there is no sign of bettering them and if I could see our Lord the King I might say things to move him nevertheless I have had so much of my own account to vex for—
You are flying out of the subject Sarah said Uncle Ben seeing tears in her eyes and tired of that matter
Zettle the pralimbinaries spoke Farmer Snowe on appeal from us virst zettle the pralimbinaries and then us knows what be drivin at
Preliminaries be damned sir cried Uncle Ben losing his temper What preliminaries were there when I was robbed I should like to know Robbed in this parish as I can prove to the eternal disgrace of Oare and the scandal of all England And I hold this parish to answer for it sir this parish shall make it good being a nest of foul thieves as it is ay farmers and yeomen and all of you I will beggar every man in this parish if they be not beggars already ay and sell your old church up before your eyes but what I will have back my tarlatan timepiece saddle and dovetailed nag
Mother looked at me and I looked at Farmer Snowe and we all were sorry for Master Huckaback putting our hands up one to another that nobody should browbeat him because we all knew what our parish was and none the worse for strong language however rich the man might be But Uncle Ben took it in a different way He thought that we all were afraid of him and that Oare parish was but as Moab or Edom for him to cast his shoe over
Nephew Jack he cried looking at me when I was thinking what to say and finding only emptiness you are a heavy lout sir a bumpkin a clodhopper and I shall leave you nothing unless it be my boots to grease
Well uncle I made answer I will grease your boots all the same for that so long as you be our guest sir
Now that answer made without a thought stood me for two thousand pounds as you shall see byandby perhaps
As for the parish my mother cried being too hard set to contain herself the parish can defend itself and we may leave it to do so But our Jack is not like that sir and I will not have him spoken of Leave him indeed Who wants you to do more than to leave him alone sir as he might have done you the other night and as no one else would have dared to do And after that to think so meanly of me and of my children
Hoity toity Sarah Your children I suppose are the same as other peoples
That they are not and never will be and you ought to know it Uncle Reuben if any one in the world ought Other peoples children
Well well Uncle Reuben answered I know very little of children except my little Ruth and she is nothing wonderful
I never said that my children were wonderful Uncle Ben nor did I ever think it But as for being good—
Here mother fetched out her handkerchief being overcome by our goodness and I told her with my hand to my mouth not to notice him though he might be worth ten thousand times ten thousand pounds
But Farmer Snowe came forward now for he had some sense sometimes and he thought it was high time for him to say a word for the parish
Maister Huckaback he began pointing with his pipe at him the end that was done in sealingwax tooching of what you was plaized to zay bout this here parish and no oother mind me no oother parish but thees I use the vreedom zur for to tell e that thee be a laiar
Then Farmer Nicholas Snowe folded his arms across with the bowl of his pipe on the upper one and gave me a nod and then one to mother to testify how he had done his duty and recked not what might come of it However he got little thanks from us for the parish was nothing at all to my mother compared with her childrens interests and I thought it hard that an uncle of mine and an old man too should be called a liar by a visitor at our fireplace For we in our rude part of the world counted it one of the worst disgraces that could befall a man to receive the lie from any one But Uncle Ben as it seems was used to it in the way of trade just as people of fashion are by a style of courtesy
Therefore the old man only looked with pity at Farmer Nicholas and with a sort of sorrow too reflecting how much he might have made in a bargain with such a customer so ignorant and hotheaded
Now let us bandy words no more said mother very sweetly nothing is easier than sharp words except to wish them unspoken as I do many and manys the time when I think of my good husband But now let us hear from Uncle Reuben what he would have us do to remove this disgrace from amongst us and to satisfy him of his goods
I care not for my goods woman Master Huckaback answered grandly although they were of large value about them I say nothing But what I demand is this the punishment of those scoundrels
Zober man zober cried Farmer Nicholas we be too naigh Badgery ood to spake like that of they Dooneses
Pack of cowards said Uncle Reuben looking first at the door however much chance I see of getting redress from the valour of this Exmoor And you Master Snowe the very man whom I looked to to raise the country and take the lead as churchwarden—why my youngest shopman would match his ell against you Pack of cowards cried Uncle Ben rising and shaking his lappets at us dont pretend to answer me Shake you all off that I do—nothing more to do with you
We knew it useless to answer him and conveyed our knowledge to one another without anything to vex him However when the mulled wine was come and a good deal of it gone the season being Epiphany Uncle Reuben began to think that he might have been too hard with us Moreover he was beginning now to respect Farmer Nicholas bravely because of the way he had smoked his pipes and the little noise made over them And Lizzie and Annie were doing their best—for now we had let the girls out—to wake more lightsome uproar also young Faith Snowe was toward to keep the old mens cups aflow and hansel them to their liking
So at the close of our entertainment when the girls were gone away to fetch and light their lanthorns over which they made rare noise blowing each the others out for counting of the sparks to come Master Huckaback stood up without much aid from the crocksaw and looked at mother and all of us
Let no one leave this place said he until I have said what I want to say for saving of illwill among us and growth of cheer and comfort May be I have carried things too far even to the bounds of churlishness and beyond the bounds of good manners I will not unsay one word I have said having never yet done so in my life but I would alter the manner of it and set it forth in this light If you folks upon Exmoor here are loath and wary at fighting yet you are brave at better stuff the best and kindest I ever knew in the matter of feeding
Here he sat down with tears in his eyes and called for a little mulled bastard All the maids who were now come back raced to get it for him but Annie of course was foremost And herein ended the expedition a perilous and a great one against the Doones of Bagworthy an enterprise over which we had all talked plainly more than was good for us For my part I slept well that night feeling myself at home again now that the fighting was put aside and the fear of it turned to the comfort of talking what we would have done
CHAPTER XV
MASTER HUCKABACK FAILS OF WARRANT
On the following day Master Huckaback with some show of mystery demanded from my mother an escort into a dangerous part of the world to which his business compelled him My mother made answer to this that he was kindly welcome to take our John Fry with him at which the good clothier laughed and said that John was nothing like big enough but another John must serve his turn not only for his size but because if he were carried away no stone would be left unturned upon Exmoor until he should be brought back again Hereupon my mother grew very pale and found fifty reasons against my going each of them weightier than the true one as Eliza who was jealous of me managed to whisper to Annie On the other hand I was quite resolved directly the thing was mentioned to see Uncle Reuben through with it and it added much to my selfesteem to be the guard of so rich a man Therefore I soon persuaded mother with her head upon my breast to let me go and trust in God and after that I was greatly vexed to find that this dangerous enterprise was nothing more than a visit to the Baron de Whichehalse to lay an information and sue a warrant against the Doones and a posse to execute it
Stupid as I always have been and must ever be no doubt I could well have told Uncle Reuben that his journey was no wiser than that of the men of Gotham that he never would get from Hugh de Whichehalse a warrant against the Doones moreover that if he did get one his own wig would be singed with it But for divers reasons I held my peace partly from youth and modesty partly from desire to see whatever please God I should see and partly from other causes
We rode by way of Brendon town Illford Bridge and Babbrook to avoid the great hill above Lynmouth and the day being fine and clear again I laughed in my sleeve at Uncle Reuben for all his fine precautions When we arrived at Ley Manor we were shown very civilly into the hall and refreshed with good ale and collared head and the back of a Christmas pudding I had never been under so fine a roof unless it were of a church before and it pleased me greatly to be so kindly entreated by highborn folk But Uncle Reuben was vexed a little at being set down side by side with a man in a very small way of trade who was come upon some business there and who made bold to drink his health after finishing their horns of ale
Sir said Uncle Ben looking at him my health would fare much better if you would pay me three pounds and twelve shillings which you have owed me these five years back and now we are met at the Justices the opportunity is good sir
After that we were called to the Justiceroom where the Baron himself was sitting with Colonel Harding another Justiciary of the Kings peace to help him I had seen the Baron de Whichehalse before and was not at all afraid of him having been at school with his son as he knew and it made him very kind to me And indeed he was kind to everybody and all our people spoke well of him and so much the more because we knew that the house was in decadence For the first De Whichehalse had come from Holland where he had been a great nobleman some hundred and fifty years agone Being persecuted for his religion when the Spanish power was everything he fled to England with all he could save and bought large estates in Devonshire Since then his descendants had intermarried with ancient county families Cottwells and Marwoods and Walronds and Welses of Pylton and Chichesters of Hall and several of the ladies brought them large increase of property And so about fifty years before the time of which I am writing there were few names in the West of England thought more of than De Whichehalse But now they had lost a great deal of land and therefore of that which goes with land as surely as fame belongs to earth—I mean big reputation How they had lost it none could tell except that as the first descendants had a manner of amassing so the later ones were gifted with a power of scattering Whether this came of good Devonshire blood opening the sluice of Low Country veins is beyond both my province and my power to inquire Anyhow all people loved this last strain of De Whichehalse far more than the name had been liked a hundred years agone
Hugh de Whichehalse a whitehaired man of very noble presence with friendly blue eyes and a sweet smooth forehead and aquiline nose quite beautiful as you might expect in a lady of birth and thin lips curving delicately this gentleman rose as we entered the room while Colonel Harding turned on his chair and struck one spur against the other I am sure that without knowing aught of either we must have reverenced more of the two the one who showed respect to us And yet nine gentleman out of ten make this dull mistake when dealing with the class below them
Uncle Reuben made his very best scrape and then walked up to the table trying to look as if he did not know himself to be wealthier than both the gentlemen put together Of course he was no stranger to them any more than I was and as it proved afterwards Colonel Harding owed him a lump of money upon very good security Of him Uncle Reuben took no notice but addressed himself to De Whichehalse
The Baron smiled very gently so soon as he learned the cause of this visit and then he replied quite reasonably
A warrant against the Doones Master Huckaback Which of the Doones so please you and the Christian names what be they
My lord I am not their godfather and most like they never had any But we all know old Sir Ensors name so that may be no obstacle
Sir Ensor Doone and his sons—so be it How many sons Master Huckaback and what is the name of each one
How can I tell you my lord even if I had known them all as well as my own shopboys Nevertheless there were seven of them and that should be no obstacle
A warrant against Sir Ensor Doone and seven sons of Sir Ensor Doone Christian names unknown and doubted if they have any So far so good Master Huckaback I have it all down in writing Sir Ensor himself was there of course as you have given in evidence—
No no my lord I never said that I never said—
If he can prove that he was not there you may be indicted for perjury But as for those seven sons of his of course you can swear that they were his sons and not his nephews or grandchildren or even no Doones at all
My lord I can swear that they were Doones Moreover I can pay for any mistake I make Therein need be no obstacle
Oh yes he can pay he can pay well enough said Colonel Harding shortly
I am heartily glad to hear it replied the Baron pleasantly for it proves after all that this robbery if robbery there has been was not so very ruinous Sometimes people think they are robbed and then it is very sweet afterwards to find that they have not been so for it adds to their joy in their property Now are you quite convinced good sir that these people if there were any stole or took or even borrowed anything at all from you
My lord do you think that I was drunk
Not for a moment Master Huckaback Although excuse might be made for you at this time of the year But how did you know that your visitors were of this particular family
Because it could be nobody else Because in spite of the fog—
Fog cried Colonel Harding sharply
Fog said the Baron with emphasis Ah that explains the whole affair To be sure now I remember the weather has been too thick for a man to see the head of his own horse The Doones if still there be any Doones could never have come abroad that is as sure as simony Master Huckaback for your good sake I am heartily glad that this charge has miscarried I thoroughly understand it now The fog explains the whole of it
Go back my good fellow said Colonel Harding and if the day is clear enough you will find all your things where you left them I know from my own experience what it is to be caught in an Exmoor fog
Uncle Reuben by this time was so put out that he hardly knew what he was saying
My lord Sir Colonel is this your justice If I go to London myself for it the King shall know how his commission—how a man may be robbed and the justices prove that he ought to be hanged at back of it that in his good shire of Somerset—
Your pardon a moment good sir De Whichehalse interrupted him but I was about having heard your case to mention what need be an obstacle and I fear would prove a fatal one even if satisfactory proof were afforded of a felony The malfeasance if any was laid in Somerset but we two humble servants of His Majesty are in commission of his peace for the county of Devon only and therefore could never deal with it
And why in the name of God cried Uncle Reuben now carried at last fairly beyond himself why could you not say as much at first and save me all this waste of time and worry of my temper Gentlemen you are all in league all of you stick together You think it fair sport for an honest trader who makes no shams as you do to be robbed and wellnigh murdered so long as they who did it won the high birthright of felony If a poor sheep stealer to save his children from dying of starvation had dared to look at a twomonth lamb he would swing on the Manor gallows and all of you cry Good riddance But now because good birth and bad manners— Here poor Uncle Ben not being so strong as before the Doones had played with him began to foam at the mouth a little and his tongue went into the hollow where his short grey whiskers were
I forget how we came out of it only I was greatly shocked at bearding of the gentry so and mother scarce could see her way when I told her all about it Depend upon it you were wrong John was all I could get out of her though what had I done but listen and touch my forelock when called upon John you may take my word for it you have not done as you should have done Your father would have been shocked to think of going to Baron de Whichehalse and in his own house insulting him And yet it was very brave of you John Just like you all over And as none of the men are here dear John I am proud of you for doing it
All throughout the homeward road Uncle Ben had been very silent feeling much displeased with himself and still more so with other people But before he went to bed that night he just said to me Nephew Jack you have not behaved so badly as the rest to me And because you have no gift of talking I think that I may trust you Now mark my words this villain job shall not have ending here I have another card to play
You mean sir I suppose that you will go to the justices of this shire Squire Maunder or Sir Richard Blewitt or—
Oaf I mean nothing of the sort they would only make a laughingstock as those Devonshire people did of me No I will go to the King himself or a man who is bigger than the King and to whom I have ready access I will not tell thee his name at present only if thou art brought before him never wilt thou forget it That was true enough by the bye as I discovered afterwards for the man he meant was Judge Jeffreys
And when are you likely to see him sir
Maybe in the spring maybe not until summer for I cannot go to London on purpose but when my business takes me there Only remember my words Jack and when you see the man I mean look straight at him and tell no lie He will make some of your zany squires shake in their shoes I reckon Now I have been in this lonely hole far longer than I intended by reason of this outrage yet I will stay here one day more upon a certain condition
Upon what condition Uncle Ben I grieve that you find it so lonely We will have Farmer Nicholas up again and the singers and—
The fashionable milkmaids I thank you let me be The wenches are too loud for me Your Nanny is enough Nanny is a good child and she shall come and visit me Uncle Reuben would always call her Nanny he said that Annie was too fine and Frenchified for us But my condition is this Jack—that you shall guide me tomorrow without a word to any one to a place where I may well descry the dwelling of these scoundrel Doones and learn the best way to get at them when the time shall come Can you do this for me I will pay you well boy
I promised very readily to do my best to serve him but of course would take no money for it not being so poor as that came to Accordingly on the day following I managed to set the men at work on the other side of the farm especially that inquisitive and busybody John Fry who would pry out almost anything for the pleasure of telling his wife and then with Uncle Reuben mounted on my ancient Peggy I made foot for the westward directly after breakfast Uncle Ben refused to go unless I would take a loaded gun and indeed it was always wise to do so in those days of turbulence and none the less because of late more than usual of our sheep had left their skins behind them This as I need hardly say was not to be charged to the appetite of the Doones for they always said that they were not butchers although upon that subject might well be two opinions and their practice was to make the shepherds kill and skin and quarter for them and sometimes carry to the Doonegate the prime among the fatlings for fear of any bruising which spoils the look at table But the worst of it was that ignorant folk unaware of their fastidiousness scored to them the sheep they lost by lowerborn marauders and so were afraid to speak of it and the issue of this error was that a farmer with five or six hundred sheep could never command on his weddingday a prime saddle of mutton for dinner
To return now to my Uncle Ben—and indeed he would not let me go more than three landyards from him—there was very little said between us along the lane and across the hill although the day was pleasant I could see that he was half amiss with his mind about the business and not so full of security as an elderly man should keep himself Therefore out I spake and said—
Uncle Reuben have no fear I know every inch of the ground sir and there is no danger nigh us
Fear boy Who ever thought of fear Tis the last thing would come across me Pretty things those primroses
At once I thought of Lorna Doone the little maid of six years back and how my fancy went with her Could Lorna ever think of me Was I not a lout gone by only fit for loachsticking Had I ever seen a face fit to think of near her The sudden flash the quickness the bright desire to know ones heart and not withhold her own from it the soft withdrawal of rich eyes the longing to love somebody anybody anything not imbrued with wickedness—
My uncle interrupted me misliking so much silence now with the naked woods falling over us For we were come to Bagworthy forest the blackest and the loneliest place of all that keep the sun out Even now in wintertime with most of the wood unriddled and the rest of it pinched brown it hung around us like a cloak containing little comfort I kept quite close to Peggys head and Peggy kept quite close to me and pricked her ears at everything However we saw nothing there except a few old owls and hawks and a magpie sitting all alone until we came to the bank of the hill where the pony could not climb it Uncle Ben was very loath to get off because the pony seemed company and he thought he could gallop away on her if the worst came to the worst but I persuaded him that now he must go to the end of it Therefore he made Peggy fast in a place where we could find her and speaking cheerfully as if there was nothing to be afraid of he took his staff and I my gun to climb the thick ascent
There was now no path of any kind which added to our courage all it lessened of our comfort because it proved that the robbers were not in the habit of passing there And we knew that we could not go astray so long as we breasted the hill before us inasmuch as it formed the rampart or sidefence of Glen Doone But in truth I used the right word there for the manner of our ascent for the ground came forth so steep against us and withal so woody that to make any way we must throw ourselves forward and labour as at a breastplough Rough and loamy rungs of oakroot bulged here and there above our heads briers needs must speak with us using more of tooth than tongue and sometimes bulks of rugged stone like great sheep stood across us At last though very loath to do it I was forced to leave my gun behind because I required one hand to drag myself up the difficulty and one to help Uncle Reuben And so at last we gained the top and looked forth the edge of the forest where the ground was very stony and like the crest of a quarry and no more trees between us and the brink of cliff below three hundred yards below it might be all strong slope and gliddery And now for the first time I was amazed at the appearance of the Dooness stronghold and understood its nature For when I had been even in the valley and climbed the cliffs to escape from it about seven years agone I was no more than a stripling boy noting little as boys do except for their present purpose and even that soon done with But now what with the fame of the Doones and my own recollections and Uncle Bens insistence all my attention was called forth and the end was simple astonishment
The chine of highland whereon we stood curved to the right and left of us keeping about the same elevation and crowned with trees and brushwood At about half a mile in front of us but looking as if we could throw a stone to strike any man upon it another crest just like our own bowed around to meet it but failed by reason of two narrow clefts of which we could only see the brink One of these clefts was the Doonegate with a portcullis of rock above it and the other was the chasm by which I had once made entrance Betwixt them where the hills fell back as in a perfect oval traversed by the winding water lay a bright green valley rimmed with sheer black rock and seeming to have sunken bodily from the bleak rough heights above It looked as if no frost could enter neither wind go ruffling only spring and hope and comfort breathe to one another Even now the rays of sunshine dwelt and fell back on one another whenever the clouds lifted and the pale blue glimpse of the growing day seemed to find young encouragement
But for all that Uncle Reuben was none the worse nor better He looked down into Glen Doone first and sniffed as if he were smelling it like a sample of goods from a wholesale house and then he looked at the hills over yonder and then he stared at me
See what a pack of fools they be
Of course I do Uncle Ben All rogues are fools was my first copy beginning of the alphabet
Pack of stuff lad Though true enough and very good for young people But see you not how this great Doone valley may be taken in half an hour
Yes to be sure I do uncle if they like to give it up I mean
Three culverins on yonder hill and three on the top of this one and we have them under a pestle Ah I have seen the wars my lad from Keinton up to Naseby and I might have been a general now if they had taken my advice—
But I was not attending to him being drawn away on a sudden by a sight which never struck the sharp eyes of our General For I had long ago descried that little opening in the cliff through which I made my exit as before related on the other side of the valley No bigger than a rabbithole it seemed from where we stood and yet of all the scene before me that from my remembrance perhaps had the most attraction Now gazing at it with full thought of all that it had cost me I saw a little figure come and pause and pass into it Something very light and white nimble smooth and elegant gone almost before I knew that any one had been there And yet my heart came to my ribs and all my blood was in my face and pride within me fought with shame and vanity with selfcontempt for though seven years were gone and I from my boyhood come to manhood and all must have forgotten me and I had halfforgotten at that moment once for all I felt that I was face to face with fate however poor it might be weal or woe in Lorna Doone
CHAPTER XVI
LORNA GROWING FORMIDABLE
Having reconnoitred thus the position of the enemy Master Huckaback on the homeward road crossexamined me in a manner not at all desirable For he had noted my confusion and eager gaze at something unseen by him in the valley and thereupon he made up his mind to know everything about it In this however he partly failed for although I was no hand at fence and would not tell him a falsehood I managed so to hold my peace that he put himself upon the wrong track and continued thereon with many vaunts of his shrewdness and experience and some chuckles at my simplicity Thus much however he learned aright that I had been in the Doone valley several years before and might be brought upon strong inducement to venture there again But as to the mode of my getting in the things I saw and my thoughts upon them he not only failed to learn the truth but certified himself into an obstinacy of error from which no afterknowledge was able to deliver him And this he did not only because I happened to say very little but forasmuch as he disbelieved half of the truth I told him through his own too great sagacity
Upon one point however he succeeded more easily than he expected viz in making me promise to visit the place again as soon as occasion offered and to hold my own counsel about it But I could not help smiling at one thing that according to his point of view my own counsel meant my own and Master Reuben Huckabacks
Now he being gone as he went next day to his favourite town of Dulverton and leaving behind him shadowy promise of the mountains he would do for me my spirit began to burn and pant for something to go on with and nothing showed a braver hope of movement and adventure than a lonely visit to Glen Doone by way of the perilous passage discovered in my boyhood Therefore I waited for nothing more than the slow arrival of new smallclothes made by a good tailor at Porlock for I was wishful to look my best and when they were come and approved I started regardless of the expense and forgetting like a fool how badly they would take the water
What with urging of the tailor and my own misgivings the time was now come round again to the highday of St Valentine when all our maids were full of lovers and all the lads looked foolish And none of them more sheepish or innocent than I myself albeit twentyone years old and not afraid of men much but terrified of women at least if they were comely And what of all things scared me most was the thought of my own size and knowledge of my strength which came like knots upon me daily In honest truth I tell this thing which often since hath puzzled me when I came to mix with men more I was to that degree ashamed of my thickness and my stature in the presence of a woman that I would not put a trunk of wood on the fire in the kitchen but let Annie scold me well with a smile to follow and with her own plump hands lift up a little log and fuel it Many a time I longed to be no bigger than John Fry was whom now when insolent I took with my left hand by the waiststuff and set him on my hat and gave him little chance to tread it until he spoke of his family and requested to come down again
Now taking for good omen this that I was a sevenyear Valentine though much too big for a Cupidon I chose a sevenfoot staff of ash and fixed a loachfork in it to look as I had looked before and leaving word upon matters of business out of the back door I went and so through the little orchard and down the brawling Lynnbrook Not being now so much afraid I struck across the thicket land between the meeting waters and came upon the Bagworthy stream near the great black whirlpool Nothing amazed me so much as to find how shallow the stream now looked to me although the pool was still as black and greedy as it used to be And still the great rocky slide was dark and difficult to climb though the water which once had taken my knees was satisfied now with my ankles After some labour I reached the top and halted to look about me well before trusting to broad daylight
The winter as I said before had been a very mild one and now the spring was toward so that bank and bush were touched with it The valley into which I gazed was fair with early promise having shelter from the wind and taking all the sunshine The willowbushes over the stream hung as if they were angling with tasseled floats of gold and silver bursting like a beanpod Between them came the water laughing like a maid at her own dancing and spread with that young blue which never lives beyond the April And on either bank the meadow ruffled as the breeze came by opening through new tuft of green daisybud or celandine or a shy glimpse now and then of the lovelorn primrose
Though I am so blank of wit or perhaps for that same reason these little things come and dwell with me and I am happy about them and long for nothing better I feel with every blade of grass as if it had a history and make a child of every bud as though it knew and loved me And being so they seem to tell me of my own delusions how I am no more than they except in selfimportance
While I was forgetting much of many things that harm one and letting of my thoughts go wild to sounds and sights of nature a sweeter note than thrush or ouzel ever wooed a mate in floated on the valley breeze at the quiet turn of sundown The words were of an ancient song fit to laugh or cry at
Love an if there be one Come my love to be My love is for the one Loving unto me
Not for me the show love Of a gilded bliss Only thou must know love What my value is
If in all the earth love Thou hast none but me This shall be my worth love To be cheap to thee
But if so thou ever Strivest to be free Twill be my endeavour To be dear to thee
So shall I have plea love Is thy heart andbreath Clinging still to thee love In the doom of death
All this I took in with great eagerness not for the sake of the meaning which is no doubt an allegory but for the power and richness and softness of the singing which seemed to me better than we ever had even in Oare church But all the time I kept myself in a black niche of the rock where the fall of the water began lest the sweet singer espying me should be alarmed and flee away But presently I ventured to look forth where a bush was and then I beheld the loveliest sight—one glimpse of which was enough to make me kneel in the coldest water
By the side of the stream she was coming to me even among the primroses as if she loved them all and every flower looked the brighter as her eyes were on them I could not see what her face was my heart so awoke and trembled only that her hair was flowing from a wreath of white violets and the grace of her coming was like the appearance of the first windflower The pale gleam over the western cliffs threw a shadow of light behind her as if the sun were lingering Never do I see that light from the closing of the west even in these my aged days without thinking of her Ah me if it comes to that what do I see of earth or heaven without thinking of her
The tremulous thrill of her song was hanging on her open lips and she glanced around as if the birds were accustomed to make answer To me it was a thing of terror to behold such beauty and feel myself the while to be so very low and common But scarcely knowing what I did as if a rope were drawing me I came from the dark mouth of the chasm and stood afraid to look at her
She was turning to fly not knowing me and frightened perhaps at my stature when I fell on the grass as I fell before her seven years agone that day and I just said Lorna Doone
She knew me at once from my manner and ways and a smile broke through her trembling as sunshine comes through aspenleaves and being so clever she saw of course that she needed not to fear me
Oh indeed she cried with a feint of anger because she had shown her cowardice and yet in her heart she was laughing oh if you please who are you sir and how do you know my name
I am John Ridd I answered the boy who gave you those beautiful fish when you were only a little thing seven years ago today
Yes the poor boy who was frightened so and obliged to hide here in the water
And do you remember how kind you were and saved my life by your quickness and went away riding upon a great mans shoulder as if you had never seen me and yet looked back through the willowtrees
Oh yes I remember everything because it was so rare to see any except—I mean because I happen to remember But you seem not to remember sir how perilous this place is
For she had kept her eyes upon me large eyes of a softness a brightness and a dignity which made me feel as if I must for ever love and yet for ever know myself unworthy Unless themselves should fill with love which is the spring of all things And so I could not answer her but was overcome with thinking and feeling and confusion Neither could I look again only waited for the melody which made every word like a poem to me the melody of her voice But she had not the least idea of what was going on with me any more than I myself had
I think Master Ridd you cannot know she said with her eyes taken from me what the dangers of this place are and the nature of the people
Yes I know enough of that and I am frightened greatly all the time when I do not look at you
She was too young to answer me in the style some maidens would have used the manner I mean which now we call from a foreign word coquettish And more than that she was trembling from real fear of violence lest strong hands might be laid on me and a miserable end of it And to tell the truth I grew afraid perhaps from a kind of sympathy and because I knew that evil comes more readily than good to us
Therefore without more ado or taking any advantage—although I would have been glad at heart if needs had been to kiss her without any thought of rudeness—it struck me that I had better go and have no more to say to her until next time of coming So would she look the more for me and think the more about me and not grow weary of my words and the want of change there is in me For of course I knew what a churl I was compared to her birth and appearance but meanwhile I might improve myself and learn a musical instrument The wind hath a draw after flying straw is a saying we have in Devonshire made peradventure by somebody who had seen the ways of women
Mistress Lorna I will depart—mark you I thought that a powerful word—in fear of causing disquiet If any rogue shot me it would grieve you I make bold to say it and it would be the death of mother Few mothers have such a son as me Try to think of me now and then and I will bring you some newlaid eggs for our young blue hen is beginning
I thank you heartily said Lorna but you need not come to see me You can put them in my little bower where I am almost always—I mean whither daily I repair to read and to be away from them
Only show me where it is Thrice a day I will come and stop—
Nay Master Ridd I would never show thee—never because of peril—only that so happens it thou hast found the way already
And she smiled with a light that made me care to cry out for no other way except to her dear heart But only to myself I cried for anything at all having enough of man in me to be bashful with young maidens So I touched her white hand softly when she gave it to me and fancying that she had sighed was touched at heart about it and resolved to yield her all my goods although my mother was living and then grew angry with myself for a mile or more of walking to think she would condescend so and then for the rest of the homeward road was mad with every man in the world who would dare to think of having her
CHAPTER XVII
JOHN IS CLEARLY BEWITCHED
To forget ones luck of life to forget the cark of care and withering of young fingers not to feel or not be moved by all the change of thought and heart from large young heat to the sinewy lines and dry bones of old age—this is what I have to do ere ever I can make you know even as a dream is known how I loved my Lorna I myself can never know never can conceive or treat it as a thing of reason never can behold myself dwelling in the midst of it and think that this was I neither can I wander far from perpetual thought of it Perhaps I have two farrows of pigs ready for the chapman perhaps I have ten stones of wool waiting for the factor It is all the same I look at both and what I say to myself is this Which would Lorna choose of them Of course I am a fool for this any man may call me so and I will not quarrel with him unless he guess my secret Of course I fetch my wit if it be worth the fetching back again to business But there my heart is and must be and all who like to try can cheat me except upon parish matters
That week I could do little more than dream and dream and rove about seeking by perpetual change to find the way back to myself I cared not for the people round me neither took delight in victuals but made believe to eat and drink and blushed at any questions And being called the master now headfarmer and chief yeoman it irked me much that any one should take advantage of me yet everybody did so as soon as ever it was known that my wits were gone moonraking For that was the way they looked at it not being able to comprehend the greatness and the loftiness Neither do I blame them much for the wisest thing is to laugh at people when we cannot understand them I for my part took no notice but in my heart despised them as beings of a lesser nature who never had seen Lorna Yet I was vexed and rubbed myself when John Fry spread all over the farm and even at the shoeing forge that a mad dog had come and bitten me from the other side of Mallond
This seems little to me now and so it might to any one but at the time it worked me up to a fever of indignity To make a mad dog of Lorna to compare all my imaginings which were strange I do assure you—the faculty not being apt to work to count the raising of my soul no more than hydrophobia All this acted on me so that I gave John Fry the soundest threshing that ever a sheaf of good corn deserved or a bundle of tares was blessed with Afterwards he went home too tired to tell his wife the meaning of it but it proved of service to both of them and an example for their children
Now the climate of this country is—so far as I can make of it—to throw no man into extremes and if he throw himself so far to pluck him back by change of weather and the need of looking after things Lest we should be like the Southerns for whom the sky does everything and men sit under a wall and watch both food and fruit come beckoning Their sky is a mother to them but ours a good stepmother to us—fearing to hurt by indulgence and knowing that severity and change of mood are wholesome
The spring being now too forward a check to it was needful and in the early part of March there came a change of weather All the young growth was arrested by a dry wind from the east which made both face and fingers burn when a man was doing ditching The lilacs and the woodbines just crowding forth in little tufts close kernelling their blossom were ruffled back like a sleeve turned up and nicked with brown at the corners In the hedges any man unless his eyes were very dull could see the mischief doing The russet of the young elmbloom was fain to be in its scale again but having pushed forth there must be and turn to a tawny colour The hangers of the hazel too having shed their dust to make the nuts did not spread their little combs and dry them as they ought to do but shrivelled at the base and fell as if a knife had cut them And more than all to notice was at least about the hedges the shuddering of everything and the shivering sound among them toward the feeble sun such as we make to a poor fireplace when several doors are open Sometimes I put my face to warm against the soft rough maplestem which feels like the foot of a red deer but the pitiless east wind came through all and took and shook the caved hedge aback till its knees were knocking together and nothing could be shelter Then would any one having blood and trying to keep at home with it run to a sturdy tree and hope to eat his food behind it and look for a little sun to come and warm his feet in the shelter And if it did he might strike his breast and try to think he was warmer
But when a man came home at night after long days labour knowing that the days increased and so his care should multiply still he found enough of light to show him what the day had done against him in his garden Every ridge of newturned earth looked like an old mans muscles honeycombed and standing out void of spring and powdery Every plant that had rejoiced in passing such a winter now was cowering turned away unfit to meet the consequence Flowing sap had stopped its course fluted lines showed want of food and if you pinched the topmost spray there was no rebound or firmness
We think a good deal in a quiet way when people ask us about them—of some fine upstanding peartrees grafted by my grandfather who had been very greatly respected And he got those grafts by sheltering a poor Italian soldier in the time of James the First a man who never could do enough to show his grateful memories How he came to our place is a very difficult story which I never understood rightly having heard it from my mother At any rate there the peartrees were and there they are to this very day and I wish every one could taste their fruit old as they are and rugged
Now these fine trees had taken advantage of the west winds and the moisture and the promise of the spring time so as to fill the tips of the spraywood and the rowels all up the branches with a crowd of eager blossom Not that they were yet in bloom nor even showing whiteness only that some of the cones were opening at the side of the cap which pinched them and there you might count perhaps a dozen nobs like very little buttons but grooved and lined and huddling close to make room for one another And among these buds were graygreen blades scarce bigger than a hair almost yet curving so as if their purpose was to shield the blossom
Other of the spurpoints standing on the older wood where the sap was not so eager had not burst their tunic yet but were flayed and flaked with light casting off the husk of brown in threecornered patches as I have seen a Scotchmans plaid or as his legs shows through it These buds at a distance looked as if the sky had been raining cream upon them
Now all this fair delight to the eyes and good promise to the palate was marred and baffled by the wind and cutting of the nightfrosts The opening cones were struck with brown in between the button buds and on the scapes that shielded them while the foot part of the cover hung like rags peeled back and quivering And there the little stalk of each which might have been a pear God willing had a ring around its base and sought a chance to drop and die The others which had not opened comb but only prepared to do it were a little better off but still very brown and unkid and shrivelling in doubt of health and neither peart nor lusty
Now this I have not told because I know the way to do it for that I do not neither yet have seen a man who did know It is wonderful how we look at things and never think to notice them and I am as bad as anybody unless the thing to be observed is a dog or a horse or a maiden And the last of those three I look at somehow without knowing that I take notice and greatly afraid to do it only I knew afterwards when the time of life was in me not indeed what the maiden was like but how she differed from others
Yet I have spoken about the spring and the failure of fair promise because I took it to my heart as token of what would come to me in the budding of my years and hope And even then being much possessed and full of a foolish melancholy I felt a sad delight at being doomed to blight and loneliness not but that I managed still when mother was urgent upon me to eat my share of victuals and cuff a man for laziness and see that a ploughshare made no leaps and sleep of a night without dreaming And my mother halfbelieving in her fondness and affection that what the parish said was true about a mad dog having bitten me and yet arguing that it must be false because God would have prevented him my mother gave me little rest when I was in the room with her Not that she worried me with questions nor openly regarded me with any unusual meaning but that I knew she was watching slyly whenever I took a spoon up and every hour or so she managed to place a pan of water by me quite as if by accident and sometimes even to spill a little upon my shoe or coatsleeve But Betty Muxworthy was worst for having no fear about my health she made a villainous joke of it and used to rush into the kitchen barking like a dog and panting exclaiming that I had bitten her and justice she would have on me if it cost her a twelvemonths wages And she always took care to do this thing just when I had crossed my legs in the corner after supper and leaned my head against the oven to begin to think of Lorna
However in all things there is comfort if we do not look too hard for it and now I had much satisfaction in my uncouth state from labouring by the hour together at the hedging and the ditching meeting the bitter wind face to face feeling my strength increase and hoping that some one would be proud of it In the rustling rush of every gust in the graceful bend of every tree even in the lords and ladies clumped in the scoops of the hedgerow and most of all in the soft primrose wrung by the wind but stealing back and smiling when the wrath was passed—in all of these and many others there was aching ecstasy delicious pang of Lorna
But however cold the weather was and however hard the wind blew one thing more than all the rest worried and perplexed me This was that I could not settle turn and twist as I might how soon I ought to go again upon a visit to Glen Doone For I liked not at all the falseness of it albeit against murderers the creeping out of sight and hiding and feeling as a spy might And even more than this I feared how Lorna might regard it whether I might seem to her a prone and blunt intruder a country youth not skilled in manners as among the quality even when they rob us For I was not sure myself but that it might be very bad manners to go again too early without an invitation and my hands and face were chapped so badly by the bitter wind that Lorna might count them unsightly things and wish to see no more of them
However I could not bring myself to consult any one upon this point at least in our own neighbourhood nor even to speak of it near home But the east wind holding through the month my hands and face growing worse and worse and it having occurred to me by this time that possibly Lorna might have chaps if she came abroad at all and so might like to talk about them and show her little hands to me I resolved to take another opinion so far as might be upon this matter without disclosing the circumstances
Now the wisest person in all our parts was reckoned to be a certain wise woman well known all over Exmoor by the name of Mother Melldrum Her real name was Maple Durham as I learned long afterwards and she came of an ancient family but neither of Devon nor Somerset Nevertheless she was quite at home with our proper modes of divination and knowing that we liked them best—as each man does his own religion—she would always practise them for the people of the country And all the while she would let us know that she kept a higher and nobler mode for those who looked down upon this one not having been bred and born to it
Mother Melldrum had two houses or rather she had none at all but two homes wherein to find her according to the time of year In summer she lived in a pleasant cave facing the cool side of the hill far inland near Hawkridge and close above Tarrsteps a wonderful crossing of Barle river made as everybody knows by Satan for a wager But throughout the winter she found seaair agreeable and a place where things could be had on credit and more occasion of talking Not but what she could have credit for every one was afraid of her in the neighbourhood of Tarrsteps only there was no one handy owning things worth taking
Therefore at the fall of the leaf when the woods grew damp and irksome the wise woman always set her face to the warmer cliffs of the Channel where shelter was and dry fern bedding and folk to be seen in the distance from a bank upon which the sun shone And there as I knew from our John Fry who had been to her about rheumatism and sheep possessed with an evil spirit and warts on the hand of his son young John any one who chose might find her towards the close of a winter day gathering sticks and brown fern for fuel and talking to herself the while in a hollow stretch behind the cliffs which foreigners who come and go without seeing much of Exmoor have called the Valley of Rocks
This valley or goyal as we term it being small for a valley lies to the west of Linton about a mile from the town perhaps and away towards Ley Manor Our homefolk always call it the Danes or the Denes which is no more they tell me than a hollow place even as the word den is However let that pass for I know very little about it but the place itself is a pretty one though nothing to frighten anybody unless he hath lived in a gallipot It is a green roughsided hollow bending at the middle touched with stone at either crest and dotted here and there with slabs in and out the brambles On the right hand is an upward crag called by some the Castle easy enough to scale and giving great view of the Channel Facing this from the inland side and the elbow of the valley a queer old pile of rock arises bold behind one another and quite enough to affright a man if it only were ten times larger This is called the Devils Cheesering or the Devils Cheeseknife which mean the same thing as our fathers were used to eat their cheese from a scoop and perhaps in old time the upmost rock which has fallen away since I knew it was like to such an implement if Satan eat cheese untoasted
But all the middle of this valley was a place to rest in to sit and think that troubles were not if we would not make them To know the sea outside the hills but never to behold it only by the sound of waves to pity sailors labouring Then to watch the sheltered sun coming warmly round the turn like a guest expected full of gentle glow and gladness casting shadow far away as a thing to hug itself and awakening life from dew and hope from every spreading bud And then to fall asleep and dream that the fern was all asparagus
Alas I was too young in those days much to care for creature comforts or to let pure palate have things that would improve it Anything went down with me as it does with most of us Too late we know the good from bad the knowledge is no pleasure then being memorys medicine rather than the wine of hope
Now Mother Melldrum kept her winter in this vale of rocks sheltering from the wind and rain within the Devils Cheesering which added greatly to her fame because all else for miles around were afraid to go near it after dark or even on a gloomy day Under eaves of lichened rock she had a winding passage which none that ever I knew of durst enter but herself And to this place I went to seek her in spite of all misgivings upon a Sunday in Lenten season when the sheep were folded
Our parson as if he had known my intent had preached a beautiful sermon about the Witch of Endor and the perils of them that meddle wantonly with the unseen Powers and therein he referred especially to the strange noise in the neighbourhood and upbraided us for want of faith and many other backslidings We listened to him very earnestly for we like to hear from our betters about things that are beyond us and to be roused up now and then like sheep with a good dog after them who can pull some wool without biting Nevertheless we could not see how our want of faith could have made that noise especially at night time notwithstanding which we believed it and hoped to do a little better
And so we all came home from church and most of the people dined with us as they always do on Sundays because of the distance to go home with only words inside them The parson who always sat next to mother was afraid that he might have vexed us and would not have the best piece of meat according to his custom But soon we put him at his ease and showed him we were proud of him and then he made no more to do but accepted the best of the sirloin
CHAPTER XVIII
WITCHERY LEADS TO WITCHCRAFT
Although wellnigh the end of March the wind blew wild and piercing as I went on foot that afternoon to Mother Melldrums dwelling It was safer not to take a horse lest if anything vexed her she should put a spell upon him as had been done to Farmer Snowes stable by the wise woman of Simonsbath
The sun was low on the edge of the hills by the time I entered the valley for I could not leave home till the cattle were tended and the distance was seven miles or more The shadows of rocks fell far and deep and the brown dead fern was fluttering and brambles with their sere leaves hanging swayed their tatters to and fro with a red look on them In patches underneath the crags a few wild goats were browsing then they tossed their horns and fled and leaped on ledges and stared at me Moreover the sound of the sea came up and went the length of the valley and there it lapped on a butt of rocks and murmured like a shell
Taking things one with another and feeling all the lonesomeness and having no stick with me I was much inclined to go briskly back and come at a better season And when I beheld a tall grey shape of something or another moving at the lower end of the valley where the shade was it gave me such a stroke of fear after many others that my thumb which lay in mothers Bible brought in my big pocket for the sake of safety shook so much that it came out and I could not get it in again This serves me right I said to myself for tampering with Beelzebub Oh that I had listened to parson
And thereupon I struck aside not liking to run away quite as some people might call it but seeking to look like a wanderer who was come to see the valley and had seen almost enough of it Herein I should have succeeded and gone home and then been angry at my want of courage but that on the very turn and bending of my footsteps the woman in the distance lifted up her staff to me so that I was bound to stop
And now being brought face to face by the will of God as one might say with anything that might come of it I kept myself quite straight and stiff and thrust away all white feather trusting in my Bible still hoping that it would protect me though I had disobeyed it But upon that remembrance my conscience took me by the leg so that I could not go forward
All this while the fearful woman was coming near and more near to me and I was glad to sit down on a rock because my knees were shaking so I tried to think of many things but none of them would come to me and I could not take my eyes away though I prayed God to be near me
But when she was come so nigh to me that I could descry her features there was something in her countenance that made me not dislike her She looked as if she had been visited by many troubles and had felt them one by one yet held enough of kindly nature still to grieve for others Long white hair on either side was falling down below her chin and through her wrinkles clear bright eyes seemed to spread themselves upon me Though I had plenty of time to think I was taken by surprise no less and unable to say anything yet eager to hear the silence broken and longing for a noise or two
Thou art not come to me she said looking through my simple face as if it were but glass to be struck for boneshave nor to be blessed for barngun Give me forth thy hand John Ridd and tell why thou art come to me
But I was so much amazed at her knowing my name and all about me that I feared to place my hand in her power or even my tongue by speaking
Have no fear of me my son I have no gift to harm thee and if I had it should be idle Now if thou hast any wit tell me why I love thee
I never had any wit mother I answered in our Devonshire way and never set eyes on thee before to the furthest of my knowledge
And yet I know thee as well John as if thou wert my grandson Remember you the old Oare oak and the bog at the head of Exe and the child who would have died there but for thy strength and courage and most of all thy kindness That was my granddaughter John and all I have on earth to love
Now that she came to speak of it with the place and that so clearly I remembered all about it a thing that happened last August and thought how stupid I must have been not to learn more of the little girl who had fallen into the black pit with a basketful of whortleberries and who might have been gulfed if her little dog had not spied me in the distance I carried her on my back to mother and then we dressed her all anew and took her where she ordered us but she did not tell us who she was nor anything more than her Christian name and that she was eight years old and fond of fried batatas And we did not seek to ask her more as our manner is with visitors
But thinking of this little story and seeing how she looked at me I lost my fear of Mother Melldrum and began to like her partly because I had helped her grandchild and partly that if she were so wise no need would have been for me to save the little thing from drowning Therefore I stood up and said though scarcely yet established in my power against hers—
Good mother the shoe she lost was in the mire and not with us And we could not match it although we gave her a pair of sister Lizzies
My son what care I for her shoe How simple thou art and foolish according to the thoughts of some Now tell me for thou canst not lie what has brought thee to me
Being so ashamed and bashful I was halfinclined to tell her a lie until she said that I could not do it and then I knew that I could not
I am come to know I said looking at a rock the while to keep my voice from shaking when I may go to see Lorna Doone
No more could I say though my mind was charged to ask fifty other questions But although I looked away it was plain that I had asked enough I felt that the wise woman gazed at me in wrath as well as sorrow and then I grew angry that any one should seem to make light of Lorna
John Ridd said the woman observing this for now I faced her bravely of whom art thou speaking Is it a child of the men who slew your father
I cannot tell mother How should I know And what is that to thee
It is something to thy mother John and something to thyself I trow and nothing worse could befall thee
I waited for her to speak again because she had spoken so sadly that it took my breath away
John Ridd if thou hast any value for thy body or thy soul thy mother or thy fathers name have nought to do with any Doone
She gazed at me in earnest so and raised her voice in saying it until the whole valley curving like a great bell echoed Doone that it seemed to me my heart was gone for every one and everything If it were Gods will for me to have no more of Lorna let a sign come out of the rocks and I would try to believe it But no sign came and I turned to the woman and longed that she had been a man
You poor thing with bones and blades pails of water and doorkeys what know you about the destiny of a maiden such as Lorna Chilblains you may treat and boneshave ringworm and the scaldings even scabby sheep may limp the better for your strikings John the Baptist and his cousins with the wool and hyssop are for mares and ailing dogs and fowls that have the jaundice Look at me now Mother Melldrum am I like a fool
That thou art my son Alas that it were any other Now behold the end of that John Ridd mark the end of it
She pointed to the castlerock where upon a narrow shelf betwixt us and the coming stars a bitter fight was raging A fine fat sheep with an honest face had clomb up very carefully to browse on a bit of juicy grass now the dew of the land was upon it To him from an upper crag a lean black goat came hurrying with leaps and skirmish of the horns and an angry noise in his nostrils The goat had grazed the place before to the utmost of his liking cropping in and out with jerks as their manner is of feeding Nevertheless he fell on the sheep with fury and great malice
The simple wether was much inclined to retire from the contest but looked around in vain for any way to peace and comfort His enemy stood between him and the last leap he had taken there was nothing left him but to fight or be hurled into the sea five hundred feet below
Lie down lie down I shouted to him as if he were a dog for I had seen a battle like this before and knew that the sheep had no chance of life except from his greater weight and the difficulty of moving him
Lie down lie down John Ridd cried Mother Melldrum mocking me but without a sign of smiling
The poor sheep turned upon my voice and looked at me so piteously that I could look no longer but ran with all my speed to try and save him from the combat He saw that I could not be in time for the goat was bucking to leap at him and so the good wether stooped his forehead with the harmless horns curling aside of it and the goat flung his heels up and rushed at him with quick sharp jumps and tricks of movement and the points of his long horns always foremost and his little scut cocked like a gunhammer
As I ran up the steep of the rock I could not see what they were doing but the sheep must have fought very bravely at last and yielded his ground quite slowly and I hoped almost to save him But just as my head topped the platform of rock I saw him flung from it backward with a sad low moan and a gurgle His body made quite a short noise in the air like a bucket thrown down a well shaft and I could not tell when it struck the water except by the echo among the rocks So wroth was I with the goat at the moment being somewhat scant of breath and unable to consider that I caught him by the right hindleg before he could turn from his victory and hurled him after the sheep to learn how he liked his own compulsion
CHAPTER XIX
ANOTHER DANGEROUS INTERVIEW
Although I left the Denes at once having little heart for further questions of the wise woman and being afraid to visit her house under the Devils Cheesering to which she kindly invited me and although I ran most part of the way it was very late for farmhouse time upon a Sunday evening before I was back at Plovers Barrows My mother had great desire to know all about the matter but I could not reconcile it with my respect so to frighten her Therefore I tried to sleep it off keeping my own counsel and when that proved of no avail I strove to work it away it might be by heavy outdoor labour and weariness and good feeding These indeed had some effect and helped to pass a week or two with more pain of hand than heart to me
But when the weather changed in earnest and the frost was gone and the southwest wind blew softly and the lambs were at play with the daisies it was more than I could do to keep from thought of Lorna For now the fields were spread with growth and the waters clad with sunshine and light and shadow step by step wandered over the furzy cleves All the sides of the hilly wood were gathered in and out with green silvergrey or russet points according to the several manner of the trees beginning And if one stood beneath an elm with any heart to look at it lo all the ground was strewn with flakes too small to know their meaning and all the sprays above were rasped and trembling with a redness And so I stopped beneath the tree and carved LD upon it and wondered at the buds of thought that seemed to swell inside me
The upshot of it all was this that as no Lorna came to me except in dreams or fancy and as my life was not worth living without constant sign of her forth I must again to find her and say more than a man can tell Therefore without waiting longer for the moving of the spring dressed I was in grand attire so far as I had gotten it and thinking my appearance good although with doubts about it being forced to dress in the haytallat round the corner of the woodstack went I very knowingly—for Lizzies eyes were wondrous sharp—and then I was sure of meeting none who would care or dare to speak of me
It lay upon my conscience often that I had not made dear Annie secret to this history although in all things I could trust her and she loved me like a lamb Many and many a time I tried and more than once began the thing but there came a dryness in my throat and a knocking under the roof of my mouth and a longing to put it off again as perhaps might be the wisest And then I would remember too that I had no right to speak of Lorna as if she were common property
This time I longed to take my gun and was half resolved to do so because it seemed so hard a thing to be shot at and have no chance of shooting but when I came to remember the steepness and the slippery nature of the waterslide there seemed but little likelihood of keeping dry the powder Therefore I was armed with nothing but a good stout holly staff seasoned well for many a winter in our backkitchen chimney
Although my heart was leaping high with the prospect of some adventure and the fear of meeting Lorna I could not but be gladdened by the softness of the weather and the welcome way of everything There was that power all round that power and that goodness which make us come as it were outside our bodily selves to share them Over and beside us breathes the joy of hope and promise under foot are troubles past in the distance bowering newness tempts us ever forward We quicken with largesse of life and spring with vivid mystery
And in good sooth I had to spring and no mystery about it ere ever I got to the top of the rift leading into Dooneglade For the stream was rushing down in strength and raving at every corner a mort of rain having fallen last night and no wind come to wipe it However I reached the head ere dark with more difficulty than danger and sat in a place which comforted my back and legs desirably
Hereupon I grew so happy at being on dry land again and come to look for Lorna with pretty trees around me that what did I do but fall asleep with the hollystick in front of me and my best coat sunk in a bed of moss with water and woodsorrel Mayhap I had not done so nor yet enjoyed the spring so much if so be I had not taken three parts of a gallon of cider at home at Plovers Barrows because of the lowness and sinking ever since I met Mother Melldrum
There was a little runnel going softly down beside me falling from the upper rock by the means of moss and grass as if it feared to make a noise and had a mother sleeping Now and then it seemed to stop in fear of its own dropping and wait for some orders and the blades of grass that straightened to it turned their points a little way and offered their allegiance to wind instead of water Yet before their carkled edges bent more than a driven saw down the water came again with heavy drops and pats of running and bright anger at neglect
This was very pleasant to me now and then to gaze at blinking as the water blinked and falling back to sleep again Suddenly my sleep was broken by a shade cast over me between me and the low sunlight Lorna Doone was standing
Master Ridd are you mad she said and took my hand to move me
Not mad but half asleep I answered feigning not to notice her that so she might keep hold of me
Come away come away if you care for life The patrol will be here directly Be quick Master Ridd let me hide thee
I will not stir a step said I though being in the greatest fright that might be well imagined unless you call me John
Well John then—Master John Ridd be quick if you have any to care for you
I have many that care for me I said just to let her know and I will follow you Mistress Lorna albeit without any hurry unless there be peril to more than me
Without another word she led me though with many timid glances towards the upper valley to and into her little bower where the inlet through the rock was I am almost sure that I spoke before though I cannot now go seek for it and my memory is but a wornout tub of a certain deep and perilous pit in which I was like to drown myself through hurry and fright of boyhood And even then I wondered greatly and was vexed with Lorna for sending me in that heedless manner into such an entrance But now it was clear that she had been right and the fault mine own entirely for the entrance to the pit was only to be found by seeking it Inside the niche of native stone the plainest thing of all to see at any rate by day light was the stairway hewn from rock and leading up the mountain by means of which I had escaped as before related To the right side of this was the mouth of the pit still looking very formidable though Lorna laughed at my fear of it for she drew her water thence But on the left was a narrow crevice very difficult to espy and having a sweep of grey ivy laid like a slouching beaver over it A man here coming from the brightness of the outer air with eyes dazed by the twilight would never think of seeing this and following it to its meaning
Lorna raised the screen for me but I had much ado to pass on account of bulk and stature Instead of being proud of my size as it seemed to me she ought to be Lorna laughed so quietly that I was ready to knock my head or elbows against anything and say no more about it However I got through at last without a word of compliment and broke into the pleasant room the lone retreat of Lorna
The chamber was of unhewn rock round as near as might be eighteen or twenty feet across and gay with rich variety of fern and moss and lichen The fern was in its winter still or coiling for the springtide but moss was in abundant life some feathering and some gobleted and some with fringe of red to it Overhead there was no ceiling but the sky itself flaked with little clouds of April whitely wandering over it The floor was made of soft low grass mixed with moss and primroses and in a niche of shelter moved the delicate woodsorrel Here and there around the sides were chairs of living stone as some Latin writer says whose name has quite escaped me and in the midst a tiny spring arose with crystal beads in it and a soft voice as of a laughing dream and dimples like a sleeping babe Then after going round a little with surprise of daylight the water overwelled the edge and softly went through lines of light to shadows and an untold bourne
While I was gazing at all these things with wonder and some sadness Lorna turned upon me lightly as her manner was and said—
Where are the newlaid eggs Master Ridd Or hath blue hen ceased laying
I did not altogether like the way in which she said it with a sort of dialect as if my speech could be laughed at
Here be some I answered speaking as if in spite of her I would have brought thee twice as many but that I feared to crush them in the narrow ways Mistress Lorna
And so I laid her out two dozen upon the moss of the rockledge unwinding the wisp of hay from each as it came safe out of my pocket Lorna looked with growing wonder as I added one to one and when I had placed them side by side and bidden her now to tell them to my amazement what did she do but burst into a flood of tears
What have I done I asked with shame scarce daring even to look at her because her grief was not like Annies—a thing that could be coaxed away and left a joy in going—oh what have I done to vex you so
It is nothing done by you Master Ridd she answered very proudly as if nought I did could matter it is only something that comes upon me with the scent of the pure true cloverhay Moreover you have been too kind and I am not used to kindness
Some sort of awkwardness was on me at her words and weeping as if I would like to say something but feared to make things worse perhaps than they were already Therefore I abstained from speech as I would in my own pain And as it happened this was the way to make her tell me more about it Not that I was curious beyond what pity urged me and the strange affairs around her and now I gazed upon the floor lest I should seem to watch her but none the less for that I knew all that she was doing
Lorna went a little way as if she would not think of me nor care for one so careless and all my heart gave a sudden jump to go like a mad thing after her until she turned of her own accord and with a little sigh came back to me Her eyes were soft with troubles shadow and the proud lift of her neck was gone and beautys vanity borne down by womans want of sustenance
Master Ridd she said in the softest voice that ever flowed between two lips have I done aught to offend you
Hereupon it went hard with me not to catch her up and kiss her in the manner in which she was looking only it smote me suddenly that this would be a low advantage of her trust and helplessness She seemed to know what I would be at and to doubt very greatly about it whether as a child of old she might permit the usage All sorts of things went through my head as I made myself look away from her for fear of being tempted beyond what I could bear And the upshot of it was that I said within my heart and through it John Ridd be on thy very best manners with this lonely maiden
Lorna liked me all the better for my good forbearance because she did not love me yet and had not thought about it at least so far as I knew And though her eyes were so beauteous so very soft and kindly there was to my apprehension some great power in them as if she would not have a thing unless her judgment leaped with it
But now her judgment leaped with me because I had behaved so well and being of quick urgent nature—such as I delight in for the change from mine own slowness—she without any let or hindrance sitting over against me now raising and now dropping fringe over those sweet eyes that were the roadlights of her tongue Lorna told me all about everything I wished to know every little thing she knew except indeed that point of points how Master Ridd stood with her
Although it wearied me no whit it might be wearisome for folk who cannot look at Lorna to hear the story all in speech exactly as she told it therefore let me put it shortly to the best of my remembrance
Nay pardon me whosoever thou art for seeming fickle and rude to thee I have tried to do as first proposed to tell the tale in my own words as of anothers fortune But lo I was beset at once with many heavy obstacles which grew as I went onward until I knew not where I was and mingled past and present And two of these difficulties only were enough to stop me the one that I must coldly speak without the force of pity the other that I off and on confused myself with Lorna as might be well expected
Therefore let her tell the story with her own sweet voice and manner and if ye find it wearisome seek in yourselves the weariness
CHAPTER XX
LORNA BEGINS HER STORY
I cannot go through all my thoughts so as to make them clear to you nor have I ever dwelt on things to shape a story of them I know not where the beginning was nor where the middle ought to be nor even how at the present time I feel or think or ought to think If I look for help to those around me who should tell me right and wrong being older and much wiser I meet sometimes with laughter and at other times with anger
There are but two in the world who ever listen and try to help me one of them is my grandfather and the other is a man of wisdom whom we call the Counsellor My grandfather Sir Ensor Doone is very old and harsh of manner except indeed to me he seems to know what is right and wrong but not to want to think of it The Counsellor on the other hand though full of life and subtleties treats my questions as of play and not gravely worth his while to answer unless he can make wit of them
And among the women there are none with whom I can hold converse since my Aunt Sabina died who took such pains to teach me She was a lady of high repute and lofty ways and learning but grieved and harassed more and more by the coarseness and the violence and the ignorance around her In vain she strove from year to year to make the young men hearken to teach them what became their birth and give them sense of honour It was her favourite word poor thing and they called her Old Aunt Honour Very often she used to say that I was her only comfort and I am sure she was my only one and when she died it was more to me than if I had lost a mother
For I have no remembrance now of father or of mother although they say that my father was the eldest son of Sir Ensor Doone and the bravest and the best of them And so they call me heiress to this little realm of violence and in sorry sport sometimes I am their Princess or their Queen
Many people living here as I am forced to do would perhaps be very happy and perhaps I ought to be so We have a beauteous valley sheltered from the cold of winter and power of the summer sun untroubled also by the storms and mists that veil the mountains although I must acknowledge that it is apt to rain too often The grass moreover is so fresh and the brook so bright and lively and flowers of so many hues come after one another that no one need be dull if only left alone with them
And so in the early days perhaps when morning breathes around me and the sun is going upward and light is playing everywhere I am not so far beside them all as to live in shadow But when the evening gathers down and the sky is spread with sadness and the day has spent itself then a cloud of lonely trouble falls like night upon me I cannot see the things I quest for of a world beyond me I cannot join the peace and quiet of the depth above me neither have I any pleasure in the brightness of the stars
What I want to know is something none of them can tell me—what am I and why set here and when shall I be with them I see that you are surprised a little at this my curiosity Perhaps such questions never spring in any wholesome spirit But they are in the depths of mine and I cannot be quit of them
Meantime all around me is violence and robbery coarse delight and savage pain reckless joke and hopeless death Is it any wonder that I cannot sink with these that I cannot so forget my soul as to live the life of brutes and die the death more horrible because it dreams of waking There is none to lead me forward there is none to teach me right young as I am I live beneath a curse that lasts for ever
Here Lorna broke down for awhile and cried so very piteously that doubting of my knowledge and of any power to comfort I did my best to hold my peace and tried to look very cheerful Then thinking that might be bad manners I went to wipe her eyes for her
Master Ridd she began again I am both ashamed and vexed at my own childish folly But you who have a mother who thinks you say so much of you and sisters and a quiet home you cannot tell it is not likely what a lonely nature is How it leaps in mirth sometimes with only heaven touching it and how it falls away desponding when the dreary weight creeps on
It does not happen many times that I give way like this more shame now to do so when I ought to entertain you Sometimes I am so full of anger that I dare not trust to speech at things they cannot hide from me and perhaps you would be much surprised that reckless men would care so much to elude a young girls knowledge They used to boast to Aunt Sabina of pillage and of cruelty on purpose to enrage her but they never boast to me It even makes me smile sometimes to see how awkwardly they come and offer for temptation to me shining packets half concealed of ornaments and finery of rings or chains or jewels lately belonging to other people
But when I try to search the past to get a sense of what befell me ere my own perception formed to feel back for the lines of childhood as a trace of gossamer then I only know that nought lives longer than God wills it So may after sin go by for we are children always as the Counsellor has told me so may we beyond the clouds seek this infancy of life and never find its memory
But I am talking now of things which never come across me when any work is toward It might have been a good thing for me to have had a father to beat these rovings out of me or a mother to make a home and teach me how to manage it For being left with none—I think and nothing ever comes of it Nothing I mean which I can grasp and have with any surety nothing but faint images and wonderment and wandering But often when I am neither searching back into remembrance nor asking of my parents but occupied by trifles something like a sign or message or a token of some meaning seems to glance upon me Whether from the rustling wind or sound of distant music or the singing of a bird like the sun on snow it strikes me with a pain of pleasure
And often when I wake at night and listen to the silence or wander far from people in the grayness of the evening or stand and look at quiet water having shadows over it some vague image seems to hover on the skirt of vision ever changing place and outline ever flitting as I follow This so moves and hurries me in the eagerness and longing that straightway all my chance is lost and memory scared like a wild bird flies Or am I as a child perhaps chasing a flown cageling who among the branches free plays and peeps at the offered cage as a home not to be urged on him and means to take his time of coming if he comes at all
Often too I wonder at the odds of fortune which made me helpless as I am and fond of peace and reading the heiress of this mad domain the sanctuary of unholiness It is not likely that I shall have much power of authority and yet the Counsellor creeps up to be my Lord of the Treasury and his son aspires to my hand as of a Royal alliance Well honour among thieves they say and mine is the first honour although among decent folk perhaps honesty is better
We should not be so quiet here and safe from interruption but that I have begged one privilege rather than commanded it This was that the lower end just this narrowing of the valley where it is most hard to come at might be looked upon as mine except for purposes of guard Therefore none beside the sentries ever trespass on me here unless it be my grandfather or the Counsellor or Carver
By your face Master Ridd I see that you have heard of Carver Doone For strength and courage and resource he bears the first repute among us as might well be expected from the son of the Counsellor But he differs from his father in being very hot and savage and quite free from argument The Counsellor who is my uncle gives his son the best advice commending all the virtues with eloquence and wisdom yet himself abstaining from them accurately and impartially
You must be tired of this story and the time I take to think and the weakness of my telling but my life from day to day shows so little variance Among the riders there is none whose safe return I watch for—I mean none more than other—and indeed there seems no risk all are now so feared of us Neither of the old men is there whom I can revere or love except alone my grandfather whom I love with trembling neither of the women any whom I like to deal with unless it be a little maiden whom I saved from starving
A little Cornish girl she is and shaped in western manner not so very much less in width than if you take her lengthwise Her father seems to have been a miner a Cornishman as she declares of more than average excellence and better than any two men to be found in Devonshire or any four in Somerset Very few things can have been beyond his power of performance and yet he left his daughter to starve upon a peatrick She does not know how this was done and looks upon it as a mystery the meaning of which will some day be clear and redound to her fathers honour His name was Simon Carfax and he came as the captain of a gang from one of the Cornish stannaries Gwenny Carfax my young maid well remembers how her father was brought up from Cornwall Her mother had been buried just a week or so before and he was sad about it and had been off his work and was ready for another job Then people came to him by night and said that he must want a change and everybody lost their wives and work was the way to mend it So what with grief and overthought and the inside of a square bottle Gwenny says they brought him off to become a mighty captain and choose the country round The last she saw of him was this that he went down a ladder somewhere on the wilds of Exmoor leaving her with bread and cheese and his travellinghat to see to And from that day to this he never came above the ground again so far as we can hear of
But Gwenny holding to his hat and having eaten the bread and cheese when he came no more to help her dwelt three days near the mouth of the hole and then it was closed over the while that she was sleeping With weakness and with want of food she lost herself distressfully and went away for miles or more and lay upon a peatrick to die before the ravens
That very day I chanced to return from Aunt Sabinas dyingplace for she would not die in Glen Doone she said lest the angels feared to come for her and so she was taken to a cottage in a lonely valley I was allowed to visit her for even we durst not refuse the wishes of the dying and if a priest had been desired we should have made bold with him Returning very sorrowful and caring now for nothing I found this little stray thing lying her arms upon her and not a sign of life except the way that she was biting Black rootstuff was in her mouth and a piece of dirty sheeps wool and at her feet an old eggshell of some bird of the moorland
I tried to raise her but she was too square and heavy for me and so I put food in her mouth and left her to do right with it And this she did in a little time for the victuals were very choice and rare being what I had taken over to tempt poor Aunt Sabina Gwenny ate them without delay and then was ready to eat the basket and the ware that contained them
Gwenny took me for an angel—though I am little like one as you see Master Ridd and she followed me expecting that I would open wings and fly when we came to any difficulty I brought her home with me so far as this can be a home and she made herself my sole attendant without so much as asking me She has beaten two or three other girls who used to wait upon me until they are afraid to come near the house of my grandfather She seems to have no kind of fear even of our roughest men and yet she looks with reverence and awe upon the Counsellor As for the wickedness and theft and revelry around her she says it is no concern of hers and they know their own business best By this way of regarding men she has won upon our riders so that she is almost free from all control of place and season and is allowed to pass where none even of the youths may go Being so wide and short and flat she has none to pay her compliments and were there any she would scorn them as not being Cornishmen Sometimes she wanders far by moonlight on the moors and up the rivers to give her father as she says another chance of finding her and she comes back not a wit defeated or discouraged or depressed but confident that he is only waiting for the proper time
Herein she sets me good example of a patience and contentment hard for me to imitate Oftentimes I am vexed by things I cannot meddle with yet which cannot be kept from me that I am at the point of flying from this dreadful valley and risking all that can betide me in the unknown outer world If it were not for my grandfather I would have done so long ago but I cannot bear that he should die with no gentle hand to comfort him and I fear to think of the conflict that must ensue for the government if there be a disputed succession
Ah me We are to be pitied greatly rather than condemned by people whose things we have taken from them for I have read and seem almost to understand about it that there are places on the earth where gentle peace and love of home and knowledge of ones neighbours prevail and are with reason looked for as the usual state of things There honest folk may go to work in the glory of the sunrise with hope of coming home again quite safe in the quiet evening and finding all their children and even in the darkness they have no fear of lying down and dropping off to slumber and hearken to the wind of night not as to an enemy trying to find entrance but a friend who comes to tell the value of their comfort
Of all this golden ease I hear but never saw the like of it and haply I shall never do so being born to turbulence Once indeed I had the offer of escape and kinsmans aid and high place in the gay bright world and yet I was not tempted much or at least dared not to trust it And it ended very sadly so dreadfully that I even shrink from telling you about it for that one terror changed my life in a moment at a blow from childhood and from thoughts of play and commune with the flowers and trees to a sense of death and darkness and a heavy weight of earth Be content now Master Ridd ask me nothing more about it so your sleep be sounder
But I John Ridd being young and new and very fond of hearing things to make my blood to tingle had no more of manners than to urge poor Lorna onwards hoping perhaps in depth of heart that she might have to hold by me when the worst came to the worst of it Therefore she went on again
CHAPTER XXI
LORNA ENDS HER STORY
It is not a twelvemonth yet although it seems ten years agone since I blew the downy globe to learn the time of day or set beneath my chin the veinings of the varnished buttercup or fired the foxglove cannonade or made a captive of myself with dandelion fetters for then I had not very much to trouble me in earnest but went about romancing gravely playing at bopeep with fear making for myself strong heroes of gray rock or firtree adding to my own importance as the children love to do
As yet I had not truly learned the evil of our living the scorn of law the outrage and the sorrow caused to others It even was a point with all to hide the roughness from me to show me but the gallant side and keep in shade the other My grandfather Sir Ensor Doone had given strictest order as I discovered afterwards that in my presence all should be seemly kind and vigilant Nor was it very difficult to keep most part of the mischief from me for no Doone ever robs at home neither do they quarrel much except at times of gambling And though Sir Ensor Doone is now so old and growing feeble his own way he will have still and no one dare deny him Even our fiercest and most mighty swordsmen seared from all sense of right or wrong yet have plentiful sense of fear when brought before that whitehaired man Not that he is rough with them or querulous or rebukeful but that he has a strange soft smile and a gaze they cannot answer and a knowledge deeper far than they have of themselves Under his protection I am as safe from all those men some of whom are but little akin to me as if I slept beneath the roof of the Kings Lord Justiciary
But now at the time I speak of one evening of last summer a horrible thing befell which took all play of childhood from me The fifteenth day of last July was very hot and sultry long after the time of sundown and I was paying heed of it because of the old saying that if it rain then rain will fall on forty days thereafter I had been long by the waterside at this lower end of the valley plaiting a little crown of woodbine crocketed with sprigs of heath—to please my grandfather who likes to see me gay at suppertime Being proud of my tiara which had cost some trouble I set it on my head at once to save the chance of crushing and carrying my gray hat ventured by a path not often trod For I must be home at the suppertime or grandfather would be exceeding wrath and the worst of his anger is that he never condescends to show it
Therefore instead of the open mead or the windings of the river I made short cut through the ashtrees covert which lies in the middle of our vale with the water skirting or cleaving it You have never been up so far as that—at least to the best of my knowledge—but you see it like a long gray spot from the top of the cliffs above us Here I was not likely to meet any of our people because the young ones are afraid of some ancient tale about it and the old ones have no love of trees where gunshots are uncertain
It was more almost than dusk down below the treeleaves and I was eager to go through and be again beyond it For the gray dark hung around me scarcely showing shadow and the little light that glimmered seemed to come up from the ground For the earth was strown with the winterspread and coil of last years foliage the lichened claws of chalky twigs and the numberless decay which gives a light in its decaying I for my part hastened shyly ready to draw back and run from hare or rabbit or small fieldmouse
At a sudden turn of the narrow path where it stopped again to the river a man leaped out from behind a tree and stopped me and seized hold of me I tried to shriek but my voice was still I could only hear my heart
Now Cousin Lorna my good cousin he said with ease and calmness your voice is very sweet no doubt from all that I can see of you But I pray you keep it still unless you would give to dusty death your very best cousin and trusty guardian Alan Brandir of Loch Awe
You my guardian I said for the idea was too ludicrous and ludicrous things always strike me first through some fault of nature
I have in truth that honour madam he answered with a sweeping bow unless I err in taking you for Mistress Lorna Doone
You have not mistaken me My name is Lorna Doone
He looked at me with gravity and was inclined to make some claim to closer consideration upon the score of kinship but I shrunk back and only said Yes my name is Lorna Doone
Then I am your faithful guardian Alan Brandir of Loch Awe called Lord Alan Brandir son of a worthy peer of Scotland Now will you confide in me
I confide in you I cried looking at him with amazement why you are not older than I am
Yes I am three years at least You my ward are not sixteen I your worshipful guardian am almost nineteen years of age
Upon hearing this I looked at him for that seemed then a venerable age but the more I looked the more I doubted although he was dressed quite like a man He led me in a courtly manner stepping at his tallest to an open place beside the water where the light came as in channel and was made the most of by glancing waves and fair white stones
Now am I to your liking cousin he asked when I had gazed at him until I was almost ashamed except at such a stripling Does my Cousin Lorna judge kindly of her guardian and her nearest kinsman In a word is our admiration mutual
Truly I know not I said but you seem goodnatured and to have no harm in you Do they trust you with a sword
For in my usage among men of stature and strong presence this pretty youth so tricked and slender seemed nothing but a doll to me Although he scared me in the wood now that I saw him in good twilight lo he was but little greater than my little self and so tasselled and so ruffled with a mint of bravery and a green coat barred with red and a slim sword hanging under him it was the utmost I could do to look at him halfgravely
I fear that my presence hath scarce enough of ferocity about it he gave a jerk to his sword as he spoke and clanked it on the brookstones yet do I assure you cousin that I am not without some prowess and many a master of defence hath this good sword of mine disarmed Now if the boldest and biggest robber in all this charming valley durst so much as breathe the scent of that flower coronal which doth not adorn but is adorned—here he talked some nonsense—I would cleave him from head to foot ere ever he could fly or cry
Hush I said talk not so loudly or thou mayst have to do both thyself and do them both in vain
For he was quite forgetting now in his bravery before me where he stood and with whom he spoke and how the summer lightning shone above the hills and down the hollow And as I gazed on this slight fair youth clearly one of high birth and breeding albeit overboastful a chill of fear crept over me because he had no strength or substance and would be no more than a pincushion before the great swords of the Doones
I pray you be not vexed with me he answered in a softer voice for I have travelled far and sorely for the sake of seeing you I know right well among whom I am and that their hospitality is more of the knife than the saltstand Nevertheless I am safe enough for my foot is the fleetest in Scotland and what are these hills to me Tush I have seen some border forays among wilder spirits and craftier men than these be Once I mind some years agone when I was quite a stripling lad—
Worshipful guardian I said there is no time now for history If thou art in no haste I am and cannot stay here idling Only tell me how I am akin and under wardship to thee and what purpose brings thee here
In order cousin—all things in order even with fair ladies First I am thy uncles son my father is thy mothers brother or at least thy grandmothers—unless I am deceived in that which I have guessed and no other man For my father being a leading lord in the councils of King Charles the Second appointed me to learn the law not for my livelihood thank God but because he felt the lack of it in affairs of state But first your leave young Mistress Lorna I cannot lay down legal maxims without aid of smoke
He leaned against a willowtree and drawing from a gilded box a little dark thing like a stick placed it between his lips and then striking a flint on steel made fire and caught it upon touchwood With this he kindled the tip of the stick until it glowed with a ring of red and then he breathed forth curls of smoke blue and smelling on the air like spice I had never seen this done before though acquainted with tobaccopipes and it made me laugh until I thought of the peril that must follow it
Cousin have no fear he said this makes me all the safer they will take me for a glowworm and thee for the flower it shines upon But to return—of law I learned as you may suppose but little although I have capacities But the thing was far too dull for me All I care for is adventure moving chance and hot encounter therefore all of law I learned was how to live without it Nevertheless for amusements sake as I must needs be at my desk an hour or so in the afternoon I took to the sporting branch of the law the pitfalls and the ambuscades and of all the traps to be laid therein pedigrees are the rarest There is scarce a man worth a cross of butter but what you may find a hole in his shield within four generations And so I struck our own escutcheon and it sounded hollow There is a point—but heed not that enough that being curious now I followed up the quarry and I am come to this at last—we even we the lords of Loch Awe have an outlaw for our cousin and I would we had more if they be like you
Sir I answered being amused by his manner which was new to me for the Doones are much in earnest surely you count it no disgrace to be of kin to Sir Ensor Doone and all his honest family
If it be so it is in truth the very highest honour and would heal ten holes in our escutcheon What noble family but springs from a captain among robbers Trade alone can spoil our blood robbery purifies it The robbery of one age is the chivalry of the next We may start anew and vie with even the nobility of France if we can once enrol but half the Doones upon our lineage
I like not to hear you speak of the Doones as if they were no more than that I exclaimed being now unreasonable but will you tell me once for all sir how you are my guardian
That I will do You are my ward because you were my fathers ward under the Scottish law and now my father being so deaf I have succeeded to that right—at least in my own opinion—under which claim I am here to neglect my trust no longer but to lead you away from scenes and deeds which though of good repute and comely are not the best for young gentlewomen There spoke I not like a guardian After that can you mistrust me
But said I good Cousin Alan if I may so call you it is not meet for young gentlewomen to go away with young gentlemen though fifty times their guardians But if you will only come with me and explain your tale to my grandfather he will listen to you quietly and take no advantage of you
I thank you much kind Mistress Lorna to lead the goose into the foxs den But setting by all thought of danger I have other reasons against it Now come with your faithful guardian child I will pledge my honour against all harm and to bear you safe to London By the law of the realm I am now entitled to the custody of your fair person and of all your chattels
But sir all that you have learned of law is how to live without it
Fairly met fair cousin mine Your wit will do me credit after a little sharpening And there is none to do that better than your aunt my mother Although she knows not of my coming she is longing to receive you Come and in a few months time you shall set the mode at Court instead of pining here and weaving coronals of daisies
I turned aside and thought a little Although he seemed so light of mind and gay in dress and manner I could not doubt his honesty and saw beneath his jaunty air true mettle and ripe bravery Scarce had I thought of his project twice until he spoke of my aunt his mother but then the form of my dearest friend my sweet Aunt Sabina seemed to come and bid me listen for this was what she prayed for Moreover I felt though not as now that Doone Glen was no place for me or any proud young maiden But while I thought the yellow lightning spread behind a bulk of clouds three times ere the flash was done far off and void of thunder and from the pile of cloud before it cut as from black paper and lit to depths of blackness by the blaze behind it a form as of an aged man sitting in a chair loosemantled seemed to lift a hand and warn
This minded me of my grandfather and all the care I owed him Moreover now the storm was rising and I began to grow afraid for of all things awful to me thunder is the dreadfulest It doth so growl like a lion coming and then so roll and roar and rumble out of a thickening darkness then crack like the last trump overhead through cloven air and terror that all my heart lies low and quivers like a weed in water I listened now for the distant rolling of the great black storm and heard it and was hurried by it But the youth before me waved his rolled tobacco at it and drawled in his daintiest tone and manner—
The sky is having a smoke I see and dropping sparks and grumbling I should have thought these Exmoor hills too small to gather thunder
I cannot go I will not go with you Lord Alan Brandir I answered being vexed a little by those words of his You are not grave enough for me you are not old enough for me My Aunt Sabina would not have wished it nor would I leave my grandfather without his full permission I thank you much for coming sir but be gone at once by the way you came and pray how did you come sir
Fair cousin you will grieve for this you will mourn when you cannot mend it I would my mother had been here soon would she have persuaded you And yet he added with the smile of his accustomed gaiety it would have been an unco thing as we say in Scotland for her ladyship to have waited upon you as her graceless son has done and hopes to do again ere long Down the cliffs I came and up them I must make way back again Now adieu fair Cousin Lorna I see you are in haste tonight but I am right proud of my guardianship Give me just one flower for token—here he kissed his hand to me and I threw him a truss of woodbine—adieu fair cousin trust me well I will soon be here again
That thou never shalt sir cried a voice as loud as a culverin and Carver Doone had Alan Brandir as a spider hath a fly The boy made a little shriek at first with the sudden shock and the terror then he looked methought ashamed of himself and set his face to fight for it Very bravely he strove and struggled to free one arm and grasp his sword but as well might an infant buried alive attempt to lift his gravestone Carver Doone with his great arms wrapped around the slim gay body smiled as I saw by the flash from heaven at the poor young face turned up to him then as a nurse bears off a child who is loath to go to bed he lifted the youth from his feet and bore him away into the darkness
I was young then I am older now older by ten years in thought although it is not a twelvemonth since If that black deed were done again I could follow and could combat it could throw weak arms on the murderer and strive to be murdered also I am now at home with violence and no dark death surprises me
But being as I was that night the horror overcame me The crash of thunder overhead the last despairing look the deathpiece framed with blaze of lightning—my young heart was so affrighted that I could not gasp My breath went from me and I knew not where I was or who or what Only that I lay and cowered under great trees full of thunder and could neither count nor moan nor have my feet to help me
Yet hearkening as a coward does through the brushing of the wind and echo of far noises I heard a sharp sound as of iron and a fall of heavy wood No unmanly shriek came with it neither cry for mercy Carver Doone knows what it was and so did Alan Brandir
Here Lorna Doone could tell no more being overcome with weeping Only through her tears she whispered as a thing too bad to tell that she had seen that giant Carver in a few days afterwards smoking a little round brown stick like those of her poor cousin I could not press her any more with questions or for clearness although I longed very much to know whether she had spoken of it to her grandfather or the Counsellor But she was now in such condition both of mind and body from the force of her own fear multiplied by telling it that I did nothing more than coax her at a distance humbly and so that she could see that some one was at least afraid of her This although I knew not women in those days as now I do and never shall know much of it this I say so brought her round that all her fear was now for me and how to get me safely off without mischance to any one And sooth to say in spite of longing just to see if Master Carver could have served me such a trick—as it grew towards the dusk I was not best pleased to be there for it seemed a lawless place and some of Lornas fright stayed with me as I talked it away from her
CHAPTER XXII
After hearing that tale from Lorna I went home in sorry spirits having added fear for her and misery about to all my other ailments And was it not quite certain now that she being owned full cousin to a peer and lord of Scotland although he was a dead one must have nought to do with me a yeomans son and bound to be the father of more yeomen I had been very sorry when first I heard about that poor young popinjay and would gladly have fought hard for him but now it struck me that after all he had no right to be there prowling as it were for Lorna without any invitation and we farmers love not trespass Still if I had seen the thing I must have tried to save him
Moreover I was greatly vexed with my own hesitation stupidity or shyness or whatever else it was which had held me back from saying ere she told her story what was in my heart to say videlicet that I must die unless she let me love her Not that I was fool enough to think that she would answer me according to my liking or begin to care about me for a long time yet if indeed she ever should which I hardly dared to hope But that I had heard from men more skillful in the matter that it is wise to be in time that so the maids may begin to think when they know that they are thought of And to tell the truth I had bitter fears on account of her wondrous beauty lest some young fellow of higher birth and finer parts and finish might steal in before poor me and cut me out altogether Thinking of which I used to double my great fist without knowing it and keep it in my pocket ready
But the worst of all was this that in my great dismay and anguish to see Lorna weeping so I had promised not to cause her any further trouble from anxiety and fear of harm And this being brought to practice meant that I was not to show myself within the precincts of Glen Doone for at least another month Unless indeed as I contrived to edge into the agreement anything should happen to increase her present trouble and every days uneasiness In that case she was to throw a dark mantle or covering of some sort over a large white stone which hung within the entrance to her retreat—I mean the outer entrance—and which though unseen from the valley itself was as I had observed conspicuous from the height where I stood with Uncle Reuben
Now coming home so sad and weary yet trying to console myself with the thought that love oerleapeth rank and must still be lord of all I found a shameful thing going on which made me very angry For it needs must happen that young Marwood de Whichehalse only son of the Baron riding home that very evening from chasing of the Exmoor bustards with his hounds and servingmen should take the short cut through our farmyard and being dry from his exercise should come and ask for drink And it needs must happen also that there should be none to give it to him but my sister Annie I more than suspect that he had heard some report of our Annies comeliness and had a mind to satisfy himself upon the subject Now as he took the large oxhorn of our quarantineapple cider which we always keep apart from the rest being too good except for the quality he let his fingers dwell on Annies by some sort of accident while he lifted his beaver gallantly and gazed on her face in the light from the west Then what did Annie do as she herself told me afterwards but make her very best curtsey to him being pleased that he was pleased with her while she thought what a fine young man he was and so much breeding about him And in truth he was a dark handsome fellow hasty reckless and changeable with a look of sad destiny in his black eyes that would make any woman pity him What he was thinking of our Annie is not for me to say although I may think that you could not have found another such maiden on Exmoor except of course my Lorna
Though young Squire Marwood was so thirsty he spent much time over his cider or at any rate over the oxhorn and he made many bows to Annie and drank health to all the family and spoke of me as if I had been his very best friend at Blundells whereas he knew well enough all the time that we had nought to say to one another he being three years older and therefore of course disdaining me But while he was casting about perhaps for some excuse to stop longer and Annie was beginning to fear lest mother should come after her or Eliza be at the window or Betty up in pigs house suddenly there came up to them as if from the very heart of the earth that long low hollow mysterious sound which I spoke of in winter
The young man started in his saddle let the horn fall on the horsesteps and gazed all around in wonder while as for Annie she turned like a ghost and tried to slam the door but failed through the violence of her trembling for never till now had any one heard it so close at hand as you might say or in the mere fall of the twilight And by this time there was no man at least in our parish but knew—for the Parson himself had told us so—that it was the devil groaning because the Doones were too many for him
Marwood de Whichehalse was not so alarmed but what he saw a fine opportunity He leaped from his horse and laid hold of dear Annie in a highly comforting manner and she never would tell us about it being so shy and modest whether in breathing his comfort to her he tried to take some from her pure lips I hope he did not because that to me would seem not the deed of a gentleman and he was of good old family
At this very moment who should come into the end of the passage upon them but the heavy writer of these doings I John Ridd myself and walking the faster it may be on account of the noise I mentioned I entered the house with some wrath upon me at seeing the gazehounds in the yard for it seems a cruel thing to me to harass the birds in the breedingtime And to my amazement there I saw Squire Marwood among the milkpans with his arm around our Annies waist and Annie all blushing and coaxing him off for she was not come to scold yet
Perhaps I was wrong God knows and if I was no doubt I shall pay for it but I gave him the flat of my hand on his head and down he went in the thick of the milkpans He would have had my fist I doubt but for having been at school with me and after that it is like enough he would never have spoken another word As it was he lay stunned with the cream running on him while I took poor Annie up and carried her in to mother who had heard the noise and was frightened
Concerning this matter I asked no more but held myself ready to bear it out in any form convenient feeling that I had done my duty and cared not for the consequence only for several days dear Annie seemed frightened rather than grateful But the oddest result of it was that Eliza who had so despised me and made very rude verses about me now came trying to sit on my knee and kiss me and give me the best of the pan However I would not allow it because I hate sudden changes
Another thing also astonished me—namely a beautiful letter from Marwood de Whichehalse himself sent by a groom soon afterwards in which he apologised to me as if I had been his equal for his rudeness to my sister which was not intended in the least but came of their common alarm at the moment and his desire to comfort her Also he begged permission to come and see me as an old schoolfellow and set everything straight between us as should be among honest Blundellites
All this was so different to my idea of fighting out a quarrel when once it is upon a man that I knew not what to make of it but bowed to higher breeding Only one thing I resolved upon that come when he would he should not see Annie And to do my sister justice she had no desire to see him
However I am too easy there is no doubt of that being very quick to forgive a man and very slow to suspect unless he hath once lied to me Moreover as to Annie it had always seemed to me much against my wishes that some shrewd love of a waiting sort was between her and Tom Faggus and though Tom had made his fortune now and everybody respected him of course he was not to be compared in that point of respectability with those people who hanged the robbers when fortune turned against them
So young Squire Marwood came again as though I had never smitten him and spoke of it in as light a way as if we were still at school together It was not in my nature of course to keep any anger against him and I knew what a condescension it was for him to visit us And it is a very grievous thing which touches small landowners to see an ancient family day by day decaying and when we heard that Ley Barton itself and all the Manor of Lynton were under a heavy mortgage debt to John Lovering of WeareGifford there was not much in our little way that we would not gladly do or suffer for the benefit of De Whichehalse
Meanwhile the work of the farm was toward and every day gave us more ado to dispose of what itself was doing For after the long dry skeltering wind of March and part of April there had been a fortnight of soft wet and when the sun came forth again hill and valley wood and meadow could not make enough of him Many a spring have I seen since then but never yet two springs alike and never one so beautiful Or was it that my love came forth and touched the world with beauty
The spring was in our valley now creeping first for shelter shyly in the pause of the blustering wind There the lambs came bleating to her and the orchis lifted up and the thin dead leaves of clover lay for the new ones to spring through There the stiffest things that sleep the stubby oak and the saplind beech dropped their brown defiance to her and prepared for a soft reply
While her overeager children who had started forth to meet her through the frost and shower of sleet catkind hazel goldgloved withy youthful elder and old woodbine with all the tribe of good hedgeclimbers who must hasten while haste they may—was there one of them that did not claim the merit of coming first
There she stayed and held her revel as soon as the fear of frost was gone all the air was a fount of freshness and the earth of gladness and the laughing waters prattled of the kindness of the sun
But all this made it much harder for us plying the hoe and rake to keep the fields with room upon them for the corn to tiller The winter wheat was well enough being sturdy and strongsided but the spring wheat and the barley and the oats were overrun by ill weeds growing faster Therefore as the old saying is—
Farmer that thy wife may thrive Let not burr and burdock wive And if thou wouldst keep thy son See that bine and gith have none
So we were compelled to go down the field and up it striking in and out with care where the green blades hung together so that each had space to move in and to spread its roots abroad And I do assure you now though you may not believe me it was harder work to keep John Fry Bill Dadds and Jem Slocomb all in a line and all moving nimbly to the tune of my own tool than it was to set out in the morning alone and hoe half an acre by dinnertime For instead of keeping the good ash moving they would for ever be finding something to look at or to speak of or at any rate to stop with blaming the shape of their tools perhaps or talking about other peoples affairs or what was most irksome of all to me taking advantage as married men and whispering jokes of no excellence about my having or having not or being ashamed of a sweetheart And this went so far at last that I was forced to take two of them and knock their heads together after which they worked with a better will
When we met together in the evening round the kitchen chimneyplace after the men had had their supper and their heavy boots were gone my mother and Eliza would do their very utmost to learn what I was thinking of Not that we kept any fire now after the crock was emptied but that we loved to see the ashes cooling and to be together At these times Annie would never ask me any crafty questions as Eliza did but would sit with her hair untwined and one hand underneath her chin sometimes looking softly at me as much as to say that she knew it all and I was no worse off than she But strange to say my mother dreamed not even for an instant that it was possible for Annie to be thinking of such a thing She was so very good and quiet and careful of the linen and clever about the cookery and fowls and baconcuring that people used to laugh and say she would never look at a bachelor until her mother ordered her But I perhaps from my own condition and the sense of what it was felt no certainty about this and even had another opinion as was said before
Often I was much inclined to speak to her about it and put her on her guard against the approaches of Tom Faggus but I could not find how to begin and feared to make a breach between us knowing that if her mind was set no words of mine would alter it although they needs must grieve her deeply Moreover I felt that in this case a certain homely Devonshire proverb would come home to me that one I mean which records that the crock was calling the kettle smutty Not of course that I compared my innocent maid to a highwayman but that Annie might think her worse and would be too apt to do so if indeed she loved Tom Faggus And our Cousin Tom by this time was living a quiet and godly life having retired almost from the trade except when he needed excitement or came across public officers and having won the esteem of all whose purses were in his power
Perhaps it is needless for me to say that all this time while my month was running—or rather crawling for never month went so slow as that with me—neither weed nor seed nor cattle nor my own mothers anxiety nor any care for my sister kept me from looking once every day and even twice on a Sunday for any sign of Lorna For my heart was ever weary in the budding valleys and by the crystal waters looking at the lambs in fold or the heifers on the mill labouring in trickled furrows or among the beaded blades halting fresh to see the sun lift over the goldenvapoured ridge or doffing hat from sweat of brow to watch him sink in the low gray sea be it as it would of day of work or night or slumber it was a weary heart I bore and fear was on the brink of it
All the beauty of the spring went for happy men to think of all the increase of the year was for other eyes to mark Not a sign of any sunrise for me from my fount of life not a breath to stir the dead leaves fallen on my hearts Spring
CHAPTER XXIII
A ROYAL INVITATION
Although I had for the most part so very stout an appetite that none but mother saw any need of encouraging me to eat I could only manage one true good meal in a day at the time I speak of Mother was in despair at this and tempted me with the whole of the rack and even talked of sending to Porlock for a druggist who came there twice in a week and Annie spent all her time in cooking and even Lizzie sang songs to me for she could sing very sweetly But my conscience told me that Betty Muxworthy had some reason upon her side
Latt the young ozebird aloun zay I Makk zuch ado about un wi hogspuddens and hockbits and lambsmate and whaten bradd indade and brewers ale avore dinnertime and her not to zit wi no winder aupen—draive me mad e doo the ovee zuch a passel of voouls Do un good to starve a bit and takk zome ons wackedness out ov un
But mother did not see it so and she even sent for Nicholas Snowe to bring his three daughters with him and have ale and cake in the parlour and advise about what the bees were doing and when a swarm might be looked for Being vexed about this and having to stop at home nearly half the evening I lost good manners so much as to ask him even in our own house what he meant by not mending the swinghurdle where the Lynn stream flows from our land into his and which he is bound to maintain But he looked at me in a superior manner and said Business young man in business time
I had other reason for being vexed with Farmer Nicholas just now viz that I had heard a rumour after church one Sunday—when most of all we sorrow over the sins of one another—that Master Nicholas Snowe had been seen to gaze tenderly at my mother during a passage of the sermon wherein the parson spoke well and warmly about the duty of Christian love Now putting one thing with another about the bees and about some ducks and a bullock with a broken kneecap I more than suspected that Farmer Nicholas was casting sheeps eyes at my mother not only to save all further trouble in the matter of the hurdle but to override me altogether upon the difficult question of damming And I knew quite well that John Frys wife never came to help at the washing without declaring that it was a sin for a welllooking woman like mother with plenty to live on and only three children to keep all the farmers for miles around so unsettled in their minds about her Mother used to answer Oh fie Mistress Fry be good enough to mind your own business But we always saw that she smoothed her apron and did her hair up afterwards and that Mistress Fry went home at night with a cold pigs foot or a bowl of dripping
Therefore on that very night as I could not well speak to mother about it without seeming undutiful after lighting the three young ladies—for so in sooth they called themselves—all the way home with our stablelanthorn I begged good leave of Farmer Nicholas who had hung some way behind us to say a word in private to him before he entered his own house
Wi all the plaisure in laife my zon he answered very graciously thinking perhaps that I was prepared to speak concerning Sally
Now Farmer Nicholas Snowe I said scarce knowing how to begin it you must promise not to be vexed with me for what I am going to say to you
Vaxed wi thee Noo noo my lad I ave a knowed thee too long for that And thy veyther were my best friend afore thee Never wronged his neighbours never spak an unkind word never had no maneness in him Tuk a vancy to a nice young ooman and never kep her in doubt about it though there wadnt mooch to zettle on her Spak his maind laike a man he did and right happy he were wi her Ah well a day Ah God knoweth best I never shall zee his laike again And he were the best judge of a dungheap anywhere in this county
Well Master Snowe I answered him it is very handsome of you to say so And now I am going to be like my father I am going to speak my mind
Raight there lad raight enough I reckon Us has had enough of pralimbinary
Then what I want to say is this—I wont have any one courting my mother
Coortin of thy mother lad cried Farmer Snowe with as much amazement as if the thing were impossible why who ever hath been dooin of it
Yes courting of my mother sir And you know best who comes doing it
Wull wull What will boys be up to next Zhud a thought herzelf wor the proper judge No thank ee lad no need of thy light Know the wai to my own door at laste and have a raight to goo there And he shut me out without so much as offering me a drink of cider
The next afternoon when work was over I had seen to the horses for now it was foolish to trust John Fry because he had so many children and his wife had taken to scolding and just as I was saying to myself that in five days more my month would be done and myself free to seek Lorna a man came riding up from the ford where the road goes through the Lynn stream As soon as I saw that it was not Tom Faggus I went no farther to meet him counting that it must be some traveller bound for Brendon or Cheriton and likely enough he would come and beg for a draught of milk or cider and then on again after asking the way
But instead of that he stopped at our gate and stood up from his saddle and halloed as if he were somebody and all the time he was flourishing a white thing in the air like the bands our parson weareth So I crossed the courtyard to speak with him
Service of the King he saith service of our lord the King Come hither thou great yokel at risk of fine and imprisonment
Although not pleased with this I went to him as became a loyal man quite at my leisure however for there is no man born who can hurry me though I hasten for any woman
Plover Barrows farm said he God only knows how tired I be Is there any where in this cursed county a cursed place called Plover Barrows farm For last twenty mile at least they told me twere only half a mile farther or only just round corner Now tell me that and I fain would thwack thee if thou wert not thrice my size
Sir I replied you shall not have the trouble This is Plovers Barrows farm and you are kindly welcome Sheeps kidneys is for supper and the ale got bright from the tapping But why do you think ill of us We like not to be cursed so
Nay I think no ill he said sheeps kidneys is good uncommon good if they do them without burning But I be so galled in the saddle ten days and never a comely meal of it And when they hear Kings service cried they give me the worst of everything All the way down from London I had a rogue of a fellow in front of me eating the fat of the land before me and every one bowing down to him He could go three miles to my one though he never changed his horse He might have robbed me at any minute if I had been worth the trouble A red mare he rideth strong in the loins and pointed quite small in the head I shall live to see him hanged yet
All this time he was riding across the straw of our courtyard getting his weary legs out of the leathers and almost afraid to stand yet A coarsegrained hardfaced man he was some forty years of age or so and of middle height and stature He was dressed in a dark brown riding suit none the better for Exmoor mud but fitting him very differently from the fashion of our tailors Across the holsters lay his cloak made of some red skin and shining from the sweating of the horse As I looked down on his stiff bright headpiece small quick eyes and black needly beard he seemed to despise me too much as I thought for a mere ignoramus and country bumpkin
Annie have down the cut ham I shouted for my sister was come to the door by chance or because of the sound of a horse in the road and cut a few rashers of hung deers meat There is a gentleman come to sup Annie And fetch the hops out of the tap with a skewer that it may run more sparkling
I wish I may go to a place never meant for me said my new friend now wiping his mouth with the sleeve of his brown riding coat if ever I fell among such good folk You are the right sort and no error therein All this shall go in your favour greatly when I make deposition At least I mean if it be as good in the eating as in the hearing Tis a supper quite fit for Tom Faggus himself the man who hath stolen my victuals so And that hung deers meat now is it of the red deer running wild in these parts
To be sure it is sir I answered where should we get any other
Right right you are right my son I have heard that the flavour is marvellous Some of them came and scared me so in the fog of the morning that I hungered for them ever since Ha ha I saw their haunches But the young lady will not forget—art sure she will not forget it
You may trust her to forget nothing sir that may tempt a guest to his comfort
In faith then I will leave my horse in your hands and be off for it Half the pleasure of the mouth is in the nose beforehand But stay almost I forgot my business in the hurry which thy tongue hath spread through my lately despairing belly Hungry I am and sore of body from my heels right upward and sorest in front of my doublet yet may I not rest nor bite barleybread until I have seen and touched John Ridd God grant that he be not far away I must eat my saddle if it be so
Have no fear good sir I answered you have seen and touched John Ridd I am he and not one likely to go beneath a bushel
It would take a large bushel to hold thee John Ridd In the name of the King His Majesty Charles the Second these presents
He touched me with the white thing which I had first seen him waving and which I now beheld to be sheepskin such as they call parchment It was tied across with cord and fastened down in every corner with unsightly dabs of wax By order of the messenger for I was overfrightened now to think of doing anything I broke enough of seals to keep an Easter ghost from rising and there I saw my name in large God grant such another shock may never befall me in my old age
Read my son read thou great fool if indeed thou canst read said the officer to encourage me there is nothing to kill thee boy and my supper will be spoiling Stare not at me so thou fool thou art big enough to eat me read read read
If you please sir what is your name I asked though why I asked him I know not except from fear of witchcraft
Jeremy Stickles is my name lad nothing more than a poor apparitor of the worshipful Court of Kings Bench And at this moment a starving one and no supper for me unless thou wilt read
Being compelled in this way I read pretty nigh as follows not that I give the whole of it but only the gist and the emphasis—
To our good subject John Ridd etc—describing me ever so much better than I knew myself—by these presents greeting These are to require thee in the name of our lord the King to appear in person before the Right Worshipful the Justices of His Majestys Bench at Westminster laying aside all thine own business and there to deliver such evidence as is within thy cognisance touching certain matters whereby the peace of our said lord the King and the wellbeing of this realm is are or otherwise may be impeached impugned imperilled or otherwise detrimented As witness these presents And then there were four seals and then a signature I could not make out only that it began with a J and ended with some other writing done almost in a circle Underneath was added in a different handwriting Charges will be borne The matter is full urgent
The messenger watched me while I read so much as I could read of it and he seemed well pleased with my surprise because he had expected it Then not knowing what else to do I looked again at the cover and on the top of it I saw Ride Ride Ride On His Gracious Majestys business spur and spare not
It may be supposed by all who know me that I was taken hereupon with such a giddiness in my head and noisiness in my ears that I was forced to hold by the crook driven in below the thatch for holding of the hayrakes There was scarcely any sense left in me only that the thing was come by power of Mother Melldrum because I despised her warning and had again sought Lorna But the officer was grieved for me and the danger to his supper
My son be not afraid he said we are not going to skin thee Only thou tell all the truth and it shall be—but never mind I will tell thee all about it and how to come out harmless if I find thy victuals good and no delay in serving them
We do our best sir without bargain said I to please our visitors
But when my mother saw that parchment for we could not keep it from her she fell away into her favourite bed of stock gillyflowers which she had been tending and when we brought her round again did nothing but exclaim against the wickedness of the age and people It was useless to tell her she knew what it was and so should all the parish know The King had heard what her son was how sober and quiet and diligent and the strongest young man in England and being himself such a reprobate—God forgive her for saying so—he could never rest till he got poor Johnny and made him as dissolute as himself And if he did that—here mother went off into a fit of crying and Annie minded her face while Lizzie saw that her gown was in comely order
But the character of the King improved when Master Jeremy Stickles being really moved by the look of it and no bad man after all laid it clearly before my mother that the King on his throne was unhappy until he had seen John Ridd That the fame of John had gone so far and his size and all his virtues—that verily by the God who made him the King was overcome with it
Then mother lay back in her garden chair and smiled upon the whole of us and most of all on Jeremy looking only shyly on me and speaking through some break of tears His Majesty shall have my John His Majesty is very good but only for a fortnight I want no titles for him Johnny is enough for me and Master John for the working men
Now though my mother was so willing that I should go to London expecting great promotion and high glory for me I myself was deeply gone into the pit of sorrow For what would Lorna think of me Here was the long month just expired after worlds of waiting there would be her lovely self peeping softly down the glen and fearing to encourage me yet there would be nobody else and what an insult to her Dwelling upon this and seeing no chance of escape from it I could not find one wink of sleep though Jeremy Stickles who slept close by snored loud enough to spare me some For I felt myself to be as it were in a place of some importance in a situation of trust I may say and bound not to depart from it For who could tell what the King might have to say to me about the Doones—and I felt that they were at the bottom of this strange appearance—or what His Majesty might think if after receiving a message from him trusty under so many seals I were to violate his faith in me as a churchwardens son and falsely spread his words abroad
Perhaps I was not wise in building such a wall of scruples Nevertheless all that was there and weighed upon me heavily And at last I made up my mind to this that even Lorna must not know the reason of my going neither anything about it but that she might know I was gone a long way from home and perhaps be sorry for it Now how was I to let her know even that much of the matter without breaking compact
Puzzling on this I fell asleep after the proper time to get up nor was I to be seen at breakfast time and mother being quite strange to that was very uneasy about it But Master Stickles assured her that the Kings writ often had that effect and the symptom was a good one
Now Master Stickles when must we start I asked him as he lounged in the yard gazing at our turkey poults picking and running in the sun to the tune of their fathers gobble Your horse was greatly foundered sir and is hardly fit for the road today and Smiler was sledding yesterday all up the higher Cleve and none of the rest can carry me
In a few more years replied the Kings officer contemplating me with much satisfaction twill be a cruelty to any horse to put thee on his back John
Master Stickles by this time was quite familiar with us calling me Jack and Eliza Lizzie and what I liked the least of all our pretty Annie Nancy
That will be as God pleases sir I answered him rather sharply and the horse that suffers will not be thine But I wish to know when we must start upon our long travel to London town I perceive that the matter is of great despatch and urgency
To be sure so it is my son But I see a yearling turkey there him I mean with the hop in his walk who if I know aught of fowls would roast well tomorrow Thy mother must have preparation it is no more than reasonable Now have that turkey killed tonight for his fatness makes me long for him and we will have him for dinner tomorrow with perhaps one of his brethren and a few more collops of red deers flesh for supper and then on the Friday morning with the grace of God we will set our faces to the road upon His Majestys business
Nay but good sir I asked with some trembling so eager was I to see Lorna if His Majestys business will keep till Friday may it not keep until Monday We have a litter of suckingpigs excellently choice and white six weeks old come Friday There be too many for the sow and one of them needeth roasting Think you not it would be a pity to leave the women to carve it
My son Jack replied Master Stickles never was I in such quarters yet and God forbid that I should be so unthankful to Him as to hurry away And now I think on it Friday is not a day upon which pious people love to commence an enterprise I will choose the young pig tomorrow at noon at which time they are wont to gambol and we will celebrate his birthday by carving him on Friday After that we will gird our loins and set forth early on Saturday
Now this was little better to me than if we had set forth at once Sunday being the very first day upon which it would be honourable for me to enter Glen Doone But though I tried every possible means with Master Jeremy Stickles offering him the choice for dinner of every beast that was on the farm he durst not put off our departure later than the Saturday And nothing else but love of us and of our hospitality would have so persuaded him to remain with us till then Therefore now my only chance of seeing Lorna before I went lay in watching from the cliff and espying her or a signal from her
This however I did in vain until my eyes were weary and often would delude themselves with hope of what they ached for But though I lay hidden behind the trees upon the crest of the stony fall and waited so quiet that the rabbits and squirrels played around me and even the keeneyed weasel took me for a trunk of wood—it was all as one no cast of colour changed the white stone whose whiteness now was hateful to me nor did wreath or skirt of maiden break the loneliness of the vale
CHAPTER XXIV
A SAFE PASS FOR KINGS MESSENGER
A journey to London seemed to us in those bygone days as hazardous and dark an adventure as could be forced on any man I mean of course a poor man for to a great nobleman with ever so many outriders attendants and retainers the risk was not so great unless the highwaymen knew of their coming beforehand and so combined against them To a poor man however the risk was not so much from those gentlemen of the road as from the more ignoble footpads and the landlords of the lesser hostels and the loose unguarded soldiers over and above the pitfalls and the quagmires of the way so that it was hard to settle at the first outgoing whether a man were wise to pray more for his neck or for his head
But nowadays it is very different Not that highwaymen are scarce in this the reign of our good Queen Anne for in truth they thrive as well as ever albeit they deserve it not being less upright and courteous—but that the roads are much improved and the growing use of stagewaggons some of which will travel as much as forty miles in a summer day has turned our ancient ideas of distance almost upside down and I doubt whether God be pleased with our flying so fast away from Him However that is not my business nor does it lie in my mouth to speak very strongly upon the subject seeing how much I myself have done towards making of roads upon Exmoor
To return to my story and in truth I lose that road too often it would have taken ten Kings messengers to get me away from Plovers Barrows without one goodbye to Lorna but for my sense of the trust and reliance which His Majesty had reposed in me And now I felt most bitterly how the very arrangements which seemed so wise and indeed ingenious may by the force of events become our most fatal obstacles For lo I was blocked entirely from going to see Lorna whereas we should have fixed it so that I as well might have the power of signalling my necessity
It was too late now to think of that and so I made up my mind at last to keep my honour on both sides both to the King and to the maiden although I might lose everything except a heavy heart for it And indeed more hearts than mine were heavy for when it came to the tug of parting my mother was like and so was Annie to break down altogether But I bade them be of good cheer and smiled in the briskest manner upon them and said that I should be back next week as one of His Majestys greatest captains and told them not to fear me then Upon which they smiled at the idea of ever being afraid of me whatever dress I might have on and so I kissed my hand once more and rode away very bravely But bless your heart I could no more have done so than flown all the way to London if Jeremy Stickles had not been there
And not to take too much credit to myself in this matter I must confess that when we were come to the turn in the road where the moor begins and whence you see the last of the yard and the ricks and the poultry round them and can by knowing the place obtain a glance of the kitchen window under the walnuttree it went so hard with me just here that I even made pretence of a stone in ancient Smilers shoe to dismount and to bend my head awhile Then knowing that those I had left behind would be watching to see the last of me and might have false hopes of my coming back I mounted again with all possible courage and rode after Jeremy Stickles
Jeremy seeing how much I was down did his best to keep me up with jokes and tales and light discourse until before we had ridden a league I began to long to see the things he was describing The air the weather and the thoughts of going to a wondrous place added to the fine company—at least so Jeremy said it was—of a man who knew all London made me feel that I should be ungracious not to laugh a little And being very simple then I laughed no more a little but something quite considerable though free from consideration at the strange things Master Stickles told me and his strange way of telling them And so we became very excellent friends for he was much pleased with my laughing
Not wishing to thrust myself more forward than need be in this narrative I have scarcely thought it becoming or right to speak of my own adornments But now what with the brave clothes I had on and the better ones still that were packed up in the bag behind the saddle it is almost beyond me to forbear saying that I must have looked very pleasing And many a time I wished going along that Lorna could only be here and there watching behind a furzebush looking at me and wondering how much my clothes had cost For mother would have no stint in the matter but had assembled at our house immediately upon knowledge of what was to be about London every man known to be a good stitcher upon our side of Exmoor And for three days they had worked their best without stint of beer or cider according to the constitution of each The result so they all declared was such as to create admiration and defy competition in London And to me it seemed that they were quite right though Jeremy Stickles turned up his nose and feigned to be deaf in the business
Now be that matter as you please—for the point is not worth arguing—certain it is that my appearance was better than it had been before For being in the best clothes one tries to look and to act so far as may be up to the quality of them Not only for the fear of soiling them but that they enlarge a mans perception of his value And it strikes me that our sins arise partly from disdain of others but mainly from contempt of self both working the despite of God But men of mind may not be measured by such paltry rule as this
By dinnertime we arrived at Porlock and dined with my old friend Master Pooke now growing rich and portly For though we had plenty of victuals with us we were not to begin upon them until all chance of victualling among our friends was left behind And during that first day we had no need to meddle with our store at all for as had been settled before we left home we lay that night at Dunster in the house of a worthy tanner first cousin to my mother who received us very cordially and undertook to return old Smiler to his stable at Plovers Barrows after one days rest
Thence we hired to Bridgwater and from Bridgwater on to Bristowe breaking the journey between the two But although the whole way was so new to me and such a perpetual source of conflict that the remembrance still abides with me as if it were but yesterday I must not be so long in telling as it was in travelling or you will wish me farther both because Lorna was nothing there and also because a man in our neighbourhood had done the whole of it since my time and feigns to think nothing of it However one thing in common justice to a person who has been traduced I am bound to mention And this is that being two of us and myself of such magnitude we never could have made our journey without either fight or running but for the free pass which dear Annie by some means I know not what had procured from Master Faggus And when I let it be known by some hap that I was the own cousin of Tom Faggus and honoured with his society there was not a house upon the road but was proud to entertain me in spite of my fellowtraveller bearing the red badge of the King
I will keep this close my son Jack he said having stripped it off with a carvingknife your flag is the best to fly The man who starved me on the way down the same shall feed me fat going home
Therefore we pursued our way in excellent condition having thriven upon the credit of that very popular highwayman and being surrounded with regrets that he had left the profession and sometimes begged to intercede that he might help the road again For all the landlords on the road declared that now small ale was drunk nor much of spirits called for because the farmers need not prime to meet only common riders neither were these worth the while to get drunk with afterwards Master Stickles himself undertook as an officer of the Kings Justices to plead this case with Squire Faggus as everybody called him now and to induce him for the general good to return to his proper ministry
It was a long and weary journey although the roads are wondrous good on the farther side of Bristowe and scarcely any man need be bogged if he keeps his eyes well open save perhaps in Berkshire In consequence of the pass we had and the vintners knowledge of it we only met two public riders one of whom made off straightway when he saw my companions pistols and the stout carbine I bore and the other came to a parley with us and proved most kind and affable when he knew himself in the presence of the cousin of Squire Faggus God save you gentlemen he cried lifting his hat politely many and many a happy day I have worked this road with him Such times will never be again But commend me to his love and prayers King my name is and King my nature Say that and none will harm you And so he made off down the hill being a perfect gentleman and a very good horse he was riding
The night was falling very thick by the time we were come to Tyburn and here the Kings officer decided that it would be wise to halt because the way was unsafe by night across the fields to Charing village I for my part was nothing loth and preferred to see London by daylight
And after all it was not worth seeing but a very hideous and dirty place not at all like Exmoor Some of the shops were very fine and the signs above them finer still so that I was never weary of standing still to look at them But in doing this there was no ease for before one could begin almost to make out the meaning of them either some of the wayfarers would bustle and scowl and draw their swords or the owner or his apprentice boys would rush out and catch hold of me crying Buy buy buy What dye lack what dye lack Buy buy buy At first I mistook the meaning of this—for so we pronounce the word boy upon Exmoor—and I answered with some indignation Sirrah I am no boy now but a man of oneandtwenty years and as for lacking I lack naught from thee except what thou hast not—good manners
The only things that pleased me much were the river Thames and the hall and church of Westminster where there are brave things to be seen and braver still to think about But whenever I wandered in the streets what with the noise the people made the number of the coaches the running of the footmen the swaggering of great courtiers and the thrusting aside of everybody many and many a time I longed to be back among the sheep again for fear of losing temper They were welcome to the wall for me as I took care to tell them for I could stand without the wall which perhaps was more than they could do Though I said this with the best intention meaning no discourtesy some of them were vexed at it and one young lord being flushed with drink drew his sword and made at me But I struck it up with my holly stick so that it flew on the roof of a house then I took him by the belt with one hand and laid him in the kennel This caused some little disturbance but none of the rest saw fit to try how the matter might be with them
Now this being the year of our Lord 1683 more than nine years and a half since the death of my father and the beginning of this history all London was in a great ferment about the dispute between the Court of the King and the City The King or rather perhaps his party for they said that His Majesty cared for little except to have plenty of money and spend it was quite resolved to be supreme in the appointment of the chief officers of the corporation But the citizens maintained that under their charter this right lay entirely with themselves upon which a writ was issued against them for forfeiture of their charter and the question was now being tried in the court of His Majestys bench
This seemed to occupy all the attention of the judges and my case which had appeared so urgent was put off from time to time while the Court and the City contended And so hot was the conflict and hate between them that a sheriff had been fined by the King in 100000 pounds and a former lord mayor had even been sentenced to the pillory because he would not swear falsely Hence the courtiers and the citizens scarce could meet in the streets with patience or without railing and frequent blows
Now although I heard so much of this matter for nothing else was talked of and it seeming to me more important even than the churchwardenship of Oare I could not for the life of me tell which side I should take to For all my sense of position and of confidence reposed in me and of my fathers opinions lay heavily in one scale while all my reason and my heart went down plump against injustice and seemed to win the other scale Even so my father had been at the breaking out of the civil war when he was less than my age now and even less skilled in politics and my mother told me after this when she saw how I myself was doubting and vexed with myself for doing so that my father used to thank God often that he had not been called upon to take one side or other but might remain obscure and quiet And yet he always considered himself to be a good sound Royalist
But now as I stayed there only desirous to be heard and to get away and scarcely even guessing yet what was wanted of me for even Jeremy Stickles knew not or pretended not to know things came to a dreadful pass between the King and all the people who dared to have an opinion For about the middle of June the judges gave their sentence that the City of London had forfeited its charter and that its franchise should be taken into the hands of the King Scarcely was this judgment forth and all men hotly talking of it when a far worse thing befell News of some great conspiracy was spread at every corner and that a man in the malting business had tried to take up the brewers work and lop the King and the Duke of York Everybody was shocked at this for the King himself was not disliked so much as his advisers but everybody was more than shocked grieved indeed to the heart with pain at hearing that Lord William Russell and Mr Algernon Sidney had been seized and sent to the Tower of London upon a charge of high treason
Having no knowledge of these great men nor of the matter how far it was true I had not very much to say about either of them or it but this silence was not shared although the ignorance may have been by the hundreds of people around me Such a commotion was astir such universal sense of wrong and stern resolve to right it that each man grasped his fellows hand and led him into the vintners Even I although at that time given to excess in temperance and afraid of the name of cordials was hard set I do assure you not to be drunk at intervals without coarse discourtesy
However that as Betty Muxworthy used to say when argued down and ready to take the mop for it is neither here nor there I have naught to do with great history and am sorry for those who have to write it because they are sure to have both friends and enemies in it and cannot act as they would towards them without damage to their own consciences
But as great events draw little ones and the rattle of the churn decides the uncertainty of the flies so this movement of the town and eloquence and passion had more than I guessed at the time to do with my own little fortunes For in the first place it was fixed perhaps from down right contumely because the citizens loved him so that Lord Russell should be tried neither at Westminster nor at Lincolns Inn but at the Court of Old Bailey within the precincts of the city This kept me hanging on much longer because although the good nobleman was to be tried by the Court of Common Pleas yet the officers of Kings Bench to whom I daily applied myself were in counsel with their fellows and put me off from day to day
Now I had heard of the laws delays which the greatest of all great poets knowing much of the law himself as indeed of everything has specially mentioned when not expected among the many ills of life But I never thought at my years to have such bitter experience of the evil and it seemed to me that if the lawyers failed to do their duty they ought to pay people for waiting upon them instead of making them pay for it But here I was now in the second month living at my own charges in the house of a worthy fellmonger at the sign of the Seal and Squirrel abutting upon the Strand road which leads from Temple Bar to Charing Here I did very well indeed having a mattress of good skindressings and plenty to eat every day of my life but the butter was something to cry but thrice at according to a conceit of our school days and the milk must have come from cows driven to water However these evils were light compared with the heavy bill sent up to me every Saturday afternoon and knowing how my mother had pinched to send me nobly to London and had told me to spare for nothing but live bravely with the best of them the tears very nearly came into my eyes as I thought while I ate of so robbing her
At length being quite at the end of my money and seeing no other help for it I determined to listen to clerks no more but force my way up to the Justices and insist upon being heard by them or discharged from my recognisance For so they had termed the bond or deed which I had been forced to execute in the presence of a chief clerk or notary the very day after I came to London And the purport of it was that on pain of a heavy fine or escheatment I would hold myself ready and present to give evidence when called upon Having delivered me up to sign this Jeremy Stickles was quit of me and went upon other business not but what he was kind and good to me when his time and pursuits allowed of it
CHAPTER XXV
A GREAT MAN ATTENDS TO BUSINESS
Having seen Lord Russell murdered in the fields of Lincolns Inn or rather having gone to see it but turned away with a sickness and a bitter flood of tears—for a whiter and a nobler neck never fell before low beast—I strode away towards Westminster cured of half my indignation at the death of Charles the First Many people hurried past me chiefly of the more tender sort revolting at the butchery In their ghastly faces as they turned them back lest the sight should be coming after them great sorrow was to be seen and horror and pity and some anger
In Westminster Hall I found nobody not even the crowd of crawling varlets who used to be craving evermore for employment or for payment I knocked at three doors one after other of lobbies going out of it where I had formerly seen some officers and people pressing in and out but for my trouble I took nothing except some thumps from echo And at last an old man told me that all the lawyers were gone to see the result of their own works in the fields of Lincolns Inn
However in a few days time I had better fortune for the court was sitting and full of business to clear off the arrears of work before the lawyers holiday As I was waiting in the hall for a good occasion a man with horsehair on his head and a long blue bag in his left hand touched me gently on the arm and led me into a quiet place I followed him very gladly being confident that he came to me with a message from the Justiciaries But after taking pains to be sure that none could overhear us he turned on me suddenly and asked—
Now John how is your dear mother
Worshipful sir I answered him after recovering from my surprise at his knowledge of our affairs and kindly interest in them it is two months now since I have seen her Would to God that I only knew how she is faring now and how the business of the farm goes
Sir I respect and admire you the old gentleman replied with a bow very low and genteel few young courtgallants of our time are so reverent and dutiful Oh how I did love my mother Here he turned up his eyes to heaven in a manner that made me feel for him and yet with a kind of wonder
I am very sorry for you sir I answered most respectfully not meaning to trespass on his grief yet wondering at his mothers age for he seemed to be at least threescore but I am no courtgallant sir I am only a farmers son and learning how to farm a little
Enough John quite enough he cried I can read it in thy countenance Honesty is written there and courage and simplicity But I fear that in this town of London thou art apt to be taken in by people of no principle Ah me Ah me The world is bad and I am too old to improve it
Then finding him so good and kind and anxious to improve the age I told him almost everything how much I paid the fellmonger and all the things I had been to see and how I longed to get away before the corn was ripening yet how despite of these desires I felt myself bound to walk up and down being under a thing called recognisance In short I told him everything except the nature of my summons which I had no right to tell and that I was out of money
My tale was told in a little archway apart from other lawyers and the other lawyers seemed to me to shift themselves and to look askew like sheep through a hurdle when the rest are feeding
What Good God my lawyer cried smiting his breast indignantly with a roll of something learned in what country do we live Under what laws are we governed No case before the court whatever no primary deposition so far as we are furnished not even a Kings writ issued—and here we have a fine young man dragged from his home and adoring mother during the height of agriculture at his own cost and charges I have heard of many grievances but this the very worst of all Nothing short of a Royal Commission could be warranty for it This is not only illegal sir but most gravely unconstitutional
I had not told you worthy sir I answered him in a lower tone if I could have thought that your sense of right would be moved so painfully But now I must beg to leave you sir—for I see that the door again is open I beg you worshipful sir to accept—
Upon this he put forth his hand and said Nay nay my son not two not two yet looking away that he might not scare me
To accept kind sir my very best thanks and most respectful remembrances And with that I laid my hand in his And if sir any circumstances of business or of pleasure should bring you to our part of the world I trust you will not forget that my mother and myself if ever I get home again will do our best to make you comfortable with our poor hospitality
With this I was hasting away from him but he held my hand and looked round at me And he spoke without cordiality
Young man a general invitation is no entry for my fee book I have spent a good hour of businesstime in mastering thy case and stating my opinion of it And being a member of the bar called sixandthirty years agone by the honourable society of the Inner Temple my fee is at my own discretion albeit an honorarium For the honour of the profession and my position in it I ought to charge thee at least five guineas although I would have accepted one offered with good will and delicacy Now I will enter it two my son and half a crown for my clerks fee
Saying this he drew forth from his deep blue bag a red book having clasps to it and endorsed in gold letters Feebook and before I could speak being frightened so he had entered on a page of it To consideration of ease as stated by John Ridd and advising thereupon two guineas
But sir good sir I stammered forth not having two guineas left in the world yet grieving to confess it I knew not that I was to pay learned sir I never thought of it in that way
Wounds of God In what way thought you that a lawyer listened to your rigmarole
I thought that you listened from kindness sir and compassion of my grievous case and a sort of liking for me
A lawyer like thee young curmudgeon A lawyer afford to feel compassion gratis Either thou art a very deep knave or the greenest of all greenhorns Well I suppose I must let thee off for one guinea and the clerks fee A bad business a shocking business
Now if this man had continued kind and soft as when he heard my story I would have pawned my clothes to pay him rather than leave a debt behind although contracted unwittingly But when he used harsh language so knowing that I did not deserve it I began to doubt within myself whether he deserved my money Therefore I answered him with some readiness such as comes sometimes to me although I am so slow
Sir I am no curmudgeon if a young man had called me so it would not have been well with him This money shall be paid if due albeit I had no desire to incur the debt You have advised me that the Court is liable for my expenses so far as they be reasonable If this be a reasonable expense come with me now to Lord Justice Jeffreys and receive from him the two guineas or it may be five for the counsel you have given me to deny his jurisdiction With these words I took his arm to lead him for the door was open still
In the name of God boy let me go Worthy sir pray let me go My wife is sick and my daughter dying—in the name of God sir let me go
Nay nay I said having fast hold of him I cannot let thee go unpaid sir Right is right and thou shalt have it
Ruin is what I shall have boy if you drag me before that devil He will strike me from the bar at once and starve me and all my family Here lad good lad take these two guineas Thou hast despoiled the spoiler Never again will I trust mine eyes for knowledge of a greenhorn
He slipped two guineas into the hand which I had hooked through his elbow and spoke in an urgent whisper again for the people came crowding around us—For Gods sake let me go boy another moment will be too late
Learned sir I answered him twice you spoke unless I err of the necessity of a clerks fee as a thing to be lamented
To be sure to be sure my son You have a clerk as much as I have There it is Now I pray thee take to the study of the law Possession is nine points of it which thou hast of me Selfpossession is the tenth and that thou hast more than the other nine
Being flattered by this and by the feeling of the two guineas and halfcrown I dropped my hold upon Counsellor Kitch for he was no less a man than that and he was out of sight in a second of time wig blue bag and family And before I had time to make up my mind what I should do with his money for of course I meant not to keep it the crier of the Court as they told me came out and wanted to know who I was I told him as shortly as I could that my business lay with His Majestys bench and was very confidential upon which he took me inside with warning and showed me to an underclerk who showed me to a higher one and the higher clerk to the head one
When this gentleman understood all about my business which I told him without complaint he frowned at me very heavily as if I had done him an injury
John Ridd he asked me with a stern glance is it your deliberate desire to be brought into the presence of the Lord Chief Justice
Surely sir it has been my desire for the last two months and more
Then John thou shalt be But mind one thing not a word of thy long detention or thou mayst get into trouble
How sir For being detained against my own wish I asked him but he turned away as if that matter were not worth his arguing as indeed I suppose it was not and led me through a little passage to a door with a curtain across it
Now if my Lord crossquestion you the gentleman whispered to me answer him straight out truth at once for he will have it out of thee And mind he loves not to be contradicted neither can he bear a hangdog look Take little heed of the other two but note every word of the middle one and never make him speak twice
I thanked him for his good advice as he moved the curtain and thrust me in but instead of entering withdrew and left me to bear the brunt of it
The chamber was not very large though lofty to my eyes and dark with wooden panels round it At the further end were some raised seats such as I have seen in churches lined with velvet and having broad elbows and a canopy over the middle seat There were only three men sitting here one in the centre and one on each side and all three were done up wonderfully with fur and robes of state and curls of thick gray horsehair crimped and gathered and plaited down to their shoulders Each man had an oak desk before him set at a little distance and spread with pens and papers Instead of writing however they seemed to be laughing and talking or rather the one in the middle seemed to be telling some good story which the others received with approval By reason of their great perukes it was hard to tell how old they were but the one who was speaking seemed the youngest although he was the chief of them A thickset burly and bulky man with a blotchy broad face and great square jaws and fierce eyes full of blazes he was one to be dreaded by gentle souls and to be abhorred by the noble
Between me and the three lord judges some few lawyers were gathering up bags and papers and pens and so forth from a narrow table in the middle of the room as if a case had been disposed of and no other were called on But before I had time to look round twice the stout fierce man espied me and shouted out with a flashing stare—
How now countryman who art thou
May it please your worship I answered him loudly I am John Ridd of Oare parish in the shire of Somerset brought to this London some two months back by a special messenger whose name is Jeremy Stickles and then bound over to be at hand and ready when called upon to give evidence in a matter unknown to me but touching the peace of our lord the King and the wellbeing of his subjects Three times I have met our lord the King but he hath said nothing about his peace and only held it towards me and every day save Sunday I have walked up and down the great hall of Westminster all the business part of the day expecting to be called upon yet no one hath called upon me And now I desire to ask your worship whether I may go home again
Well done John replied his lordship while I was panting with all this speech I will go bail for thee John thou hast never made such a long speech before and thou art a spunky Briton or thou couldst not have made it now I remember the matter well and I myself will attend to it although it arose before my time—he was but newly Chief Justice—but I cannot take it now John There is no fear of losing thee John any more than the Tower of London I grieve for His Majestys exchequer after keeping thee two months or more
Nay my lord I crave your pardon My mother hath been keeping me Not a groat have I received
Spank is it so his lordship cried in a voice that shook the cobwebs and the frown on his brow shook the hearts of men and mine as much as the rest of them—Spank is His Majesty come to this that he starves his own approvers
My lord my lord whispered Mr Spank the chiefofficer of evidence the thing hath been overlooked my lord among such grave matters of treason
I will overlook thy head foul Spank on a spike from Temple Bar if ever I hear of the like again Vile varlet what art thou paid for Thou hast swindled the money thyself foul Spank I know thee though thou art new to me Bitter is the day for thee that ever I came across thee Answer me not—one word more and I will have thee on a hurdle And he swung himself to and fro on his bench with both hands on his knees and every man waited to let it pass knowing better than to speak to him
John Ridd said the Lord Chief Justice at last recovering a sort of dignity yet daring Spank from the corners of his eyes to do so much as look at him thou hast been shamefully used John Ridd Answer me not boy not a word but go to Master Spank and let me know how he behaves to thee here he made a glance at Spank which was worth at least ten pounds to me be thou here again tomorrow and before any other case is taken I will see justice done to thee Now be off boy thy name is Ridd and we are well rid of thee
I was only too glad to go after all this tempest as you may well suppose For if ever I saw a mans eyes become two holes for the devil to glare from I saw it that day and the eyes were those of the Lord Chief Justice Jeffreys
Mr Spank was in the lobby before me and before I had recovered myself—for I was vexed with my own terror—he came up sidling and fawning to me with a heavy bag of yellow leather
Good Master Ridd take it all take it all and say a good word for me to his lordship He hath taken a strange fancy to thee and thou must make the most of it We never saw man meet him eye to eye so and yet not contradict him and that is just what he loveth Abide in London Master Ridd and he will make thy fortune His joke upon thy name proves that And I pray you remember Master Ridd that the Spanks are sixteen in family
But I would not take the bag from him regarding it as a sort of bribe to pay me such a lump of money without so much as asking how great had been my expenses Therefore I only told him that if he would kindly keep the cash for me until the morrow I would spend the rest of the day in counting which always is sore work with me how much it had stood me in board and lodging since Master Stickles had rendered me up for until that time he had borne my expenses In the morning I would give Mr Spank a memorandum duly signed and attested by my landlord including the breakfast of that day and in exchange for this I would take the exact amount from the yellow bag and be very thankful for it
If that is thy way of using opportunity said Spank looking at me with some contempt thou wilt never thrive in these times my lad Even the Lord Chief Justice can be little help to thee unless thou knowest better than that how to help thyself
It mattered not to me The word approver stuck in my gorge as used by the Lord Chief Justice for we looked upon an approver as a very low thing indeed I would rather pay for every breakfast and even every dinner eaten by me since here I came than take money as an approver And indeed I was much disappointed at being taken in that light having understood that I was sent for as a trusty subject and humble friend of His Majesty
In the morning I met Mr Spank waiting for me at the entrance and very desirous to see me I showed him my bill made out in fair copy and he laughed at it and said Take it twice over Master Ridd once for thine own sake and once for His Majestys as all his loyal tradesmen do when they can get any His Majesty knows and is proud of it for it shows their love of his countenance and he says bis dat qui cito dat then how can I grumble at giving twice when I give so slowly
Nay I will take it but once I said if His Majesty loves to be robbed he need not lack of his desire while the Spanks are sixteen in family
The clerk smiled cheerfully at this being proud of his childrens ability and then having paid my account he whispered—
He is all alone this morning John and in rare good humour He hath been promised the handling of poor Master Algernon Sidney and he says he will soon make republic of him for his state shall shortly be headless He is chuckling over his joke like a pig with a nut and that always makes him pleasant John Ridd my lord With that he swung up the curtain bravely and according to special orders I stood face to face and alone with Judge Jeffreys
CHAPTER XXVI
JOHN IS DRAINED AND CAST ASIDE
His lordship was busy with some letters and did not look up for a minute or two although he knew that I was there Meanwhile I stood waiting to make my bow afraid to begin upon him and wondering at his great bullhead Then he closed his letters wellpleased with their import and fixed his bold broad stare on me as if I were an oyster opened and he would know how fresh I was
May it please your worship I said here I am according to order awaiting your good pleasure
Thou art made to weight John more than order How much dost thou tip the scales to
Only twelvescore pounds my lord when I be in wrestling trim And sure I must have lost weight here fretting so long in London
Ha ha Much fret is there in thee Hath His Majesty seen thee
Yes my lord twice or even thrice and he made some jest concerning me
A very bad one I doubt not His humour is not so dainty as mine but apt to be coarse and unmannerly Now John or Jack by the look of thee thou art more used to be called
Yes your worship when I am with old Molly and Betty Muxworthy
Peace thou forward varlet There is a deal too much of thee We shall have to try short commons with thee and thou art a very long common Ha ha Where is that rogue Spank Spank must hear that byandby It is beyond thy great thick head Jack
Not so my lord I have been at school and had very bad jokes made upon me
Ha ha It hath hit thee hard And faith it would be hard to miss thee even with harpoon And thou lookest like to blubber now Capital in faith I have thee on every side Jack and thy sides are manifold manyfolded at any rate Thou shalt have double expenses Jack for the wit thou hast provoked in me
Heavy goods lack heavy payment is a proverb down our way my lord
Ah I hurt thee I hurt thee Jack The harpoon hath no tickle for thee Now Jack Whale having hauled thee hard we will proceed to examine thee Here all his manner was changed and he looked with his heavy brows bent upon me as if he had never laughed in his life and would allow none else to do so
I am ready to answer my lord I replied if he asks me nought beyond my knowledge or beyond my honour
Hadst better answer me everything lump What hast thou to do with honour Now is there in thy neighbourhood a certain nest of robbers miscreants and outlaws whom all men fear to handle
Yes my lord At least I believe some of them be robbers and all of them are outlaws
And what is your high sheriff about that he doth not hang them all Or send them up for me to hang without more to do about them
I reckon that he is afraid my lord it is not safe to meddle with them They are of good birth and reckless and their place is very strong
Good birth What was Lord Russell of Lord Essex and this Sidney Tis the surest heirship to the block to be the chip of a good one What is the name of this pestilent race and how many of them are there
They are the Doones of Bagworthy forest may it please your worship And we reckon there be about forty of them beside the women and children
Forty Doones all forty thieves and women and children Thunder of God How long have they been there then
They may have been there thirty years my lord and indeed they may have been forty Before the great war broke out they came longer back than I can remember
Ay long before thou wast born John Good thou speakest plainly Woe betide a liar whenso I get hold of him Ye want me on the Western Circuit by God and ye shall have me when London traitors are spun and swung There is a family called De Whichehalse living very nigh thee John
This he said in a sudden manner as if to take me off my guard and fixed his great thick eyes on me And in truth I was much astonished
Yes my lord there is At least not so very far from us Baron de Whichehalse of Ley Manor
Baron ha of the Exchequer—eh lad And taketh dues instead of His Majesty Somewhat which halts there ought to come a little further I trow It shall be seen to as well as the witch which makes it so to halt Riotous knaves in West England drunken outlaws you shall dance if ever I play pipe for you John Ridd I will come to Oare parish and rout out the Oare of Babylon
Although your worship is so learned I answered seeing that now he was beginning to make things uneasy your worship though being Chief Justice does little justice to us We are downright good and loyal folk and I have not seen since here I came to this great town of London any who may better us or even come anigh us in honesty and goodness and duty to our neighbours For we are very quiet folk not prating our own virtues—
Enough good John enough Knowest thou not that modesty is the maidenhood of virtue lost even by her own approval Now hast thou ever heard or thought that De Whichehalse is in league with the Doones of Bagworthy
Saying these words rather slowly he skewered his great eyes into mine so that I could not think at all neither look at him nor yet away The idea was so new to me that it set my wits all wandering and looking into me he saw that I was groping for the truth
John Ridd thine eyes are enough for me I see thou hast never dreamed of it Now hast thou ever seen a man whose name is Thomas Faggus
Yes sir many and many a time He is my own worthy cousin and I fear he that hath intentions—here I stopped having no right there to speak about our Annie
Tom Faggus is a good man he said and his great square face had a smile which showed me he had met my cousin Master Faggus hath made mistakes as to the title to property as lawyers oftentimes may do but take him all for all he is a thoroughly straightforward man presents his bill and has it paid and makes no charge for drawing it Nevertheless we must tax his costs as of any other solicitor
To be sure to be sure my lord was all that I could say not understanding what all this meant
I fear he will come to the gallows said the Lord Chief Justice sinking his voice below the echoes tell him this from me Jack He shall never be condemned before me but I cannot be everywhere and some of our Justices may keep short memory of his dinners Tell him to change his name turn parson or do something else to make it wrong to hang him Parson is the best thing he hath such command of features and he might take his tithes on horseback Now a few more things John Ridd and for the present I have done with thee
All my heart leaped up at this to get away from London so and yet I could hardly trust to it
Is there any sound round your way of disaffection to His Majesty His most gracious Majesty
No my lord no sign whatever We pray for him in church perhaps and we talk about him afterwards hoping it may do him good as it is intended But after that we have naught to say not knowing much about him—at least till I get home again
That is as it should be John And the less you say the better But I have heard of things in Taunton and even nearer to you in Dulverton and even nigher still upon Exmoor things which are of the pillory kind and even more of the gallows I see that you know naught of them Nevertheless it will not be long before all England hears of them Now John I have taken a liking to thee for never man told me the truth without fear or favour more thoroughly and truly than thou hast done Keep thou clear of this my son It will come to nothing yet many shall swing high for it Even I could not save thee John Ridd if thou wert mixed in this affair Keep from the Doones keep from De Whichehalse keep from everything which leads beyond the sight of thy knowledge I meant to use thee as my tool but I see thou art too honest and simple I will send a sharper down but never let me find thee John either a tool for the other side or a tube for my words to pass through
Here the Lord Justice gave me such a glare that I wished myself well rid of him though thankful for his warnings and seeing how he had made upon me a long abiding mark of fear he smiled again in a jocular manner and said—
Now get thee gone Jack I shall remember thee and I trow thou wiltst not for many a day forget me
My lord I was never so glad to go for the hay must be in and the ricks unthatched and none of them can make spars like me and two men to twist every hayrope and mother thinking it all right and listening right and left to lies and cheated at every pig she kills and even the skins of the sheep to go—
John Ridd I thought none could come nigh your folk in honesty and goodness and duty to their neighbours
Sure enough my lord but by our folk I mean ourselves not the men nor women neither—
That will do John Go thy way Not men nor women neither are better than they need be
I wished to set this matter right but his worship would not hear me and only drove me out of court saying that men were thieves and liars no more in one place than another but all alike all over the world and women not far behind them It was not for me to dispute this point though I was not yet persuaded of it both because my lord was a Judge and must know more about it and also that being a man myself I might seem to be defending myself in an unbecoming manner Therefore I made a low bow and went in doubt as to which had the right of it
But though he had so far dismissed me I was not yet quite free to go inasmuch as I had not money enough to take me all the way to Oare unless indeed I should go afoot and beg my sustenance by the way which seemed to be below me Therefore I got my few clothes packed and my few debts paid all ready to start in half an hour if only they would give me enough to set out upon the road with For I doubted not being young and strong that I could walk from London to Oare in ten days or in twelve at most which was not much longer than horsework only I had been a fool as you will say when you hear it For after receiving from Master Spank the amount of the bill which I had delivered—less indeed by fifty shillings than the money my mother had given me for I had spent fifty shillings and more in seeing the town and treating people which I could not charge to His Majesty—I had first paid all my debts thereout which were not very many and then supposing myself to be an established creditor of the Treasury for my coming needs and already scenting the country air and foreseeing the joy of my mother what had I done but spent half my balance ay and more than threequarters of it upon presents for mother and Annie and Lizzie John Fry and his wife and Betty Muxworthy Bill Dadds Jim Slocombe and in a word half of the rest of the people at Oare including all the Snowe family who must have things good and handsome And if I must while I am about it hide nothing from those who read me I had actually bought for Lorna a thing the price of which quite frightened me till the shopkeeper said it was nothing at all and that no young man with a lady to love him could dare to offer her rubbish such as the Jew sold across the way Now the mere idea of beautiful Lorna ever loving me which he talked about as patly though of course I never mentioned her as if it were a settled thing and he knew all about it that mere idea so drove me abroad that if he had asked three times as much I could never have counted the money
Now in all this I was a fool of course—not for remembering my friends and neighbours which a man has a right to do and indeed is bound to do when he comes from London—but for not being certified first what cash I had to go on with And to my great amazement when I went with another bill for the victuals of only three days more and a weeks expense on the homeward road reckoned very narrowly Master Spank not only refused to grant me any interview but sent me out a piece of blue paper looking like a butchers ticket and bearing these words and no more John Ridd go to the devil He who will not when he may when he will he shall have nay From this I concluded that I had lost favour in the sight of Chief Justice Jeffreys Perhaps because my evidence had not proved of any value perhaps because he meant to let the matter lie till cast on him
Anyhow it was a reason of much grief and some anger to me and very great anxiety disappointment and suspense For here was the time of the hay gone past and the harvest of small corn coming on and the trout now rising at the yellow Sally and the blackbirds eating our whiteheart cherries I was sure though I could not see them and who was to do any good for mother or stop her from weeping continually And more than this what was become of Lorna Perhaps she had cast me away altogether as a flouter and a changeling perhaps she had drowned herself in the black well perhaps and that was worst of all she was even married child as she was to that vile Carver Doone if the Doones ever cared about marrying That last thought sent me down at once to watch for Mr Spank again resolved that if I could catch him spank him I would to a pretty good tune although sixteen in family
However there was no such thing as to find him and the usher vowed having orders I doubt that he was gone to the sea for the good of his health having sadly overworked himself and that none but a poor devil like himself who never had handling of money would stay in London this foul hot weather which was likely to bring the plague with it Here was another new terror for me who had heard of the plagues of London and the horrible things that happened and so going back to my lodgings at once I opened my clothes and sought for spots especially as being so long at a hairy fellmongers but finding none I fell down and thanked God for that same and vowed to start for Oare tomorrow with my carbine loaded come weal come woe come sun come shower though all the parish should laugh at me for begging my way home again after the brave things said of my going as if I had been the Kings cousin
But I was saved in some degree from this lowering of my pride and what mattered more of mothers for going to buy with my last crownpiece after all demands were paid a little shot and powder more needful on the road almost than even shoes or victuals at the corner of the street I met my good friend Jeremy Stickles newly come in search of me I took him back to my little room—mine at least till tomorrow morning—and told him all my story and how much I felt aggrieved by it But he surprised me very much by showing no surprise at all
It is the way of the world Jack They have gotten all they can from thee and why should they feed thee further We feed not a dead pig I trow but baste him well with brine and rue Nay we do not victual him upon the day of killing which they have done to thee Thou art a lucky man John thou hast gotten one days wages or at any rate half a day after thy work was rendered God have mercy on me John The things I see are manifold and so is my regard of them What use to insist on this or make a special point of that or hold by something said of old when a different mood was on I tell thee Jack all men are liars and he is the least one who presses not too hard on them for lying
This was all quite dark to me for I never looked at things like that and never would own myself a liar not at least to other people nor even to myself although I might to God sometimes when trouble was upon me And if it comes to that no man has any right to be called a liar for smoothing over things unwitting through duty to his neighbour
Five pounds thou shalt have Jack said Jeremy Stickles suddenly while I was all abroad with myself as to being a liar or not five pounds and I will take my chance of wringing it from that great rogue Spank Ten I would have made it John but for bad luck lately Put back your bits of paper lad I will have no acknowledgment John Ridd no nonsense with me
For I was ready to kiss his hand to think that any man in London the meanest and most suspicious place upon all Gods earth should trust me with five pounds without even a receipt for it It overcame me so that I sobbed for after all though big in body I am but a child at heart It was not the five pounds that moved me but the way of giving it and after so much bitter talk the great trust in my goodness
CHAPTER XXVII
HOME AGAIN AT LAST
It was the beginning of wheatharvest when I came to Dunster town having walked all the way from London and being somewhat footsore For though five pounds was enough to keep me in food and lodging upon the road and leave me many a shilling to give to far poorer travellers it would have been nothing for horsehire as I knew too well by the prices Jeremy Stickles had paid upon our way to London Now I never saw a prettier town than Dunster looked that evening for sooth to say I had almost lost all hope of reaching it that night although the castle was long in view But being once there my troubles were gone at least as regarded wayfaring for mothers cousin the worthy tanner with whom we had slept on the way to London was in such indignation at the plight in which I came back to him afoot and weary and almost shoeless—not to speak of upper things—that he swore then by the mercy of God that if the schemes abrewing round him against those bloody Papists should come to any head or shape and show good chance of succeeding he would risk a thousand pounds as though it were a penny
I told him not to do it because I had heard otherwise but was not at liberty to tell onetenth of what I knew and indeed had seen in London town But of this he took no heed because I only nodded at him and he could not make it out For it takes an old man or at least a middleaged one to nod and wink with any power on the brains of other men However I think I made him know that the bad state in which I came to his town and the great shame I had wrought for him among the folk round the cardtable at the Luttrell Arms was not to be even there attributed to King Charles the Second nor even to his counsellors but to my own speed of travelling which had beat posthorses For being much distraught in mind and desperate in body I had made all the way from London to Dunster in six days and no more It may be one hundred and seventy miles I cannot tell to a furlong or two especially as I lost my way more than a dozen times but at any rate there in six days I was and most kindly they received me The tanner had some excellent daughters I forget how many very pretty damsels and well set up and able to make good pastry But though they asked me many questions and made a sort of lord of me and offered to darn my stockings which in truth required it I fell asleep in the midst of them although I would not acknowledge it and they said Poor cousin he is weary and led me to a blessed bed and kissed me all round like swans down
In the morning all the Exmoor hills the thought of which had frightened me at the end of each days travel seemed no more than bushels to me as I looked forth the bedroom window and thanked God for the sight of them And even so I had not to climb them at least by my own labour For my most worthy uncle as we oft call a parents cousin finding it impossible to keep me for the day and owning indeed that I was right in hastening to my mother vowed that walk I should not even though he lost his Saturday hides from Minehead and from Watchett Accordingly he sent me forth on the very strongest nag he had and the maidens came to wish me Godspeed and kissed their hands at the doorway It made me proud and glad to think that after seeing so much of the world and having held my own with it I was come once more among my own people and found them kinder and more warmhearted ay and better looking too than almost any I had happened upon in the mighty city of London
But how shall I tell you the things I felt and the swelling of my heart within me as I drew nearer and more near to the place of all I loved and owned to the haunt of every warm remembrance the nest of all the fledgling hopes—in a word to home The first sheep I beheld on the moor with a great red JR on his side for mother would have them marked with my name instead of her own as they should have been I do assure you my spirit leaped and all my sight came to my eyes I shouted out Jem boy—for that was his name and a rare hand he was at fighting—and he knew me in spite of the stranger horse and I leaned over and stroked his head and swore he should never be mutton And when I was passed he set off at full gallop to call the rest of the JRs together and tell them young master was come home at last
But bless your heart and my own as well it would take me all the afternoon to lay before you onetenth of the things which came home to me in that one halfhour as the sun was sinking in the real way he ought to sink I touched my horse with no spur nor whip feeling that my slow wits would go if the sights came too fast over them Here was the pool where we washed the sheep and there was the hollow that oozed away where I had shot three wild ducks Here was the peatrick that hid my dinner when I could not go home for it and there was the bush with the thyme growing round it where Annie had found a great swarm of our bees And now was the corner of the dry stone wall where the moor gave over in earnest and the partridges whisked from it into the corn lands and called that their supper was ready and looked at our house and the ricks as they ran and would wait for that comfort till winter
And there I saw—but let me go—Annie was too much for me She nearly pulled me off my horse and kissed the very mouth of the carbine
I knew you would come Oh John Oh John I have waited here every Saturday night and I saw you for the last mile or more but I would not come round the corner for fear that I should cry John and then not cry when I got you Now I may cry as much as I like and you need not try to stop me John because I am so happy But you mustnt cry yourself John what will mother think of you She will be so jealous of me
What mother thought I cannot tell and indeed I doubt if she thought at all for more than half an hour but only managed to hold me tight and cry and thank God now and then but with some fear of His taking me if she should be too grateful Moreover she thought it was my own doing and I ought to have the credit of it and she even came down very sharply upon Johns wife Mrs Fry for saying that we must not be too proud for all of it was the Lords doing However dear mother was ashamed of that afterwards and asked Mrs Frys humble pardon and perhaps I ought not to have mentioned it
Old Smiler had told them that I was coming—all the rest I mean except Annie—for having escaped from his halterring he was come out to graze in the lane a bit when what should he see but a strange horse coming with young master and mistress upon him for Annie must needs get up behind me there being only sheep to look at her Then Smiler gave us a stare and a neigh with his tail quite stiff with amazement and then whether in joy or through indignation he flung up his hind feet and galloped straight home and set every dog wild with barking
Now methinks quite enough has been said concerning this mighty return of the young John Ridd which was known up at Cosgate that evening and feeling that I cannot describe it how can I hope that any one else will labour to imagine it even of the few who are able For very few can have travelled so far unless indeed they whose trade it is or very unsettled people And even of those who have done so not one in a hundred can have such a home as I had to come home to
Mother wept again with grief and some wrath and so did Annie also and even little Eliza and all were unsettled in loyalty and talked about a republic when I told them how I had been left without money for travelling homeward and expected to have to beg my way which Farmer Snowe would have heard of And though I could see they were disappointed at my failure of any promotion they all declared how glad they were and how much better they liked me to be no more than what they were accustomed to At least my mother and Annie said so without waiting to hear any more but Lizzie did not answer to it until I had opened my bag and shown the beautiful present I had for her And then she kissed me almost like Annie and vowed that she thought very little of captains
For Lizzies present was the best of all I mean of course except Lornas which I carried in my breast all the way hoping that it might make her love me from having lain so long close to my heart For I had brought Lizzie something dear and a precious heavy book it was and much beyond my understanding whereas I knew well that to both the others my gifts would be dear for mine own sake And happier people could not be found than the whole of us were that evening
CHAPTER XXVIII
JOHN HAS HOPE OF LORNA
Much as I longed to know more about Lorna and though all my heart was yearning I could not reconcile it yet with my duty to mother and Annie to leave them on the following day which happened to be a Sunday For lo before breakfast was out of our mouths there came all the men of the farm and their wives and even the two crowboys dressed as if going to Barnstaple fair to inquire how Master John was and whether it was true that the King had made him one of his bodyguard and if so what was to be done with the belt for the championship of the WestCounties wrestling which I had held now for a year or more and none were ready to challenge it Strange to say this last point seemed the most important of all to them and none asked who was to manage the farm or answer for their wages but all asked who was to wear the belt
To this I replied after shaking hands twice over all round with all of them that I meant to wear the belt myself for the honour of Oare parish so long as ever God gave me strength and health to meet allcomers for I had never been asked to be bodyguard and if asked I would never have done it Some of them cried that the King must be mazed not to keep me for his protection in these violent times of Popery I could have told them that the King was not in the least afraid of Papists but on the contrary very fond of them however I held my tongue remembering what Judge Jeffreys bade me
In church the whole congregation man woman and child except indeed the Snowe girls who only looked when I was not watching turned on me with one accord and stared so steadfastly to get some reflection of the King from me that they forgot the time to kneel down and the parson was forced to speak to them If I coughed or moved my book or bowed or even said Amen glances were exchanged which meant—That he hath learned in London town and most likely from His Majesty
However all this went off in time and people became even angry with me for not being sharper as they said or smarter or a whit more fashionable for all the great company I had seen and all the wondrous things wasted upon me
But though I may have been none the wiser by reason of my stay in London at any rate I was much the better in virtue of coming home again For now I had learned the joy of quiet and the gratitude for good things round us and the love we owe to others even those who must be kind for their indulgence to us All this before my journey had been too much as a matter of course to me but having missed it now I knew that it was a gift and might be lost Moreover I had pined so much in the dust and heat of that great town for trees and fields and running waters and the sounds of country life and the air of country winds that never more could I grow weary of those soft enjoyments or at least I thought so then
To awake as the summer sun came slanting over the hilltops with hope on every beam adance to the laughter of the morning to see the leaves across the window ruffling on the fresh new air and the tendrils of the powdery vine turning from their beaded sleep Then the lustrous meadows far beyond the thatch of the gardenwall yet seen beneath the hanging scollops of the walnuttree all awaking dressed in pearl all amazed at their own glistening like a maid at her own ideas Down them troop the lowing kine walking each with a step of character even as men and women do yet all alike with toss of horns and spread of udders ready From them without a word we turn to the farmyard proper seen on the right and dryly strawed from the petty rush of the pitchpaved runnel Round it stand the snug outbuildings barn cornchamber ciderpress stables with a blinkerd horse in every doorway munching while his driver tightens buckles whistles and looks down the lane dallying to begin his labour till the milkmaids be gone by Here the cock comes forth at last—where has he been lingering—eggs may tell tomorrow—he claps his wings and shouts cockadoodle and no other cock dare look at him Two or three go sidling off waiting till their spurs be grown and then the crowd of partlets comes chattering how their lord has dreamed and crowed at two in the morning and praying that the old brown rat would only dare to face him But while the cock is crowing still and the pullet world admiring him who comes up but the old turkeycock with all his family round him Then the geese at the lower end begin to thrust their breasts out and mum their downbits and look at the gander and scream shrill joy for the conflict while the ducks in pond show nothing but tail in proof of their strict neutrality
While yet we dread for the coming event and the fight which would jar on the morning behold the grandmother of sows gruffly grunting right and left with muzzle which no ring may tame not being matrimonial hulks across between the two moving all each side at once and then all of the other side as if she were chined down the middle and afraid of spilling the salt from her As this mighty view of lard hides each combatant from the other gladly each retires and boasts how he would have slain his neighbour but that old sow drove the other away and no wonder he was afraid of her after all the chicks she had eaten
And so it goes on and so the sun comes stronger from his drink of dew and the cattle in the byres and the horses from the stable and the men from cottagedoor each has had his rest and food all smell alike of hay and straw and every one must hie to work be it drag or draw or delve
So thought I on the Monday morning while my own work lay before me and I was plotting how to quit it void of harm to every one and let my love have work a little—hardest perhaps of all work and yet as sure as sunrise I knew that my first days task on the farm would be strictly watched by every one even by my gentle mother to see what I had learned in London But could I let still another day pass for Lorna to think me faithless
I felt much inclined to tell dear mother all about Lorna and how I loved her yet had no hope of winning her Often and often I had longed to do this and have done with it But the thought of my fathers terrible death at the hands of the Doones prevented me And it seemed to me foolish and mean to grieve mother without any chance of my suit ever speeding If once Lorna loved me my mother should know it and it would be the greatest happiness to me to have no concealment from her though at first she was sure to grieve terribly But I saw no more chance of Lorna loving me than of the man in the moon coming down or rather of the moon coming down to the man as related in old mythology
Now the merriment of the small birds and the clear voice of the waters and the lowing of cattle in meadows and the view of no houses except just our own and a neighbours and the knowledge of everybody around their kindness of heart and simplicity and love of their neighbours doings—all these could not help or please me at all and many of them were much against me in my secret depth of longing and dark tumult of the mind. Many people may think me foolish especially after coming from London where many nice maids looked at me on account of my bulk and stature and I might have been fitted up with a sweetheart in spite of my westcountry twang and the smallness of my purse if only I had said the word But nay I have contempt for a man whose heart is like a shirtstud such as I saw in London cards fitted into one today sitting bravely on the breast plucked out on the morrow morn and the place that knew it gone
Now what did I do but take my chance reckless whether any one heeded me or not only craving Lornas heed and time for ten words to her Therefore I left the men of the farm as far away as might be after making them work with me which no man round our parts could do to his own satisfaction and then knowing them to be well weary very unlike to follow me—and still more unlike to tell of me for each had his London present—I strode right away in good trust of my speed without any more misgivings but resolved to face the worst of it and to try to be home for supper
And first I went I know not why to the crest of the broken highland whence I had agreed to watch for any mark or signal And sure enough at last I saw when it was too late to see that the white stone had been covered over with a cloth or mantle—the sign that something had arisen to make Lorna want me For a moment I stood amazed at my evil fortune that I should be too late in the very thing of all things on which my heart was set Then after eyeing sorrowfully every crick and cranny to be sure that not a single flutter of my love was visible off I set with small respect either for my knees or neck to make the round of the outer cliffs and come up my old access
Nothing could stop me it was not long although to me it seemed an age before I stood in the niche of rock at the head of the slippery watercourse and gazed into the quiet glen where my foolish heart was dwelling Notwithstanding doubts of right notwithstanding sense of duty and despite all manly striving and the great love of my home there my heart was ever dwelling knowing what a fool it was and content to know it
Many birds came twittering round me in the gold of August many trees showed twinkling beauty as the sun went lower and the lines of water fell from wrinkles into dimples Little heeding there I crouched though with sense of everything that afterwards should move me like a picture or a dream and everything went by me softly while my heart was gazing
At last a little figure came not insignificant I mean but looking very light and slender in the moving shadows gently here and softly there as if vague of purpose with a gloss of tender movement in and out the wealth of trees and liberty of the meadow Who was I to crouch or doubt or look at her from a distance what matter if they killed me now and one tear came to bury me Therefore I rushed out at once as if shotguns were unknown yet not from any real courage but from prisoned love burst forth
I know not whether my own Lorna was afraid of what I looked or what I might say to her or of her own thoughts of me all I know is that she looked frightened when I hoped for gladness Perhaps the power of my joy was more than maiden liked to own or in any way to answer to and to tell the truth it seemed as if I might now forget myself while she would take good care of it This makes a man grow thoughtful unless as some low fellows do he believe all women hypocrites
Therefore I went slowly towards her taken back in my impulse and said all I could come to say with some distress in doing it
Mistress Lorna I had hope that you were in need of me
Oh yes but that was long ago two months ago or more sir And saying this she looked away as if it all were over But I was now so dazed and frightened that it took my breath away and I could not answer feeling sure that I was robbed and some one else had won her And I tried to turn away without another word and go
But I could not help one stupid sob though mad with myself for allowing it but it came too sharp for pride to stay it and it told a world of things Lorna heard it and ran to me with her bright eyes full of wonder pity and great kindness as if amazed that I had more than a simple liking for her Then she held out both hands to me and I took and looked at them
Master Ridd I did not mean she whispered very softly I did not mean to vex you
If you would be loath to vex me none else in this world can do it I answered out of my great love but fearing yet to look at her mine eyes not being strong enough
Come away from this bright place she answered trembling in her turn I am watched and spied of late Come beneath the shadows John
I would have leaped into the valley of the shadow of death as described by the late John Bunyan only to hear her call me John though Apollyon were lurking there and Despair should lock me in
She stole across the silent grass but I strode hotly after her fear was all beyond me now except the fear of losing her I could not but behold her manner as she went before me all her grace and lovely sweetness and her sense of what she was
She led me to her own rich bower which I told of once before and if in spring it were a sight what was it in summer glory But although my mind had notice of its fairness and its wonder not a heed my heart took of it neither dwelt it in my presence more than flowing water All that in my presence dwelt all that in my heart was felt was the maiden moving gently and afraid to look at me
For now the power of my love was abiding on her new to her unknown to her not a thing to speak about nor even to think clearly only just to feel and wonder with a pain of sweetness She could look at me no more neither could she look away with a studied manner—only to let fall her eyes and blush and be put out with me and still more with herself
I left her quite alone though close though tingling to have hold of her Even her right hand was dropped and lay among the mosses Neither did I try to steal one glimpse below her eyelids Life and death to me were hanging on the first glance I should win yet I let it be so
After long or short—I know not yet ere I was weary ere I yet began to think or wish for any answer—Lorna slowly raised her eyelids with a gleam of dew below them and looked at me doubtfully Any look with so much in it never met my gaze before
Darling do you love me was all that I could say to her
Yes I like you very much she answered with her eyes gone from me and her dark hair falling over so as not to show me things
But do you love me Lorna Lorna do you love me more than all the world
No to be sure not Now why should I
In truth I know not why you should Only I hoped that you did Lorna Either love me not at all or as I love you for ever
John I love you very much and I would not grieve you You are the bravest and the kindest and the simplest of all men—I mean of all people—I like you very much Master Ridd and I think of you almost every day
That will not do for me Lorna Not almost every day I think but every instant of my life of you For you I would give up my home my love of all the world beside my duty to my dearest ones for you I would give up my life and hope of life beyond it Do you love me so
Not by any means said Lorna no I like you very much when you do not talk so wildly and I like to see you come as if you would fill our valley up and I like to think that even Carver would be nothing in your hands—but as to liking you like that what should make it likely especially when I have made the signal and for some two months or more you have never even answered it If you like me so ferociously why do you leave me for other people to do just as they like with me
To do as they liked Oh Lorna not to make you marry Carver
No Master Ridd be not frightened so it makes me fear to look at you
But you have not married Carver yet Say quick Why keep me waiting so
Of course I have not Master Ridd Should I be here if I had think you and allowing you to like me so and to hold my hand and make me laugh as I declare you almost do sometimes And at other times you frighten me
Did they want you to marry Carver Tell me all the truth of it
Not yet not yet They are not half so impetuous as you are John I am only just seventeen you know and who is to think of marrying But they wanted me to give my word and be formally betrothed to him in the presence of my grandfather It seems that something frightened them There is a youth named Charleworth Doone every one calls him Charlie a headstrong and a gay young man very gallant in his looks and manner and my uncle the Counsellor chose to fancy that Charlie looked at me too much coming by my grandfathers cottage
Here Lorna blushed so that I was frightened and began to hate this Charlie more a great deal more than even Carver Doone
He had better not said I I will fling him over it if he dare He shall see thee through the roof Lorna if at all he see thee
Master Ridd you are worse than Carver I thought you were so kindhearted Well they wanted me to promise and even to swear a solemn oath a thing I have never done in my life that I would wed my eldest cousin this same Carver Doone who is twice as old as I am being thirtyfive and upwards That was why I gave the token that I wished to see you Master Ridd They pointed out how much it was for the peace of all the family and for mine own benefit but I would not listen for a moment though the Counsellor was most eloquent and my grandfather begged me to consider and Carver smiled his pleasantest which is a truly frightful thing Then both he and his crafty father were for using force with me but Sir Ensor would not hear of it and they have put off that extreme until he shall be past its knowledge or at least beyond preventing it And now I am watched and spied and followed and half my little liberty seems to be taken from me I could not be here speaking with you even in my own nook and refuge but for the aid and skill and courage of dear little Gwenny Carfax She is now my chief reliance and through her alone I hope to baffle all my enemies since others have forsaken me
Tears of sorrow and reproach were lurking in her soft dark eyes until in fewest words I told her that my seeming negligence was nothing but my bitter loss and wretched absence far away of which I had so vainly striven to give any tidings without danger to her When she heard all this and saw what I had brought from London which was nothing less than a ring of pearls with a sapphire in the midst of them as pretty as could well be found she let the gentle tears flow fast and came and sat so close beside me that I trembled like a folded sheep at the bleating of her lamb But recovering comfort quickly without more ado I raised her left hand and observed it with a nice regard wondering at the small blue veins and curves and tapering whiteness and the points it finished with My wonder seemed to please her much herself so well accustomed to it and not fond of watching it And then before she could say a word or guess what I was up to as quick as ever I turned hand in a bout of wrestling on her finger was my ring—sapphire for the veins of blue and pearls to match white fingers
Oh you crafty Master Ridd said Lorna looking up at me and blushing now a far brighter blush than when she spoke of Charlie I thought that you were much too simple ever to do this sort of thing No wonder you can catch the fish as when first I saw you
Have I caught you little fish Or must all my life be spent in hopeless angling for you
Neither one nor the other John You have not caught me yet altogether though I like you dearly John and if you will only keep away I shall like you more and more As for hopeless angling John—that all others shall have until I tell you otherwise
With the large tears in her eyes—tears which seemed to me to rise partly from her want to love me with the power of my love—she put her pure bright lips half smiling half prone to reply to tears against my forehead lined with trouble doubt and eager longing And then she drew my ring from off that snowy twig her finger and held it out to me and then seeing how my face was falling thrice she touched it with her lips and sweetly gave it back to me John I dare not take it now else I should be cheating you I will try to love you dearly even as you deserve and wish Keep it for me just till then Something tells me I shall earn it in a very little time Perhaps you will be sorry then sorry when it is all too late to be loved by such as I am
What could I do at her mournful tone but kiss a thousand times the hand which she put up to warn me and vow that I would rather die with one assurance of her love than without it live for ever with all beside that the world could give Upon this she looked so lovely with her dark eyelashes trembling and her soft eyes full of light and the colour of clear sunrise mounting on her cheeks and brow that I was forced to turn away being overcome with beauty
Dearest darling love of my life I whispered through her clouds of hair how long must I wait to know how long must I linger doubting whether you can ever stoop from your birth and wondrous beauty to a poor coarse hind like me an ignorant unlettered yeoman—
I will not have you revile yourself said Lorna very tenderly—just as I had meant to make her You are not rude and unlettered John You know a great deal more than I do you have learned both Greek and Latin as you told me long ago and you have been at the very best school in the West of England None of us but my grandfather and the Counsellor who is a great scholar can compare with you in this And though I have laughed at your manner of speech I only laughed in fun John I never meant to vex you by it nor knew that it had done so
Naught you say can vex me dear I answered as she leaned towards me in her generous sorrow unless you say Begone John Ridd I love another more than you
Then I shall never vex you John Never I mean by saying that Now John if you please be quiet—
For I was carried away so much by hearing her calling me John so often and the music of her voice and the way she bent toward me and the shadow of soft weeping in the sunlight of her eyes that some of my great hand was creeping in a manner not to be imagined and far less explained toward the lithesome wholesome curving underneath her mantlefold and out of sight and harm as I thought not being her front waist However I was dashed with that and pretended not to mean it only to pluck some ladyfern whose elegance did me no good
Now John said Lorna being so quick that not even a lover could cheat her and observing my confusion more intently than she need have done Master John Ridd it is high time for you to go home to your mother I love your mother very much from what you have told me about her and I will not have her cheated
If you truly love my mother said I very craftily the only way to show it is by truly loving me
Upon that she laughed at me in the sweetest manner and with such provoking ways and such comeandgo of glances and beginning of quick blushes which she tried to laugh away that I knew as well as if she herself had told me by some knowledge void of reasoning and the surer for it I knew quite well while all my heart was burning hot within me and mine eyes were shy of hers and her eyes were shy of mine for certain and for ever this I knew—as in a glory—that Lorna Doone had now begun and would go on to love me
CHAPTER XXIX
REAPING LEADS TO REVELLING
Although I was under interdict for two months from my darling—one for your sake one for mine she had whispered with her head withdrawn yet not so very far from me—lighter heart was not on Exmoor than I bore for half the time and even for three quarters For she was safe I knew that daily by a mode of signals wellcontrived between us now on the strength of our experience I have nothing now to fear John she had said to me as we parted it is true that I am spied and watched but Gwenny is too keen for them While I have my grandfather to prevent all violence and little Gwenny to keep watch on those who try to watch me and you above all others John ready at a moment if the worst comes to the worst—this neglected Lorna Doone was never in such case before Therefore do not squeeze my hand John I am safe without it and you do not know your strength
Ah I knew my strength right well Hill and valley scarcely seemed to be step and landing for me fiercest cattle I would play with making them go backward and afraid of hurting them like John Fry with his terrier even rooted trees seemed to me but as sticks I could smite down except for my love of everything The love of all things was upon me and a softness to them all and a sense of having something even such as they had
Then the golden harvest came waving on the broad hillside and nestling in the quiet nooks scooped from out the fringe of wood A wealth of harvest such as never gladdened all our countryside since my father ceased to reap and his sickle hung to rust There had not been a man on Exmoor fit to work that reapinghook since the time its owner fell in the prime of life and strength before a sterner reaper But now I took it from the wall where mother proudly stored it while she watched me hardly knowing whether she should smile or cry
All the parish was assembled in our upper courtyard for we were to open the harvest that year as had been settled with Farmer Nicholas and with Jasper Kebby who held the third or little farm We started in proper order therefore as our practice is first the parson Josiah Bowden wearing his gown and cassock with the parish Bible in his hand and a sickle strapped behind him As he strode along well and stoutly being a man of substance all our family came next I leading mother with one hand in the other bearing my fathers hook and with a loaf of our own bread and a keg of cider upon my back Behind us Annie and Lizzie walked wearing wreaths of cornflowers set out very prettily such as mother would have worn if she had been a farmers wife instead of a farmers widow Being as she was she had no adornment except that her widows hood was off and her hair allowed to flow as if she had been a maiden and very rich bright hair it was in spite of all her troubles
After us the maidens came milkmaids and the rest of them with Betty Muxworthy at their head scolding even now because they would not walk fitly But they only laughed at her and she knew it was no good to scold with all the men behind them
Then the Snowes came trooping forward Farmer Nicholas in the middle walking as if he would rather walk to a wheatfield of his own yet content to follow lead because he knew himself the leader and signing every now and then to the people here and there as if I were nobody But to see his three great daughters strong and handsome wenches making upon either side as if somebody would run off with them—this was the very thing that taught me how to value Lorna and her pure simplicity
After the Snowes came Jasper Kebby with his wife newmarried and a very honest pair they were upon only a hundred acres and a right of common After these the men came hotly without decent order trying to spy the girls in front and make good jokes about them at which their wives laughed heartily being jealous when alone perhaps And after these men and their wives came all the children toddling picking flowers by the way and chattering and asking questions as the children will There must have been threescore of us take one with another and the lane was full of people When we were come to the big fieldgate where the first sickle was to be Parson Bowden heaved up the rail with the sleeves of his gown done green with it and he said that everybody might hear him though his breath was short In the name of the Lord Amen
Amen So be it cried the clerk who was far behind being only a shoemaker
Then Parson Bowden read some verses from the parish Bible telling us to lift up our eyes and look upon the fields already white to harvest and then he laid the Bible down on the square head of the gatepost and despite his gown and cassock three good swipes he cut off corn and laid them right end onwards All this time the rest were huddling outside the gate and along the lane not daring to interfere with parson but whispering how well he did it
When he had stowed the corn like that mother entered leaning on me and we both said Thank the Lord for all His mercies and these the firstfruits of His hand And then the clerk gave out a psalm verse by verse done very well although he sneezed in the midst of it from a beard of wheat thrust up his nose by the rival cobbler at Brendon And when the psalm was sung so strongly that the foxgloves on the bank were shaking like a chime of bells at it Parson took a stoop of cider and we all fell to at reaping
Of course I mean the men not women although I know that up the country women are allowed to reap and right well they reap it keeping row for row with men comely and in due order yet meseems the men must ill attend to their own reapinghooks in fear lest the other cut themselves being the weaker vessel But in our part women do what seems their proper business following well behind the men out of harm of the swinging hook and stooping with their breasts and arms up they catch the swathes of corn where the reapers cast them and tucking them together tightly with a wisp laid under them this they fetch around and twist with a knee to keep it close and lo there is a goodly sheaf ready to set up in stooks After these the children come gathering each for his little self if the farmer be rightminded until each hath a bundle made as big as himself and longer and tumbles now and again with it in the deeper part of the stubble
We the men kept marching onwards down the flank of the yellow wall with knees bent wide and left arm bowed and right arm flashing steel Each man in his several place keeping down the rig or chine on the right side of the reaper in front and the left of the man that followed him each making farther sweep and inroad into the golden breadth and depth each casting leftwards his rich clearance on his foregoers double track
So like half a wedge of wildfowl to and fro we swept the field and when to either hedge we came sickles wanted whetting and throats required moistening and backs were in need of easing and every man had much to say and women wanted praising Then all returned to the other end with reapinghooks beneath our arms and dogs left to mind jackets
But now will you believe me well or will you only laugh at me For even in the world of wheat when deep among the varnished crispness of the jointed stalks and below the feathered yielding of the graceful heads even as I gripped the swathes and swept the sickle round them even as I flung them by to rest on brother stubble through the whirling yellow world and eagerness of reaping came the vision of my love as with downcast eyes she wondered at my power of passion And then the sweet remembrance glowed brighter than the sun through wheat through my very depth of heart of how she raised those beaming eyes and ripened in my breast rich hope Even now I could descry like high waves in the distance the rounded heads and folded shadows of the wood of Bagworthy Perhaps she was walking in the valley and softly gazing up at them Oh to be a bird just there I could see a bright mist hanging just above the Doone Glen Perhaps it was shedding its drizzle upon her Oh to be a drop of rain The very breeze which bowed the harvest to my bosom gently might have come direct from Lorna with her sweet voice laden Ah the flaws of air that wander where they will around her fan her bright cheek play with lashes even revel in her hair and reveal her beauties—man is but a breath we know would I were such breath as that
But confound it while I ponder with delicious dreams suspended with my right arm hanging frustrate and the giant sickle drooped with my left arm bowed for clasping something more germane than wheat and my eyes not minding business but intent on distant woods—confound it what are the men about and why am I left vapouring They have taken advantage of me the rogues They are gone to the hedge for the ciderjars they have had up the sledd of bread and meat quite softly over the stubble and if I can believe my eyes so dazed with Lornas image they are sitting down to an excellent dinner before the church clock has gone eleven
John Fry you big villain I cried with John hanging up in the air by the scruff of his neckcloth but holding still by his knife and fork and a gooseleg in between his lips John Fry what mean you by this sir
Latt me dowun or I cant tell e John answered with some difficulty So I let him come down and I must confess that he had reason on his side Plaise your worship—John called me so ever since I returned from London firmly believing that the King had made me a magistrate at least though I was to keep it secret—us zeed as how your worship were took with thinkin of Kings business in the middle of the whaterigg and so uz zed Latt un coom to his zell us had better zave taime by takking our dinner and here us be praise your worship and hopps no offence with thick iron spoon full of vried taties
I was glad enough to accept the ladle full of fried batatas and to make the best of things which is generally done by letting men have their own way Therefore I managed to dine with them although it was so early
For according to all that I can find in a long life and a varied one twelve oclock is the real time for a man to have his dinner Then the sun is at his noon calling halt to look around and then the plants and leaves are turning each with a little leisure time before the work of the afternoon Then is the balance of east and west and then the right and left side of a man are in due proportion and contribute fairly with harmonious fluids And the health of this mode of life and its reclaiming virtue are well set forth in our ancient rhyme—
Sunrise breakfast sun high dinner Sundown sup makes a saint of a sinner
Whish the wheat falls Whirl again ye have had good dinners give your master and mistress plenty to supply another year And in truth we did reap well and fairly through the whole of that afternoon I not only keeping lead but keeping the men up to it We got through a matter of ten acres ere the sun between the shocks broke his light on wheaten plumes then hung his red cloak on the clouds and fell into grey slumber
Seeing this we wiped our sickles and our breasts and foreheads and soon were on the homeward road looking forward to good supper
Of course all the reapers came at night to the harvestsupper and Parson Bowden to say the grace as well as to help to carve for us And some help was needed there I can well assure you for the reapers had brave appetites and most of their wives having babies were forced to eat as a duty Neither failed they of this duty cut and come again was the order of the evening as it had been of the day and I had no time to ask questions but help meat and ladle gravy All the while our darling Annie with her sleeves tucked up and her comely figure panting was running about with a bucket of taties mashed with lard and cabbage Even Lizzie had left her books and was serving out beer and cider while mother helped plumpudding largely on pewterplates with the mutton And all the time Betty Muxworthy was grunting in and out everywhere not having space to scold even but changing the dishes serving the meat poking the fire and cooking more But John Fry would not stir a peg except with his knife and fork having all the airs of a visitor and his wife to keep him eating till I thought there would be no end of it
Then having eaten all they could they prepared themselves with one accord for the business now of drinking But first they lifted the neck of corn dressed with ribbons gaily and set it upon the mantelpiece each man with his horn afroth and then they sang a song about it every one shouting in the chorus louder than harvest thunderstorm Some were in the middle of one verse and some at the end of the next one yet somehow all managed to get together in the mighty roar of the burden And if any farmer up the country would like to know Exmoor harvestsong as sung in my time and will be sung long after I am garnered home lo here I set it down for him omitting only the dialect which perchance might puzzle him
EXMOOR HARVESTSONG
1
The corn oh the corn tis the ripening of the corn
Go unto the door my lad and look beneath the moon
Thou canst see beyond the woodrick how it is yelloon
Tis the harvesting of wheat and the barley must be shorn
Chorus
The corn oh the corn and the yellow mellow corn
Heres to the corn with the cups upon the board
Weve been reaping all the day and well reap again the morn
And fetch it home to mowyard and then well thank the Lord
2
The wheat oh the wheat tis the ripening of the wheat
All the day it has been hanging down its heavy head
Bowing over on our bosoms with a beard of red
Tis the harvest and the value makes the labour sweet
Chorus
The wheat oh the wheat and the golden golden wheat
Heres to the wheat with the loaves upon the board
Weve been reaping all the day and we never will be beat
But fetch it all to mowyard and then well thank the Lord
3
The barley oh the barley and the barley is in prime
All the day it has been rustling with its bristles brown
Waiting with its beard abowing till it can be mown
Tis the harvest and the barley must abide its time
Chorus
The barley oh the barley and the barley ruddy brown
Heres to the barley with the beer upon the board
Well go amowing soon as ever all the wheat is down
When all is in the mowyard well stop and thank the Lord
4
The oats oh the oats tis the ripening of the oats
All the day they have been dancing with their flakes of white
Waiting for the girdinghook to be the nags delight
Tis the harvest let them dangle in their skirted coats
Chorus
The oats oh the oats and the silver silver oats
Heres to the oats with the blackstone on the board
Well go among them when the barley has been laid in rotes
When all is home to mowyard well kneel and thank the Lord
5
The corn oh the corn and the blessing of the corn
Come unto the door my lads and look beneath the moon
We can see on hill and valley how it is yelloon
With a breadth of glory as when our Lord was born
Chorus
The corn oh the corn and the yellow mellow corn
Thanks for the corn with our bread upon the board
So shall we acknowledge it before we reap the morn
With our hands to heaven and our knees unto the Lord
Now we sang this song very well the first time having the parish choir to lead us and the clarionet and the parson to give us the time with his cup and we sang it again the second time not so but what you might praise it if you had been with us all the evening although the parson was gone then and the clerk not fit to compare with him in the matter of keeping time But when that song was in its third singing I defy any man however sober to have made out one verse from the other or even the burden from the verses inasmuch as every man present ay and woman too sang as became convenient to them in utterance both of words and tune
And in truth there was much excuse for them because it was a noble harvest fit to thank the Lord for without His thinking us hypocrites For we had more land in wheat that year than ever we had before and twice the crop to the acre and I could not help now and then remembering in the midst of the merriment how my father in the churchyard yonder would have gloried to behold it And my mother who had left us now happening to return just then being called to have her health drunk for the twentieth time at least I knew by the sadness in her eyes that she was thinking just as I was Presently therefore I slipped away from the noise and mirth and smoking although of that last there was not much except from Farmer Nicholas and crossing the courtyard in the moonlight I went just to cool myself as far as my fathers tombstone
CHAPTER XXX
ANNIE GETS THE BEST OF IT
I had long outgrown unwholesome feeling as to my fathers death and so had Annie though Lizzie who must have loved him least still entertained some evil will and longing for a punishment Therefore I was surprised and indeed startled would not be too much to say the moon being somewhat fleecy to see our Annie sitting there as motionless as the tombstone and with all her best fallals upon her after stowing away the dishes
My nerves however are good and strong except at least in love matters wherein they always fail me and when I meet with witches and therefore I went up to Annie although she looked so white and pure for I had seen her before with those things on and it struck me who she was
What are you doing here Annie I inquired rather sternly being vexed with her for having gone so very near to frighten me
Nothing at all said our Annie shortly And indeed it was truth enough for a woman Not that I dare to believe that women are such liars as men say only that I mean they often see things round the corner and know not which is which of it And indeed I never have known a woman though right enough in their meaning purely and perfectly true and transparent except only my Lorna and even so I might not have loved her if she had been ugly
Why how so said I Miss Annie what business have you here doing nothing at this time of night And leaving me with all the trouble to entertain our guests
You seem not to me to be doing it John Annie answered softly what business have you here doing nothing at this time of night
I was taken so aback with this and the extreme impertinence of it from a mere young girl like Annie that I turned round to march away and have nothing more to say to her But she jumped up and caught me by the hand and threw herself upon my bosom with her face all wet with tears
Oh John I will tell you I will tell you Only dont be angry John
Angry no indeed said I what right have I to be angry with you because you have your secrets Every chit of a girl thinks now that she has a right to her secrets
And you have none of your own John of course you have none of your own All your going out at night—
We will not quarrel here poor Annie I answered with some loftiness there are many things upon my mind which girls can have no notion of
And so there are upon mine John Oh John I will tell you everything if you will look at me kindly and promise to forgive me Oh I am so miserable
Now this though she was behaving so badly moved me much towards her especially as I longed to know what she had to tell me Therefore I allowed her to coax me and to kiss me and to lead me away a little as far as the old yewtree for she would not tell me where she was
But even in the shadow there she was very long before beginning and seemed to have two minds about it or rather perhaps a dozen and she laid her cheek against the tree and sobbed till it was pitiful and I knew what mother would say to her for spoiling her best frock so
Now will you stop I said at last harder than I meant it for I knew that she would go on all night if any one encouraged her and though not well acquainted with women I understood my sisters or else I must be a born fool—except of course that I never professed to understand Eliza
Yes I will stop said Annie panting you are very hard on me John but I know you mean it for the best If somebody else—I am sure I dont know who and have no right to know no doubt but she must be a wicked thing—if somebody else had been taken so with a pain all round the heart John and no power of telling it perhaps you would have coaxed and kissed her and come a little nearer and made opportunity to be very loving
Now this was so exactly what I had tried to do to Lorna that my breath was almost taken away at Annies so describing it For a while I could not say a word but wondered if she were a witch which had never been in our family and then all of a sudden I saw the way to beat her with the devil at my elbow
From your knowledge of these things Annie you must have had them done to you I demand to know this very moment who has taken such liberties
Then John you shall never know if you ask in that manner Besides it was no liberty in the least at all Cousins have a right to do things—and when they are ones godfather— Here Annie stopped quite suddenly having so betrayed herself but met me in the full moonlight being resolved to face it out with a good face put upon it
Alas I feared it would come to this I answered very sadly I know he has been here many a time without showing himself to me There is nothing meaner than for a man to sneak and steal a young maids heart without her people knowing it
You are not doing anything of that sort yourself then dear John are you
Only a common highwayman I answered without heeding her a man without an acre of his own and liable to hang upon any common and no other right of common over it—
John said my sister are the Doones privileged not to be hanged upon common land
At this I was so thunderstruck that I leaped in the air like a shot rabbit and rushed as hard as I could through the gate and across the yard and back into the kitchen and there I asked Farmer Nicholas Snowe to give me some tobacco and to lend me a spare pipe
This he did with a grateful manner being now some fivefourths gone and so I smoked the very first pipe that ever had entered my lips till then and beyond a doubt it did me good and spread my heart at leisure
Meanwhile the reapers were mostly gone to be up betimes in the morning and some were led by their wives and some had to lead their wives themselves according to the capacity of man and wife respectively But Betty was as lively as ever bustling about with every one and looking out for the chance of groats which the better off might be free with And over the kneadingpan next day she dropped three and sixpence out of her pocket and Lizzie could not tell for her life how much more might have been in it
Now by this time I had almost finished smoking that pipe of tobacco and wondering at myself for having so despised it hitherto and making up my mind to have another trial tomorrow night it began to occur to me that although dear Annie had behaved so very badly and rudely and almost taken my breath away with the suddenness of her allusion yet it was not kind of me to leave her out there at that time of night all alone and in such distress Any of the reapers going home might be gotten so far beyond fear of ghosts as to venture into the churchyard and although they would know a great deal better than to insult a sister of mine when sober there was no telling what they might do in their present state of rejoicing Moreover it was only right that I should learn for Lornas sake how far Annie or any one else had penetrated our secret
Therefore I went forth at once bearing my pipe in a skilful manner as I had seen Farmer Nicholas do and marking with a new kind of pleasure how the rings and wreaths of smoke hovered and fluttered in the moonlight like a lark upon his carol Poor Annie was gone back again to our fathers grave and there she sat upon the turf sobbing very gently and not wishing to trouble any one So I raised her tenderly and made much of her and consoled her for I could not scold her there and perhaps after all she was not to be blamed so much as Tom Faggus himself was Annie was very grateful to me and kissed me many times and begged my pardon ever so often for her rudeness to me And then having gone so far with it and finding me so complaisant she must needs try to go a little further and to lead me away from her own affairs and into mine concerning Lorna But although it was clever enough of her she was not deep enough for me there and I soon discovered that she knew nothing not even the name of my darling but only suspected from things she had seen and put together like a woman Upon this I brought her back again to Tom Faggus and his doings
My poor Annie have you really promised him to be his wife
Then after all you have no reason John no particular reason I mean for slighting poor Sally Snowe so
Without even asking mother or me Oh Annie it was wrong of you
But darling you know that mother wishes you so much to marry Sally and I am sure you could have her tomorrow She dotes on the very ground—
I dare say he tells you that Annie that he dotes on the ground you walk upon—but did you believe him child
You may believe me I assure you John and half the farm to be settled upon her after the old mans time and though she gives herself little airs it is only done to entice you she has the very best hand in the dairy John and the lightest at a turnover cake—
Now Annie dont talk nonsense so I wish just to know the truth about you and Tom Faggus Do you mean to marry him
I to marry before my brother and leave him with none to take care of him Who can do him a red deer collop except Sally herself as I can Come home dear at once and I will do you one for you never ate a morsel of supper with all the people you had to attend upon
This was true enough and seeing no chance of anything more than cross questions and crooked purposes at which a girl was sure to beat me I even allowed her to lead me home with the thoughts of the collop uppermost But I never counted upon being beaten so thoroughly as I was for knowing me now to be off my guard the young hussy stopped at the farmyard gate as if with a brier entangling her and while I was stooping to take it away she looked me full in the face by the moonlight and jerked out quite suddenly—
Can your love do a collop John
No I should hope not I answered rashly she is not a mere cookmaid I should hope
She is not half so pretty as Sally Snowe I will answer for that said Annie
She is ten thousand times as pretty as ten thousand Sally Snowes I replied with great indignation
Oh but look at Sallys eyes cried my sister rapturously
Look at Lorna Doones said I and you would never look again at Sallys
Oh Lorna Doone Lorna Doone exclaimed our Annie halffrightened yet clapping her hands with triumph at having found me out so Lorna Doone is the lovely maiden who has stolen poor somebodys heart so Ah I shall remember it because it is so queer a name But stop I had better write it down Lend me your hat poor boy to write on
I have a great mind to lend you a box on the ear I answered her in my vexation and I would if you had not been crying so you sly goodfornothing baggage As it is I shall keep it for Master Faggus and add interest for keeping
Oh no John oh no John she begged me earnestly being sobered in a moment Your hand is so terribly heavy John and he never would forgive you although he is so goodhearted he cannot put up with an insult Promise me dear John that you will not strike him and I will promise you faithfully to keep your secret even from mother and even from Cousin Tom himself
And from Lizzie most of all from Lizzie I answered very eagerly knowing too well which of my relations would be hardest with me
Of course from little Lizzie said Annie with some contempt a young thing like her cannot be kept too long in my opinion from the knowledge of such subjects And besides I should be very sorry if Lizzie had the right to know your secrets as I have dearest John Not a soul shall be the wiser for your having trusted me John although I shall be very wretched when you are late away at night among those dreadful people
Well I replied it is no use crying over spilt milk Annie You have my secret and I have yours and I scarcely know which of the two is likely to have the worst time of it when it comes to mothers ears I could put up with perpetual scolding but not with mothers sad silence
That is exactly how I feel John and as Annie said it she brightened up and her soft eyes shone upon me but now I shall be much happier dear because I shall try to help you No doubt the young lady deserves it John She is not after the farm I hope
She I exclaimed and that was enough there was so much scorn in my voice and face
Then I am sure I am very glad Annie always made the best of things for I do believe that Sally Snowe has taken a fancy to our dairyplace and the pattern of our creampans and she asked so much about our meadows and the colour of the milk—
Then after all you were right dear Annie it is the ground she dotes upon
And the things that walk upon it she answered me with another kiss Sally has taken a wonderful fancy to our best cow Nipplepins But she never shall have her now what a consolation
We entered the house quite gently thus and found Farmer Nicholas Snowe asleep little dreaming how his plans had been overset between us And then Annie said to me very slyly between a smile and a blush—
Dont you wish Lorna Doone was here John in the parlour along with mother instead of those two fashionable milkmaids as Uncle Ben will call them and poor stupid Mistress Kebby
That indeed I do Annie I must kiss you for only thinking of it Dear me it seems as if you had known all about us for a twelvemonth
She loves you with all her heart John No doubt about that of course And Annie looked up at me as much as to say she would like to know who could help it
Thats the very thing she wont do said I knowing that Annie would love me all the more for it she is only beginning to like me Annie and as for loving she is so young that she only loves her grandfather But I hope she will come to it byandby
Of course she must replied my sister it will be impossible for her to help it
Ah well I dont know for I wanted more assurance of it Maidens are such wondrous things
Not a bit of it said Annie casting her bright eyes downwards love is as simple as milking when people know how to do it But you must not let her alone too long that is my advice to you What a simpleton you must have been not to tell me long ago I would have made Lorna wild about you long before this time Johnny But now you go into the parlour dear while I do your collop Faith Snowe is not come but Polly and Sally Sally has made up her mind to conquer you this very blessed evening John Only look what a thing of a scarf she has on I should be quite ashamed to wear it But you wont strike poor Tom will you
Not I my darling for your sweet sake
And so dear Annie having grown quite brave gave me a little push into the parlour where I was quite abashed to enter after all I had heard about Sally And I made up my mind to examine her well and try a little courting with her if she should lead me on that I might be in practice for Lorna But when I perceived how grandly and richly both the young damsels were apparelled and how in their curtseys to me they retreated as if I were making up to them in a way they had learned from Exeter and how they began to talk of the Court as if they had been there all their lives and the latest mode of the Duchess of this and the profile of the Countess of that and the last good saying of my Lord something instead of butter and cream and eggs and things which they understood I knew there must be somebody in the room besides Jasper Kebby to talk at
And so there was for behind the curtain drawn across the windowseat no less a man than Uncle Ben was sitting half asleep and weary and by his side a little girl very quiet and very watchful My mother led me to Uncle Ben and he took my hand without rising muttering something not overpolite about my being bigger than ever I asked him heartily how he was and he said Well enough for that matter but none the better for the noise you great clods have been making
I am sorry if we have disturbed you sir I answered very civilly but I knew not that you were here even and you must allow for harvest time
So it seems he replied and allow a great deal including waste and drunkenness Now if you can see so small a thing after emptying flagons much larger this is my granddaughter and my heiress—here he glanced at mother—my heiress little Ruth Huckaback
I am very glad to see you Ruth I answered offering her my hand which she seemed afraid to take welcome to Plovers Barrows my good cousin Ruth
However my good cousin Ruth only arose and made me a curtsey and lifted her great brown eyes at me more in fear as I thought than kinship And if ever any one looked unlike the heiress to great property it was the little girl before me
Come out to the kitchen dear and let me chuck you to the ceiling I said just to encourage her I always do it to little girls and then they can see the hams and bacon But Uncle Reuben burst out laughing and Ruth turned away with a deep rich colour
Do you know how old she is you numskull said Uncle Ben in his dryest drawl she was seventeen last July sir
On the first of July grandfather Ruth whispered with her back still to me but many people will not believe it
Here mother came up to my rescue as she always loved to do and she said If my son may not dance Miss Ruth at any rate he may dance with her We have only been waiting for you dear John to have a little harvest dance with the kitchen door thrown open You take Ruth Uncle Ben take Sally Master Debby pair off with Polly and neighbour Nicholas will be good enough if I can awake him to stand up with fair Mistress Kebby Lizzie will play us the virginal Wont you Lizzie dear
But who is to dance with you madam Uncle Ben asked very politely I think you must rearrange your figure I have not danced for a score of years and I will not dance now while the mistress and the owner of the harvest sits aside neglected
Nay Master Huckaback cried Sally Snowe with a saucy toss of her hair Mistress Ridd is too kind a great deal in handing you over to me You take her and I will fetch Annie to be my partner this evening I like dancing very much better with girls for they never squeeze and rumple one Oh it is so much nicer
Have no fear for me my dears our mother answered smiling Parson Bowden promised to come back again I expect him every minute and he intends to lead me off and to bring a partner for Annie too a very pretty young gentleman Now begin and I will join you
There was no disobeying her without rudeness and indeed the girls feet were already jigging and Lizzie giving herself wonderful airs with a roll of learned music and even while Annie was doing my collop her pretty round instep was arching itself as I could see from the parlourdoor So I took little Ruth and I spun her around as the sound of the music came lively and ringing and after us came all the rest with much laughter begging me not to jump over her and anon my grave partner began to smile sweetly and look up at me with the brightest of eyes and drop me the prettiest curtseys till I thought what a great stupe I must have been to dream of putting her in the cheeserack But one thing I could not at all understand why mother who used to do all in her power to throw me across Sally Snowe should now do the very opposite for she would not allow me one moment with Sally not even to cross in the dance or whisper or go anywhere near a corner which as I said I intended to do just by way of practice while she kept me all the evening as close as possible with Ruth Huckaback and came up and praised me so to Ruth times and again that I declare I was quite ashamed Although of course I knew that I deserved it all but I could not well say that
Then Annie came sailing down the dance with her beautiful hair flowing round her the lightest figure in all the room and the sweetest and the loveliest She was blushing with her fair cheeks red beneath her dear blue eyes as she met my glance of surprise and grief at the partner she was leaning on It was Squire Marwood de Whichehalse I would sooner have seen her with Tom Faggus as indeed I had expected when I heard of Parson Bowden And to me it seemed that she had no right to be dancing so with any other and to this effect I contrived to whisper but she only said See to yourself John No but let us both enjoy ourselves You are not dancing with Lorna John But you seem uncommonly happy
Tush I said could I flip about so if I had my love with me
CHAPTER XXXI
JOHN FRYS ERRAND
We kept up the dance very late that night mother being in such wonderful spirits that she would not hear of our going to bed while she glanced from young Squire Marwood very deep in his talk with our Annie to me and Ruth Huckaback who were beginning to be very pleasant company Alas poor mother so proud as she was how little she dreamed that her good schemes already were hopelessly going awry
Being forced to be up before daylight next day in order to begin right early I would not go to my bedroom that night for fear of disturbing my mother but determined to sleep in the tallat awhile that place being cool and airy and refreshing with the smell of sweet hay Moreover after my dwelling in town where I had felt like a horse on a limekiln I could not for a length of time have enough of country life The mooing of a calf was music and the chuckle of a fowl was wit and the snore of the horses was news to me
Wult have thee own wai I reckon said Betty being cross with sleepiness for she had washed up everything slape in hogpound if thee laikes Jan
Letting her have the last word of it as is the due of women I stood in the court and wondered awhile at the glory of the harvest moon and the yellow world it shone upon Then I saw as sure as ever I was standing there in the shadow of the stable I saw a short wide figure glide across the foot of the courtyard between me and the sixbarred gate Instead of running after it as I should have done I began to consider who it could be and what on earth was doing there when all our people were in bed and the reapers gone home or to the linhay close against the wheatfield
Having made up my mind at last that it could be none of our people—though not a dog was barking—and also that it must have been either a girl or a woman I ran down with all speed to learn what might be the meaning of it But I came too late to learn through my own hesitation for this was the lower end of the courtyard not the approach from the parish highway but the end of the sleddway across the fields where the brook goes down to the Lynn stream and where Squire Faggus had saved the old drake And of course the dry channel of the brook being scarcely any water now afforded plenty of place to hide leading also to a little coppice beyond our cabbagegarden and so further on to the parish highway
I saw at once that it was vain to make any pursuit by moonlight and resolving to hold my own counsel about it though puzzled not a little and to keep watch there another night back I returned to the tallattladder and slept without leaving off till morning
Now many people may wish to know as indeed I myself did very greatly what had brought Master Huckaback over from Dulverton at that time of year when the clothing business was most active on account of harvest wages and when the new wheat was beginning to sample from the early parts up the country for he meddled as well in corndealing and when we could not attend to him properly by reason of our occupation And yet more surprising it seemed to me that he should have brought his granddaughter also instead of the troop of dragoons without which he had vowed he would never come here again And how he had managed to enter the house together with his granddaughter and be sitting quite at home in the parlour there without any knowledge or even suspicion on my part That last question was easily solved for mother herself had admitted them by means of the little passage during a chorus of the harvestsong which might have drowned an earthquake but as for his meaning and motive and apparent neglect of his business none but himself could interpret them and as he did not see fit to do so we could not be rude enough to inquire
He seemed in no hurry to take his departure though his visit was so inconvenient to us as himself indeed must have noticed and presently Lizzie who was the sharpest among us said in my hearing that she believed he had purposely timed his visit so that he might have liberty to pursue his own object whatsoever it were without interruption from us Mother gazed hard upon Lizzie at this having formed a very different opinion but Annie and myself agreed that it was worth looking into
Now how could we look into it without watching Uncle Reuben whenever he went abroad and trying to catch him in his speech when he was taking his ease at night For in spite of all the disgust with which he had spoken of harvest wassailing there was not a man coming into our kitchen who liked it better than he did only in a quiet way and without too many witnesses Now to endeavour to get at the purpose of any guest even a treacherous one which we had no right to think Uncle Reuben by means of observing him in his cups is a thing which even the lowest of people would regard with abhorrence And to my mind it was not clear whether it would be fairplay at all to follow a visitor even at a distance from home and clear of our premises except for the purpose of fetching him back and giving him more to go on with Nevertheless we could not but think the times being wild and disjointed that Uncle Ben was not using fairly the part of a guest in our house to make long expeditions we knew not whither and involve us in trouble we knew not what
For his mode was directly after breakfast to pray to the Lord a little which used not to be his practice and then to go forth upon Dolly the which was our Annies pony very quiet and respectful with a bag of good victuals hung behind him and two great cavalry pistols in front And he always wore his meanest clothes as if expecting to be robbed or to disarm the temptation thereto and he never took his golden chronometer neither his bag of money So much the girls found out and told me for I was never at home myself by day and they very craftily spurred me on having less noble ideas perhaps to hit upon Uncle Reubens track and follow and see what became of him For he never returned until dark or more just in time to be in before us who were coming home from the harvest And then Dolly always seemed very weary and stained with a muck from beyond our parish
But I refused to follow him not only for the loss of a days work to myself and at least half a day to the other men but chiefly because I could not think that it would be upright and manly It was all very well to creep warily into the valley of the Doones and heed everything around me both because they were public enemies and also because I risked my life at every step I took there But as to tracking a feeble old man however subtle he might be a guest moreover of our own and a relative through my mother—Once for all I said it is below me and I wont do it
Thereupon the girls knowing my way ceased to torment me about it but what was my astonishment the very next day to perceive that instead of fourteen reapers we were only thirteen left directly our breakfast was done with—or mowers rather I should say for we were gone into the barley now
Who has been and left his scythe I asked and heres a tin cup never been handled
Whoy dudnt ee knaw Maister Jan said Bill Dadds looking at me queerly as Jan Vry wur gane avore braxvass
Oh very well I answered John knows what he is doing For John Fry was a kind of foreman now and it would not do to say anything that might lessen his authority However I made up my mind to rope him when I should catch him by himself without peril to his dignity
But when I came home in the evening late and almost weary there was no Annie cooking my supper nor Lizzie by the fire reading nor even little Ruth Huckaback watching the shadows and pondering Upon this I went to the girls room not in the very best of tempers and there I found all three of them in the little place set apart for Annie eagerly listening to John Fry who was telling some great adventure John had a great jug of ale beside him and a horn well drained and he clearly looked upon himself as a hero and the maids seemed to be of the same opinion
Well done John my sister was saying capitally done John Fry How very brave you have been John Now quick let us hear the rest of it
What does all this nonsense mean I said in a voice which frightened them as I could see by the light of our own mutton candles John Fry you be off to your wife at once or you shall have what I owe you now instead of tomorrow morning
John made no answer but scratched his head and looked at the maidens to take his part
It is you that must be off I think said Lizzie looking straight at me with all the impudence in the world what right have you to come in here to the young ladies room without an invitation even
Very well Miss Lizzie I suppose mother has some right here And with that I was going away to fetch her knowing that she always took my side and never would allow the house to be turned upside down in that manner But Annie caught hold of me by the arm and little Ruth stood in the doorway and Lizzie said Dont be a fool John We know things of you you know a great deal more than you dream of
Upon this I glanced at Annie to learn whether she had been telling but her pure true face reassured me at once and then she said very gently—
Lizzie you talk too fast my child No one knows anything of our John which he need be ashamed of and working as he does from light to dusk and earning the living of all of us he is entitled to choose his own good time for going out and for coming in without consulting a little girl five years younger than himself Now John sit down and you shall know all that we have done though I doubt whether you will approve of it
Upon this I kissed Annie and so did Ruth and John Fry looked a deal more comfortable but Lizzie only made a face at us Then Annie began as follows—
You must know dear John that we have been extremely curious ever since Uncle Reuben came to know what he was come for especially at this time of year when he is at his busiest He never vouchsafed any explanation neither gave any reason true or false which shows his entire ignorance of all feminine nature If Ruth had known and refused to tell us we should have been much easier because we must have got it out of Ruth before two or three days were over But darling Ruth knew no more than we did and indeed I must do her the justice to say that she has been quite as inquisitive Well we might have put up with it if it had not been for his taking Dolly my own pet Dolly away every morning quite as if she belonged to him and keeping her out until close upon dark and then bringing her home in a frightful condition And he even had the impudence when I told him that Dolly was my pony to say that we owed him a pony ever since you took from him that little horse upon which you found him strapped so snugly and he means to take Dolly to Dulverton with him to run in his little cart If there is law in the land he shall not Surely John you will not let him
That I wont said I except upon the conditions which I offered him once before If we owe him the pony we owe him the straps
Sweet Annie laughed like a bell at this and then she went on with her story
Well John we were perfectly miserable You cannot understand it of course but I used to go every evening and hug poor Dolly and kiss her and beg her to tell me where she had been and what she had seen that day But never having belonged to Balaam darling Dolly was quite unsuccessful though often she strove to tell me with her ears down and both eyes rolling Then I made John Fry tie her tail in a knot with a piece of white ribbon as if for adornment that I might trace her among the hills at any rate for a mile or two But Uncle Ben was too deep for that he cut off the ribbon before he started saying he would have no Doones after him And then in despair I applied to you knowing how quick of foot you are and I got Ruth and Lizzie to help me but you answered us very shortly and a very poor supper you had that night according to your deserts
But though we were dashed to the ground for a time we were not wholly discomfited Our determination to know all about it seemed to increase with the difficulty And Uncle Bens manner last night was so dry when we tried to romp and to lead him out that it was much worse than Jamaica ginger grated into a poor sprayed finger So we sent him to bed at the earliest moment and held a small council upon him If you remember you John having now taken to smoke which is a hateful practice had gone forth grumbling about your bad supper and not taking it as a good lesson
Why Annie I cried in amazement at this I will never trust you again for a supper I thought you were so sorry
And so I was dear very sorry But still we must do our duty And when we came to consider it Ruth was the cleverest of us all for she said that surely we must have some man we could trust about the farm to go on a little errand and then I remembered that old John Fry would do anything for money
Not for money plaize miss said John Fry taking a pull at the beer but for the love of your swate face
To be sure John with the Kings behind it And so Lizzie ran for John Fry at once and we gave him full directions how he was to slip out of the barley in the confusion of the breakfast so that none might miss him and to run back to the black combe bottom and there he would find the very same pony which Uncle Ben had been tied upon and there is no faster upon the farm And then without waiting for any breakfast unless he could eat it either running or trotting he was to travel all up the black combe by the track Uncle Reuben had taken and up at the top to look forward carefully and so to trace him without being seen
Ay and raight wull a dood un John cried with his mouth in the bullocks horn
Well and what did you see John I asked with great anxiety though I meant to have shown no interest
John was just at the very point of it Lizzie answered me sharply when you chose to come in and stop him
Then let him begin again said I things being gone so far it is now my duty to know everything for the sake of you girls and mother
Hem cried Lizzie in a nasty way but I took no notice of her for she was always bad to deal with Therefore John Fry began again being heartily glad to do so that his story might get out of the tumble which all our talk had made in it But as he could not tell a tale in the manner of my Lorna although he told it very well for those who understood him I will take it from his mouth altogether and state in brief what happened
When John upon his forest pony which he had much ado to hold its mouth being like a bucket was come to the top of the long black combe two miles or more from Plovers Barrows and winding to the southward he stopped his little nag short of the crest and got off and looked ahead of him from behind a tump of whortles It was a long flat sweep of moorland over which he was gazing with a few bogs here and there and brushy places round them Of course John Fry from his shepherd life and reclaiming of strayed cattle knew as well as need be where he was and the spread of the hills before him although it was beyond our beat or rather I should say beside it Not but what we might have grazed there had it been our pleasure but that it was not worth our while and scarcely worth Jasper Kebbys even all the land being cropped as one might say with desolation And nearly all our knowledge of it sprang from the unaccountable tricks of cows who have young calves with them at which time they have wild desire to get away from the sight of man and keep calf and milk for one another although it be in a barren land At least our cows have gotten this trick and I have heard other people complain of it
John Fry as I said knew the place well enough but he liked it none the more for that neither did any of our people and indeed all the neighbourhood of Thomshill and Larksborough and most of all Black Barrow Down lay under grave imputation of having been enchanted with a very evil spell Moreover it was known though folk were loath to speak of it even on a summer morning that Squire Thom who had been murdered there a century ago or more had been seen by several shepherds even in the middle day walking with his severed head carried in his left hand and his right arm lifted towards the sun
Therefore it was very bold in John as I acknowledged to venture across that moor alone even with a fast pony under him and some whisky by his side And he would never have done so of that I am quite certain either for the sake of Annies sweet face or of the golden guinea which the three maidens had subscribed to reward his skill and valour But the truth was that he could not resist his own great curiosity For carefully spying across the moor from behind the tuft of whortles at first he could discover nothing having life and motion except three or four wild cattle roving in vain search for nourishment and a diseased sheep banished hither and some carrion crows keeping watch on her But when John was taking his very last look being only too glad to go home again and acknowledge himself baffled he thought he saw a figure moving in the farthest distance upon Black Barrow Down scarcely a thing to be sure of yet on account of the want of colour But as he watched the figure passed between him and a naked cliff and appeared to be a man on horseback making his way very carefully in fear of bogs and serpents For all about there it is adders ground and large black serpents dwell in the marshes and can swim as well as crawl
John knew that the man who was riding there could be none but Uncle Reuben for none of the Doones ever passed that way and the shepherds were afraid of it And now it seemed an unkind place for an unarmed man to venture through especially after an armed one who might not like to be spied upon and must have some dark object in visiting such drear solitudes Nevertheless John Fry so ached with unbearable curiosity to know what an old man and a stranger and a rich man and a peaceable could possibly be after in that mysterious manner Moreover John so throbbed with hope to find some wealthy secret that come what would of it he resolved to go to the end of the matter
Therefore he only waited awhile for fear of being discovered till Master Huckaback turned to the left and entered a little gully whence he could not survey the moor Then John remounted and crossed the rough land and the stony places and picked his way among the morasses as fast as ever he dared to go until in about half an hour he drew nigh the entrance of the gully And now it behoved him to be most wary for Uncle Ben might have stopped in there either to rest his horse or having reached the end of his journey And in either case John had little doubt that he himself would be pistolled and nothing more ever heard of him Therefore he made his pony come to the mouth of it sideways and leaned over and peered in around the rocky corner while the little horse cropped at the briars
But he soon perceived that the gully was empty so far at least as its course was straight and with that he hastened into it though his heart was not working easily When he had traced the winding hollow for half a mile or more he saw that it forked and one part led to the left up a steep red bank and the other to the right being narrow and slightly tending downwards Some yellow sand lay here and there between the starving grasses and this he examined narrowly for a trace of Master Huckaback
At last he saw that beyond all doubt the man he was pursuing had taken the course which led down hill and down the hill he must follow him And this John did with deep misgivings and a hearty wish that he had never started upon so perilous an errand For now he knew not where he was and scarcely dared to ask himself having heard of a horrible hole somewhere in this neighbourhood called the Wizards Slough Therefore John rode down the slope with sorrow and great caution And these grew more as he went onward and his pony reared against him being scared although a native of the roughest moorland And John had just made up his mind that God meant this for a warning as the passage seemed darker and deeper when suddenly he turned a corner and saw a scene which stopped him
For there was the Wizards Slough itself as black as death and bubbling with a few scant yellow reeds in a ring around it Outside these bright watergrass of the liveliest green was creeping tempting any unwary foot to step and plunge and founder And on the marge were blue campanula sundew and forgetmenot such as no child could resist On either side the hill fell back and the ground was broken with tufts of rush and flag and marestail and a few rough aldertrees overclogged with water And not a bird was seen or heard neither rail nor waterhen wagtail nor reedwarbler
Of this horrible quagmire the worst upon all Exmoor John had heard from his grandfather and even from his mother when they wanted to keep him quiet but his father had feared to speak of it to him being a man of piety and up to the tricks of the evil one This made John the more desirous to have a good look at it now only with his girths well up to turn away and flee at speed if anything should happen And now he proved how well it is to be wary and wideawake even in lonesome places For at the other side of the Slough and a few landyards beyond it where the ground was less noisome he had observed a felled tree lying over a great hole in the earth with staves of wood and slabs of stone and some yellow gravel around it But the flags of reeds around the morass partly screened it from his eyes and he could not make out the meaning of it except that it meant no good and probably was witchcraft Yet Dolly seemed not to be harmed by it for there she was as large as life tied to a stump not far beyond and flipping the flies away with her tail
While John was trembling within himself lest Dolly should get scent of his pony and neigh and reveal their presence although she could not see them suddenly to his great amazement something white arose out of the hole under the brown trunk of the tree Seeing this his blood went back within him yet he was not able to turn and flee but rooted his face in among the loose stones and kept his quivering shoulders back and prayed to God to protect him However the white thing itself was not so very awful being nothing more than a longconed nightcap with a tassel on the top such as criminals wear at hangingtime But when John saw a mans face under it and a mans neck and shoulders slowly rising out of the pit he could not doubt that this was the place where the murderers come to life again according to the Exmoor story He knew that a man had been hanged last week and that this was the ninth day after it
Therefore he could bear no more thoroughly brave as he had been neither did he wait to see what became of the gallowsman but climbed on his horse with what speed he might and rode away at full gallop Neither did he dare go back by the way he came fearing to face Black Barrow Down therefore he struck up the other track leading away towards Cloven Rocks and after riding hard for an hour and drinking all his whisky he luckily fell in with a shepherd who led him on to a publichouse somewhere near Exeford And here he was so unmanned the excitement being over that nothing less than a gallon of ale and half a gammon of bacon brought him to his right mind again And he took good care to be home before dark having followed a wellknown sheep track
When John Fry finished his story at last after many exclamations from Annie and from Lizzie and much praise of his gallantry yet some little disappointment that he had not stayed there a little longer while he was about it so as to be able to tell us more I said to him very sternly—
Now John you have dreamed half this my man I firmly believe that you fell asleep at the top of the black combe after drinking all your whisky and never went on the moor at all You know what a liar you are John
The girls were exceedingly angry at this and laid their hands before my mouth but I waited for John to answer with my eyes fixed upon him steadfastly
Baint for me to denai said John looking at me very honestly but what a maight tull a lai now and awhiles zame as other men doth and most of arl them as spaks again it but this here be no lai Maister Jan I wush to God it wor boy a maight slape this naight the better
I believe you speak the truth John and I ask your pardon Now not a word to any one about this strange affair There is mischief brewing I can see and it is my place to attend to it Several things come across me now—only I will not tell you
They were not at all contented with this but I would give them no better except to say when they plagued me greatly and vowed to sleep at my door all night—
Now my dears this is foolish of you Too much of this matter is known already It is for your own dear sakes that I am bound to be cautious I have an opinion of my own but it may be a very wrong one I will not ask you to share it with me neither will I make you inquisitive
Annie pouted and Lizzie frowned and Ruth looked at me with her eyes wide open but no other mark of regarding me And I saw that if any one of the three for John Fry was gone home with the trembles could be trusted to keep a secret that one was Ruth Huckaback
CHAPTER XXXII
FEEDING OF THE PIGS
The story told by John Fry that night and my conviction of its truth made me very uneasy especially as following upon the warning of Judge Jeffreys and the hints received from Jeremy Stickles and the outburst of the tanner at Dunster as well as sundry tales and rumours and signs of secret understanding seen and heard on marketdays and at places of entertainment We knew for certain that at Taunton Bridgwater and even Dulverton there was much disaffection towards the King and regret for the days of the Puritans Albeit I had told the truth and the pure and simple truth when upon my examination I had assured his lordship that to the best of my knowledge there was nothing of the sort with us
But now I was beginning to doubt whether I might not have been mistaken especially when we heard as we did of arms being landed at Lynmouth in the dead of the night and of the tramp of men having reached some ones ears from a hill where a famous echo was For it must be plain to any conspirator without the example of the Doones that for the secret muster of men and the stowing of unlawful arms and communication by beacon lights scarcely a fitter place could be found than the wilds of Exmoor with deep ravines running far inland from an unwatched and mostly a sheltered sea For the Channel from Countisbury Foreland up to Minehead or even farther though rocky and gusty and full of currents is safe from great rollers and the sweeping power of the southwest storms which prevail with us more than all the others and make sad work on the opposite coast
But even supposing it probable that something against King Charles the Second or rather against his Roman advisers and especially his brother were now in preparation amongst us was it likely that Master Huckaback a wealthy man and a careful one known moreover to the Lord Chief Justice would have anything to do with it To this I could make no answer Uncle Ben was so close a man so avaricious and so revengeful that it was quite impossible to say what course he might pursue without knowing all the chances of gain or rise or satisfaction to him That he hated the Papists I knew full well though he never spoke much about them also that he had followed the march of Oliver Cromwells army but more as a suttler people said than as a real soldier and that he would go a long way and risk a great deal of money to have his revenge on the Doones although their name never passed his lips during the present visit
But how was it likely to be as to the Doones themselves Which side would they probably take in the coming movement if movement indeed it would be So far as they had any religion at all by birth they were Roman Catholics—so much I knew from Lorna and indeed it was well known all around that a priest had been fetched more than once to the valley to soothe some poor outlaws departure On the other hand they were not likely to entertain much affection for the son of the man who had banished them and confiscated their property And it was not at all impossible that desperate men such as they were having nothing to lose but estates to recover and not being held by religion much should cast away all regard for the birth from which they had been cast out and make common cause with a Protestant rising for the chance of revenge and replacement
However I do not mean to say that all these things occurred to me as clearly as I have set them down only that I was in general doubt and very sad perplexity For mother was so warm and innocent and kind so to every one that knowing some little by this time of the English constitution I feared very greatly lest she should be punished for harbouring malcontents As well as possible I knew that if any poor man came to our door and cried Officers are after me for Gods sake take and hide me mother would take him in at once and conceal and feed him even though he had been very violent and to tell the truth so would both my sisters and so indeed would I do Whence it will be clear that we were not the sort of people to be safe among disturbances
Before I could quite make up my mind how to act in this difficulty and how to get at the rights of it for I would not spy after Uncle Reuben though I felt no great fear of the Wizards Slough and none of the man with the white nightcap a difference came again upon it and a change of chances For Uncle Ben went away as suddenly as he first had come to us giving no reason for his departure neither claiming the pony and indeed leaving something behind him of great value to my mother For he begged her to see to his young granddaughter until he could find opportunity of fetching her safely to Dulverton Mother was overjoyed at this as she could not help displaying and Ruth was quite as much delighted although she durst not show it For at Dulverton she had to watch and keep such ward on the victuals and the in and out of the shopmen that it went entirely against her heart and she never could enjoy herself Truly she was an altered girl from the day she came to us catching our unsuspicious manners and our free goodwill and hearty noise of laughing
By this time the harvest being done and the thatching of the ricks made sure against southwestern tempests and all the reapers being gone with good money and thankfulness I began to burn in spirit for the sight of Lorna I had begged my sister Annie to let Sally Snowe know once for all that it was not in my power to have any thing more to do with her Of course our Annie was not to grieve Sally neither to let it appear for a moment that I suspected her kind views upon me and her strong regard for our dairy only I thought it right upon our part not to waste Sallys time any longer being a handsome wench as she was and many young fellows glad to marry her
And Annie did this uncommonly well as she herself told me afterwards having taken Sally in the sweetest manner into her pure confidence and opened half her bosom to her about my very sad love affair Not that she let Sally know of course who it was or what it was only that she made her understand without hinting at any desire of it that there was no chance now of having me Sally changed colour a little at this and then went on about a red cow which had passed seven needles at milking time
Inasmuch as there are two sorts of month well recognised by the calendar to wit the lunar and the solar I made bold to regard both my months in the absence of any provision as intended to be strictly lunar Therefore upon the very day when the eight weeks were expiring forth I went in search of Lorna taking the pearl ring hopefully and all the newlaid eggs I could find and a dozen and a half of small trout from our brook And the pleasure it gave me to catch those trout thinking as every one came forth and danced upon the grass how much she would enjoy him is more than I can now describe although I well remember it And it struck me that after accepting my ring and saying how much she loved me it was possible that my Queen might invite me even to stay and sup with her and so I arranged with dear Annie beforehand who was now the greatest comfort to me to account for my absence if I should be late
But alas I was utterly disappointed for although I waited and waited for hours with an equal amount both of patience and peril no Lorna ever appeared at all nor even the faintest sign of her And another thing occurred as well which vexed me more than it need have done for so small a matter And this was that my little offering of the trout and the newlaid eggs was carried off in the coolest manner by that vile Carver Doone For thinking to keep them the fresher and nicer away from so much handling I laid them in a little bed of reeds by the side of the water and placed some dogleaves over them And when I had quite forgotten about them and was watching from my hidingplace beneath the willowtree for I liked not to enter Lornas bower without her permission except just to peep that she was not there and while I was turning the ring in my pocket having just seen the new moon I became aware of a great man coming eisurely down the valley He had a broadbrimmed hat and a leather jerkin and heavy jackboots to his middle thigh and what was worst of all for me on his shoulder he bore a long carbine Having nothing to meet him withal but my staff and desiring to avoid disturbance I retired promptly into the chasm keeping the tree betwixt us that he might not descry me and watching from behind the jut of a rock where now I had scraped myself a neat little hole for the purpose
Presently the great man reappeared being now within fifty yards of me and the light still good enough as he drew nearer for me to descry his features and though I am not a judge of mens faces there was something in his which turned me cold as though with a kind of horror Not that it was an ugly face nay rather it seemed a handsome one so far as mere form and line might go full of strength and vigour and will and steadfast resolution From the short black hair above the broad forehead to the long black beard descending below the curt bold chin there was not any curve or glimpse of weakness or of afterthought Nothing playful nothing pleasant nothing with a track of smiles nothing which a friend could like and laugh at him for having And yet he might have been a good man for I have known very good men so fortified by their own strange ideas of God I say that he might have seemed a good man but for the cold and cruel hankering of his steelblue eyes
Now let no one suppose for a minute that I saw all this in a moment for I am very slow and take a long time to digest things only I like to set down and have done with it all the results of my knowledge though they be not manifold But what I said to myself just then was no more than this What a fellow to have Lorna Having my sense of right so outraged although of course I would never allow her to go so far as that I almost longed that he might thrust his head in to look after me For there I was with my ash staff clubbed ready to have at him and not ill inclined to do so if only he would come where strength not firearms must decide it However he suspected nothing of my dangerous neighbourhood but walked his round like a sentinel and turned at the brink of the water
Then as he marched back again along the margin of the stream he espied my little hoard covered up with dogleaves He saw that the leaves were upside down and this of course drew his attention I saw him stoop and lay bare the fish and the eggs set a little way from them and in my simple heart I thought that now he knew all about me But to my surprise he seemed wellpleased and his harsh short laughter came to me without echo—
Ha ha Charlie boy Fisherman Charlie have I caught thee setting bait for Lorna Now I understand thy fishings and the robbing of Counsellors hen roost May I never have good roasting if I have it not tonight and roast thee Charlie afterwards
With this he calmly packed up my fish and all the best of dear Annies eggs and went away chuckling steadfastly to his home if one may call it so But I was so thoroughly grieved and mortified by this most impudent robbery that I started forth from my rocky screen with the intention of pursuing him until my better sense arrested me barely in time to escape his eyes For I said to myself that even supposing I could contend unarmed with him it would be the greatest folly in the world to have my secret access known and perhaps a fatal barrier placed between Lorna and myself and I knew not what trouble brought upon her all for the sake of a few eggs and fishes It was better to bear this trifling loss however ignominious and goading to the spirit than to risk my love and Lornas welfare and perhaps be shot into the bargain And I think that all will agree with me that I acted for the wisest in withdrawing to my shelter though deprived of eggs and fishes
Having waited as I said until there was no chance whatever of my love appearing I hastened homeward very sadly and the wind of early autumn moaned across the moorland All the beauty of the harvest all the gaiety was gone and the early fall of dusk was like a weight upon me Nevertheless I went every evening thenceforward for a fortnight hoping every time in vain to find my hope and comfort And meanwhile what perplexed me most was that the signals were replaced in order as agreed upon so that Lorna could scarcely be restrained by any rigour
One time I had a narrow chance of being shot and settled with and it befell me thus I was waiting very carelessly being now a little desperate at the entrance to the glen instead of watching through my sighthole as the proper practice was Suddenly a ball went by me with a whizz and whistle passing through my hat and sweeping it away all folded up My soft hat fluttered far down the stream before I had time to go after it and with the help of both wind and water was fifty yards gone in a moment At this I had just enough mind left to shrink back very suddenly and lurk very still and closely for I knew what a narrow escape it had been as I heard the bullet hard set by the powder sing mournfully down the chasm like a drone banished out of the hive And as I peered through my little cranny I saw a wreath of smoke still floating where the thickness was of the withybed and presently Carver Doone came forth having stopped to reload his piece perhaps and ran very swiftly to the entrance to see what he had shot
Sore trouble had I to keep close quarters from the slipperiness of the stone beneath me with the water sliding over it My foe came quite to the verge of the fall where the river began to comb over and there he stopped for a minute or two on the utmost edge of dry land upon the very spot indeed where I had fallen senseless when I clomb it in my boyhood I could hear him breathing hard and grunting as in doubt and discontent for he stood within a yard of me and I kept my right fist ready for him if he should discover me Then at the foot of the waterslide my black hat suddenly appeared tossing in white foam and fluttering like a raven wounded Now I had doubted which hat to take when I left home that day till I thought that the black became me best and might seem kinder to Lorna
Have I killed thee old bird at last my enemy cried in triumph tis the third time I have shot at thee and thou wast beginning to mock me No more of thy cursed croaking now to wake me in the morning Ha ha there are not many who get three chances from Carver Doone and none ever go beyond it
I laughed within myself at this as he strode away in his triumph for was not this his third chance of me and he no whit the wiser And then I thought that perhaps the chance might some day be on the other side
For to tell the truth I was heartily tired of lurking and playing bopeep so long to which nothing could have reconciled me except my fear for Lorna And here I saw was a man of strength fit for me to encounter such as I had never met but would be glad to meet with having found no man of late who needed not my mercy at wrestling or at singlestick And growing more and more uneasy as I found no Lorna I would have tried to force the Doone Glen from the upper end and take my chance of getting back but for Annie and her prayers
Now that same night I think it was or at any rate the next one that I noticed Betty Muxworthy going on most strangely She made the queerest signs to me when nobody was looking and laid her fingers on her lips and pointed over her shoulder But I took little heed of her being in a kind of dudgeon and oppressed with evil luck believing too that all she wanted was to have some little grumble about some petty grievance
But presently she poked me with the heel of a firebundle and passing close to my ear whispered so that none else could hear her Larna Dooun
By these words I was so startled that I turned round and stared at her but she pretended not to know it and began with all her might to scour an empty crock with a besom
Oh Betty let me help you That work is much too hard for you I cried with a sudden chivalry which only won rude answer
Zeed me adooing of thic every naight last ten year Jan wiout vindin out how hard it wor But if zo bee thee wants to help carr pegs bucket for me Massy if I aint forgotten to fade the pegs till now
Favouring me with another wink to which I now paid the keenest heed Betty went and fetched the lanthorn from the hook inside the door Then when she had kindled it not allowing me any time to ask what she was after she went outside and pointed to the great bock of wash and riddlings and brown hulkage for we ground our own corn always and though she knew that Bill Dadds and Jem Slocombe had full work to carry it on a pole with another to help to sling it she said to me as quietly as a maiden might ask one to carry a glove Jan Ridd carr thic thing for me
So I carried it for her without any words wondering what she was up to next and whether she had ever heard of being too hard on the willing horse And when we came to hogpound she turned upon me suddenly with the lanthorn she was bearing and saw that I had the bock by one hand very easily
Jan Ridd she said there be no other man in England cud a dood it Now thee shalt have Larna
While I was wondering how my chance of having Lorna could depend upon my power to carry pigs wash and how Betty could have any voice in the matter which seemed to depend upon her decision and in short while I was all abroad as to her knowledge and everything the pigs who had been fast asleep and dreaming in their emptiness awoke with one accord at the goodness of the smell around them They had resigned themselves as even pigs do to a kind of fast hoping to break their fast more sweetly on the morrow morning But now they tumbled out all headlong pigs below and pigs above pigs pointblank and pigs across pigs courant and pigs rampant but all alike prepared to eat and all in good cadence squeaking
Tak smarl boocket and bale un out wad e waste sich stoof as thic here be So Betty set me to feed the pigs while she held the lanthorn and knowing what she was I saw that she would not tell me another word until all the pigs were served And in truth no man could well look at them and delay to serve them they were all expressing appetite in so forcible a manner some running to and fro and rubbing and squealing as if from starvation some rushing down to the oaken troughs and poking each other away from them and the kindest of all putting up their forefeet on the toprail on the hogpound and blinking their little eyes and grunting prettily to coax us as who would say I trust you now you will be kind I know and give me the first and the very best of it
Oppen geat now wull e Jan Maind young sow wi the baible back arlway hath first toorn of it cos I brought her up on my lap I did Zuck zuck zuck How her stickth her tail up do me good to zee un Now thiccy trough thee zany and tak thee girt legs out o the wai Wish they wud gie thee a good baite mak thee hop a bit vaster I reckon Hit that there girt ozebird overs back wi the broomstick he be robbing of my young zow Choog choog choog and a drap more left in the drippingpail
Come now Betty I said when all the pigs were at it sucking swilling munching guzzling thrusting and ousting and spilling the food upon the backs of their brethren as great men do with their charity come now Betty how much longer am I to wait for your message Surely I am as good as a pig
Dunno as thee be Jan No straikiness in thy bakkon And now I come to think of it Jan thee zed a wake agone last Vriday as how I had got a girt beard Wull e stick to that now Maister Jan
No no Betty certainly not I made a mistake about it I should have said a becoming mustachio such as you may well be proud of
Then thee be a laiar Jan Ridd Zay so laike a man lad
Not exactly that Betty but I made a great mistake and I humbly ask your pardon and if such a thing as a crownpiece Betty—
No fai no fai said Betty however she put it into her pocket now tak my advice Jan thee marry Zally Snowe
Not with all England for her dowry Oh Betty you know better
Ahs me I know much worse Jan Break thy poor mothers heart it will And to think of arl the danger Dost love Larna now so much
With all the strength of my heart and soul I will have her or I will die Betty
Wull Thee will die in either case But it baint for me to argify And do her love thee too Jan
I hope she does Betty I hope she does What do you think about it
Ah then I may hold my tongue to it Knaw what boys and maidens be as well as I knew young pegs I myzell been o that zort one taime every bit so well as you be And Betty held the lanthorn up and defied me to deny it and the light through the horn showed a gleam in her eyes such as I had never seer there before No odds no odds about that she continued mak a fool of myzell to spake of it Arl gone into churchyard But it be a lucky foolery for thee my boy I can tull ee For I love to see the love in thee Coomth over me as the spring do though I be naigh three score Now Jan I will tell thee one thing cant abear to zee thee vretting so Hould thee head down same as they pegs do
So I bent my head quite close to her and she whispered in my ear Goo of a marning thee girt soft Her cant get out of an avening now her hath zent word to me to tull ee
In the glory of my delight at this I bestowed upon Betty a chaste salute with all the pigs for witnesses and she took it not amiss considering how long she had been out of practice But then she fell back like a broom on its handle and stared at me feigning anger
Oh fai oh fai Lunnon impudence I doubt I vear thee hast gone on zadly Jan
CHAPTER XXXIII
AN EARLY MORNING CALL
Of course I was up the very next morning before the October sunrise and away through the wild and the woodland towards the Bagworthy water at the foot of the long cascade The rising of the sun was noble in the cold and warmth of it peeping down the spread of light he raised his shoulder heavily over the edge of grey mountain and wavering length of upland Beneath his gaze the dewfogs dipped and crept to the hollow places then stole away in line and column holding skirts and clinging subtly at the sheltering corners where rock hung over grassland while the brave lines of the hills came forth one beyond other gliding
Then the woods arose in folds like drapery of awakened mountains stately with a depth of awe and memory of the tempests Autumns mellow hand was on them as they owned already touched with gold and red and olive and their joy towards the sun was less to a bridegroom than a father
Yet before the floating impress of the woods could clear itself suddenly the gladsome light leaped over hill and valley casting amber blue and purple and a tint of rich red rose according to the scene they lit on and the curtain flung around yet all alike dispelling fear and the cloven hoof of darkness all on the wings of hope advancing and proclaiming God is here Then life and joy sprang reassured from every crouching hollow every flower and bud and bird had a fluttering sense of them and all the flashing of Gods gaze merged into soft beneficence
So perhaps shall break upon us that eternal morning when crag and chasm shall be no more neither hill and valley nor great unvintaged ocean when glory shall not scare happiness neither happiness envy glory but all things shall arise and shine in the light of the Fathers countenance because itself is risen
Who maketh His sun to rise upon both the just and the unjust And surely but for the saving clause Doone Glen had been in darkness Now as I stood with scanty breath—for few men could have won that climb—at the top of the long defile and the bottom of the mountain gorge all of myself and the pain of it and the cark of my discontent fell away into wonder and rapture For I cannot help seeing things now and then slowwitted as I have a right to be and perhaps because it comes so rarely the sight dwells with me like a picture
The bar of rock with the watercleft breaking steeply through it stood bold and bare and dark in shadow grey with red gullies down it But the sun was beginning to glisten over the comb of the eastern highland and through an archway of the wood hung with old nests and ivy The lines of many a leaning tree were thrown from the cliffs of the foreland down upon the sparkling grass at the foot of the western crags And through the dewy meadows breast fringed with shade but touched on one side with the sunsmile ran the crystal water curving in its brightness like diverted hope
On either bank the blades of grass making their last autumn growth pricked their spears and crisped their tuftings with the pearly purity The tenderness of their green appeared under the glaucous mantle while that grey suffusion which is the blush of green life spread its damask chastity Even then my soul was lifted worried though my mind was who can see such large kind doings and not be ashamed of human grief
Not only unashamed of grief but much abashed with joy was I when I saw my Lorna coming purer than the morning dew than the sun more bright and clear That which made me love her so that which lifted my heart to her as the Spring wind lifts the clouds was the gayness of her nature and its inborn playfulness And yet all this with maiden shame a conscious dream of things unknown and a sense of fate about them
Down the valley still she came not witting that I looked at her having ceased through my own misprison to expect me yet awhile or at least she told herself so In the joy of awakened life and brightness of the morning she had cast all care away and seemed to float upon the sunrise like a buoyant silver wave Suddenly at sight of me for I leaped forth at once in fear of seeming to watch her unawares the bloom upon her cheeks was deepened and the radiance of her eyes and she came to meet me gladly
At last then you are come John I thought you had forgotten me I could not make you understand—they have kept me prisoner every evening but come into my house you are in danger here
Meanwhile I could not answer being overcome with joy but followed to her little grotto where I had been twice before I knew that the crowning moment of my life was coming—that Lorna would own her love for me
She made for awhile as if she dreamed not of the meaning of my gaze but tried to speak of other things faltering now and then and mantling with a richer damask below her long eyelashes
This is not what I came to know I whispered very softly you know what I am come to ask
If you are come on purpose to ask anything why do you delay so She turned away very bravely but I saw that her lips were trembling
I delay so long because I fear because my whole life hangs in balance on a single word because what I have near me now may never more be near me after though more than all the world or than a thousand worlds to me As I spoke these words of passion in a low soft voice Lorna trembled more and more but she made no answer neither yet looked up at me
I have loved you long and long I pursued being reckless now when you were a little child as a boy I worshipped you then when I saw you a comely girl as a stripling I adored you now that you are a fullgrown maiden all the rest I do and more—I love you more than tongue can tell or heart can hold in silence I have waited long and long and though I am so far below you I can wait no longer but must have my answer
You have been very faithful John she murmured to the fern and moss I suppose I must reward you
That will not do for me I said I will not have reluctant liking nor assent for pitys sake which only means endurance I must have all love or none I must have your heart of hearts even as you have mine Lorna
While I spoke she glanced up shyly through her fluttering lashes to prolong my doubt one moment for her own delicious pride Then she opened wide upon me all the glorious depth and softness of her loving eyes and flung both arms around my neck and answered with her heart on mine—
Darling you have won it all I shall never be my own again I am yours my own one for ever and for ever
I am sure I know not what I did or what I said thereafter being overcome with transport by her words and at her gaze Only one thing I remember when she raised her bright lips to me like a child for me to kiss such a smile of sweet temptation met me through her flowing hair that I almost forgot my manners giving her no time to breathe
That will do said Lorna gently but violently blushing for the present that will do John And now remember one thing dear All the kindness is to be on my side and you are to be very distant as behoves to a young maiden except when I invite you But you may kiss my hand John oh yes you may kiss my hand you know Ah to be sure I had forgotten how very stupid of me
For by this time I had taken one sweet hand and gazed on it with the pride of all the world to think that such a lovely thing was mine and then I slipped my little ring upon the wedding finger and this time Lorna kept it and looked with fondness on its beauty and clung to me with a flood of tears
Every time you cry said I drawing her closer to me I shall consider it an invitation not to be too distant There now none shall make you weep Darling you shall sigh no more but live in peace and happiness with me to guard and cherish you and who shall dare to vex you But she drew a long sad sigh and looked at the ground with the great tears rolling and pressed one hand upon the trouble of her pure young breast
It can never never be she murmured to herself alone Who am I to dream of it Something in my heart tells me it can be so never never
CHAPTER XXXIV
TWO NEGATIVES MAKE AN AFFIRMATIVE
There was however no possibility of depressing me at such a time To be loved by Lorna the sweet the pure the playful one the fairest creature on Gods earth and the most enchanting the lady of high birth and mind that I a mere clumsy blundering yeoman without wit or wealth or lineage should have won that loving heart to be my own for ever was a thought no fears could lessen and no chance could steal from me
Therefore at her own entreaty taking a very quick adieu and by her own invitation an exceeding kind one I hurried home with deep exulting yet some sad misgivings for Lorna had made me promise now to tell my mother everything as indeed I always meant to do when my suit should be gone too far to stop I knew of course that my dear mother would be greatly moved and vexed the heirship of Glen Doone not being a very desirable dower but in spite of that and all disappointment as to little Ruth Huckaback feeling my mothers tenderness and deep affection to me and forgiving nature I doubted not that before very long she would view the matter as I did Moreover I felt that if once I could get her only to look at Lorna she would so love and glory in her that I should obtain all praise and thanks perchance without deserving them
Unluckily for my designs who should be sitting down at breakfast with my mother and the rest but Squire Faggus as everybody now began to entitle him I noticed something odd about him something uncomfortable in his manner and a lack of that ease and humour which had been wont to distinguish him He took his breakfast as it came without a single joke about it or preference of this to that but with sly soft looks at Annie who seemed unable to sit quiet or to look at any one steadfastly I feared in my heart what was coming on and felt truly sorry for poor mother After breakfast it became my duty to see to the ploughing of a barleystubble ready for the sowing of a French grass and I asked Tom Faggus to come with me but he refused and I knew the reason Being resolved to allow him fair field to himself though with great displeasure that a man of such illegal repute should marry into our family which had always been counted so honest I carried my dinner upon my back and spent the whole day with the furrows
When I returned Squire Faggus was gone which appeared to me but a sorry sign inasmuch as if mother had taken kindly to him and his intentions she would surely have made him remain awhile to celebrate the occasion And presently no doubt was left for Lizzie came running to meet me at the bottom of the woodrick and cried—
Oh John there is such a business Mother is in such a state of mind and Annie crying her eyes out What do you think You would never guess though I have suspected it ever so long
No need for me to guess I replied as though with some indifference because of her selfimportant air I knew all about it long ago You have not been crying much I see I should like you better if you had
Why should I cry I like Tom Faggus He is the only one I ever see with the spirit of a man
This was a cut of course at me Mr Faggus had won the goodwill of Lizzie by his hatred of the Doones and vows that if he could get a dozen men of any courage to join him he would pull their stronghold about their ears without any more ado This malice of his seemed strange to me as he had never suffered at their hands so far at least as I knew was it to be attributed to his jealousy of outlaws who excelled him in his business Not being good at repartee I made no answer to Lizzie having found this course more irksome to her than the very best invective and so we entered the house together and mother sent at once for me while I was trying to console my darling sister Annie
Oh John speak one good word for me she cried with both hands laid in mine and her tearful eyes looking up at me
Not one my pet but a hundred I answered kindly embracing her have no fear little sister I am going to make your case so bright by comparison I mean that mother will send for you in five minutes and call you her best her most dutiful child and praise Cousin Tom to the skies and send a man on horseback after him and then you will have a harder task to intercede for me my dear
Oh John dear John you wont tell her about Lorna—oh not today dear
Yes today and at once Annie I want to have it over and be done with it
Oh but think of her dear I am sure she could not bear it after this great shock already
She will bear it all the better said I the one will drive the other out I know exactly what mother is She will be desperately savage first with you and then with me and then for a very little while with both of us together and then she will put one against the other in her mind I mean and consider which was most to blame and in doing that she will be compelled to find the best in eithers case that it may beat the other and so as the pleas come before her mind they will gain upon the charges both of us being her children you know and before very long particularly if we both keep out of the way she will begin to think that after all she has been a little too hasty and then she will remember how good we have always been to her and how like our father Upon that she will think of her own lovetime and sigh a good bit and cry a little and then smile and send for both of us and beg our pardon and call us her two darlings
Now John how on earth can you know all that exclaimed my sister wiping her eyes and gazing at me with a soft bright smile Who on earth can have told you John People to call you stupid indeed Why I feel that all you say is quite true because you describe so exactly what I should do myself I mean—I mean if I had two children who had behaved as we have done But tell me darling John how you learned all this
Never you mind I replied with a nod of some conceit I fear I must be a fool if I did not know what mother is by this time
Now inasmuch as the thing befell according to my prediction what need for me to dwell upon it after saying how it would be Moreover I would regret to write down what mother said about Lorna in her first surprise and tribulation not only because I was grieved by the gross injustice of it and frightened mother with her own words repeated deeply after her but rather because it is not well when people repent of hasty speech to enter it against them
That is said to be the angels business and I doubt if they can attend to it much without doing injury to themselves
However by the afternoon when the sun began to go down upon us our mother sat on the garden bench with her head on my great otterskin waistcoat which was waterproof and her right arm round our Annies waist and scarcely knowing which of us she ought to make the most of or which deserved most pity Not that she had forgiven yet the rivals to her love—Tom Faggus I mean and Lorna—but that she was beginning to think a tattle better of them now and a vast deal better of her own children
And it helped her much in this regard that she was not thinking half so well as usual of herself or rather of her own judgment for in good truth she had no self only as it came home to her by no very distant road but by way of her children A better mother never lived and can I after searching all things add another word to that
And indeed poor Lizzie was not so very bad but behaved on the whole very well for her She was much to be pitied poor thing and great allowances made for her as belonging to a wellgrown family and a very comely one and feeling her own shortcomings This made her leap to the other extreme and reassert herself too much endeavouring to exalt the mind at the expense of the body because she had the invisible one so far as can be decided in better share than the visible Not but what she had her points and very comely points of body lovely eyes to wit and very beautiful hands and feet almost as good as Lornas and a neck as white as snow but Lizzie was not gifted with our gait and port and bounding health
Now while we sat on the garden bench under the great ashtree we left dear mother to take her own way and talk at her own pleasure Children almost always are more wideawake than their parents The fathers and the mothers laugh but the young ones have the best of them And now both Annie knew and I that we had gotten the best of mother and therefore we let her lay down the law as if we had been two dollies
Darling John my mother said your case is a very hard one A young and very romantic girl—God send that I be right in my charitable view of her—has met an equally simple boy among great dangers and difficulties from which my son has saved her at the risk of his life at every step Of course she became attached to him and looked up to him in every way as a superior being—
Come now mother I said if you only saw Lorna you would look upon me as the lowest dirt—
No doubt I should my mother answered and the king and queen and all the royal family Well this poor angel having made up her mind to take compassion upon my son when he had saved her life so many times persuades him to marry her out of pure pity and throw his poor mother overboard And the saddest part of it all is this—
That my mother will never never never understand the truth said I
That is all I wish she answered just to get at the simple truth from my own perception of it John you are very wise in kissing me but perhaps you would not be so wise in bringing Lorna for an afternoon just to see what she thinks of me There is a good saddle of mutton now and there are some very good sausages left on the blue dish with the anchor Annie from the last little sow we killed
As if Lorna would eat sausages said I with appearance of high contempt though rejoicing all the while that mother seemed to have her name so pat and she pronounced it in a manner which made my heart leap to my ears Lorna to eat sausages
I dont see why she shouldnt my mother answered smiling if she means to be a farmers wife she must take to farmers ways I think What do you say Annie
She will eat whatever John desires I should hope said Annie gravely particularly as I made them
Oh that I could only get the chance of trying her I answered if you could once behold her mother you would never let her go again And she would love you with all her heart she is so good and gentle
That is a lucky thing for me saying this my mother wept as she had been doing off and on when no one seemed to look at her otherwise I suppose John she would very soon turn me out of the farm having you so completely under her thumb as she seems to have I see now that my time is over Lizzie and I will seek our fortunes It is wiser so
Now mother I cried will you have the kindness not to talk any nonsense Everything belongs to you and so I hope your children do And you in turn belong to us as you have proved ever since—oh ever since we can remember Why do you make Annie cry so You ought to know better than that
Mother upon this went over all the things she had done before how many times I know not neither does it matter Only she seemed to enjoy it more every time of doing it And then she said she was an old fool and Annie like a thorough girl pulled her one grey hair out
CHAPTER XXXV
RUTH IS NOT LIKE LORNA
Although by our mothers reluctant consent a large part of the obstacles between Annie and her lover appeared to be removed on the other hand Lorna and myself gained little except as regarded comfort of mind and some ease to the conscience Moreover our chance of frequent meetings and delightful converse was much impaired at least for the present because though mother was not aware of my narrow escape from Carver Doone she made me promise never to risk my life by needless visits And upon this point that is to say the necessity of the visit she was well content as she said to leave me to my own good sense and honour only begging me always to tell her of my intention beforehand This pledge however for her own sake I declined to give knowing how wretched she would be during all the time of my absence and on that account I promised instead that I would always give her a full account of my adventure upon returning
Now my mother as might be expected began at once to cast about for some means of relieving me from all further peril and herself from great anxiety She was full of plans for fetching Lorna in some wonderful manner out of the power of the Doones entirely and into her own hands where she was to remain for at least a twelvemonth learning all mother and Annie could teach her of dairy business and farmhouse life and the best mode of packing butter And all this arose from my happening to say without meaning anything how the poor dear had longed for quiet and a life of simplicity and a rest away from violence Bless thee mother—now long in heaven there is no need to bless thee but it often makes a dimness now in my wellworn eyes when I think of thy lovingkindness warmth and romantic innocence
As to stealing my beloved from that vile Glen Doone the deed itself was not impossible nor beyond my daring but in the first place would she come leaving her old grandfather to die without her tendence And even if through fear of Carver and that wicked Counsellor she should consent to fly would it be possible to keep her without a regiment of soldiers Would not the Doones at once ride forth to scour the country for their queen and finding her as they must do burn our house and murder us and carry her back triumphantly
All this I laid before my mother and to such effect that she acknowledged with a sigh that nothing else remained for me in the present state of matters except to keep a careful watch upon Lorna from safe distance observe the policy of the Doones and wait for a tide in their affairs Meanwhile I might even fall in love as mother unwisely hinted with a certain more peaceful heiress although of inferior blood who would be daily at my elbow I am not sure but what dear mother herself would have been disappointed had I proved myself so fickle and my disdain and indignation at the mere suggestion did not so much displease her for she only smiled and answered—
Well it is not for me to say God knows what is good for us Likings will not come to order otherwise I should not be where I am this day And of one thing I am rather glad Uncle Reuben well deserves that his pet scheme should miscarry He who called my boy a coward an ignoble coward because he would not join some crackbrained plan against the valley which sheltered his beloved one And all the time this dreadful coward risking his life daily there without a word to any one How glad I am that you will not have for all her miserable money that little dwarfish granddaughter of the insolent old miser
She turned and by her side was standing poor Ruth Huckaback herself white and sad and looking steadily at my mothers face which became as red as a plum while her breath deserted her
If you please madam said the little maiden with her large calm eyes unwavering it is not my fault but God Almightys that I am a little dwarfish creature I knew not that you regarded me with so much contempt on that account neither have you told my grandfather at least within my hearing that he was an insolent old miser When I return to Dulverton which I trust to do tomorrow for it is too late today I shall be careful not to tell him your opinion of him lest I should thwart any schemes you may have upon his property I thank you all for your kindness to me which has been very great far more than a little dwarfish creature could for her own sake expect I will only add for your further guidance one more little truth It is by no means certain that my grandfather will settle any of his miserable money upon me If I offend him as I would in a moment for the sake of a brave and straightforward man—here she gave me a glance which I scarcely knew what to do with—my grandfather upright as he is would leave me without a shilling And I often wish it were so So many miseries come upon me from the miserable money— Here she broke down and burst out crying and ran away with a faint goodbye while we three looked at one another and felt that we had the worst of it
Impudent little dwarf said my mother recovering her breath after ever so long Oh John how thankful you ought to be What a life she would have led you
Well I am sure said Annie throwing her arms around poor mother who could have thought that little atomy had such an outrageous spirit For my part I cannot think how she can have been sly enough to hide it in that crafty manner that John might think her an angel
Well for my part I answered laughing I never admired Ruth Huckaback half or a quarter so much before She is rare stuff I would have been glad to have married her tomorrow if I had never seen my Lorna
And a nice nobody I should have been in my own house cried mother I never can be thankful enough to darling Lorna for saving me Did you see how her eyes flashed
That I did and very fine they were Now nine maidens out of ten would have feigned not to have heard one word that was said and have borne black malice in their hearts Come Annie now would not you have done so
I think said Annie although of course I cannot tell you know John that I should have been ashamed at hearing what was never meant for me and should have been almost as angry with myself as anybody
So you would replied my mother so any daughter of mine would have done instead of railing and reviling However I am very sorry that any words of mine which the poor little thing chose to overhear should have made her so forget herself I shall beg her pardon before she goes and I shall expect her to beg mine
That she will never do said I a more resolute little maiden never yet had right upon her side although it was a mere accident I might have said the same thing myself and she was hard upon you mother dear
After this we said no more at least about that matter and little Ruth the next morning left us in spite of all that we could do She vowed an everlasting friendship to my younger sister Eliza but she looked at Annie with some resentment when they said goodbye for being so much taller At any rate so Annie fancied but she may have been quite wrong I rode beside the little maid till far beyond Exeford when all danger of the moor was past and then I left her with John Fry not wishing to be too particular after all the talk about her money She had tears in her eyes when she bade me farewell and she sent a kind message home to mother and promised to come again at Christmas if she could win permission
Upon the whole my opinion was that she had behaved uncommonly well for a maid whose selflove was outraged with spirit I mean and proper pride and yet with a great endeavour to forgive which is meseems the hardest of all things to a woman outside of her own family
After this for another month nothing worthy of notice happened except of course that I found it needful according to the strictest good sense and honour to visit Lorna immediately after my discourse with mother and to tell her all about it My beauty gave me one sweet kiss with all her heart as she always did when she kissed at all and I begged for one more to take to our mother and before leaving I obtained it It is not for me to tell all she said even supposing what is not likely that any one cared to know it being more and more peculiar to ourselves and no one else But one thing that she said was this and I took good care to carry it word for word to my mother and Annie—
I never can believe dear John that after all the crime and outrage wrought by my reckless family it ever can be meant for me to settle down to peace and comfort in a simple household With all my heart I long for home any home however dull and wearisome to those used to it would seem a paradise to me if only free from brawl and tumult and such as I could call my own But even if God would allow me this in lieu of my wild inheritance it is quite certain that the Doones never can and never will
Again when I told her how my mother and Annie as well as myself longed to have her at Plovers Barrows and teach her all the quiet duties in which she was sure to take such delight she only answered with a bright blush that while her grandfather was living she would never leave him and that even if she were free certain ruin was all she should bring to any house that received her at least within the utmost reach of her amiable family This was too plain to be denied and seeing my dejection at it she told me bravely that we must hope for better times if possible and asked how long I would wait for her
Not a day if I had my will I answered very warmly at which she turned away confused and would not look at me for awhile but all my life I went on to say if my fortune is so ill And how long would you wait for me Lorna
Till I could get you she answered slyly with a smile which was brighter to me than the brightest wit could be And now she continued you bound me John with a very beautiful ring to you and when I dare not wear it I carry it always on my heart But I will bind you to me you dearest with the very poorest and plainest thing that ever you set eyes on I could give you fifty fairer ones but they would not be honest and I love you for your honesty and nothing else of course John so dont you be conceited Look at it what a queer old thing There are some ancient marks upon it very grotesque and wonderful it looks like a cat in a tree almost but never mind what it looks like This old ring must have been a giants therefore it will fit you perhaps you enormous John It has been on the front of my old glass necklace which my grandfather found them taking away and very soon made them give back again ever since I can remember and long before that as some woman told me Now you seem very greatly amazed pray what thinks my lord of it
That is worth fifty of the pearl thing which I gave you you darling and that I will not take it from you
Then you will never take me that is all I will have nothing to do with a gentleman—
No gentleman dear—a yeoman
Very well a yeoman—nothing to do with a yeoman who will not accept my lovegage So if you please give it back again and take your lovely ring back
She looked at me in such a manner half in earnest half in jest and three times three in love that in spite of all good resolutions and her own faint protest I was forced to abandon all firm ideas and kiss her till she was quite ashamed and her head hung on my bosom with the night of her hair shed over me Then I placed the pearl ring back on the soft elastic bend of the finger she held up to scold me and on my own smallest finger drew the heavy hoop she had given me I considered this with satisfaction until my darling recovered herself and then I began very gravely about it to keep her if I could from chiding me—
Mistress Lorna this is not the ring of any giant It is nothing more nor less than a very ancient thumbring such as once in my fathers time was ploughed up out of the ground in our farm and sent to learned doctors who told us all about it but kept the ring for their trouble I will accept it my own one love and it shall go to my grave with me And so it shall unless there be villains who would dare to rob the dead
Now I have spoken about this ring though I scarcely meant to do so and would rather keep to myself things so very holy because it holds an important part in the history of my Lorna I asked her where the glass necklace was from which the ring was fastened and which she had worn in her childhood and she answered that she hardly knew but remembered that her grandfather had begged her to give it up to him when she was ten years old or so and had promised to keep it for her until she could take care of it at the same time giving her back the ring and fastening it from her pretty neck and telling her to be proud of it And so she always had been and now from her sweet breast she took it and it became John Ridds delight
All this or at least great part of it I told my mother truly according to my promise and she was greatly pleased with Lorna for having been so good to me and for speaking so very sensibly and then she looked at the great gold ring but could by no means interpret it Only she was quite certain as indeed I myself was that it must have belonged to an ancient race of great consideration and high rank in their time Upon which I was for taking it off lest it should be degraded by a common farmers finger But mother said No with tears in her eyes if the common farmer had won the great lady of the ancient race what were rings and oldworld trinkets when compared to the living jewel Being quite of her opinion in this and loving the ring which had no gem in it as the token of my priceless gem I resolved to wear it at any cost except when I should be ploughing or doing things likely to break it although I must own that it felt very queer for I never had throttled a finger before and it looked very queer for a length of time upon my great hardworking hand
And before I got used to my ring or people could think that it belonged to me plain and ungarnished though it was and before I went to see Lorna again having failed to find any necessity and remembering my duty to mother we all had something else to think of not so pleasant and more puzzling
CHAPTER XXXVI
JOHN RETURNS TO BUSINESS
Now November was upon us and we had kept Allhallowmass with roasting of skewered apples like so many shuttlecocks and after that the day of Fawkes as became good Protestants with merry bonfires and burned batatas and plenty of good feeding in honour of our religion and then while we were at wheatsowing another visitor arrived
This was Master Jeremy Stickles who had been a good friend to me as described before in London and had earned my mothers gratitude so far as ever he chose to have it And he seemed inclined to have it all for he made our farmhouse his headquarters and kept us quite at his beck and call going out at any time of the evening and coming back at any time of the morning and always expecting us to be ready whether with horse or man or maiden or fire or provisions We knew that he was employed somehow upon the service of the King and had at different stations certain troopers and orderlies quite at his disposal also we knew that he never went out nor even slept in his bedroom without heavy firearms well loaded and a sharp sword nigh his hand and that he held a great commission under royal signet requiring all good subjects all officers of whatever degree and especially justices of the peace to aid him to the utmost with person beast and chattel or to answer it at their peril
Now Master Jeremy Stickles of course knowing well what women are durst not open to any of them the nature of his instructions But after awhile perceiving that I could be relied upon and that it was a great discomfort not to have me with him he took me aside in a lonely place and told me nearly everything having bound me first by oath not to impart to any one without his own permission until all was over
But at this present time of writing all is over long ago ay and forgotten too I ween except by those who suffered Therefore may I tell the whole without any breach of confidence Master Stickles was going forth upon his usual night journey when he met me coming home and I said something half in jest about his zeal and secrecy upon which he looked all round the yard and led me to an open space in the clover field adjoining
John he said you have some right to know the meaning of all this being trusted as you were by the Lord Chief Justice But he found you scarcely supple enough neither gifted with due brains
Thank God for that same I answered while he tapped his head to signify his own much larger allowance Then he made me bind myself which in an evil hour I did to retain his secret and after that he went on solemnly and with much importance—
There be some people fit to plot and others to be plotted against and others to unravel plots which is the highest gift of all This last hath fallen to my share and a very thankless gift it is although a rare and choice one Much of peril too attends it daring courage and great coolness are as needful for the work as ready wit and spotless honour Therefore His Majestys advisers have chosen me for this high task and they could not have chosen a better man Although you have been in London Jack much longer than you wished it you are wholly ignorant of course in matters of state and the public weal
Well said I no doubt but I am and all the better for me Although I heard a deal of them for everybody was talking and ready to come to blows if only it could be done without danger But one said this and one said that and they talked so much about Birminghams and Tantivies and Whigs and Tories and Protestant flails and such like that I was only too glad to have my glass and clink my spoon for answer
Right John thou art right as usual Let the King go his own gait He hath too many mistresses to be ever Englands master Nobody need fear him for he is not like his father he will have his own way tis true but without stopping other folk of theirs and well he knows what women are for he never asks them questions Now heard you much in London town about the Duke of Monmouth
Not so very much I answered not half so much as in Devonshire only that he was a hearty man and a very handsome one and now was banished by the Tories and most people wished he was coming back instead of the Duke of York who was trying boots in Scotland
Things are changed since you were in town The Whigs are getting up again through the folly of the Tories killing poor Lord Russell and now this Master Sidney if my Lord condemns him will make it worse again There is much disaffection everywhere and it must grow to an outbreak The King hath many troops in London and meaneth to bring more from Tangier but he cannot command these country places and the trained bands cannot help him much even if they would Now do you understand me John
In truth not I I see not what Tangier hath to do with Exmoor nor the Duke of Monmouth with Jeremy Stickles
Thou great clod put it the other way Jeremy Stickles may have much to do about the Duke of Monmouth The Whigs having failed of Exclusion and having been punished bitterly for the blood they shed are ripe for any violence And the turn of the balance is now to them Seesaw is the fashion of England always and the Whigs will soon be the topsawyers
But said I still more confused The King is the topsawyer according to our proverb How then can the Whigs be
Thou art a hopeless ass John Better to sew with a chestnut than to teach thee the constitution Let it be so let it be I have seen a boy of five years old more apt at politics than thou Nay look not offended lad It is my fault for being overdeep to thee I should have considered thy intellect
Nay Master Jeremy make no apologies It is I that should excuse myself but God knows I have no politics
Stick to that my lad he answered so shalt thou die easier Now in ten words without parties or trying thy poor brain too much I am here to watch the gathering of a secret plot not so much against the King as against the due succession
Now I understand at last But Master Stickles you might have said all that an hour ago almost
It would have been better if I had to thee he replied with much compassion thy hat is nearly off thy head with the swelling of brain I have given thee Blows blows are thy business Jack There thou art in thine element And haply this business will bring thee plenty even for thy great head to take Now hearken to one who wishes thee well and plainly sees the end of it—stick thou to the winning side and have naught to do with the other one
That said I in great haste and hurry is the very thing I want to do if I only knew which was the winning side for the sake of Lorna—that is to say for the sake of my dear mother and sisters and the farm
Ha cried Jeremy Stickles laughing at the redness of my face—Lorna saidst thou now what Lorna Is it the name of a maiden or a lightolove
Keep to your own business I answered very proudly spy as much as eer thou wilt and use our house for doing it without asking leave or telling but if I ever find thee spying into my affairs all the Kings lifeguards in London and the dragoons thou bringest hither shall not save thee from my hand—or one finger is enough for thee
Being carried beyond myself by his insolence about Lorna I looked at Master Stickles so and spake in such a voice that all his daring courage and his spotless honour quailed within him and he shrank—as if I would strike so small a man
Then I left him and went to work at the sacks upon the cornfloor to take my evil spirit from me before I should see mother For to tell the truth now my strength was full and troubles were gathering round me and people took advantage so much of my easy temper sometimes when I was overtried a sudden heat ran over me and a glowing of all my muscles and a tingling for a mighty throw such as my utmost selfcommand and fear of hurting any one could but ill refrain Afterwards I was always very sadly ashamed of myself knowing how poor a thing bodily strength is as compared with power of mind and that it is a cowards part to misuse it upon weaker folk For the present there was a little breach between Master Stickles and me for which I blamed myself very sorely But though in full memory of his kindness and faithfulness in London I asked his pardon many times for my foolish anger with him and offered to undergo any penalty he would lay upon me he only said it was no matter there was nothing to forgive When people say that the truth often is that they can forgive nothing
So for the present a breach was made between Master Jeremy and myself which to me seemed no great loss inasmuch as it relieved me from any privity to his dealings for which I had small liking All I feared was lest I might in any way be ungrateful to him but when he would have no more of me what could I do to help it However in a few days time I was of good service to him as you shall see in its proper place
But now my own affairs were thrown into such disorder that I could think of nothing else and had the greatest difficulty in hiding my uneasiness For suddenly without any warning or a word of message all my Lornas signals ceased which I had been accustomed to watch for daily and as it were to feed upon them with a glowing heart The first time I stood on the wooded crest and found no change from yesterday I could hardly believe my eyes or thought at least that it must be some great mistake on the part of my love However even that oppressed me with a heavy heart which grew heavier as I found from day to day no token
Three times I went and waited long at the bottom of the valley where now the stream was brown and angry with the rains of autumn and the weeping trees hung leafless But though I waited at every hour of day and far into the night no light footstep came to meet me no sweet voice was in the air all was lonely drear and drenched with sodden desolation It seemed as if my love was dead and the winds were at her funeral
Once I sought far up the valley where I had never been before even beyond the copse where Lorna had found and lost her brave young cousin Following up the river channel in shelter of the evening fog I gained a corner within stones throw of the last outlying cot This was a gloomy low square house without any light in the windows roughly built of wood and stone as I saw when I drew nearer For knowing it to be Carvers dwelling or at least suspecting so from some words of Lornas I was led by curiosity and perhaps by jealousy to have a closer look at it Therefore I crept up the stream losing half my sense of fear by reason of anxiety And in truth there was not much to fear the sky being now too dark for even a shooter of wild fowl to make good aim And nothing else but guns could hurt me as in the pride of my strength I thought and in my skill of singlestick
Nevertheless I went warily being now almost among this nest of cockatrices The back of Carvers house abutted on the waves of the rushing stream and seeing a loophole vacant for muskets I looked in but all was quiet So far as I could judge by listening there was no one now inside and my heart for a moment leaped with joy for I had feared to find Lorna there Then I took a careful survey of the dwelling and its windows and its door and aspect as if I had been a robber meaning to make privy entrance It was well for me that I did this as you will find hereafter
Having impressed upon my mind a slow but perhaps retentive mind all the bearings of the place and all its opportunities and even the curve of the stream along it and the bushes near the door I was much inclined to go farther up and understand all the village But a bar of red light across the river some forty yards on above me and crossing from the opposite side like a chain prevented me In that second house there was a gathering of loud and merry outlaws making as much noise as if they had the law upon their side Some indeed as I approached were laying down both right and wrong as purely and with as high a sense as if they knew the difference Cold and troubled as I was I could hardly keep from laughing
Before I betook myself home that night and eased dear mothers heart so much and made her pale face spread with smiles I had resolved to penetrate Glen Doone from the upper end and learn all about my Lorna Not but what I might have entered from my unsuspected channel as so often I had done but that I saw fearful need for knowing something more than that Here was every sort of trouble gathering upon me here was Jeremy Stickles stealing upon every one in the dark here was Uncle Reuben plotting Satan only could tell what here was a white nightcapped man coming bodily from the grave here was my own sister Annie committed to a highwayman and mother in distraction most of all—here there and where—was my Lorna stolen dungeoned perhaps outraged It was no time for shilly shally for the balance of this and that or for a man with blood and muscle to pat his nose and ponder If I left my Lorna so if I let those blacksould villains work their pleasure on my love if the heart that clave to mine could find no vigour in it—then let maidens cease from men and rest their faith in tabbycats
Rudely rolling these ideas in my heavy head and brain I resolved to let the morrow put them into form and order but not contradict them And then as my constitution willed being like that of England I slept and there was no stopping me
CHAPTER XXXVII
A VERY DESPERATE VENTURE
That the enterprise now resolved upon was far more dangerous than any hitherto attempted by me needs no further proof than this—I went and made my will at Porlock with a middling honest lawyer there not that I had much to leave but that none could say how far the farm and all the farming stock might depend on my disposition It makes me smile when I remember how particular I was and how for the life of me I was puzzled to bequeath most part of my clothes and hats and things altogether my own to Lorna without the shrewd old lawyer knowing who she was and where she lived At last indeed I flattered myself that I had baffled old Tapes curiosity but his wrinkled smile and his speech at parting made me again uneasy
A very excellent will young sir An admirably just and virtuous will all your effects to your nearest of kin filial and fraternal duty thoroughly exemplified nothing diverted to alien channels except a small token of esteem and reverence to an elderly lady I presume and which may or may not be valid or invalid on the ground of uncertainty or the absence of any legal status on the part of the legatee Ha ha Yes yes Few young men are so free from exceptionable entanglements Two guineas is my charge sir and a rare good will for the money Very prudent of you sir Does you credit in every way Well well we all must die and often the young before the old
Not only did I think two guineas a great deal too much money for a quarter of an hours employment but also I disliked particularly the words with which he concluded they sounded from his grating voice like the evil omen of a croaking raven Nevertheless I still abode in my fixed resolve to go and find out if I died for it what was become of Lorna And herein I lay no claim to courage the matter being simply a choice between two evils of which by far the greater one was of course to lose my darling
The journey was a great deal longer to fetch around the Southern hills and enter by the Doonegate than to cross the lower land and steal in by the waterslide However I durst not take a horse for fear of the Doones who might be abroad upon their usual business but started betimes in the evening so as not to hurry or waste any strength upon the way And thus I came to the robbers highway walking circumspectly scanning the skyline of every hill and searching the folds of every valley for any moving figure
Although it was now well on towards dark and the sun was down an hour or so I could see the robbers road before me in a trough of the winding hills where the brook ploughed down from the higher barrows and the coving banks were roofed with furze At present there was no one passing neither post nor sentinel so far as I could descry but I thought it safer to wait a little as twilight melted into night and then I crept down a seam of the highland and stood upon the Doonetrack
As the road approached the entrance it became more straight and strong like a channel cut from rock with the water brawling darkly along the naked side of it Not a tree or bush was left to shelter a man from bullets all was stern and stiff and rugged as I could not help perceiving even through the darkness and a smell as of churchyard mould a sense of being boxed in and cooped made me long to be out again
And here I was or seemed to be particularly unlucky for as I drew near the very entrance lightly of foot and warily the moon which had often been my friend like an enemy broke upon me topping the eastward ridge of rock and filling all the open spaces with the play of wavering light I shrank back into the shadowy quarter on the right side of the road and gloomily employed myself to watch the triple entrance on which the moonlight fell askew
All across and before the three rude and beetling archways hung a felled oak overhead black and thick and threatening This as I heard before could be let fall in a moment so as to crush a score of men and bar the approach of horses Behind this tree the rocky mouth was spanned as by a gallery with brushwood and piled timber all upon a ledge of stone where thirty men might lurk unseen and fire at any invader From that rampart it would be impossible to dislodge them because the rock fell sheer below them twenty feet or it may be more while overhead it towered three hundred and so jutted over that nothing could be cast upon them even if a man could climb the height And the access to this portcullis place—if I may so call it being no portcullis there—was through certain rocky chambers known to the tenants only
But the cleverest of their devices and the most puzzling to an enemy was that instead of one mouth only there were three to choose from with nothing to betoken which was the proper access all being pretty much alike and all unfenced and yawning And the common rumour was that in times of any danger when any force was known to be on muster in their neighbourhood they changed their entrance every day and diverted the other two by means of sliding doors to the chasms and dark abysses
Now I could see those three rough arches jagged black and terrible and I knew that only one of them could lead me to the valley neither gave the river now any further guidance but dived underground with a sullen roar where it met the crossbar of the mountain Having no means at all of judging which was the right way of the three and knowing that the other two would lead to almost certain death in the ruggedness and darkness—for how could a man among precipices and bottomless depths of water without a ray of light have any chance to save his life—I do declare that I was half inclined to go away and have done with it
However I knew one thing for certain to wit that the longer I stayed debating the more would the enterprise pall upon me and the less my relish be And it struck me that in times of peace the middle way was the likeliest and the others diverging right and left in their farther parts might be made to slide into it not far from the entrance at the pleasure of the warders Also I took it for good omen that I remembered as rarely happened a very fine line in the Latin grammar whose emphasis and meaning is middle road is safest
Therefore without more hesitation I plunged into the middle way holding a long ash staff before me shodden at the end with iron Presently I was in black darkness groping along the wall and feeling a deal more fear than I wished to feel especially when upon looking back I could no longer see the light which I had forsaken Then I stumbled over something hard and sharp and very cold moreover so grievous to my legs that it needed my very best doctrine and humour to forbear from swearing in the manner they use in London But when I arose and felt it and knew it to be a culverin I was somewhat reassured thereby inasmuch as it was not likely that they would plant this engine except in the real and true entrance
Therefore I went on again more painfully and wearily and presently found it to be good that I had received that knock and borne it with such patience for otherwise I might have blundered full upon the sentries and been shot without more ado As it was I had barely time to draw back as I turned a corner upon them and if their lanthorn had been in its place they could scarce have failed to descry me unless indeed I had seen the gleam before I turned the corner
There seemed to be only two of them of size indeed and stature as all the Doones must be but I need not have feared to encounter them both had they been unarmed as I was It was plain however that each had a long and heavy carbine not in his hands as it should have been but standing close beside him Therefore it behoved me now to be exceedingly careful and even that might scarce avail without luck in proportion So I kept well back at the corner and laid one cheek to the rock face and kept my outer eye round the jut in the wariest mode I could compass watching my opportunity and this is what I saw
The two villains looked very happy—which villains have no right to be but often are meseemeth—they were sitting in a niche of rock with the lanthorn in the corner quaffing something from glass measures and playing at pushpin or shepherds chess or basset or some trivial game of that sort Each was smoking a long clay pipe quite of new London shape I could see for the shadow was thrown out clearly and each would laugh from time to time as he fancied he got the better of it One was sitting with his knees up and left hand on his thigh and this one had his back to me and seemed to be the stouter The other leaned more against the rock half sitting and half astraddle and wearing leathern overalls as if newly come from riding I could see his face quite clearly by the light of the open lanthorn and a handsomer or a bolder face I had seldom if ever set eyes upon insomuch that it made me very unhappy to think of his being so near my Lorna
How long am I to stand crouching here I asked of myself at last being tired of hearing them cry score one score two No by — Charlie By — I say it is Phelps And yet my only chance of slipping by them unperceived was to wait till they quarrelled more and came to blows about it Presently as I made up my mind to steal along towards them for the cavern was pretty wide just there Charlie or Charleworth Doone the younger and taller man reached forth his hand to seize the money which he swore he had won that time Upon this the other jerked his arm vowing that he had no right to it whereupon Charlie flung at his face the contents of the glass he was sipping but missed him and hit the candle which sputtered with a flare of blue flame from the strength perhaps of the spirit and then went out completely At this one swore and the other laughed and before they had settled what to do I was past them and round the corner
And then like a giddy fool as I was I needs must give them a startler—the whoop of an owl done so exactly as John Fry had taught me and echoed by the roof so fearfully that one of them dropped the tinder box and the other caught up his gun and cocked it at least as I judged by the sounds they made And then too late I knew my madness for if either of them had fired no doubt but what all the village would have risen and rushed upon me However as the luck of the matter went it proved for my advantage for I heard one say to the other—
Curse it Charlie what was that It scared me so I have dropped my box my flint is gone and everything Will the brimstone catch from your pipe my lad
My pipe is out Phelps ever so long Damn it I am not afraid of an owl man Give me the lanthorn and stay here Im not half done with you yet my friend
Well said my boy well said Go straight to Carvers mind you The other sleepy heads be snoring as there is nothing up tonight No dallying now under Captains window Queen will have nought to say to you and Carver will punch your head into a new wick for your lanthorn
Will he though Two can play at that And so after some rude jests and laughter and a few more oaths I heard Charlie or at any rate somebody coming toward me with a loose and not too sober footfall As he reeled a little in his gait and I would not move from his way one inch after his talk of Lorna but only longed to grasp him if common sense permitted it his braided coat came against my thumb and his leathern gaiters brushed my knee If he had turned or noticed it he would have been a dead man in a moment but his drunkenness saved him
So I let him reel on unharmed and thereupon it occurred to me that I could have no better guide passing as he would exactly where I wished to be that is to say under Lornas window Therefore I followed him without any especial caution and soon I had the pleasure of seeing his form against the moonlit sky Down a steep and winding path with a handrail at the corners such as they have at Ilfracombe Master Charlie tripped along—and indeed there was much tripping and he must have been an active fellow to recover as he did—and after him walked I much hoping for his own poor sake that he might not turn and espy me
But Bacchus of whom I read at school with great wonder about his meaning—and the same I may say of Venus that great deity preserved Charlie his pious worshipper from regarding consequences So he led me very kindly to the top of the meadow land where the stream from underground broke forth seething quietly with a little hiss of bubbles Hence I had fair view and outline of the robbers township spread with bushes here and there but not heavily overshadowed The moon approaching now the full brought the forms in manner forth clothing each with character as the moon more than the sun does to an eye accustomed
I knew that the Captains house was first both from what Lorna had said of it and from my mothers description and now again from seeing Charlie halt there for a certain time and whistle on his fingers and hurry on fearing consequence The tune that he whistled was strange to me and lingered in my ears as having something very new and striking and fantastic in it And I repeated it softly to myself while I marked the position of the houses and the beauty of the village For the stream in lieu of any street passing between the houses and affording perpetual change and twinkling and reflections moreover by its sleepy murmur soothing all the dwellers there this and the snugness of the position walled with rock and spread with herbage made it look in the quiet moonlight like a little paradise And to think of all the inmates there sleeping with good consciences having plied their useful trade of making others work for them enjoying life without much labour yet with great renown
Master Charlie went down the village and I followed him carefully keeping as much as possible in the shadowy places and watching the windows of every house lest any light should be burning As I passed Sir Ensors house my heart leaped up for I spied a window higher than the rest above the ground and with a faint light moving This could hardly fail to be the room wherein my darling lay for here that impudent young fellow had gazed while he was whistling And here my courage grew tenfold and my spirit feared no evil—for lo if Lorna had been surrendered to that scoundrel Carver she would not have been at her grandfathers house but in Carvers accursed dwelling
Warm with this idea I hurried after Charleworth Doone being resolved not to harm him now unless my own life required it And while I watched from behind a tree the door of the farthest house was opened and sure enough it was Carvers self who stood bareheaded and half undressed in the doorway I could see his great black chest and arms by the light of the lamp he bore
Who wants me this time of night he grumbled in a deep gruff voice any young scamp prowling after the maids shall have sore bones for his trouble
All the fair maids are for thee are they Master Carver Charlie answered laughing we young scamps must be wellcontent with coarser stuff than thou wouldst have
Would have Ay and will have the great beast muttered angrily I bide my time but not very long Only one word for thy good Charlie I will fling thee senseless into the river if ever I catch thy girlface there again
Mayhap Master Carver it is more than thou couldst do But I will not keep thee thou art not pleasant company tonight All I want is a light for my lanthorn and a glass of schnapps if thou hast it
What is become of thy light then Good for thee I am not on duty
A great owl flew between me and Phelps as we watched beside the culvern and so scared was he at our fierce bright eyes that he fell and knocked the light out
Likely tale or likely lie Charles We will have the truth tomorrow Here take thy light and be gone with thee All virtuous men are in bed now
Then so will I be and why art thou not Ha have I earned my schnapps now
If thou hast thou hast paid a bad debt there is too much in thee already Be off my patience is done with
Then he slammed the door in the young mans face having kindled his lanthorn by this time and Charlie went up to the watchplace again muttering as he passed me Bad lookout for all of us when that surly old beast is Captain No gentle blood in him no hospitality not even pleasant language nor a good new oath in his frowsy pate Ive a mind to cut the whole of it and but for the girls I would so
My heart was in my mouth as they say when I stood in the shade by Lornas window and whispered her name gently The house was of one story only as the others were with pineends standing forth the stone and only two rough windows upon that western side of it and perhaps both of them were Lornas The Doones had been their own builders for no one should know their ins and outs and of course their work was clumsy As for their windows they stole them mostly from the houses round about But though the window was not very close I might have whispered long enough before she would have answered me frightened as she was no doubt by many a rude overture And I durst not speak aloud because I saw another watchman posted on the western cliff and commanding all the valley And now this man having no companion for drinking or for gambling espied me against the wall of the house and advanced to the brink and challenged me
Who are you there Answer One two three and I fire at thee
The nozzle of his gun was pointed full upon me as I could see with the moonlight striking on the barrel he was not more than fifty yards off and now he began to reckon Being almost desperate about it I began to whistle wondering how far I should get before I lost my windpipe and as luck would have it my lips fell into that strange tune I had practised last the one I had heard from Charlie My mouth would scarcely frame the notes being parched with terror but to my surprise the man fell back dropped his gun and saluted Oh sweetest of all sweet melodies
That tune was Carver Doones passport as I heard long afterwards which Charleworth Doone had imitated for decoy of Lorna The sentinel took me for that vile Carver who was like enough to be prowling there for private talk with Lorna but not very likely to shout forth his name if it might be avoided The watchman perceiving the danger perhaps of intruding on Carvers privacy not only retired along the cliff but withdrew himself to good distance
Meanwhile he had done me the kindest service for Lorna came to the window at once to see what the cause of the shout was and drew back the curtain timidly Then she opened the rough lattice and then she watched the cliff and trees and then she sighed very sadly
Oh Lorna dont you know me I whispered from the side being afraid of startling her by appearing over suddenly
Quick though she always was of thought she knew me not from my whisper and was shutting the window hastily when I caught it back and showed myself
John she cried yet with sense enough not to speak aloud oh you must be mad John
As mad as a March hare said I without any news of my darling You knew I would come of course you did
Well I thought perhaps—you know now John you need not eat my hand Do you see they have put iron bars across
To be sure Do you think I should be contented even with this lovely hand but for these vile iron bars I will have them out before I go Now darling for one moment—just the other hand for a change you know
So I got the other but was not honest for I kept them both and felt their delicate beauty trembling as I laid them to my heart
Oh John you will make me cry directly—she had been crying long ago—if you go on in that way You know we can never have one another every one is against it Why should I make you miserable Try not to think of me any more
And will you try the same of me Lorna
Oh yes John if you agree to it At least I will try to try it
Then you wont try anything of the sort I cried with great enthusiasm for her tone was so nice and melancholy the only thing we will try to try is to belong to one another And if we do our best Lorna God alone can prevent us
She crossed herself with one hand drawn free as I spoke so boldly and something swelled in her little throat and prevented her from answering
Now tell me I said what means all this Why are you so pent up here Why have you given me no token Has your grandfather turned against you Are you in any danger
My poor grandfather is very ill I fear that he will not live long The Counsellor and his son are now the masters of the valley and I dare not venture forth for fear of anything they might do to me When I went forth to signal for you Carver tried to seize me but I was too quick for him Little Gwenny is not allowed to leave the valley now so that I could send no message I have been so wretched dear lest you should think me false to you The tyrants now make sure of me You must watch this house both night and day if you wish to save me There is nothing they would shrink from if my poor grandfather—oh I cannot bear to think of myself when I ought to think of him only dying without a son to tend him or a daughter to shed a tear
But surely he has sons enough and a deal too many I was going to say but stopped myself in time why do none of them come to him
I know not I cannot tell He is a very strange old man and few have ever loved him He was black with wrath at the Counsellor this very afternoon—but I must not keep you here—you are much too brave John and I am much too selfish there what was that shadow
Nothing more than a bat darling come to look for his sweetheart I will not stay long you tremble so and yet for that very reason how can I leave you Lorna
You must—you must she answered I shall die if they hurt you I hear the old nurse moving Grandfather is sure to send for me Keep back from the window
However it was only Gwenny Carfax Lornas little handmaid my darling brought her to the window and presented her to me almost laughing through her grief
Oh I am so glad John Gwenny I am so glad you came I have wanted long to introduce you to my young man as you call him It is rather dark but you can see him I wish you to know him again Gwenny
Whoy cried Gwenny with great amazement standing on tiptoe to look out and staring as if she were weighing me her be bigger nor any Doone Heared as her have bate our Cornish champion awrastling Twadnt fair play nohow no no dont tell me twadnt fair play nohow
True enough Gwenny I answered her for the play had been very unfair indeed on the side of the Bodmin champion it was not a fair bout little maid I am free to acknowledge that By that answer or rather by the construction she put upon it the heart of the Cornish girl was won more than by gold and silver
I shall knoo thee again young man no fear of that she answered nodding with an air of patronage Now missis gae on coortin and I wall gae outside and watch for ee Though expressed not over delicately this proposal arose no doubt from Gwennys sense of delicacy and I was very thankful to her for taking her departure
She is the best little thing in the world said Lorna softly laughing and the queerest and the truest Nothing will bribe her against me If she seems to be on the other side never never doubt her Now no more of your coortin John I love you far too well for that Yes yes ever so much If you will take a mean advantage of me And as much as ever you like to imagine and then you may double it after that Only go do go good John kind dear darling John if you love me go
How can I go without settling anything I asked very sensibly How shall I know of your danger now Hit upon something you are so quick Anything you can think of and then I will go and not frighten you
I have been thinking long of something Lorna answered rapidly with that peculiar clearness of voice which made every syllable ring like music of a several note you see that tree with the seven rooks nests bright against the cliffs there Can you count them from above do you think From a place where you will be safe dear—
No doubt I can or if I cannot it will not take me long to find a spot whence I can do it
Gwenny can climb like any cat She has been up there in the summer watching the young birds day by day and daring the boys to touch them There are neither birds nor eggs there now of course and nothing doing If you see but six rooks nests I am in peril and want you If you see but five I am carried off by Carver
Good God said I at the mere idea in a tone which frightened Lorna
Fear not John she whispered sadly and my blood grew cold at it I have means to stop him or at least to save myself If you can come within one day of that mans getting hold of me you will find me quite unharmed After that you will find me dead or alive according to circumstances but in no case such that you need blush to look at me
Her dear sweet face was full of pride as even in the gloom I saw and I would not trespass on her feelings by such a thing at such a moment as an attempt at any caress I only said God bless you darling and she said the same to me in a very low sad voice And then I stole below Carvers house in the shadow from the eastern cliff and knowing enough of the village now to satisfy all necessity betook myself to my wellknown track in returning from the valley which was neither down the waterslide a course I feared in the darkness nor up the cliffs at Lornas bower but a way of my own inventing which there is no need to dwell upon
A weight of care was off my mind though much of trouble hung there still One thing was quite certain—if Lorna could not have John Ridd no one else should have her And my mother who sat up for me and with me long time afterwards agreed that this was comfort
CHAPTER XXXVIII
A GOOD TURN FOR JEREMY
John Fry had now six shillings a week of regular and permanent wage besides all harvest and shearing money as well as a cottage rentfree and enough of gardenground to rear potherbs for his wife and all his family Now the wages appointed by our justices at the time of sessions were fourandsixpence a week for summer and a shilling less for the wintertime and we could be fined and perhaps imprisoned for giving more than the sums so fixed Therefore John Fry was looked upon as the richest man upon Exmoor I mean of course among labourers and there were many jokes about robbing him as if he were the mint of the King and Tom Faggus promised to try his hand if he came across John on the highway although he had ceased from business and was seeking a Royal pardon
Now is it according to human nature or is it a thing contradictory as I would fain believe But anyhow there was upon Exmoor no more discontented man no man more sure that he had not his worth neither half so sore about it than or as John Fry was And one thing he did which I could not wholly or indeed I may say in any measure reconcile with my sense of right much as I laboured to do John justice especially because of his roguery and this was that if we said too much or accused him at all of laziness which he must have known to be in him he regularly turned round upon us and quite compelled us to hold our tongues by threatening to lay information against us for paying him too much wages
Now I have not mentioned all this of John Fry from any disrespect for his memory which is green and honest amongst us far less from any desire to hurt the feelings of his grandchildren and I will do them the justice once for all to avow thus publicly that I have known a great many bigger rogues and most of themselves in the number But I have referred with moderation to this little flaw in a worthy character or foible as we call it when a man is dead for this reason only—that without it there was no explaining Johns dealings with Jeremy Stickles
Master Jeremy being full of London and Norwich experience fell into the error of supposing that we clods and yokels were the simplest of the simple and could be cheated at his good pleasure Now this is not so when once we suspect that people have that idea of us we indulge them in it to the top of their bent and grieve that they should come out of it as they do at last in amazement with less money than before and the laugh now set against them
Ever since I had offended Jeremy by threatening him as before related in case of his meddling with my affairs he had more and more allied himself with simpleminded John as he was pleased to call him John Fry was everything it was run and fetch my horse John—John are my pistols primed well—I want you in the stable John about something very particular until except for the rudeness of it I was longing to tell Master Stickles that he ought to pay Johns wages John for his part was not backward but gave himself the most wonderful airs of secrecy and importance till half the parish began to think that the affairs of the nation were in his hand and he scorned the sight of a dungfork
It was not likely that this should last and being the only man in the parish with any knowledge of politics I gave John Fry to understand that he must not presume to talk so freely as if he were at least a constable about the constitution which could be no affair of his and might bring us all into trouble At this he only tossed his nose as if he had been in London at least three times for my one which vexed me so that I promised him the thick end of the ploughwhip if even the name of a knight of the shire should pass his lips for a fortnight
Now I did not suspect in my stupid noddle that John Fry would ever tell Jeremy Stickles about the sight at the Wizards Slough and the man in the white nightcap because John had sworn on the blade of his knife not to breathe a word to any soul without my full permission However it appears that John related for a certain consideration all that he had seen and doubtless more which had accrued to it Upon this Master Stickles was much astonished at Uncle Reubens proceedings having always accounted him a most loyal keen and wary subject
All this I learned upon recovering Jeremys good graces which came to pass in no other way than by the saving of his life Being bound to keep the strictest watch upon the seven rooks nests and yet not bearing to be idle and to waste my mothers stores I contrived to keep my work entirely at the western corner of our farm which was nearest to Glen Doone and whence I could easily run to a height commanding the view I coveted
One day Squire Faggus had dropped in upon us just in time for dinner and very soon he and Kings messenger were as thick as need be Tom had brought his beloved mare to show her off to Annie and he mounted his pretty sweetheart upon her after giving Winnie notice to be on her very best behaviour The squire was in great spirits having just accomplished a purchase of land which was worth ten times what he gave for it and this he did by a merry trick upon old Sir Roger Bassett who never supposed him to be in earnest as not possessing the money The whole thing was done on a bumper of claret in a tavern where they met and the old knight having once pledged his word no lawyers could hold him back from it They could only say that Master Faggus being attainted of felony was not a capable grantee I will soon cure that quoth Tom my pardon has been ready for months and months so soon as I care to sue it
And now he was telling our Annie who listened very rosily and believed every word he said that having been ruined in early innocence by the means of lawyers it was only just and fair turn for turn that having become a match for them by long practice upon the highway he should reinstate himself at their expense in society And now he would go to London at once and sue out his pardon and then would his lovely darling Annie etc etc—things which I had no right to hear and in which I was not wanted
Therefore I strode away up the lane to my afternoons employment sadly comparing my love with theirs which now appeared so prosperous yet heartily glad for Annies sake only remembering now and then the old proverb Wrong never comes right
I worked very hard in the copse of young ash with my billhook and a shearingknife cutting out the saplings where they stooled too close together making spars to keep for thatching wallcrooks to drive into the cob stiles for close sheep hurdles and handles for rakes and hoes and twobills of the larger and straighter stuff And all the lesser I bound in faggots to come home on the sledd to the woodrick It is not to be supposed that I did all this work without many peeps at the seven rooks nests which proved my Lornas safety Indeed whenever I wanted a change either from cleaving or hewing too hard or stooping too much at binding I was up and away to the ridge of the hill instead of standing and doing nothing
Soon I forgot about Tom and Annie and fell to thinking of Lorna only and how much I would make of her and what I should call our children and how I would educate them to do honour to her rank yet all the time I worked none the worse by reason of meditation Freshcut spars are not so good as those of a little seasoning especially if the sap was not gone down at the time of cutting Therefore we always find it needful to have plenty still in stock
It was very pleasant there in the copse sloping to the west as it was and the sun descending brightly with rocks and banks to dwell upon The stems of mottled and dimpled wood with twigs coming out like elbows hung and clung together closely with a mode of bending in as children do at some danger overhead the shrunken leaves quivered and rustled ripely having many points like stars and rising and falling delicately as fingers play sad music Along the bed of the slanting ground all between the stools of wood there were heaps of dead brown leaves and sheltered mats of lichen and drifts of spotted stick gone rotten and tufts of rushes here and there full of fray and feathering
All by the hedge ran a little stream a thing that could barely name itself flowing scarce more than a pint in a minute because of the sunny weather Yet had this rill little crooks and crannies dark and bravely bearded and a gallant rush through a reeden pipe—the stem of a flag that was grounded and here and there divided threads from the points of a branching stick into mighty pools of rock as large as a grown mans hat almost napped with moss all around the sides and hung with corded grasses Along and down the tiny banks and nodding into one another even across main channel hung the brown arcade of ferns some with gold tongues languishing some with countless eardrops jerking some with great quilled ribs uprising and long saws aflapping others cupped and fanning over with the grace of yielding even as a hollow fountain spread by winds that have lost their way
Deeply each beyond other pluming stooping glancing glistening weaving softest pillow lace coying to the wind and water when their fleeting image danced or by which their beauty moved—God has made no lovelier thing and only He takes heed of them
It was time to go home to supper now and I felt very friendly towards it having been hard at work for some hours with only the voice of the little rill and some hares and a pheasant for company The sun was gone down behind the black wood on the farther cliffs of Bagworthy and the russet of the tufts and spearbeds was becoming gray while the greyness of the sapling ash grew brown against the sky the hollow curves of the little stream became black beneath the grasses and the fairy fans innumerable while outside the hedge our clover was crimping its leaves in the dewfall like the cocked hats of woodsorrel—when thanking God for all this scene because my love had gifted me with the key to all things lovely I prepared to follow their example and to rest from labour
Therefore I wiped my billhook and shearingknife very carefully for I hate to leave tools dirty and was doubting whether I should try for another glance at the seven rooks nests or whether it would be too dark for it It was now a quarter of an hour mayhap since I had made any chopping noise because I had been assorting my spars and tying them in bundles instead of plying the billhook and the gentle tinkle of the stream was louder than my doings To this no doubt I owe my life which then without my dreaming it was in no little jeopardy
For just as I was twisting the bine of my very last faggot before tucking the cleft tongue under there came three men outside the hedge where the western light was yellow and by it I could see that all three of them carried firearms These men were not walking carelessly but following down the hedgetrough as if to stalk some enemy and for a moment it struck me cold to think it was I they were looking for With the swiftness of terror I concluded that my visits to Glen Doone were known and now my life was the forfeit
It was a most lucky thing for me that I heard their clothes catch in the brambles and saw their hats under the rampart of ash which is made by what we call splashing and lucky for me that I stood in a goyal and had the dark coppice behind me To this I had no time to fly but with a sort of instinct threw myself flat in among the thick fern and held my breath and lay still as a log For I had seen the light gleam on their gunbarrels and knowing the faults of the neighbourhood would fain avoid swelling their number Then the three men came to the gap in the hedge where I had been in and out so often and stood up and looked in over
It is all very well for a man to boast that in all his life he has never been frightened and believes that he never could be so There may be men of that nature—I will not dare to deny it only I have never known them The fright I was now in was horrible and all my bones seemed to creep inside me when lying there helpless with only a billet and the comb of fern to hide me in the dusk of early evening I saw three faces in the gap and what was worse three gunmuzzles
Somebody been at work here— it was the deep voice of Carver Doone jump up Charlie and look about we must have no witnesses
Give me a hand behind said Charlie the same handsome young Doone I had seen that night this bank is too devilish steep for me
Nonsense man cried Marwood de Whichehalse who to my amazement was the third of the number only a hind cutting faggots and of course he hath gone home long ago Blind mans holiday as we call it I can see all over the place and there is not even a rabbit there
At that I drew my breath again and thanked God I had gotten my coat on
Squire is right said Charlie who was standing up high on a root perhaps there is nobody there now captain and lucky for the poor devil that he keepeth workmans hours Even his chopper is gone I see
No dog no man is the rule about here when it comes to coppice work continued young de Whichehalse there is not a man would dare work there without a dog to scare the pixies
There is a big young fellow upon this farm Carver Doone muttered sulkily with whom I have an account to settle if ever I come across him He hath a cursed spite to us because we shot his father He was going to bring the lumpers upon us only he was afeared last winter And he hath been in London lately for some traitorous job I doubt
Oh you mean that fool John Ridd answered the young squire a very simple clodhopper No treachery in him I warrant he hath not the head for it All he cares about is wrestling As strong as a bull and with no more brains
A bullet for that bull said Carver and I could see the grin on his scornful face a bullet for ballast to his brain the first time I come across him
Nonsense captain I wont have him shot for he is my old schoolfellow and hath a very pretty sister But his cousin is of a different mould and ten times as dangerous
We shall see lads we shall see grumbled the great blackbearded man Ill bodes for the fool that would hinder me But come let us onward No lingering or the viper will be in the bush from us Body and soul if he give us the slip both of you shall answer it
No fear captain and no hurry Charlie answered gallantly would I were as sure of living a twelvemonth as he is of dying within the hour Extreme unction for him in my bullet patch Remember I claim to be his confessor because he hath insulted me
Thou art welcome to the job for me said Marwood as they turned away and kept along the hedgerow I love to meet a man sword to sword not to pop at him from a foxhole
What answer was made I could not hear for by this time the stout ashen hedge was between us and no other gap to be found in it until at the very bottom where the corner of the copse was Yet I was not quit of danger now for they might come through that second gap and then would be sure to see me unless I crept into the uncut thicket before they could enter the clearing But in spite of all my fear I was not wise enough to do that And in truth the words of Carver Doone had filled me with such anger knowing what I did about him and his pretence to Lorna and the sight of Squire Marwood in such outrageous company had so moved my curiosity and their threats against some unknown person so aroused my pity that much of my prudence was forgotten or at least the better part of courage which loves danger at long distance
Therefore holding fast my billhook I dropped myself very quietly into the bed of the runnel being resolved to take my chance of their entrance at the corner where the water dived through the hedgerow And so I followed them down the fence as gently as a rabbit goes only I was inside it and they on the outside but yet so near that I heard the branches rustle as they pushed them
Perhaps I had never loved ferns so much as when I came to the end of that little gully and stooped betwixt two patches of them now my chiefest shelter for cattle had been through the gap just there in quest of fodder and coolness and had left but a mound of trodden earth between me and the outlaws I mean at least on my left hand upon which side they were for in front where the brook ran out of the copse was a good stiff hedge of holly And now I prayed Heaven to lead them straight on for if they once turned to their right through the gap the muzzles of their guns would come almost against my forehead
I heard them for I durst not look and could scarce keep still for trembling—I heard them trampling outside the gap uncertain which track they should follow And in that fearful moment with my soul almost looking out of my body expecting notice to quit it what do you think I did I counted the threads in a spiders web and the flies he had lately eaten as their skeletons shook in the twilight
We shall see him better in there said Carver in his horrible gruff voice like the creaking of the gallows chain sit there behind holly hedge lads while he cometh down yonder hill and then our goodevening to him one at his body and two at his head and good aim lest we baulk the devil
I tell you captain that will not do said Charlie almost whispering you are very proud of your skill we know and can hit a lark if you see it but he may not come until after dark and we cannot be too nigh to him This holly hedge is too far away He crosses down here from Slocomslade not from Tibbacot I tell you but along that track to the left there and so by the foreland to Glenthorne where his boat is in the cove Do you think I have tracked him so many evenings without knowing his line to a hair Will you fool away all my trouble
Come then lad we will follow thy lead Thy life for his if we fail of it
After me then right into the hollow thy legs are growing stiff captain
So shall thy body be young man if thou leadest me astray in this
I heard them stumbling down the hill which was steep and rocky in that part and peering through the hedge I saw them enter a covert by the side of the track which Master Stickles followed almost every evening when he left our house upon business And then I knew who it was they were come on purpose to murder—a thing which I might have guessed long before but for terror and cold stupidity
Oh that God I thought for a moment waiting for my blood to flow Oh that God had given me brains to meet such cruel dastards according to their villainy The power to lie and the love of it the stealth to spy and the glory in it above all the quiet relish for blood and joy in the death of an enemy—these are what any man must have to contend with the Doones upon even terms And yet I thank God that I have not any of these
It was no time to dwell upon that only to try if might be to prevent the crime they were bound upon To follow the armed men down the hill would have been certain death to me because there was no covert there and the last light hung upon it It seemed to me that my only chance to stop the mischief pending was to compass the round of the hill as fast as feet could be laid to ground only keeping out of sight from the valley and then down the rocks and across the brook to the track from Slocombslade so as to stop the Kings messenger from travelling any farther if only I could catch him there
And this was exactly what I did and a terrible run I had for it fearing at every step to hear the echo of shots in the valley and dropping down the scrubby rocks with tearing and violent scratching Then I crossed Bagworthy stream not far below Doonevalley and breasted the hill towards Slocombslade with my heart very heavily panting Why Jeremy chose to ride this way instead of the more direct one which would have been over Oarehill was more than I could account for but I had nothing to do with that all I wanted was to save his life
And this I did by about a minute and which was the hardest thing of all with a great horsepistol at my head as I seized upon his bridle
Jeremy Jerry was all I could say being so fearfully short of breath for I had crossed the ground quicker than any horse could
Spoken just in time John Ridd cried Master Stickles still however pointing the pistol at me I might have known thee by thy size John What art doing here
Come to save your life For Gods sake go no farther Three men in the covert there with long guns waiting for thee
Ha I have been watched of late That is why I pointed at thee John Back round this corner and get thy breath and tell me all about it I never saw a man so hurried I could beat thee now John
Jeremy Stickles was a man of courage and presence of mind and much resource otherwise he would not have been appointed for this business nevertheless he trembled greatly when he heard what I had to tell him But I took good care to keep back the name of young Marwood de Whichehalse neither did I show my knowledge of the other men for reasons of my own not very hard to conjecture
We will let them cool their heels John Ridd said Jeremy after thinking a little I cannot fetch my musketeers either from Glenthorne or Lynmouth in time to seize the fellows And three desperate Doones wellarmed are too many for you and me One result this attempt will have it will make us attack them sooner than we had intended And one more it will have good John it will make me thy friend for ever Shake hands my lad and forgive me freely for having been so cold to thee Mayhap in the troubles coming it will help thee not a little to have done me this good turn
Upon this he shook me by the hand with a pressure such as we feel not often and having learned from me how to pass quite beyond view of his enemies he rode on to his duty whatever it might be For my part I was inclined to stay and watch how long the three fusiliers would have the patience to lie in wait but seeing less and less use in that as I grew more and more hungry I swung my coat about me and went home to Plovers Barrows
CHAPTER XXXIX
TROUBLED STATE AND A FOOLISH JOKE
Stickles took me aside the next day and opened all his business to me whether I would or not But I gave him clearly to understand that he was not to be vexed with me neither to regard me as in any way dishonest if I should use for my own purpose or for the benefit of my friends any part of the knowledge and privity thus enforced upon me To this he agreed quite readily but upon the express provision that I should do nothing to thwart his schemes neither unfold them to any one but otherwise be allowed to act according to my own conscience and as consisted with the honour of a loyal gentleman—for so he was pleased to term me Now what he said lay in no great compass and may be summed in smaller still especially as people know the chief part of it already Disaffection to the King or rather dislike to his brother James and fear of Roman ascendancy had existed now for several years and of late were spreading rapidly partly through the downright arrogance of the Tory faction the cruelty and austerity of the Duke of York the corruption of justice and confiscation of ancient rights and charters partly through jealousy of the French king and his potent voice in our affairs and partly or perhaps one might even say mainly through that natural tide in all political channels which verily moves as if it had the moon itself for its mistress No sooner is a thing done and fixed being set far in advance perhaps of all that was done before like a new mole in the sea but immediately the waters retire lest they should undo it and every one says how fine it is but leaves other people to walk on it Then after awhile the vague endless ocean having retired and lain still without a breeze or murmur frets and heaves again with impulse or with lashes laid on it and in one great surge advances over every rampart
And so there was at the time I speak of a great surge in England not rolling yet but seething and one which a thousand Chief Justices and a million Jeremy Stickles should never be able to stop or turn by stringing up men in front of it any more than a rope of onions can repulse a volcano But the worst of it was that this great movement took a wrong channel at first not only missing legitimate line but roaring out that the back ditchway was the true and established course of it
Against this rash and random current nearly all the ancient mariners of the State were set not to allow the brave ship to drift there though some little boats might try it For the present there seemed to be a pause with no open onset but people on the shore expecting each according to his wishes and the feel of his own finger whence the rush of wind should come which might direct the water
Now—to reduce high figures of speech into our own little numerals—all the towns of Somersetshire and half the towns of Devonshire were full of pushing eager people ready to swallow anything or to make others swallow it Whether they believed the folly about the black box and all that stuff is not for me to say only one thing I know they pretended to do so and persuaded the ignorant rustics Taunton Bridgwater Minehead and Dulverton took the lead of the other towns in utterance of their discontent and threats of what they meant to do if ever a Papist dared to climb the Protestant throne of England On the other hand the Tory leaders were not as yet under apprehension of an immediate outbreak and feared to damage their own cause by premature coercion for the struggle was not very likely to begin in earnest during the life of the present King unless he should as some people hoped be so far emboldened as to make public profession of the faith which he held if any So the Tory policy was to watch not indeed permitting their opponents to gather strength and muster in armed force or with order but being well apprised of all their schemes and intended movements to wait for some bold overt act and then to strike severely And as a Tory watchman—or spy as the Whigs would call him—Jeremy Stickles was now among us and his duty was threefold
First and most ostensibly to see to the levying of poundage in the little haven of Lynmouth and farther up the coast which was now becoming a place of resort for the folk whom we call smugglers that is to say who land their goods without regard to Kings revenue as by law established And indeed there had been no officer appointed to take toll until one had been sent to Minehead not so very long before The excise as well which had been ordered in the time of the Long Parliament had been little heeded by the people hereabouts
Second his duty was though only the Doones had discovered it to watch those outlaws narrowly and report of their manners which were scanty doings which were too manifold reputation which was execrable and politics whether true to the King and the Pope or otherwise
Jeremy Stickles third business was entirely political to learn the temper of our people and the gentle families to watch the movements of the trained bands which could not always be trusted to discover any collecting of arms and drilling of men among us to prevent if need were by open force any importation of gunpowder of which there had been some rumour in a word to observe and forestall the enemy
Now in providing for this lastmentioned service the Government had made a great mistake doubtless through their anxiety to escape any public attention For all the disposable force at their emissarys command amounted to no more than a score of musketeers and these so divided along the coast as scarcely to suffice for the duty of sentinels He held a commission it is true for the employment of the trainbands but upon the understanding that he was not to call upon them except as a last resource for any political object although he might use them against the Doones as private criminals if found needful and supposing that he could get them
So you see John he said in conclusion I have more work than tools to do it with I am heartily sorry I ever accepted such a mixed and meagre commission At the bottom of it lies I am well convinced not only the desire to keep things quiet but the paltry jealousy of the military people Because I am not a Colonel forsooth or a Captain in His Majestys service it would never do to trust me with a company of soldiers And yet they would not send either Colonel or Captain for fear of a stir in the rustic mind The only thing that I can do with any chance of success is to rout out these vile Doone fellows and burn their houses over their heads Now what think you of that John Ridd
Destroy the town of the Doones I said and all the Doones inside it Surely Jeremy you would never think of such a cruel act as that
A cruel act John It would be a mercy for at least three counties No doubt you folk who live so near are well accustomed to them and would miss your liveliness in coming home after nightfall and the joy of finding your sheep and cattle right when you not expected it But after awhile you might get used to the dullness of being safe in your beds and not losing your sisters and sweethearts Surely on the whole it is as pleasant not to be robbed as to be robbed
I think we should miss them very much I answered after consideration for the possibility of having no Doones had never yet occurred to me and we all were so thoroughly used to them and allowed for it in our years reckoning I am sure we should miss them very sadly and something worse would come of it
Thou art the staunchest of all staunch Tories cried Stickles laughing as he shook my hand thou believest in the divine right of robbers who are good enough to steal thy own fat sheep I am a jolly Tory John but thou art ten times jollier oh the grief in thy face at the thought of being robbed no longer
He laughed in a very unseemly manner while I descried nothing to laugh about For we always like to see our way and a sudden change upsets us And unless it were in the loss of the farm or the death of the King or of Betty Muxworthy there was nothing that could so unsettle our minds as the loss of the Doones of Bagworthy
And beside all this I was thinking of course and thinking more than all the rest about the troubles that might ensue to my own beloved Lorna If an attack of Glen Doone were made by savage soldiers and rude trainbands what might happen or what might not to my delicate innocent darling Therefore when Jeremy Stickles again placed the matter before me commending my strength and courage and skill to flatter me of the highest and finished by saying that I would be worth at least four common men to him I cut him short as follows—
Master Stickles once for all I will have naught to do with it The reason why is no odds of thine nor in any way disloyal Only in thy plans remember that I will not strike a blow neither give any counsel neither guard any prisoners
Not strike a blow cried Jeremy against thy fathers murderers John
Not a single blow Jeremy unless I knew the man who did it and he gloried in his sin It was a foul and dastard deed yet not done in cold blood neither in cold blood will I take Gods task of avenging it
Very well John answered Master Stickles I know thine obstinacy When thy mind is made up to argue with thee is pelting a rock with peppercorns But thou hast some other reason lad unless I am much mistaken over and above thy merciful nature and Christian forgiveness Anyhow come and see it John There will be good sport I reckon especially when we thrust our claws into the nest of the ravens Many a yeoman will find his daughter and some of the Porlock lads their sweethearts A nice young maiden now for thee John if indeed any—
No more of this I answered very sternly it is no business of thine Jeremy and I will have no joking upon this matter
Good my lord so be it But one thing I tell thee in earnest We will have thy old doubledealing uncle Huckaback of Dulverton and march him first to assault Doone Castle sure as my name is Stickles I hear that he hath often vowed to storm the valley himself if only he could find a dozen musketeers to back him Now we will give him chance to do it and prove his loyalty to the King which lies under some suspicion of late
With regard to this I had nothing to say for it seemed to me very reasonable that Uncle Reuben should have first chance of recovering his stolen goods about which he had made such a sad todo and promised himself such vengeance I made bold however to ask Master Stickles at what time he intended to carry out this great and hazardous attempt He answered that he had several things requiring first to be set in order and that he must make an inland Journey even as far as Tiverton and perhaps Crediton and Exeter to collect his forces and ammunition for them For he meant to have some of the yeomanry as well as of the trained bands so that if the Doones should sally forth as perhaps they would on horseback cavalry might be there to meet them and cut them off from returning
All this made me very uncomfortable for many and many reasons the chief and foremost being of course my anxiety about Lorna If the attack succeeded what was to become of her Who would rescue her from the brutal soldiers even supposing that she escaped from the hands of her own people during the danger and ferocity And in smaller ways I was much put out for instance who would ensure our cornricks sheep and cattle ay and even our fat pigs now coming on for bacon against the spreading all over the country of unlicensed marauders The Doones had their rights and understood them and took them according to prescription even as the parsons had and the lords of manors and the King himself God save him But how were these low soldiering fellows halfstarved at home very likely and only too glad of the fat of the land and ready according to our proverb to burn the paper they fried in who were they to come hectoring and heroing over us and Heliogabalising with our pretty sisters to cook for them and be chucked under chin perhaps afterwards There is nothing England hates so much according to my sense of it as that fellows taken from ploughtail carttail pothouses and parishstocks should be hoisted and foisted upon us after a few months drilling and their lying shaped into truckling as defenders of the public weal and heroes of the universe
In another way I was vexed moreover—for after all we must consider the opinions of our neighbours—namely that I knew quite well how everybody for ten miles round for my fame must have been at least that wide after all my wrestling would lift up hands and cry out thus—Black shame on John Ridd if he lets them go without him
Putting all these things together as well as many others which your own wits will suggest to you it is impossible but what you will freely acknowledge that this unfortunate John Ridd was now in a cloven stick There was Lorna my love and life bound by her duty to that old vil—nay I mean to her good grandfather who could now do little mischief and therefore deserved all praise—Lorna bound at any rate by her womanly feelings if not by sense of duty to remain in the thick danger with nobody to protect her but everybody to covet her for beauty and position Here was all the country roused with violent excitement at the chance of snapping at the Doones and not only getting tit for tat but every young man promising his sweetheart a gold chain and his mother at least a shilling And here was our own mowyard better filled than we could remember and perhaps every sheaf in it destined to be burned or stolen before we had finished the bread we had baked
Among all these troubles there was however or seemed to be one comfort Tom Faggus returned from London very proudly and very happily with a royal pardon in black and white which everybody admired the more because no one could read a word of it The Squire himself acknowledged cheerfully that he could sooner take fifty purses than read a single line of it Some people indeed went so far as to say that the parchment was made from a sheep Tom had stolen and that was why it prevaricated so in giving him a character But I knowing something by this time of lawyers was able to contradict them affirming that the wolf had more than the sheep to do with this matter
For according to our old saying the three learned professions live by roguery on the three parts of a man The doctor mauls our bodies the parson starves our souls but the lawyer must be the adroitest knave for he has to ensnare our minds Therefore he takes a careful delight in covering his traps and engines with a spread of deadleaf words whereof himself knows little more than half the way to spell them
But now Tom Faggus although having wit to gallop away on his strawberry mare with the speed of terror from lawyers having paid them with money too honest to stop yet fell into a reckless adventure ere ever he came home from which any lawyer would have saved him although he ought to have needed none beyond common thought for dear Annie Now I am and ever have been so vexed about this story that I cannot tell it pleasantly as I try to write in general in my own words and manner Therefore I will let John Fry whom I have robbed of another story to which he was more entitled and whom I have robbed of many speeches which he thought very excellent lest I should grieve any one with his lack of education—the last lack he ever felt by the bye now with your good leave I will allow poor John to tell this tale in his own words and style which he has a perfect right to do having been the first to tell us For Squire Faggus kept it close not trusting even Annie with it or at least she said so because no man knows much of his sweethearts tongue until she has borne him a child or two
Only before John begins his story this I would say in duty to him and in common honesty—that I dare not write down some few of his words because they are not convenient for dialect or other causes and that I cannot find any way of spelling many of the words which I do repeat so that people not born on Exmoor may know how he pronounced them even if they could bring their lips and their legs to the proper attitude And in this I speak advisedly having observed some thousand times that the manner a man has of spreading his legs and bending his knees or stiffening and even the way he will set his heel make all the difference in his tone and time of casting his voice aright and power of coming home to you
We always liked Johns stories not for any wit in them but because we laughed at the man rather than the matter The way he held his head was enough with his chin fixed hard like a certainty especially during his biggest lie not a sign of a smile in his lips or nose but a power of not laughing and his eyes not turning to anybody unless somebody had too much of it as young girls always do and went over the brink of laughter Thereupon it was good to see John Fry how he looked gravely first at the laughter as much as to ask What is it now then if the fool went laughing more as he or she was sure to do upon that dry inquiry John would look again to be sure of it and then at somebody else to learn whether the laugh had company then if he got another grin all his mirth came out in glory with a sudden break and he wiped his lips and was grave again
Now John being too much encouraged by the girls of which I could never break them came into the house that December evening with every inch of him full of a tale Annie saw it and Lizzie of course and even I in the gloom of great evils perceived that John was a loaded gun but I did not care to explode him Now nothing primed him so hotly as this if you wanted to hear all John Fry had heard the surest of all sure ways to it was to pretend not to care for a word of it
I wor over to Exeford in the morning John began from the chimneycorner looking straight at Annie for to zee a little calve Jan as us cuddnt get thee to lave houze about Meesus have got a quare vancy vor un from wutt her have heerd of the brade Now zit quite wull e Miss Luzzie or a wunt goo on no vurder Vaine little tayl Ill tull ee if so be thee zits quite Wull as I coom down the hill I zeed a saight of volks astapping of the roudwai Arl on em wi girt goons or two men out of dree wi em Rackon there wor dree score on em tak smarl and beg togather laike latt aloun the women and chillers zum on em wi matches blowing tothers wi flintlacks Wutt be up now I says to Bill Blacksmith as had knowledge of me be the King acoomin If her be do ee want to shutt un
Thee not knaw says Bill Blacksmith just the zame as I be a tullin of it whai man us expex Tam Faggus and zum on us manes to shutt un
Shutt un wiout a warrant says I sure ee knaws better nor thic Bill A man maynt shutt to another man wiout have a warrant Bill Warship zed so last taime I zeed un and nothing to the contrairy
Haw haw Never frout about that saith Bill zame as I be tullin you us has warrants and warships enow dree or vour on em And more nor a dizzen warranties frout I know to contrairy Shutt un us manes and shutt un us will— Whai Miss Annie good Lord whuttiver maks ee stear so
Nothing at all John our Annie answered only the horrible ferocity of that miserable blacksmith
That be nayther here nor there John continued with some wrath at his own interruption Blacksmith knawed whutt the Squire had been and veared to lose his own custom if Squire tuk to shooin again Shutt any man I would myzell as intervared wi my trade laike Lucky for thee said Bill Blacksmith as thee beest so shart and fat Jan Dree on us wor a gooin to shutt ee till us zeed how fat thee waz Jan
Lor now Bill I answered un wi a girt cold swat upon me shutt me Bill and my own waife niver drame of it
Here John Fry looked round the kitchen for he had never said anything of the kind I doubt but now made it part of his discourse from thinking that Mistress Fry was come as she generally did to fetch him
Wull done then Jan Vry said the woman who had entered quietly but was only our old Molly Wutt handsome manners thee hast gat Jan to spake so well of thy waife laike after arl the laife she leads thee
Putt thee pot on the fire old ooman and bile thee own bakkon John answered her very sharply nobody no raight to meddle wi a mans bad ooman but himzell Wull here was all these here men awaitin zum wi harses zum wiout the common volk wi long girt guns and tha quarlity wi girt broadswords Who wor there Whay latt me zee There wor Squire Maunder here John assumed his full historical key him wi the pot to his vittleplace and Sir Richard Blewitt shaking over the zaddle and Squaire Sandford of Lee him wi the long nose and one eye and Sir Gronus Batchildor over to Ninehead Court and ever so many more on em tulling up how they was arl gooin to be promoted for kitching of Tom Faggus
Hope to God says I to myzell poor Tom wunt coom here today arl up with her if a doeth and who be there to suckzade un Mark me now all these charps was good to shutt un as her coom crass the watter the watter be waide enow there and stony but no deeper than my kneeplace
Thee casn goo no vurder Bill Blacksmith saith to me nawbody lowed to crass the vord until such time as Faggus coom plaise God us may mak sure of un
Amen zo be it says I God knoweth I be never in any hurry and would zooner stop nor goo on most taimes
Wi that I pulled my vittles out and zat a horsebarck atin of em and oncommon good they was Wont us have un this taime just saith Tim Potter as keepeth the bull there and yet I be zorry for un But a man must kape the law her must zo be her can only learn it And now poor Tom will swing as high as the tops of they girt hashes there
Just thee kitch un virst says I maisure rope wi the body to maisure by
Hurrah here be another now saith Bill Blacksmith grinning another coom to help us What a grave gentleman A warship of the pace at laste
For a gentleman on a cueball horse was coming slowly down the hill on tother zide of watter looking at us in a friendly way and with a long papper standing forth the lining of his coat laike Horse stapped to drink in the watter and gentleman spak to un kindly and then they coom raight on to ussen and the gentlemans face wor so long and so grave us veared a wor gooin to prache to us
Coort o Kings Bench saith one man Checker and Plays saith another Spishal Commission I doubt saith Bill Blacksmith backed by the Mayor of Taunton
Any Justice of the Kings Peace good people to be found near here said the gentleman lifting his hat to us and very gracious in his manner
Your honour saith Bill with his hat off his head there be sax or zeven warships here arl on em very wise uns Squaire Maunder there be the zinnyer
So the gentleman rode up to Squire Maunder and raised his cocked hat in a manner that took the Squire out of countenance for he could not do the like of it
Sir said he good and worshipful sir I am here to claim your good advice and valour for purposes of justice I hold His Majestys commission to make to cease a notorious rogue whose name is Thomas Faggus With that he offered his commission but Squire Maunder told the truth that he could not rade even words in print much less written karakters Then the other magistrates rode up and put their heads together how to meet the London gentleman without loss of importance There wor one of em as could rade purty vair and her made out Kings mark upon it and he bowed upon his horse to the gentleman and he laid his hand on his heart and said Worshipful sir we as has the honour of His Gracious Majestys commission are entirely at your service and crave instructions from you
Lest I seem to underrate the erudition of Devonshire
magistrates I venture to offer copy of a letter from a
Justice of the Peace to his bookseller circa 1810 AD now
in my possession—
Sur plez to zen me the aks relatting to AGUSTUSPAKS
—Ed of L D
Then a waving of hats began and a bowing and making of legs to wan anather sich as nayver wor zeed afore but none of em arl for air and brading cud coom anaigh the gentleman with the long grave face
Your warships have posted the men right well saith he with anather bow all round surely that big rogue will have no chance left among so many valiant musketeers Ha what see I there my friend Rust in the pan of your gun That gun would never go off sure as I am the Kings Commissioner And I see another just as bad and lo there the third Pardon me gentlemen I have been so used to His Majestys Ordnanceyards But I fear that bold rogue would ride through all of you and laugh at your worships beards by George
But what shall us do Squire Maunder axed I vear there be no oil here
Discharge your pieces gentlemen and let the men do the same or at least let us try to discharge them and load again with fresh powder It is the fog of the morning hath spoiled the priming That rogue is not in sight yet but God knows we must not be asleep with him or what will His Majesty say to me if we let him slip once more
Excellent wondrous well said good sir Squire Maunder answered him I never should have thought of that now Bill Blacksmith tell all the men to be ready to shoot up into the air directly I give the word Now are you ready there Bill
All ready your worship saith Bill saluting like a soldier
Then one two dree and shutt cries Squire Maunder standing up in the irons of his stirrups
Thereupon they all blazed out and the noise of it went all round the hills with a girt thick cloud arising and all the air smelling of powder Before the cloud was gone so much as ten yards on the wind the gentleman on the cuebald horse shuts up his face like a pair of nutcracks as wide as it was long before and out he pulls two girt pistols longside of zaddle and clapth one to Squire Maunders head and tother to Sir Richard Blewitts
Hand forth your money and all your warrants he saith like a clap of thunder gentlemen have you now the wit to apprehend Tom Faggus
Squire Maunder swore so that he ought to be fined but he pulled out his purse none the slower for that and so did Sir Richard Blewitt
First man I see go to load a gun Ill gie un the bullet to do it with said Tom for you see it was him and no other looking quietly round upon all of them Then he robbed all the rest of their warships as pleasant as might be and he saith Now gentlemen do your duty serve your warrants afore you imprison me with that he made them give up all the warrants and he stuck them in the band of his hat and then he made a bow with it
Good morning to your warships now and a merry Christmas all of you And the merrier both for rich and poor when gentlemen see their almsgiving Lest you deny yourselves the pleasure I will aid your warships And to save you the trouble of following me when your guns be loaded—this is my strawberry mare gentlemen only with a little cream on her Gentlemen all in the name of the King I thank you
All this while he was casting their money among the poor folk by the handful and then he spak kaindly to the red mare and wor over the back of the hill in two zeconds and best part of two maile away I reckon afore ever a gun wor loaded
The truth of this story is well established by firstrate
tradition
CHAPTER XL
TWO FOOLS TOGETHER
That story of John Frys instead of causing any amusement gave us great disquietude not only because it showed that Tom Faggus could not resist sudden temptation and the delight of wildness but also that we greatly feared lest the Kings pardon might be annulled and all his kindness cancelled by a reckless deed of that sort It was true as Annie insisted continually even with tears to wear in her arguments that Tom had not brought away anything except the warrants which were of no use at all after receipt of the pardon neither had he used any violence except just to frighten people but could it be established even towards Christmastime that Tom had a right to give alms right and left out of other peoples money
Dear Annie appeared to believe that it could saying that if the rich continually chose to forget the poor a man who forced them to remember and so to do good to themselves and to others was a public benefactor and entitled to every blessing But I knew and so Lizzie knew—John Fry being now out of hearing—that this was not sound argument For if it came to that any man might take the King by the throat and make him cast away among the poor the money which he wanted sadly for Her Grace the Duchess and the beautiful Countess of this and of that Lizzie of course knew nothing about His Majestys diversions which were not fit for a young maids thoughts but I now put the form of the argument as it occurred to me
Therefore I said once for all and both my sisters always listened when I used the deep voice from my chest
Tom Faggus hath done wrong herein wrong to himself and to our Annie All he need have done was to show his pardon and the magistrates would have rejoiced with him He might have led a most godly life and have been respected by everybody and knowing how brave Tom is I thought that he would have done as much Now if I were in love with a maid—I put it thus for the sake of poor Lizzie—never would I so imperil my life and her fortune in life along with me for the sake of a poor diversion A mans first duty is to the women who are forced to hang upon him—
Oh John not that horrible word cried Annie to my great surprise and serious interruption oh John any word but that And she burst forth crying terribly
What word Lizzie What does the wench mean I asked in the saddest vexation seeing no good to ask Annie at all for she carried on most dreadfully
Dont you know you stupid lout said Lizzie completing my wonderment by the scorn of her quicker intelligence if you dont know axe about
And with that I was forced to be content for Lizzie took Annie in such a manner on purpose to vex me as I could see with her head drooping down and her hair coming over and tears and sobs rising and falling to boot without either order or reason that seeing no good for a man to do since neither of them was Lorna I even went out into the courtyard and smoked a pipe and wondered what on earth is the meaning of women
Now in this I was wrong and unreasonable as all women will acknowledge but sometimes a man is so put out by the way they take on about nothing that he really cannot help thinking for at least a minute that women are a mistake for ever and hence are for ever mistaken Nevertheless I could not see that any of these great thoughts and ideas applied at all to my Lorna but that she was a different being not woman enough to do anything bad yet enough of a woman for man to adore
And now a thing came to pass which tested my adoration pretty sharply inasmuch as I would far liefer faced Carver Doone and his father nay even the roaring lion himself with his hoofs and flaming nostrils than have met in cold blood Sir Ensor Doone the founder of all the colony and the fear of the very fiercest
But that I was forced to do at this time and in the manner following When I went up one morning to look for my seven rooks nests behold there were but six to be seen for the topmost of them all was gone and the most conspicuous I looked and looked and rubbed my eyes and turned to try them by other sights and then I looked again yes there could be no doubt about it the signal was made for me to come because my love was in danger For me to enter the valley now during the broad daylight could have brought no comfort but only harm to the maiden and certain death to myself Yet it was more than I could do to keep altogether at distance therefore I ran to the nearest place where I could remain unseen and watched the glen from the wooded height for hours and hours impatiently
However no impatience of mine made any difference in the scene upon which I was gazing In the part of the valley which I could see there was nothing moving except the water and a few stolen cows going sadly along as if knowing that they had no honest right there It sank very heavily into my heart with all the beds of dead leaves around it and there was nothing I cared to do except blow on my fingers and long for more wit
For a frost was beginning which made a great difference to Lorna and to myself I trow as well as to all the five million people who dwell in this island of England such a frost as never I saw before neither hope ever to see again a time when it was impossible to milk a cow for icicles or for a man to shave some of his beard as I liked to do for Lornas sake because she was so smooth without blunting his razor on hard gray ice No man could keep yatt as we say even though he abandoned his work altogether and thumped himself all on the chest and the front till his frozen hands would have been bleeding except for the cold that kept still all his veins
If John Ridd lived until the year 1740 as so strong a man
was bound to do he must have seen almost a harder frost
and perhaps it put an end to him for then he would be some
fourscore years old But tradition makes him keep yatt
as he says up to fivescore years—ED
However at present there was no frost although for a fortnight threatening and I was too young to know the meaning of the way the dead leaves hung and the wormcasts prickling like womens combs and the leaden tone upon everything and the dead weight of the sky Will Watcombe the old man at Lynmouth who had been half over the world almost and who talked so much of the Gulfstream had as I afterwards called to mind foretold a very bitter winter this year But no one would listen to him because there were not so many hips and haws as usual whereas we have all learned from our grandfathers that Providence never sends very hard winters without having furnished a large supply of berries for the birds to feed upon
It was lucky for me while I waited here that our very best sheepdog old Watch had chosen to accompany me that day For otherwise I must have had no dinner being unpersuaded even by that to quit my survey of the valley However by aid of poor Watch I contrived to obtain a supply of food for I sent him home with a note to Annie fastened upon his chest and in less than an hour back he came proud enough to wag his tail off with his tongue hanging out from the speed of his journey and a large lump of bread and of bacon fastened in a napkin around his neck I had not told my sister of course what was toward for why should I make her anxious
When it grew towards dark I was just beginning to prepare for my circuit around the hills but suddenly Watch gave a long low growl I kept myself close as possible and ordered the dog to be silent and presently saw a short figure approaching from a thicklywooded hollow on the left side of my hidingplace It was the same figure I had seen once before in the moonlight at Plovers Barrows and proved to my great delight to be the little maid Gwenny Carfax She started a moment at seeing me but more with surprise than fear and then she laid both her hands upon mine as if she had known me for twenty years
Young man she said you must come with me I was gwain all the way to fetch thee Old man be dying and her cant die or at least her wont without first considering thee
Considering me I cried what can Sir Ensor Doone want with considering me Has Mistress Lorna told him
All concerning thee and thy doings when she knowed old man were so near his end That vexed he was about thy low blood a thought her would come to life again on purpose for to bate ee But after all there cant be scarcely such bad luck as that Now if her strook thee thou must take it there be no denaying of un Fire I have seen afore hot and red and raging but I never seen cold fire afore and it maketh me burn and shiver
And in truth it made me both burn and shiver to know that I must either go straight to the presence of Sir Ensor Doone or give up Lorna once for all and rightly be despised by her For the first time of my life I thought that she had not acted fairly Why not leave the old man in peace without vexing him about my affair But presently I saw again that in this matter she was right that she could not receive the old mans blessing supposing that he had one to give which even a worse man might suppose while she deceived him about herself and the life she had undertaken
Therefore with great misgiving of myself but no ill thought of my darling I sent Watch home and followed Gwenny who led me along very rapidly with her short broad form gliding down the hollow from which she had first appeared Here at the bottom she entered a thicket of gray ash stubs and black holly with rocks around it gnarled with roots and hung with masks of ivy Here in a dark and lonely corner with a pixie ring before it she came to a narrow door very brown and solid looking like a trunk of wood at a little distance This she opened without a key by stooping down and pressing it where the threshold met the jamb and then she ran in very nimbly but I was forced to be bent in two and even so without comfort The passage was close and difficult and as dark as any black pitch but it was not long be it as it might and in that there was some comfort We came out soon at the other end and were at the top of Doone valley In the chilly dusk air it looked most untempting especially during that state of mind under which I was labouring As we crossed towards the Captains house we met a couple of great Doones lounging by the waterside Gwenny said something to them and although they stared very hard at me they let me pass without hindrance It is not too much to say that when the little maid opened Sir Ensors door my heart thumped quite as much with terror as with hope of Lornas presence
But in a moment the fear was gone for Lorna was trembling in my arms and my courage rose to comfort her The darling feared beyond all things else lest I should be offended with her for what she had said to her grandfather and for dragging me into his presence but I told her almost a falsehood the first and the last that ever I did tell her to wit that I cared not that much—and showed her the tip of my thumb as I said it—for old Sir Ensor and all his wrath so long as I had his granddaughters love
Now I tried to think this as I said it so as to save it from being a lie but somehow or other it did not answer and I was vexed with myself both ways But Lorna took me by the hand as bravely as she could and led me into a little passage where I could hear the river moaning and the branches rustling
Here I passed as long a minute as fear ever cheated time of saying to myself continually that there was nothing to be frightened at yet growing more and more afraid by reason of so reasoning At last my Lorna came back very pale as I saw by the candle she carried and whispered Now be patient dearest Never mind what he says to you neither attempt to answer him Look at him gently and steadfastly and if you can with some show of reverence but above all things no compassion it drives him almost mad Now come walk very quietly
She led me into a cold dark room rough and very gloomy although with two candles burning I took little heed of the things in it though I marked that the window was open That which I heeded was an old man very stern and comely with death upon his countenance yet not lying in his bed but set upright in a chair with a loose red cloak thrown over him Upon this his white hair fell and his pallid fingers lay in a ghastly fashion without a sign of life or movement or of the power that kept him up all rigid calm and relentless Only in his great black eyes fixed upon me solemnly all the power of his body dwelt all the life of his soul was burning
I could not look at him very nicely being afeared of the death in his face and most afeared to show it And to tell the truth my poor blue eyes fell away from the blackness of his as if it had been my coffinplate Therefore I made a low obeisance and tried not to shiver Only I groaned that Lorna thought it good manners to leave us two together
Ah said the old man and his voice seemed to come from a cavern of skeletons are you that great John Ridd
John Ridd is my name your honour was all that I could answer and I hope your worship is better
Child have you sense enough to know what you have been doing
Yes I knew right well I answered that I have set mine eyes far above my rank
Are you ignorant that Lorna Doone is born of the oldest families remaining in North Europe
I was ignorant of that your worship yet I knew of her high descent from the Doones of Bagworthy
The old mans eyes like fire probed me whether I was jesting then perceiving how grave I was and thinking that I could not laugh as many people suppose of me he took on himself to make good the deficiency with a very bitter smile
And know you of your own low descent from the Ridds of Oare
Sir I answered being as yet unaccustomed to this style of speech the Ridds of Oare have been honest men twice as long as the Doones have been rogues
I would not answer for that John Sir Ensor replied very quietly when I expected fury If it be so thy family is the very oldest in Europe Now hearken to me boy or clown or honest fool or whatever thou art hearken to an old mans words who has not many hours to live There is nothing in this world to fear nothing to revere or trust nothing even to hope for least of all is there aught to love
I hope your worship is not quite right I answered with great misgivings else it is a sad mistake for anybody to live sir
Therefore he continued as if I had never spoken though it may seem hard for a week or two like the loss of any other toy I deprive you of nothing but add to your comfort and if there be such a thing to your happiness when I forbid you ever to see that foolish child again All marriage is a wretched farce even when man and wife belong to the same rank of life have temper well assorted similar likes and dislikes and about the same pittance of mind But when they are not so matched the farce would become a long dull tragedy if anything were worth lamenting There I have reasoned enough with you I am not in the habit of reasoning Though I have little confidence in mans honour I have some reliance in womans pride You will pledge your word in Lornas presence never to see or to seek her again never even to think of her more Now call her for I am weary
He kept his great eyes fixed upon me with their icy fire as if he scorned both life and death and on his haughty lips some slight amusement at my trouble and then he raised one hand as if I were a poor dumb creature and pointed to the door Although my heart rebelled and kindled at his proud disdain I could not disobey him freely but made a low salute and went straightway in search of Lorna
I found my love or not my love according as now she should behave for I was very desperate being put upon so sadly Lorna Doone was crying softly at a little window and listening to the rivers grief I laid my heavy arm around her not with any air of claiming or of forcing her thoughts to me but only just to comfort her and ask what she was thinking of To my arm she made no answer neither to my seeking eyes but to my heart once for all she spoke with her own upon it Not a word nor sound between us not even a kiss was interchanged but man or maid who has ever loved hath learned our understanding
Therefore it came to pass that we saw fit to enter Sir Ensors room in the following manner Lorna with her right hand swallowed entirely by the palm of mine and her waist retired from view by means of my left arm All one side of her hair came down in a way to be remembered upon the left and fairest part of my favourite otterskin waistcoat and her head as well would have lain there doubtless but for the danger of walking so I for my part was too far gone to lag behind in the matter but carried my love bravely fearing neither death nor hell while she abode beside me
Old Sir Ensor looked much astonished For forty years he had been obeyed and feared by all around him and he knew that I had feared him vastly before I got hold of Lorna And indeed I was still afraid of him only for loving Lorna so and having to protect her
Then I made him a bow to the very best of all I had learned both at Tiverton and in London after that I waited for him to begin as became his age and rank in life
Ye two fools he said at last with a depth of contempt which no words may express ye two fools
May it please your worship I answered softly maybe we are not such fools as we look But though we be we are well content so long as we may be two fools together
Why John said the old man with a spark as of smiling in his eyes thou art not altogether the clumsy yokel and the clod I took thee for
Oh no grandfather oh dear grandfather cried Lorna with such zeal and flashing that her hands went forward nobody knows what John Ridd is because he is so modest I mean nobody except me dear And here she turned to me again and rose upon tiptoe and kissed me
I have seen a little o the world said the old man while I was half ashamed although so proud of Lorna but this is beyond all I have seen and nearly all I have heard of It is more fit for southern climates than for the fogs of Exmoor
It is fit for all the world your worship with your honours good leave and will I answered in humility being still ashamed of it when it happens so to people there is nothing that can stop it sir
Now Sir Ensor Doone was leaning back upon his brown chairrail which was built like a triangle as in old farmhouses from one of which it had come no doubt free from expense or gratitude and as I spoke he coughed a little and he sighed a good deal more and perhaps his dying heart desired to open time again with such a lift of warmth and hope as he descried in our eyes and arms I could not understand him then any more than a baby playing with his grandfathers spectacles nevertheless I wondered whether at his time of life or rather on the brink of death he was thinking of his youth and pride
Fools you are be fools for ever said Sir Ensor Doone at last while we feared to break his thoughts but let each other know our own with little ways of pressure it is the best thing I can wish you boy and girl be boy and girl until you have grandchildren
Partly in bitterness he spoke and partly in pure weariness and then he turned so as not to see us and his white hair fell like a shroud around him
CHAPTER XLI
COLD COMFORT
All things being full of flaw all things being full of holes the strength of all things is in shortness If Sir Ensor Doone had dwelled for half an hour upon himself and an hour perhaps upon Lorna and me we must both have wearied of him and required change of air But now I longed to see and know a great deal more about him and hoped that he might not go to Heaven for at least a week or more However he was too good for this world as we say of all people who leave it and I verily believe his heart was not a bad one after all
Evil he had done no doubt as evil had been done to him yet how many have done evil while receiving only good Be that as it may and not vexing a question settled for ever without our votes let us own that he was at least a brave and courteous gentleman
And his loss aroused great lamentation not among the Doones alone and the women they had carried off but also of the general public and many even of the magistrates for several miles round Exmoor And this not only from fear lest one more wicked might succeed him as appeared indeed too probable but from true admiration of his strong will and sympathy with his misfortunes
I will not deceive any one by saying that Sir Ensor Doone gave in so many words his consent to my resolve about Lorna This he never did except by his speech last written down from which as he mentioned grandchildren a lawyer perhaps might have argued it Not but what he may have meant to bestow on us his blessing only that he died next day without taking the trouble to do it
He called indeed for his box of snuff which was a very high thing to take and which he never took without being in very good humour at least for him And though it would not go up his nostrils through the failure of his breath he was pleased to have it there and not to think of dying
Will your honour have it wiped I asked him very softly for the brown appearance of it spoiled to my idea his white mostacchio but he seemed to shake his head and I thought it kept his spirits up I had never before seen any one do what all of us have to do some day and it greatly kept my spirits down although it did not so very much frighten me
For it takes a man but a little while his instinct being of death perhaps at least as much as of life which accounts for his slaying his fellow men so and every other creature it does not take a man very long to enter into another mans death and bring his own mood to suit it He knows that his own is sure to come and nature is fond of the practice Hence it came to pass that I after easing my mothers fears and seeing a little to business returned as if drawn by a polar needle to the deathbed of Sir Ensor
There was some little confusion people wanting to get away and people trying to come in from downright curiosity of all things the most hateful and others making great todo and talking of their own time to come telling their own age and so on But every one seemed to think or feel that I had a right to be there because the women took that view of it As for Carver and Counsellor they were minding their own affairs so as to win the succession and never found it in their business at least so long as I was there to come near the dying man
He for his part never asked for any one to come near him not even a priest nor a monk or friar but seemed to be going his own way peaceful and well contented Only the chief of the women said that from his face she believed and knew that he liked to have me at one side of his bed and Lorna upon the other An hour or two ere the old man died when only we two were with him he looked at us both very dimly and softly as if he wished to do something for us but had left it now too late Lorna hoped that he wanted to bless us but he only frowned at that and let his hand drop downward and crooked one knotted finger
He wants something out of the bed dear Lorna whispered to me see what it is upon your side there
I followed the bent of his poor shrunken hand and sought among the pilings and there I felt something hard and sharp and drew it forth and gave it to him It flashed like the spray of a fountain upon us in the dark winter of the room He could not take it in his hand but let it hang as daisies do only making Lorna see that he meant her to have it
Why it is my glass necklace Lorna cried in great surprise my necklace he always promised me and from which you have got the ring John But grandfather kept it because the children wanted to pull it from my neck May I have it now dear grandfather Not unless you wish dear
Darling Lorna wept again because the old man could not tell her except by one very feeble nod that she was doing what he wished Then she gave to me the trinket for the sake of safety and I stowed it in my breast He seemed to me to follow this and to be well content with it
Before Sir Ensor Doone was buried the greatest frost of the century had set in with its iron hand and step of stone on everything How it came is not my business nor can I explain it because I never have watched the skies as people now begin to do when the ground is not to their liking Though of all this I know nothing and less than nothing I may say because I ought to know something I can hear what people tell me and I can see before my eyes
The strong men broke three good pickaxes ere they got through the hard brown sod streaked with little maps of gray where old Sir Ensor was to lie upon his back awaiting the darkness of the Judgmentday It was in the little chapelyard I will not tell the name of it because we are now such Protestants that I might do it an evil turn only it was the little place where Lornas Aunt Sabina lay
Here was I remaining long with a little curiosity because some people told me plainly that I must be damned for ever by a Papist funeral and here came Lorna scarcely breathing through the thick of stuff around her yet with all her little breath steaming on the air like frost
I stood apart from the ceremony in which of course I was not entitled either by birth or religion to bear any portion and indeed it would have been wiser in me to have kept away altogether for now there was no one to protect me among those wild and lawless men and both Carver and the Counsellor had vowed a fearful vengeance on me as I heard from Gwenny They had not dared to meddle with me while the chief lay dying nor was it in their policy for a short time after that to endanger their succession by an open breach with Lorna whose tender age and beauty held so many of the youths in thrall
The ancient outlaws funeral was a grand and moving sight more perhaps from the sense of contrast than from that of fitness To see those dark and mighty men inured to all of sin and crime reckless both of man and God yet now with heads devoutly bent clasped hands and downcast eyes following the long black coffin of their common ancestor to the place where they must join him when their sum of ill was done and to see the feeble priest chanting over the dead form words the living would have laughed at sprinkling with his little broom drops that could not purify while the children robed in white swung their smoking censers slowly over the cold and twilight grave and after seeing all to ask with a shudder unexpressed Is this the end that God intended for a man so proud and strong
Not a tear was shed upon him except from the sweetest of all sweet eyes not a sigh pursued him home Except in hot anger his life had been cold and bitter and distant and now a week had exhausted all the sorrow of those around him a grief flowing less from affection than fear Aged men will show his tombstone mothers haste with their infants by it children shrink from the name upon it until in time his history shall lapse and be forgotten by all except the great Judge and God
After all was over I strode across the moors very sadly trying to keep the cold away by virtue of quick movement Not a flake of snow had fallen yet all the earth was caked and hard with a dry brown crust upon it all the sky was banked with darkness hard austere and frowning The fog of the last three weeks was gone neither did any rime remain but all things had a look of sameness and a kind of furzy colour It was freezing hard and sharp with a piercing wind to back it and I had observed that the holy water froze upon Sir Ensors coffin
One thing struck me with some surprise as I made off for our fireside with a strong determination to heave an ashtree up the chimneyplace and that was how the birds were going rather than flying as they used to fly All the birds were set in one direction steadily journeying westward not with any heat of speed neither flying far at once but all as if on business bound partly running partly flying partly fluttering along silently and without a voice neither pricking head nor tail This movement of the birds went on even for a week or more every kind of thrushes passed us every kind of wild fowl even plovers went away and crows and snipes and woodcocks And before half the frost was over all we had in the snowy ditches were hares so tame that we could pat them partridges that came to hand with a dry noise in their crops heathpoults making cups of snow and a few poor hopping redwings flipping in and out the hedge having lost the power to fly And all the time their great black eyes set with gold around them seemed to look at any man for mercy and for comfort
Annie took a many of them all that she could find herself and all the boys would bring her and she made a great hutch near the fire in the backkitchen chimneyplace Here in spite of our old Betty who sadly wanted to roast them Annie kept some fifty birds with bread and milk and raw chopped meat and all the seed she could think of and lumps of rotten apples placed to tempt them in the corners Some got on and some died off and Annie cried for all that died and buried them under the woodrick but I do assure you it was a pretty thing to see when she went to them in the morning There was not a bird but knew her well after one day of comforting and some would come to her hand and sit and shut one eye and look at her Then she used to stroke their heads and feel their breasts and talk to them and not a bird of them all was there but liked to have it done to him And I do believe they would eat from her hand things unnatural to them lest she should he grieved and hurt by not knowing what to do for them One of them was a noble bird such as I never had seen before of very fine bright plumage and larger than a misselthrush He was the hardest of all to please and yet he tried to do his best I have heard since then from a man who knows all about birds and beasts and fishes that he must have been a Norwegian bird called in this country a Roller who never comes to England but in the most tremendous winters
Another little bird there was whom I longed to welcome home and protect from enemies a little bird no native to us but than any native dearer But lo in the very night which followed old Sir Ensors funeral such a storm of snow began as never have I heard nor read of neither could have dreamed it At what time of night it first began is more than I can say at least from my own knowledge for we all went to bed soon after supper being cold and not inclined to talk At that time the wind was moaning sadly and the sky as dark as a wood and the straw in the yard swirling round and round and the cows huddling into the great cowhouse with their chins upon one another But we being blinder than they I suppose and not having had a great snow for years made no preparation against the storm except that the lambing ewes were in shelter
It struck me as I lay in bed that we were acting foolishly for an ancient shepherd had dropped in and taken supper with us and foretold a heavy fall and great disaster to live stock He said that he had known a frost beginning just as this had done with a black east wind after days of raw cold fog and then on the third night of the frost at this very time of year to wit on the 15th of December such a snow set in as killed half of the sheep and many even of the red deer and the forest ponies It was threescore years agone he said and cause he had to remember it inasmuch as two of his toes had been lost by frostnip while he dug out his sheep on the other side of the Dunkery Hereupon mother nodded at him having heard from her father about it and how three men had been frozen to death and how badly their stockings came off from them
The frost of 1625
Remembering how the old man looked and his manner of listening to the wind and shaking his head very ominously when Annie gave him a glass of schnapps I grew quite uneasy in my bed as the room got colder and colder and I made up my mind if it only pleased God not to send the snow till the morning that every sheep and horse and cow ay and even the poultry should be brought in snug and with plenty to eat and fodder enough to roast them
Alas what use of mans resolves when they come a day too late even if they may avail a little when they are most punctual
In the bitter morning I arose to follow out my purpose knowing the time from the force of habit although the room was so dark and gray An odd white light was on the rafters such as I never had seen before while all the length of the room was grisly like the heart of a mouldy oatrick I went to the window at once of course and at first I could not understand what was doing outside of it It faced due east as I may have said with the walnuttree partly sheltering it and generally I could see the yard and the woodrick and even the church beyond
But now half the lattice was quite blocked up as if plastered with gray lime and little fringes like ferns came through where the joining of the lead was and in the only undarkened part countless dots came swarming clustering beating with a soft low sound then gliding down in a slippery manner not as drops of rain do but each distinct from his neighbour Inside the iron frame which fitted not to say too comfortably and went along the stonework at least a peck of snow had entered following its own bend and fancy light as any cobweb
With some trouble and great care lest the ancient frame should yield I spread the lattice open and saw at once that not a moment must be lost to save our stock All the earth was flat with snow all the air was thick with snow more than this no man could see for all the world was snowing
I shut the window and dressed in haste and when I entered the kitchen not even Betty the earliest of all early birds was there I raked the ashes together a little just to see a spark of warmth and then set forth to find John Fry Jem Slocombe and Bill Dadds But this was easier thought than done for when I opened the courtyard door I was taken up to my knees at once and the power of the drifting cloud prevented sight of anything However I found my way to the woodrick and there got hold of a fine ashstake cut by myself not long ago With this I ploughed along pretty well and thundered so hard at John Frys door that he thought it was the Doones at least and cocked his blunderbuss out of the window
John was very loth to come down when he saw the meaning of it for he valued his life more than anything else though he tried to make out that his wife was to blame But I settled his doubts by telling him that I would have him on my shoulder naked unless he came in five minutes not that he could do much good but because the other men would be sure to skulk if he set them the example With spades and shovels and pitchforks and a round of roping we four set forth to dig out the sheep and the poor things knew that it was high time
CHAPTER XLII
THE GREAT WINTER
It must have snowed most wonderfully to have made that depth of covering in about eight hours For one of Master Stickles men who had been out all the night said that no snow began to fall until nearly midnight And here it was blocking up the doors stopping the ways and the water courses and making it very much worse to walk than in a sawpit newly used However we trudged along in a line I first and the other men after me trying to keep my track but finding legs and strength not up to it Most of all John Fry was groaning certain that his time was come and sending messages to his wife and blessings to his children For all this time it was snowing harder than it ever had snowed before so far as a man might guess at it and the leaden depth of the sky came down like a mine turned upside down on us Not that the flakes were so very large for I have seen much larger flakes in a shower of March while sowing peas but that there was no room between them neither any relaxing nor any change of direction
Watch like a good and faithful dog followed us very cheerfully leaping out of the depth which took him over his back and ears already even in the level places while in the drifts he might have sunk to any distance out of sight and never found his way up again However we helped him now and then especially through the gaps and gateways and so after a deal of floundering some laughter and a little swearing we came all safe to the lower meadow where most of our flock was hurdled
But behold there was no flock at all None I mean to be seen anywhere only at one corner of the field by the eastern end where the snow drove in a great white billow as high as a barn and as broad as a house This great drift was rolling and curling beneath the violent blast tufting and combing with rustling swirls and carved as in patterns of cornice where the grooving chisel of the wind swept round Ever and again the tempest snatched little whiffs from the channelled edges twirled them round and made them dance over the chime of the monster pile then let them lie like herringbones or the seams of sand where the tide has been And all the while from the smothering sky more and more fiercely at every blast came the pelting pitiless arrows winged with murky white and pointed with the barbs of frost
But although for people who had no sheep the sight was a very fine one so far at least as the weather permitted any sight at all yet for us with our flock beneath it this great mount had but little charm Watch began to scratch at once and to howl along the sides of it he knew that his charge was buried there and his business taken from him But we four men set to in earnest digging with all our might and main shovelling away at the great white pile and fetching it into the meadow Each man made for himself a cave scooping at the soft cold flux which slid upon him at every stroke and throwing it out behind him in piles of castled fancy At last we drove our tunnels in for we worked indeed for the lives of us and all converging towards the middle held our tools and listened
The other men heard nothing at all or declared that they heard nothing being anxious now to abandon the matter because of the chill in their feet and knees But I said Go if you choose all of you I will work it out by myself you piecrusts and upon that they gripped their shovels being more or less of Englishmen and the least drop of English blood is worth the best of any other when it comes to lasting out
But before we began again I laid my head well into the chamber and there I hears a faint maaah coming through some ells of snow like a plaintive buried hope or a last appeal I shouted aloud to cheer him up for I knew what sheep it was to wit the most valiant of all the wethers who had met me when I came home from London and been so glad to see me And then we all fell to again and very soon we hauled him out Watch took charge of him at once with an air of the noblest patronage lying on his frozen fleece and licking all his face and feet to restore his warmth to him Then fighting Tom jumped up at once and made a little butt at Watch as if nothing had ever ailed him and then set off to a shallow place and looked for something to nibble at
Further in and close under the bank where they had huddled themselves for warmth we found all the rest of the poor sheep packed as closely as if they were in a great pie It was strange to observe how their vapour and breath and the moisture exuding from their wool had scooped as it were a coved room for them lined with a ribbing of deep yellow snow Also the churned snow beneath their feet was as yellow as gamboge Two or three of the weaklier hoggets were dead from want of air and from pressure but more than threescore were as lively as ever though cramped and stiff for a little while
However shall us get em home John Fry asked in great dismay when we had cleared about a dozen of them which we were forced to do very carefully so as not to fetch the roof down No manner of maning to draive un drough all they girt driftnesses
You see to this place John I replied as we leaned on our shovels a moment and the sheep came rubbing round us let no more of them out for the present they are better where they be Watch here boy keep them
Watch came with his little scut of a tail cocked as sharp as duty and I set him at the narrow mouth of the great snow antre All the sheep sidled away and got closer that the other sheep might be bitten first as the foolish things imagine whereas no good sheepdog even so much as lips a sheep to turn it
Then of the outer sheep all now snowed and frizzled like a lawyers wig I took the two finest and heaviest and with one beneath my right arm and the other beneath my left I went straight home to the upper sheppey and set them inside and fastened them Sixty and six I took home in that way two at a time on each joumey and the work grew harder and harder each time as the drifts of the snow were deepening No other man should meddle with them I was resolved to try my strength against the strength of the elements and try it I did ay and proved it A certain fierce delight burned in me as the struggle grew harder but rather would I die than yield and at last I finished it People talk of it to this day but none can tell what the labour was who have not felt that snow and wind
Of the sheep upon the mountain and the sheep upon the western farm and the cattle on the upper barrows scarcely one in ten was saved do what we would for them and this was not through any neglect now that our wits were sharpened but from the pure impossibility of finding them at all That great snow never ceased a moment for three days and nights and then when all the earth was filled and the topmost hedges were unseen and the trees broke down with weight wherever the wind had not lightened them a brilliant sun broke forth and showed the loss of all our customs
All our house was quite snowed up except where we had purged a way by dint of constant shovellings The kitchen was as dark and darker than the cidercellar and long lines of furrowed scollops ran even up to the chimneystacks Several windows fell right inwards through the weight of the snow against them and the few that stood bulged in and bent like an old bruised lanthorn We were obliged to cook by candlelight we were forced to read by candlelight as for baking we could not do it because the oven was too chill and a load of faggots only brought a little wet down the sides of it
For when the sun burst forth at last upon that world of white what he brought was neither warmth nor cheer nor hope of softening only a clearer shaft of cold from the violet depths of sky Longdrawn alleys of white haze seemed to lead towards him yet such as he could not come down with any warmth remaining Broad white curtains of the frostfog looped around the lower sky on the verge of hill and valley and above the laden trees Only round the sun himself and the spot of heaven he claimed clustered a bright purpleblue clear and calm and deep
That night such a frost ensued as we had never dreamed of neither read in ancient books or histories of Frobisher The kettle by the fire froze and the crock upon the hearthcheeks many men were killed and cattle rigid in their headropes Then I heard that fearful sound which never I had heard before neither since have heard except during that same winter the sharp yet solemn sound of trees burst open by the frostblow Our great walnut lost three branches and has been dying ever since though growing meanwhile as the soul does And the ancient oak at the cross was rent and many score of ash trees But why should I tell all this the people who have not seen it as I have will only make faces and disbelieve till such another frost comes which perhaps may never be
This terrible weather kept Tom Faggus from coming near our house for weeks at which indeed I was not vexed a quarter so much as Annie was for I had never half approved of him as a husband for my sister in spite of his purchase from Squire Bassett and the grant of the Royal pardon It may be however that Annie took the same view of my love for Lorna and could not augur well of it but if so she held her peace though I was not so sparing For many things contributed to make me less goodhumoured now than my real nature was and the very least of all these things would have been enough to make some people cross and rude and fractious I mean the red and painful chapping of my face and hands from working in the snow all day and lying in the frost all night For being of a fair complexion and a ruddy nature and pretty plump withal and fed on plenty of hot victuals and always forced by my mother to sit nearer the fire than I wished it was wonderful to see how the cold ran revel on my cheeks and knuckles And I feared that Lorna if it should ever please God to stop the snowing might take this for a proof of low and rustic blood and breeding
And this I say was the smallest thing for it was far more serious that we were losing half our stock do all we would to shelter them Even the horses in the stables mustered all together for the sake of breath and steaming had long icicles from their muzzles almost every morning But of all things the very gravest to my apprehension was the impossibility of hearing or having any token of or from my loved one Not that those three days alone of snow tremendous as it was could have blocked the country so but that the sky had never ceased for more than two days at a time for full three weeks thereafter to pour fresh piles of fleecy mantle neither had the wind relaxed a single day from shaking them As a rule it snowed all day cleared up at night and froze intensely with the stars as bright as jewels earth spread out in lustrous twilight and the sounds in the air as sharp and crackling as artillery then in the morning snow again before the sun could come to help
It mattered not what way the wind was Often and often the vanes went round and we hoped for change of weather the only change was that it seemed if possible to grow colder Indeed after a week or so the wind would regularly box the compass as the sailors call it in the course of every day following where the sun should be as if to make a mock of him And this of course immensely added to the peril of the drifts because they shifted every day and no skill or care might learn them
I believe it was on Epiphany morning or somewhere about that period when Lizzie ran into the kitchen to me where I was thawing my goosegrease with the dogs among the ashes—the live dogs I mean not the iron ones for them we had given up long ago—and having caught me by way of wonder for generally I was out shoveling long before my young lady had her nightcap off she positively kissed me for the sake of warming her lips perhaps or because she had something proud to say
You great fool John said my lady as Annie and I used to call her on account of her airs and graces what a pity you never read John
Much use I should think in reading I answered though pleased with her condescension read I suppose with roof coming in and only this chimney left sticking out of the snow
The very time to read John said Lizzie looking grander our worst troubles are the need whence knowledge can deliver us
Amen I cried out are you parson or clerk Whichever you are goodmorning
Thereupon I was bent on my usual round a very small one nowadays but Eliza took me with both hands and I stopped of course for I could not bear to shake the child even in play for a moment because her back was tender Then she looked up at me with her beautiful eyes so large unhealthy and delicate and strangely shadowing outward as if to spread their meaning and she said—
Now John this is no time to joke I was almost frozen in bed last night and Annie like an icicle Feel how cold my hands are Now will you listen to what I have read about climates ten times worse than this and where none but clever men can live
Impossible for me to listen now I have hundreds of things to see to but I will listen after breakfast to your foreign climates child Now attend to mothers hot coffee
She looked a little disappointed but she knew what I had to do and after all she was not so utterly unreasonable although she did read books And when I had done my mornings work I listened to her patiently and it was out of my power to think that all she said was foolish
For I knew common sense pretty well by this time whether it happened to be my own or any other persons if clearly laid before me And Lizzie had a particular way of setting forth very clearly whatever she wished to express and enforce But the queerest part of it all was this that if she could but have dreamed for a moment what would be the first application made me by of her lesson she would rather have bitten her tongue off than help me to my purpose
She told me that in the Arctic Regions as they call some places a long way north where the Great Bear lies all across the heavens and no sun is up for whole months at a time and yet where people will go exploring out of pure contradiction and for the sake of novelty and love of being frozen—that here they always had such winters as we were having now It never ceased to freeze she said and it never ceased to snow except when it was too cold and then all the air was choked with glittering spikes and a mans skin might come off of him before he could ask the reason Nevertheless the people there although the snow was fifty feet deep and all their breath fell behind them frozen like a log of wood dropped from their shoulders yet they managed to get along and make the time of the year to each other by a little cleverness For seeing how the snow was spread lightly over everything covering up the hills and valleys and the foreskin of the sea they contrived a way to crown it and to glide like a flake along Through the sparkle of the whiteness and the wreaths of windy tossings and the ups and downs of cold any man might get along with a boat on either foot to prevent his sinking
She told me how these boats were made very strong and very light of ribs with skin across them five feet long and one foot wide and turned up at each end even as a canoe is But she did not tell me nor did I give it a moments thought myself how hard it was to walk upon them without early practice Then she told me another thing equally useful to me although I would not let her see how much I thought about it And this concerned the use of sledges and their power of gliding and the lightness of their following all of which I could see at once through knowledge of our own farmsleds which we employ in lieu of wheels used in flatter districts When I had heard all this from her a mere chit of a girl as she was unfit to make a snowball even or to fry snow pancakes I looked down on her with amazement and began to wish a little that I had given more time to books
But God shapes all our fitness and gives each man his meaning even as he guides the wavering lines of snow descending Our Eliza was meant for books our dear Annie for loving and cooking I John Ridd for sheep and wrestling and the thought of Lorna and mother to love all three of us and to make the best of her children And now if I must tell the truth as at every page I try to do though God knows it is hard enough I had felt through all this weather though my life was Lornas something of a satisfaction in so doing duty to my kindest and best of mothers and to none but her For if you come to think of it a mans young love is very pleasant very sweet and tickling and takes him through the core of heart without his knowing how or why Then he dwells upon it sideways without people looking and builds up all sorts of fancies growing hot with working so at his own imaginings So his love is a crystal Goddess set upon an obelisk and whoever will not bow the knee yet without glancing at her the lover makes it a sacred rite either to kick or to stick him I am not speaking of me and Lorna but of common people
Then if you come to think again lo—or I will not say lo for no one can behold it—only feel or but remember what a real mother is Ever loving ever soft ever turning sin to goodness vices into virtues blind to all ninetenths of wrong through a telescope beholding though herself so nigh to them faintest decimal of promise even in her vilest child Ready to thank God again as when her babe was born to her leaping as at kingdomcome at a wandering syllable of Gospel for her lost one
All this our mother was to us and even more than all of this and hence I felt a pride and joy in doing my sacred duty towards her now that the weather compelled me And she was as grateful and delighted as if she had no more claim upon me than a strangers sheep might have Yet from time to time I groaned within myself and by myself at thinking of my sad debarment from the sight of Lorna and of all that might have happened to her now she had no protection
Therefore I fell to at once upon that hint from Lizzie and being used to thatchingwork and the making of traps and so on before very long I built myself a pair of strong and light snowshoes framed with ash and ribbed of withy with halftanned calfskin stretched across and an inner sole to support my feet At first I could not walk at all but floundered about most piteously catching one shoe in the other and both of them in the snowdrifts to the great amusement of the girls who were come to look at me But after a while I grew more expert discovering what my errors were and altering the inclination of the shoes themselves according to a print which Lizzie found in a book of adventures And this made such a difference that I crossed the farmyard and came back again though turning was the worst thing of all without so much as falling once or getting my staff entangled
But oh the aching of my ankles when I went to bed that night I was forced to help myself upstairs with a couple of mopsticks and I rubbed the joints with neatsfoot oil which comforted them greatly And likely enough I would have abandoned any further trial but for Lizzies ridicule and pretended sympathy asking if the strong John Ridd would have old Betty to lean upon Therefore I set to again with a fixed resolve not to notice pain or stiffness but to warm them out of me And sure enough before dark that day I could get along pretty freely especially improving every time after leaving off and resting The astonishment of poor John Fry Bill Dadds and Jem Slocombe when they saw me coming down the hill upon them in the twilight where they were clearing the furze rick and trussing it for cattle was more than I can tell you because they did not let me see it but ran away with one accord and floundered into a snowdrift They believed and so did every one else especially when I grew able to glide along pretty rapidly that I had stolen Mother Melldrums sieves on which she was said to fly over the foreland at midnight every Saturday
Upon the following day I held some council with my mother not liking to go without her permission yet scarcely daring to ask for it But here she disappointed me on the right side of disappointment saying that she had seen my pining which she never could have done because I had been too hard at work and rather than watch me grieving so for somebody or other who now was all in all to me I might go upon my course and Gods protection go with me At this I was amazed because it was not at all like mother and knowing how well I had behaved ever since the time of our snowing up I was a little moved to tell her that she could not understand me However my sense of duty kept me and my knowledge of the catechism from saying such a thing as that or even thinking twice of it And so I took her at her word which she was not prepared for and telling her how proud I was of her trust in Providence and how I could run in my new snowshoes I took a short pipe in my mouth and started forth accordingly
CHAPTER XLIII
NOT TOO SOON
When I started on my road across the hills and valleys which now were pretty much alike the utmost I could hope to do was to gain the crest of hills and look into the Doone Glen Hence I might at least descry whether Lorna still was safe by the six nests still remaining and the view of the Captains house When I was come to the open country far beyond the sheltered homestead and in the full brunt of the wind the keen blast of the cold broke on me and the mighty breadth of snow Moor and highland field and common cliff and vale and watercourse over all the rolling folds of misty white were flung There was nothing square or jagged left there was nothing perpendicular all the rugged lines were eased and all the breaches smoothly filled Curves and mounds and rounded heavings took the place of rock and stump and all the country looked as if a womans hand had been on it
Through the sparkling breadth of white which seemed to glance my eyes away and outside the humps of laden trees bowing their backs like a woodman I contrived to get along halfsliding and halfwalking in places where a plainshodden man must have sunk and waited freezing till the thaw should come to him For although there had been such violent frost every night upon the snow the snow itself having never thawed even for an hour had never coated over Hence it was as soft and light as if all had fallen yesterday In places where no drift had been but rather off than on to them three feet was the least of depth but where the wind had chased it round or any draught led like a funnel or anything opposed it there you might very safely say that it ran up to twenty feet or thirty or even fifty and I believe some times a hundred
At last I got to my spyhill as I had begun to call it although I never should have known it but for what it looked on And even to know this last again required all the eyes of love soever sharp and vigilant For all the beautiful Glen Doone shaped from out the mountains as if on purpose for the Doones and looking in the summertime like a sharp cut vase of green now was besnowed half up the sides and at either end so that it was more like the white basins wherein we boil plumpuddings Not a patch of grass was there not a black branch of a tree all was white and the little river flowed beneath an arch of snow if it managed to flow at all
Now this was a great surprise to me not only because I believed Glen Doone to be a place outside all frost but also because I thought perhaps that it was quite impossible to be cold near Lorna And now it struck me all at once that perhaps her ewer was frozen as mine had been for the last three weeks requiring embers around it and perhaps her window would not shut any more than mine would and perhaps she wanted blankets This idea worked me up to such a chill of sympathy that seeing no Doones now about and doubting if any guns would go off in this state of the weather and knowing that no man could catch me up except with shoes like mine I even resolved to slide the cliffs and bravely go to Lorna
It helped me much in this resolve that the snow came on again thick enough to blind a man who had not spent his time among it as I had done now for days and days Therefore I took my neatsfoot oil which now was clogged like honey and rubbed it hard into my legjoints so far as I could reach them And then I set my back and elbows well against a snowdrift hanging far adown the cliff and saying some of the Lords Prayer threw myself on Providence Before there was time to think or dream I landed very beautifully upon a ridge of runup snow in a quiet corner My good shoes or boots preserved me from going far beneath it though one of them was sadly strained where a grub had gnawed the ash in the early summertime Having set myself aright and being in good spirits I made boldly across the valley where the snow was furrowed hard being now afraid of nobody
If Lorna had looked out of the window she would not have known me with those boots upon my feet and a wellcleaned sheepskin over me bearing my own JR in red just between my shoulders but covered now in snowflakes The house was partly drifted up though not so much as ours was and I crossed the little stream almost without knowing that it was under me At first being pretty safe from interference from the other huts by virtue of the blinding snow and the difficulty of walking I examined all the windows but these were coated so with ice like ferns and flowers and dazzling stars that no one could so much as guess what might be inside of them Moreover I was afraid of prying narrowly into them as it was not a proper thing where a maiden might be only I wanted to know just this whether she were there or not
Taking nothing by this movement I was forced much against my will to venture to the door and knock in a hesitating manner not being sure but what my answer might be the mouth of a carbine However it was not so for I heard a pattering of feet and a whispering going on and then a shrill voice through the keyhole asking Whos there
Only me John Ridd I answered upon which I heard a little laughter and a little sobbing or something that was like it and then the door was opened about a couple of inches with a bar behind it still and then the little voice went on—
Put thy finger in young man with the old ring on it But mind thee if it be the wrong one thou shalt never draw it back again
Laughing at Gwennys mighty threat I showed my finger in the opening upon which she let me in and barred the door again like lightning
What is the meaning of all this Gwenny I asked as I slipped about on the floor for I could not stand there firmly with my great snowshoes on
Maning enough and bad maning too the Cornish girl made answer Us be shut in here and starving and durstnt let anybody in upon us I wish thou wert good to ate young man I could manage most of thee
I was so frightened by her eyes full of wolfish hunger that I could only say Good God having never seen the like before Then drew I forth a large piece of bread which I had brought in case of accidents and placed it in her hands She leaped at it as a starving dog leaps at sight of his supper and she set her teeth in it and then withheld it from her lips with something very like an oath at her own vile greediness and then away round the corner with it no doubt for her young mistress I meanwhile was occupied to the best of my ability in taking my snowshoes off yet wondering much within myself why Lorna did not come to me
But presently I knew the cause for Gwenny called me and I ran and found my darling quite unable to say so much as John how are you Between the hunger and the cold and the excitement of my coming she had fainted away and lay back on a chair as white as the snow around us In betwixt her delicate lips Gwenny was thrusting with all her strength the hard brown crust of the ryebread which she had snatched from me so
Get water or get snow I said dont you know what fainting is you very stupid child
Never heerd on it in Cornwall she answered trusting still to the bread be un the same as bleeding
It will be directly if you go on squeezing away with that crust so Eat a piece I have got some more Leave my darling now to me
Hearing that I had some more the starving girl could resist no longer but tore it in two and had swallowed half before I had coaxed my Lorna back to sense and hope and joy and love
I never expected to see you again I had made up my mind to die John and to die without your knowing it
As I repelled this fearful thought in a manner highly fortifying the tender hue flowed back again into her famished cheeks and lips and a softer brilliance glistened from the depth of her dark eyes She gave me one little shrunken hand and I could not help a tear for it
After all Mistress Lorna I said pretending to be gay for a smile might do her good you do not love me as Gwenny does for she even wanted to eat me
And shall afore I have done young man Gwenny answered laughing you come in here with they red chakes and make us think o sirloin
Eat up your bit of brown bread Gwenny It is not good enough for your mistress Bless her heart I have something here such as she never tasted the like of being in such appetite Look here Lorna smell it first I have had it ever since Twelfth Day and kept it all the time for you Annie made it That is enough to warrant it good cooking
And then I showed my great mincepie in a bag of tissue paper and I told them how the mincemeat was made of golden pippins finely shred with the undercut of the sirloin and spice and fruit accordingly and far beyond my knowledge But Lorna would not touch a morsel until she had thanked God for it and given me the kindest kiss and put a piece in Gwennys mouth
I have eaten many things myself with very great enjoyment and keen perception of their merits and some thanks to God for them But I never did enjoy a thing that had found its way between my own lips half or even a quarter as much as I now enjoyed beholding Lorna sitting proudly upwards to show that she was faint no more entering into that mincepie and moving all her pearls of teeth inside her little mouthplace exactly as I told her For I was afraid lest she should be too fast in going through it and cause herself more damage so than she got of nourishment But I had no need to fear at all and Lorna could not help laughing at me for thinking that she had no selfcontrol
Some creatures require a deal of food I myself among the number and some can do with a very little making no doubt the best of it And I have often noticed that the plumpest and most perfect women never eat so hard and fast as the skinny and threecornered ones These last be often ashamed of it and eat most when the men be absent Hence it came to pass that Lorna being the loveliest of all maidens had as much as she could do to finish her own half of pie whereas Gwenny Carfax though generous more than greedy ate up hers without winking after finishing the brown loaf and then I begged to know the meaning of this state of things
The meaning is sad enough said Lorna and I see no way out of it We are both to be starved until I let them do what they like with me
That is to say until you choose to marry Carver Doone and be slowly killed by him
Slowly No John quickly I hate him so intensely that less than a week would kill me
Not a doubt of that said Gwenny oh she hates him nicely then but not half so much as I do
I told them that this state of things could be endured no longer on which point they agreed with me but saw no means to help it For even if Lorna could make up her mind to come away with me and live at Plovers Barrows farm under my good mothers care as I had urged so often behold the snow was all around us heaped as high as mountains and how could any delicate maiden ever get across it
Then I spoke with a strange tingle upon both sides of my heart knowing that this undertaking was a serious one for all and might burn our farm down—
If I warrant to take you safe and without much fright or hardship Lorna will you come with me
To be sure I will dear said my beauty with a smile and a glance to follow it I have small alternative to starve or go with you John
Gwenny have you courage for it Will you come with your young mistress
Will I stay behind cried Gwenny in a voice that settled it And so we began to arrange about it and I was much excited It was useless now to leave it longer if it could be done at all it could not be too quickly done It was the Counsellor who had ordered after all other schemes had failed that his niece should have no food until she would obey him He had strictly watched the house taking turns with Carver to ensure that none came nigh it bearing food or comfort But this evening they had thought it needless to remain on guard and it would have been impossible because themselves were busy offering high festival to all the valley in right of their own commandership And Gwenny said that nothing made her so nearly mad with appetite as the account she received from a woman of all the dishes preparing Nevertheless she had answered bravely—
Go and tell the Counsellor and go and tell the Carver who sent you to spy upon us that we shall have a finer dish than any set before them And so in truth they did although so little dreaming it for no Doone that was ever born however much of a Carver might vie with our Annie for mincemeat
Now while we sat reflecting much and talking a good deal more in spite of all the cold—for I never was in a hurry to go when I had Lorna with me—she said in her silvery voice which always led me so along as if I were a slave to a beautiful bell—
Now John we are wasting time dear You have praised my hair till it curls with pride and my eyes till you cannot see them even if they are brown diamonds which I have heard for the fiftieth time at least though I never saw such a jewel Dont you think it is high time to put on your snowshoes John
Certainly not I answered till we have settled something more I was so cold when I came in and now I am as warm as a cricket And so are you you lively soul though you are not upon my hearth yet
Remember John said Lorna nestling for a moment to me the severity of the weather makes a great difference between us And you must never take advantage
I quite understand all that dear And the harder it freezes the better while that understanding continues Now do try to be serious
I try to be serious And I have been trying fifty times and could not bring you to it John Although I am sure the situation as the Counsellor says at the beginning of a speech the situation to say the least is serious enough for anything Come Gwenny imitate him
Gwenny was famed for her imitation of the Counsellor making a speech and she began to shake her hair and mount upon a footstool but I really could not have this though even Lorna ordered it The truth was that my darling maiden was in such wild spirits at seeing me so unexpected and at the prospect of release and of what she had never known quiet life and happiness that like all warm and loving natures she could scarce control herself
Come to this frozen window John and see them light the stackfire They will little know who looks at them Now be very good John You stay in that corner dear and I will stand on this side and try to breathe yourself a peephole through the lovely spears and banners Oh you dont know how to do it I must do it for you Breathe three times like that and that and then you rub it with your fingers before it has time to freeze again
All this she did so beautifully with her lips put up like cherries and her fingers bent half back as only girls can bend them and her little waist thrown out against the white of the snowedup window that I made her do it three times over and I stopped her every time and let it freeze again that so she might be the longer Now I knew that all her love was mine every bit as much as mine was hers yet I must have her to show it dwelling upon every proof lengthening out all certainty Perhaps the jealous heart is loath to own a life worth twice its own Be that as it may I know that we thawed the window nicely
And then I saw far down the stream or rather down the bed of it for there was no stream visible a little form of fire arising red and dark and flickering Presently it caught on something and went upward boldly and then it struck into many forks and then it fell and rose again
Do you know what all that is John asked Lorna smiling cleverly at the manner of my staring
How on earth should I know Papists burn Protestants in the flesh and Protestants burn Papists in effigy as we mock them Lorna are they going to burn any one tonight
No you dear I must rid you of these things I see that you are bigoted The Doones are firing Dunkery beacon to celebrate their new captain
But how could they bring it here through the snow If they have sledges I can do nothing
They brought it before the snow began The moment poor grandfather was gone even before his funeral the young men having none to check them began at once upon it They had always borne a grudge against it not that it ever did them harm but because it seemed so insolent Cant a gentleman go home without a smoke behind him I have often heard them saying And though they have done it no serious harm since they threw the firemen on the fire many many years ago they have often promised to bring it here for their candle and now they have done it Ah now look The tar is kindled
Though Lorna took it so in joke I looked upon it very gravely knowing that this heavy outrage to the feelings of the neighbourhood would cause more stir than a hundred sheep stolen or a score of houses sacked Not of course that the beacon was of the smallest use to any one neither stopped anybody from stealing nay rather it was like the parish knell which begins when all is over and depresses all the survivors yet I knew that we valued it and were proud and spoke of it as a mighty institution and even more than that our vestry had voted within the last two years seven shillings and sixpence to pay for it in proportion with other parishes And one of the men who attended to it or at least who was paid for doing so was our Jem Slocombes grandfather
However in spite of all my regrets the fire went up very merrily blazing red and white and yellow as it leaped on different things And the light danced on the snowdrifts with a misty lilac hue I was astonished at its burning in such mighty depths of snow but Gwenny said that the wicked men had been three days hard at work clearing as it were a cockpit for their fire to have its way And now they had a mighty pile which must have covered five landyards square heaped up to a goodly height and eager to take fire
In this I saw great obstacle to what I wished to manage For when this pyramid should be kindled thoroughly and pouring light and blazes round would not all the valley be like a white room full of candles Thinking thus I was half inclined to abide my time for another night and then my second thoughts convinced me that I would be a fool in this For lo what an opportunity All the Doones would be drunk of course in about three hours time and getting more and more in drink as the night went on As for the fire it must sink in about three hours or more and only cast uncertain shadows friendly to my purpose And then the outlaws must cower round it as the cold increased on them helping the weight of the liquor and in their jollity any noise would be cheered as a false alarm Most of all and which decided once for all my action—when these wild and reckless villains should be hot with ardent spirits what was door or wall to stand betwixt them and my Lorna
This thought quickened me so much that I touched my darling reverently and told her in a few short words how I hoped to manage it
Sweetest in two hours time I shall be again with you Keep the bar up and have Gwenny ready to answer any one You are safe while they are dining dear and drinking healths and all that stuff and before they have done with that I shall be again with you Have everything you care to take in a very little compass and Gwenny must have no baggage I shall knock loud and then wait a little and then knock twice very softly
With this I folded her in my arms and she looked frightened at me not having perceived her danger and then I told Gwenny over again what I had told her mistress but she only nodded her head and said Young man go and teach thy grandmother
CHAPTER XLIV
BROUGHT HOME AT LAST
To my great delight I found that the weather not often friendly to lovers and lately seeming so hostile had in the most important matter done me a signal service For when I had promised to take my love from the power of those wretches the only way of escape apparent lay through the main Doonegate For though I might climb the cliffs myself especially with the snow to aid me I durst not try to fetch Lorna up them even if she were not halfstarved as well as partly frozen and as for Gwennys door as we called it that is to say the little entrance from the wooded hollow it was snowed up long ago to the level of the hills around Therefore I was at my wits end how to get them out the passage by the Doonegate being long and dark and difficult and leading to such a weary circuit among the snowy moors and hills
But now being homewardbound by the shortest possible track I slipped along between the bonfire and the boundary cliffs where I found a caved way of snow behind a sort of avalanche so that if the Doones had been keeping watch which they were not doing but revelling they could scarcely have discovered me And when I came to my old ascent where I had often scaled the cliff and made across the mountains it struck me that I would just have a look at my first and painful entrance to wit the waterslide I never for a moment imagined that this could help me now for I never had dared to descend it even in the finest weather still I had a curiosity to know what my old friend was like with so much snow upon him But to my very great surprise there was scarcely any snow there at all though plenty curling high overhead from the cliff like bolsters over it Probably the sweeping of the northeast wind up the narrow chasm had kept the showers from blocking it although the water had no power under the bitter grip of frost All my waterslide was now less a slide than path of ice furrowed where the waters ran over fluted ridges seamed where wind had tossed and combed them even while congealing and crossed with little steps wherever the freezing torrent lingered And here and there the ice was fibred with the trail of sludgeweed slanting from the side and matted so as to make restingplace
Lo it was easy track and channel as if for the very purpose made down which I could guide my sledge with Lorna sitting in it There were only two things to be feared one lest the rolls of snow above should fall in and bury us the other lest we should rush too fast and so be carried headlong into the black whirlpool at the bottom the middle of which was still unfrozen and looking more horrible by the contrast Against this danger I made provision by fixing a stout bar across but of the other we must take our chance and trust ourselves to Providence
I hastened home at my utmost speed and told my mother for Gods sake to keep the house up till my return and to have plenty of fire blazing and plenty of water boiling and food enough hot for a dozen people and the best bed aired with the warmingpan Dear mother smiled softly at my excitement though her own was not much less I am sure and enhanced by sore anxiety Then I gave very strict directions to Annie and praised her a little and kissed her and I even endeavoured to flatter Eliza lest she should be disagreeable
After this I took some brandy both within and about me the former because I had sharp work to do and the latter in fear of whatever might happen in such great cold to my comrades Also I carried some other provisions grieving much at their coldness and then I went to the upper linhay and took our new light ponysledd which had been made almost as much for pleasure as for business though God only knows how our girls could have found any pleasure in bumping along so On the snow however it ran as sweetly as if it had been made for it yet I durst not take the pony with it in the first place because his hoofs would break through the evershifting surface of the light and piling snow and secondly because these ponies coming from the forest have a dreadful trick of neighing and most of all in frosty weather
Therefore I girded my own body with a dozen turns of hayrope twisting both the ends in under at the bottom of my breast and winding the hay on the skew a little that the hempen thong might not slip between and so cut me in the drawing I put a good piece of spare rope in the sledd and the crossseat with the back to it which was stuffed with our own wool as well as two or three fur coats and then just as I was starting out came Annie in spite of the cold panting for fear of missing me and with nothing on her head but a lanthorn in one hand
Oh John here is the most wonderful thing Mother has never shown it before and I cant think how she could make up her mind She had gotten it in a great well of a cupboard with camphor and spirits and lavender Lizzie says it is a most magnificent sealskin cloak worth fifty pounds or a farthing
At any rate it is soft and warm said I very calmly flinging it into the bottom of the sledd Tell mother I will put it over Lornas feet
Lornas feet Oh you great fool cried Annie for the first time reviling me over her shoulders and be proud you very stupid John
It is not good enough for her feet I answered with strong emphasis but dont tell mother I said so Annie Only thank her very kindly
With that I drew my traces hard and set my ashen staff into the snow and struck out with my best foot foremost the best one at snowshoes I mean and the sledd came after me as lightly as a dog might follow and Annie with the lanthorn seemed to be left behind and waiting like a pretty lamppost
The full moon rose as bright behind me as a paten of pure silver casting on the snow long shadows of the few things left above burdened rock and shaggy foreland and the labouring trees In the great white desolation distance was a mocking vision hills looked nigh and valleys far when hills were far and valleys nigh And the misty breath of frost piercing through the ribs of rock striking to the pith of trees creeping to the heart of man lay along the hollow places like a serpent sloughing Even as my own gaunt shadow travestied as if I were the moonlights daddylonglegs went before me down the slope even I the shadows master who had tried in vain to cough when coughing brought good liquorice felt a pressure on my bosom and a husking in my throat
However I went on quietly and at a very tidy speed being only too thankful that the snow had ceased and no wind as yet arisen And from the ring of low white vapour girding all the verge of sky and from the rosy blue above and the shafts of starlight set upon a quivering bow as well as from the moon itself and the light behind it having learned the signs of frost from its bitter twinges I knew that we should have a night as keen as ever England felt Nevertheless I had work enough to keep me warm if I managed it The question was could I contrive to save my darling from it
Daring not to risk my sledd by any fall from the valleycliffs I dragged it very carefully up the steep incline of ice through the narrow chasm and so to the very brink and verge where first I had seen my Lorna in the fishing days of boyhood As I then had a trident fork for sticking of the loaches so I now had a strong ash stake to lay across from rock to rock and break the speed of descending With this I moored the sledd quite safe at the very lip of the chasm where all was now substantial ice green and black in the moonlight and then I set off up the valley skirting along one side of it
The stackfire still was burning strongly but with more of heat than blaze and many of the younger Doones were playing on the verge of it the children making rings of fire and their mothers watching them All the grave and reverend warriors having heard of rheumatism were inside of log and stone in the two lowest houses with enough of candles burning to make our list of sheep come short
All these I passed without the smallest risk or difficulty walking up the channel of drift which I spoke of once before And then I crossed with more of care and to the door of Lornas house and made the sign and listened after taking my snowshoes off
But no one came as I expected neither could I espy a light And I seemed to hear a faint low sound like the moaning of the snowwind Then I knocked again more loudly with a knocking at my heart and receiving no answer set all my power at once against the door In a moment it flew inwards and I glided along the passage with my feet still slippery There in Lornas room I saw by the moonlight flowing in a sight which drove me beyond sense
Lorna was behind a chair crouching in the corner with her hands up and a crucifix or something that looked like it In the middle of the room lay Gwenny Carfax stupid yet with one hand clutching the ankle of a struggling man Another man stood above my Lorna trying to draw the chair away In a moment I had him round the waist and he went out of the window with a mighty crash of glass luckily for him that window had no bars like some of them Then I took the other man by the neck and he could not plead for mercy I bore him out of the house as lightly as I would bear a baby yet squeezing his throat a little more than I fain would do to an infant By the bright moonlight I saw that I carried Marwood de Whichehalse For his fathers sake I spared him and because he had been my schoolfellow but with every muscle of my body strung with indignation I cast him like a skittle from me into a snowdrift which closed over him Then I looked for the other fellow tossed through Lornas window and found him lying stunned and bleeding neither able to groan yet Charleworth Doone if his gushing blood did not much mislead me
It was no time to linger now I fastened my shoes in a moment and caught up my own darling with her head upon my shoulder where she whispered faintly and telling Gwenny to follow me or else I would come back for her if she could not walk the snow I ran the whole distance to my sledd caring not who might follow me Then by the time I had set up Lorna beautiful and smiling with the sealskin cloak all over her sturdy Gwenny came along having trudged in the track of my snowshoes although with two bags on her back I set her in beside her mistress to support her and keep warm and then with one look back at the glen which had been so long my home of heart I hung behind the sledd and launched it down the steep and dangerous way
Though the cliffs were black above us and the road unseen in front and a great white grave of snow might at a single word come down Lorna was as calm and happy as an infant in its bed She knew that I was with her and when I told her not to speak she touched my hand in silence Gwenny was in a much greater fright having never seen such a thing before neither knowing what it is to yield to pure loves confidence I could hardly keep her quiet without making a noise myself With my staff from rock to rock and my weight thrown backward I broke the sledds too rapid way and brought my grown love safely out by the selfsame road which first had led me to her girlish fancy and my boyish slavery
Unpursued yet looking back as if some one must be after us we skirted round the black whirling pool and gained the meadows beyond it Here there was hard collar work the track being all uphill and rough and Gwenny wanted to jump out to lighten the sledd and to push behind But I would not hear of it because it was now so deadly cold and I feared that Lorna might get frozen without having Gwenny to keep her warm And after all it was the sweetest labour I had ever known in all my life to be sure that I was pulling Lorna and pulling her to our own farmhouse
Gwennys nose was touched with frost before we had gone much farther because she would not keep it quiet and snug beneath the sealskin And here I had to stop in the moonlight which was very dangerous and rub it with a clove of snow as Eliza had taught me and Gwenny scolding all the time as if myself had frozen it Lorna was now so far oppressed with all the troubles of the evening and the joy that followed them as well as by the piercing cold and difficulty of breathing that she lay quite motionless like fairest wax in the moonlight—when we stole a glance at her beneath the dark folds of the cloak and I thought that she was falling into the heavy snowsleep whence there is no awaking
Therefore I drew my traces tight and set my whole strength to the business and we slipped along at a merry pace although with many joltings which must have sent my darling out into the cold snowdrifts but for the short strong arm of Gwenny And so in about an hours time in spite of many hindrances we came home to the old courtyard and all the dogs saluted us My heart was quivering and my cheeks as hot as the Doones bonfire with wondering both what Lorna would think of our farmyard and what my mother would think of her Upon the former subject my anxiety was wasted for Lorna neither saw a thing nor even opened her heavy eyes And as to what mother would think of her she was certain not to think at all until she had cried over her
And so indeed it came to pass Even at this length of time I can hardly tell it although so bright before my mind because it moves my heart so The sledd was at the open door with only Lorna in it for Gwenny Carfax had jumped out and hung back in the clearing giving any reason rather than the only true one—that she would not be intruding At the door were all our people first of course Betty Muxworthy teaching me how to draw the sledd as if she had been born in it and flourishing with a great broom wherever a speck of snow lay Then dear Annie and old Molly who was very quiet and counted almost for nobody and behind them mother looking as if she wanted to come first but doubted how the manners lay In the distance Lizzie stood fearful of encouraging but unable to keep out of it
Betty was going to poke her broom right in under the sealskin cloak where Lorna lay unconscious and where her precious breath hung frozen like a silver cobweb but I caught up Bettys broom and flung it clean away over the corn chamber and then I put the others by and fetched my mother forward
You shall see her first I said is she not your daughter Hold the light there Annie
Dear mothers hands were quick and trembling as she opened the shining folds and there she saw my Lorna sleeping with her black hair all dishevelled and she bent and kissed her forehead and only said God bless her John And then she was taken with violent weeping and I was forced to hold her
Us may tich of her now I rackon said Betty in her most jealous way Annie tak her by the head and Ill tak her by the toesen No taime to stand here like girt gawks Donee tak on zo missus Ther be vainer vish in the zea—Lor but her be a booty
With this they carried her into the house Betty chattering all the while and going on now about Lornas hands and the others crowding round her so that I thought I was not wanted among so many women and should only get the worst of it and perhaps do harm to my darling Therefore I went and brought Gwenny in and gave her a potful of bacon and peas and an iron spoon to eat it with which she did right heartily
Then I asked her how she could have been such a fool as to let those two vile fellows enter the house where Lorna was and she accounted for it so naturally that I could only blame myself For my agreement had been to give one loud knock if you happen to remember and after that two little knocks Well these two drunken rogues had come and one being very drunk indeed had given a great thump and then nothing more to do with it and the other being threequarters drunk had followed his leader as one might say but feebly and making two of it Whereupon up jumped Lorna and declared that her John was there
All this Gwenny told me shortly between the whiles of eating and even while she licked the spoon and then there came a message for me that my love was sensible and was seeking all around for me Then I told Gwenny to hold her tongue whatever she did among us and not to trust to womens words and she told me they all were liars as she had found out long ago and the only thing to believe in was an honest man when found Thereupon I could have kissed her as a sort of tribute liking to be appreciated yet the peas upon her lips made me think about it and thought is fatal to action So I went to see my dear
That sight I shall not forget till my dying head falls back and my breast can lift no more I know not whether I were then more blessed or harrowed by it For in the settle was my Lorna propped with pillows round her and her clear hands spread sometimes to the blazing fireplace In her eyes no knowledge was of anything around her neither in her neck the sense of leaning towards anything Only both her lovely hands were entreating something to spare her or to love her and the lines of supplication quivered in her sad white face
All go away except my mother I said very quietly but so that I would be obeyed and everybody knew it Then mother came to me alone and she said The frost is in her brain I have heard of this before John Mother I will have it out was all that I could answer her leave her to me altogether only you sit there and watch For I felt that Lorna knew me and no other soul but me and that if not interfered with she would soon come home to me Therefore I sat gently by her leaving nature as it were to her own good time and will And presently the glance that watched me as at distance and in doubt began to flutter and to brighten and to deepen into kindness then to beam with trust and love and then with gathering tears to falter and in shame to turn away But the small entreating hands found their way as if by instinct to my great projecting palms and trembled there and rested there
For a little while we lingered thus neither wishing to move away neither caring to look beyond the presence of the other both alike so full of hope and comfort and true happiness if only the world would let us be And then a little sob disturbed us and mother tried to make believe that she was only coughing But Lorna guessing who she was jumped up so very rashly that she almost set her frock on fire from the great ash log and away she ran to the old oak chair where mother was by the clockcase pretending to be knitting and she took the work from mothers hands and laid them both upon her head kneeling humbly and looking up
God bless you my fair mistress said mother bending nearer and then as Lornas gaze prevailed God bless you my sweet child
And so she went to mothers heart by the very nearest road even as she had come to mine I mean the road of pity smoothed by grace and youth and gentleness
CHAPTER XLV
A CHANGE LONG NEEDED
Jeremy Stickles was gone south ere ever the frost set in for the purpose of mustering forces to attack the Doone Glen But of course this weather had put a stop to every kind of movement for even if men could have borne the cold they could scarcely be brought to face the perils of the snowdrifts And to tell the truth I cared not how long this weather lasted so long as we had enough to eat and could keep ourselves from freezing Not only that I did not want Master Stickles back again to make more disturbances but also that the Doones could not come prowling after Lorna while the snow lay piled between us with the surface soft and dry Of course they would very soon discover where their lawful queen was although the track of sledd and snowshoes had been quite obliterated by another shower before the revellers could have grown half as drunk as they intended But Marwood de Whichehalse who had been snowed up among them as Gwenny said after helping to strip the beacon that young Squire was almost certain to have recognised me and to have told the vile Carver And it gave me no little pleasure to think how mad that Carver must be with me for robbing him of the lovely bride whom he was starving into matrimony However I was not pleased at all with the prospect of the consequences but set all hands on to thresh the corn ere the Doones could come and burn the ricks For I knew that they could not come yet inasmuch as even a forest pony could not traverse the country much less the heavy horses needed to carry such men as they were And hundreds of the forest ponies died in this hard weather some being buried in the snow and more of them starved for want of grass
Going through this state of things and laying down the law about it subject to correction I very soon persuaded Lorna that for the present she was safe and which made her still more happy that she was not only welcome but as gladdening to our eyes as the flowers of May Of course so far as regarded myself this was not a hundredth part of the real truth and even as regarded others I might have said it ten times over For Lorna had so won them all by her kind and gentle ways and her mode of hearkening to everybodys trouble and replying without words as well as by her beauty and simple grace of all things that I could almost wish sometimes the rest would leave her more to me But mother could not do enough and Annie almost worshipped her and even Lizzie could not keep her bitterness towards her especially when she found that Lorna knew as much of books as need be
As for John Fry and Betty and Molly they were a perfect plague when Lorna came into the kitchen For betwixt their curiosity to see a live Doone in the flesh when certain not to eat them and their high respect for birth with or without honesty and their intense desire to know all about Master Johns sweetheart dropped as they said from the snowclouds and most of all their admiration of a beauty such as never even their angels could have seen—betwixt and between all this I say there was no getting the dinner cooked with Lorna in the kitchen
And the worst of it was that Lorna took the strangest of all strange fancies for this very kitchen and it was hard to keep her out of it Not that she had any special bent for cooking as our Annie had rather indeed the contrary for she liked to have her food ready cooked but that she loved the look of the place and the cheerful fire burning and the racks of bacon to be seen and the richness and the homeliness and the pleasant smell of everything And who knows but what she may have liked as the very best of maidens do to be admired now and then between the times of business
Therefore if you wanted Lorna as I was always sure to do God knows how many times a day the very surest place to find her was our own old kitchen Not gossiping I mean nor loitering neither seeking into things but seeming to be quite at home as if she had known it from a child and seeming to my eyes at least to light it up and make life and colour out of all the dullness as I have seen the breaking sun do among brown shocks of wheat
But any one who wished to learn whether girls can change or not as the things around them change while yet their hearts are steadfast and for ever anchored he should just have seen my Lorna after a fortnight of our life and freedom from anxiety It is possible that my company—although I am accounted stupid by folk who do not know my way—may have had something to do with it but upon this I will not say much lest I lose my character And indeed as regards company I had all the threshing to see to and more than half to do myself though any one would have thought that even John Fry must work hard this weather else I could not hope at all to get our corn into such compass that a good gun might protect it
But to come back to Lorna again which I always longed to do and must long for ever all the change between night and day all the shifts of cloud and sun all the difference between black death and brightsome liveliness scarcely may suggest or equal Lornas transformation Quick she had always been and peart as we say on Exmoor and gifted with a leap of thought too swift for me to follow and hence you may find fault with much when I report her sayings But through the whole had always run as a black string goes through pearls something dark and touched with shadow coloured as with an early end
But now behold there was none of this There was no getting her for a moment even to be serious All her bright young wit was flashing like a newlyawakened flame and all her high young spirits leaped as if dancing to its fire And yet she never spoke a word which gave more pain than pleasure
And even in her outward look there was much of difference Whether it was our warmth and freedom and our harmless love of God and trust in one another or whether it were our air and water and the peafed bacon anyhow my Lorna grew richer and more lovely more perfect and more firm of figure and more light and buoyant with every passing day that laid its tribute on her cheeks and lips I was allowed one kiss a day only one for manners sake because she was our visitor and I might have it before breakfast or else when I came to say goodnight according as I decided And I decided every night not to take it in the morning but put it off till the evening time and have the pleasure to think about through all the day of working But when my darling came up to me in the early daylight fresher than the daystar and with no one looking only her bright eyes smiling and sweet lips quite ready was it likely I could wait and think all day about it For she wore a frock of Annies nicely made to fit her taken in at the waist and curved—I never could explain it not being a mantuamaker but I know how her figure looked in it and how it came towards me
But this is neither here nor there and I must on with my story Those days are very sacred to me and if I speak lightly of them trust me tis with lip alone while from heart reproach peeps sadly at the flippant tricks of mind
Although it was the longest winter ever known in our parts never having ceased to freeze for a single night and scarcely for a single day from the middle of December till the second week in March to me it was the very shortest and the most delicious and verily I do believe it was the same to Lorna But when the Ides of March were come of which I do remember something dim from school and something clear from my favourite writer lo there were increasing signals of a change of weather
One leading feature of that long cold and a thing remarked by every one however unobservant had been the hollow moaning sound ever present in the air morning noon and nighttime and especially at night whether any wind were stirring or whether it were a perfect calm Our people said that it was a witch cursing all the country from the caverns by the sea and that frost and snow would last until we could catch and drown her But the land being thoroughly blocked with snow and the inshore parts of the sea with ice floating in great fields along Mother Melldrum if she it were had the caverns all to herself for there was no getting at her And speaking of the sea reminds me of a thing reported to us and on good authority though people might be found hereafter who would not believe it unless I told them that from what I myself beheld of the channel I place perfect faith in it and this is that a dozen sailors at the beginning of March crossed the ice with the aid of poles from Clevedon to Penarth or where the Holm rocks barred the flotage
But now about the tenth of March that miserable moaning noise which had both foregone and accompanied the rigour died away from out the air and we being now so used to it thought at first that we must be deaf And then the fog which had hung about even in full sunshine vanished and the shrouded hills shone forth with brightness manifold And now the sky at length began to come to its true manner which we had not seen for months a mixture if I so may speak of various expressions Whereas till now from Allhallowstide six weeks ere the great frost set in the heavens had worn one heavy mask of ashen gray when clouded or else one amethystine tinge with a hazy rim when cloudless So it was pleasant to behold after that monotony the fickle sky which suits our England though abused by foreign folk
And soon the dappled softening sky gave some earnest of its mood for a brisk south wind arose and the blessed rain came driving cold indeed yet most refreshing to the skin all parched with snow and the eyeballs so long dazzled Neither was the heart more sluggish in its thankfulness to God People had begun to think and somebody had prophesied that we should have no spring this year no seedtime and no harvest for that the Lord had sent a judgment on this country of England and the nation dwelling in it because of the wickedness of the Court and the encouragement shown to Papists And this was proved they said by what had happened in the town of London where for more than a fortnight such a chill of darkness lay that no man might behold his neighbour even across the narrowest street and where the ice upon the Thames was more than four feet thick and crushing London Bridge in twain Now to these prophets I paid no heed believing not that Providence would freeze us for other peoples sins neither seeing how England could for many generations have enjoyed good sunshine if Popery meant frost and fogs Besides why could not Providence settle the business once for all by freezing the Pope himself even though according to our view he were destined to extremes of heat together with all who followed him
Not to meddle with that subject being beyond my judgment let me tell the things I saw and then you must believe me The wind of course I could not see not having the powers of a pig but I could see the laden branches of the great oaks moving hoping to shake off the load packed and saddled on them And hereby I may note a thing which some one may explain perhaps in the after ages when people come to look at things This is that in desperate cold all the trees were pulled awry even though the wind had scattered the snow burden from them Of some sorts the branches bended downwards like an archway of other sorts the boughs curved upwards like a red deers frontlet This I know no reason for but am ready to swear that I saw it
The reason is very simple as all natures reasons are
though the subject has not yet been investigated thoroughly
In some trees the vascular tissue is more open on the upper
side in others on the under side of the spreading
branches according to the form of growth and habit of the
sap Hence in very severe cold when the vessels
comparatively empty are constricted some have more power
of contraction on the upper side and some upon the under
Now when the first of the rain began and the old familiar softness spread upon the window glass and ran a little way in channels though from the coldness of the glass it froze before reaching the bottom knowing at once the difference from the short sharp thud of snow we all ran out and filled our eyes and filled our hearts with gazing True the snow was piled up now all in mountains round us true the air was still so cold that our breath froze on the doorway and the rain was turned to ice wherever it struck anything nevertheless that it was rain there was no denying as we watched it across black doorways and could see no sign of white Mother who had made up her mind that the farm was not worth having after all those prophesies and that all of us must starve and holes be scratched in the snow for us and no use to put up a tombstone for our church had been shut up long ago mother fell upon my breast and sobbed that I was the cleverest fellow ever born of woman And this because I had condemned the prophets for a pack of fools not seeing how business could go on if people stopped to hearken to them
Then Lorna came and glorified me for I had predicted a change of weather more to keep their spirits up than with real hope of it and then came Annie blushing shyly as I looked at her and said that Winnie would soon have four legs now This referred to some stupid joke made by John Fry or somebody that in this weather a man had no legs and a horse had only two
But as the rain came down upon us from the southwest wind and we could not have enough of it even putting our tongues to catch it as little children might do and beginning to talk of primroses the very noblest thing of all was to hear and see the gratitude of the poor beasts yet remaining and the few surviving birds From the cowhouse lowing came more than of fifty milking times moo and moo and a turnup noise at the end of every bellow as if from the very heart of kine Then the horses in the stables packed as closely as they could stick at the risk of kicking to keep the warmth in one another and their spirits up by discoursing these began with one accord to lift up their voices snorting snaffling whinnying and neighing and trotting to the door to know when they should have work again To whom as if in answer came the feeble bleating of the sheep what few by dint of greatest care had kept their fleeces on their backs and their four legs under them
Neither was it a trifling thing let whoso will say the contrary to behold the ducks and geese marching forth in handsome order from their beds of fern and straw What a goodly noise they kept what a flapping of their wings and a jerking of their tails as they stood right up and tried with a whistling in their throats to imitate a cockscrow And then how daintily they took the wet upon their dusty plumes and ducked their shoulders to it and began to dress themselves and laid their grooved bills on the snow and dabbled for more ooziness
Lorna had never seen I dare say anything like this before and it was all that we could do to keep her from rushing forth with only little lambswool shoes on and kissing every one of them Oh the dear things oh the dear things she kept saying continually how wonderfully clever they are Only look at that one with his foot up giving orders to the others John
And I must give orders to you my darling I answered gazing on her face so brilliant with excitement and that is that you come in at once with that worrisome cough of yours and sit by the fire and warm yourself
Oh no John Not for a minute if you please good John I want to see the snow go away and the green meadows coming forth And here comes our favourite robin who has lived in the oven so long and sang us a song every morning I must see what he thinks of it
You will do nothing of the sort I answered very shortly being only too glad of a cause for having her in my arms again So I caught her up and carried her in and she looked and smiled so sweetly at me instead of pouting as I had feared that I found myself unable to go very fast along the passage And I set her there in her favourite place by the sweetscented woodfire and she paid me porterage without my even asking her and for all the beauty of the rain I was fain to stay with her until our Annie came to say that my advice was wanted
Now my advice was never much as everybody knew quite well but that was the way they always put it when they wanted me to work for them And in truth it was time for me to work not for others but myself and as I always thought for Lorna For the rain was now coming down in earnest and the top of the snow being frozen at last and glazed as hard as a china cup by means of the sun and frost afterwards all the rain ran right away from the steep inclines and all the outlets being blocked with ice set up like tables it threatened to flood everything Already it was ponding up like a tide advancing at the threshold of the door from which we had watched the duckbirds both because great piles of snow trended in that direction in spite of all our scraping and also that the gulley hole where the water of the shoot went out I mean when it was water now was choked with lumps of ice as big as a mans body For the shoot as we called our little runnel of everlasting water never known to freeze before and always ready for any man either to wash his hands or drink where it spouted from a trough of bark set among white flintstones this at last had given in and its music ceased to lull us as we lay in bed
It was not long before I managed to drain off this threatening flood by opening the old sluicehole but I had much harder work to keep the stables and the cowhouse and the other sheds from flooding For we have a sapient practice and I never saw the contrary round about our parts I mean of keeping all rooms underground so that you step down to them We say that thus we keep them warmer both for cattle and for men in the time of winter and cooler in the summertime This I will not contradict though having my own opinion but it seems to me to be a relic of the time when people in the western countries lived in caves beneath the ground and blocked the mouths with neatskins
Let that question still abide for men who study ancient times to inform me if they will all I know is that now we had no blessings for the system If after all their cold and starving our weak cattle now should have to stand up to their knees in water it would be certain death to them and we had lost enough already to make us poor for a long time not to speak of our kind love for them And I do assure you I loved some horses and even some cows for that matter as if they had been my bloodrelations knowing as I did their virtues And some of these were lost to us and I could not bear to think of them Therefore I worked hard all night to try and save the rest of them
CHAPTER XLVI
SQUIRE FAGGUS MAKES SOME LUCKY HITS
Through that season of bitter frost the red deer of the forest having nothing to feed upon and no shelter to rest in had grown accustomed to our ricks of corn and hay and clover There we might see a hundred of them almost any morning come for warmth and food and comfort and scarce willing to move away And many of them were so tame that they quietly presented themselves at our back door and stood there with their coats quite stiff and their flanks drawn in and panting and icicles sometimes on their chins and their great eyes fastened wistfully upon any merciful person craving for a bit of food and a drink of water I suppose that they had not sense enough to chew the snow and melt it at any rate all the springs being frozen and rivers hidden out of sight these poor things suffered even more from thirst than they did from hunger
But now there was no fear of thirst and more chance indeed of drowning for a heavy gale of wind arose with violent rain from the southwest which lasted almost without a pause for three nights and two days At first the rain made no impression on the bulk of snow but ran from every sloping surface and froze on every flat one through the coldness of the earth and so it became impossible for any man to keep his legs without the help of a shodden staff After a good while however the air growing very much warmer this state of things began to change and a worse one to succeed it for now the snow came thundering down from roof and rock and ivied tree and floods began to roar and foam in every trough and gulley The drifts that had been so white and fair looked yellow and smirched and muddy and lost their graceful curves and moulded lines and airiness But the strangest sight of all to me was in the bed of streams and brooks and especially of the Lynn river It was worth going miles to behold such a thing for a man might never have the chance again
Vast drifts of snow had filled the valley and piled above the rivercourse fifty feet high in many places and in some as much as a hundred These had frozen over the top and glanced the rain away from them and being sustained by rock and tree spanned the water mightily But meanwhile the waxing flood swollen from every moorland hollow and from every spouting crag had dashed away all icy fetters and was rolling gloriously Under white fantastic arches and long tunnels freaked and fretted and between pellucid pillars jagged with nodding architraves the red impetuous torrent rushed and the brown foam whirled and flashed I was half inclined to jump in and swim through such glorious scenery for nothing used to please me more than swimming in a flooded river But I thought of the rocks and I thought of the cramp and more than all of Lorna and so between one thing and another I let it roll on without me
It was now high time to work very hard both to make up for the farmwork lost during the months of frost and snow and also to be ready for a great and vicious attack from the Doones who would burn us in our beds at the earliest opportunity Of farmwork there was little yet for even the most zealous man to begin to lay his hand to because when the ground appeared through the crust of bubbled snow as at last it did though not as my Lorna had expected at the first few drops of rain it was all so soaked and sodden and as we call it mucksy that to meddle with it in any way was to do more harm than good Nevertheless there was yard work and house work and tendence of stock enough to save any man from idleness
As for Lorna she would come out There was no keeping her in the house She had taken up some peculiar notion that we were doing more for her than she had any right to and that she must earn her living by the hard work of her hands It was quite in vain to tell her that she was expected to do nothing and far worse than vain for it made her cry sadly if any one assured her that she could do no good at all She even began upon mothers garden before the snow was clean gone from it and sowed a beautiful row of peas every one of which the mice ate
But though it was very pretty to watch her working for her very life as if the maintenance of the household hung upon her labours yet I was grieved for many reasons and so was mother also In the first place she was too fair and dainty for this rough rude work and though it made her cheeks so bright it surely must be bad for her to get her little feet so wet Moreover we could not bear the idea that she should labour for her keep and again which was the worst of all things mothers garden lay exposed to a dark deceitful coppice where a man might lurk and watch all the fair gardeners doings It was true that none could get at her thence while the brook which ran between poured so great a torrent Still the distance was but little for a gun to carry if any one could be brutal enough to point a gun at Lorna I thought that none could be found to do it but mother having more experience was not so certain of mankind
Now in spite of the floods and the sloughs being out and the state of the roads most perilous Squire Faggus came at last riding his famous strawberry mare There was a great ado between him and Annie as you may well suppose after some four months of parting And so we left them alone awhile to coddle over their raptures But when they were tired of that or at least had time enough to do so mother and I went in to know what news Tom had brought with him Though he did not seem to want us yet he made himself agreeable and so we sent Annie to cook the dinner while her sweetheart should tell us everything
Tom Faggus had very good news to tell and he told it with such force of expression as made us laugh very heartily He had taken up his purchase from old Sir Roger Bassett of a nice bit of land to the south of the moors and in the parish of Molland When the lawyers knew thoroughly who he was and how he had made his money they behaved uncommonly well to him and showed great sympathy with his pursuits He put them up to a thing or two and they poked him in the ribs and laughed and said that he was quite a boy but of the right sort none the less And so they made old Squire Bassett pay the bill for both sides and all he got for three hundred acres was a hundred and twenty pounds though Tom had paid five hundred But lawyers know that this must be so in spite of all their endeavours and the old gentleman who now expected to find a bill for him to pay almost thought himself a rogue for getting anything out of them
It is true that the land was poor and wild and the soil exceeding shallow lying on the slope of rock and burned up in hot summers But with us hot summers are things known by tradition only as this great winter may be we generally have more moisture especially in July than we well know what to do with I have known a fog for a fortnight at the summer solstice and farmers talking in church about it when they ought to be praying But it always contrives to come right in the end as other visitations do if we take them as true visits and receive them kindly
Now this farm of Squire Faggus as he truly now had a right to be called was of the very finest pasture when it got good store of rain And Tom who had ridden the Devonshire roads with many a reeking jacket knew right well that he might trust the climate for that matter The herbage was of the very sweetest and the shortest and the closest having perhaps from ten to eighteen inches of wholesome soil between it and the solid rock Tom saw at once what it was fit for—the breeding of fine cattle
Being such a hand as he was at making the most of everything both his own and other peoples although so free in scattering when the humour lay upon him he had actually turned to his own advantage that extraordinary weather which had so impoverished every one around him For he taught his Winnie who knew his meaning as well as any child could and obeyed not only his word of mouth but every glance he gave her to go forth in the snowy evenings when horses are seeking everywhere be they wild or tame for fodder and for shelter and to whinny to the forest ponies miles away from home perhaps and lead them all with rare appetites and promise of abundance to her masters homestead He shod good Winnie in such a manner that she could not sink in the snow and he clad her over the loins with a sheepskin dyed to her own colour which the wild horses were never tired of coming up and sniffing at taking it for an especial gift and proof of inspiration And Winnie never came home at night without at least a score of ponies trotting shyly after her tossing their heads and their tails in turn and making believe to be very wild although hard pinched by famine Of course Tom would get them all into his pound in about five minutes for he himself could neigh in a manner which went to the heart of the wildest horse And then he fed them well and turned them into his great cattle pen to abide their time for breaking when the snow and frost should be over
He had gotten more than three hundred now in this sagacious manner and he said it was the finest sight to see their mode of carrying on how they would snort and stamp and fume and prick their ears and rush backwards and lash themselves with their long rough tails and shake their jagged manes and scream and fall upon one another if a strange man came anigh them But as for feeding time Tom said it was better than fifty plays to watch them and the tricks they were up to to cheat their feeders and one another I asked him how on earth he had managed to get fodder in such impassable weather for such a herd of horses but he said that they lived upon straw and sawdust and he knew that I did not believe him any more than about his starshavings And this was just the thing he loved—to mystify honest people and be a great deal too knowing However I may judge him harshly because I myself tell everything
I asked him what he meant to do with all that enormous lot of horses and why he had not exerted his wits to catch the red deer as well He said that the latter would have been against the laws of venery and might have brought him into trouble but as for disposing of his stud it would give him little difficulty He would break them when the spring weather came on and deal with them as they required and keep the handsomest for breeding The rest he would despatch to London where he knew plenty of horsedealers and he doubted not that they would fetch him as much as ten pounds apiece all round being now in great demand I told him I wished that he might get it but as it proved afterwards he did
Then he pressed us both on another point the time for his marriage to Annie and mother looked at me to say when and I looked back at mother However knowing something of the world and unable to make any further objection by reason of his prosperity I said that we must even do as the fashionable people did and allow the maid herself to settle when she would leave home and all And this I spoke with a very bad grace being perhaps of an ancient cast and over fond of honesty—I mean of course among lower people
But Tom paid little heed to this knowing the world a great deal better than ever I could pretend to do and being ready to take a thing upon which he had set his mind whether it came with a good grace or whether it came with a bad one And seeing that it would be awkward to provoke my anger he left the room before more words to submit himself to Annie
Upon this I went in search of Lorna to tell her of our cousins arrival and to ask whether she would think fit to see him or to dine by herself that day for she should do exactly as it pleased her in everything while remaining still our guest But I rather wished that she might choose not to sit in Toms company though she might be introduced to him Not but what he could behave quite as well as could and much better as regarded elegance and assurance only that his honesty had not been as one might desire But Lorna had some curiosity to know what this famous man was like and declared that she would by all means have the pleasure of dining with him if he did not object to her company on the ground of the Doones dishonesty moreover she said that it would seem a most foolish air on her part and one which would cause the greatest pain to Annie who had been so good to her if she should refuse to sit at table with a man who held the Kings pardon and was now a pattern of honesty
Against this I had not a word to say and could not help acknowledging in my heart that she was right as well as wise in her decision And afterwards I discovered that mother would have been much displeased if she had decided otherwise
Accordingly she turned away with one of her very sweetest smiles whose beauty none can describe saying that she must not meet a man of such fashion and renown in her common gardening frock but must try to look as nice as she could if only in honour of dear Annie And truth to tell when she came to dinner everything about her was the neatest and prettiest that can possibly be imagined She contrived to match the colours so to suit one another and her own and yet with a certain delicate harmony of contrast and the shape of everything was so nice so that when she came into the room with a crown of winning modesty upon the consciousness of beauty I was quite as proud as if the Queen of England entered
My mother could not help remarking though she knew that it was not mannerly how like a princess Lorna looked now she had her best things on but two things caught Squire Fagguss eyes after he had made a most gallant bow and received a most graceful courtesy and he kept his bright bold gaze upon them first on one and then on the other until my darling was hot with blushes and I was ready to knock him down if he had not been our visitor But here again I should have been wrong as I was apt to be in those days for Tom intended no harm whatever and his gaze was of pure curiosity though Annie herself was vexed with it The two objects of his close regard were first and most worthily Lornas face and secondly the ancient necklace restored to her by Sir Ensor Doone
Now wishing to save my darlings comfort and to keep things quiet I shouted out that dinner was ready so that half the parish could hear me upon which my mother laughed and chid me and despatched her guests before her And a very good dinner we made I remember and a very happy one attending to the women first as now is the manner of eating except among the workmen With them of course it is needful that the man who has his hours fixed should be served first and make the utmost of his time for feeding while the women may go on as much as ever they please afterwards But with us who are not bound to time there is no such reason to be quoted and the women being the weaker vessels should be the first to begin to fill And so we always arranged it
Now though our Annie was a graceful maid and Lizzie a very learned one you should have seen how differently Lorna managed her dining she never took more than about a quarter of a mouthful at a time and she never appeared to be chewing that although she must have done so Indeed she appeared to dine as if it were a matter of no consequence and as if she could think of other things more than of her business All this and her own manner of eating I described to Eliza once when I wanted to vex her for something very spiteful that she had said and I never succeeded so well before for the girl was quite outrageous having her own perception of it which made my observation ten times as bitter to her And I am not sure but what she ceased to like poor Lorna from that day and if so I was quite paid out as I well deserved for my bit of satire
For it strikes me that of all human dealings satire is the very lowest and most mean and common It is the equivalent in words of what bullying is in deeds and no more bespeaks a clever man than the other does a brave one These two wretched tricks exalt a fool in his own low esteem but never in his neighbours for the deep common sense of our nature tells that no man of a genial heart or of any spread of mind can take pride in either And though a good man may commit the one fault or the other now and then by way of outlet he is sure to have compunctions soon and to scorn himself more than the sufferer
Now when the young maidens were gone—for we had quite a high dinner of fashion that day with Betty Muxworthy waiting and Gwenny Carfax at the gravy—and only mother and Tom and I remained at the white deal table with brandy and schnapps and hot water jugs Squire Faggus said quite suddenly and perhaps on purpose to take us aback in case of our hiding anything—What do you know of the history of that beautiful maiden good mother
Not half so much as my son does mother answered with a soft smile at me and when John does not choose to tell a thing wild horses will not pull it out of him
That is not at all like me mother I replied rather sadly you know almost every word about Lorna quite as well as I do
Almost every word I believe John for you never tell a falsehood But the few unknown may be of all the most important to me
To this I made no answer for fear of going beyond the truth or else of making mischief Not that I had or wished to have any mystery with mother neither was there in purest truth any mystery in the matter to the utmost of my knowledge And the only things that I had kept back solely for mothers comfort were the death of poor Lord Alan Brandir if indeed he were dead and the connection of Marwood de Whichehalse with the dealings of the Doones and the threats of Carver Doone against my own prosperity and may be one or two little things harrowing more than edifying
Come come said Master Faggus smiling very pleasantly you two understand each other if any two on earth do Ah if I had only had a mother how different I might have been And with that he sighed in the tone which always overcame mother upon that subject and had something to do with his getting Annie and then he produced his pretty box full of rolled tobacco and offered me one as I now had joined the goodly company of smokers So I took it and watched what he did with his own lest I might go wrong about mine
But when our cylinders were both lighted and I enjoying mine wonderfully and astonishing mother by my skill Tom Faggus told us that he was sure he had seen my Lornas face before many and many years ago when she was quite a little child but he could not remember where it was or anything more about it at present though he would try to do so afterwards He could not be mistaken he said for he had noticed her eyes especially and had never seen such eyes before neither again until this day I asked him if he had ever ventured into the Doonevalley but he shook his head and replied that he valued his life a deal too much for that Then we put it to him whether anything might assist his memory but he said that he knew not of aught to do so unless it were another glass of schnapps
This being provided he grew very wise and told us clearly and candidly that we were both very foolish For he said that we were keeping Lorna at the risk not only of our stock and the house above our heads but also of our precious lives and after all was she worth it although so very beautiful Upon which I told him with indignation that her beauty was the least part of her goodness and that I would thank him for his opinion when I had requested it
Bravo our John Ridd he answered fools will be fools till the end of the chapter and I might be as big a one if I were in thy shoes John Nevertheless in the name of God dont let that helpless child go about with a thing worth half the county on her
She is worth all the county herself said I and all England put together but she has nothing worth half a rick of hay upon her for the ring I gave her cost only—and here I stopped for mother was looking and I never would tell her how much it had cost me though she had tried fifty times to find out
Tush the ring Tom Faggus cried with a contempt that moved me I would never have stopped a man for that But the necklace you great oaf the necklace is worth all your farm put together and your Uncle Bens fortune to the back of it ay and all the town of Dulverton
What said I that common glass thing which she has had from her childhood
Glass indeed They are the finest brilliants ever I set eyes on and I have handled a good many
Surely cried mother now flushing as red as Toms own cheeks with excitement you must be wrong or the young mistress would herself have known it
I was greatly pleased with my mother for calling Lorna the young mistress it was not done for the sake of her diamonds whether they were glass or not but because she felt as I had done that Tom Faggus a man of no birth whatever was speaking beyond his mark in calling a lady like Lorna a helpless child as well as in his general tone which displayed no deference He might have been used to the quality in the way of stopping their coaches or roystering at hotels with them but he never had met a high lady before in equality and upon virtue and we both felt that he ought to have known it and to have thanked us for the opportunity in a word to have behaved a great deal more humbly than he had even tried to do
Trust me answered Tom in his loftiest manner which Annie said was so noble but which seemed to me rather flashy trust me good mother and simple John for knowing brilliants when I see them I would have stopped an eighthorse coach with four carabined outriders for such a booty as that But alas those days are over those were days worth living in Ah I never shall know the like again How fine it was by moonlight
Master Faggus began my mother with a manner of some dignity such as she could sometimes use by right of her integrity and thorough kindness to every one this is not the tone in which you have hitherto spoken to me about your former pursuits and life I fear that the spirits—but here she stopped because the spirits were her own and Tom was our visitor—what I mean Master Faggus is this you have won my daughters heart somehow and you won my consent to the matter through your honest sorrow and manly undertaking to lead a different life and touch no property but your own Annie is my eldest daughter and the child of a most upright man I love her best of all on earth next to my boy John here—here mother gave me a mighty squeeze to be sure that she would have me at least—and I will not risk my Annies life with a man who yearns for the highway
Having made this very long speech for her mother came home upon my shoulder and wept so that but for heeding her I would have taken Tom by the nose and thrown him and Winnie after him over our farmyard gate For I am violent when roused and freely hereby acknowledge it though even my enemies will own that it takes a great deal to rouse me But I do consider the grief and tears when justly caused of my dearest friends to be a great deal to rouse me
CHAPTER XLVII
JEREMY IN DANGER
Nothing very long abides as the greatest of all writers in whose extent I am for ever lost in raptured wonder and yet for ever quite at home as if his heart were mine although his brains so different in a word as Mr William Shakespeare in every one of his works insists with a humoured melancholy And if my journey to London led to nothing else of advancement it took me a hundred years in front of what I might else have been by the most simple accident
Two women were scolding one another across the road very violently both from upstair windows and I in my hurry for quiet life and not knowing what might come down upon me quickened my step for the nearest corner But suddenly something fell on my head and at first I was afraid to look especially as it weighed heavily But hearing no breakage of ware and only the other scold laughing heartily I turned me about and espied a book which one had cast at the other hoping to break her window So I took the book and tendered it at the door of the house from which it had fallen but the watchman came along just then and the man at the door declared that it never came from their house and begged me to say no more This I promised readily never wishing to make mischief and I said Good sir now take the book I will go on to my business But he answered that he would do no such thing for the book alone being hurled so hard would convict his people of a lewd assault and he begged me if I would do a good turn to put the book under my coat and go And so I did in part at least For I did not put the book under my coat but went along with it openly looking for any to challenge it Now this book so acquired has been not only the joy of my younger days and main delight of my manhood but also the comfort and even the hope of my now declining years In a word it is next to my Bible to me and written in equal English and if you espy any goodness whatever in my own loose style of writing you must not thank me John Ridd for it but the writer who holds the champions belt in wit as I once did in wrestling
Now as nothing very long abides it cannot be expected that a womans anger should last very long if she be at all of the proper sort And my mother being one of the very best could not long retain her wrath against the Squire Faggus especially when she came to reflect upon Annies suggestion how natural and one might say how inevitable it was that a young man fond of adventure and change and winning good profits by jeopardy should not settle down without some regrets to a fixed abode and a life of sameness however safe and respectable And even as Annie put the case Tom deserved the greater credit for vanquishing so nobly these yearnings of his nature and it seemed very hard to upbraid him considering how good his motives were neither could Annie understand how mother could reconcile it with her knowledge of the Bible and the one sheep that was lost and the hundredth piece of silver and the man that went down to Jericho
Whether Annies logic was good and sound I am sure I cannot tell but it seemed to me that she ought to have let the Jericho traveller alone inasmuch as he rather fell among Tom Fagusses than resembled them However her reasoning was too much for mother to hold out against and Tom was replaced and more than that being regarded now as an injured man But how my mother contrived to know that because she had been too hard upon Tom he must be right about the necklace is a point which I never could clearly perceive though no doubt she could explain it
To prove herself right in the conclusion she went herself to fetch Lorna that the trinket might be examined before the day grew dark My darling came in with a very quick glance and smile at my cigarro for I was having the third by this time to keep things in amity and I waved it towards her as much as to say you see that I can do it And then mother led her up to the light for Tom to examine her necklace
On the shapely curve of her neck it hung like dewdrops upon a white hyacinth and I was vexed that Tom should have the chance to see it there But even if she had read my thoughts or outrun them with her own Lorna turned away and softly took the jewels from the place which so much adorned them And as she turned away they sparkled through the rich dark waves of hair Then she laid the glittering circlet in my mothers hands and Tom Faggus took it eagerly and bore it to the window
Dont you go out of sight I said you cannot resist such things as those if they be what you think them
Jack I shall have to trounce thee yet I am now a man of honour and entitled to the duello What will you take for it Mistress Lorna At a hazard say now
I am not accustomed to sell things sir replied Lorna who did not like him much else she would have answered sportively What is it worth in your opinion
Do you think it is worth five pounds now
Oh no I never had so much money as that in all my life It is very bright and very pretty but it cannot be worth five pounds I am sure
What a chance for a bargain Oh if it were not for Annie I could make my fortune
But sir I would not sell it to you not for twenty times five pounds My grandfather was so kind about it and I think it belonged to my mother
There are twentyfive rose diamonds in it and twentyfive large brilliants that cannot be matched in London How say you Mistress Lorna to a hundred thousand pounds
My darlings eyes so flashed at this brighter than any diamonds that I said to myself Well all have faults and now I have found out Lornas—she is fond of money And then I sighed rather heavily for of all faults this seems to me one of the worst in a woman But even before my sigh was finished I had cause to condemn myself For Lorna took the necklace very quietly from the hands of Squire Faggus who had not half done with admiring it and she went up to my mother with the sweetest smile I ever saw
Dear kind mother I am so glad she said in a whisper coaxing mother out of sight of all but me now you will have it wont you dear And I shall be so happy for a thousandth part of your kindness to me no jewels in the world can match
I cannot lay before you the grace with which she did it all the air of seeking favour rather than conferring it and the highbred fear of giving offence which is of all fears the noblest Mother knew not what to say Of course she would never dream of taking such a gift as that and yet she saw how sadly Lorna would be disappointed Therefore mother did from habit what she almost always did she called me to help her But knowing that my eyes were full—for anything noble moves me so quite as rashly as things pitiful—I pretended not to hear my mother but to see a wild cat in the dairy
Therefore I cannot tell what mother said in reply to Lorna for when I came back quite eager to let my love know how I worshipped her and how deeply I was ashamed of myself for meanly wronging her in my heart behold Tom Faggus had gotten again the necklace which had such charms for him and was delivering all around but especially to Annie who was wondering at his learning a dissertation on precious stones and his sentiments about those in his hand He said that the work was very ancient but undoubtedly very good the cutting of every line was true and every angle was in its place And this he said made all the difference in the lustre of the stone and therefore in its value For if the facets were illmatched and the points of light so ever little out of perfect harmony all the lustre of the jewel would be loose and wavering and the central fire dulled instead of answering as it should to all possibilities of gaze and overpowering any eye intent on its deeper mysteries We laughed at the Squires dissertation for how should he know all these things being nothing better and indeed much worse than a mere Northmolton blacksmith He took our laughter with much good nature having Annie to squeeze his hand and convey her grief at our ignorance but he said that of one thing he was quite certain and therein I believed him To wit that a trinket of this kind never could have belonged to any ignoble family but to one of the very highest and most wealthy in England And looking at Lorna I felt that she must have come from a higher source than the very best of diamonds
Tom Faggus said that the necklace was made he would answer for it in Amsterdam two or three hundred years ago long before London jewellers had begun to meddle with diamonds and on the gold clasp he found some letters done in some inverted way the meaning of which was beyond him also a bearing of some kind which he believed was a mountaincat And thereupon he declared that now he had earned another glass of schnapps and would Mistress Lorna mix it for him
I was amazed at his impudence and Annie who thought this her business did not look best pleased and I hoped that Lorna would tell him at once to go and do it for himself But instead of that she rose to do it with a soft humility which went direct to the heart of Tom and he leaped up with a curse at himself and took the hot water from her and would not allow her to do anything except to put the sugar in and then he bowed to her grandly I knew what Lorna was thinking of she was thinking all the time that her necklace had been taken by the Doones with violence upon some great robbery and that Squire Faggus knew it though he would not show his knowledge and that this was perhaps the reason why mother had refused it so
We said no more about the necklace for a long time afterwards neither did my darling wear it now that she knew its value but did not know its history She came to me the very next day trying to look cheerful and begged me if I loved her never mind how little to take charge of it again as I once had done before and not even to let her know in what place I stored it I told her that this last request I could not comply with for having been round her neck so often it was now a sacred thing more than a million pounds could be Therefore it should dwell for the present in the neighbourhood of my heart and so could not be far from her At this she smiled her own sweet smile and touched my forehead with her lips and wished that she could only learn how to deserve such love as mine
Tom Faggus took his good departure which was a kind farewell to me on the very day I am speaking of the day after his arrival Tom was a thoroughly upright man according to his own standard and you might rely upon him always up to a certain point I mean to be there or thereabouts But sometimes things were too many for Tom especially with ardent spirits and then he judged perhaps too much with only himself for the jury At any rate I would trust him fully for candour and for honesty in almost every case in which he himself could have no interest And so we got on very well together and he thought me a fool and I tried my best not to think anything worse of him
Scarcely was Tom clean out of sight and Annies tears not dry yet for she always made a point of crying upon his departure when in came Master Jeremy Stickles splashed with mud from head to foot and not in the very best of humours though happy to get back again
Curse those fellows he cried with a stamp which sent the water hissing from his boot upon the embers a pretty plight you may call this for His Majestys Commissioner to return to his headquarters in Annie my dear for he was always very affable with Annie will you help me off with my overalls and then turn your pretty hand to the gridiron Not a blessed morsel have I touched for more than twentyfour hours
Surely then you must be quite starving sir my sister replied with the greatest zeal for she did love a man with an appetite how glad I am that the fire is clear But Lizzie who happened to be there said with her peculiar smile—
Master Stickles must be used to it for he never comes back without telling us that
Hush cried Annie quite shocked with her how would you like to be used to it Now Betty be quick with the things for me Pork or mutton or deers meat sir We have some cured since the autumn
Oh deers meat by all means Jeremy Stickles answered I have tasted none since I left you though dreaming of it often Well this is better than being chased over the moors for ones life John All the way from Landacre Bridge I have ridden a race for my precious life at the peril of my limbs and neck Three great Doones galloping after me and a good job for me that they were so big or they must have overtaken me Just go and see to my horse John thats an excellent lad He deserves a good turn this day from me and I will render it to him
However he left me to do it while he made himself comfortable and in truth the horse required care he was blown so that he could hardly stand and plastered with mud and steaming so that the stable was quite full with it By the time I had put the poor fellow to rights his master had finished dinner and was in a more pleasant humour having even offered to kiss Annie out of pure gratitude as he said but Annie answered with spirit that gratitude must not be shown by increasing the obligation Jeremy made reply to this that his only way to be grateful then was to tell us his story and so he did at greater length than I can here repeat it for it does not bear particularly upon Lornas fortunes
It appears that as he was riding towards us from the town of Southmolton in Devonshire he found the roads very soft and heavy and the floods out in all directions but met with no other difficulty until he came to Landacre Bridge He had only a single trooper with him a man not of the militia but of the Kings army whom Jeremy had brought from Exeter As these two descended towards the bridge they observed that both the Kensford water and the River Barle were pouring down in mighty floods from the melting of the snow So great indeed was the torrent after they united that only the parapets of the bridge could be seen above the water the road across either bank being covered and very deep on the hither side The trooper did not like the look of it and proposed to ride back again and round by way of Simonsbath where the stream is smaller But Stickles would not have it so and dashing into the river swam his horse for the bridge and gained it with some little trouble and there he found the water not more than up to his horses knees perhaps On the crown of the bridge he turned his horse to watch the troopers passage and to help him with directions when suddenly he saw him fall headlong into the torrent and heard the report of a gun from behind and felt a shock to his own body such as lifted him out of the saddle Turning round he beheld three men risen up from behind the hedge on one side of his onward road two of them ready to load again and one with his gun unfired waiting to get good aim at him Then Jeremy did a gallant thing for which I doubt whether I should have had the presence of mind in danger He saw that to swim his horse back again would be almost certain death as affording such a target where even a wound must be fatal Therefore he struck the spurs into the nag and rode through the water straight at the man who was pointing the long gun at him If the horse had been carried off his legs there must have been an end of Jeremy for the other men were getting ready to have another shot at him But luckily the horse galloped right on without any need for swimming being himself excited no doubt by all he had seen and heard of it And Jeremy lay almost flat on his neck so as to give little space for good aim with the mane tossing wildly in front of him Now if that young fellow with the gun had his brains as ready as his flint was he would have shot the horse at once and then had Stickles at his mercy but instead of that he let fly at the man and missed him altogether being scared perhaps by the pistol which Jeremy showed him the mouth of And galloping by at full speed Master Stickles tried to leave his mark behind him for he changed the aim of his pistol to the biggest man who was loading his gun and cursing like ten cannons But the pistol missed fire no doubt from the flood which had gurgled in over the holsters and Jeremy seeing three horses tethered at a gate just up the hill knew that he had not yet escaped but had more of danger behind him He tried his other great pistol at one of the horses tethered there so as to lessen if possible the number of his pursuers But the powder again failed him and he durst not stop to cut the bridles bearing the men coming up the hill So he even made the most of his start thanking God that his weight was light compared at least to what theirs was
And another thing he had noticed which gave him some hope of escaping to wit that the horses of the Doones although very handsome animals were suffering still from the bitter effects of the late long frost and the scarcity of fodder If they do not catch me up or shoot me in the course of the first two miles I may see my home again this was what he said to himself as he turned to mark what they were about from the brow of the steep hill He saw the flooded valley shining with the breadth of water and the troopers horse on the other side shaking his drenched flanks and neighing and halfway down the hill he saw the three Doones mounting hastily And then he knew that his only chance lay in the stoutness of his steed
The horse was in pretty good condition and the rider knew him thoroughly and how to make the most of him and though they had travelled some miles that day through very heavy ground the bath in the river had washed the mud off and been some refreshment Therefore Stickles encouraged his nag and put him into a good hard gallop heading away towards Withycombe At first he had thought of turning to the right and making off for Withypool a mile or so down the valley but his good sense told him that no one there would dare to protect him against the Doones so he resolved to go on his way yet faster than he had intended
The three villains came after him with all the speed they could muster making sure from the badness of the road that he must stick fast ere long and so be at their mercy And this was Jeremys chiefest fear for the ground being soft and thoroughly rotten after so much frost and snow the poor horse had terrible work of it with no time to pick the way and even more good luck than skill was needed to keep him from foundering How Jeremy prayed for an Exmoor fog such as he had often sworn at that he might turn aside and lurk while his pursuers went past him But no fog came nor even a storm to damp the priming of their guns neither was wood or coppice nigh nor any place to hide in only hills and moor and valleys with flying shadows over them and great banks of snow in the corners At one time poor Stickles was quite in despair for after leaping a little brook which crosses the track at Newland be stuck fast in a dancing bog as we call them upon Exmoor The horse had broken through the crust of moss and sedge and marishweed and could do nothing but wallow and sink with the black water spirting over him And Jeremy struggling with all his might saw the three villains now topping the crest less than a furlong behind him and heard them shout in their savage delight With the calmness of despair he yet resolved to have one more try for it and scrambling over the horses head gained firm land and tugged at the bridle The poor nag replied with all his power to the call upon his courage and reared his forefeet out of the slough and with straining eyeballs gazed at him Now said Jeremy now my fine fellow lifting him with the bridle and the brave beast gathered the roll of his loins and sprang from his quagmired haunches One more spring and he was on earth again instead of being under it and Jeremy leaped on his back and stooped for he knew that they would fire Two bullets whistled over him as the horse mad with fright dashed forward and in five minutes more he had come to the Exe and the pursuers had fallen behind him The Exe though a much smaller stream than the Barle now ran in a foaming torrent unbridged and too wide for leaping But Jeremys horse took the water well and both he and his rider were lightened as well as comforted by it And as they passed towards Lucott hill and struck upon the founts of Lynn the horses of the three pursuers began to tire under them Then Jeremy Stickles knew that if he could only escape the sloughs he was safe for the present and so he stood up in his stirrups and gave them a loud halloo as if they had been so many foxes
Their only answer was to fire the remaining charge at him but the distance was too great for any aim from horseback and the dropping bullet idly ploughed the sod upon one side of him He acknowledged it with a wave of his hat and laid one thumb to his nose in the manner fashionable in London for expression of contempt However they followed him yet farther hoping to make him pay out dearly if he should only miss the track or fall upon morasses But the neighbourhood of our Lynn stream is not so very boggy and the Kings messenger now knew his way as well as any of his pursuers did and so he arrived at Plovers Barrows thankful and in rare appetite
But was the poor soldier drowned asked Annie and you never went to look for him Oh how very dreadful
Shot or drowned I know not which Thank God it was only a trooper But they shall pay for it as dearly as if it had been a captain
And how was it you were struck by a bullet and only shaken in your saddle Had you a coat of mail on or of Milanese chainarmour Now Master Stickles had you
No Mistress Lizzie we do not wear things of that kind nowadays You are apt I perceive at romances But I happened to have a little flat bottle of the best stoneware slung beneath my saddlecloak and filled with the very best eau de vie from the George Hotel at Southmolton The brand of it now is upon my back Oh the murderous scoundrels what a brave spirit they have spilled
You had better set to and thank God said I that they have not spilled a braver one
CHAPTER XLVIII
EVERY MAN MUST DEFEND HIMSELF
It was only right in Jeremy Stickles and of the simplest common sense that he would not tell before our girls what the result of his journey was But he led me aside in the course of the evening and told me all about it saying that I knew as well as he did that it was not womans business This I took as it was meant for a gentle caution that Lorna whom he had not seen as yet must not be informed of any of his doings Herein I quite agreed with him not only for his furtherance but because I always think that women of whatever mind are best when least they meddle with the things that appertain to men
Master Stickles complained that the weather had been against him bitterly closing all the roads around him even as it had done with us It had taken him eight days he said to get from Exeter to Plymouth whither he found that most of the troops had been drafted off from Exeter When all were told there was but a battalion of one of the Kings horse regiments and two companies of foot soldiers and their commanders had orders later than the date of Jeremys commission on no account to quit the southern coast and march inland Therefore although they would gladly have come for a brush with the celebrated Doones it was more than they durst attempt in the face of their instructions However they spared him a single trooper as a companion of the road and to prove to the justices of the county and the lord lieutenant that he had their approval
To these authorities Master Stickles now was forced to address himself although he would rather have had one trooper than a score from the very best trained bands For these trained bands had afforded very good soldiers in the time of the civil wars and for some years afterwards but now their discipline was gone and the younger generation had seen no real fighting Each would have his own opinion and would want to argue it and if he were not allowed he went about his duty in such a temper as to prove that his own way was the best
Neither was this the worst of it for Jeremy made no doubt but what if he could only get the militia to turn out in force he might manage with the help of his own men to force the stronghold of the enemy but the truth was that the officers knowing how hard it would be to collect their men at that time of the year and in that state of the weather began with one accord to make every possible excuse And especially they pressed this point that Bagworthy was not in their county the Devonshire people affirming vehemently that it lay in the shire of Somerset and the Somersetshire folk averring even with imprecations that it lay in Devonshire Now I believe the truth to be that the boundary of the two counties as well as of Oare and Brendon parishes is defined by the Bagworthy river so that the disputants on both sides were both right and wrong
Upon this Master Stickles suggested and as I thought very sensibly that the two counties should unite and equally contribute to the extirpation of this pest which shamed and injured them both alike But hence arose another difficulty for the men of Devon said they would march when Somerset had taken the field and the sons of Somerset replied that indeed they were quite ready but what were their cousins of Devonshire doing And so it came to pass that the Kings Commissioner returned without any army whatever but with promise of two hundred men when the roads should be more passable And meanwhile what were we to do abandoned as we were to the mercies of the Doones with only our own hands to help us And herein I grieved at my own folly in having let Tom Faggus go whose wit and courage would have been worth at least half a dozen men to us Upon this matter I held long council with my good friend Stickles telling him all about Lornas presence and what I knew of her history He agreed with me that we could not hope to escape an attack from the outlaws and the more especially now that they knew himself to be returned to us Also he praised me for my forethought in having threshed out all our corn and hidden the produce in such a manner that they were not likely to find it Furthermore he recommended that all the entrances to the house should at once be strengthened and a watch must be maintained at night and he thought it wiser that I should go late as it was to Lynmouth if a horse could pass the valley and fetch every one of his mounted troopers who might now be quartered there Also if any men of courage though capable only of handling a pitchfork could be found in the neighbourhood I was to try to summon them But our district is so thinly peopled that I had little faith in this however my errand was given me and I set forth upon it for John Fry was afraid of the waters
Knowing how fiercely the floods were out I resolved to travel the higher road by Cosgate and through Countisbury therefore I swam my horse through the Lynn at the ford below our house where sometimes you may step across and thence galloped up and along the hills I could see all the inland valleys ribbond with broad waters and in every winding crook the banks of snow that fed them while on my right the turbid sea was flaked with April showers But when I descended the hill towards Lynmouth I feared that my journey was all in vain
For the East Lynn which is our river was ramping and roaring frightfully lashing whole trunks of trees on the rocks and rending them and grinding them And into it rushed from the opposite side a torrent even madder upsetting what it came to aid shattering wave with boiling billow and scattering wrath with fury It was certain death to attempt the passage and the little wooden footbridge had been carried away long ago And the men I was seeking must be of course on the other side of this deluge for on my side there was not a single house
I followed the bank of the flood to the beach some two or three hundred yards below and there had the luck to see Will Watcombe on the opposite side caulking an old boat Though I could not make him hear a word from the deafening roar of the torrent I got him to understand at last that I wanted to cross over Upon this he fetched another man and the two of them launched a boat and paddling well out to sea fetched round the mouth of the frantic river The other man proved to be Stickless chief mate and so he went back and fetched his comrades bringing their weapons but leaving their horses behind As it happened there were but four of them however to have even these was a help and I started again at full speed for my home for the men must follow afoot and cross our river high up on the moorland
This took them a long way round and the track was rather bad to find and the sky already darkening so that I arrived at Plovers Barrows more than two hours before them But they had done a sagacious thing which was well worth the delay for by hoisting their flag upon the hill they fetched the two watchmen from the Foreland and added them to their number
It was lucky that I came home so soon for I found the house in a great commotion and all the women trembling When I asked what the matter was Lorna who seemed the most selfpossessed answered that it was all her fault for she alone had frightened them And this in the following manner She had stolen out to the garden towards dusk to watch some favourite hyacinths just pushing up like a babys teeth and just attracting the fatal notice of a great housesnail at nighttime Lorna at last had discovered the glutton and was bearing him off in triumph to the tribunal of the ducks when she descried two glittering eyes glaring at her steadfastly from the elderbush beyond the stream The elder was smoothing its wrinkled leaves being at least two months behind time and among them this calm cruel face appeared and she knew it was the face of Carver Doone
The maiden although so used to terror as she told me once before lost all presence of mind hereat and could neither shriek nor fly but only gaze as if bewitched Then Carver Doone with his deadly smile gloating upon her horror lifted his long gun and pointed full at Lornas heart In vain she strove to turn away fright had stricken her stiff as stone With the inborn love of life she tried to cover the vital part wherein the winged death must lodge—for she knew Carvers certain aim—but her hands hung numbed and heavy in nothing but her eyes was life
With no sign of pity in his face no quiver of relenting but a wellpleased grin at all the charming palsy of his victim Carver Doone lowered inch by inch the muzzle of his gun When it pointed to the ground between her delicate arched insteps he pulled the trigger and the bullet flung the mould all over her It was a refinement of bullying for which I swore to God that night upon my knees in secret that I would smite down Carver Doone or else he should smite me down Base beast what largest humanity or what dreams of divinity could make a man put up with this
My darling the loveliest and most harmless in the world of maidens fell away on a bank of grass and wept at her own cowardice and trembled and wondered where I was and what I would think of this Good God What could I think of it She overrated my slow nature to admit the question
While she leaned there quite unable yet to save herself Carver came to the brink of the flood which alone was between them and then he stroked his jetblack beard and waited for Lorna to begin Very likely he thought that she would thank him for his kindness to her But she was now recovering the power of her nimble limbs and ready to be off like hope and wonder at her own cowardice
I have spared you this time he said in his deep calm voice only because it suits my plans and I never yield to temper But unless you come back tomorrow pure and with all you took away and teach me to destroy that fool who has destroyed himself for you your death is here your death is here where it has long been waiting
Although his gun was empty he struck the breech of it with his finger and then he turned away not deigning even once to look back again and Lorna saw his giant figure striding across the meadowland as if the Ridds were nobodies and he the proper owner Both mother and I were greatly hurt at hearing of this insolence for we had owned that meadow from the time of the great Alfred and even when that good king lay in the Isle of Athelney he had a Ridd along with him
Now I spoke to Lorna gently seeing how much she had been tried and I praised her for her courage in not having run away when she was so unable and my darling was pleased with this and smiled upon me for saying it though she knew right well that in this matter my judgment was not impartial But you may take this as a general rule that a woman likes praise from the man whom she loves and cannot stop always to balance it
Now expecting a sharp attack that night—when Jeremy Stickles the more expected after the words of Carver which seemed to be meant to mislead us—we prepared a great quantity of knuckles of pork and a ham in full cut and a fillet of hung mutton For we would almost surrender rather than keep our garrison hungry And all our men were exceedingly brave and counted their rounds of the house in halfpints
Before the maidens went to bed Lorna made a remark which seemed to me a very clever one and then I wondered how on earth it had never occurred to me before But first she had done a thing which I could not in the least approve of for she had gone up to my mother and thrown herself into her arms and begged to be allowed to return to Glen Doone
My child are you unhappy here mother asked her very gently for she had begun to regard her now as a daughter of her own
Oh no Too happy by far too happy Mrs Ridd I never knew rest or peace before or met with real kindness But I cannot be so ungrateful I cannot be so wicked as to bring you all into deadly peril for my sake alone Let me go you must not pay this great price for my happiness
Dear child we are paying no price at all replied my mother embracing her we are not threatened for your sake only Ask John he will tell you He knows every bit about politics and this is a political matter
Dear mother was rather proud in her heart as well as terribly frightened at the importance now accruing to Plovers Barrows farm and she often declared that it would be as famous in history as the Rye House or the Mealtub or even the great black box in which she was a firm believer and even my knowledge of politics could not move her upon that matter Such things had happened before she would say shaking her head with its wisdom and why might they not happen again Women would be women and men would be men to the end of the chapter and if she had been in Lucy Waters place she would keep it quiet as she had done and then she would look round for fear lest either of her daughters had heard her but now can you give me any reason why it may not have been so You are so fearfully positive John just as men always are No I used to say I can give you no reason why it may not have been so mother But the question is if it was so or not rather than what it might have been And I think it is pretty good proof against it that what nine men of every ten in England would only too gladly believe if true is nevertheless kept dark from them There you are again John mother would reply all about men and not a single word about women If you had any argument at all you would own that marriage is a question upon which women are the best judges Oh I would groan in my spirit and go leaving my dearest mother quite sure that now at last she must have convinced me But if mother had known that Jeremy Stickles was working against the black box and its issue I doubt whether he would have fared so well even though he was a visitor However she knew that something was doing and something of importance and she trusted in God for the rest of it Only she used te tell me very seriously of an evening The very least they can give you dear John is a coat of arms Be sure you take nothing less dear and the farm can well support it
But lo I have left Lorna ever so long anxious to consult me upon political matters She came to me and her eyes alone asked a hundred questions which I rather had answered upon her lips than troubled her pretty ears with them Therefore I told her nothing at all save that the attack if any should be would not be made on her account and that if she should hear by any chance a trifle of a noise in the night she was to wrap the clothes around her and shut her beautiful eyes again On no account whatever she did was she to go to the window She liked my expression about her eyes and promised to do the very best she could and then she crept so very close that I needs must have her closer and with her head on my breast she asked—
Cant you keep out of this fight John
My own one I answered gazing through the long black lashes at the depths of radiant love I believe there will be nothing but what there is I must see out
Shall I tell you what I think John It is only a fancy of mine and perhaps it is not worth telling
Let us have it dear by all means You know so much about their ways
What I believe is this John You know how high the rivers are higher than ever they were before and twice as high you have told me I believe that Glen Doone is flooded and all the houses under water
You little witch I answered what a fool I must be not to think of it Of course it is it must be The torrent from all the Bagworthy forest and all the valleys above it and the great drifts in the glen itself never could have outlet down my famous waterslide The valley must be under water twenty feet at least Well if ever there was a fool I am he for not having thought of it
I remember once before said Lorna reckoning on her fingers when there was heavy rain all through the autumn and winter five or it may be six years ago the river came down with such a rush that the water was two feet deep in our rooms and we all had to camp by the cliffedge But you think that the floods are higher now I believe I heard you say John
I dont think about it my treasure I answered you may trust me for understanding floods after our work at Tiverton And I know that the deluge in all our valleys is such that no living man can remember neither will ever behold again Consider three months of snow snow snow and a fortnight of rain on the top of it and all to be drained in a few days away And great barricades of ice still in the rivers blocking them up and ponding them You may take my word for it Mistress Lorna that your pretty bower is six feet deep
Well my bower has served its time said Lorna blushing as she remembered all that had happened there and my bower now is here John But I am so sorry to think of all the poor women flooded out of their houses and sheltering in the snowdrifts However there is one good of it they cannot send many men against us with all this trouble upon them
You are right I replied how clever you are and that is why there were only three to cut off Master Stickles And now we shall beat them I make no doubt even if they come at all And I defy them to fire the house the thatch is too wet for burning
We sent all the women to bed quite early except Gwenny Carfax and our old Betty These two we allowed to stay up because they might be useful to us if they could keep from quarreling For my part I had little fear after what Lorna had told me as to the result of the combat It was not likely that the Doones could bring more than eight or ten men against us while their homes were in such danger and to meet these we had eight good men including Jeremy and myself all well armed and resolute besides our three farmservants and the parishclerk and the shoemaker These five could not be trusted much for any valiant conduct although they spoke very confidently over their cans of cider Neither were their weapons fitted for much execution unless it were at close quarters which they would be likely to avoid Bill Dadds had a sickle Jem Slocombe a flail the cobbler had borrowed the constables staff for the constable would not attend because there was no warrant and the parish clerk had brought his pitchpipe which was enough to break any mans head But John Fry of course had his blunderbuss loaded with tintacks and marbles and more likely to kill the man who discharged it than any other person but we knew that John had it only for show and to describe its qualities
Now it was my great desire and my chiefest hope to come across Carver Doone that night and settle the score between us not by any shot in the dark but by a conflict man to man As yet since I came to fullgrown power I had never met any one whom I could not play teetotum with but now at last I had found a man whose strength was not to be laughed at I could guess it in his face I could tell it in his arms I could see it in his stride and gait which more than all the rest betray the substance of a man And being so well used to wrestling and to judge antagonists I felt that here if anywhere I had found my match
Therefore I was not content to abide within the house or go the rounds with the troopers but betook myself to the rick yard knowing that the Doones were likely to begin their onset there For they had a pleasant custom when they visited farmhouses of lighting themselves towards picking up anything they wanted or stabbing the inhabitants by first creating a blaze in the rick yard And though our ricks were all now of mere straw except indeed two of prime cloverhay and although on the top they were so wet that no firebrands might hurt them I was both unwilling to have them burned and fearful that they might kindle if well roused up with fire upon the windward side
By the bye these Doones had got the worst of this pleasant trick one time For happening to fire the ricks of a lonely farm called Yeanworthy not far above Glenthorne they approached the house to get peoples goods and to enjoy their terror The master of the farm was lately dead and had left inside the clockcase loaded the great long gun wherewith he had used to sport at the ducks and the geese on the shore Now Widow Fisher took out this gun and not caring much what became of her for she had loved her husband dearly she laid it upon the windowsill which looked upon the rickyard and she backed up the butt with a chest of oak drawers and she opened the window a little back and let the muzzle out on the slope Presently five or six fine young Doones came dancing a reel as their manner was betwixt her and the flaming rick Upon which she pulled the trigger with all the force of her thumb and a quarter of a pound of duckshot went out with a blaze on the dancers You may suppose what their dancing was and their reeling how changed to staggering and their music none of the sweetest One of them fell into the rick and was burned and buried in a ditch next day but the others were set upon their horses and carried home on a path of blood And strange to say they never avenged this very dreadful injury but having heard that a woman had fired this desperate shot among them they said that she ought to be a Doone and inquired how old she was
Now I had not been so very long waiting in our mowyard with my best gun ready and a big club by me before a heaviness of sleep began to creep upon me The flow of water was in my ears and in my eyes a hazy spreading and upon my brain a closure as a cobbler sews a vamp up So I leaned back in the cloverrick and the dust of the seed and the smell came round me without any trouble and I dozed about Lorna just once or twice and what she had said about newmown hay and then back went my head and my chin went up and if ever a man was blest with slumber down it came upon me and away went I into it
Now this was very vile of me and against all good resolutions even such as I would have sworn to an hour ago or less But if you had been in the water as I had ay and had long fight with it after a good days work and then great anxiety afterwards and brainwork which is not fair for me and upon that a stout supper mayhap you would not be so hard on my sleep though you felt it your duty to wake me
CHAPTER XLIX
MAIDEN SENTINELS ARE BEST
It was not likely that the outlaws would attack out premises until some time after the moon was risen because it would be too dangerous to cross the flooded valleys in the darkness of the night And but for this consideration I must have striven harder against the stealthy approach of slumber But even so it was very foolish to abandon watch especially in such as I who sleep like any dormouse Moreover I had chosen the very worst place in the world for such employment with a goodly chance of awakening in a bed of solid fire
And so it might have been nay it must have been but for Lornas vigilance Her light hand upon my arm awoke me not too readily and leaping up I seized my club and prepared to knock down somebody
Whos that I cried stand back I say and let me have fair chance at you
Are you going to knock me down dear John replied the voice I loved so well I am sure I should never get up again after one blow from you John
My darling is it you I cried and breaking all your orders Come back into the house at once and nothing on your head dear
How could I sleep while at any moment you might be killed beneath my window And now is the time of real danger for men can see to travel
I saw at once the truth of this The moon was high and clearly lighting all the watered valleys To sleep any longer might be death not only to myself but all
The man on guard at the back of the house is fast asleep she continued Gwenny who let me out and came with me has heard him snoring for two hours I think the women ought to be the watch because they have had no travelling Where do you suppose little Gwenny is
Surely not gone to Glen Doone I was not sure however for I could believe almost anything of the Cornish maidens hardihood
No replied Lorna although she wanted even to do that But of course I would not hear of it on account of the swollen waters But she is perched on yonder tree which commands the Barrow valley She says that they are almost sure to cross the streamlet there and now it is so wide and large that she can trace it in the moonlight half a mile beyond her If they cross she is sure to see them and in good time to let us know
What a shame I cried that the men should sleep and the maidens be the soldiers I will sit in that tree myself and send little Gwenny back to you Go to bed my best and dearest I will take good care not to sleep again
Please not to send me away dear John she answered very mournfully you and I have been together through perils worse than this I shall only be more timid and more miserable indoors
I cannot let you stay here I said it is altogether impossible Do you suppose that I can fight with you among the bullets Lorna If this is the way you mean to take it we had better go both to the appleroom and lock ourselves in and hide under the tiles and let them burn all the rest of the premises
At this idea Lorna laughed as I could see by the moonlight and then she said—
You are right John I should only do more harm than good and of all things I hate fighting most and disobedience next to it Therefore I will go indoors although I cannot go to bed But promise me one thing dearest John You will keep yourself out of the way now wont you as much as you can for my sake
Of that you may be quite certain Lorna I will shoot them all through the hayricks
That is right dear she answered never doubting but what I could do it and then they cannot see you you know But dont think of climbing that tree John it is a great deal too dangerous It is all very well for Gwenny she has no bones to break
None worth breaking you mean I suppose Very well I will not climb the tree for I should defeat my own purpose I fear being such a conspicuous object Now go indoors darling without more words The more you linger the more I shall keep you
She laughed her own bright laugh at this and only said God keep you love and then away she tripped across the yard with the step I loved to watch so And thereupon I shouldered arms and resolved to tramp till morning For I was vexed at my own neglect and that Lorna should have to right it
But before I had been long on duty making the round of the ricks and stables and hailing Gwenny now and then from the bottom of her tree a short wide figure stole towards me in and out the shadows and I saw that it was no other than the little maid herself and that she bore some tidings
Ten on em crossed the watter down yonner said Gwenny putting her hand to her mouth and seeming to regard it as good news rather than otherwise be arl craping up by hedgerow now I could shutt dree on em from the bar of the gate if so be I had your goon young man
There is no time to lose Gwenny Run to the house and fetch Master Stickles and all the men while I stay here and watch the rickyard
Perhaps I was wrong in heeding the ricks at such a time as that especially as only the clover was of much importance But it seemed to me like a sort of triumph that they should be even able to boast of having fired our mowyard Therefore I stood in a nick of the clover whence we had cut some trusses with my club in hand and gun close by
The robbers rode into our yard as coolly as if they had been invited having lifted the gate from the hinges first on account of its being fastened Then they actually opened our stabledoors and turned our honest horses out and put their own rogues in the place of them At this my breath was quite taken away for we think so much of our horses By this time I could see our troopers waiting in the shadow of the house round the corner from where the Doones were and expecting the order to fire But Jeremy Stickles very wisely kept them in readiness until the enemy should advance upon them
Two of you lazy fellows go it was the deep voice of Carver Doone and make us a light to cut their throats by Only one thing once again If any man touches Lorna I will stab him where he stands She belongs to me There are two other young damsels here whom you may take away if you please And the mother I hear is still comely Now for our rights We have borne too long the insolence of these yokels Kill every man and every child and burn the cursed place down
As he spoke thus blasphemously I set my gun against his breast and by the light buckled from his belt I saw the little sight of brass gleaming alike upon either side and the sleek round barrel glimmering The aim was sure as death itself If I only drew the trigger which went very lighily Carver Doone would breathe no more And yet—will you believe me—I could not pull the trigger Would to God that I had done so
For I never had taken human life neither done bodily harm to man beyond the little bruises and the trifling aches and pains which follow a good and honest bout in the wrestling ring Therefore I dropped my carbine and grasped again my club which seemed a more straightforward implement
Presently two young men came towards me bearing brands of resined hemp kindled from Carvers lamp The foremost of them set his torch to the rick within a yard of me and smoke concealing me from him I struck him with a backhanded blow on the elbow as he bent it and I heard the bone of his arm break as clearly as ever I heard a twig snap With a roar of pain he fell on the ground and his torch dropped there and singed him The other man stood amazed at this not having yet gained sight of me till I caught his firebrand from his hand and struck it into his countenance With that he leaped at me but I caught him in a manner learned from early wrestling and snapped his collarbone as I laid him upon the top of his comrade
This little success so encouraged me that I was half inclined to advance and challenge Carver Doone to meet me but I bore in mind that he would be apt to shoot me without ceremony and what is the utmost of human strength against the power of powder Moreover I remembered my promise to sweet Lorna and who would be left to defend her if the rogues got rid of me
While I was hesitating thus for I always continue to hesitate except in actual conflict a blaze of fire lit up the house and brown smoke hung around it Six of our men had let go at the Doones by Jeremy Stickles order as the villains came swaggering down in the moonlight ready for rape or murder Two of them fell and the rest hung back to think at their leisure what this was They were not used to this sort of thing it was neither just nor courteous
Being unable any longer to contain myself as I thought of Lornas excitement at all this noise of firing I came across the yard expecting whether they would shoot at me However no one shot at me and I went up to Carver Doone whom I knew by his size in the moonlight and I took him by the beard and said Do you call yourself a man
For a moment he was so astonished that he could not answer None had ever dared I suppose to look at him in that way and he saw that he had met his equal or perhaps his master And then he tried a pistol at me but I was too quick for him
Now Carver Doone take warning I said to him very soberly you have shown yourself a fool by your contempt of me I may not be your match in craft but I am in manhood You are a despicable villain Lie low in your native muck
And with that word I laid him flat upon his back in our strawyard by a trick of the inner heel which he could not have resisted though his strength had been twice as great as mine unless he were a wrestler Seeing him down the others ran though one of them made a shot at me and some of them got their horses before our men came up and some went away without them And among these last was Captain Carver who arose while I was feeling myself for I had a little wound and strode away with a train of curses enough to poison the light of the moon
We gained six very good horses by this attempted rapine as well as two young prisoners whom I had smitten by the cloverrick And two dead Doones were left behind whom as we buried them in the churchyard without any service over them I for my part was most thankful that I had not killed For to have the life of a fellowman laid upon ones conscience—deserved he his death or deserved it not—is to my sense of right and wrong the heaviest of all burdens and the one that wears most deeply inwards with the dwelling of the mind on this view and on that of it
I was inclined to pursue the enemy and try to capture more of them but Jeremy Stickles would not allow it for he said that all the advantage would be upon their side if we went hurrying after them with only the moon to guide us And who could tell but what there might be another band of them ready to fall upon the house and burn it and seize the women if we left them unprotected When he put the case thus I was glad enough to abide by his decision And one thing was quite certain that the Doones had never before received so rude a shock and so violent a blow to their supremacy since first they had built up their power and become the Lords of Exmoor I knew that Carver Doone would gnash those mighty teeth of his and curse the men around him for the blunder which was in truth his own of overconfidence and carelessness And at the same time all the rest would feel that such a thing had never happened while old Sir Ensor was alive and that it was caused by nothing short of gross mismanagement
I scarcely know who made the greatest fuss about my little wound mother or Annie or Lorna I was heartily ashamed to be so treated like a milksop but most unluckily it had been impossible to hide it For the ball had cut along my temple just above the eyebrow and being fired so near at hand the powder too had scarred me Therefore it seemed a great deal worse than it really was and the sponging and the plastering and the sobbing and the moaning made me quite ashamed to look Master Stickles in the face
However at last I persuaded them that I had no intention of giving up the ghost that night and then they all fell to and thanked God with an emphasis quite unknown in church And hereupon Master Stickles said in his free and easy manner for no one courted his observation that I was the luckiest of all mortals in having a mother and a sister and a sweetheart to make much of me For his part he said he was just as well off in not having any to care for him For now he might go and get shot or stabbed or knocked on the head at his pleasure without any one being offended I made bold upon this to ask him what was become of his wife for I had heard him speak of having one He said that he neither knew nor cared and perhaps I should be like him some day That Lorna should hear such sentiments was very grievous to me But she looked at me with a smile which proved her contempt for all such ideas and lest anything still more unfit might be said I dismissed the question
But Master Stickles told me afterwards when there was no one with us to have no faith in any woman whatever she might seem to be For he assured me that now he possessed very large experience for so small a matter being thoroughly acquainted with women of every class from ladies of the highest blood to Bonarobas and peasants wives and that they all might be divided into three heads and no more that is to say as follows First the very hot and passionate who were only contemptible second the cold and indifferent who were simply odious and third the mixture of the other two who had the bad qualities of both As for reason none of them had it it was like a sealed book to them which if they ever tried to open they began at the back of the cover
Now I did not like to hear such things and to me they appeared to be insolent as well as narrowminded For if you came to that why might not men as well as women be divided into the same three classes and be pronounced upon by women as beings even more devoid than their gentle judges of reason Moreover I knew both from my own sense and from the greatest of all great poets that there are and always have been plenty of women good and gentle warmhearted loving and lovable very keen moreover at seeing the right be it by reason or otherwise And upon the whole I prefer them much to the people of my own sex as goodness of heart is more important than to show good reason for having it And so I said to Jeremy—
You have been illtreated perhaps Master Stickles by some woman or other
Ah that have I he replied with an oath and the last on earth who should serve me so the woman who was my wife A woman whom I never struck never wronged in any way never even let her know that I like another better And yet when I was at Berwick last with the regiment on guard there against those vile mosstroopers what does that woman do but fly in the face of all authority and of my especial business by running away herself with the biggest of all mosstroopers Not that I cared a groat about her and I wish the fool well rid of her but the insolence of the thing was such that everybody laughed at me and back I went to London losing a far better and safer job than this and all through her Come lets have another onion
Master Stickless view of the matter was so entirely unromantic that I scarcely wondered at Mistress Stickles for having run away from him to an adventurous mosstrooper For nine women out of ten must have some kind of romance or other to make their lives endurable and when their love has lost this attractive element this soft dewfog if such it be the love itself is apt to languish unless its bloom be well replaced by the budding hopes of children Now Master Stickles neither had nor wished to have any children
Without waiting for any warrant only saying something about captus in flagrante delicto—if that be the way to spell it—Stickles sent our prisoners off bound and looking miserable to the jail at Taunton I was desirous to let them go free if they would promise amendment but although I had taken them and surely therefore had every right to let them go again Master Stickles said Not so He assured me that it was a matter of public polity and of course not knowing what he meant I could not contradict him but thought that surely my private rights ought to be respected For if I throw a man in wrestling I expect to get his stakes and if I take a man prisoner—why he ought in common justice to belong to me and I have a good right to let him go if I think proper to do so However Master Stickles said that I was quite benighted and knew nothing of the Constitution which was the very thing I knew beyond any man in our parish
Nevertheless it was not for me to contradict a commissioner and therefore I let my prisoners go and wished them a happy deliverance Stickles replied with a merry grin that if ever they got it it would be a jail deliverance and the bliss of dancing and he laid his hand to his throat in a manner which seemed to me most uncourteous However his foresight proved too correct for both those poor fellows were executed soon after the next assizes Lorna had done her very best to earn another chance for them even going down on her knees to that common Jeremy and pleading with great tears for them However although much moved by her he vowed that he durst do nothing else To set them free was more than his own life was worth for all the country knew by this time that two captive Doones were roped to the ciderpress at Plovers Barrows Annie bound the broken arm of the one whom I had knocked down with the club and I myself supported it and then she washed and rubbed with lard the face of the other poor fellow which the torch had injured and I fetched back his collarbone to the best of my ability For before any surgeon could arrive they were off with a wellarmed escort That day we were reinforced so strongly from the stations along the coast even as far as Minehead that we not only feared no further attack but even talked of assaulting Glen Doone without waiting for the trainbands However I thought that it would be mean to take advantage of the enemy in the thick of the floods and confusion and several of the others thought so too and did not like fighting in water Therefore it was resolved to wait and keep a watch upon the valley and let the floods go down again
CHAPTER L
A MERRY MEETING A SAD ONE
Now the business I had most at heart as every one knows by this time was to marry Lorna as soon as might be if she had no objection and then to work the farm so well as to nourish all our family And herein I saw no difficulty for Annie would soon be off our hands and somebody might come and take a fancy to little Lizzie who was growing up very nicely now though not so fine as Annie moreover we were almost sure to have great store of hay and corn after so much snow if there be any truth in the old saying—
A foot deep of rain Will kill hay and grain But three feet of snow Will make them come mo
And although it was too true that we had lost a many cattle yet even so we had not lost money for the few remaining fetched such prices as were never known before And though we grumbled with all our hearts and really believed at one time that starvation was upon us I doubt whether on the whole we were not the fatter and the richer and the wiser for that winter And I might have said the happier except for the sorrow which we felt at the failures among our neighbours The Snowes lost every sheep they had and nine out of ten horned cattle and poor Jasper Kebby would have been forced to throw up the lease of his farm and perhaps to go to prison but for the help we gave him
However my dear mother would have it that Lorna was too young as yet to think of being married and indeed I myself was compelled to admit that her form was becoming more perfect and lovely though I had not thought it possible And another difficulty was that as we had all been Protestants from the time of Queen Elizabeth the maiden must be converted first and taught to hate all Papists Now Lorna had not the smallest idea of ever being converted She said that she loved me truly but wanted not to convert me and if I loved her equally why should I wish to convert her With this I was tolerably content not seeing so very much difference between a creed and a credo and believing God to be our Father in Latin as well as English Moreover my darling knew but little of the Popish ways—whether excellent or otherwise—inasmuch as the Doones though they stole their houses or at least the joiners work had never been tempted enough by the devil to steal either church or chapel
Lorna came to our little church when Parson Bowden reappeared after the snow was over and she said that all was very nice and very like what she had seen in the time of her Aunt Sabina when they went far away to the little chapel with a shilling in their gloves It made the tears come into her eyes by the force of memory when Parson Bowden did the things not so gracefully nor so well yet with pleasant imitation of her old Priests sacred rites
He is a worthy man she said being used to talk in the service time and my mother was obliged to cough I like him very much indeed but I wish he would let me put his things the right way on his shoulders
Everybody in our parish who could walk at all or hire a boy and a wheelbarrow ay and half the folk from Countisbury Brendon and even Lynmouth was and were to be found that Sunday in our little church of Oare People who would not come anigh us when the Doones were threatening with carbine and with firebrand flocked in their very best clothes to see a lady Doone go to church Now all this came of that vile John Fry I knew it as well as possible his tongue was worse than the clacker of a charityschool bell or the ladle in the fryingpan when the bees are swarming
However Lorna was not troubled partly because of her natural dignity and gentleness partly because she never dreamed that the people were come to look at her But when we came to the Psalms of the day with some vague sense of being stared at more than ought to be she dropped the heavy black lace fringing of the velvet hat she wore and concealed from the congregation all except her bright red lips and the oval snowdrift of her chin I touched her hand and she pressed mine and we felt that we were close together and God saw no harm in it
As for Parson Bowden as worthy a man as ever lived and one who could shoot flying he scarcely knew what he was doing without the clerk to help him He had borne it very well indeed when I returned from London but to see a live Doone in his church and a lady Doone and a lovely Doone moreover one engaged to me upon whom he almost looked as the Squire of his parish although not rightly an Armiger and to feel that this lovely Doone was a Papist and therefore of higher religion—as all our parsons think—and that she knew exactly how he ought to do all the service of which he himself knew little I wish to express my firm belief that all these things together turned Parson Bowdens head a little and made him look to me for orders
My mother the very best of women was as I could well perceive a little annoyed and vexed with things For this particular occasion she had procured from Dulverton by special message to Ruth Huckaback whereof more anon a headdress with a feather never seen before upon Exmoor to the best of every ones knowledge It came from a bird called a flaming something—a flaming oh or a flaming ah I will not be positive—but I can assure you that it did flame and dear mother had no other thought but that all the congregation would neither see nor think of any other mortal thing or immortal even to the very end of the sermon
Herein she was so disappointed that no sooner did she get home but upstairs she went at speed not even stopping at the mirror in our little parlour and flung the whole thing into a cupboard as I knew by the bang of the door having eased the lock for her lately Lorna saw there was something wrong and she looked at Annie and Lizzie as more likely to understand it with her former timid glance which I knew so well and which had first enslaved me
I know not what ails mother said Annie who looked very beautiful with lilac lutestring ribbons which I saw the Snowe girls envying but she has not attended to one of the prayers nor said Amen all the morning Never fear darling Lorna it is nothing about you It is something about our John I am sure for she never worries herself very much about anybody but him And here Annie made a look at me such as I had had five hundred of
You keep your opinions to yourself I replied because I knew the dear and her little bits of jealousy it happens that you are quite wrong this time Lorna come with me my darling
Oh yes Lorna go with him cried Lizzie dropping her lip in a way which you must see to know its meaning John wants nobody now but you and none can find fault with his taste dear
You little fool I should think not I answered very rudely for betwixt the lot of them my Lornas eyelashes were quivering now dearest angel come with me and snap your hands at the whole of them
My angel did come with a sigh and then with a smile when we were alone but without any unangelic attempt at snapping her sweet white fingers
These little things are enough to show that while every one so admired Lorna and so kindly took to her still there would just now and then be petty and paltry flashes of jealousy concerning her and perhaps it could not be otherwise among so many women However we were always doubly kind to her afterwards and although her mind was so sensitive and quick that she must have suffered she never allowed us to perceive it nor lowered herself by resenting it
Possibly I may have mentioned that little Ruth Huckaback had been asked and had even promised to spend her Christmas with us and this was the more desirable because she had left us through some offence or sorrow about things said of her Now my dear mother being the kindest and besthearted of all women could not bear that poor dear Ruth who would some day have such a fortune should be entirely lost to us It is our duty my dear children she said more than once about it to forgive and forget as freely as we hope to have it done to us If dear little Ruth has not behaved quite as we might have expected great allowance should be made for a girl with so much money Designing people get hold of her and flatter her and coax her to obtain a base influence over her so that when she falls among simple folk who speak the honest truth of her no wonder the poor child is vexed and gives herself airs and so on Ruth can be very useful to us in a number of little ways and I consider it quite a duty to pardon her freak of petulance
Now one of the little ways in which Ruth had been very useful was the purchase of the scarlet feathers of the flaming bird and now that the house was quite safe from attack and the mark on my forehead was healing I was begged over and over again to go and see Ruth and make all things straight and pay for the gorgeous plumage This last I was very desirous to do that I might know the price of it having made a small bet on the subject with Annie and having held counsel with myself whether or not it were possible to get something of the kind for Lorna of still more distinguished appearance Of course she could not wear scarlet as yet even if I had wished it but I believed that people of fashion often wore purple for mourning purple too was the royal colour and Lorna was by right a queen therefore I was quite resolved to ransack Uncle Reubens stores in search of some bright purple bird if nature had kindly provided one
All this however I kept to myself intending to trust Ruth Huckaback and no one else in the matter And so one beautiful spring morning when all the earth was kissed with scent and all the air caressed with song up the lane I stoutly rode well armed and well provided
Now though it is part of my life to heed it is no part of my tale to tell how the wheat was coming on I reckon that you who read this story after I am dead and gone and before that none shall read it will say Tush What is his wheat to us We are not wheat we are human beings and all we care for is human doings This may be very good argument and in the main I believe that it is so Nevertheless if a man is to tell only what he thought and did and not what came around him he must not mention his own clothes which his father and mother bought for him And more than my own clothes to me ay and as much as my own skin are the works of nature round about whereof a man is the smallest
And now I will tell you although most likely only to be laughed at because I cannot put it in the style of Mr Dryden—whom to compare to Shakespeare but if once I begin upon that you will never hear the last of me—nevertheless I will tell you this not wishing to be rude but only just because I know it the more a man can fling his arms so to say round Natures neck the more he can upon her bosom like an infant lie and suck—the more that man shall earn the trust and love of all his fellow men
In this matter is no jealousy when the man is dead because thereafter all others know how much of the milk be had and he can suck no longer and they value him accordingly for the nourishment he is to them Even as when we keep a roaster of the suckingpigs we choose and praise at table most the favourite of its mother Fifty times have I seen this and smiled and praised our peoples taste and offered them more of the vitals
Now here am I upon Shakespeare who died of his own fruition at the age of fiftytwo yet lived more than fifty thousand men within his little span of life when all the while I ought to be riding as hard as I can to Dulverton But to tell the truth I could not ride hard being held at every turn and often without any turn at all by the beauty of things around me These things grow upon a man if once he stops to notice them
It wanted yet two hours to noon when I came to Master Huckabacks door and struck the panels smartly Knowing nothing of their manners only that people in a town could not be expected to entertain as we do in farmhouses having moreover keen expectation of Master Huckabacks avarice I had brought some stuff to eat made by Annie and packed by Lorna and requiring no thinking about it
Ruth herself came and let me in blushing very heartily for which colour I praised her health and my praises heightened it That little thing had lovely eyes and could be trusted thoroughly I do like an obstinate little woman when she is sure that she is right And indeed if love had never sped me straight to the heart of Lorna compared to whom Ruth was no more than the thief is to the candle who knows but what I might have yielded to the law of nature that thorough trimmer of balances and verified the proverb that the giant loves the dwarf
I take the privilege Mistress Ruth of saluting you according to kinship and the ordering of the Canons And therewith I bussed her well and put my arm around her waist being so terribly restricted in the matter of Lorna and knowing the use of practice Not that I had any warmth—all that was darling Lornas—only out of pure gallantry and my knowledge of London fashions Ruth blushed to such a pitch at this and looked up at me with such a gleam as if I must have my own way that all my love of kissing sunk and I felt that I was wronging her Only my mother had told me when the girls were out of the way to do all I could to please darling Ruth and I had gone about it accordingly
Now Ruth as yet had never heard a word about dear Lorna and when she led me into the kitchen where everything looked beautiful and told me not to mind for a moment about the scrubbing of my boots because she would only be too glad to clean it all up after me and told me how glad she was to see me blushing more at every word and recalling some of them and stooping down for pots and pans when I looked at her too ruddily—all these things came upon me so without any legal notice that I could only look at Ruth and think how very good she was and how bright her handles were and wonder if I had wronged her Once or twice I began—this I say upon my honour—to endeavour to explain exactly how we were at Plovers Barrows how we all had been bound to fight and had defeated the enemy keeping their queen amongst us But Ruth would make some great mistake between Lorna and Gwenny Carfax and gave me no chance to set her aright and cared about nothing much except some news of Sally Snowe
What could I do with this little thing All my sense of modesty and value for my dinner were against my overpressing all the graceful hints I had given about Lorna Ruth was just a girl of that sort who will not believe one word except from her own seeing not so much from any doubt as from the practice of using eyes which have been in business
I asked Cousin Ruth as we used to call her though the cousinship was distant what was become of Uncle Ben and how it was that we never heard anything of or from him now She replied that she hardly knew what to make of her grandfathers manner of carrying on for the last halfyear or more He was apt to leave his home she said at any hour of the day or night going none knew whither and returning no one might say when And his dress in her opinion was enough to frighten a hodman of a scavenger of the roads instead of the decent suit of kersey or of Sabbath doeskins such as had won the respect and reverence of his fellowtownsmen But the worst of all things was as she confessed with tears in her eyes that the poor old gentleman had something weighing heavily on his mind
It will shorten his days Cousin Ridd she said for she never would call me Cousin John he has no enjoyment of anything that he eats or drinks nor even in counting his money as he used to do all Sunday indeed no pleasure in anything unless it be smoking his pipe and thinking and staring at bits of brown stone which he pulls every now and then out of his pockets And the business he used to take such pride in is now left almost entirely to the foreman and to me
And what will become of you dear Ruth if anything happens to the old man
I am sure I know not she answered simply and I cannot bear to think of it It must depend I suppose upon dear grandfathers pleasure about me
It must rather depend said I though having no business to say it upon your own good pleasure Ruth for all the world will pay court to you
That is the very thing which I never could endure I have begged dear grandfather to leave no chance of that When he has threatened me with poverty as he does sometimes I have always met him truly with the answer that I feared one thing a great deal worse than poverty namely to be an heiress But I cannot make him believe it Only think how strange Cousin Ridd I cannot make him believe it
It is not strange at all I answered considering how he values money Neither would any one else believe you except by looking into your true and very pretty eyes dear
Now I beg that no one will suspect for a single moment either that I did not mean exactly what I said or meant a single atom more or would not have said the same if Lorna had been standing by What I had always liked in Ruth was the calm straightforward gaze and beauty of her large brown eyes Indeed I had spoken of them to Lorna as the only ones to be compared though not for more than a moment to her own for truth and light but never for depth and softness But now the little maiden dropped them and turned away without reply
I will go and see to my horse I said the boy that has taken him seemed surprised at his having no horns on his forehead Perhaps he will lead him into the shop and feed him upon broadcloth
Oh he is such a stupid boy Ruth answered with great sympathy how quick of you to observe that now and you call yourself Slow John Ridd I never did see such a stupid boy sometimes he spoils my temper But you must be back in half an hour at the latest Cousin Ridd You see I remember what you are when once you get among horses or cows or things of that sort
Things of that sort Well done Ruth One would think you were quite a Cockney
Uncle Reuben did not come home to his dinner and his granddaughter said she had strictest orders never to expect him Therefore we had none to dine with us except the foreman of the shop a worthy man named Thomas Cockram fifty years of age or so He seemed to me to have strong intentions of his own about little Ruth and on that account to regard me with a wholly undue malevolence And perhaps in order to justify him I may have been more attentive to her than otherwise need have been at any rate Ruth and I were pleasant and he the very opposite
My dear Cousin Ruth I said on purpose to vex Master Cockram because he eyed us so heavily and squinted to unluckily we have long been looking for you at our Plovers Barrows farm You remember how you used to love hunting for eggs in the morning and hiding up in the tallat with Lizzie for me to seek you among the hay when the sun was down Ah Master Cockram those are the things young people find their pleasure in not in selling a yard of serge and giving twopencehalfpenny change and writing settled at the bottom with a pencil that has blacked their teeth Now Master Cockram you ought to come as far as our good farm at once and eat two newlaid eggs for breakfast and be made to look quite young again Our good Annie would cook for you and you should have the hot new milk and the popes eye from the mutton and every foot of you would become a yard in about a fortnight And hereupon I spread my chest to show him an example Ruth could not keep her countenance but I saw that she thought it wrong of me and would scold me if ever I gave her the chance of taking those little liberties However he deserved it all according to my young ideas for his great impertinence in aiming at my cousin
But what I said was far less grievous to a man of honest mind than little Ruths own behaviour I could hardly have believed that so thoroughly true a girl and one so proud and upright could have got rid of any man so cleverly as she got rid of Master Thomas Cockram She gave him not even a glass of wine but commended to his notice with a sweet and thoughtful gravity some invoice which must be corrected before her dear grandfather should return and to amend which three great ledgers must be searched from first to last Thomas Cockram winked at me with the worst of his two wrong eyes as much as to say I understand it but I cannot help myself Only you look out if ever—and before he had finished winking the door was shut behind him Then Ruth said to me in the simplest manner You have ridden far today Cousin Ridd and have far to ride to get home again What will dear Aunt Ridd say if we send you away without nourishment All the keys are in my keeping and dear grandfather has the finest wine not to be matched in the west of England as I have heard good judges say though I know not wine from cider Do you like the wine of Oporto or the wine of Xeres
I know not one from the other fair cousin except by the colour I answered but the sound of Oporto is nobler and richer Suppose we try wine of Oporto
The good little creature went and fetched a black bottle of an ancient cast covered with dust and cobwebs These I was anxious to shake aside and indeed I thought that the wine would be better for being roused up a little Ruth however would not hear a single word to that purport and seeing that she knew more about it I left her to manage it And the result was very fine indeed to wit a sparkling rosy liquor dancing with little flakes of light and scented like new violets With this I was so pleased and gay and Ruth so glad to see me gay that we quite forgot how the time went on and though my fair cousin would not be persuaded to take a second glass herself she kept on filling mine so fast that it was never empty though I did my best to keep it so
What is a little drop like this to a man of your size and strength Cousin Ridd she said with her cheeks just brushed with rose which made her look very beautiful I have heard you say that your head is so thick—or rather so clear you ought to say—that no liquor ever moves it
That is right enough I answered what a witch you must be dear Ruth to have remembered that now
Oh I remember every word I have ever heard you say Cousin Ridd because your voice is so deep you know and you talk so little Now it is useless to say no These bottles hold almost nothing Dear grandfather will not come home I fear until long after you are gone What will Aunt Ridd think of me I am sure You are all so dreadfully hospitable Now not another no Cousin Ridd We must have another bottle
Well must is must I answered with a certain resignation I cannot bear bad manners dear and how old are you next birthday
Eighteen dear John said Ruth coming over with the empty bottle and I was pleased at her calling me John and had a great mind to kiss her However I thought of my Lorna suddenly and of the anger I should feel if a man went on with her so therefore I lay back in my chair to wait for the other bottle
Do you remember how we danced that night I asked while she was opening it and how you were afraid of me first because I looked so tall dear
Yes and so very broad Cousin Ridd I thought that you would eat me But I have come to know since then how very kind and good you are
And will you come and dance again at my wedding Cousin Ruth
She nearly let the bottle fall the last of which she was sloping carefully into a vessel of bright glass and then she raised her hand again and finished it judiciously And after that she took the window to see that all her work was clear and then she poured me out a glass and said with very pale cheeks but else no sign of meaning about her What did you ask me Cousin Ridd
Nothing of any importance Ruth only we are so fond of you I mean to be married as soon as I can Will you come and help us
To be sure I will Cousin Ridd—unless unless dear grandfather cannot spare me from the business She went away and her breast was heaving like a rick of undercarried hay And she stood at the window long trying to make yawns of sighs
For my part I knew not what to do And yet I could think about it as I never could with Lorna with whom I was always in a whirl from the power of my love So I thought some time about it and perceived that it was the manliest way just to tell her everything except that I feared she liked me But it seemed to me unaccountable that she did not even ask the name of my intended wife Perhaps she thought that it must be Sally or perhaps she feared to trust her voice
Come and sit by me dear Ruth and listen to a long long story how things have come about with me
No thank you Cousin Ridd she answered at least I mean that I shall be happy—that I shall be ready to hear you—to listen to you I mean of course But I would rather stay where I am and have the air—or rather be able to watch for dear grandfather coming home He is so kind and good to me What should I do without him
Then I told her how for years and years I had been attached to Lorna and all the dangers and difficulties which had so long beset us and how I hoped that these were passing and no other might come between us except on the score of religion upon which point I trusted soon to overcome my mothers objections And then I told her how poor and helpless and alone in the world my Lorna was and how sad all her youth had been until I brought her away at last And many other little things I mentioned which there is no need for me again to dwell upon Ruth heard it all without a word and without once looking at me and only by her attitude could I guess that she was weeping Then when all my tale was told she asked in a low and gentle voice but still without showing her face to me—
And does she love you Cousin Ridd Does she say that she loves you with—with all her heart
Certainly she does I answered Do you think it impossible for one like her to do so
She said no more but crossed the room before I had time to look at her and came behind my chair and kissed me gently on the forehead
I hope you may be very happy with—I mean in your new life she whispered very softly as happy as you deserve to be and as happy as you can make others be Now how I have been neglecting you I am quite ashamed of myself for thinking only of grandfather and it makes me so lowspirited You have told me a very nice romance and I have never even helped you to a glass of wine Here pour it for yourself dear cousin I shall be back again directly
With that she was out of the door in a moment and when she came back you would not have thought that a tear had dimmed those large bright eyes or wandered down those pale clear cheeks Only her hands were cold and trembling and she made me help myself
Uncle Reuben did not appear at all and Ruth who had promised to come and see us and stay for a fortnight at our house if her grandfather could spare her now discovered before I left that she must not think of doing so Perhaps she was right in deciding thus at any rate it had now become improper for me to press her And yet I now desired tenfold that she should consent to come thinking that Lorna herself would work the speediest cure of her passing whim
For such I tried to persuade myself was the nature of Ruths regard for me and upon looking back I could not charge myself with any misconduct towards the little maiden I had never sought her company I had never trifled with her at least until that very day and being so engrossed with my own love I had scarcely ever thought of her And the maiden would never have thought of me except as a clumsy yokel but for my mothers and sisters meddling and their wily suggestions I believe they had told the little soul that I was deeply in love with her although they both stoutly denied it But who can place trust in a womans word when it comes to a question of matchmaking
CHAPTER LI
A VISIT FROM THE COUNSELLOR
Now while I was riding home that evening with a tender conscience about Ruth although not a wounded one I guessed but little that all my thoughts were needed much for my own affairs So however it proved to be for as I came in soon after dark my sister Eliza met me at the corner of the cheeseroom and she said Dont go in there John pointing to mothers room until I have had a talk with you
In the name of Moses I inquired having picked up that phrase at Dulverton what are you at about me now There is no peace for a quiet fellow
It is nothing we are at she answered neither may you make light of it It is something very important about Mistress Lorna Doone
Let us have it at once I cried I can bear anything about Lorna except that she does not care for me
It has nothing to do with that John And I am quite sure that you never need fear anything of that sort She perfectly wearies me sometimes although her voice is so soft and sweet about your endless perfections
Bless her little heart I said the subject is inexhaustible
No doubt replied Lizzie in the driest manner especially to your sisters However this is no time to joke I fear you will get the worst of it John Do you know a man of about Gwennys shape nearly as broad as he is long but about six times the size of Gwenny and with a length of snowwhite hair and a thickness also as the copses were last winter He never can comb it that is quite certain with any comb yet invented
Then you go and offer your services There are few things you cannot scarify I know the man from your description although I have never seen him Now where is my Lorna
Your Lorna is with Annie having a good cry I believe and Annie too glad to second her She knows that this great man is here and knows that he wants to see her But she begged to defer the interview until dear Johns return
What a nasty way you have of telling the very commonest piece of news I said on purpose to pay her out What man will ever fancy you you unlucky little snapper Now no more nursery talk for me I will go and settle this business You had better go and dress your dolls if you can give them clothes unpoisoned Hereupon Lizzie burst into a perfect roar of tears feeling that she had the worst of it And I took her up and begged her pardon although she scarcely deserved it for she knew that I was out of luck and she might have spared her satire
I was almost sure that the man who was come must be the Counsellor himself of whom I felt much keener fear than of his son Carver And knowing that his visit boded ill to me and Lorna I went and sought my dear and led her with a heavy heart from the maidens room to mothers to meet our dreadful visitor
Mother was standing by the door making curtseys now and then and listening to a long harangue upon the rights of state and land which the Counsellor having found that she was the owner of her property and knew nothing of her title to it was encouraged to deliver it My dear mother stood gazing at him spellbound by his eloquence and only hoping that he would stop He was shaking his hair upon his shoulders in the power of his words and his wrath at some little thing which he declared to be quite illegal
Then I ventured to show myself in the flesh before him although he feigned not to see me but he advanced with zeal to Lorna holding out both hands at once
My darling child my dearest niece how wonderfully well you look Mistress Ridd I give you credit This is the country of good things I never would have believed our Queen could have looked so royal Surely of all virtues hospitality is the finest and the most romantic Dearest Lorna kiss your uncle it is quite a privilege
Perhaps it is to you sir said Lorna who could never quite check her sense of oddity but I fear that you have smoked tobacco which spoils reciprocity
You are right my child How keen your scent is It is always so with us Your grandfather was noted for his olfactory powers Ah a great loss dear Mrs Ridd a terrible loss to this neighbourhood As one of our great writers says—I think it must be Milton—We neer shall look upon his like again
With your good leave sir I broke in Master Milton could never have written so sweet and simple a line as that It is one of the great Shakespeare
Woe is me for my neglect said the Counsellor bowing airily this must be your son Mistress Ridd the great John the wrestler And one who meddles with the Muses Ah since I was young how everything is changed madam Except indeed the beauty of women which seems to me to increase every year Here the old villain bowed to my mother and she blushed and made another curtsey and really did look very nice
Now though I have quoted the poets amiss as your son informs me for which I tender my best thanks and must amend my reading I can hardly be wrong in assuming that this young armiger must be the too attractive cynosure to our poor little maiden And for my part she is welcome to him I have never been one of those who dwell upon distinctions of rank and birth and such like as if they were in the heart of nature and must be eternal In early youth I may have thought so and been full of that little pride But now I have long accounted it one of the first axioms of political economy—you are following me Mistress Ridd
Well sir I am doing my best but I cannot quite keep up with you
Never mind madam I will be slower But your sons intelligence is so quick—
I see sir you thought that mine must be But no it all comes from his father sir His father was that quick and clever—
Ah I can well suppose it madam And a credit he is to both of you Now to return to our muttons—a figure which you will appreciate—I may now be regarded I think as this young ladys legal guardian although I have not had the honour of being formally appointed such Her father was the eldest son of Sir Ensor Doone and I happened to be the second son and as young maidens cannot be baronets I suppose I am Sir Counsellor Is it so Mistress Ridd according to your theory of genealogy
I am sure I dont know sir my mother answered carefully I know not anything of that name sir except in the Gospel of Matthew but I see not why it should be otherwise
Good madam I may look upon that as your sanction and approval and the College of Heralds shall hear of it And in return as Lornas guardian I give my full and ready consent to her marriage with your son madam
Oh how good of you sir how kind Well I always did say that the learnedest people were almost always the best and kindest and the most simplehearted
Madam that is a great sentiment What a goodly couple they will be and if we can add him to our strength—
Oh no sir oh no cried mother you really must not think of it He has always been brought up so honest—
Hem that makes a difference A decided disqualification for domestic life among the Doones But surely he might get over those prejudices madam
Oh no sir he never can he never can indeed When he was only that high sir he could not steal even an apple when some wicked boys tried to mislead him
Ah replied the Counsellor shaking his white head gravely then I greatly fear that his case is quite incurable I have known such cases violent prejudice bred entirely of education and antieconomical to the last degree And when it is so it is desperate no man after imbibing ideas of that sort can in any way be useful
Oh yes sir John is very useful He can do as much work as three other men and you should see him load a sledd sir
I was speaking madam of higher usefulness—power of the brain and heart The main thing for us upon earth is to take a large view of things But while we talk of the heart what is my niece Lorna doing that she does not come and thank me for my perhaps too prompt concession to her youthful fancies Ah if I had wanted thanks I should have been more stubborn
Lorna being challenged thus came up and looked at her uncle with her noble eyes fixed full upon his which beneath his white eyebrows glistened like dormer windows piled with snow
For what am I to thank you uncle
My dear niece I have told you For removing the heaviest obstacle which to a mind so well regulated could possibly have existed between your dutiful self and the object of your affections
Well uncle I should be very grateful if I thought that you did so from love of me or if I did not know that you have something yet concealed from me
And my consent said the Counsellor is the more meritorious the more liberal frank and candid in the face of an existing fact and a very clearly established one which might have appeared to weaker minds in the light of an impediment but to my loftier view of matrimony seems quite a recommendation
What fact do you mean sir Is it one that I ought to know
In my opinion it is good niece It forms to my mind so fine a basis for the invariable harmony of the matrimonial state To be brief—as I always endeavour to be without becoming obscure—you two young people ah what a gift is youth one can never be too thankful for it you will have the rare advantage of commencing married life with a subject of common interest to discuss whenever you weary of—well say of one another if you can now by any means conceive such a possibility And perfect justice meted out mutual goodwill resulting from the sense of reciprocity
I do not understand you sir Why can you not say what you mean at once
My dear child I prolong your suspense Curiosity is the most powerful of all feminine instincts and therefore the most delightful when not prematurely satisfied However if you must have my strong realities here they are Your father slew dear Johns father and dear Johns father slew yours
Having said thus much the Counsellor leaned back upon his chair and shaded his calm whitebearded eyes from the rays of our tallow candles He was a man who liked to look rather than to be looked at But Lorna came to me for aid and I went up to Lorna and mother looked at both of us
Then feeling that I must speak first as no one would begin it I took my darling round the waist and led her up to the Counsellor while she tried to bear it bravely yet must lean on me or did
Now Sir Counsellor Doone I said with Lorna squeezing both my hands I never yet knew how considering that she was walking all the time or something like it you know right well Sir Counsellor that Sir Ensor Doone gave approval I cannot tell what made me think of this but so it came upon me
Approval to what good rustic John To the slaughter so reciprocal
No sir not to that even if it ever happened which I do not believe But to the love betwixt me and Lorna which your story shall not break without more evidence than your word And even so shall never break if Lorna thinks as I do
The maiden gave me a little touch as much as to say You are right darling give it to him again like that However I held my peace well knowing that too many words do mischief
Then mother looked at me with wonder being herself too amazed to speak and the Counsellor looked with great wrath in his eyes which he tried to keep from burning
How say you then John Ridd he cried stretching out one hand like Elijah is this a thing of the sort you love Is this what you are used to
So please your worship I answered no kind of violence can surprise us since first came Doones upon Exmoor Up to that time none heard of harm except of taking a purse maybe or cutting a strange sheeps throat And the poor folk who did this were hanged with some benefit of clergy But ever since the Doones came first we are used to anything
Thou varlet cried the Counsellor with the colour of his eyes quite changed with the sparkles of his fury is this the way we are to deal with such a lowbred clod as thou To question the doings of our people and to talk of clergy What dream you not that we could have clergy and of the right sort too if only we cared to have them Tush Am I to spend my time arguing with a ploughtail Bob
If your worship will hearken to me I answered very modestly not wishing to speak harshly with Lorna looking up at me there are many things that might be said without any kind of argument which I would never wish to try with one of your worships learning And in the first place it seems to me that if our fathers hated one another bitterly yet neither won the victory only mutual discomfiture surely that is but a reason why we should be wiser than they and make it up in this generation by goodwill and loving—
Oh John you wiser than your father mother broke upon me here not but what you might be as wise when you come to be old enough
Young people of the present age said the Counsellor severely have no right feeling of any sort upon the simplest matter Lorna Doone stand forth from contact with that heir of parricide and state in your own mellifluous voice whether you regard this slaughter as a pleasant trifle
You know without any words of mine she answered very softly yet not withdrawing from my hand that although I have been seasoned well to every kind of outrage among my gentle relatives I have not yet so purely lost all sense of right and wrong as to receive what you have said as lightly as you declared it You think it a happy basis for our future concord I do not quite think that my uncle neither do I quite believe that a word of it is true In our happy valley ninetenths of what is said is false and you were always wont to argue that true and false are but a blind turned upon a pivot Without any failure of respect for your character good uncle I decline politely to believe a word of what you have told me And even if it were proved to me all I can say is this if my John will have me I am his for ever
This long speech was too much for her she had overrated her strength about it and the sustenance of irony So at last she fell into my arms which had long been waiting for her and there she lay with no other sound except a gurgling in her throat
You old villain cried my mother shaking her fist at the Counsellor while I could do nothing else but hold and bend across my darling and whisper to deaf ears What is the good of the quality if this is all that comes of it Out of the way You know the words that make the deadly mischief but not the ways that heal them Give me that bottle if hands you have what is the use of Counsellors
I saw that dear mother was carried away and indeed I myself was something like it with the pale face upon my bosom and the heaving of the heart and the heat and cold all through me as my darling breathed or lay Meanwhile the Counsellor stood back and seemed a little sorry although of course it was not in his power to be at all ashamed of himself
My sweet love my darling child our mother went on to Lorna in a way that I shall never forget though I live to be a hundred pretty pet not a word of it is true upon that old liars oath and if every word were true poor chick you should have our John all the more for it You and John were made by God and meant for one another whatever falls between you Little lamb look up and speak here is your own John and I and the devil take the Counsellor
I was amazed at mothers words being so unlike her while I loved her all the more because she forgot herself so In another moment in ran Annie ay and Lizzie also knowing by some mystic sense which I have often noticed but never could explain that something was astir belonging to the world of women yet foreign to the eyes of men And now the Counsellor being wellborn although such a heartless miscreant beckoned to me to come away which I being smothered with women was only too glad to do as soon as my own love would let go of me
That is the worst of them said the old man when I had led him into our kitchen with an apology at every step and given him hot schnapps and water and a cigarro of brave Tom Faggus you never can say much sir in the way of reasoning however gently meant and put but what these women will fly out It is wiser to put a wild bird in a cage and expect him to sit and look at you and chirp without a feather rumpled than it is to expect a woman to answer reason reasonably Saying this he looked at his puff of smoke as if it contained more reason
I am sure I do not know sir I answered according to a phrase which has always been my favourite on account of its general truth moreover he was now our guest and had right to be treated accordingly I am as you see not acquainted with the ways of women except my mother and sisters
Except not even them my son said the Counsellor now having finished his glass without much consultation about it if you once understand your mother and sisters—why you understand the lot of them
He made a twist in his cloud of smoke and dashed his finger through it so that I could not follow his meaning and in manners liked not to press him
Now of this business John he said after getting to the bottom of the second glass and having a trifle or so to eat and praising our chimneycorner taking you on the whole you know you are wonderfully good people and instead of giving me up to the soldiers as you might have done you are doing your best to make me drunk
Not at all sir I answered not at all your worship Let me mix you another glass We rarely have a great gentleman by the side of our embers and oven I only beg your pardon sir that my sister Annie who knows where to find all the good pans and the lard could not wait upon you this evening and I fear they have done it with dripping instead and in a pan with the bottom burned But old Betty quite loses her head sometimes by dint of overscolding
My son replied the Counsellor standing across the front of the fire to prove his strict sobriety I meant to come down upon you tonight but you have turned the tables upon me Not through any skill on your part nor through any paltry weakness as to love and all that stuff which boys and girls spin tops at or knock dolls noses together but through your simple way of taking me as a man to be believed combined with the comfort of this place and the choice tobacco and cordials I have not enjoyed an evening so much God bless me if I know when
Your worship said I makes me more proud than I well know what to do with Of all the things that please and lead us into happy sleep at night the first and chiefest is to think that we have pleased a visitor
Then John thou hast deserved good sleep for I am not pleased easily But although our family is not so high now as it hath been I have enough of the gentleman left to be pleased when good people try me My father Sir Ensor was better than I in this great element of birth and my son Carver is far worse Aetas parentum what is it my boy I hear that you have been at a grammarschool
So I have your worship and at a very good one but I only got far enough to make more tail than head of Latin
Let that pass said the Counsellor John thou art all the wiser And the old man shook his hoary locks as if Latin had been his ruin I looked at him sadly and wondered whether it might have so ruined me but for Gods mercy in stopping it
CHAPTER LII
THE WAY TO MAKE THE CREAM RISE
That night the reverend Counsellor not being in such state of mind as ought to go alone kindly took our best old bedstead carved in panels well enough with the woman of Samaria I set him up both straight and heavy so that he need but close both eyes and keep his mouth just open and in the morning he was thankful for all that he could remember
I for my part scarcely knew whether he really had begun to feel goodwill towards us and to see that nothing else could be of any use to him or whether he was merely acting so as to deceive us And it had struck me several times that he had made a great deal more of the spirit he had taken than the quantity would warrant with a man so wise and solid Neither did I quite understand a little story which Lorna told me how that in the night awaking she had heard or seemed to hear a sound of feeling in her room as if there had been some one groping carefully among the things within her drawers or wardrobecloset But the noise had ceased at once she said when she sat up in bed and listened and knowing how many mice we had she took courage and fell asleep again
After breakfast the Counsellor who looked no whit the worse for schnapps but even more grave and venerable followed our Annie into the dairy to see how we managed the clotted cream of which he had eaten a basinful And thereupon they talked a little and Annie thought him a fine old gentleman and a very just one for he had nobly condemned the people who spoke against Tom Faggus
Your honour must plainly understand said Annie being now alone with him and spreading out her light quick hands over the pans like butterflies that they are brought in here to cool after being set in the basinholes with the woodash under them which I showed you in the backkitchen And they must have very little heat not enough to simmer even only just to make the bubbles rise and the scum upon the top set thick and after that it clots as firm—oh as firm as my two hands be
Have you ever heard asked the Counsellor who enjoyed this talk with Annie that if you pass across the top without breaking the surface a string of beads or polished glass or anything of that kind the cream will set three times as solid and in thrice the quantity
No sir I have never heard that said Annie staring with all her simple eyes what a thing it is to read books and grow learned But it is very easy to try it I will get my coral necklace it will not be witchcraft will it sir
Certainly not the old man replied I will make the experiment myself and you may trust me not to be hurt my dear But coral will not do my child neither will anything coloured The beads must be of plain common glass but the brighter they are the better
Then I know the very thing cried Annie as bright as bright can be and without any colour in it except in the sun or candle light Dearest Lorna has the very thing a necklace of some old glassbeads or I think they called them jewels she will be too glad to lend it to us I will go for it in a moment
My dear it cannot be half so bright as your own pretty eyes But remember one thing Annie you must not say what it is for or even that I am going to use it or anything at all about it else the charm will be broken Bring it here without a word if you know where she keeps it
To be sure I do she answered John used to keep it for her But she took it away from him last week and she wore it when—I mean when somebody was here and he said it was very valuable and spoke with great learning about it and called it by some particular name which I forget at this moment But valuable or not we cannot hurt it can we sir by passing it over the creampan
Hurt it cried the Counsellor nay we shall do it good my dear It will help to raise the cream and you may take my word for it young maiden none can do good in this world without in turn receiving it Pronouncing this great sentiment he looked so grand and benevolent that Annie as she said afterwards could scarce forbear from kissing him yet feared to take the liberty Therefore she only ran away to fetch my Lornas necklace
Now as luck would have it—whether good luck or otherwise you must not judge too hastily—my darling had taken it into her head only a day or two before that I was far too valuable to be trusted with her necklace Now that she had some idea of its price and quality she had begun to fear that some one perhaps even Squire Faggus in whom her faith was illiberal might form designs against my health to win the bauble from me So with many pretty coaxings she had led me to give it up which except for her own sake I was glad enough to do misliking a charge of such importance
Therefore Annie found it sparkling in the little secret hole near the head of Lornas bed which she herself had recommended for its safer custody and without a word to any one she brought it down and danced it in the air before the Counsellor for him to admire its lustre
Oh that old thing said the gentleman in a tone of some contempt I remember that old thing well enough However for want of a better no doubt it will answer our purpose Three times three I pass it over Crinkleum crankum grass and clover What are you feared of you silly child
Good sir it is perfect witchcraft I am sure of that because it rhymes Oh what would mother say to me Shall I ever go to heaven again Oh I see the cream already
To be sure you do but you must not look or the whole charm will be broken and the devil will fly away with the pan and drown every cow you have got in it
Oh sir it is too horrible How could you lead me to such a sin Away with thee witch of Endor
For the door began to creak and a broom appeared suddenly in the opening with our Betty no doubt behind it But Annie in the greatest terror slammed the door and bolted it and then turned again to the Counsellor yet looking at his face had not the courage to reproach him For his eyes rolled like two blazing barrels and his white shagged brows were knit across them and his forehead scowled in black furrows so that Annie said that if she ever saw the devil she saw him then and no mistake Whether the old man wished to scare her or whether he was trying not to laugh is more than I can tell you
Now he said in a deep stern whisper not a word of this to a living soul neither must you nor any other enter this place for three hours at least By that time the charm will have done its work the pan will be cream to the bottom and you will bless me for a secret which will make your fortune Put the bauble under this pannikin which none must lift for a day and a night Have no fear my simple wench not a breath of harm shall come to you if you obey my orders
Oh that I will sir that I will if you will only tell me what to do
Go to your room without so much as a single word to any one Bolt yourself in and for three hours now read the Lords Prayer backwards
Poor Annie was only too glad to escape upon these conditions and the Counsellor kissed her upon the forehead and told her not to make her eyes red because they were much too sweet and pretty She dropped them at this with a sob and a curtsey and ran away to her bedroom but as for reading the Lords Prayer backwards that was much beyond her and she had not done three words quite right before the three hours expired
Meanwhile the Counsellor was gone He bade our mother adieu with so much dignity of bearing and such warmth of gratitude and the highbred courtesy of the old school now fast disappearing that when he was gone dear mother fell back on the chair which he had used last night as if it would teach her the graces And for more than an hour she made believe not to know what there was for dinner
Oh the wickedness of the world Oh the lies that are told of people—or rather I mean the falsehoods—because a man is better born and has better manners Why Lorna how is it that you never speak about your charming uncle Did you notice Lizzie how his silver hair was waving upon his velvet collar and how white his hands were and every nail like an acorn only pink like shellfish or at least like shells And the way he bowed and dropped his eyes from his pure respect for me And then that he would not even speak on account of his emotion but pressed my hand in silence Oh Lizzie you have read me beautiful things about Sir Gallyhead and the rest but nothing to equal Sir Counsellor
You had better marry him madam said I coming in very sternly though I knew I ought not to say it he can repay your adoration He has stolen a hundred thousand pounds
John cried my mother you are mad And yet she turned as pale as death for women are so quick at turning and she inkled what it was
Of course I am mother mad about the marvels of Sir Galahad He has gone off with my Lornas necklace Fifty farms like ours can never make it good to Lorna
Hereupon ensued grim silence Mother looked at Lizzies face for she could not look at me and Lizzie looked at me to know and as for me I could have stamped almost on the heart of any one It was not the value of the necklace—I am not so low a hound as that—nor was it even the damned folly shown by every one of us—it was the thought of Lornas sorrow for her ancient plaything and even more my fury at the breach of hospitality
But Lorna came up to me softly as a woman should always come and she laid one hand upon my shoulder and she only looked at me She even seemed to fear to look and dropped her eyes and sighed at me Without a word I knew by that how I must have looked like Satan and the evil spirit left my heart when she had made me think of it
Darling John did you want me to think that you cared for my money more than for me
I led her away from the rest of them being desirous of explaining things when I saw the depth of her nature opened like an everlasting well to me But she would not let me say a word or do anything by ourselves as it were she said Your duty is to your mother this blow is on her and not on me
I saw that she was right though how she knew it is beyond me and I asked her just to go in front and bring my mother round a little For I must let my passion pass it may drop its weapons quickly but it cannot come and go before a man has time to think
Then Lorna went up to my mother who was still in the chair of elegance and she took her by both hands and said—
Dearest mother I shall fret so if I see you fretting And to fret will kill me mother They have always told me so
Poor mother bent on Lornas shoulder without thought of attitude and laid her cheek on Lornas breast and sobbed till Lizzie was jealous and came with two pockethandkerchiefs As for me my heart was lighter if they would only dry their eyes and come round by dinnertime than it had been since the day on which Tom Faggus discovered the value of that blessed and cursed necklace None could say that I wanted Lorna for her money now And perhaps the Doones would let me have her now that her property was gone
But who shall tell of Annies grief The poor little thing would have staked her life upon finding the trinket in all its beauty lying under the pannikin She proudly challenged me to lift it—which I had done long ere that of course—if only I would take the risk of the spell for my incredulity I told her not to talk of spells until she could spell a word backwards and then to look into the pan where the charmed cream should be She would not acknowledge that the cream was the same as all the rest was and indeed it was not quite the same for the points of poor Lornas diamonds had made a few starrays across the rich firm crust of yellow
But when we raised the pannikin and there was nothing under it poor Annie fell against the wall which had been whitened lately and her face put all the white to scorn My love who was as fond of her as if she had known her for fifty years hereupon ran up and caught her and abused all diamonds I will dwell no more upon Annies grief because we felt it all so much But I could not help telling her if she wanted a witch to seek good Mother Melldrum a legitimate performer
That same night Master Jeremy Stickles of whose absence the Counsellor must have known came back with all equipment ready for the grand attack Now the Doones knew quite as well as we did that this attack was threatening and that but for the wonderful weather it would have been made long ago Therefore we or at least our people for I was doubtful about going were sure to meet with a good resistance and due preparation
It was very strange to hear and see and quite impossible to account for that now some hundreds of country people who feared to whisper so much as a word against the Doones a year ago and would sooner have thought of attacking a church in service time than Glen Doone now sharpened their old cutlasses and laid pitchforks on the grindstone and bragged at every village cross as if each would kill ten Doones himself neither care to wipe his hands afterwards And this fierce bravery and tall contempt had been growing ever since the news of the attack upon our premises had taken good people by surprise at least as concerned the issue
Jeremy Stickles laughed heartily about Annies new manner of charming the cream but he looked very grave at the loss of the jewels so soon as he knew their value
My son he exclaimed this is very heavy It will go ill with all of you to make good this loss as I fear that you will have to do
What cried I with my blood running cold We make good the loss Master Stickles Every farthing we have in the world and the labour of our lives to boot will never make good the tenth of it
It would cut me to the heart he answered laying his hand on mine to hear of such a deadly blow to you and your good mother And this farm how long John has it been in your family
For at least six hundred years I said with a foolish pride that was only too like to end in groans and some people say by a Royal grant in the time of the great King Alfred At any rate a Ridd was with him throughout all his hidingtime We have always held by the King and crown surely none will turn us out unless we are guilty of treason
My son replied Jeremy very gently so that I could love him for it not a word to your good mother of this unlucky matter Keep it to yourself my boy and try to think but little of it After all I may be wrong at any rate least said best mended
But Jeremy dear Jeremy how can I bear to leave it so Do you suppose that I can sleep and eat my food and go about and look at other people as if nothing at all had happened And all the time have it on my mind that not an acre of all the land nor even our old sheepdog belongs to us of right at all It is more than I can do Jeremy Let me talk and know the worst of it
Very well replied Master Stickles seeing that both the doors were closed I thought that nothing could move you John or I never would have told you Likely enough I am quite wrong and God send that I be so But what I guessed at some time back seems more than a guess now that you have told me about these wondrous jewels Now will you keep as close as death every word I tell you
By the honour of a man I will Until you yourself release me
That is quite enough John From you I want no oath which according to my experience tempts a man to lie the more by making it more important I know you now too well to swear you though I have the power Now my lad what I have to say will scare your mind in one way and ease it in another I think that you have been hard pressed—I can read you like a book John—by something which that old villain said before he stole the necklace You have tried not to dwell upon it you have even tried to make light of it for the sake of the women but on the whole it has grieved you more than even this dastard robbery
It would have done so Jeremy Stickles if I could once have believed it And even without much belief it is so against our manners that it makes me miserable Only think of loving Lorna only think of kissing her and then remembering that her father had destroyed the life of mine
Only think said Master Stickles imitating my very voice of Lorna loving you John of Lorna kissing you John and all the while saying to herself this mans father murdered mine Now look at it in Lornas way as well as in your own way How onesided all men are
I may look at it in fifty ways and yet no good will come of it Jeremy I confess to you that I tried to make the best of it partly to baffle the Counsellor and partly because my darling needed my help and bore it so and behaved to me so nobly But to you in secret I am not ashamed to say that a woman may look over this easier than a man may
Because her nature is larger my son when she truly loves although her mind be smaller Now if I can ease you from this secret burden will you bear with strength and courage the other which I plant on you
I will do my best said I
No man can do more said he and so began his story
CHAPTER LIII
JEREMY FINDS OUT SOMETHING
You know my son said Jeremy Stickles with a good pull at his pipe because he was going to talk so much and putting his legs well along the settle it has been my duty for a wearier time than I care to think of and which would have been unbearable except for your great kindness to search this neighbourhood narrowly and learn everything about everybody Now the neighbourhood itself is queer and people have different ways of thinking from what we are used to in London For instance now among your folk when any piece of news is told or any mans conduct spoken of the very first question that arises in your mind is this—Was this action kind and good Long after that you say to yourselves does the law enjoin or forbid this thing Now here is your fundamental error for among all truly civilised people the foremost of all questions is how stands the law herein And if the law approve no need for any further questioning That this is so you may take my word for I know the law pretty thoroughly
Very well I need not say any more about that for I have shown that you are all quite wrong I only speak of this savage tendency because it explains so many things which have puzzled me among you and most of all your kindness to men whom you never saw before which is an utterly illegal thing It also explains your toleration of these outlaw Doones so long If your views of law had been correct and law an element of your lives these robbers could never have been indulged for so many years amongst you but you must have abated the nuisance
Now Stickles I cried this is too bad he was delivering himself so grandly Why you yourself have been amongst us as the balance and sceptre and sword of law for nigh upon a twelvemonth and have you abated the nuisance or even cared to do it until they began to shoot at you
My son he replied your argument is quite beside the purpose and only tends to prove more clearly that which I have said of you However if you wish to hear my story no more interruptions I may not have a chance to tell you perhaps for weeks or I know not when if once those yellows and reds arrive and be blessed to them the lubbers Well it may be six months ago or it may be seven at any rate a good while before that cursed frost began the mere name of which sends a shiver down every bone of my body when I was riding one afternoon from Dulverton to Watchett—
Dulverton to Watchett I cried Now what does that remind me of I am sure I remember something—
Remember this John if anything—that another word from thee and thou hast no more of mine Well I was a little weary perhaps having been plagued at Dulverton with the grossness of the people For they would tell me nothing at all about their fellowtownsmen your worthy Uncle Huckaback except that he was a Godfearing man and they only wished I was like him I blessed myself for a stupid fool in thinking to have pumped them for by this time I might have known that through your Western homeliness every man in his own country is something more than a prophet And I felt of course that I had done more harm than good by questioning inasmuch as every soul in the place would run straightway and inform him that the Kings man from the other side of the forest had been sifting out his ways and works
Ah I cried for I could not help it you begin to understand at last that we are not quite such a set of oafs as you at first believed us
I was riding on from Dulverton he resumed with great severity yet threatening me no more which checked me more than fifty threats and it was late in the afternoon and I was growing weary The road if road it could be called turned suddenly down from the higher land to the very brink of the sea and rounding a little jut of cliff I met the roar of the breakers My horse was scared and leaped aside for a northerly wind was piping and driving hunks of foam across as children scatter snowballs But he only sank to his fetlocks in the dry sand piled with popweed and I tried to make him face the waves and then I looked about me
Watchett town was not to be seen on account of a little foreland a mile or more upon my course and standing to the right of me There was room enough below the cliffs which are nothing there to yours John for horse and man to get along although the tide was running high with a northerly gale to back it But close at hand and in the corner drawn above the yellow sands and long eyebrows of rackweed as snug a little house blinked on me as ever I saw or wished to see
You know that I am not luxurious neither in any way given to the common lusts of the flesh John My father never allowed his hair to grow a fourth part of an inch in length and he was a thoroughly godly man and I try to follow in his footsteps whenever I think about it Nevertheless I do assure you that my view of that little house and the way the lights were twinkling so different from the cold and darkness of the rolling sea moved the ancient Adam in me if he could be found to move I love not a house with too many windows being out of house and doors some threequarters of my time when I get inside a house I like to feel the difference Air and light are good for people who have any lack of them and if a man once talks about them tis enough to prove his need of them But as you well know John Ridd the horse who has been at work all day with the sunshine in his eyes sleeps better in dark stables and needs no moon to help him
Seeing therefore that this same inn had four windows and no more I thought to myself how snug it was and how beautiful I could sleep there And so I made the old horse draw hand which he was only too glad to do and we clomb above the springtide mark and over a little piece of turf and struck the door of the hostelry Some one came and peeped at me through the lattice overhead which was full of bulls eyes and then the bolt was drawn back and a woman met me very courteously A dark and foreignlooking woman very hot of blood I doubt but not altogether a bad one And she waited for me to speak first which an Englishwoman would not have done
Can I rest here for the night I asked with a lift of my hat to her for she was no provincial dame who would stare at me for the courtesy my horse is weary from the sloughs and myself but little better beside that we both are famished
Yes sir you can rest and welcome But of food I fear there is but little unless of the common order Our fishers would have drawn the nets but the waves were violent However we have—what you call it I never can remember it is so hard to say—the flesh of the hog salted
Bacon said I what can be better And half dozen of eggs with it and a quart of freshdrawn ale You make me rage with hunger madam Is it cruelty or hospitality
Ah good she replied with a merry smile full of southern sunshine you are not of the men round here you can think and you can laugh
And most of all I can eat good madam In that way I shall astonish you even more than by my intellect
She laughed aloud and swung her shoulders as your natives cannot do and then she called a little maid to lead my horse to stable However I preferred to see that matter done myself and told her to send the little maid for the fryingpan and the eggbox
Whether it were my natural wit and elegance of manner or whether it were my London freedom and knowledge of the world or which is perhaps the most probable because the least pleasing supposition my ready and permanent appetite and appreciation of garlic—I leave you to decide John but perhaps all three combined to recommend me to the graces of my charming hostess When I say charming I mean of course by manners and by intelligence and most of all by cooking for as regards external charms most fleeting and fallacious hers had ceased to cause distress for I cannot say how many years She said that it was the climate—for even upon that subject she requested my opinion—and I answered if there be a change let madam blame the seasons
However not to dwell too much upon our little pleasantries for I always get on with these foreign women better than with your Molls and Pegs I became not inquisitive but reasonably desirous to know by what strange hap or hazard a clever and a handsome woman as she must have been some day a woman moreover with great contempt for the rustic minds around her could have settled here in this lonely inn with only the waves for company and a boorish husband who slaved all day in turning a potters wheel at Watchett And what was the meaning of the emblem set above her doorway a very unattractive cat sitting in a ruined tree
However I had not very long to strain my curiosity for when she found out who I was and how I held the Kings commission and might be called an officer her desire to tell me all was more than equal to mine of hearing it Many and many a day she had longed for some one both skilful and trustworthy most of all for some one bearing warrant from a court of justice But the magistrates of the neighbourhood would have nothing to say to her declaring that she was a crackbrained woman and a wicked and even a foreign one
With many grimaces she assured me that never by her own freewill would she have lived so many years in that hateful country where the sky for half the year was fog and rain for nearly the other half It was so the very night when first her evil fortune brought her there and so no doubt it would be long after it had killed her But if I wished to know the reason of her being there she would tell me in few words which I will repeat as briefly
By birth she was an Italian from the mountains of Apulia who had gone to Rome to seek her fortunes after being badly treated in some loveaffair Her Christian name was Benita as for her surname that could make no difference to any one Being a quick and active girl and resolved to work down her troubles she found employment in a large hotel and rising gradually began to send money to her parents And here she might have thriven well and married well under sunny skies and been a happy woman but that some black day sent thither a rich and noble English family eager to behold the Pope It was not however their fervent longing for the Holy Father which had brought them to St Peters roof but rather their own bad luck in making their home too hot to hold them For although in the main good Catholics and pleasant receivers of anything one of their number had given offence by the folly of trying to think for himself Some bitter feud had been among them Benita knew not how it was and the sister of the nobleman who had died quite lately was married to the rival claimant whom they all detested It was something about dividing land Benita knew not what it was
But this Benita did know that they were all great people and rich and very liberal so that when they offered to take her to attend to the children and to speak the language for them and to comfort the lady she was only too glad to go little foreseeing the end of it Moreover she loved the children so from their pretty ways and that and the things they gave her and the style of their dresses that it would have broken her heart almost never to see the dears again
And so in a very evil hour she accepted the service of the noble Englishman and sent her father an old shoe filled to the tongue with money and trusted herself to fortune But even before she went she knew that it could not turn out well for the laurel leaf which she threw on the fire would not crackle even once and the horn of the goat came wrong in the twist and the heel of her foot was shining This made her sigh at the startingtime and after that what could you hope for
However at first all things went well My Lord was as gay as gay could be and never would come inside the carriage when a decent horse could be got to ride He would gallop in front at a reckless pace without a weapon of any kind delighted with the pure blue air and throwing his heart around him Benita had never seen any man so admirable and so childish As innocent as an infant and not only contented but noisily happy with anything Only other people must share his joy and the shadow of sorrow scattered it though it were but the shade of poverty
Here Benita wept a little and I liked her none the less and believed her ten times more in virtue of a tear or two
And so they travelled through Northern Italy and throughout the south of France making their way anyhow sometimes in coaches sometimes in carts sometimes upon muleback sometimes even afoot and weary but always as happy as could be The children laughed and grew and throve especially the young lady the elder of the two and Benita began to think that omens must not be relied upon But suddenly her faith in omens was confirmed for ever
My Lord who was quite a young man still and laughed at English arrogance rode on in front of his wife and friends to catch the first of a famous view on the French side of the Pyrenee hills He kissed his hand to his wife and said that he would save her the trouble of coming For those two were so one in one that they could make each other know whatever he or she had felt And so my Lord went round the corner with a fine young horse leaping up at the steps
They waited for him long and long but he never came again and within a week his mangled body lay in a little chapelyard and if the priests only said a quarter of the prayers they took the money for God knows they can have no throats left only a relaxation
My lady dwelled for six months more—it is a melancholy tale what true tale is not so—scarcely able to believe that all her fright was not a dream She would not wear a piece or shape of any mourningclothes she would not have a person cry or any sorrow among us She simply disbelieved the thing and trusted God to right it The Protestants who have no faith cannot understand this feeling Enough that so it was and so my Lady went to heaven
For when the snow came down in autumn on the roots of the Pyrenees and the chapelyard was white with it many people told the lady that it was time for her to go And the strongest plea of all was this that now she bore another hope of repeating her husbands virtues So at the end of October when wolves came down to the farmlands the little English family went home towards their England
They landed somewhere on the Devonshire coast ten or eleven years agone and stayed some days at Exeter and set out thence in a hired coach without any proper attendance for Watchett in the north of Somerset For the lady owned a quiet mansion in the neighbourhood of that town and her one desire was to find refuge there and to meet her lord who was sure to come she said when he heard of his new infant Therefore with only two servingmen and two maids including Benita the party set forth from Exeter and lay the first night at Bampton
On the following morn they started bravely with earnest hope of arriving at their journeys end by daylight But the roads were soft and very deep and the sloughs were out in places and the heavy coach broke down in the axle and needed mending at Dulverton and so they lost three hours or more and would have been wiser to sleep there But her ladyship would not hear of it she must be home that night she said and her husband would be waiting How could she keep him waiting now after such a long long time
Therefore although it was afternoon and the year now come to December the horses were put to again and the heavy coach went up the hill with the lady and her two children and Benita sitting inside of it the other maid and two servingmen each man with a great blunderbuss mounted upon the outside and upon the horses three Exeter postilions Much had been said at Dulverton and even back at Bampton about some great freebooters to whom all Exmoor owed suit and service and paid them very punctually Both the servingmen were scared even over their ale by this But the lady only said Drive on I know a little of highwaymen they never rob a lady
Through the fog and through the muck the coach went on as best it might sometimes foundered in a slough with half of the horses splashing it and sometimes knuckled up on a bank and straining across the middle while all the horses kicked at it However they went on till dark as well as might be expected But when they came all thanking God to the pitch and slope of the seabank leading on towards Watchett town and where my horse had shied so there the little boy jumped up and clapped his hands at the water and there as Benita said they met their fate and could not fly it
Although it was past the dusk of day the silver light from the sea flowed in and showed the cliffs and the gray sandline and the drifts of wreck and wrackweed It showed them also a troop of horsemen waiting under a rock hard by and ready to dash upon them The postilions lashed towards the sea and the horses strove in the depth of sand and the servingmen cocked their blunderbusses and cowered away behind them but the lady stood up in the carriage bravely and neither screamed nor spoke but hid her son behind her Meanwhile the drivers drove into the sea till the leading horses were swimming
But before the waves came into the coach a score of fierce men were round it They cursed the postilions for mad cowards and cut the traces and seized the wheelhorses allwild with dismay in the wet and the dark Then while the carriage was heeling over and wellnigh upset in the water the lady exclaimed I know that man He is our ancient enemy and Benita foreseeing that all their boxes would be turned inside out or carried away snatched the most valuable of the jewels a magnificent necklace of diamonds and cast it over the little girls head and buried it under her travellingcloak hoping to save it Then a great wave crested with foam rolled in and the coach was thrown on its side and the sea rushed in at the top and the windows upon shrieking and clashing and fainting away
What followed Benita knew not as one might well suppose herself being stunned by a blow on the head beside being palsied with terror See I have the mark now she said where the jamb of the door came down on me But when she recovered her senses she found herself lying upon the sand the robbers were out of sight and one of the servingmen was bathing her forehead with sea water For this she rated him well having taken already too much of that article and then she arose and ran to her mistress who was sitting upright on a little rock with her dead boys face to her bosom sometimes gazing upon him and sometimes questing round for the other one
Although there were torches and links around and she looked at her child by the light of them no one dared to approach the lady or speak or try to help her Each man whispered his fellow to go but each hung back himself and muttered that it was too awful to meddle with And there she would have sat all night with the fine little fellow stone dead in her arms and her tearless eyes dwelling upon him and her heart but not her mind thinking only that the Italian women stole up softly to her side and whispered It is the will of God
So it always seems to be were all the words the mother answered and then she fell on Benitas neck and the men were ashamed to be near her weeping and a sailor lay down and bellowed Surely these men are the best
Before the light of the morning came along the tide to Watchett my Lady had met her husband They took her into the town that night but not to her own castle and so the power of womanhood which is itself maternity came over swiftly upon her The lady whom all people loved though at certain times particular lies in Watchett little churchyard with son and heir at her right hand and a little babe of sex unknown sleeping on her bosom
This is a miserable tale said Jeremy Stickles brightly hand me over the schnapps my boy What fools we are to spoil our eyes for other peoples troubles Enough of our own to keep them clean although we all were chimneysweeps There is nothing like good hollands when a man becomes too sensitive Restore the action of the glands that is my rule after weeping Let me make you another John You are quite lowspirited
But although Master Jeremy carried on so as became his manhood and laughed at the sailors bellowing bless his heart I knew as well that tears were in his brave keen eyes as if I had dared to look for them or to show mine own
And what was the ladys name I asked and what became of the little girl And why did the woman stay there
Well cried Jeremy Stickles only too glad to be cheerful again talk of a woman after that As we used to say at school—Who dragged whom how many times in what manner round the wall of what But to begin last first my John as becomes a woman Benita stayed in that blessed place because she could not get away from it The Doones—if Doones indeed they were about which you of course know best—took every stiver out of the carriage wet or dry they took it And Benita could never get her wages for the whole affair is in Chancery and they have appointed a receiver
Whew said I knowing something of London and sorry for Benitas chance
So the poor thing was compelled to drop all thought of Apulia and settle down on the brink of Exmoor where you get all its evils without the good to balance them She married a man who turned a wheel for making the blue Watchett ware partly because he could give her a house and partly because he proved himself a good soul towards my Lady There they are and have three children and there you may go and visit them
I understand all that Jeremy though you do tell things too quickly and I would rather have John Frys style for he leaves one time for his words to melt Now for my second question What became of the little maid
You great oaf cried Jeremy Stickles you are rather more likely to know I should think than any one else in all the kingdoms
If I knew I should not ask you Jeremy Stickles do try to be neither conceited nor thickheaded
I will when you are neither answered Master Jeremy but you occupy all the room John No one else can get in with you there
Very well then let me out Take me down in both ways
If ever you were taken down you must have your double joints ready now And yet in other ways you will be as proud and set up as Lucifer As certain sure as I stand here that little maid is Lorna Doone
CHAPTER LIV
MUTUAL DISCOMFITURE
It must not be supposed that I was altogether so thickheaded as Jeremy would have made me out But it is part of my character that I like other people to think me slow and to labour hard to enlighten me while all the time I can say to myself This man is shallower than I am it is pleasant to see his shoals come up while he is sounding mine so Not that I would so behave God forbid with anybody be it man or woman who in simple heart approached me with no gauge of intellect But when the upper hand is taken upon the faith of ones patience by a man of even smaller wits not that Jeremy was that neither could he have lived to be thought so why it naturally happens that we knuckle under with an ounce of indignation
Jeremys tale would have moved me greatly both with sorrow and anger even without my guess at first and now my firm belief that the child of those unlucky parents was indeed my Lorna And as I thought of the ladys troubles and her faith in Providence and her cruel childless death and then imagined how my darling would be overcome to hear it you may well believe that my quick replies to Jeremy Stickless banter were but as the flourish of a drum to cover the sounds of pain
For when he described the heavy coach and the persons in and upon it and the breaking down at Dulverton and the place of their destination as well as the time and the weather and the season of the year my heart began to burn within me and my mind replaced the pictures first of the foreign ladysmaid by the pump caressing me and then of the coach struggling up the hill and the beautiful dame and the fine little boy with the white cockade in his hat but most of all the little girl darkhaired and very lovely and having even in those days the rich soft look of Lorna
But when he spoke of the necklace thrown over the head of the little maiden and of her disappearance before my eyes arose at once the flashing of the beaconfire the lonely moors embrowned with the light the tramp of the outlaw cavalcade and the helpless child headdownward lying across the robbers saddlebow
Then I remembered my own mad shout of boyish indignation and marvelled at the strange long way by which the events of life come round And while I thought of my own return and childish attempt to hide myself from sorrow in the sawpit and the agony of my mothers tears it did not fail to strike me as a thing of omen that the selfsame day should be both to my darling and myself the blackest and most miserable of all youthful days
The Kings Commissioner thought it wise for some good reason of his own to conceal from me for the present the name of the poor lady supposed to be Lornas mother and knowing that I could easily now discover it without him I let that question abide awhile Indeed I was half afraid to hear it remembering that the nobler and the wealthier she proved to be the smaller was my chance of winning such a wife for plain John Ridd Not that she would give me up that I never dreamed of But that others would interfere or indeed I myself might find it only honest to relinquish her That last thought was a dreadful blow and took my breath away from me
Jeremy Stickles was quite decided—and of course the discovery being his he had a right to be so—that not a word of all these things must be imparted to Lorna herself or even to my mother or any one whatever Keep it tight as wax my lad he cried with a wink of great expression this belongs to me mind and the credit ay and the premium and the right of discount are altogether mine It would have taken you fifty years to put two and two together so as I did like a clap of thunder Ah God has given some men brains and others have good farms and money and a certain skill in the lower beasts Each must use his special talent You work your farm I work my brains In the end my lad I shall beat you
Then Jeremy what a fool you must be if you cudgel your brains to make money of this to open the barndoor to me and show me all your threshing
Not a whit my son Quite the opposite Two men always thresh better than one And here I have you bound to use your flail one two with mine and yet in strictest honour bound not to bushel up till I tell you
But said I being much amused by a Londoners brave yet uncertain use of simplest rural metaphors for he had wholly forgotten the winnowing surely if I bushel up even when you tell me I must take halfmeasure
So you shall my boy he answered if we can only cheat those confounded knaves of Equity You shall take the beauty my son and the elegance and the love and all that—and my boy I will take the money
This he said in a way so dry and yet so richly unctuous that being gifted somehow by God with a kind of sense of queerness I fell back in my chair and laughed though the underside of my laugh was tears
Now Jeremy how if I refuse to keep this half as tight as wax You bound me to no such partnership before you told the story and I am not sure by any means of your right to do so afterwards
Tush he replied I know you too well to look for meanness in you If from pure goodwill John Ridd and anxiety to relieve you I made no condition precedent you are not the man to take advantage as a lawyer might I do not even want your promise As sure as I hold this glass and drink your health and love in another drop forced on me by pathetic words so surely will you be bound to me until I do release you Tush I know men well by this time a mere look of trust from one is worth anothers ten thousand oaths
Jeremy you are right I answered at least as regards the issue Although perhaps you were not right in leading me into a bargain like this without my own consent or knowledge But supposing that we should both be shot in this grand attack on the valley for I mean to go with you now heart and soul is Lorna to remain untold of that which changes all her life
Both shot cried Jeremy Stickles my goodness boy talk not like that And those Doones are cursed good shots too Nay nay the yellows shall go in front we attack on the Somerset side I think I from a hill will reconnoitre as behoves a general you shall stick behind a tree if we can only find one big enough to hide you You and I to be shot John Ridd with all this inferior food for powder anxious to be devoured
I laughed for I knew his cool hardihood and neverflinching courage and sooth to say no coward would have dared to talk like that
But when one comes to think of it he continued smiling at himself some provision should be made for even that unpleasant chance I will leave the whole in writing with orders to be opened etc etc—Now no more of that my boy a cigarro after schnapps and go to meet my yellow boys
His yellow boys as he called the Somersetshire trained bands were even now coming down the valley from the London Road as every one since I went up to town grandly entitled the lane to the moors There was one good point about these men that having no discipline at all they made pretence to none whatever Nay rather they ridiculed the thing as below men of any spirit On the other hand Master Stickless troopers looked down on these native fellows from a height which I hope they may never tumble for it would break the necks of all of them
Now these fine natives came along singing for their very lives a song the like of which set down here would oust my book from modest people and make everybody say this man never can have loved Lorna Therefore the less of that the better only I thought what a difference from the goodly psalms of the ale house
Having finished their canticle which contained more mirth than melody they drew themselves up in a sort of way supposed by them to be military each man with heel and elbow struck into those of his neighbour and saluted the Kings Commissioner Why where are your officers asked Master Stickles how is it that you have no officers Upon this there arose a general grin and a knowing look passed along their faces even up to the man by the gatepost Are you going to tell me or not said Jeremy what is become of your officers
Plaise zur said one little fellow at last being nodded at by the rest to speak in right of his known eloquence hus tould Harfizers as a wor no nade of un now Kings man hiszell wor coom a puppose vor to command us laike
And do you mean to say you villains cried Jeremy scarce knowing whether to laugh or to swear or what to do that your officers took their dismissal thus and let you come on without them
What could em do asked the little man with reason certainly on his side hus zent em about their business and they was glad enough to goo
Well said poor Jeremy turning to me a pretty state of things John Threescore cobblers and farming men plasterers tailors and kettlestomend and not a man to keep order among them except my blessed self John And I trow there is not one among them could hit all indoor flying The Doones will make riddles of all of us
However he had better hopes when the sons of Devon appeared as they did in about an hours time fine fellows and eager to prove themselves These had not discarded their officers but marched in good obedience to them and were quite prepared to fight the men of Somerset if need be in addition to the Doones And there was scarcely a man among them but could have trounced three of the yellow men and would have done it gladly too in honour of the red facings
Do you mean to suppose Master Jeremy Stickles said I looking on with amazement beholding also all our maidens at the upstair windows wondering that we my mother a widow woman and I a young man of small estate can keep and support all these precious fellows both yellow ones and red ones until they have taken the Doone Glen
God forbid it my son he replied laying a finger upon his lip Nay nay I am not of the shabby order when I have the strings of government Kill your sheep at famine prices and knead your bread at a figure expressing the rigours of last winter Let Annie make out the bill every day and I at night will double it You may take my word for it Master John this springharvest shall bring you in three times as much as last autumns did If they cheated you in town my lad you shall have your change in the country Take thy bill and write down quickly
However this did not meet my views of what an honest man should do and I went to consult my mother about it as all the accounts would be made in her name
Dear mother thought that if the King paid only half again as much as other people would have to pay it would be perhaps the proper thing the half being due for loyalty and here she quoted an ancient saying—
The King and his staff Be a man and a half
which according to her judgment ruled beyond dispute the law of the present question To argue with her after that which she brought up with such triumph would have been worse than useless Therefore I just told Annie to make the bills at a third below the current market prices so that the upshot would be fair She promised me honestly that she would but with a twinkle in her bright blue eyes which she must have caught from Tom Faggus It always has appeared to me that stern and downright honesty upon money matters is a thing not understood of women be they as good as good can be
The yellows and the reds together numbered a hundred and twenty men most of whom slept in our barns and stacks and besides these we had fifteen troopers of the regular army You may suppose that all the country was turned upside down about it and the folk who came to see them drill—by no means a needless exercise—were a greater plague than the soldiers The officers too of the Devonshire hand were such a torment to us that we almost wished their men had dismissed them as the Somerset troop had done with theirs For we could not keep them out of our house being all young men of good family and therefore not to be met with bars And having now three lovely maidens for even Lizzie might be called so when she cared to please mother and I were at wits ends on account of those blessed officers I never got a wink of sleep they came whistling under the window so and directly I went out to chase them there was nothing but a cat to see
Therefore all of us were right glad except perhaps Farmer Snowe from whom we had bought some victuals at rare price when Jeremy Stickles gave orders to march and we began to try to do it A good deal of boasting went overhead as our men defiled along the lane and the thick broad patins of pennywort jutted out between the stones ready to heal their bruises The parish choir came part of the way and the singingloft from Countisbury and they kept our soldiers spirits up with some of the most pugnacious Psalms Parson Bowden marched ahead leading all our van and file as against the Papists and promising to go with us till we came to bullet distance Therefore we marched bravely on and children came to look at us And I wondered where Uncle Reuben was who ought to have led the culverins whereof we had no less than three if Stickles could only have found him and then I thought of little Ruth and without any fault on my part my heart went down within me
The culverins were laid on bark and all our horses pulling them and looking round every now and then with their ears curved up like a squirreld nut and their noses tossing anxiously to know what sort of plough it was man had been pleased to put behind them—man whose endless whims and wildness they could never understand any more than they could satisfy However they pulled their very best—as all our horses always do—and the culverins went up the hill without smack of whip or swearing It had been arranged very justly no doubt and quite in keeping with the spirit of the Constitution but as it proved not too wisely that either body of men should act in its own county only So when we reached the top of the hill the sons of Devon marched on and across the track leading into Doonegate so as to fetch round the western side and attack with their culverin from the cliffs whence the sentry had challenged me on the night of my passing the entrance Meanwhile the yellow lads were to stay upon the eastern highland whence Uncle Reuben and myself had reconnoitred so long ago and whence I had leaped into the valley at the time of the great snowdrifts And here they were not to show themselves but keep their culverin in the woods until their cousins of Devon appeared on the opposite parapet of the glen
The third culverin was entrusted to the fifteen troopers who with ten picked soldiers from either trained hand making in all fiveandthirty men were to assault the Doonegate itself while the outlaws were placed between two fires from the eastern cliff and the western And with this force went Jeremy Stickles and with it went myself as knowing more about the passage than any other stranger did Therefore if I have put it clearly as I strive to do you will see that the Doones must repulse at once three simultaneous attacks from an army numbering in the whole one hundred and thirtyfive men not including the Devonshire officers fifty men on each side I mean and thirtyfive at the head of the valley
The tactics of this grand campaign appeared to me so clever and beautifully ordered that I commended Colonel Stickles as everybody now called him for his great ability and mastery of the art of war He admitted that he deserved high praise but said that he was not by any means equally certain of success so large a proportion of his forces being only a raw militia brave enough no doubt for anything when they saw their way to it but knowing little of gunnery and wholly unused to be shot at Whereas all the Doones were practised marksmen being compelled when lads like the Balearic slingers to strike down their meals before tasting them And then Colonel Stickles asked me whether I myself could stand fire he knew that I was not a coward but this was a different question I told him that I had been shot at once or twice before but nevertheless disliked it as much as almost anything Upon that he said that I would do for that when a man got over the first blush of diffidence he soon began to look upon it as a puff of destiny
I wish I could only tell what happened in the battle of that day especially as nearly all the people round these parts who never saw gunfire in it have gotten the tale so much amiss and some of them will even stand in front of my own hearth and contradict me to the teeth although at the time they were not born nor their fathers put into breeches But in truth I cannot tell exactly even the part in which I helped how then can I be expected time by time to lay before you all the little ins and outs of places where I myself was not Only I can contradict things which I know could not have been and what I plainly saw should not be controverted in my own house
Now we fiveandthirty men lay back a little way round the corner in the hollow of the track which leads to the strong Doonegate Our culverin was in amongst us loaded now to the muzzle and it was not comfortable to know that it might go off at any time Although the yeomanry were not come according to arrangement some of us had horses there besides the horses who dragged the cannon and now were sniffing at it And there were plenty of spectators to mind these horses for us as soon as we should charge inasmuch as all our friends and neighbours who had so keenly prepared for the battle now resolved to take no part but look on and praise the winners
At last we heard the loud bangbang which proved that Devon and Somerset were pouring their indignation hot into the den of malefactors or at least so we supposed therefore at double quick march we advanced round the bend of the cliff which had hidden us hoping to find the gate undefended and to blow down all barriers with the fire of our cannon And indeed it seemed likely at first to be so for the wild and mountainous gorge of rock appeared to be all in pure loneliness except where the coloured coats of our soldiers and their metal trappings shone with the sun behind them Therefore we shouted a loud hurrah as for an easy victory
But while the sound of our cheer rang back among the crags above us a shrill clear whistle cleft the air for a single moment and then a dozen carbines bellowed and all among us flew murderous lead Several of our men rolled over but the rest rushed on like Britons Jeremy and myself in front while we heard the horses plunging at the loaded gun behind us Now my lads cried Jeremy one dash and we are beyond them For he saw that the foe was overhead in the gallery of brushwood
Our men with a brave shout answered him for his courage was fine example and we leaped in under the feet of the foe before they could load their guns again But here when the foremost among us were past an awful crash rang behind us with the shrieks of men and the din of metal and the horrible screaming of horses The trunk of the tree had been launched overhead and crashed into the very midst of us Our cannon was under it so were two men and a horse with his poor back broken Another horse vainly struggled to rise with his thighbone smashed and protruding
Now I lost all presence of mind at this for I loved both those good horses and shouting for any to follow me dashed headlong into the cavern Some five or six men came after me the foremost of whom was Jeremy when a storm of shot whistled and patted around me with a blaze of light and a thunderous roar On I leaped like a madman and pounced on one gunner and hurled him across his culverin but the others had fled and a heavy oak door fell to with a bang behind them So utterly were my senses gone and naught but strength remaining that I caught up the cannon with both hands and dashed it breechfirst at the doorway The solid oak burst with the blow and the gun stuck fast like a builders putlog
But here I looked round in vain for any one to come and follow up my success The scanty light showed me no figure moving through the length of the tunnel behind me only a heavy groan or two went to my heart and chilled it So I hurried back to seek Jeremy fearing that he must be smitten down
And so indeed I found him as well as three other poor fellows struck by the charge of the culverin which had passed so close beside me Two of the four were as dead as stones and growing cold already but Jeremy and the other could manage to groan just now and then So I turned my attention to them and thought no more of fighting
Having so many wounded men and so many dead among us we loitered at the caverns mouth and looked at one another wishing only for somebody to come and take command of us But no one came and I was griefed so much about poor Jeremy besides being wholly unused to any violence of bloodshed that I could only keep his head up and try to stop him from bleeding And he looked up at me pitifully being perhaps in a haze of thought as a calf looks at a butcher
The shot had taken him in the mouth about that no doubt could be for two of his teeth were in his beard and one of his lips was wanting I laid his shattered face on my breast and nursed him as a woman might But he looked at me with a jerk at this and I saw that he wanted coolness
While here we stayed quite out of danger for the fellows from the gallery could by no means shoot us even if they remained there and the oaken door whence the others fled was blocked up by the culverin a boy who had no business there being in fact our clerks apprentice to the art of shoemaking came round the corner upon us in the manner which boys and only boys can use with grace and freedom that is to say with a sudden rush and a sidelong step and an impudence—
Got the worst of it cried the boy better be off all of you Zoomerzett and Devon a vighting and the Doones have drashed em both Maister Ridd even thee be drashed
We few who yet remained of the force which was to have won the Doonegate gazed at one another like so many fools and nothing more For we still had some faint hopes of winning the day and recovering our reputation by means of what the other men might have done without us And we could not understand at all how Devonshire and Somerset being embarked in the same cause should be fighting with one another
Finding nothing more to be done in the way of carrying on the war we laid poor Master Stickles and two more of the wounded upon the carriage of bark and hurdles whereon our gun had lain and we rolled the gun into the river and harnessed the horses yet alive and put the others out of their pain and sadly wended homewards feeling ourselves to be thoroughly beaten yet ready to maintain that it was no fault of ours whatever And in this opinion the women joined being only too glad and thankful to see us home alive again
Now this enterprise having failed so I prefer not to dwell too long upon it only just to show the mischief which lay at the root of the failure And this mischief was the vile jealousy betwixt red and yellow uniform Now I try to speak impartially belonging no more to Somerset than I do to Devonshire living upon the borders and born of either county The tale was told me by one side first and then quite to a different tune by the other and then by both together with very hot words of reviling and a desire to fight it out again And putting this with that the truth appears to be as follows—
The men of Devon who bore red facings had a long way to go round the hills before they could get into due position on the western side of the Doone Glen And knowing that their cousins in yellow would claim the whole of the glory if allowed to be first with the firing these worthy fellows waited not to take good aim with their cannons seeing the others about to shoot but fettled it anyhow on the slope pointing in a general direction and trusting in God for aimworthiness laid the rope to the breech and fired Now as Providence ordained it the shot which was a casual mixture of anything considered hard—for instance jugbottoms and knobs of doors—the whole of this pernicious dose came scattering and shattering among the unfortunate yellow men upon the opposite cliff killing one and wounding two
Now what did the men of Somerset do but instead of waiting for their friends to send round and beg pardon train their gun full mouth upon them and with a vicious meaning shoot Not only this but they loudly cheered when they saw four or five red coats lie low for which savage feeling not even the remarks of the Devonshire men concerning their coats could entirely excuse them Now I need not tell the rest of it for the tale makes a man discontented Enough that both sides waxed hotter and hotter with the fire of destruction And but that the gorge of the cliffs lay between very few would have lived to tell of it for our western blood becomes stiff and firm when churned with the sense of wrong in it
At last the Doones who must have laughed at the thunder passing overhead recalling their men from the gallery issued out of Gwennys gate which had been wholly overlooked and fell on the rear of the Somerset men and slew four beside their cannon Then while the survivors ran away the outlaws took the hot culverin and rolled it down into their valley Thus of the three guns set forth that morning only one ever came home again and that was the gun of the Devonshire men who dragged it home themselves with the view of making a boast about it
This was a melancholy end of our brave setting out and everybody blamed every one else and several of us wanted to have the whole thing over again as then we must have righted it But upon one point all agreed by some reason not clear to me that the root of the evil was to be found in the way Parson Bowden went up the hill with his hat on and no cassock
CHAPTER LV
GETTING INTO CHANCERY
Two of the Devonshire officers Captains Pyke and Dallan now took command of the men who were left and ordered all to go home again commending much the bravery which had been displayed on all sides and the loyalty to the King and the English constitution This last word always seems to me to settle everything when said because nobody understands it and yet all can puzzle their neighbours So the Devonshire men having beans to sow which they ought to have done on Good Friday went home and our Somerset friends only stayed for two days more to backbite them
To me the whole thing was purely grievous not from any sense of defeat though that was bad enough but from the pain and anguish caused by death and wounds and mourning Surely we have woes enough I used to think of an evening when the poor fellows could not sleep or rest or let others rest around them surely all this smell of wounds is not incense men should pay to the God who made them Death when it comes and is done with may be a bliss to any one but the doubt of life or death when a man lies as it were like a trunk upon a sawpit and a grisly head looks up at him and the groans of pain are cleaving him this would be beyond all bearing—but for Natures sap—sweet hope
Jeremy Stickles lay and tossed and thrust up his feet in agony and bit with his lipless mouth the clothes and was proud to see blood upon them He looked at us ever so many times as much as to say Fools let me die then I shall have some comfort but we nodded at him sagely especially the women trying to convey to him on no account to die yet And then we talked to one another on purpose for him to hear us how brave he was and not the man to knock under in a hurry and how he should have the victory yet and how well he looked considering
These things cheered him a little now and a little more next time and every time we went on so he took it with less impatience Then once when he had been very quiet and not even tried to frown at us Annie leaned over and kissed his forehead and spread the pillows and sheet with a curve as delicate as his own white ears and then he feebly lifted hands and prayed to God to bless her And after that he came round gently though never to the man he had been and never to speak loud again
For a time as I may have implied before Master Stickless authority and manner of levying duties had not been taken kindly by the people round our neighbourhood The manors of East Lynn and West Lynn and even that of Woolhanger—although just then all three were at issue about some rights of wreck and the hanging of a sheepstealer a man of no great eminence yet claimed by each for the sake of his clothes—these three having their rights impugned or even superseded as they declared by the quartering of soldiers in their neighbourhood united very kindly to oppose the Kings Commissioner However Jeremy had contrived to conciliate the whole of them not so much by anything engaging in his deportment or delicate address as by holding out bright hopes that the plunder of the Doone Glen might become divisible among the adjoining manors Now I have never discovered a thing which the lords of manors at least in our part of the world do not believe to belong to themselves if only they could get their rights And it did seem natural enough that if the Doones were ousted and a nice collection of prey remained this should be parted among the people having ancient rights of plunder Nevertheless Master Jeremy knew that the soldiers would have the first of it and the King what they could not carry
And perhaps he was punished justly for language so misleading by the general indignation of the people all around us not at his failure but at himself for that which he could in no wise prevent And the stewards of the manors rode up to our house on purpose to reproach him and were greatly vexed with all of us because he was too ill to see them
To myself though by rights the last to be thought of among so much pain and trouble Jeremys wound was a great misfortune in more ways than one In the first place it deferred my chance of imparting either to my mother or to Mistress Lorna my firm belief that the maid I loved was not sprung from the race which had slain my father neither could he in any way have offended against her family And this discovery I was yearning more and more to declare to them being forced to see even in the midst of all our warlike troubles that a certain difference was growing betwixt them both and betwixt them and me For although the words of the Counsellor had seemed to fail among us being bravely met and scattered yet our courage was but as wind flinging wide the tareseeds when the sower casts them from his bag The crop may not come evenly many places may long lie bare and the field be all in patches yet almost every vetch will spring and tiller out and stretch across the scatterings where the wind puffed
And so dear mother and darling Lorna now had been for many a day thinking worrying and wearing about the matter between us Neither liked to look at the other as they used to do with mother admiring Lornas eyes and grace and form of breeding and Lorna loving mothers goodness softness and simplicity And the saddest and most hurtful thing was that neither could ask the other of the shadow falling between them And so it went on and deepened
In the next place Colonel Stickless illness was a grievous thing to us in that we had no one now to command the troopers Ten of these were still alive and so well approved to us that they could never fancy aught whether for dinner or supper without its being forthcoming If they wanted trout they should have it if colloped venison or broiled ham or salmon from Lynmouth and Trentisoe or truffles from the woodside all these were at the warriors service until they lusted for something else Even the wounded men ate nobly all except poor Jeremy who was forced to have a young elder shoot with the pith drawn for to feed him And once when they wanted pickled loach from my description of it I took up my boyish sport again and pronged them a good jarful Therefore none of them could complain and yet they were not satisfied perhaps for want of complaining
Be that as it might we knew that if they once resolved to go as they might do at any time with only a corporal over them all our house and all our goods ay and our own precious lives would and must be at the mercy of embittered enemies For now the Doones having driven back as every one said five hundred men—though not thirty had ever fought with them—were in such feather all round the country that nothing was too good for them Offerings poured in at the Doone gate faster than Doones could away with them and the sympathy both of Devon and Somerset became almost oppressive And perhaps this wealth of congratulation and mutual good feeling between plundered and victim saved us from any piece of spite kindliness having won the day and every one loving every one
But yet another cause arose and this the strongest one of all to prove the need of Stickless aid and calamity of his illness And this came to our knowledge first without much time to think of it For two men appeared at our gate one day stripped to their shirts and void of horses and looking very sorrowful Now having some fear of attack from the Doones and scarce knowing what their tricks might be we received these strangers cautiously desiring to know who they were before we let them see all our premises
However it soon became plain to us that although they might not be honest fellows at any rate they were not Doones and so we took them in and fed and left them to tell their business And this they were glad enough to do as men who have been maltreated almost always are And it was not for us to contradict them lest our victuals should go amiss
These two very worthy fellows—nay more than that by their own account being downright martyrs—were come for the public benefit from the Court of Chancery sitting for everybodys good and boldly redressing evil This court has a power of scent unknown to the Commonlaw practitioners and slowly yet surely tracks its game even as the great lumbering dogs now introduced from Spain and called by some people pointers differ from the swift gazehound who sees his prey and runs him down in the manner of the common lawyers If a mans ill fate should drive him to make a choice between these two let him rather be chased by the hounds of law than tracked by the dogs of Equity
Now as it fell in a very black day for all except the lawyers His Majestys Court of Chancery if that be what it called itself gained scent of poor Lornas life and of all that might be made of it Whether through that brave young lord who ran into such peril or through any of his friends or whether through that deep old Counsellor whose game none might penetrate or through any disclosures of the Italian woman or even of Jeremy himself none just now could tell us only this truth was too clear—Chancery had heard of Lorna and then had seen how rich she was and never delaying in one thing had opened mouth and swallowed her
The Doones with a share of that dry humour which was in them hereditary had welcomed the two apparitors if that be the proper name for them and led them kindly down the valley and told them then to serve their writ Misliking the look of things these poor men began to fumble among their clothes upon which the Doones cried off with them Let us see if your message he on your skins And with no more manners than that they stripped and lashed them out of the valley only bidding them come to us if they wanted Lorna Doone and to us they came accordingly Neither were they sure at first but that we should treat them so for they had no knowledge of the west country and thought it quite a godless place wherein no writ was holy
We however comforted and cheered them so considerably that in gratitude they showed their writs to which they had stuck like leeches And these were twofold one addressed to Mistress Lorna Doone so called and bidding her keep in readiness to travel whenever called upon and commit herself to nobody except the accredited messengers of the right honourable Court while the other was addressed to all subjects of His Majesty having custody of Lorna Doone or any power over her And this last threatened and exhorted and held out hopes of recompense if she were rendered truly My mother and I held consultation over both these documents with a mixture of some wrath and fear and a fork of great sorrow to stir them And now having Jeremy Stickless leave which he gave with a nod when I told him all and at last made him understand it I laid bare to my mother as well what I knew as what I merely surmised or guessed concerning Lornas parentage All this she received with great tears and wonder and fervent thanks to God and still more fervent praise of her son who had nothing whatever to do with it However now the question was how to act about these writs And herein it was most unlucky that we could not have Master Stickles with his knowledge of the world and especially of the lawcourts to advise us what to do and to help in doing it And firstly of the first I said We have rogues to deal with but try we not to rogue them
To this in some measure dear mother agreed though she could not see the justice of it yet thought that it might be wiser because of our want of practice And then I said Now we are bound to tell Lorna and to serve her citation upon her which these good fellows have given us
Then go and do it thyself my son mother replied with a mournful smile misdoubting what the end might be So I took the slip of brown parchment and went to seek my darling
Lorna was in her favourite place the little garden which she tended with such care and diligence Seeing how the maiden loved it and was happy there I had laboured hard to fence it from the dangers of the wood And here she had corrected me with better taste and sense of pleasure and the joys of musing For I meant to shut out the brook and build my fence inside of it but Lorna said no if we must have a fence which could not but be injury at any rate leave the stream inside and a pleasant bank beyond it And soon I perceived that she was right though not so much as afterwards for the fairest of all things in a garden and in summertime most useful is a brook of crystal water where a man may come and meditate and the flowers may lean and see themselves and the rays of the sun are purfied Now partly with her own white hands and partly with Gwennys red ones Lorna had made of this sunny spot a haven of beauty to dwell in It was not only that colours lay in the harmony we would seek of them neither was it the height of plants sloping to one another nor even the delicate tone of foliage following suit and neighbouring Even the breathing of the wind soft and gentle in and out moving things that need not move and passing longerstalked ones even this was not enough among the flush of fragrance to tell a man the reason of his quiet satisfaction But so it shall for ever be As the river we float upon with wine and flowers and music is nothing at the wellspring but a bubble without reason
Feeling many things but thinking without much to guide me over the grassplats laid between I went up to Lorna She in a shower of damask roses raised her eyes and looked at me And even now in those sweet eyes so deep with lovingkindness and soft maiden dreamings there seemed to be a slight unwilling half confessed withdrawal overcome by love and duty yet a painful thing to see
Darling I said are your spirits good Are you strong enough today to bear a tale of cruel sorrow but which perhaps when your tears are shed will leave you all the happier
What can you mean she answered trembling not having been vey strong of late and now surprised at my manner are you come to give me up John
Not very likely I replied neither do I hope such a thing would leave you all the happier Oh Lorna if you can think that so quickly as you seem to have done now you have every prospect and strong temptation to it You are far far above me in the world and I have no right to claim you Perhaps when you have heard these tidings you will say John Ridd begone your life and mine are parted
Will I cried Lorna with all the brightness of her playful ways returning you very foolish and jealous John how shall I punish you for this Am I to forsake every flower I have and not even know that the world goes round while I look up at you the whole day long and say John I love love love you
During these words she leaned upon me half in gay imitation of what I had so often made her do and half in depth of earnestness as the thricerepeated word grew stronger and grew warmer with and to her heart And as she looked up at the finish saying you so musically I was much inclined to clasp her round but remembering who she was forbore at which she seemed surprised with me
Mistress Lorna I replied with I know not what temptation making little of her caresses though more than all my heart to me Mistress Lorna you must keep your rank and proper dignity You must never look at me with anything but pity now
I shall look at you with pity John said Lorna trying to laugh it off yet not knowing what to make of me if you talk any more of this nonsense knowing me as you ought to do I shall even begin to think that you and your friends are weary of me and of so long supporting me and are only seeking cause to send me back to my old misery If it be so I will go My life matters little to any one Here the great bright tears arose but the maiden was too proud to sob
Sweetest of all sweet loves I cried for the sign of a tear defeated me what possibility could make me ever give up Lorna
Dearest of all dears she answered if you dearly love me what possibility could ever make me give you up dear
Upon that there was no more forbearing but I kissed and clasped her whether she were Countess or whether Queen of England mine she was at least in heart and mine she should be wholly And she being of the same opinion nothing was said between us
Now Lorna said I as she hung on my arm willing to trust me anywhere come to your little planthouse and hear my moving story
No story can move me much dear she answered rather faintly for any excitement stayed with her since I know your strength of kindness scarcely any tale can move me unless it be of yourself love or of my poor mother
It is of your poor mother darling Can you bear to hear it And yet I wondered why she did not say as much of her father
Yes I can bear anything But although I cannot see her and have long forgotten I could not bear to hear ill of her
There is no ill to hear sweet child except of evil done to her Lorna you are of an illstarred race
Better that than a wicked race she answered with her usual quickness leaping at conclusion tell me I am not a Doone and I will—but I cannot love you more
You are not a Doone my Lorna for that at least I can answer though I know not what your name is
And my father—your father—what I mean is—
Your father and mine never met one another Your father was killed by an accident in the Pyrenean mountains and your mother by the Doones or at least they caused her death and carried you away from her
All this coming as in one breath upon the sensitive maiden was more than she could bear all at once as any but a fool like me must of course have known She lay back on the garden bench with her black hair shed on the oaken bark while her colour went and came and only by that and her quivering breath could any one say that she lived and thought And yet she pressed my hand with hers that I might tell her all of it
CHAPTER LVI
JOHN BECOMES TOO POPULAR
No flower that I have ever seen either in shifting of light and shade or in the pearly morning may vie with a fair young womans face when tender thought and quick emotion vary enrich and beautify it Thus my Lorna hearkened softly almost without word or gesture yet with sighs and glances telling and the pressure of my hand how each word was moving her
When at last my tale was done she turned away and wept bitterly for the sad fate of her parents But to my surprise she spoke not even a word of wrath or rancour She seemed to take it all as fate
Lorna darling I said at length for men are more impatient in trials of time than women are do you not even wish to know what your proper name is
How can it matter to me John she answered with a depth of grief which made me seem a trifler It can never matter now when there are none to share it
Poor little soul was all I said in a tone of purest pity and to my surprise she turned upon me caught me in her arms and loved me as she had never done before
Dearest I have you she cried you and only you love Having you I want no other All my life is one with yours Oh John how can I treat you so
Blushing through the wet of weeping and the gloom of pondering yet she would not hide her eyes but folded me and dwelled on me
I cannot believe in the pride of my joy I whispered into one little ear that you could ever so love me beauty as to give up the world for me
Would you give up your farm for me John cried Lorna leaping back and looking with her wondrous power of light at me would you give up your mother your sisters your home and all that you have in the world and every hope of your life John
Of course I would Without two thoughts You know it you know it Lorna
It is true that I do she answered in a tone of deepest sadness and it is this power of your love which has made me love you so No good can come of it no good Gods face is set against selfishness
As she spoke in that low tone I gazed at the clear lines of her face where every curve was perfect not with love and wonder only but with a strange new sense of awe
Darling I said come nearer to me Give me surety against that For Gods sake never frighten me with the thought that He would part us
Does it then so frighten you she whispered coming close to me I know it dear I have known it long but it never frightens me It makes me sad and very lonely till I can remember
Till you can remember what I asked with a long deep shudder for we are so superstitious
Until I do remember love that you will soon come back to me and be my own for ever This is what I always think of this is what I hope for
Although her eyes were so glorious and beaming with eternity this distant sort of beatitude was not much to my liking I wanted to have my love on earth and my dear wife in my own home and children in good time if God should please to send us any And then I would be to them exactly what my father was to me And beside all this I doubted much about being fit for heaven where no ploughs are and no cattle unless sacrificed bulls went thither
Therefore I said Now kiss me Lorna and dont talk any nonsense And the darling came and did it being kindly obedient as the other world often makes us
You sweet love I said at this being slave to her soft obedience do you suppose I should be content to leave you until Elysium
How on earth can I tell dear John what you will be content with
You and only you said I the whole of it lies in a syllable Now you know my entire want and want must be my comfort
But surely if I have money sir and birth and rank and all sorts of grandeur you would never dare to think of me
She drew herself up with an air of pride as she gravely pronounced these words and gave me a scornful glance or tried and turned away as if to enter some grand coach or palace while I was so amazed and grieved in my raw simplicity especially after the way in which she had first received my news so loving and warmhearted that I never said a word but stared and thought How does she mean it
She saw the pain upon my forehead and the wonder in my eyes and leaving coach and palace too back she flew to me in a moment as simple as simplest milkmaid
Oh you fearful stupid John you inexpressibly stupid John she cried with both arms round my neck and her lips upon my forehead you have called yourself thickheaded John and I never would believe it But now I do with all my heart Will you never know what I am love
No Lorna that I never shall I can understand my mother well and one at least of my sisters and both the Snowe girls very easily but you I never understand only love you all the more for it
Then never try to understand me if the result is that dear John And yet I am the very simplest of all foolish simple creatures Nay I am wrong therein I yield the palm to you my dear To think that I can act so No wonder they want me in London as an ornament for the stage John
Now in after days when I heard of Lorna as the richest and noblest and loveliest lady to be found in London I often remembered that little scene and recalled every word and gesture wondering what lay under it Even now while it was quite impossible once to doubt those clear deep eyes and the bright lips trembling so nevertheless I felt how much the world would have to do with it and that the best and truest people cannot shake themselves quite free However for the moment I was very proud and showed it
And herein differs fact from fancy things as they befall us from things as we would have them human ends from human hopes that the first are moved by a thousand and the last on two wheels only which being named are desire and fear Hope of course is nothing more than desire with a telescope magnifying distant matters overlooking near ones opening one eye on the objects closing the other to all objections And if hope be the future tense of desire the future of fear is religion—at least with too many of us
Whether I am right or wrong in these small moralities one thing is sure enough to wit that hope is the fastest traveller at any rate in the time of youth And so I hoped that Lorna might be proved of blameless family and honourable rank and fortune and yet none the less for that love me and belong to me So I led her into the house and she fell into my mothers arms and I left them to have a good cry of it with Annie ready to help them
If Master Stickles should not mend enough to gain his speech a little and declare to us all he knew I was to set out for Watchett riding upon horseback and there to hire a cart with wheels such as we had not begun as yet to use on Exmoor For all our work went on broad wood with runners and with earthboards and many of us still looked upon wheels though mentioned in the Bible as the invention of the evil one and Pharoahs especial property
Now instead of getting better Colonel Stickles grew worse and worse in spite of all our tendance of him with simples and with nourishment and no poisonous medicine such as doctors would have given him And the fault of this lay not with us but purely with himself and his unquiet constitution For he roused himself up to a perfect fever when through Lizzies giddiness he learned the very thing which mother and Annie were hiding from him with the utmost care namely that Sergeant Bloxham had taken upon himself to send direct to London by the Chancery officers a full report of what had happened and of the illness of his chief together with an urgent prayer for a full battalion of Kings troops and a plenary commander
This Sergeant Bloxham being senior of the surviving soldiers and a very worthy man in his way but a trifle overzealous had succeeded to the captaincy upon his masters disablement Then with desire to serve his country and show his education he sat up most part of three nights and wrote this very wonderful report by the aid of our stable lanthorn It was a very fine piece of work as three men to whom he read it but only one at a time pronounced being under seal of secrecy And all might have gone well with it if the author could only have held his tongue when near the ears of women But this was beyond his sense as it seems although so good a writer For having heard that our Lizzie was a famous judge of literature as indeed she told almost every one he could not contain himself but must have her opinion upon his work
Lizzie sat on a log of wood and listened with all her ears up having made proviso that no one else should be there to interrupt her And she put in a syllable here and there and many a time she took out one for the Sergeant overloaded his gun more often than undercharged it like a liberal man of letters and then she declared the result so good so chaste and the style to be so elegant and yet so fervent that the Sergeant broke his pipe in three and fell in love with her on the spot Now this has led me out of my way as things are always doing partly through their own perverseness partly through my kind desire to give fair turn to all of them and to all the people who do them If any one expects of me a strict and welldrilled story standing at attention all the time with hands at the side like two wens on my trunk and eyes going neither right nor left I trow that man has been disappointed many a page ago and has left me to my evil ways and if not I love his charity Therefore let me seek his grace and get back and just begin again
That great despatch was sent to London by the Chancery officers whom we fitted up with clothes and for three days fattened them which in strict justice they needed much as well as in point of equity They were kind enough to be pleased with us and accepted my new shirts generously and urgent as their business was another week as they both declared could do no harm to nobody and might set them upon their legs again And knowing although they were London men that fish do live in water these two fellows went fishing all day but never landed anything However their holiday was cut short for the Sergeant having finished now his narrative of proceedings was not the man to let it hang fire and be quenched perhaps by Stickles
Therefore having done their business and served both citations these two good men had a pannier of victuals put up by dear Annie and borrowing two of our horses rode to Dunster where they left them and hired on towards London We had not time to like them much and so we did not miss them especially in our great anxiety about poor Master Stickles
Jeremy lay between life and death for at least a fortnight If the link of chain had flown upwards for half a link of chain it was which took him in the mouth so even one inch upwards the poor man could have needed no one except Parson Bowden for the bottom of his skull which holds the brain as in the eggcup must have clean gone from him But striking him horizontally and a little upon the skew the metal came out at the back of his neck and the powder not being strong I suppose it lodged in his leather collar
Now the rust of this iron hung in the wound or at least we thought so though since I have talked with a man of medicine I am not so sure of it And our chief aim was to purge this rust when rather we should have stopped the hole and let the oxide do its worst with a plug of new flesh on both sides of it
At last I prevailed upon him by argument that he must get better to save himself from being ignobly and unjustly superseded and hereupon I reviled Sergeant Bloxham more fiercely than Jeremys self could have done and indeed to such a pitch that Jeremy almost forgave him and became much milder And after that his fever and the inflammation of his wound diminished very rapidly
However not knowing what might happen or even how soon poor Lorna might be taken from our power and falling into lawyers hands have cause to wish herself most heartily back among the robbers I set forth one day for Watchett taking advantage of the visit of some troopers from an outpost who would make our house quite safe I rode alone being fully primed and having no misgivings For it was said that even the Doones had begun to fear me since I cast their culverin through the door as above related and they could not but believe from my being still untouched although so large an object in the thickest of their fire both of gun and cannon that I must bear a charmed life proof against ball and bullet However I knew that Carver Doone was not a likely man to hold any superstitious opinions and of him I had an instinctive dread although quite ready to face him
Riding along I meditated upon Lornas history how many things were now beginning to unfold themselves which had been obscure and dark For instance Sir Ensor Doones consent or to say the least his indifference to her marriage with a yeoman which in a man so proud though dying had greatly puzzled both of us But now if she not only proved to be no grandchild of the Doone but even descended from his enemy it was natural enough that he should feel no great repugnance to her humiliation And that Lornas father had been a foe to the house of Doone I gathered from her mothers cry when she beheld their leader Moreover that fact would supply their motive in carrying off the unfortunate little creature and rearing her among them and as one of their own family yet hiding her true birth from her She was a great card as we say when playing Allfours at Christmastime and if one of them could marry her before she learned of right and wrong vast property enough to buy pardons for a thousand Doones would be at their mercy And since I was come to know Lorna better and she to know me thoroughly—many things had been outspoken which her early bashfulness had kept covered from me Attempts I mean to pledge her love to this one or that other some of which perhaps might have been successful if there had not been too many
And then as her beauty grew richer and brighter Carver Doone was smitten strongly and would hear of no one else as a suitor for her and by the terror of his claim drove off all the others Here too may the explanation of a thing which seemed to be against the laws of human nature and upon which I longed but dared not to crossquestion Lorna How could such a lovely girl although so young and brave and distant have escaped the vile affections of a lawless company
But now it was as clear as need be For any proven violence would have utterly vitiated all claim upon her grand estate at least as those claims must be urged before a court of equity And therefore all the elders with views upon her real estate kept strict watch on the youngers who confined their views to her personality
Now I do not mean to say that all this or the hundred other things which came crowding consideration were half as plain to me at the time as I have set them down above Far be it from me to deceive you so No doubt my thoughts were then dark and hazy like an oillamp full of fungus and I have trimmed them as when they burned with scissors sharpened long afterwards All I mean to say is this that jogging along to a certain tune of the horses feet which we call threehalfpence and twopence I saw my way a little into some things which had puzzled me
When I knocked at the little door whose sill was gritty and grimed with sand no one came for a very long time to answer me or to let me in Not wishing to be unmannerly I waited a long time and watched the sea from which the wind was blowing and whose many lips of waves—though the tide was halfway out—spoke to and refreshed me After a while I knocked again for my horse was becoming hungry and a good while after that again a voice came through the keyhole—
Who is that wishes to enter
The boy who was at the pump said I when the carriage broke down at Dulverton The boy that lives at oh—ah and some day you would come seek for him
Oh yes I remember certainly My leetle boy with the fair white skin I have desired to see him oh many yes many times
She was opening the door while saying this and then she started back in affright that the little boy should have grown so
You cannot be that leetle boy It is quite impossible Why do you impose on me
Not only am I that little boy who made the water to flow for you till the nebule came upon the glass but also I am come to tell you all about your little girl
Come in you very great leetle boy she answered with her dark eyes brightened And I went in and looked at her She was altered by time as much as I was The slight and graceful shape was gone not that I remembered anything of her figure if you please for boys of twelve are not yet prone to note the shapes of women but that her lithe straight gait had struck me as being so unlike our people Now her time for walking so was past and transmitted to her children Yet her face was comely still and full of strong intelligence I gazed at her and she at me and we were sure of one another
Now what will ye please to eat she asked with a lively glance at the size of my mouth that is always the first thing you people ask in these barbarous places
I will tell you byandby I answered misliking this satire upon us but I might begin with a quart of ale to enable me to speak madam
Very well One quevart of beor she called out to a little maid who was her eldest child no doubt It is to be expected sir Beor beor beor all day long with you Englishmen
Nay I replied not all day long if madam will excuse me Only a pint at breakfasttime and a pint and a half at eleven oclock and a quart or so at dinner And then no more till the afternoon and half a gallon at suppertime No one can object to that
Well I suppose it is right she said with an air of resignation God knows But I do not understand it It is good for business as you say to preclude everything
And it is good for us madam I answered with indignation for beer is my favourite beverage and I am a credit to beer madam and so are all who trust to it
At any rate you are young man If beer has made you grow so large I will put my children upon it it is too late for me to begin The smell to me is hateful
Now I only set down that to show how perverse those foreign people are They will drink their wretched heartless stuff such as they call claret or wine of Medoc or Bordeaux or what not with no more meaning than sour rennet stirred with the pulp from the cider press and strained through the cap of our Betty This is very well for them and as good as they deserve no doubt and meant perhaps by the will of God for those unhappy natives But to bring it over to England and set it against our homebrewed ale not to speak of wines from Portugal and sell it at ten times the price as a cure for British bile and a great enlightenment this I say is the vilest feature of the age we live in
Madam Benita Odam—for the name of the man who turned the wheel proved to be John Odam—showed me into a little room containing two chairs and a firwood table and sat down on a threelegged seat and studied me very steadfastly This she had a right to do and I having all my clothes on now was not disconcerted It would not become me to repeat her judgment upon my appearance which she delivered as calmly as if I were a pig at market and as proudly as if her own pig And she asked me whether I had ever got rid of the black marks on my breast
Not wanting to talk about myself though very fond of doing so when time and season favour I led her back to that fearful night of the day when first I had seen her She was not desirous to speak of it because of her own little children however I drew her gradually to recollection of Lorna and then of the little boy who died and the poor mother buried with him And her strong hot nature kindled as she dwelled upon these things and my wrath waxed within me and we forgot reserve and prudence under the sense of so vile a wrong She told me as nearly as might be the very same story which she had told to Master Jeremy Stickles only she dwelled upon it more because of my knowing the outset And being a woman with an inkling of my situation she enlarged upon the little maid more than to dry Jeremy
Would you know her again I asked being stirred by these accounts of Lorna when she was five years old would you know her as a fullgrown maiden
I think I should she answered it is not possible to say until one sees the person but from the eyes of the little girl I think that I must know her Oh the poor young creature Is it to be believed that the cannibals devoured her What a people you are in this country Meat meat meat
As she raised her hands and eyes in horror at our carnivorous propensities to which she clearly attributed the disappearance of Lorna I could scarce help laughing even after that sad story For though it is said at the present day and will doubtless be said hereafter that the Doones had devoured a baby once as they came up Porlock hill after fighting hard in the marketplace I knew that the tale was utterly false for cruel and brutal as they were their taste was very correct and choice and indeed one might say fastidious Nevertheless I could not stop to argue that matter with her
The little maid has not been devoured I said to Mistress Odam and now she is a tall young lady and as beautiful as can be If I sleep in your good hostel tonight after going to Watchett town will you come with me to Oare tomorrow and see your little maiden
I would like—and yet I fear This country is so barbarous And I am good to eat—my God there is much picking on my bones
She surveyed herself with a glance so mingled of pity and admiration and the truth of her words was so apparent only that it would have taken a week to get at the bones before picking that I nearly lost good manners for she really seemed to suspect even me of cannibal inclinations However at last I made her promise to come with me on the morrow presuming that Master Odam could by any means be persuaded to keep her company in the cart as propriety demanded Having little doubt that Master Odam was entirely at his wifes command I looked upon that matter as settled and set off for Watchett to see the grave of Lornas poor mother and to hire a cart for the morrow
And here as so often happens with men I succeeded without any trouble or hindrance where I had looked for both of them namely in finding a suitable cart whereas the other matter in which I could have expected no difficulty came very near to defeat me For when I heard that Lornas father was the Earl of Dugal—as Benita impressed upon me with a strong enforcement as much as to say Who are you young man to come even asking about her—then I never thought but that everybody in Watchett town must know all about the tombstone of the Countess of Dugal
This however proved otherwise For Lord Dugal had never lived at Watchett Grange as their place was called neither had his name become familiar as its owner Because the Grange had only devolved to him by will at the end of a long entail when the last of the FitzPains died out and though he liked the idea of it he had gone abroad without taking seisin And upon news of his death John Jones a rich gentleman from Llandaff had taken possession as next of right and hushed up all the story And though even at the worst of times a lady of high rank and wealth could not be robbed and as bad as murdered and then buried in a little place without moving some excitement yet it had been given out on purpose and with diligence that this was only a foreign lady travelling for her health and pleasure along the seacoast of England And as the poor thing never spoke and several of her servants and her baggage looked so foreign and she herself died in a collar of lace unlike any made in England all Watchett without hesitation pronounced her to be a foreigner And the English serving man and maid who might have cleared up everything either were bribed by Master Jones or else decamped of their own accord with the relics of the baggage So the poor Countess of Dugal almost in sight of her own grand house was buried in an unknown grave with her pair of infants without a plate without a tombstone worse than all without a tear except from the hired Italian woman
Surely my poor Lorna came of an illstarred family
Now in spite of all this if I had only taken Benita with me or even told her what I wished and craved her directions there could have been no trouble But I do assure you that among the stupid people at Watchett compared with whom our folk of Oare exceeding dense though being are as Hamlet against Dogberry what with one of them and another and the firm conviction of all the town that I could be come only to wrestle I do assure you as I said before that my wits almost went out of me And what vexed me yet more about it was that I saw my own mistake in coming myself to seek out the matter instead of sending some unknown person For my face and form were known at that time and still are so to nine people out of every ten living in forty miles of me Not through any excellence or anything of good desert in either the one or the other but simply because folks will be fools on the rivalry of wrestling The art is a fine one in itself and demands a little wit of brain as well as strength of body it binds the man who studies it to temperance and chastity to selfrespect and most of all to an even and sweet temper for I have thrown stronger men than myself when I was a mere sapling and before my strength grew hard on me through their loss of temper But though the art is an honest one surely they who excel therein have a right like all the rest of mankind to their own private life
Be that either way—and I will not speak too strongly for fear of indulging my own annoyance—anyhow all Watchett town cared ten times as much to see John Ridd as to show him what he wanted I was led to every publichouse instead of to the churchyard and twenty tables were ready for me in lieu of a single gravestone Zummerzett thou beest Jan Ridd and Zummerzett thou shalt be Thee carl theezell a Davonsheer man Whoy thee lives in Zummerzett and in Zummerzett thee wast barn lad And so it went on till I was weary though very much obliged to them
Dull and solid as I am and with a wild duck waiting for me at good Mistress Odams I saw that there was nothing for it but to yield to these good people and prove me a man of Somerset by eating a dinner at their expense As for the churchyard none would hear of it and I grieved for broaching the matter
But how was I to meet Lorna again without having done the thing of all things which I had promised to see to It would never do to tell her that so great was my popularity and so strong the desire to feed me that I could not attend to her mother Least of all could I say that every one in Watchett knew John Ridd while none had heard of the Countess of Dugal And yet that was about the truth as I hinted very delicately to Mistress Odam that evening But she being vexed about her wild duck and not having English ideas on the matter of sport and so on made a poor unwitting face at me Nevertheless Master Odam restored me to my selfrespect for he stared at me till I went to bed and he broke his hose with excitement For being in the legline myself I wanted to know what the muscles were of a man who turned a wheel all day I had never seen a treadmill though they have one now at Exeter and it touched me much to learn whether it were good exercise And herein from what I saw of Odam I incline to think that it does great harm as moving the muscles too much in a line and without variety
CHAPTER LVII
LORNA KNOWS HER NURSE
Having obtained from Benita Odam a very close and full description of the place where her poor mistress lay and the marks whereby to know it I hastened to Watchett the following morning before the sun was up or any people were about And so without interruption I was in the churchyard at sunrise
In the farthest and darkest nook overgrown with grass and overhung by a weepingtree a little bank of earth betokened the rounding off of a hapless life There was nothing to tell of rank or wealth of love or even pity nameless as a peasant lay the last as supposed of a mighty race Only some unskilful hand probably Master Odams under his wifes teaching had carved a rude L and a ruder D upon a large pebble from the beach and set it up as a headstone
I gathered a little grass for Lorna and a sprig of the weepingtree and then returned to the Forest Cat as Benitas lonely inn was called For the way is long from Watchett to Oare and though you may ride it rapidly as the Doones had done on that fatal night to travel on wheels with one horse only is a matter of time and of prudence Therefore we set out pretty early three of us and a baby who could not well be left behind The wife of the man who owned the cart had undertaken to mind the business and the other babies upon condition of having the keys of all the taps left with her
As the manner of journeying over the moor has been described oft enough already I will say no more except that we all arrived before dusk of the summers day safe at Plovers Barrows Mistress Benita was delighted with the change from her dull hard life and she made many excellent observations such as seem natural to a foreigner looking at our country
As luck would have it the first who came to meet us at the gate was Lorna with nothing whatever upon her head the weather being summerly but her beautiful hair shed round her and wearing a sweet white frock tucked in and showing her figure perfectly In her joy she ran straight up to the cart and then stopped and gazed at Benita At one glance her old nurse knew her Oh the eyes the eyes she cried and was over the rail of the cart in a moment in spite of all her substance Lorna on the other hand looked at her with some doubt and wonder as though having right to know much about her and yet unable to do so But when the foreign woman said something in Roman language and flung new hay from the cart upon her as if in a romp of childhood the young maid cried Oh Nita Nita and fell upon her breast and wept and after that looked round at us
This being so there could be no doubt as to the power of proving Lady Lornas birth and rights both by evidence and token For though we had not the necklace now—thanks to Annies wisdom—we had the ring of heavy gold a very ancient relic with which my maid in her simple way had pledged herself to me And Benita knew this ring as well as she knew her own fingers having heard a long history about it and the effigy on it of the wild cat was the bearing of the house of Lorne
For though Lornas father was a nobleman of high and goodly lineage her mother was of yet more ancient and renowned descent being the last in line direct from the great and kingly chiefs of Lorne A wild and headstrong race they were and must have everything their own way Hot blood was ever among them even of one household and their sovereignty which more than once had defied the King of Scotland waned and fell among themselves by continual quarrelling And it was of a piece with this that the Doones who were an offset by the mothers side holding in copartnership some large property which had come by the spindle as we say should fall out with the Earl of Lorne the last but one of that title
The daughter of this nobleman had married Sir Ensor Doone but this instead of healing matters led to fiercer conflict I never could quite understand all the ins and outs of it which none but a lawyer may go through and keep his head at the end of it The motives of mankind are plainer than the motions they produce Especially when charity such as found among us sits to judge the former and is never weary of it while reason does not care to trace the latter complications except for fee or title
Therefore it is enough to say that knowing Lorna to be direct in heirship to vast property and bearing especial spite against the house of which she was the last the Doones had brought her up with full intention of lawful marriage and had carefully secluded her from the wildest of their young gallants Of course if they had been next in succession the child would have gone down the waterfall to save any further trouble but there was an intercepting branch of some honest family and they being outlaws would have a poor chance though the law loves outlaws against them Only Lorna was of the stock and Lorna they must marry And what a triumph against the old earl for a cursed Doone to succeed him
As for their outlawry great robberies and grand murders the veriest child nowadays must know that money heals the whole of that Even if they had murdered people of a good position it would only cost about twice as much to prove their motives loyal But they had never slain any man above the rank of yeoman and folk even said that my father was the highest of their victims for the death of Lornas mother and brother was never set to their account
Pure pleasure it is to any man to reflect upon all these things How truly we discern clear justice and how well we deal it If any poor man steals a sheep having ten children starving and regarding it as mountain game as a rich man does a hare to the gallows with him If a man of rank beats down a door smites the owner upon the head and honours the wife with attention it is a thing to be grateful for and to slouch smitten head the lower
While we were full of all these things and wondering what would happen next or what we ought ourselves to do another very important matter called for our attention This was no less than Annies marriage to the Squire Faggus We had tried to put it off again for in spite of all advantages neither my mother nor myself had any real heart for it Not that we dwelled upon Toms shortcomings or rather perhaps his going too far at the time when he worked the road so All that was covered by the Kings pardon and universal respect of the neighbourhood But our scruple was this—and the more we talked the more it grew upon us—that we both had great misgivings as to his future steadiness
For it would be a thousand pities we said for a fine wellgrown and pretty maiden such as our Annie was useful too in so many ways and lively and warmhearted and mistress of 500 pounds to throw herself away on a man with a kind of a turn for drinking If that last were even hinted Annie would be most indignant and ask with cheeks as red as roses who had ever seen Master Faggus any the worse for liquor indeed Her own opinion was in truth that he took a great deal too little after all his hard work and hard riding and coming over the hills to be insulted And if ever it lay in her power and with no one to grudge him his trumpery glass she would see that poor Tom had the nourishment which his cough and his lungs required
His lungs being quite as sound as mine this matter was out of all argument so mother and I looked at one another as much as to say let her go upstairs she will cry and come down more reasonable And while she was gone we used to say the same thing over and over again but without perceiving a cure for it And we almost always finished up with the following reflection which sometimes came from mothers lips and sometimes from my own Well well there is no telling None can say how a man may alter when he takes to matrimony But if we could only make Annie promise to be a little firm with him
I fear that all this talk on our part only hurried matters forward Annie being more determined every time we pitied her And at last Tom Faggus came and spoke as if he were on the Kings road with a pistol at my head and one at mothers No more fast and loose he cried either one thing or the other I love the maid and she loves me and we will have one another either with your leave or without it How many more times am I to dance over these vile hills and leave my business and get nothing more than a sigh or a kiss and Tom I must wait for mother You are famous for being straightforward you Ridds Just treat me as I would treat you now
I looked at my mother for a glance from her would have sent Tom out of the window but she checked me with her hand and said You have some ground of complaint sir I will not deny it Now I will be as straightforward with you as even a Ridd is supposed to be My son and myself have all along disliked your marriage with Annie Not for what you have been so much as for what we fear you will be Have patience one moment if you please We do not fear your taking to the highway life again for that you are too clever no doubt now that you have property But we fear that you will take to drinking and to squandering money There are many examples of this around us and we know what the fate of the wife is It has been hard to tell you this under our own roof and with our own— Here mother hesitated
Spirits and cider and beer I broke in out with it like a Ridd mother as he will have all of it
Spirits and cider and beer said mother very firmly after me and then she gave way and said You know Tom you are welcome to every drop and more of it
Now Tom must have had a far sweeter temper than ever I could claim for I should have thrust my glass away and never have taken another drop in the house where such a check had met me But instead of that Master Faggus replied with a pleasant smile—
I know that I am welcome good mother and to prove it I will have some more
And thereupon be mixed himself another glass of hollands with lemon and hot water yet pouring it very delicately
Oh I have been so miserable—take a little more Tom said mother handing the bottle
Yes take a little more I said you have mixed it over weak Tom
If ever there was a sober man cried Tom complying with our request if ever there was in Christendom a man of perfect sobriety that man is now before you Shall we say tomorrow week mother It will suit your washing day
How very thoughtful you are Tom Now John would never have thought of that in spite of all his steadiness
Certainly not I answered proudly when my time comes for Lorna I shall not study Betty Muxworthy
In this way the Squire got over us and Farmer Nicholas Snowe was sent for to counsel with mother about the matter and to set his two daughters sewing
When the time for the wedding came there was such a stir and commotion as had never been known in the parish of Oare since my fathers marriage For Annies beauty and kindliness had made her the pride of the neighbourhood and the presents sent her from all around were enough to stock a shop with Master Stickles who now could walk and who certainly owed his recovery with the blessing of God to Annie presented her with a mighty Bible silverclasped and very handsome beating the parsons out and out and for which he had sent to Taunton Even the common troopers having tasted her cookery many times to help out their poor rations clubbed together and must have given at least a weeks pay apiece to have turned out what they did for her This was no less than a silver pot welldesigned but suited surely rather to the bridegrooms taste than brides In a word everybody gave her things
And now my Lorna came to me with a spring of tears in appealing eyes—for she was still somewhat childish or rather I should say more childish now than when she lived in misery—and she placed her little hand in mine and she was half afraid to speak and dropped her eyes for me to ask
What is it little darling I asked as I saw her breath come fast for the smallest emotion moved her form
You dont think John you dont think dear that you could lend me any money
All I have got I answered how much do you want dear heart
I have been calculating and I fear that I cannot do any good with less than ten pounds John
Here she looked up at me with horror at the grandeur of the sum and not knowing what I could think of it But I kept my eyes from her Ten pounds I said in my deepest voice on purpose to have it out in comfort when she should be frightened what can you want with ten pounds child
That is my concern said Lorna plucking up her spirit at this when a lady asks for a loan no gentleman pries into the cause of her asking it
That may be as may be I answered in a judicial manner ten pounds or twenty you shall have But I must know the purport
Then that you never shall know John I am very sorry for asking you It is not of the smallest consequence Oh dear no Herewith she was running away
Oh dear yes I replied it is of very great consequence and I understand the whole of it You want to give that stupid Annie who has lost you a hundred thousand pounds and who is going to be married before us dear—God only can tell why being my younger sister—you want to give her a wedding present And you shall do it darling because it is so good of you Dont you know your title love How humble you are with us humble folk You are Lady Lorna something so far as I can make out yet and you ought not even to speak to us You will go away and disdain us
If you please talk not like that John I will have nothing to do with it if it comes between you and me John
You cannot help yourself said I And then she vowed that she could and would And rank and birth were banished from between our lips in no time
What can I get her good enough I am sure I do not know she asked she has been so kind and good to me and she is such a darling How I shall miss her to be sure By the bye you seem to think John that I shall be rich some day
Of course you will As rich as the French King who keeps ours Would the Lord Chancellor trouble himself about you if you were poor
Then if I am rich perhaps you would lend me twenty pounds dear John Ten pounds would be very mean for a wealthy person to give her
To this I agreed upon condition that I should make the purchase myself whatever it might be For nothing could be easier than to cheat Lorna about the cost until time should come for her paying me And this was better than to cheat her for the benefit of our family For this end and for many others I set off to Dulverton bearing more commissions more messages and more questions than a man of thrice my memory might carry so far as the corner where the sawpit is And to make things worse one girl or other would keep on running up to me or even after me when started with something or other she had just thought of which she could not possibly do without and which I must be sure to remember as the most important of the whole
To my dear mother who had partly outlived the exceeding value of trifles the most important matter seemed to ensure Uncle Reubens countenance and presence at the marriage And if I succeeded in this I might well forget all the maidens trumpery This she would have been wiser to tell me when they were out of hearing for I left her to fight her own battle with them and laughing at her predicament promised to do the best I could for all so far as my wits would go
Uncle Reuben was not at home but Ruth who received me very kindly although without any expressions of joy was sure of his return in the afternoon and persuaded me to wait for him And by the time that I had finished all I could recollect of my orders even with paper to help me the old gentleman rode into the yard and was more surprised than pleased to see me But if he was surprised I was more than that—I was utterly astonished at the change in his appearance since the last time I had seen him From a hale and rather heavy man grayhaired but plump and ruddy he was altered to a shrunken wizened trembling and almost decrepit figure Instead of curly and comely locks grizzled indeed but plentiful he had only a few lank white hairs scattered and flattened upon his forehead But the greatest change of all was in the expression of his eyes which had been so keen and restless and bright and a little sarcastic Bright indeed they still were but with a slow unhealthy lustre their keenness was turned to perpetual outlook their restlessness to a haggard want As for the humour which once gleamed there which people who fear it call sarcasm it had been succeeded by stares of terror and then mistrust and shrinking There was none of the interest in mankind which is needful even for satire
Now what can this be thought I to myself has the old man lost all his property or taken too much to strong waters
Come inside John Ridd he said I will have a talk with you It is cold out here and it is too light Come inside John Ridd boy
I followed him into a little dark room quite different from Ruth Huckabacks It was closed from the shop by an old division of boarding hung with tanned canvas and the smell was very close and faint Here there was a ledger desk and a couple of chairs and a longlegged stool
Take the stool said Uncle Reuben showing me in very quietly it is fitter for your height John Wait a moment there is no hurry
Then he slipped out by another door and closing it quickly after him told the foreman and waitingmen that the business of the day was done They had better all go home at once and he would see to the fastenings Of course they were only too glad to go but I wondered at his sending them with at least two hours of daylight left
However that was no business of mine and I waited and pondered whether fair Ruth ever came into this dirty room and if so how she kept her hands from it For Annie would have had it upside down in about two minutes and scrubbed and brushed and dusted until it looked quite another place and yet all this done without scolding and crossness which are the curse of clean women and ten times worse than the dustiest dust
Uncle Ben came reeling in not from any power of liquor but because he was stiff from horseback and weak from work and worry
Let me be John let me be he said as I went to help him this is an unkind dreary place but many a hundred of good gold Carolus has been turned in this place John
Not a doubt about it sir I answered in my loud and cheerful manner and many another hundred sir and may you long enjoy them
My boy do you wish me to die he asked coming up close to my stool and regarding me with a shrewd though bleareyed gaze many do Do you John
Come said I dont ask such nonsense You know better than that Uncle Ben Or else I am sorry for you I want you to live as long as possible for the sake of— Here I stopped
For the sake of what John I knew it is not for my own sake For the sake of what my boy
For the sake of Ruth I answered if you must have all the truth Who is to mind her when you are gone
But if you knew that I had gold or a manner of getting gold far more than ever the sailors got out of the Spanish galleons far more than ever was heard of and the secret was to be yours John yours after me and no other souls—then you would wish me dead John Here he eyed me as if a speck of dust in my eyes should not escape him
You are wrong Uncle Ben altogether wrong For all the gold ever heard or dreamed of not a wish would cross my heart to rob you of one day of life
At last he moved his eyes from mine but without any word or sign to show whether he believed or disbelieved Then he went to a chair and sat with his chin upon the ledgerdesk as if the effort of probing me had been too much for his weary brain Dreamed of All the gold ever dreamed of As if it were but a dream he muttered and then he closed his eyes to think
Good Uncle Reuben I said to him you have been a long way today sir Let me go and get you a glass of good wine Cousin Ruth knows where to find it
How do you know how far I have been he asked with a vicious look at me And Cousin Ruth You are very pat with my granddaughters name young man
It would be hard upon me sir not to know my own cousins name
Very well Let that go by You have behaved very badly to Ruth She loves you and you love her not
At this I was so wholly amazed—not at the thing itself I mean but at his knowledge of it—that I could not say a single word but looked no doubt very foolish
You may well be ashamed young man he cried with some triumph over me you are the biggest of all fools as well as a conceited coxcomb What can you want more than Ruth She is a little damsel truly but finer men than you John Ridd with all your boasted strength and wrestling have wedded smaller maidens And as for quality and value—bots one inch of Ruth is worth all your seven feet put together
Now I am not seven feet high nor ever was six feet eight inches in my very prime of life and nothing vexes me so much as to make me out a giant and above human sympathy and human scale of weakness It cost me hard to hold my tongue which luckily is not in proportion to my stature And only for Ruths sake I held it But Uncle Ben being old and worn was vexed by not having any answer almost as much as a woman is
You want me to go on he continued with a look of spite at me about my poor Ruths love for you to feed your cursed vanity Because a set of asses call you the finest man in England there is no maid I suppose who is not in love with you I believe you are as deep as you are long John Ridd Shall I ever get to the bottom of your character
This was a little too much for me Any insult I could take with goodwill from a whitehaired man and one who was my relative unless it touched my love for Lorna or my conscious modesty Now both of these were touched to the quick by the sentences of the old gentleman Therefore without a word I went only making a bow to him
But women who are beyond all doubt the mothers of all mischief also nurse that babe to sleep when he is too noisy And there was Ruth as I took my horse with a trunk of frippery on him poor little Ruth was at the bridle and rusting all the knops of our towngoing harness with tears
Goodbye dear I said as she bent her head away from me shall I put you up on the saddle dear
Cousin Ridd you may take it lightly said Ruth turning full upon me and very likely you are right according to your nature—this was the only cutting thing the little soul ever said to me—but oh Cousin Ridd you have no idea of the pain you will leave behind you
How can that be so Ruth when I am as good as ordered to be off the premises
In the first place Cousin Ridd grandfather will be angry with himself for having so illused you And now he is so weak and poorly that he is always repenting In the next place I shall scold him first until he admits his sorrow and when he has admitted it I shall scold myself for scolding him And then he will come round again and think that I was hard on him and end perhaps by hating you—for he is like a woman now John
That last little touch of selfknowledge in Ruth which she delivered with a gleam of some secret pleasantry made me stop and look closely at her but she pretended not to know it There is something in this child I thought very different from other girls What it is I cannot tell for one very seldom gets at it
At any rate the upshot was that the good horse went back to stable and had another feed of corn while my wrath sank within me There are two things according to my experience which may not hold with another man fitted beyond any others to take hot tempers out of us The first is to see our favourite creatures feeding and licking up their food and happily snuffling over it yet sparing time to be grateful and showing taste and perception the other is to go gardening boldly in the spring of the year without any misgiving about it and hoping the utmost of everything If there be a third anodyne approaching these two in power it is to smoke good tobacco well and watch the setting of the moon and if this should only be over the sea the result is irresistible
Master Huckaback showed no especial signs of joy at my return but received me with a little grunt which appeared to me to mean Ah I thought he would hardly be fool enough to go I told him how sorry I was for having in some way offended him and he answered that I did well to grieve for one at least of my offences To this I made no reply as behoves a man dealing with cross and fractious people and presently he became bettertempered and sent little Ruth for a bottle of wine She gave me a beautiful smile of thanks for my forbearance as she passed and I knew by her manner that she would bring the best bottle in all the cellar
As I had but little time to spare although the days were long and light we were forced to take our wine with promptitude and rapidity and whether this loosened my uncles tongue or whether he meant beforehand to speak is now almost uncertain But true it is that he brought his chair very near to mine after three or four glasses and sent Ruth away upon some errand which seemed of small importance At this I was vexed for the room always looked so different without her
Come Jack he said heres your health young fellow and a good and obedient wife to you Not that your wife will ever obey you though you are much too easytempered Even a bitter and stormy woman might live in peace with you Jack But never you give her the chance to try Marry some sweet little thing if you can If not dont marry any Ah we have the maid to suit you my lad in this old town of Dulverton
Have you so sir But perhaps the maid might have no desire to suit me
That you may take my word she has The colour of this wine will prove it The little sly hussy has been to the cobwebbed arch of the cellar where she has no right to go for any one under a magistrate However I am glad to see it and we will not spare it John After my time somebody whoever marries little Ruth will find some rare wines there I trow and perhaps not know the difference
Thinking of this the old man sighed and expected me to sigh after him But a sigh is not like a yawn infectious and we are all more prone to be sent to sleep than to sorrow by one another Not but what a sigh sometimes may make us think of sighing
Well sir cried I in my sprightliest manner which rouses up most people heres to your health and dear little Ruths and may you live to knock off the cobwebs from every bottle in under the arch Uncle Reuben your life and health sir
With that I took my glass thoughtfully for it was wondrous good and Uncle Ben was pleased to see me dwelling pleasantly on the subject with parenthesis and selfcommune and oral judgment unpronounced though smacking of fine decision Curia vult advisari as the lawyers say which means Let us have another glass and then we can think about it
Come now John said Uncle Ben laying his wrinkled hand on my knee when he saw that none could heed us I know that you have a sneaking fondness for my grandchild Ruth Dont interrupt me now you have and to deny it will only provoke me
I do like Ruth sir I said boldly for fear of misunderstanding but I do not love her
Very well that makes no difference Liking may very soon be loving as some people call it when the maid has money to help her
But if there be as there is in my case—
Once for all John not a word I do not attempt to lead you into any engagement with little Ruth neither will I blame you though I may be disappointed if no such engagement should ever be But whether you will have my grandchild or whether you will not—and such a chance is rarely offered to a fellow of your standing—Uncle Ben despised all farmers—in any case I have at least resolved to let you know my secret and for two good reasons The first is that it wears me out to dwell upon it all alone and the second is that I can trust you to fulfil a promise Moreover you are my next of kin except among the womankind and you are just the man I want to help me in my enterprise
And I will help you sir I answered fearing some conspiracy in anything that is true and loyal and according to the laws of the realm
Ha ha cried the old man laughing until his eyes ran over and spreading out his skinny hands upon his shining breeches thou hast gone the same fools track as the rest even as spy Stickles went and all his precious troopers Landing of arms at Glenthorne and Lynmouth wagons escorted across the moor sounds of metal and booming noises Ah but we managed it cleverly to cheat even those so near to us Disaffection at Taunton signs of insurrection at Dulverton revolutionary tanner at Dunster We set it all abroad right well And not even you to suspect our work though we thought at one time that you watched us Now who do you suppose is at the bottom of all this Exmoor insurgency all this western rebellion—not that I say there is none mind—but who is at the bottom of it
Either Mother Melldrum said I being now a little angry or else old Nick himself
Nay old Uncle Reuben Saying this Master Huckaback cast back his coat and stood up and made the most of himself
Well cried I being now quite come to the limits of my intellect then after all Captain Stickles was right in calling you a rebel sir
Of course he was could so keen a man be wrong about an old fool like me But come and see our rebellion John I will trust you now with everything I will take no oath from you only your word to keep silence and most of all from your mother
I will give you my word I said although liking not such pledges which make a man think before he speaks in ordinary company against his usual practices However I was now so curious that I thought of nothing else and scarcely could believe at all that Uncle Ben was quite right in his head
Take another glass of wine my son he cried with a cheerful countenance which made him look more than ten years younger you shall come into partnership with me your strength will save us two horses and we always fear the horse work Come and see our rebellion my boy you are a made man from tonight
But where am I to come and see it Where am I to find it sir
Meet me he answered yet closing his hands and wrinkling with doubt his forehead come alone of course and meet me at the Wizards Slough at ten tomorrow morning
CHAPTER LVIII
MASTER HUCKABACKS SECRET
Knowing Master Huckaback to be a man of his word as well as one who would have others so I was careful to be in good time the next morning by the side of the Wizards Slough I am free to admit that the name of the place bore a feeling of uneasiness and a love of distance in some measure to my heart But I did my best not to think of this only I thought it a wise precaution and due for the sake of my mother and Lorna to load my gun with a dozen slugs made from the lead of the old churchporch laid by long since against witchcraft
I am well aware that some people now begin to doubt about witchcraft or at any rate feign to do so being desirous to disbelieve whatever they are afraid of This spirit is growing too common among us and will end unless we put a stop to it in the destruction of all religion And as regards witchcraft a man is bound either to believe in it or to disbelieve the Bible For even in the New Testament discarding many things of the Old such as sacrifices and Sabbath and fasting and other miseries witchcraft is clearly spoken of as a thing that must continue that the Evil One be not utterly robbed of his vested interests Hence let no one tell me that witchcraft is done away with for I will meet him with St Paul than whom no better man and few less superstitious can be found in all the Bible
Feeling these things more in those days than I feel them now I fetched a goodish compass round by the way of the cloven rocks rather than cross Black Barrow Down in a reckless and unholy manner There were several spots upon that Down cursed and smitten and blasted as if thunderbolts had fallen there and Satan sat to keep them warm At any rate it was good as every one acknowledged not to wander there too much even with a doctor of divinity on one arm and of medicine upon the other
Therefore I being all alone and on foot as seemed the wisest preferred a course of roundabout and starting about eight oclock without mentioning my business arrived at the mouth of the deep descent such as John Fry described it Now this though I have not spoken of it was not my first time of being there For although I could not bring myself to spy upon Uncle Reuben as John Fry had done yet I thought it no ill manners after he had left our house to have a look at the famous place where the malefactor came to life at least in Johns opinion At that time however I saw nothing except the great ugly black morass with the grisly reeds around it and I did not care to go very near it much less to pry on the further side
Now on the other hand I was bent to get at the very bottom of this mystery if there were any having less fear of witch or wizard with a man of Uncle Reubens wealth to take my part and see me through So I rattled the ramrod down my gun just to know if the charge were right after so much walking and finding it full six inches deep as I like to have it went boldly down the steep gorge of rock with a firm resolve to shoot any witch unless it were good Mother Melldrum Nevertheless to my surprise all was quiet and fair to look at in the decline of the narrow way with great stalked ferns coming forth like trees yet hanging like cobwebs over one And along one side a little spring was getting rid of its waters Any man might stop and think or he might go on and think and in either case there was none to say that he was making a fool of himself
When I came to the foot of this ravine and over against the great black slough there was no sign of Master Huckaback nor of any other living man except myself in the silence Therefore I sat in a niche of rock gazing at the slough and pondering the old tradition about it
They say that in the ancient times a mighty necromancer lived in the wilderness of Exmoor Here by spell and incantation he built himself a strong high palace eightsided like a spiders web and standing on a central steep so that neither man nor beast could cross the moors without his knowledge If he wished to rob and slay a traveller or to have wild ox or stag for food he had nothing more to do than sit at one of his eight windows and point his unholy book at him Any moving creature at which that book was pointed must obey the call and come from whatever distance if sighted once by the wizard
This was a bad condition of things and all the country groaned under it and Exmoor although the most honest place that a man could wish to live in was beginning to get a bad reputation and all through that vile wizard No man durst even go to steal a sheep or a pony or so much as a deer for dinner lest he should be brought to book by a far bigger rogue than he was And this went on for many years though they prayed to God to abate it But at last when the wizard was getting fat and haughty upon his high stomach a mighty deliverance came to Exmoor and a warning and a memory For one day the sorcerer gazed from his window facing the southeast of the compass and he yawned having killed so many men that now he was weary of it
Ifackins he cried or some such oath both profane and uncomely I see a man on the verge of the skyline going along laboriously A pilgrim I trow or some such fool with the nails of his boots inside them Too thin to be worth eating but I will have him for the fun of the thing and most of those saints have got money
With these words he stretched forth his legs on a stool and pointed the book of heathenish spells back upwards at the pilgrim Now this good pilgrim was plodding along soberly and religiously with a pound of flints in either boot and not an ounce of meat inside him He felt the spell of the wicked book but only as a horse might feel a geewug addressed to him It was in the power of this good man either to go on or turn aside and see out the wizards meaning And for a moment he halted and stood like one in two minds about a thing Then the wizard clapped one cover to in a jocular and insulting manner and the sound of it came to the pilgrims ear about five miles in the distance like a great gun fired at him
By our Lady he cried I must see to this although my poor feet have no skin below them I will teach this heathen miscreant how to scoff at Glastonbury
Thereupon he turned his course and ploughed along through the moors and bogs towards the eightsided palace The wizard sat on his chair of comfort and with the rankest contempt observed the holy man ploughing towards him He has something good in his wallet I trow said the black thief to himself these fellows get always the pick of the wine and the best of a womans money Then he cried Come in come in good sir as he always did to every one
Bad sir I will not come in said the pilgrim neither shall you come out again Here are the bones of all you have slain and here shall your own bones be
Hurry me not cried the sorcerer that is a thing to think about How many miles hast thou travelled this day
But the pilgrim was too wide awake for if he had spoken of any number bearing no cross upon it the necromancer would have had him like a ball at bandoplay Therefore he answered as truly as need be By the grace of our Lady nine
Now nine is the crossest of all cross numbers and full to the lip of all crochets So the wizard staggered back and thought and inquired again with bravery Where can you find a man and wife one going uphill and one going down and not a word spoken between them
In a cucumber plant said the modest saint blushing even to think of it and the wizard knew he was done for
You have tried me with ungodly questions continued the honest pilgrim with one hand still over his eyes as he thought of the feminine cucumber and now I will ask you a pure one To whom of mankind have you ever done good since God saw fit to make you
The wizard thought but could quote no one and he looked at the saint and the saint at him and both their hearts were trembling Can you mention only one asked the saint pointing a piece of the true cross at him hoping he might cling to it even a little child will do try to think of some one
The earth was rocking beneath their feet and the palace windows darkened on them with a tint of blood for now the saint was come inside hoping to save the wizard
If I must tell the pure truth said the wizard looking up at the arches of his windows I can tell of only one to whom I ever have done good
One will do one is quite enough be quick before the ground opens The name of one—and this cross will save you Lay your thumb on the end of it
Nay that I cannot do great saint The devil have mercy upon me
All this while the palace was sinking and blackness coming over them
Thou hast all but done for thyself said the saint with a glory burning round his head by that last invocation Yet give us the name of the one my friend if one there be it will save thee with the cross upon thy breast All is crashing round us dear brother who is that one
My own self cried the wretched wizard
Then there is no help for thee And with that the honest saint went upward and the wizard and all his palace and even the crag that bore it sank to the bowels of the earth and over them was nothing left except a black bog fringed with reed of the tint of the wizards whiskers The saint however was all right after sleeping off the excitement and he founded a chapel some three miles westward and there he lies with his holy relic and thither in after ages came as we all come home at last both my Lornas Aunt Sabina and her guardian Ensor Doone
While yet I dwelled upon this strange story wondering if it all were true and why such things do not happen now a man on horseback appeared as suddenly as if he had risen out of the earth on the other side of the great black slough At first I was a little scared my mind being in the tune for wonders but presently the white hair whiter from the blackness of the bog between us showed me that it was Uncle Reuben come to look for me that way Then I left my chair of rock and waved my hat and shouted to him and the sound of my voice among the crags and lonely corners frightened me
Old Master Huckaback made no answer but so far as I could guess beckoned me to come to him There was just room between the fringe of reed and the belt of rock around it for a man going very carefully to escape that horrible pithole And so I went round to the other side and there found open space enough with stunted bushes and starveling trees and straggling tufts of rushes
You fool you are frightened said Uncle Ben as he looked at my face after shaking hands I want a young man of steadfast courage as well as of strength and silence And after what I heard of the battle at Glen Doone I thought I might trust you for courage
So you may said I wherever I see mine enemy but not where witch and wizard be
Tush great fool cried Master Huckaback the only witch or wizard here is the one that bewitcheth all men Now fasten up my horse John Ridd and not too near the slough lad Ah we have chosen our entrance wisely Two good horsemen and their horses coming hither to spy us out are gone mining on their own account and their last account it is down this good wizards boghole
With these words Uncle Reuben clutched the mane of his horse and came down as a man does when his legs are old and as I myself begin to do at this time of writing I offered a hand but he was vexed and would have nought to do with it
Now follow me step for step he said when I had tethered his horse to a tree the ground is not death like the wizards hole but many parts are treacherous I know it well by this time
Without any more ado he led me in and out the marshy places to a great round hole or shaft bratticed up with timber I never had seen the like before and wondered how they could want a well with so much water on every side Around the mouth were a few little heaps of stuff unused to the daylight and I thought at once of the tales I had heard concerning mines in Cornwall and the silver cup at CombeMartin sent to the Queen Elizabeth
We had a tree across it John said Uncle Reuben smiling grimly at my sudden shrink from it but some rogue came spying here just as one of our men went up He was frightened half out of his life I believe and never ventured to come again But we put the blame of that upon you And I see that we were wrong John Here he looked at me with keen eyes though weak
You were altogether wrong I answered Am I mean enough to spy upon any one dwelling with us And more than that Uncle Reuben it was mean of you to suppose it
All ideas are different replied the old man to my heat like a little wornout rill running down a smithy you with your strength and youth and all that are inclined to be romantic I take things as I have known them going on for seventy years Now will you come and meet the wizard or does your courage fail you
My courage must be none said I if I would not go where you go sir
He said no more but signed to me to lift a heavy wooden corb with an iron loop across it and sunk in a little pit of earth a yard or so from the mouth of the shaft I raised it and by his direction dropped it into the throat of the shaft where it hung and shook from a great crossbeam laid at the level of the earth A very stout thick rope was fastened to the handle of the corb and ran across a pulley hanging from the centre of the beam and thence out of sight in the nether places
I will first descend he said your weight is too great for safety When the bucket comes up again follow me if your heart is good
Then he whistled down with a quick sharp noise and a whistle from below replied and he clomb into the vehicle and the rope ran through the pulley and Uncle Ben went merrily down and was out of sight before I had time to think of him
Now being left on the bank like that and in full sight of the goodly heaven I wrestled hard with my flesh and blood about going down into the pithole And but for the pale shame of the thing that a whiteheaded man should adventure so and green youth doubt about it never could I have made up my mind for I do love air and heaven However at last up came the bucket and with a short sad prayer I went into whatever might happen
My teeth would chatter do all I could but the strength of my arms was with me and by them I held on the grimy rope and so eased the foot of the corb which threatened to go away fathoms under me Of course I should still have been safe enough being like an egg in an eggcup too big to care for the bottom still I wished that all should be done in good order without excitement
The scoopings of the side grew black and the patch of sky above more blue as with many thoughts of Lorna a long way underground I sank Then I was fetched up at the bottom with a jerk and rattle and but for holding by the rope so must have tumbled over Two great torches of baleresin showed me all the darkness one being held by Uncle Ben and the other by a short square man with a face which seemed wellknown to me
Hail to the world of gold John Ridd said Master Huckaback smiling in the old dry manner bigger coward never came down the shaft now did he Carfax
They be all alike said the short square man fust time as they doos it
May I go to heaven I cried which is a thing quite out of sight—for I always have a vein of humour too small to be followed by any one—if ever again of my own accord I go so far away from it Uncle Ben grinned less at this than at the way I knocked my shin in getting out of the bucket and as for Master Carfax he would not even deign to smile And he seemed to look upon my entrance as an interloping
For my part I had nought to do after rubbing my bruised leg except to look about me so far as the dullness of light would help And herein I seemed like a mouse in a trap able no more than to run to and fro and knock himself and stare at things For here was a little channel grooved with posts on either side of it and ending with a heap of darkness whence the sight came back again and there was a scooped place like a funnel but pouring only to darkness So I waited for somebody to speak first not seeing my way to anything
You seem to be disappointed John said Uncle Reuben looking blue by the light of the flambeaux did you expect to see the roof of gold and the sides of gold and the floor of gold John Ridd
Ha ha cried Master Carfax I reckon her did no doubt her did
You are wrong I replied but I did expect to see something better than dirt and darkness
Come on then my lad and we will show you something better We want your great arm on here for a job that has beaten the whole of us
With these words Uncle Ben led the way along a narrow passage roofed with rock and floored with slatecoloured shale and shingle and winding in and out until we stopped at a great stone block or boulder lying across the floor and as large as my mothers best oaken wardrobe Beside it were several sledgehammers battered and some with broken helves
Thou great villain cried Uncle Ben giving the boulder a little kick I believe thy time is come at last Now John give us a sample of the things they tell of thee Take the biggest of them sledgehammers and crack this rogue in two for us We have tried at him for a fortnight and he is a nut worth cracking But we have no man who can swing that hammer though all in the mine have handled it
I will do my very best said I pulling off my coat and waistcoat as if I were going to wrestle but I fear he will prove too tough for me
Ay that her wull grunted Master Carfax lackth a Carnishman and a beg one too not a little charp such as I be There be no man outside Carnwall as can crack that boolder
Bless my heart I answered but I know something of you my friend or at any rate of your family Well I have beaten most of your Cornish men though not my place to talk of it But mind if I crack this rock for you I must have some of the gold inside it
Dost think to see the gold come tumbling out like the kernel of a nut thou zany asked Uncle Reuben pettishly now wilt thou crack it or wilt thou not For I believe thou canst do it though only a lad of Somerset
Uncle Reuben showed by saying this and by his glance at Carfax that he was proud of his county and would be disappointed for it if I failed to crack the boulder So I begged him to stoop his torch a little that I might examine my subject To me there appeared to be nothing at all remarkable about it except that it sparkled here and there when the flash of the flame fell upon it A great obstinate oblong sullen stone how could it be worth the breaking except for making roads with
Nevertheless I took up the hammer and swinging it far behind my head fetched it down with all my power upon the middle of the rock The roof above rang mightily and the echo went down delven galleries so that all the miners flocked to know what might be doing But Master Carfax only smiled although the blow shook him where he stood for behold the stone was still unbroken and as firm as ever Then I smote it again with no better fortune and Uncle Ben looked vexed and angry but all the miners grinned with triumph
This little tool is too light I cried one of you give me a piece of strong cord
Then I took two more of the weightiest hammers and lashed them fast to the back of mine not so as to strike but to burden the fall Having made this firm and with room to grasp the handle of the largest one only—for the helves of the others were shorter—I smiled at Uncle Ben and whirled the mighty implement round my head just to try whether I could manage it Upon that the miners gave a cheer being honest men and desirous of seeing fair play between this shameless stone as Dan Homer calls it and me with my hammer hammering
Then I swung me on high to the swing of the sledge as a thresher bends back to the rise of his flail and with all my power descending delivered the ponderous onset Crashing and crushed the great stone fell over and threads of sparkling gold appeared in the jagged sides of the breakage
How now Simon Carfax cried Uncle Ben triumphantly wilt thou find a man in Cornwall can do the like of that
Ay and more he answered however it be pretty fair for a lad of these outlandish parts Get your rollers my lads and lead it to the crushing engine
I was glad to have been of some service to them for it seems that this great boulder had been too large to be drawn along the gallery and too hard to crack But now they moved it very easily taking piece by piece and carefully picking up the fragments
Thou hast done us a good turn my lad said Uncle Reuben as the others passed out of sight at the corner and now I will show thee the bottom of a very wondrous mystery But we must not do it more than once for the time of day is the wrong one
The whole affair being a mystery to me and far beyond my understanding I followed him softly without a word yet thinking very heavily and longing to be above ground again He led me through small passages to a hollow place near the descending shaft where I saw a most extraordinary monster fitted up In form it was like a great coffeemill such as I had seen in London only a thousand times larger and with heavy windlass to work it
Put in a barrowload of the smoulder said Uncle Ben to Carfax and let them work the crank for John to understand a thing or two
At this time of day cried Simon Carfax and the watching as has been o late
However he did it without more remonstrance pouring into the scuttle at the top of the machine about a baskeful of broken rock and then a dozen men went to the wheel and forced it round as sailors do Upon that such a hideous noise arose as I never should have believed any creature capable of making and I ran to the well of the mine for air and to ease my ears if possible
Enough enough shouted Uncle Ben by the time I was nearly deafened we will digest our goodly boulder after the devil is come abroad for his evening work Now John not a word about what you have learned but henceforth you will not be frightened by the noise we make at dusk
I could not deny but what this was very clever management If they could not keep the echoes of the upper air from moving the wisest plan was to open their valves during the discouragement of the falling evening when folk would rather be driven away than drawn into the wilds and quagmires by a sound so deep and awful coming through the darkness
CHAPTER LIX
LORNA GONE AWAY
Although there are very ancient tales of gold being found upon Exmoor in lumps and solid hummocks and of men who slew one another for it this deep digging and great labour seemed to me a dangerous and unholy enterprise And Master Huckaback confessed that up to the present time his two partners and himself for they proved to be three adventurers had put into the earth more gold than they had taken out of it Nevertheless he felt quite sure that it must in a very short time succeed and pay them back an hundredfold and he pressed me with great earnestness to join them and work there as much as I could without moving my mothers suspicions I asked him how they had managed so long to carry on without discovery and he said that this was partly through the wildness of the neighbourhood and the legends that frightened people of a superstitious turn partly through their own great caution and the manner of fetching both supplies and implements by night but most of all they had to thank the troubles of the period the suspicions of rebellion and the terror of the Doones which like the wizard I was speaking of kept folk from being too inquisitive where they had no business The slough moreover had helped them well both by making their access dark and yet more by swallowing up and concealing all that was cast from the mouth of the pit Once before the attack on Glen Doone they had a narrow escape from the Kings Commissioner for Captain Stickles having heard no doubt the story of John Fry went with half a dozen troopers on purpose to search the neighbourhood Now if he had ridden alone most likely he would have discovered everything but he feared to venture so having suspicion of a trap Coming as they did in a company all mounted and conspicuous the watchman who was posted now on the top of the hill almost every day since John Frys appearance could not help espying them miles distant over the moorland He watched them under the shade of his hand and presently ran down the hill and raised a great commotion Then Simon Carfax and all his men came up and made things natural removing every sign of work and finally sinking underground drew across the mouth of the pit a hurdle thatched with sedge and heather Only Simon himself was left behind ensconced in a hole of the crags to observe the doings of the enemy
Captain Stickles rode very bravely with all his men clattering after him down the rocky pass and even to the margin of the slough And there they stopped and held council for it was a perilous thing to risk the passage upon horseback between the treacherous brink and the cliff unless one knew it thoroughly Stickles however and one follower carefully felt the way along having their horses well in hand and bearing a rope to draw them out in case of being foundered Then they spurred across the rough boggy land farther away than the shaft was Here the ground lay jagged and shaggy wrought up with high tufts of reed or scragged with stunted brushwood And between the ups and downs which met anybody anyhow greencovered places tempted the foot and black bogholes discouraged it It is not to be marvelled at that amid such place as this for the first time visited the horses were a little skeary and their riders partook of the feeling as all good riders do In and out of the tufts they went with their eyes dilating wishing to be out of harm if conscience were but satisfied And of this tufty flaggy ground pocked with bogs and boglets one especial nature is that it will not hold impressions
Seeing thus no track of men nor anything but marshwork and stormwork and of the seasons these two honest men rode back and were glad to do so For above them hung the mountains cowled with fog and seamed with storm and around them desolation and below their feet the grave Hence they went with all goodwill and vowed for ever afterwards that fear of a simple place like that was only too ridiculous So they all rode home with mutual praises and their courage wellapproved and the only result of the expedition was to confirm John Frys repute as a bigger liar than ever
Now I had enough of that underground work as before related to last me for a year to come neither would I for sake of gold have ever stepped into that bucket of my own goodwill again But when I told Lorna—whom I could trust in any matter of secrecy as if she had never been a woman—all about my great descent and the honeycombing of the earth and the mournful noise at eventide when the gold was under the crusher and bewailing the mischief it must do then Lornas chief desire was to know more about Simon Carfax
It must be our Gwennys father she cried the man who disappeared underground and whom she has ever been seeking How grieved the poor little thing will be if it should turn out after all that he left his child on purpose I can hardly believe it can you John
Well I replied all men are wicked more or less to some extent and no man may say otherwise
For I did not wish to commit myself to an opinion about Simon lest I might be wrong and Lorna think less of my judgment
But being resolved to see this out and do a good turn if I could to Gwenny who had done me many a good one I begged my Lorna to say not a word of this matter to the handmaiden until I had further searched it out And to carry out this resolve I went again to the place of business where they were grinding gold as freely as an apothecary at his pills
Having now true right of entrance and being known to the watchman and regarded since I cracked the boulder as one who could pay his footing and perhaps would be the master when Uncle Ben should be choked with money I found the corb sent up for me rather sooner than I wished it For the smell of the places underground and the way mens eyes came out of them with links and brands and flambeaux instead of Gods light to look at were to me a point of caution rather than of pleasure
No doubt but what some men enjoy it being born like worms to dig and to live in their own scoopings Yet even the worms come up sometimes after a good soft shower of rain and hold discourse with one another whereas these men and the horses let down come above ground never
And the changing of the sky is half the change our nature calls for Earth we have and all its produce moving from the first appearance and the hope with infants eyes through the bloom of beautys promise to the rich and ripe fulfilment and the falling back to rest sea we have with all its wonder shed on eyes and ears and heart and the thought of something more—but without the sky to look at what would earth and sea and even our own selves be to us
Do we look at earth with hope Yes for victuals only Do we look at sea with hope Yes that we may escape it At the sky alone though questioned with the doubts of sunshine or scattered with uncertain stars at the sky alone we look with pure hope and with memory
Hence it always hurt my feelings when I got into that bucket with my smallclothes turned up over and a kerchief round my hat But knowing that my purpose was sound and my motives pure I let the sky grow to a little blue hole and then to nothing over me At the bottom Master Carfax met me being captain of the mine and desirous to know my business He wore a loose sack round his shoulders and his beard was two feet long
My business is to speak with you I answered rather sternly for this man who was nothing more than Uncle Reubens servant had carried things too far with me showing no respect whatever and though I did not care for much I liked to receive a little even in my early days
Coom into the muckhole then was his gracious answer and he led me into a filthy cell where the miners changed their jackets
Simon Carfax I began with a manner to discourage him I fear you are a shallow fellow and not worth my trouble
Then dont take it he replied I want no mans trouble
For your sake I would not I answered but for your daughters sake I will the daughter whom you left to starve so pitifully in the wilderness
The man stared at me with his pale gray eyes whose colour was lost from candle light and his voice as well as his body shook while he cried—
It is a lie man No daughter and no son have I Nor was ever child of mine left to starve in the wilderness You are too big for me to tackle and that makes you a coward for saying it His hands were playing with a pickaxe helve as if he longed to have me under it
Perhaps I have wronged you Simon I answered very softly for the sweat upon his forehead shone in the smoky torchlight if I have I crave your pardon But did you not bring up from Cornwall a little maid named Gwenny and supposed to be your daughter
Ay and she was my daughter my last and only child of five and for her I would give this mine and all the gold will ever come from it
You shall have her without either mine or gold if you only prove to me that you did not abandon her
Abandon her I abandon Gwenny He cried with such a rage of scorn that I at once believed him They told me she was dead and crushed and buried in the drift here and half my heart died with her The Almighty blast their miningwork if the scoundrels lied to me
The scoundrels must have lied to you I answered with a spirit fired by his heat of fury the maid is living and with us Come up and you shall see her
Rig the bucket he shouted out along the echoing gallery and then he fell against the wall and through the grimy sack I saw the heaving of his breast as I have seen my opponents chest in a long hard bout of wrestling For my part I could do no more than hold my tongue and look at him
Without another word we rose to the level of the moors and mires neither would Master Carfax speak as I led him across the barrows In this he was welcome to his own way for I do love silence so little harm can come of it And though Gwenny was no beauty her father might be fond of her
So I put him in the cowhouse not to frighten the little maid and the folding shutters over him such as we used at the beestings and he listened to my voice outside and held on and preserved himself For now he would have scooped the earth as cattle do at yearningtime and as meekly and as patiently to have his child restored to him Not to make long tale of it—for this thing is beyond me through want of true experience—I went and fetched his Gwenny forth from the back kitchen where she was fighting as usual with our Betty
Come along you little Vick I said for so we called her I have a message to you Gwenny from the Lord in heaven
Dont ee talk about He she answered Her have long forgatten me
That He has never done you stupid Come and see who is in the cowhouse
Gwenny knew she knew in a moment Looking into my eyes she knew and hanging back from me to sigh she knew it even better
She had not much elegance of emotion being flat and square all over but none the less for that her heart came quick and her words came slowly
Oh Jan you are too good to cheat me Is it joke you are putting upon me
I answered her with a gaze alone and she tucked up her clothes and followed me because the road was dirty Then I opened the door just wide enough for the child to to go her father and left those two to have it out as might be most natural And they took a long time about it
Meanwhile I needs must go and tell my Lorna all the matter and her joy was almost as great as if she herself had found a father And the wonder of the whole was this that I got all the credit of which not a thousandth part belonged by right and reason to me Yet so it almost always is If I work for good desert and slave and lie awake at night and spend my unborn life in dreams not a blink nor wink nor inkling of my labour ever tells It would have been better to leave unburned and to keep undevoured the fuel and the food of life But if I have laboured not only acted by some impulse whim caprice or anything or even acting not at all only letting things float by piled upon me commendations bravoes and applauses almost work me up to tempt once again though sick of it the ill luck of deserving
Without intending any harm and meaning only good indeed I had now done serious wrong to Uncle Reubens prospects For Captain Carfax was full as angry at the trick played on him as he was happy in discovering the falsehood and the fraud of it Nor could I help agreeing with him when he told me all of it as with tears in his eyes he did and ready to be my slave henceforth I could not forbear from owning that it was a low and heartless trick unworthy of men who had families and the recoil whereof was well deserved whatever it might end in
For when this poor man left his daughter asleep as he supposed and having his food and change of clothes and Sunday hat to see to he meant to return in an hour or so and settle about her sustenance in some house of the neighbourhood But this was the very thing of all things which the leaders of the enterprise who had brought him up from Cornwall for his noted skill in metals were determined whether by fair means or foul to stop at the very outset Secrecy being their main object what chance could there be of it if the miners were allowed to keep their children in the neighbourhood Hence on the plea of feasting Simon they kept him drunk for three days and three nights assuring him whenever he had gleams enough to ask for her that his daughter was as well as could be and enjoying herself with the children Not wishing the maid to see him tipsy he pressed the matter no further but applied himself to the bottle again and drank her health with pleasure
However after three days of this his constitution rose against it and he became quite sober with a certain lowness of heart moreover and a sense of error And his first desire to right himself and easiest way to do it was by exerting parental authority upon Gwenny Possessed with this intention for he was not a sweet tempered man and his head was aching sadly he sought for Gwenny high and low first with threats and then with fears and then with tears and wailing And so he became to the other men a warning and a great annoyance Therefore they combined to swear what seemed a very likely thing and might be true for all they knew to wit that Gwenny had come to seek for her father down the shafthole and peering too eagerly into the dark had toppled forward and gone down and lain at the bottom as dead as a stone
And thou being so happy with drink the villains finished up to him and getting drunker every day we thought it shame to trouble thee and we buried the wench in the lower drift and no use to think more of her but come and have a glass Sim
But Simon Carfax swore that drink had lost him his wife and now had lost him the last of his five children and would lose him his own soul if further he went on with it and from that day to his death he never touched strong drink again Nor only this but being soon appointed captain of the mine he allowed no man on any pretext to bring cordials thither and to this and his stern hard rule and stealthy secret management as much as to good luck and place might it be attributed that scarcely any but themselves had dreamed about this Exmoor mine
As for me I had no ambition to become a miner and the state to which goldseeking had brought poor Uncle Ben was not at all encouraging My business was to till the ground and tend the growth that came of it and store the fruit in Heavens good time rather than to scoop and burrow like a weasel or a rat for the yellow root of evil Moreover I was led from home between the hay and corn harvests when we often have a week to spare by a call there was no resisting unless I gave up all regard for wrestling and for my county
Now here many persons may take me amiss and there always has been some confusion which people who ought to have known better have wrought into subject of quarrelling By birth it is true and cannot be denied that I am a man of Somerset nevertheless by breed I am as well as by education a son of Devon also And just as both of our two counties vowed that Glen Doone was none of theirs but belonged to the other one so now each with hot claim and jangling leading even to blows sometimes asserted and would swear to it as I became more famous that John Ridd was of its own producing bred of its own true blood and basely stolen by the other
Now I have not judged it in any way needful or even becoming and delicate to enter into my wrestling adventures or describe my progress The whole thing is so different from Lorna and her gentle manners and her style of walking moreover I must seem even to kind people to magnify myself so much or at least attempt to do it that I have scratched out written pages through my better taste and sense
Neither will I upon this head make any difference even now being simply betrayed into mentioning the matter because bare truth requires it in the tale of Lornas fortunes
For a mighty giant had arisen in a part of Cornwall and his calf was twentyfive inches round and the breadth of his shoulders two feet and a quarter and his stature seven feet and threequarters Round the chest he was seventy inches and his hand a foot across and there were no scales strong enough to judge of his weight in the marketplace Now this man—or I should say his backers and his boasters for the giant himself was modest—sent me a brave and haughty challenge to meet him in the ring at Bodmintown on the first day of August or else to return my champions belt to them by the messenger
It is no use to deny but that I was greatly dashed and scared at first For my part I was only when measured without clothes on sixty inches round the breast and round the calf scarce twentyone only two feet across the shoulders and in height not six and threequarters However my mother would never believe that this man could beat me and Lorna being of the same mind I resolved to go and try him as they would pay all expenses and a hundred pounds if I conquered him so confident were those Cornishmen
Now this story is too well known for me to go through it again and again Every child in Devonshire knows and his grandson will know the song which some clever man made of it after I had treated him to water and to lemon and a little sugar and a drop of eaudevie Enough that I had found the giant quite as big as they had described him and enough to terrify any one But trusting in my practice and study of the art I resolved to try a back with him and when my arms were round him once the giant was but a farthingale put into the vice of a blacksmith The man had no bones his frame sank in and I was afraid of crushing him He lay on his back and smiled at me and I begged his pardon
Now this affair made a noise at the time and redounded so much to my credit that I was deeply grieved at it because deserving none For I do like a good strife and struggle and the doubt makes the joy of victory whereas in this case I might as well have been sent for a match with a haymow However I got my hundred pounds and made up my mind to spend every farthing in presents for mother and Lorna
For Annie was married by this time and long before I went away as need scarcely be said perhaps if any one follows the weeks and the months The wedding was quiet enough except for everybodys good wishes and I desire not to dwell upon it because it grieved me in many ways
But now that I had tried to hope the very best for dear Annie a deeper blow than could have come even through her awaited me For after that visit to Cornwall and with my prizemoney about me I came on foot from Okehampton to Oare so as to save a little sum towards my time of marrying For Lornas fortune I would not have small or great I would not have it only if there were no denying we would devote the whole of it to charitable uses as Master Peter Blundell had done and perhaps the future ages would endeavour to be grateful Lorna and I had settled this question at least twice a day on the average and each time with more satisfaction
Now coming into the kitchen with all my cash in my breeches pocket golden guineas with an elephant on them for the stamp of the Guinea Company I found dear mother most heartily glad to see me safe and sound again—for she had dreaded that giant and dreamed of him—and she never asked me about the money Lizzie also was softer and more gracious than usual especially when she saw me pour guineas like peppercorns into the puddingbasin But by the way they hung about I knew that something was gone wrong
Where is Lorna I asked at length after trying not to ask it I want her to come and see my money She never saw so much before
Alas said mother with a heavy sigh she will see a great deal more I fear and a deal more than is good for her Whether you ever see her again will depend upon her nature John
What do you mean mother Have you quarrelled Why does not Lorna come to me Am I never to know
Now John be not so impatient my mother replied quite calmly for in truth she was jealous of Lorna you could wait now very well John if it were till this day week for the coming of your mother John And yet your mother is your best friend Who can ever fill her place
Thinking of her future absence mother turned away and cried and the boxiron singed the blanket
Now said I being wild by this time Lizzie you have a little sense will you tell me where is Lorna
The Lady Lorna Dugal said Lizzie screwing up her lips as if the title were too grand is gone to London brother John and not likely to come back again We must try to get on without her
You little—something I cried which I dare not write down here as all you are too good for such language but Lizzies lip provoked me so—my Lorna gone my Lorna gone And without goodbye to me even It is your spite has sickened her
You are quite mistaken there she replied how can folk of low degree have either spite or liking towards the people so far above them The Lady Lorna Dugal is gone because she could not help herself and she wept enough to break ten hearts—if hearts are ever broken John
Darling Lizzie how good you are I cried without noticing her sneer tell me all about it dear tell me every word she said
That will not take long said Lizzie quite as unmoved by soft coaxing as by urgent cursing the lady spoke very little to any one except indeed to mother and to Gwenny Carfax and Gwenny is gone with her so that the benefit of that is lost But she left a letter for poor John as in charity she called him How grand she looked to be sure with the fine clothes on that were come for her
Where is the letter you utter vixen Oh may you have a husband
Who will thresh it out of you and starve it and swear it out of you was the meaning of my imprecation but Lizzie not dreaming as yet of such things could not understand me and was rather thankful therefore she answered quietly—
The letter is in the little cupboard near the head of Lady Lornas bed where she used to keep the diamond necklace which we contrived to get stolen
Without another word I rushed so that every board in the house shook up to my lost Lornas room and tore the little wallniche open and espied my treasure It was as simple and as homely and loving as even I could wish Part of it ran as follows—the other parts it behoves me not to open out to strangers—My own love and sometime lord—Take it not amiss of me that even without farewell I go for I cannot persuade the men to wait your return being doubtful My greatuncle some grand lord is awaiting me at Dunster having fear of venturing too near this Exmoor country I who have been so lawless always and the child of outlaws am now to atone for this it seems by living in a court of law and under special surveillance as they call it I believe of His Majestys Court of Chancery My uncle is appointed my guardian and master and I must live beneath his care until I am twentyone years old To me this appears a dreadful thing and very unjust and cruel for why should I lose my freedom through heritage of land and gold I offered to abandon all if they would only let me go I went down on my knees to them and said I wanted titles not neither land nor money only to stay where I was where first I had known happiness But they only laughed and called me child and said I must talk of that to the Kings High Chancellor Their orders they had and must obey them and Master Stickles was ordered too to help as the Kings Commissioner And then although it pierced my heart not to say one goodbye John I was glad upon the whole that you were not here to dispute it For I am almost certain that you would not without force to yourself have let your Lorna go to people who never never can care for her
Here my darling had wept again by the tokens on the paper and then there followed some sweet words too sweet for me to chatter them But she finished with these noble lines which being common to all humanity in a case of steadfast love I do no harm but rather help all true love by repeating Of one thing rest you well assured—and I do hope that it may prove of service to your rest love else would my own be broken—no difference of rank or fortune or of life itself shall ever make me swerve from truth to you We have passed through many troubles dangers and dispartments but never yet was doubt between us neither ever shall be Each has trusted well the other and still each must do so Though they tell you I am false though your own mind harbours it from the sense of things around and your own undervaluing yet take counsel of your heart and cast such thoughts away from you being unworthy of itself they must be unworthy also of the one who dwells there and that one is and ever shall be your own Lorna Dugal
Some people cannot understand that tears should come from pleasure but whether from pleasure or from sorrow mixed as they are in the twisted strings of a mans heart or a womans great tears fell from my stupid eyes even on the blots of Lornas
No doubt it is all over my mind said to me bitterly trust me all shall yet be right my heart replied very sweetly
CHAPTER LX
ANNIE LUCKIER THAN JOHN
Some people may look down upon us for our slavish ways as they may choose to call them but in our part of the country we do love to mention title and to roll it on our tongues with a conscience and a comfort Even if a man knows not through fault of education who the Duke of this is or the Earl of that it will never do for him to say so lest the room look down on him Therefore he must nod his head and say Ah to be sure I know him as well as ever I know my own good womans brother He married Lord Flipflaps second daughter and a precious life she led him Whereupon the room looks up at him But I being quite unable to carry all this in my head as I ought was speedily put down by people of a noble tendency apt at Lords and pat with Dukes and knowing more about the King than His Majesty would have requested Therefore I fell back in thought not daring in words to do so upon the titles of our horses And all these horses deserved their names not having merely inherited but by their own doing earned them Smiler for instance had been so called not so much from a habit of smiling as from his general geniality white nose and white ankle This worthy horse was now in years but hale and gay as ever and when you let him out of the stable he could neigh and whinny and make men and horses know it On the other hand Kickums was a horse of morose and surly order harbouring up revenge and leading a rider to false confidence Very smoothly he would go and as gentle as a turtledove until his rider fully believed that a packthread was enough for him and a pat of approval upon his neck the aim and crown of his worthy life Then suddenly up went his hind feet to heaven and the rider for the most part flew over his nose whereupon good Kickums would take advantage of his favourable position to come and bite a piece out of his back Now in my present state of mind being understood of nobody having none to bear me company neither wishing to have any an indefinite kind of attraction drew me into Kickums society A bond of mutual sympathy was soon established between us I would ride no other horse neither Kickums be ridden by any other man And this good horse became as jealous about me as a dog might be and would lash out or run teeth foremost at any one who came near him when I was on his back
This season the reaping of the corn which had been but a year ago so pleasant and so lightsome was become a heavy labour and a thing for grumbling rather than for gladness However for the sake of all it must be attended to and with as fair a show of spirit and alacrity as might be For otherwise the rest would drag and drop their hands and idle being quicker to take infection of dullness than of diligence And the harvest was a heavy one even heavier than the year before although of poorer quality Therefore was I forced to work as hard as any horse could during all the daylight hours and defer till night the brooding upon my misfortune But the darkness always found me stiff with work and weary and less able to think than to dream may be of Lorna And now the house was so dull and lonesome wanting Annies pretty presence and the light of Lornas eyes that a man had no temptation after suppertime even to sit and smoke a pipe
For Lizzie though so learned and pleasant when it suited her never had taken very kindly to my love for Lorna and being of a proud and slightly upstart nature could not bear to be eclipsed in bearing looks and breeding and even in clothes by the stranger For one thing I will say of the Doones that whether by purchase or plunder they had always dressed my darling well with her own sweet taste to help them And though Lizzies natural hate of the maid as a Doone and burdened with fathers death should have been changed to remorse when she learned of Lornas real parentage it was only altered to sullenness and discontent with herself for frequent rudeness to an innocent person and one of such high descent Moreover the child had imbibed strange ideas as to our aristocracy partly perhaps from her own way of thinking and partly from reading of history For while from one point of view she looked up at them very demurely as commissioned by God for the countrys good from another sight she disliked them as ready to sacrifice their best and follow their worst members
Yet why should this wench dare to judge upon a matter so far beyond her and form opinions which she knew better than declare before mother But with me she had no such scruple for I had no authority over her and my intellect she looked down upon because I praised her own so Thus she made herself very unpleasant to me by little jags and jerks of sneering sped as though unwittingly which I who now considered myself allied to the aristocracy and perhaps took airs on that account had not wit enough to parry yet had wound enough to feel
Now any one who does not know exactly how mothers feel and think would have expected my mother than whom could be no better one to pet me and make much of me under my sad trouble to hang with anxiety on my looks and shed her tears with mine if any and season every dish of meat put by for her Johns return And if the whole truth must be told I did expect that sort of thing and thought what a plague it would be to me yet not getting it was vexed as if by some new injury For mother was a special creature as I suppose we all are being the warmest of the warm when fired at the proper corner and yet if taken at the wrong point you would say she was incombustible
Hence it came to pass that I had no one even to speak to about Lorna and my grievances for Captain Stickles was now gone southward and John Fry of course was too low for it although a married man and well under his wifes management But finding myself unable at last to bear this any longer upon the first day when all the wheat was cut and the stooks set up in every field yet none quite fit for carrying I saddled good Kickums at five in the morning and without a word to mother for a little anxiety might do her good off I set for Molland parish to have the counsel and the comfort of my darling Annie
The horse took me over the ground so fast there being few better to go when he liked that by nine oclock Annie was in my arms and blushing to the colour of Winnies cheeks with sudden delight and young happiness
You precious little soul I cried how does Tom behave to you
Hush said Annie how dare you ask He is the kindest and the best and the noblest of all men John not even setting yourself aside Now look not jealous John so it is We all have special gifts you know You are as good as you can be John but my husbands special gift is nobility of character Here she looked at me as one who has discovered something quite unknown
I am devilish glad to hear it said I being touched at going down so keep him to that mark my dear and cork the whisky bottle
Yes darling John she answered quickly not desiring to open that subject and being too sweet to resent it and how is lovely Lorna What an age it is since I have seen you I suppose we must thank her for that
You may thank her for seeing me now said I or rather—seeing how hurt she looked—you may thank my knowledge of your kindness and my desire to speak of her to a softhearted dear little soul like you I think all the women are gone mad Even mother treats me shamefully And as for Lizzie— Here I stopped knowing no words strong enough without shocking Annie
Do you mean to say that Lorna is gone asked Annie in great amazement yet leaping at the truth as women do with nothing at all to leap from
Gone And I never shall see her again It serves me right for aspiring so
Being grieved at my manner she led me in where none could interrupt us and in spite of all my dejection I could not help noticing how very pretty and even elegant all things were around For we upon Exmoor have little taste all we care for is warm comfort and plenty to eat and to give away and a hearty smack in everything But Squire Faggus had seen the world and kept company with great people and the taste he had first displayed in the shoeing of farmers horses which led almost to his ruin by bringing him into jealousy and flattery and dashing ways had now been cultivated in London and by moonlight so that none could help admiring it
Well I cried for the moment dropping care and woe in astonishment we have nothing like this at Plovers Barrows nor even Uncle Reuben I do hope it is honest Annie
Would I sit in a chair that was not my own asked Annie turning crimson and dropping defiantly and with a whisk of her dress which I never had seen before into the very grandest one would I lie on a couch brother John do you think unless good money was paid for it Because other people are clever John you need not grudge them their earnings
A couch I replied why what can you want with a couch in the daytime Annie A couch is a small bed set up in a room without space for a good fourposter What can you want with a couch downstairs I never heard of such nonsense And you ought to be in the dairy
I wont cry brother John I wont because you want to make me cry—and all the time she was crying—you always were so nasty John sometimes Ah you have no nobility of character like my husband And I have not seen you for two months John and now you come to scold me
You little darling I said for Annies tears always conquered me if all the rest illuse me I will not quarrel with you dear You have always been true to me and I can forgive your vanity Your things are very pretty dear and you may couch ten times a day without my interference No doubt your husband has paid for all this with the ponies he stole from Exmoor Nobility of character is a thing beyond my understanding but when my sister loves a man and he does well and flourishes who am I to find fault with him Mother ought to see these things they would turn her head almost look at the pimples on the chairs
They are nothing Annie answered after kissing me for my kindness they are only put in for the time indeed and we are to have much better with gold all round the bindings and double plush at the corners so soon as ever the King repays the debt he owes to my poor Tom
I thought to myself that our present King had been most unlucky in one thing—debts all over the kingdom Not a man who had struck a blow for the King or for his poor father or even said a good word for him in the time of his adversity but expected at least a baronetcy and a grant of estates to support it Many have called King Charles ungrateful and he may have been so But some indulgence is due to a man with entries few on the credit side and a terrible column of debits
Have no fear for the chair I said for it creaked under me very fearfully having legs not so large as my finger if the chair breaks Annie your fear should be lest the tortoiseshell run into me Why it is striped like a vipers loins I saw some hundreds in London and very cheap they are They are made to be sold to the country people such as you and me dear and carefully kept they will last for almost half a year Now will you come back from your furniture and listen to my story
Annie was a hearty dear and she knew that half my talk was joke to make light of my worrying Therefore she took it in good part as I well knew that she would do and she led me to a good honest chair and she sat in my lap and kissed me
All this is not like you John All this is not one bit like you and your cheeks are not as they ought to be I shall have to come home again if the women worry my brother so We always held together John and we always will you know
You dear I cried there is nobody who understands me as you do Lorna makes too much of me and the rest they make too little
Not mother oh not mother John
No mother makes too much no doubt but wants it all for herself alone and reckons it as a part of her She makes me more wroth than any one as if not only my life but all my head and heart must seek from hers and have no other thought or care
Being sped of my grumbling thus and eased into better temper I told Annie all the strange history about Lorna and her departure and the small chance that now remained to me of ever seeing my love again To this Annie would not hearken twice but judging women by her faithful self was quite vexed with me for speaking so And then to my surprise and sorrow she would deliver no opinion as to what I ought to do until she had consulted darling Tom
Dear Tom knew much of the world no doubt especially the dark side of it But to me it scarcely seemed becoming that my course of action with regard to the Lady Lorna Dugal should be referred to Tom Faggus and depend upon his decision However I would not grieve Annie again by making light of her husband and so when he came in to dinner the matter was laid before him
Now this man never confessed himself surprised under any circumstances his knowledge of life being so profound and his charity universal And in the present case he vowed that he had suspected it all along and could have thrown light upon Lornas history if we had seen fit to apply to him Upon further inquiry I found that this light was a very dim one flowing only from the fact that he had stopped her mothers coach at the village of Bolham on the Bampton Road the day before I saw them Finding only women therein and these in a sad condition Tom with his usual chivalry as he had no scent of the necklace allowed them to pass with nothing more than a pleasant exchange of courtesies and a testimonial forced upon him in the shape of a bottle of Burgundy wine This the poor countess handed him and he twisted the cork out with his teeth and drank her health with his hat off
A lady she was and a true one and I am a pretty good judge said Tom ah I do like a high lady
Our Annie looked rather queer at this having no pretensions to be one but she conquered herself and said Yes Tom and many of them liked you
With this Tom went on the brag at once being but a shallow fellow and not of settled principles though steadier than he used to be until I felt myself almost bound to fetch him back a little for of all things I do hate brag the most as any reader of this tale must by this time know Therefore I said to Squire Faggus Come back from your highway days You have married the daughter of an honest man and such talk is not fit for her If you were right in robbing people I am right in robbing you I could bind you to your own mantelpiece as you know thoroughly well Tom and drive away with your own horses and all your goods behind them but for the sense of honesty And should I not do as fine a thing as any you did on the highway If everything is of public right how does this chair belong to you Clever as you are Tom Faggus you are nothing but a fool to mix your felony with your farmership Drop the one or drop the other you cannot maintain them both
As I finished very sternly a speech which had exhausted me more than ten rounds of wrestling—but I was carried away by the truth as sometimes happens to all of us—Tom had not a word to say albeit his mind was so much more nimble and rapid than ever mine was He leaned against the mantelpiece a newlyinvented affair in his house as if I had corded him to it even as I spoke of doing And he laid one hand on his breast in a way which made Annie creep softly to him and look at me not like a sister
You have done me good John he said at last and the hand he gave me was trembling there is no other man on Gods earth would have dared to speak to me as you have done From no other would I have taken it Nevertheless every word is true and I shall dwell on it when you are gone If you never did good in your life before John my brother you have done it now
He turned away in bitter pain that none might see his trouble and Annie going along with him looked as if I had killed our mother For my part I was so upset for fear of having gone too far that without a word to either of them but a message on the titlepage of King James his Prayerbook I saddled Kickums and was off and glad of the moorland air again
CHAPTER LXI
THEREFORE HE SEEKS COMFORT
It was for poor Annies sake that I had spoken my mind to her husband so freely and even harshly For we all knew she would break her heart if Tom took to evil ways again And the right mode of preventing this was not to coax and flatter and make a hero of him which he did for himself quite sufficiently but to set before him the folly of the thing and the ruin to his own interests They would both be vexed with me of course for having left them so hastily and especially just before dinnertime but that would soon wear off and most likely they would come to see mother and tell her that I was hard to manage and they could feel for her about it
Now with a certain yearning I know not what for softness and for one who could understand me—for simple as a child though being I found few to do that last at any rate in my lovetime—I relied upon Kickums strength to take me round by Dulverton It would make the journey some eight miles longer but what was that to a brisk young horse even with my weight upon him
And having left Squire Faggus and Annie much sooner than had been intended I had plenty of time before me and too much ere a prospect of dinner Therefore I struck to the right across the hills for Dulverton
Pretty Ruth was in the main street of the town with a basket in her hand going home from the market
Why Cousin Ruth you are grown I exclaimed I do believe you are Ruth And you were almost too tall already
At this the little thing was so pleased that she smiled through her blushes beautifully and must needs come to shake hands with me though I signed to her not to do it because of my horses temper But scarcely was her hand in mine when Kickums turned like an eel upon her and caught her by the left arm with his teeth so that she screamed with agony I saw the white of his vicious eye and struck him there with all my force with my left hand over her right arm and he never used that eye again none the less he kept his hold on her Then I smote him again on the jaw and caught the little maid up by her right hand and laid her on the saddle in front of me while the horse being giddy and staggered with blows and foiled of his spite ran backward Ruths wits were gone and she lay before me in such a helpless and senseless way that I could have killed vile Kickums I struck the spurs into him past the rowels and away he went at full gallop while I had enough to do to hold on with the little girl lying in front of me But I called to the men who were flocking around to send up a surgeon as quick as could be to Master Reuben Huckabacks
The moment I brought my right arm to bear the vicious horse had no chance with me and if ever a horse was well paid for spite Kickums had his change that day The bridle would almost have held a whale and I drew on it so that his lower jaw was wellnigh broken from him while with both spurs I tore his flanks and he learned a little lesson There are times when a man is more vicious than any horse may vie with Therefore by the time we had reached Uncle Reubens house at the top of the hill the bad horse was only too happy to stop every string of his body was trembling and his head hanging down with impotence I leaped from his back at once and carried the maiden into her own sweet room
Now Cousin Ruth was recovering softly from her fright and faintness and the volley of the wind from galloping so had made her little ears quite pink and shaken her locks all round her But any one who might wish to see a comely sight and a moving one need only have looked at Ruth Huckaback when she learned and imagined yet more than it was the manner of her little ride with me Her hair was of a hazelbrown and full of waving readiness and with no concealment of the trick she spread it over her eyes and face Being so delighted with her and so glad to see her safe I kissed her through the thick of it as a cousin has a right to do yea and ought to do with gravity
Darling I said he has bitten you dreadfully show me your poor arm dear
She pulled up her sleeve in the simplest manner rather to look at it herself than to show me where the wound was Her sleeve was of dark blue Taunton staple and her white arm shone coming out of it as round and plump and velvety as a stalk of asparagus newly fetched out of the ground But above the curved soft elbow where no room was for one cross word according to our proverb three sad gashes edged with crimson spoiled the flow of the pearly flesh My presence of mind was lost altogether and I raised the poor sore arm to my lips both to stop the bleeding and to take the venom out having heard how wise it was and thinking of my mother But Ruth to my great amazement drew away from me in bitter haste as if I had been inserting instead of extracting poison For the bite of a horse is most venomous especially when he sheds his teeth and far more to be feared than the bite of a dog or even of a cat And in my haste I had forgotten that Ruth might not know a word about this and might doubt about my meaning and the warmth of my osculation But knowing her danger I durst not heed her childishness or her feelings
A maid with an elbow sharp or knee
Hath cross words two out of every three
Dont be a fool Cousin Ruth I said catching her so that she could not move the poison is soaking into you Do you think that I do it for pleasure
The spread of shame on her face was such when she saw her own misunderstanding that I was ashamed to look at her and occupied myself with drawing all the risk of glanders forth from the white limb hanging helpless now and left entirely to my will Before I was quite sure of having wholly exhausted suction and when I had made the holes in her arm look like the gills of a lamprey in came the doctor partly drunk and in haste to get through his business
Ha ha I see he cried bite of a horse they tell me Very poisonous must be burned away Sally the iron in the fire If you have a fire this weather
Crave your pardon good sir I said for poor little Ruth was fainting again at his savage orders but my cousins arm shall not be burned it is a great deal too pretty and I have sucked all the poison out Look sir how clean and fresh it is
Bless my heart And so it is No need at all for cauterising The epidermis will close over and the cutis and the pellis John Ridd you ought to have studied medicine with your healing powers Half my virtue lies in touch A clean and wholesome body sir I have taught you the Latin grammar I leave you in excellent hands my dear and they wait for me at shovelboard Bread and water poultice cold to be renewed tribus horis John Ridd I was at school with you and you beat me very lamentably when I tried to fight with you You remember me not It is likely enough I am forced to take strong waters John from infirmity of the liver Attend to my directions and I will call again in the morning
And in that melancholy plight caring nothing for business went one of the cleverest fellows ever known at Tiverton He could write Latin verses a great deal faster than I could ever write English prose and nothing seemed too great for him We thought that he would go to Oxford and astonish every one and write in the style of Buchanan but he fell all abroad very lamentably and now when I met him again was come down to pushpin and shovelboard with a wager of spirits pending
When Master Huckaback came home he looked at me very sulkily not only because of my refusal to become a slave to the golddigging but also because he regarded me as the cause of a savage broil between Simon Carfax and the men who had cheated him as to his Gwenny However when Uncle Ben saw Ruth and knew what had befallen her and she with tears in her eyes declared that she owed her life to Cousin Ridd the old man became very gracious to me for if he loved any one on earth it was his little granddaughter
I could not stay very long because my horse being quite unfit to travel from the injuries which his violence and vice had brought upon him there was nothing for me but to go on foot as none of Uncle Bens horses could take me to Plovers Barrows without downright cruelty and though there would be a harvestmoon Ruth agreed with me that I must not keep my mother waiting with no idea where I might be until a late hour of the night I told Ruth all about our Annie and her noble furniture and the little maid was very lively although her wounds were paining her so that half her laughter came on the wrong side of her mouth as we rather coarsely express it especially she laughed about Annies newfangled closet for clothes or standingpress as she called it This had frightened me so that I would not come without my stick to look at it for the front was inlaid with two fiery dragons and a glass which distorted everything making even Annie look hideous and when it was opened a womans skeleton all in white revealed itself in the midst of three standing women It is only to keep my best frocks in shape Annie had explained to me hanging them up does ruin them so But I own that I was afraid of it John until I had got all my best clothes there and then I became very fond of it But even now it frightens me sometimes in the moonlight
Having made poor Ruth a little cheerful with a full account of all Annies frocks material pattern and fashion of which I had taken a list for my mother and for Lizzie lest they should cry out at mans stupidity about anything of real interest I proceeded to tell her about my own troubles and the sudden departure of Lorna concluding with all the show of indifference which my pride could muster that now I never should see her again and must do my best to forget her as being so far above me I had not intended to speak of this but Ruths face was so kind and earnest that I could not stop myself
You must not talk like that Cousin Ridd she said in a low and gentle tone and turning away her eyes from me no lady can be above a man who is pure and brave and gentle And if her heart be worth having she will never let you give her up for her grandeur and her nobility
She pronounced those last few words as I thought with a little bitterness unperceived by herself perhaps for it was not in her appearance But I attaching great importance to a maidens opinion about a maiden because she might judge from experience would have led her further into that subject But she declined to follow having now no more to say in a matter so removed from her Then I asked her full and straight and looking at her in such a manner that she could not look away without appearing vanquished by feelings of her own—which thing was very vile of me but all men are so selfish—
Dear cousin tell me once for all what is your advice to me
My advice to you she answered bravely with her dark eyes full of pride and instead of flinching foiling me—is to do what every man must do if he would win fair maiden Since she cannot send you token neither is free to return to you follow her pay your court to her show that you will not be forgotten and perhaps she will look down—I mean she will relent to you
She has nothing to relent about I have never vexed nor injured her My thoughts have never strayed from her There is no one to compare with her
Then keep her in that same mind about you See now I can advise no more My arm is swelling painfully in spite of all your goodness and bitter task of surgeonship I shall have another poultice on and go to bed I think Cousin Ridd if you will not hold me ungrateful I am so sorry for your long walk Surely it might be avoided Give my love to dear Lizzie oh the room is going round so
And she fainted into the arms of Sally who was come just in time to fetch her no doubt she had been suffering agony all the time she talked to me Leaving word that I would come again to inquire for her and fetch Kickums home so soon as the harvest permitted me I gave directions about the horse and striding away from the ancient town was soon upon the moorlands
Now through the whole of that long walk—the latter part of which was led by starlight till the moon arose—I dwelt in my young and foolish way upon the ordering of our steps by a Power beyond us But as I could not bring my mind to any clearness upon this matter and the stars shed no light upon it but rather confused me with wondering how their Lord could attend to them all and yet to a puny fool like me it came to pass that my thoughts on the subject were not worth ink if I knew them
But it is perhaps worth ink to relate so far as I can do so mothers delight at my return when she had almost abandoned hope and concluded that I was gone to London in disgust at her behaviour And now she was looking up the lane at the rise of the harvestmoon in despair as she said afterwards But if she had despaired in truth what use to look at all Yet according to the epigram made by a good Blundellite—
Despair was never yet so deep In sinking as in seeming Despair is hope just dropped asleep For better chance of dreaming
And mothers dream was a happy one when she knew my step at a furlong distant for the night was of those that carry sound thrice as far as day can She recovered herself when she was sure and even made up her mind to scold me and felt as if she could do it But when she was in my arms into which she threw herself and I by the light of the moon descried the silver gleam on one side of her head now spreading since Annies departure bless my heart and yours therewith no room was left for scolding She hugged me and she clung to me and I looked at her with duty made tenfold and discharged by love We said nothing to one another but all was right between us
Even Lizzie behaved very well so far as her nature admitted not even saying a nasty thing all the time she was getting my supper ready with a weak imitation of Annie She knew that the gift of cooking was not vouchsafed by God to her but sometimes she would do her best by intellect to win it Whereas it is no more to be won by intellect than is divine poetry An amount of strong quick heart is needful and the understanding must second it in the one art as in the other Now my fare was very choice for the next three days or more yet not turned out like Annies They could do a thing well enough on the fire but they could not put it on table so nor even have plates all piping hot This was Annies special gift born in her and ready to cool with her like a plate borne away from the fireplace I sighed sometimes about Lorna and they thought it was about the plates And mother would stand and look at me as much as to say No pleasing him and Lizzie would jerk up one shoulder and cry He had better have Lorna to cook for him while the whole truth was that I wanted not to be plagued about any cookery but just to have something good and quiet and then smoke and think about Lorna
Nevertheless the time went on with one change and another and we gathered all our harvest in and Parson Bowden thanked God for it both in church and out of it for his tithes would be very goodly The unmatched cold of the previous winter and general fear of scarcity and our own talk about our ruin had sent prices up to a grand high pitch and we did our best to keep them there For nine Englishmen out of every ten believe that a bitter winter must breed a sour summer and explain away topmost prices While according to my experience more often it would be otherwise except for the public thinking so However I have said too much and if any farmer reads my book he will vow that I wrote it for nothing else except to rob his family
CHAPTER LXII
THE KING MUST NOT BE PRAYED FOR
All our neighbourhood was surprised that the Doones had not ere now attacked and probably made an end of us For we lay almost at their mercy now having only Sergeant Bloxham and three men to protect us Captain Stickles having been ordered southwards with all his force except such as might be needful for collecting toll and watching the imports at Lynmouth and thence to Porlock The Sergeant having now imbibed a taste for writing reports though his first great effort had done him no good and only offended Stickles reported weekly from Plovers Barrows whenever he could find a messenger And though we fed not Sergeant Bloxham at our own table with the best we had as in the case of Stickles who represented His Majesty yet we treated him so well that he reported very highly of us as loyal and truehearted lieges and most devoted to our lord the King And indeed he could scarcely have done less when Lizzie wrote great part of his reports and furbished up the rest to such a pitch of lustre that Lord Clarendon himself need scarce have been ashamed of them And though this cost a great deal of ale and even of strong waters for Lizzie would have it the duty of a critic to stand treat to the author and though it was otherwise a plague as giving the maid such airs of patronage and such pretence to politics yet there was no stopping it without the risk of mortal offence to both writer and reviewer Our mother also while disapproving Lizzies long stay in the saddleroom on a Friday night and a Saturday and insisting that Betty should be there was nevertheless as proud as need be that the King should read our Eliza s writings—at least so the innocent soul believed—and we all looked forward to something great as the fruit of all this history And something great did come of it though not as we expected for these reports or as many of them as were ever opened stood us in good stead the next year when we were accused of harbouring and comforting guilty rebels
Now the reason why the Doones did not attack us was that they were preparing to meet another and more powerful assault upon their fortress being assured that their repulse of Kings troops could not be looked over when brought before the authorities And no doubt they were right for although the conflicts in the Government during that summer and autumn had delayed the matter yet positive orders had been issued that these outlaws and malefactors should at any price be brought to justice when the sudden death of King Charles the Second threw all things into confusion and all minds into a panic
We heard of it first in church on Sunday the eighth day of February 16845 from a cousin of John Fry who had ridden over on purpose from Porlock He came in just before the anthem splashed and heated from his ride so that every one turned and looked at him He wanted to create a stir knowing how much would be made of him and he took the best way to do it For he let the anthem go by very quietly—or rather I should say very pleasingly for our choir was exceeding proud of itself and I sang bass twice as loud as a bull to beat the clerk with the clarionet—and then just as Parson Bowden with a look of pride at his minstrels was kneeling down to begin the prayer for the Kings Most Excellent Majesty for he never read the litany except upon Easter Sunday up jumps young Sam Fry and shouts—
I forbid that there praier
What cried the parson rising slowly and looking for some one to shut the door have we a rebel in the congregation For the parson was growing shortsighted now and knew not Sam Fry at that distance
No replied Sam not a whit abashed by the staring of all the parish no rebel parson but a man who mislaiketh popery and murder That there praier be a praier for the dead
Nay cried the parson now recognising and knowing him to be our Johns first cousin you do not mean to say Sam that His Gracious Majesty is dead
Dead as a stoun poisoned by they Papishers And Sam rubbed his hands with enjoyment at the effect he had produced
Remember where you are Sam said Parson Bowden solemnly when did this most sad thing happen The King is the head of the Church Sam Fry when did he leave her
Day afore yesterday Twelve oclock Warnt us quick to hear of un
Cant be said the minister the tidings can never have come so soon Anyhow he will want it all the more Let us pray for His Gracious Majesty
And with that he proceeded as usual but nobody cried Amen for fear of being entangled with Popery But after giving forth his text our parson said a few words out of book about the many virtues of His Majesty and selfdenial and devotion comparing his pious mirth to the dancing of the patriarch David before the ark of the covenant and he added with some severity that if his flock would not join their pastor who was much more likely to judge aright in praying for the King the least they could do on returning home was to pray that the King might not be dead as his enemies had asserted
Now when the service was over we killed the King and we brought him to life at least fifty times in the churchyard and Sam Fry was mounted on a high gravestone to tell every one all he knew of it But he knew no more than he had told us in the church as before repeated upon which we were much disappointed with him and inclined to disbelieve him until he happily remembered that His Majesty had died in great pain with blue spots on his breast and black spots all across his back and these in the form of a cross by reason of Papists having poisoned him When Sam called this to his remembrance or to his imagination he was overwhelmed at once with so many invitations to dinner that he scarce knew which of them to accept but decided in our favour
Grieving much for the loss of the King however greatly it might be as the parson had declared it was while telling us to pray against it for the royal benefit I resolved to ride to Porlock myself directly after dinner and make sure whether he were dead or not For it was not by any means hard to suppose that Sam Fry being Johns first cousin might have inherited either from grandfather or grandmother some of those gifts which had made our John so famous for mendacity At Porlock I found that it was too true and the women of the town were in great distress for the King had always been popular with them the men on the other hand were forecasting what would be likely to ensue
And I myself was of this number riding sadly home again although bound to the King as churchwarden now which dignity next to the parsons in rank is with us as it ought to be in every good parish hereditary For who can stick to the church like the man whose father stuck to it before him and who knows all the little ins and great outs which must in these troublous times come across
But though appointed at last by virtue of being best farmer in the parish as well as by vice of mismanagement on the part of my mother and Nicholas Snowe who had thoroughly muxed up everything being too quickheaded yet while I dwelled with pride upon the fact that I stood in the Kings shoes as the manager and promoter of the Church of England and I knew that we must miss His Majesty whose arms were above the Commandments as the leader of our thoughts in church and handsome upon a guinea nevertheless I kept on thinking how his death would act on me
And here I saw it many ways In the first place troubles must break out and we had eightandtwenty ricks counting grain and straw and hay Moreover mother was growing weak about riots and shooting and burning and she gathered the bedclothes around her ears every night when her feet were tucked up and prayed not to awake until morning In the next place much rebellion though we would not own it in either sense of the verb to own was whispering and plucking skirts and making signs among us And the terror of the Doones helped greatly as a fruitful tree of lawlessness and a good excuse for everybody And after this—or rather before it and first of all indeed if I must state the true order—arose upon me the thought of Lorna and how these things would affect her fate
And indeed I must admit that it had occurred to me sometimes or been suggested by others that the Lady Lorna had not behaved altogether kindly since her departure from among us For although in those days the post as we call the service of lettercarrying which now comes within twenty miles of us did not extend to our part of the world yet it might have been possible to procure for hire a man who would ride post if Lorna feared to trust the packhorses or the troopers who went to and fro Yet no message whatever had reached us neither any token even of her safety in London As to this last however we had no misgivings having learned from the orderlies more than once that the wealth and beauty and adventures of young Lady Lorna Dugal were greatly talked of both at court and among the common people
Now riding sadly homewards in the sunset of the early spring I was more than ever touched with sorrow and a sense of being as it were abandoned And the weather growing quite beautiful and so mild that the trees were budding and the cattle full of happiness I could not but think of the difference between the world of today and the world of this day twelvemonth Then all was howling desolation all the earth blocked up with snow and all the air with barbs of ice as small as splintered needles yet glittering in and out like stars and gathering so upon a man if long he stayed among them that they began to weigh him down to sleepiness and frozen death Not a sign of life was moving nor was any change of view unless the wild wind struck the crest of some cold drift and bowed it
Now on the other hand all was good The open palm of spring was laid upon the yielding of the hills and each particular valley seemed to be the glove for a finger And although the sun was low and dipping in the western clouds the gray light of the sea came up and took and taking told the special tone of everything All this lay upon my heart without a word of thinking spreading light and shadow there and the soft delight of sadness Nevertheless I would it were the savage snow around me and the piping of the restless winds and the death of everything For in those days I had Lorna
Then I thought of promise fair such as glowed around me where the red rocks held the sun when he was departed and the distant crags endeavoured to retain his memory But as evening spread across them shading with a silent fold all the colour stole away all remembrance waned and died
So it has been with love I thought and with simple truth and warmth The maid has chosen the glittering stars instead of the plain daylight
Nevertheless I would not give in although in deep despondency especially when I passed the place where my dear father had fought in vain and I tried to see things right and then judge aright about them This however was more easy to attempt than to achieve and by the time I came down the hill I was none the wiser Only I could tell my mother that the King was dead for sure and she would have tried to cry but for thought of her mourning
There was not a moment for lamenting All the mourning must be ready if we cared to beat the Snowes in eightandforty hours and although it was Sunday night mother now feeling sure of the thing sat up with Lizzie cutting patterns and stitching things on brown paper and snipping and laying the fashions down and requesting all opinions yet when given scorning them insomuch that I grew weary even of tobacco which had comforted me since Lorna and prayed her to go on until the King should be alive again
The thought of that so flurried her—for she never yet could see a joke—that she laid her scissors on the table and said The Lord forbid John after what I have cut up
It would be just like him I answered with a knowing smile Mother you had better stop Patterns may do very well but dont cut up any more good stuff
Well good lack I am a fool Three tables pegged with needles The Lord in His mercy keep His Majesty if ever He hath gotten him
By this device we went to bed and not another stitch was struck until the troopers had officetidings that the King was truly dead Hence the Snowes beat us by a day and both old Betty and Lizzie laid the blame upon me as usual
Almost before we had put off the mourning which as loyal subjects we kept for the King three months and a week rumours of disturbances of plottings and of outbreak began to stir among us We heard of fighting in Scotland and buying of ships on the continent and of arms in Dorset and Somerset and we kept our beacon in readiness to give signals of a landing or rather the soldiers did For we having trustworthy reports that the King had been to high mass himself in the Abbey of Westminster making all the bishops go with him and all the guards in London and then tortured all the Protestants who dared to wait outside moreover had received from the Pope a flower grown in the Virgin Marys garden and warranted to last for ever we of the moderate party hearing all this and ten times as much and having no love for this sour James such as we had for the lively Charles were ready to wait for what might happen rather than care about stopping it Therefore we listened to rumours gladly and shook our heads with gravity and predicted every man something but scarce any two the same Nevertheless in our part things went on as usual until the middle of June was nigh We ploughed the ground and sowed the corn and tended the cattle and heeded every one his neighbours business as carefully as heretofore and the only thing that moved us much was that Annie had a baby This being a very fine child with blue eyes and christened John in compliment to me and with me for his godfather it is natural to suppose that I thought a good deal about him and when mother or Lizzie would ask me all of a sudden and treacherously when the fire flared up at suppertime for we always kept a little wood just alight in summertime and enough to make the pot boil then when they would say to me John what are you thinking of At a word speak I would always answer Little John Faggus and so they made no more of me
But when I was down on Saturday the thirteenth of June at the blacksmiths forge by Brendon town where the Lynnstream runs so close that he dips his horseshoes in it and where the news is apt to come first of all to our neighbourhood except upon a Sunday while we were talking of the haycrop and of a great sheepstealer round the corner came a man upon a piebald horse looking flagged and weary But seeing half a dozen of us young and brisk and hearty he made a flourish with his horse and waved a blue flag vehemently shouting with great glory—
Monmouth and the Protestant faith Monmouth and no Popery Monmouth the good Kings eldest son Down with the poisoning murderer Down with the black usurper and to the devil with all papists
Why so thou little varlet I asked very quietly for the man was too small to quarrel with yet knowing Lorna to be a papist as we choose to call them—though they might as well call us kingists after the head of our Church—I thought that this scurvy scampish knave might show them the way to the place he mentioned unless his courage failed him
Papist yourself be you said the fellow not daring to answer much then take this and read it
And he handed me a long rigmarole which he called a Declaration I saw that it was but a heap of lies and thrust it into the blacksmiths fire and blew the bellows thrice at it No one dared attempt to stop me for my mood had not been sweet of late and of course they knew my strength
The man rode on with a muttering noise having won no recruits from us by force of my example and he stopped at the alehouse farther down where the road goes away from the Lynnstream Some of us went thither after a time when our horses were shodden and rasped for although we might not like the man we might be glad of his tidings which seemed to be something wonderful He had set up his blue flag in the taproom and was teaching every one
Here coomth Maister Jan Ridd said the landlady being well pleased with the call for beer and cider her hath been to Lunnontown and live within a maile of me Arl the news coom from them nowadays instead of from here as her ought to do If Jan Ridd say it be true I will try almost to belave it Hath the good Duke landed sir And she looked at me over a foaming cup and blew the froth off and put more in
I have no doubt it is true enough I answered before drinking and too true Mistress Pugsley Many a poor man will die but none shall die from our parish nor from Brendon if I can help it
And I knew that I could help it for every one in those little places would abide by my advice not only from the fame of my schooling and long sojourn in London but also because I had earned repute for being very slow and sure and with nine people out of ten this is the very best recommendation For they think themselves much before you in wit and under no obligation but rather conferring a favour by doing the thing that you do Hence if I cared for influence—which means for the most part making people do ones will without knowing it—my first step toward it would be to be called in common parlance slow but sure
For the next fortnight we were daily troubled with conflicting rumours each man relating what he desired rather than what he had right to believe We were told that the Duke had been proclaimed King of England in every town of Dorset and of Somerset that he had won a great battle at Axminster and another at Bridport and another somewhere else that all the western counties had risen as one man for him and all the militia had joined his ranks that Taunton and Bridgwater and Bristowe were all mad with delight the two former being in his hands and the latter craving to be so And then on the other hand we heard that the Duke had been vanquished and put to flight and upon being apprehended had confessed himself an impostor and a papist as bad as the King was
We longed for Colonel Stickles as he always became in time of war though he fell back to Captain and even Lieutenant directly the fight was over for then we should have won trusty news as well as good consideration But even Sergeant Bloxham much against his will was gone having left his heart with our Lizzie and a collection of all his writings All the soldiers had been ordered away at full speed for Exeter to join the Duke of Albemarle or if he were gone to follow him As for us who had fed them so long although not quite for nothing we must take our chance of Doones or any other enemies
Now all these tidings moved me a little not enough to spoil appetite but enough to make things lively and to teach me that look of wisdom which is bred of practice only and the hearing of many lies Therefore I withheld my judgment fearing to be triumphed over if it should happen to miss the mark But mother and Lizzie ten times in a day predicted all they could imagine and their prophecies increased in strength according to contradiction Yet this was not in the proper style for a house like ours which knew the news or at least had known it and still was famous all around for the last advices Even from Lynmouth people sent up to Plovers Barrows to ask how things were going on and it was very grievous to answer that in truth we knew not neither had heard for days and days and our reputation was so great especially since the death of the King had gone abroad from Oare parish that many inquirers would only wink and lay a finger on the lip as if to say you know well enough but see not fit to tell me And before the end arrived those people believed that they had been right all along and that we had concealed the truth from them
For I myself became involved God knows how much against my will and my proper judgment in the troubles and the conflict and the cruel work coming afterwards If ever I had made up my mind to anything in all my life it was at this particular time and as stern and strong as could be I had resolved to let things pass—to hear about them gladly to encourage all my friends to talk and myself to express opinion upon each particular point when in the fullness of time no further doubt could be But all my policy went for nothing through a few touches of feeling
One day at the beginning of July I came home from mowing about noon or a little later to fetch some cider for all of us and to eat a morsel of bacon For mowing was no joke that year the summer being wonderfully wet even for our wet country and the swathe falling heavier over the scythe than ever I could remember it We were drenched with rain almost every day but the mowing must be done somehow and we must trust to God for the haymaking
In the courtyard I saw a little cart with iron brakes underneath it such as fastidious people use to deaden the jolting of the road but few men under a lord or baronet would be so particular Therefore I wondered who our noble visitor could be But when I entered the kitchenplace brushing up my hair for somebody behold it was no one greater than our Annie with my godson in her arms and looking pale and tearbegone And at first she could not speak to me But presently having sat down a little and received much praise for her baby she smiled and blushed and found her tongue as if she had never gone from us
How natural it all looks again Oh I love this old kitchen so Baby dear only look at it wid him pitty pitty eyes and him tongue out of his mousy But who put the flourriddle up there And look at the pestle and mortar and rust I declare in the patty pans And a book positively a dirty book where the clean skewers ought to hang Oh Lizzie Lizzie Lizzie
You may just as well cease lamenting I said for you cant alter Lizzies nature and you will only make mother uncomfortable and perhaps have a quarrel with Lizzie who is proud as Punch of her housekeeping
She cried Annie with all the contempt that could be compressed in a syllable Well John no doubt you are right about it I will try not to notice things But it is a hard thing after all my care to see everything going to ruin But what can be expected of a girl who knows all the kings of Carthage
There were no kings of Carthage Annie They were called why let me see—they were called—oh something else
Never mind what they were called said Annie will they cook our dinner for us But now John I am in such trouble All this talk is makebelieve
Dont you cry my dear dont cry my darling sister I answered as she dropped into the worn place of the settle and bent above her infant rocking as if both their hearts were one dont you know Annie I cannot tell but I know or at least I mean I have heard the men of experience say it is so bad for the baby
Perhaps I know that as well as you do John said Annie looking up at me with a gleam of her old laughing but how can I help crying I am in such trouble
Tell me what it is my dear Any grief of yours will vex me greatly but I will try to bear it
Then John it is just this Tom has gone off with the rebels and you must oh you must go after him
CHAPTER LXIII
JOHN IS WORSTED BY THE WOMEN
Moved as I was by Annies tears and gentle style of coaxing and most of all by my love for her I yet declared that I could not go and leave our house and homestead far less my dear mother and Lizzie at the mercy of the merciless Doones
Is that all your objection John asked Annie in her quick panting way would you go but for that John
Now I said be in no such hurry—for while I was gradually yielding I liked to pass it through my fingers as if my fingers shaped it there are many things to be thought about and many ways of viewing it
Oh you never can have loved Lorna No wonder you gave her up so John you can love nobody but your oatricks and your hayricks
Sister mine because I rant not neither rave of what I feel can you be so shallow as to dream that I feel nothing What is your love for Tom Faggus What is your love for your baby pretty darling as he is to compare with such a love as for ever dwells with me Because I do not prate of it because it is beyond me not only to express but even form to my own heart in thoughts because I do not shape my face and would scorn to play to it as a thing of acting and lay it out before you are you fools enough to think— but here I stopped having said more than was usual with me
I am very sorry John Dear John I am so sorry What a shallow fool I am
I will go seek your husband I said to change the subject for even to Annie I would not lay open all my heart about Lorna but only upon condition that you ensure this house and people from the Doones meanwhile Even for the sake of Tom I cannot leave all helpless The oatricks and the hayricks which are my only love they are welcome to make cinders of But I will not have mother treated so nor even little Lizzie although you scorn your sister so
Oh John I do think you are the hardest as well as the softest of all the men I know Not even a womans bitter word but what you pay her out for Will you never understand that we are not like you John We say all sorts of spiteful things without a bit of meaning John for Gods sake fetch Tom home and then revile me as you please and I will kneel and thank you
I will not promise to fetch him home I answered being ashamed of myself for having lost command so but I will promise to do my best if we can only hit on a plan for leaving mother harmless
Annie thought for a little while trying to gather her smooth clear brow into maternal wrinkles and then she looked at her child and said I will risk it for daddys sake darling you precious soul for daddys sake I asked her what she was going to risk She would not tell me but took upper hand and saw to my cidercans and bacon and went from corner to cupboard exactly as if she had never been married only without an apron on And then she said Now to your mowers John and make the most of this fine afternoon kiss your godson before you go And I being used to obey her in little things of that sort kissed the baby and took my cans and went back to my scythe again
By the time I came home it was dark night and pouring again with a foggy rain such as we have in July even more than in January Being soaked all through and through and with water quelching in my boots like a pump with a bad bucket I was only too glad to find Annies bright face and quick figure flitting in and out the firelight instead of Lizzie sitting grandly with a feast of literature and not a drop of gravy Mother was in the corner also with her cheerycoloured ribbons glistening very nice by candlelight looking at Annie now and then with memories of her babyhood and then at her having a baby yet half afraid of praising her much for fear of that young Lizzie But Lizzie showed no jealousy she truly loved our Annie now that she was gone from us and she wanted to know all sorts of things and she adored the baby Therefore Annie was allowed to attend to me as she used to do
Now John you must start the first thing in the morning she said when the others had left the room but somehow she stuck to the baby to fetch me back my rebel according to your promise
Not so I replied misliking the job all I promised was to go if this house were assured against any onslaught of the Doones
Just so and here is that assurance With these words she drew forth a paper and laid it on my knee with triumph enjoying my amazement This as you may suppose was great not only at the document but also at her possession of it For in truth it was no less than a formal undertaking on the part of the Doones not to attack Plovers Barrows farm or molest any of the inmates or carry off any chattels during the absence of John Ridd upon a special errand This document was signed not only by the Counsellor but by many other Doones whether Carvers name were there I could not say for certain as of course he would not sign it under his name of Carver and I had never heard Lorna say to what if any he had been baptized
In the face of such a deed as this I could no longer refuse to go and having received my promise Annie told me as was only fair how she had procured that paper It was both a clever and courageous act and would have seemed to me at first sight far beyond Annies power But none may gauge a womans power when her love and faith are moved
The first thing Annie had done was this she made herself look ugly This was not an easy thing but she had learned a great deal from her husband upon the subject of disguises It hurt her feelings not a little to make so sad a fright of herself but what could it matter—if she lost Tom she must be a far greater fright in earnest than now she was in seeming And then she left her child asleep under Betty Muxworthys tendance—for Betty took to that child as if there never had been a child before—and away she went in her own springcart as the name of that engine proved to be without a word to any one except the old man who had driven her from Molland parish that morning and who coolly took one of our best horses without by your leave to any one
Annie made the old man drive her within easy reach of the Doonegate whose position she knew well enough from all our talk about it And there she bade the old man stay until she should return to him Then with her comely figure hidden by a dirty old womans cloak and her fair young face defaced by patches and by liniments so that none might covet her she addressed the young man at the gate in a cracked and trembling voice and they were scarcely civil to the old hag as they called her She said that she bore important tidings for Sir Counsellor himself and must be conducted to him To him accordingly she was led without even any hoodwinking for she had spectacles over her eyes and made believe not to see ten yards
She found Sir Counsellor at home and when the rest were out of sight threw off all disguise to him flashing forth as a lovely young woman from all her wraps and disfigurements She flung her patches on the floor amid the old mans laughter and let her tuckedup hair come down and then went up and kissed him
Worthy and reverend Counsellor I have a favour to ask she began
So I should think from your proceedings—the old man interrupted—ah if I were half my age—
If you were I would not sue so But most excellent Counsellor you owe me some amends you know for the way in which you robbed me
Beyond a doubt I do my dear You have put it rather strongly and it might offend some people Nevertheless I own my debt having so fair a creditor
And do you remember how you slept and how much we made of you and would have seen you home sir only you did not wish it
And for excellent reasons child My best escort was in my cloak after we made the cream to rise Ha ha The unholy spell My pretty child has it injured you
Yes I fear it has said Annie or whence can all my ill luck come And here she showed some signs of crying knowing that Counsellor hated it
You shall not have ill luck my dear I have heard all about your marriage to a very noble highwayman Ah you made a mistake in that you were worthy of a Doone my child your frying was a blessing meant for those who can appreciate
My husband can appreciate she answered very proudly but what I wish to know is this will you try to help me
The Counsellor answered that he would do so if her needs were moderate whereupon she opened her meaning to him and told of all her anxieties Considering that Lorna was gone and her necklace in his possession and that I against whom alone of us the Doones could bear any malice would be out of the way all the while the old man readily undertook that our house should not be assaulted nor our property molested until my return And to the promptitude of his pledge two things perhaps contributed namely that he knew not how we were stripped of all defenders and that some of his own forces were away in the rebel camp For as I learned thereafter the Doones being now in direct feud with the present Government and sure to be crushed if that prevailed had resolved to drop all religious questions and cast in their lot with Monmouth And the turbulent youths being long restrained from their wonted outlet for vehemence by the troopers in the neighbourhood were only too glad to rush forth upon any promise of blows and excitement
However Annie knew little of this but took the Counsellors pledge as a mark of especial favour in her behalf which it may have been to some extent and thanked him for it most heartily and felt that he had earned the necklace while he like an ancient gentleman disclaimed all obligation and sent her under an escort safe to her own cart again But Annie repassing the sentinels with her youth restored and blooming with the flush of triumph went up to them very gravely and said The old hag wishes you goodevening gentlemen and so made her best curtsey
Now look at it as I would there was no excuse left for me after the promise given Dear Annie had not only cheated the Doones but also had gotten the best of me by a pledge to a thing impossible And I bitterly said I am not like Lorna a pledge once given I keep it
I will not have a word against Lorna cried Annie I will answer for her truth as surely as I would for my own or yours John And with that she vanquished me
But when my poor mother heard that I was committed by word of honour to a wildgoose chase among the rebels after that runagate Tom Faggus she simply stared and would not believe it For lately I had joked with her in a little style of jerks as people do when out of sorts and she not understanding this and knowing jokes to be out of my power would only look and sigh and toss and hope that I meant nothing At last however we convinced her that I was in earnest and must be off in the early morning and leave John Fry with the hay crop
Then mother was ready to fall upon Annie as not content with disgracing us by wedding a man of new honesty if indeed of any but laying traps to catch her brother and entangle him perhaps to his death for the sake of a worthless fellow and felon—she was going to say as by the shape of her lips I knew But I laid my hand upon dear mothers lips because what must be must be and if mother and daughter stayed at home better in love than in quarrelling
Right early in the morning I was off without word to any one knowing that mother and sister mine had cried each her good self to sleep relenting when the light was out and sorry for hard words and thoughts and yet too much alike in nature to understand each other Therefore I took good Kickums who although with one eye spoiled was worth ten sweettempered horses to a man who knew how to manage him and being well charged both with bacon and powder forth I set on my wildgoose chase
For this I claim no bravery I cared but little what came of it save for mothers sake and Annies and the keeping of the farm and discomfiture of the Snowes and lamenting of Lorna at my death if die I must in a lonesome manner not found out till afterwards and bleaching bones left to weep over However I had a little kettle and a pound and a half of tobacco and two dirty pipes and a clean one also a bit of clothes for change also a brisket of hung venison and four loaves of farmhouse bread and of the upper side of bacon a stone and a half it might be—not to mention divers small things for campaigning which may come in handily when no one else has gotten them
We went away in merry style my horse being ready for anything and I only glad of a bit of change after months of working and brooding with no content to crown the work no hope to hatch the brooding or without hatching to reckon it Who could tell but what Lorna might be discovered or at any rate heard of before the end of this campaign if campaign it could be called of a man who went to fight nobody only to redeem a runagate And vexed as I was about the hay and the hunchbacked ricks John was sure to make which spoil the look of a farmyard still even this was better than to have the mows and houses fired as I had nightly expected and been worn out with the worry of it
Yet there was one thing rather unfavourable to my present enterprise namely that I knew nothing of the country I was bound to nor even in what part of it my business might be supposed to lie For beside the uncertainty caused by the conflict of reports it was likely that King Monmouths army would be moving from place to place according to the prospect of supplies and of reinforcements However there would arise more chance of getting news as I went on and my road being towards the east and south Dulverton would not lie so very far aside of it but what it might be worth a visit both to collect the latest tidings and to consult the maps and plans in Uncle Reubens parlour Therefore I drew the offhand rein at the crossroad on the hills and made for the town expecting perhaps to have breakfast with Master Huckaback and Ruth to help and encourage us This little maiden was now become a very great favourite with me having long outgrown no doubt her childish fancies and follies such as my mother and Annie had planted under her soft brown hair It had been my duty as well as my true interest for Uncle Ben was more and more testy as he went on golddigging to ride thither now and again to inquire what the doctor thought of her Not that her wounds were long in healing but that people can scarcely be too careful and too inquisitive after a great horsebite And she always let me look at the arm as I had been first doctor and she held it up in a graceful manner curving at the elbow and with a sweep of white roundness going to a wrist the size of my thumb or so and without any thimbletop standing forth such as even our Annie had But gradually all I could see above the elbow where the bite had been was very clear transparent skin with very firm sweet flesh below and three little blue marks as far asunder as the prongs of a toastingfork and no deeper than where a twig has chafed the peel of a waxen apple And then I used to say in fun as the children do Shall I kiss it to make it well dear
Now Ruth looked very grave indeed upon hearing of this my enterprise and crying said she could almost cry for the sake of my dear mother Did I know the risks and chances not of the battlefield alone but of the havoc afterwards the swearing away of innocent lives and the hurdle and the hanging And if I would please not to laugh which was so unkind of me had I never heard of imprisonments and torturing with the cruel boot and selling into slavery where the sun and the lash outvied one another in cutting a man to pieces I replied that of all these things I had heard and would take especial care to steer me free of all of them My duty was all that I wished to do and none could harm me for doing that And I begged my cousin to give me goodspeed instead of talking dolefully Upon this she changed her manner wholly becoming so lively and cheerful that I was convinced of her indifference and surprised even more than gratified
Go and earn your spurs Cousin Ridd she said you are strong enough for anything Which side is to have the benefit of your doughty arm
Have I not told you Ruth I answered not being fond of this kind of talk more suitable for Lizzie that I do not mean to join either side that is to say until—
Until as the common proverb goes you know which way the cat will jump Oh John Ridd Oh John Ridd
Nothing of the sort said I what a hurry you are in I am for the King of course
But not enough to fight for him Only enough to vote I suppose or drink his health or shout for him
I cant make you out today Cousin Ruth you are nearly as bad as Lizzie You do not say any bitter things but you seem to mean them
No cousin think not so of me It is far more likely that I say them without meaning them
Anyhow it is not like you And I know not what I can have done in any way to vex you
Dear me nothing Cousin Ridd you never do anything to vex me
Then I hope I shall do something now Ruth when I say goodbye God knows if we ever shall meet again Ruth but I hope we may
To be sure we shall she answered in her brightest manner Try not to look wretched John you are as happy as a Maypole
And you as a rose in May I said and pretty nearly as pretty Give my love to Uncle Ben and I trust him to keep on the winning side
Of that you need have no misgivings Never yet has he failed of it Now Cousin Ridd why go you not You hurried me so at breakfast time
My only reason for waiting Ruth is that you have not kissed me as you are almost bound to do for the last time perhaps of seeing me
Oh if that is all just fetch the stool and I will do my best cousin
I pray you be not so vexatious you always used to do it nicely without any stool Ruth
Ah but you are grown since then and become a famous man John Ridd and a member of the nobility Go your way and win your spurs I want no lipservice
Being at the end of my wits I did even as she ordered me At least I had no spurs to win because there were big ones on my boots paid for in the Easter bill and made by a famous saddler so as never to clog with marshweed but prick as hard as any horse in reason could desire And Kickums never wanted spurs but always went tailforemost if anybody offered them for his consideration
CHAPTER LXIV
SLAUGHTER IN THE MARSHES
We rattled away at a merry pace out of the town of Dulverton my horse being gaily fed and myself quite fit again for going Of course I was puzzled about Cousin Ruth for her behaviour was not at all such as I had expected and indeed I had hoped for a far more loving and moving farewell than I got from her But I said to myself It is useless ever to count upon what a woman will do and I think that I must have vexed her almost as much as she vexed me And now to see what comes of it So I put my horse across the moorland and he threw his chest out bravely
Now if I tried to set down at length all the things that happened to me upon this adventure every in and out and up and down and to and fro that occupied me together with the things I saw and the things I heard of however much the wiser people might applaud my narrative it is likely enough that idle readers might exclaim What ails this man Knows he not that men of parts and of real understanding have told us all we care to hear of that miserable business Let him keep to his farm and his bacon and his wrestling and constant feeding
Fearing to meet with such rebuffs which after my death would vex me I will try to set down only what is needful for my story and the clearing of my character and the good name of our parish But the manner in which I was bandied about by false information from pillar to post or at other times driven quite out of my way by the presence of the Kings soldiers may be known by the names of the following towns to which I was sent in succession Bath Frome Wells Wincanton Glastonbury Shepton Bradford Axbridge Somerton and Bridgwater
This last place I reached on a Sunday night the fourth or fifth of July I think—or it might be the sixth for that matter inasmuch as I had been too much worried to get the day of the month at church Only I know that my horse and myself were glad to come to a decent place where meat and corn could be had for money and being quite weary of wandering about we hoped to rest there a little
Of this however we found no chance for the town was full of the good Dukes soldiers if men may be called so the half of whom had never been drilled nor had fired a gun And it was rumoured among them that the popish army as they called it was to be attacked that very night and with Gods assistance beaten However by this time I had been taught to pay little attention to rumours and having sought vainly for Tom Faggus among these poor rustic warriors I took to my hostel and went to bed being as weary as weary can be
Falling asleep immediately I took heed of nothing although the town was all alive and lights had come glancing as I lay down and shouts making echo all round my room But all I did was to bolt the door not an inch would I budge unless the house and even my bed were on fire And so for several hours I lay in the depth of the deepest slumber without even a dream on its surface until I was roused and awakened at last by a pushing and pulling and pinching and a plucking of hair out by the roots And at length being able to open mine eyes I saw the old landlady with a candle heavily wondering at me
Cant you let me alone I grumbled I have paid for my bed mistress and I wont get up for any one
Would to God young man she answered shaking me as hard as ever that the popish soldiers may sleep this night only half as strong as thou dost Fie on thee fie on thee Get up and go fight we can hear the battle already and a man of thy size mought stop a cannon
I would rather stop abed said I what have I to do with fighting I am for King James if any
Then thou mayest even stop abed the old woman muttered sulkily A would never have laboured half an hour to awake a Papisher But hearken you one thing young man Zummerzett thou art by thy brogue or at least by thy understanding of it no Zummerzett maid will look at thee in spite of thy size and stature unless thou strikest a blow this night
I lack no Zummerzett maid mistress I have a fairer than your brown things and for her alone would I strike a blow
At this the old woman gave me up as being beyond correction and it vexed me a little that my great fame had not reached so far as Bridgwater when I thought that it went to Bristowe But those people in East Somerset know nothing about wrestling Devon is the headquarters of the art and Devon is the county of my chief love Howbeit my vanity was moved by this slur upon it—for I had told her my name was John Ridd when I had a gallon of ale with her ere ever I came upstairs and she had nodded in such a manner that I thought she knew both name and fame—and here was I not only shaken pinched and with many hairs pulled out in the midst of my first good sleep for a week but also abused and taken amiss and which vexed me most of all unknown
Now there is nothing like vanity to keep a man awake at night however he be weary and most of all when he believes that he is doing something great—this time if never done before—yet other people will not see except what they may laugh at and so be far above him and sleep themselves the happier Therefore their sleep robs his own for all things play so in and out with the godly and ungodly ever moving in a balance as they have done in my time almost every year or two all things have such nice reply of produce to the call for it and such a spread across the world giving here and taking there yet on the whole pretty even that haply sleep itself has but a certain stock and keeps in hand and sells to flattered which can pay that which flattened vanity cannot pay and will not sue for
Be that as it may I was by this time wide awake though much aggrieved at feeling so and through the open window heard the distant roll of musketry and the beating of drums with a quick rubadub and the come round the corner of trumpetcall And perhaps Tom Faggus might be there and shot at any moment and my dear Annie left a poor widow and my godson Jack an orphan without a tooth to help him
Therefore I reviled myself for all my heavy laziness and partly through good honest will and partly through the stings of pride and yet a little perhaps by virtue of a young mans love of riot up I arose and dressed myself and woke Kickums who was snoring and set out to see the worst of it The sleepy hostler scratched his poll and could not tell me which way to take what odds to him who was King or Pope so long as he paid his way and got a bit of bacon on Sunday And would I please to remember that I had roused him up at night and the quality always made a point of paying four times over for a mans loss of his beautysleep I replied that his loss of beautysleep was rather improving to a man of so high complexion and that I being none of the quality must pay halfquality prices and so I gave him double fee as became a good farmer and he was glad to be quit of Kickums as I saw by the turn of his eye while going out at the archway
All this was done by lanthorn light although the moon was high and bold and in the northern heaven flags and ribbons of a jostling pattern such as we often have in autumn but in July very rarely Of these Master Dryden has spoken somewhere in his courtly manner but of him I think so little—because by fashion preferred to Shakespeare—that I cannot remember the passage neither is it a credit to him
Therefore I was guided mainly by the sound of guns and trumpets in riding out of the narrow ways and into the open marshes And thus I might have found my road in spite of all the spread of water and the glaze of moonshine but that as I followed sound far from hedge or causeway fog like a chestnuttree in blossom touched with moonlight met me Now fog is a thing that I understand and can do with well enough where I know the country but here I had never been before It was nothing to our Exmoor fogs not to be compared with them and all the time one could see the moon which we cannot do in our fogs nor even the sun for a week together Yet the gleam of water always makes the fog more difficult like a curtain on a mirror none can tell the boundaries
And here we had broadwater patches in and out inlaid on land like motherofpearl in brown Shittim wood To a wild duck born and bred there it would almost be a puzzle to find her own nest amongst us what chance then had I and Kickums both unused to marsh and mere Each time when we thought that we must be right now at last by track or passage and approaching the conflict with the sounds of it waxing nearer suddenly a break of water would be laid before us with the moon looking mildly over it and the northern lights behind us dancing down the lines of fog
It was an awful thing I say and to this day I remember it to hear the sounds of raging fight and the yells of raving slayers and the howls of poor men stricken hard and shattered from wrath to wailing then suddenly the dead low hush as of a soul departing and spirits kneeling over it Through the vapour of the earth and white breath of the water and beneath the pale round moon bowing as the drift went by all this rush and pause of fear passed or lingered on my path
At last when I almost despaired of escaping from this tangle of spongy banks and of hazy creeks and reedfringe my horse heard the neigh of a fellowhorse and was only too glad to answer it upon which the other having lost its rider came up and pricked his ears at us and gazed through the fog very steadfastly Therefore I encouraged him with a soft and genial whistle and Kickums did his best to tempt him with a snort of inquiry However nothing would suit that nag except to enjoy his new freedom and he capered away with his tail set on high and the stirrupirons clashing under him Therefore as he might know the way and appeared to have been in the battle we followed him very carefully and he led us to a little hamlet called as I found afterwards West Zuyland or Zealand so named perhaps from its situation amid this inland sea
Here the Kings troops had been quite lately and their fires were still burning but the men themselves had been summoned away by the night attack of the rebels Hence I procured for my guide a young man who knew the district thoroughly and who led me by many intricate ways to the rear of the rebel army We came upon a broad open moor striped with sullen water courses shagged with sedge and yellow iris and in the drier part with bilberries For by this time it was four oclock and the summer sun rising wanly showed us all the ghastly scene
Would that I had never been there Often in the lonely hours even now it haunts me would far more that the piteous thing had never been done in England Flying men flung back from dreams of victory and honour only glad to have the luck of life and limbs to fly with mudbedraggled foul with slime reeking both with sweat and blood which they could not stop to wipe cursing with their pumpedout lungs every stick that hindered them or gory puddle that slipped the step scarcely able to leap over the corses that had dragged to die And to see how the corses lay some as fair as death in sleep with the smile of placid valour and of noble manhood hovering yet on the silent lips These had bloodless hands put upwards white as wax and firm as death clasped as on a monument in prayer for dear ones left behind or in high thanksgiving And of these men there was nothing in their broad blue eyes to fear But others were of different sort simple fellows unused to pain accustomed to the billhook perhaps or rasp of the knuckles in a quickset hedge or making some todo at breakfast over a thumb cut in sharpening a scythe and expecting their wives to make more todo Yet here lay these poor chaps dead dead after a deal of pain with little mind to bear it and a soul they had never thought of gone their God alone knows whither but to mercy we may trust Upon these things I cannot dwell and none I trow would ask me only if a plain man saw what I saw that morning he if God had blessed him with the heart that is in most of us must have sickened of all desire to be great among mankind
Seeing me riding to the front where the work of death went on among the men of true English pluck which when moved no farther moves the fugitives called out to me in half a dozen dialects to make no utter fool of myself for the great guns were come and the fight was over all the rest was slaughter
Arl oop wi Moonmo shouted one big fellow a miner of the Mendip hills whose weapon was a pickaxe na oose to vaight na moor Wend thee hame yoong mon agin
Upon this I stopped my horse desiring not to be shot for nothing and eager to aid some poor sick people who tried to lift their arms to me And this I did to the best of my power though void of skill in the business and more inclined to weep with them than to check their weeping While I was giving a drop of cordial from my flask to one poor fellow who sat up while his life was ebbing and with slow insistence urged me when his broken voice would come to tell his wife whose name I knew not something about an appletree and a golden guinea stored in it to divide among six children—in the midst of this I felt warm lips laid against my cheek quite softly and then a little push and behold it was a horse leaning over me I arose in haste and there stood Winnie looking at me with beseeching eyes enough to melt a heart of stone Then seeing my attention fixed she turned her head and glanced back sadly toward the place of battle and gave a little wistful neigh and then looked me full in the face again as much as to say Do you understand while she scraped with one hoof impatiently If ever a horse tried hard to speak it was Winnie at that moment I went to her side and patted her but that was not what she wanted Then I offered to leap into the empty saddle but neither did that seem good to her for she ran away toward the part of the field at which she had been glancing back and then turned round and shook her mane entreating me to follow her
Upon this I learned from the dying man where to find his appletree and promised to add another guinea to the one in store for his children and so commending him to God I mounted my own horse again and to Winnies great delight professed myself at her service With her ringing silvery neigh such as no other horse of all I ever knew could equal she at once proclaimed her triumph and told her master or meant to tell if death should not have closed his ears that she was coming to his aid and bringing one who might be trusted of the higher race that kill
A cannonbullet fired low and ploughing the marsh slowly met poor Winnie front to front and she being as quick as thought lowered her nose to sniff at it It might be a message from her master for it made a mournful noise But luckily for Winnies life a rise of wet ground took the ball even under her very nose and there it cut a splashy groove missing her off hindfoot by an inch and scattering black mud over her It frightened me much more than Winnie of that I am quite certain because though I am firm enough when it comes to a real tussle and the heart of a fellow warms up and tells him that he must go through with it yet I never did approve of making a cold pie of death
Therefore with those reckless cannons brazenmouthed and bellowing two furlongs off or it might be more and the more the merrier I would have given that years haycrop for a bit of a hill or a thicket of oaks or almost even a badgers earth People will call me a coward for this especially when I had made up my mind that life was not worth having without any sign of Lorna nevertheless I cannot help it those were my feelings and I set them down because they made a mark on me At Glen Doone I had fought even against cannon with some spirit and fury but now I saw nothing to fight about but rather in every poor doubled corpse a good reason for not fighting So in cold blood riding on and yet ashamed that a man should shrink where a horse went bravely I cast a bitter blame upon the reckless ways of Winnie
Nearly all were scattered now Of the noble countrymen armed with scythe or pickaxe blacksmiths hammer or foldpitcher who had stood their ground for hours against blazing musketry from men whom they could not get at by reason of the waterdyke and then against the deadly cannon dragged by the Bishops horses to slaughter his own sheep of these sturdy Englishmen noble in their want of sense scarce one out of four remained for the cowards to shoot down Cross the rhaine they shouted out cross the rhaine and coom within rache but the other mongrel Britons with a mongrel at their head found it pleasanter to shoot men who could not shoot in answer than to meet the chance of mischief from strong arms and stronger hearts
The last scene of this piteous play was acting just as I rode up Broad daylight and upstanding sun winnowing fog from the eastern hills and spreading the moors with freshness all along the dykes they shone glistened on the willowtrunks and touched the banks with a hoary gray But alas those banks were touched more deeply with a gory red and strewn with fallen trunks more woeful than the wreck of trees while howling cursing yelling and the loathsome reek of carnage drowned the scent of the newmown hay and the carol of the lark
Then the cavalry of the King with their horses at full speed dashed from either side upon the helpless mob of countrymen A few pikes feebly levelled met them but they shot the pikemen drew swords and helterskelter leaped into the shattered and scattering mass Right and left they hacked and hewed I could hear the snapping of scythes beneath them and see the flash of their sweeping swords How it must end was plain enough even to one like myself who had never beheld such a battle before But Winnie led me away to the left and as I could not help the people neither stop the slaughter but found the cannonbullets coming very rudely nigh me I was only too glad to follow her
CHAPTER LXV
FALLING AMONG LAMBS
That faithful creature whom I began to admire as if she were my own which is no little thing for a man to say of another mans horse stopped in front of a low black shed such as we call a linhay And here she uttered a little greeting in a subdued and softened voice hoping to obtain an answer such as her master was wont to give in a cheery manner Receiving no reply she entered and I who could scarce keep up with her poor Kickums being weary leaped from his back and followed There I found her sniffing gently but with great emotion at the body of Tom Faggus A corpse poor Tom appeared to be if ever there was one in this world and I turned away and felt unable to keep altogether from weeping But the mare either could not understand or else would not believe it She reached her long neck forth and felt him with her under lip passing it over his skin as softly as a mother would do to an infant and then she looked up at me again as much as to say he is all right
Upon this I took courage and handled poor Tom which being young I had feared at first to do He groaned very feebly as I raised him up and there was the wound a great savage one whether from pikethrust or musketball gaping and welling in his right side from which a piece seemed to be torn away I bound it up with some of my linen so far as I knew how just to stanch the flow of blood until we could get a doctor Then I gave him a little weak brandy and water which he drank with the greatest eagerness and made sign to me for more of it But not knowing how far it was right to give cordial under the circumstances I handed him unmixed water that time thinking that he was too far gone to perceive the difference But herein I wrong Tom Faggus for he shook his head and frowned at me Even at the door of death he would not drink what Adam drank by whom came death into the world So I gave him a little more eaudevie and he took it most submissively
After that he seemed better and a little colour came into his cheeks and he looked at Winnie and knew her and would have her nose in his clammy hand though I thought it not good for either of them With the stay of my arm he sat upright and faintly looked about him as if at the end of a violent dream too much for his power of mind Then he managed to whisper Is Winnie hurt
As sound as a roach I answered Then so am I said he put me upon her back John she and I die together
Surprised as I was at this fatalism for so it appeared to me of which he had often shown symptoms before but I took them for mere levity now I knew not what to do for it seemed to me a murderous thing to set such a man on horseback where he must surely bleed to death even if he could keep the saddle But he told me with many breaks and pauses that unless I obeyed his orders he would tear off all my bandages and accept no further aid from me
While I was yet hesitating a storm of horse at full gallop went by tearing swearing bearing away all the country before them Only a little pollard hedge kept us from their bloodshot eyes Now is the time said my cousin Tom so far as I could make out his words on their heels I am safe John if I have only Winnie under me Winnie and I die together
Seeing this strong bent of his mind stronger than any pains of death I even did what his feeble eyes sometimes implored and sometimes commanded With a strong sash from his own hot neck bound and twisted tight as wax around his damaged waist I set him upon Winnies back and placed his trembling feet in stirrups with a band from one to another under the good mares body so that no swerve could throw him out and then I said Lean forward Tom it will stop your hurt from bleeding He leaned almost on the neck of the mare which as I knew must close the wound and the light of his eyes was quite different and the pain of his forehead unstrung itself as if he felt the undulous readiness of her volatile paces under him
God bless you John I am safe he whispered fearing to open his lungs much who can come near my Winnie mare A mile of her gallop is ten years of life Look out for yourself John Ridd He sucked his lips and the mare went off as easy and swift as a swallow
Well thought I as I looked at Kickums ignobly cropping up a bit of grass I have done a very good thing no doubt and ought to be thankful to God for the chance But as for getting away unharmed with all these scoundrels about me and only a foundered horse to trust in—good and spiteful as he is—upon the whole I begin to think that I have made a fool of myself according to my habit No wonder Tom said Look out for yourself I shall look out from a prison window or perhaps even out of a halter And then what will Lorna think of me
Being in this wistful mood I resolved to abide awhile even where fate had thrown me for my horse required good rest no doubt and was taking it even while he cropped with his hind legs far away stretched out and his forelegs gathered under him and his muzzle on the molehills so that he had five supportings from his mother earth Moreover the linhay itself was full of very ancient cow dung than which there is no balmier and more maiden soporific Hence I resolved upon the whole though grieving about breakfast to light a pipe and go to sleep or at least until the hot sun should arouse the flies
I may have slept three hours or four or it might be even five—for I never counted time while sleeping—when a shaking more rude than the old landladys brought me back to the world again I looked up with a mighty yawn and saw twenty or so of footsoldiers
This linhay is not yours I said when they had quite aroused me with tongue and hand and even swordprick what business have you here good fellows
Business bad for you said one and will lead you to the gallows
Do you wish to know the way out again I asked very quietly as being no braggadocio
We will show thee the way out said one and the way out of the world said another but not the way to heaven said one chap most unlikely to know it and thereupon they all fell wagging like a bed of clover leaves in the morning at their own choice humour
Will you pile your arms outside I said and try a bit of fair play with me
For I disliked these men sincerely and was fain to teach them a lesson they were so unchristian in appearance having faces of a coffee colour and dirty beards half over them Moreover their dress was outrageous and their address still worse However I had wiser let them alone as will appear afterwards These savagelooking fellows laughed at the idea of my having any chance against some twenty of them but I knew that the place was in my favour for my part of it had been fenced off for weaning a calf most likely so that only two could come at me at once and I must be very much out of training if I could not manage two of them Therefore I laid aside my carbine and the two horsepistols and they with many coarse jokes at me went a little way outside and set their weapons against the wall and turned up their coat sleeves jauntily and then began to hesitate
Go you first Bob I heard them say you are the biggest man of us and Dick the wrestler along of you Us will back you up boy
Ill warrant Ill draw the badger said Bob and not a tooth will I leave him But mind for the honour of Kirkes lambs every man stands me a glass of gin Then he and another man made a rush and the others came doublequickmarch on their heels But as Bob ran at me most stupidly not even knowing how to place his hands I caught him with my knuckles at the back of his neck and with all the sway of my right arm sent him over the heads of his comrades Meanwhile Dick the wrestler had grappled me expecting to show off his art of which indeed he had some small knowledge but being quite of the lightweights in a second he was flying after his companion Bob
Now these two men were hurt so badly the light one having knocked his head against the lintel of the outer gate that the rest had no desire to encounter the like misfortune So they hung back whispering and before they had made up their minds I rushed into the midst of them The suddenness and the weight of my onset took them wholly by surprise and for once in their lives perhaps Kirkes lambs were worthy of their name Like a flock of sheep at a dogs attack they fell away hustling one another and my only difficulty was not to tumble over them
I had taken my carbine out with me having a fondness for it but the two horsepistols I left behind and therefore felt good title to take two from the magazine of the lambs And with these and my carbine I leaped upon Kickums who was now quite glad of a gallop again and I bade adieu to that mongrel lot yet they had the meanness to shoot at me Thanking God for my deliverance inasmuch as those men would have strung me up from a pollardash without trial as I heard them tell one another and saw the tree they had settled upon I ventured to go rather fast on my way with doubt and uneasiness urging me And now my way was home again Nobody could say but what I had done my duty and rescued Tom if he could be rescued from the mischief into which his own perverseness and love of change rather than deep religious convictions to which our Annie ascribed his outbreak had led or seemed likely to lead him And how proud would my mother be and—ah well there was nobody else to be proud of me now
But while thinking these things and desiring my breakfast beyond any power of describing and even beyond my remembrance I fell into another fold of lambs from which there was no exit These like true crusaders met me swaggering very heartily and with their barrels of cider set like so many cannon across the road over against a small hostel
We have won the victory my lord King and we mean to enjoy it Down from thy horse and have a stoup of cider thou big rebel
No rebel am I My name is John Ridd I belong to the side of the King and I want some breakfast
These fellows were truly hospitable that much will I say for them Being accustomed to Arab ways they could toss a grill or fritter or the inner meaning of an egg into any form they pleased comely and very good to eat and it led me to think of Annie So I made the rarest breakfast any man might hope for after all his troubles and getting on with these brown fellows better than could be expected I craved permission to light a pipe if not disagreeable Hearing this they roared at me with a superior laughter and asked me whether or not I knew the tobaccoleaf from the chickweed and when I was forced to answer no not having gone into the subject but being content with anything brown they clapped me on the back and swore they had never seen any one like me Upon the whole this pleased me much for I do not wish to be taken always as of the common pattern and so we smoked admirable tobacco—for they would not have any of mine though very courteous concerning it—and I was beginning to understand a little of what they told me when up came those confounded lambs who had shown more tail than head to me in the linhay as I mentioned
Now these men upset everything Having been among wrestlers so much as my duty compelled me to be and having learned the necessity of the rest which follows the conflict and the right of discussion which all people have to pay their sixpence to enter and how they obtrude this right and their wisdom upon the man who has laboured until he forgets all the work he did and begins to think that they did it having some knowledge of this sort of thing and the flux of minds swimming in liquor I foresaw a brawl as plainly as if it were Bear Street in Barnstaple
And a brawl there was without any error except of the men who hit their friends and those who defended their enemies My partners in breakfast and beercan swore that I was no prisoner but the best and most loyal subject and the finesthearted fellow they had ever the luck to meet with Whereas the men from the linhay swore that I was a rebel miscreant and have me they would with a ropesend ready in spite of every violent language who had got drunk at my expense and been misled by my strong word lies
While this fight was going on and its mere occurrence shows perhaps that my conversation in those days was not entirely despicable—else why should my new friends fight for me when I had paid for the ale and therefore won the wrong tense of gratitude it was in my power at any moment to take horse and go And this would have been my wisest plan and a very great saving of money but somehow I felt as if it would be a mean thing to slip off so Even while I was hesitating and the men were breaking each others heads a superior officer rode up with his sword drawn and his face on fire
What my lambs my lambs he cried smiting with the flat of his sword is this how you waste my time and my purse when you ought to be catching a hundred prisoners worth ten pounds apiece to me Who is this young fellow we have here Speak up sirrah what art thou and how much will thy good mother pay for thee
My mother will pay naught for me I answered while the lambs fell back and glowered at one another so please your worship I am no rebel but an honest farmer and wellproved of loyalty
Ha ha a farmer art thou Those fellows always pay the best Good farmer come to yon barren tree thou shalt make it fruitful
Colonel Kirke made a sign to his men and before I could think of resistance stout new ropes were flung around me and with three men on either side I was led along very painfully And now I saw and repented deeply of my careless folly in stopping with those booncompanions instead of being far away But the newness of their manners to me and their mode of regarding the world differing so much from mine own as well as the flavour of their tobacco had made me quite forget my duty to the farm and to myself Yet methought they would be tender to me after all our speeches how then was I disappointed when the men who had drunk my beer drew on those grievous ropes twice as hard as the men I had been at strife with Yet this may have been from no ill will but simply that having fallen under suspicion of laxity they were compelled in selfdefence now to be overzealous
Nevertheless however pure and godly might be their motives I beheld myself in a grievous case and likely to get the worst of it For the face of the Colonel was hard and stern as a block of bogwood oak and though the men might pity me and think me unjustly executed yet they must obey their orders or themselves be put to death Therefore I addressed myself to the Colonel in a most ingratiating manner begging him not to sully the glory of his victory and dwelling upon my pure innocence and even good service to our lord the King But Colonel Kirke only gave command that I should be smitten in the mouth which office Bob whom I had flung so hard out of the linhay performed with great zeal and efficiency But being aware of the coming smack I thrust forth a pair of teeth upon which the knuckles of my good friend made a melancholy shipwreck
It is not in my power to tell half the thoughts that moved me when we came to the fatal tree and saw two men hanging there already as innocent perhaps as I was and henceforth entirely harmless Though ordered by the Colonel to look steadfastly upon them I could not bear to do so upon which he called me a paltry coward and promised my breeches to any man who would spit upon my countenance This vile thing Bob being angered perhaps by the smarting wound of his knuckles bravely stepped forward to do for me trusting no doubt to the rope I was led with But unluckily as it proved for him my right arm was free for a moment and therewith I dealt him such a blow that he never spake again For this thing I have often grieved but the provocation was very sore to the pride of a young man and I trust that God has forgiven me At the sound and sight of that bitter stroke the other men drew back and Colonel Kirke now black in the face with fury and vexation gave orders for to shoot me and cast me into the ditch hard by The men raised their pieces and pointed at me waiting for the word to fire and I being quite overcome by the hurry of these events and quite unprepared to die yet could only think all upside down about Lorna and my mother and wonder what each would say to it I spread my hands before my eyes not being so brave as some men and hoping in some foolish way to cover my heart with my elbows I heard the breath of all around as if my skull were a soundingboard and knew even how the different men were fingering their triggers And a cold sweat broke all over me as the Colonel prolonging his enjoyment began slowly to say Fire
But while he was yet dwelling on the F the hoofs of a horse dashed out on the road and horse and horseman flung themselves betwixt me and the gun muzzles So narrowly was I saved that one man could not check his trigger his musket went off and the ball struck the horse on the withers and scared him exceedingly He began to lash out with his heels all around and the Colonel was glad to keep clear of him and the men made excuse to lower their guns not really wishing to shoot me
How now Captain Stickles cried Kirke the more angry because he had shown his cowardice dare you sir to come betwixt me and my lawful prisoner
Nay hearken one moment Colonel replied my old friend Jeremy and his damaged voice was the sweetest sound I had heard for many a day for your own sake hearken He looked so full of momentous tidings that Colonel Kirke made a sign to his men not to shoot me till further orders and then he went aside with Stickles so that in spite of all my anxiety I could not catch what passed between them But I fancied that the name of the Lord ChiefJustice Jeffreys was spoken more than once and with emphasis and deference
Then I leave him in your hands Captain Stickles said Kirke at last so that all might hear him and though the news was good for me the smile of baffled malice made his dark face look most hideous and I shall hold you answerable for the custody of this prisoner
Colonel Kirke I will answer for him Master Stickles replied with a grave bow and one hand on his breast John Ridd you are my prisoner Follow me John Ridd
Upon that those precious lambs flocked away leaving the rope still around me and some were glad and some were sorry not to see me swinging Being free of my arms again I touched my hat to Colonel Kirke as became his rank and experience but he did not condescend to return my short salutation having espied in the distance a prisoner out of whom he might make money
I wrung the hand of Jeremy Stickles for his truth and goodness and he almost wept for since his wound he had been a weakened man as he answered Turn for turn John You saved my life from the Doones and by the mercy of God I have saved you from a far worse company Let your sister Annie know it
CHAPTER LXVI
SUITABLE DEVOTION
Now Kickums was not like Winnie any more than a man is like a woman and so he had not followed my fortunes except at his own distance No doubt but what he felt a certain interest in me but his interest was not devotion and man might go his way and be hanged rather than horse would meet hardship Therefore seeing things to be bad and his master involved in trouble what did this horse do but start for the ease and comfort of Plovers Barrows and the plentiful ration of oats abiding in his own manger For this I do not blame him It is the manner of mankind
But I could not help being very uneasy at the thought of my mothers discomfort and worry when she should spy this good horse coming home without any master or rider and I almost hoped that he might be caught although he was worth at least twenty pounds by some of the Kings troopers rather than find his way home and spread distress among our people Yet knowing his nature I doubted if any could catch or catching would keep him
Jeremy Stickles assured me as we took the road to Bridgwater that the only chance for my life if I still refused to fly was to obtain an order forthwith for my despatch to London as a suspected person indeed but not found in open rebellion and believed to be under the patronage of the great Lord Jeffreys For said he in a few hours time you would fall into the hands of Lord Feversham who has won this fight without seeing it and who has returned to bed again to have his breakfast more comfortably Now he may not be quite so savage perhaps as Colonel Kirke nor find so much sport in gibbeting but he is equally pitiless and his price no doubt would be higher
I will pay no price whatever I answered neither will I fly An hour agone I would have fled for the sake of my mother and the farm But now that I have been taken prisoner and my name is known if I fly the farm is forfeited and my mother and sister must starve Moreover I have done no harm I have borne no weapons against the King nor desired the success of his enemies I like not that the son of a bonaroba should be King of England neither do I count the Papists any worse than we are If they have aught to try me for I will stand my trial
Then to London thou must go my son There is no such thing as trial here we hang the good folk without it which saves them much anxiety But quicken thy step good John I have influence with Lord Churchill and we must contrive to see him ere the foreigner falls to work again Lord Churchill is a man of sense and imprisons nothing but his money
We were lucky enough to find this nobleman who has since become so famous by his foreign victories He received us with great civility and looked at me with much interest being a tall and fine young man himself but not to compare with me in size although far better favoured I liked his face well enough but thought there was something false about it He put me a few keen questions such as a man not assured of honesty might have found hard to answer and he stood in a very upright attitude making the most of his figure
I saw nothing to be proud of at the moment in this interview but since the great Duke of Marlborough rose to the top of glory I have tried to remember more about him than my conscience quite backs up How should I know that this man would be foremost of our kingdom in fiveandtwenty years or so and not knowing why should I heed him except for my own pocket Nevertheless I have been so crossquestioned—far worse than by young Lord Churchill—about His Grace the Duke of Marlborough and what he said to me and what I said then and how His Grace replied to that and whether he smiled like another man or screwed up his lips like a button as our parish tailor said of him and whether I knew from the turn of his nose that no Frenchman could stand before him all these inquiries have worried me so ever since the Battle of Blenheim that if tailors would only print upon waistcoats I would give double price for a vest bearing this inscription No information can be given about the Duke of Marlborough
Now this good Lord Churchill—for one might call him good by comparison with the very bad people around him—granted without any long hesitation the order for my safe deliverance to the Court of Kings Bench at Westminster and Stickles who had to report in London was empowered to convey me and made answerable for producing me This arrangement would have been entirely to my liking although the time of year was bad for leaving Plovers Barrows so but no man may quite choose his times and on the while I would have been quite content to visit London if my mother could be warned that nothing was amiss with me only a mild and as one might say nominal captivity And to prevent her anxiety I did my best to send a letter through good Sergeant Bloxham of whom I heard as quartered with Dumbartons regiment at Chedzuy But that regiment was away in pursuit and I was forced to entrust my letter to a man who said that he knew him and accepted a shilling to see to it
For fear of any unpleasant change we set forth at once for London and truly thankful may I be that God in His mercy spared me the sight of the cruel and bloody work with which the whole country reeked and howled during the next fortnight I have heard things that set my hair on end and made me loathe good meat for days but I make a point of setting down only the things which I saw done and in this particular case not many will quarrel with my decision Enough therefore that we rode on for Stickles had found me a horse at last as far as Wells where we slept that night and being joined in the morning by several troopers and orderlies we made a slow but safe journey to London by way of Bath and Reading
The sight of London warmed my heart with various emotions such as a cordial man must draw from the heart of all humanity Here there are quick ways and manners and the rapid sense of knowledge and the power of understanding ere a word be spoken Whereas at Oare you must say a thing three times very slowly before it gets inside the skull of the good man you are addressing And yet we are far more clever there than in any parish for fifteen miles
But what moved me most when I saw again the noble oil and tallow of the London lights and the dripping torches at almost every corner and the handsome signboards was the thought that here my Lorna lived and walked and took the air and perhaps thought now and then of the old days in the good farmhouse Although I would make no approach to her any more than she had done to me upon which grief I have not dwelt for fear of seeming selfish yet there must be some large chance or the little chance might be enlarged of falling in with the maiden somehow and learning how her mind was set If against me all should be over I was not the man to sigh and cry for love like a Romeo none should even guess my grief except my sister Annie
But if Lorna loved me still—as in my heart of hearts I hoped—then would I for no one care except her own delicious self Rank and title wealth and grandeur all should go to the winds before they scared me from my own true love
Thinking thus I went to bed in the centre of London town and was bitten so grievously by creatures whose name is legion mad with the delight of getting a wholesome farmer among them that verily I was ashamed to walk in the courtly parts of the town next day having lumps upon my face of the size of a pickling walnut The landlord said that this was nothing and that he expected in two days at the utmost a very fresh young Irishman for whom they would all forsake me Nevertheless I declined to wait unless he could find me a hayrick to sleep in for the insects of grass only tickle He assured me that no hayrick could now be found in London upon which I was forced to leave him and with mutual esteem we parted
The next night I had better luck being introduced to a decent widow of very high Scotch origin That house was swept and garnished so that not a bit was left to eat for either man or insect The change of air having made me hungry I wanted something after supper being quite ready to pay for it and showing my purse as a symptom But the face of Widow MacAlister when I proposed to have some more food was a thing to be drawn if it could be drawn further by our new caricaturist
Therefore I left her also for liefer would I be eaten myself than have nothing to eat and so I came back to my old furrier the which was a thoroughly hearty man and welcomed me to my room again with two shillings added to the rent in the joy of his heart at seeing me Being under parole to Master Stickles I only went out betwixt certain hours because I was accounted as liable to be called upon for what purpose I knew not but hoped it might be a good one I felt it a loss and a hindrance to me that I was so bound to remain at home during the session of the courts of law for thereby the chance of ever beholding Lorna was very greatly contracted if not altogether annihilated For these were the very hours in which the people of fashion and the high world were wont to appear to the rest of mankind so as to encourage them And of course by this time the Lady Lorna was high among people of fashion and was not likely to be seen out of fashionable hours It is true that there were some places of expensive entertainment at which the better sort of mankind might be seen and studied in their hours of relaxation by those of the lower order who could pay sufficiently But alas my money was getting low and the privilege of seeing my betters was more and more denied to me as my cash drew shorter For a man must have a good coat at least and the pockets not wholly empty before he can look at those whom God has created for his ensample
Hence and from many other causes—part of which was my own pride—it happened that I abode in London betwixt a month and five weeks time ere ever I saw Lorna It seemed unfit that I should go and waylay her and spy on her and say or mean to say Lo here is your poor faithful farmer a man who is unworthy of you by means of his common birth and yet who dares to crawl across your path that you may pity him For Gods sake show a little pity though you may not feel it Such behaviour might be comely in a lovelorn boy a page to some grand princess but I John Ridd would never stoop to the lowering of love so
Nevertheless I heard of Lorna from my worthy furrier almost every day and with a fine exaggeration This honest man was one of those who in virtue of their trade and nicety of behaviour are admitted into noble life to take measurements and show patterns And while so doing they contrive to acquire what is to the English mind at once the most important and most interesting of all knowledge—the science of being able to talk about the titled people So my furrier whose name was Ramsack having to make robes for peers and cloaks for their wives and otherwise knew the great folk sham or real as well as he knew a fox or skunk from a wolverine skin
And when with some fencing and foils of inquiry I hinted about Lady Lorna Dugal the old mans face became so pleasant that I knew her birth must be wondrous high At this my own countenance fell I suppose—for the better she was born the harder she would be to marry—and mistaking my object he took me up—
Perhaps you think Master Ridd that because her ladyship Lady Lorna Dugal is of Scottish origin therefore her birth is not as high as of our English nobility If you think so you are wrong sir She comes not of the sandy Scotch race with high cheekbones and raw shoulderblades who set up pillars in their courtyards But she comes of the very best Scotch blood descended from the Norsemen Her mother was of the very noblest race the Lords of Lorne higher even than the great Argyle who has lately made a sad mistake and paid for it most sadly And her father was descended from the King Dugal who fought against Alexander the Great No no Master Ridd none of your promiscuous blood such as runs in the veins of half our modern peerage
Why should you trouble yourself about it Master Ramsack I replied let them all go their own ways and let us all look up to them whether they come by hook or crook
Not at all not at all my lad That is not the way to regard it We look up at the wellborn men and sideways at the baseborn
Then we are all baseborn ourselves I will look up to no man except for what himself has done
Come Master Ridd you might be lashed from Newgate to Tyburn and back again once a week for a twelvemonth if some people heard you Keep your tongue more close young man or here you lodge no longer albeit I love your company which smells to me of the hayfield Ah I have not seen a hayfield for nineandtwenty years John Ridd The cursed moths keep me at home every day of the summer
Spread your furs on the haycocks I answered very boldly the indoor moth cannot abide the presence of the outdoor ones
Is it so he answered I never thought of that before And yet I have known such strange things happen in the way of fur that I can well believe it If you only knew John the way in which they lay their eggs and how they work tailforemost—
Tell me nothing of the kind I replied with equal confidence they cannot work tailforemost and they have no tails to work with For I knew a little about grubs and the ignorance concerning them which we have no right to put up with However not to go into that for the argument lasted a fortnight and then was only come so far as to begin again Master Ramsack soon convinced me of the things I knew already the excellence of Lornas birth as well as her lofty place at Court and beauty and wealth and elegance But all these only made me sigh and wish that I were born to them
From Master Ramsack I discovered that the nobleman to whose charge Lady Lorna had been committed by the Court of Chancery was Earl Brandir of Lochawe her poor mothers uncle For the Countess of Dugal was daughter and only child of the last Lord Lorne whose sister had married Sir Ensor Doone while he himself had married the sister of Earl Brandir This nobleman had a country house near the village of Kensington and here his niece dwelled with him when she was not in attendance on Her Majesty the Queen who had taken a liking to her Now since the King had begun to attend the celebration of mass in the chapel at Whitehall—and not at Westminster Abbey as our gossips had averred—he had given order that the doors should be thrown open so that all who could make interest to get into the antechamber might see this form of worship Master Ramsack told me that Lorna was there almost every Sunday their Majesties being most anxious to have the presence of all the nobility of the Catholic persuasion so as to make a goodly show And the worthy furrier having influence with the doorkeepers kindly obtained admittance for me one Sunday into the antechamber
Here I took care to be in waiting before the Royal procession entered but being unknown and of no high rank I was not allowed to stand forward among the better people but ordered back into a corner very dark and dismal the verger remarking with a grin that I could see over all other heads and must not set my own so high Being frightened to find myself among so many people of great rank and gorgeous apparel I blushed at the notice drawn upon me by this uncourteous fellow and silently fell back into the corner by the hangings
You may suppose that my heart beat high when the King and Queen appeared and entered followed by the Duke of Norfolk bearing the sword of state and by several other noblemen and people of repute Then the doors of the chapel were thrown wide open and though I could only see a little being in the corner so I thought that it was beautiful Bowers of rich silk were there and plenty of metal shining and polished wood with lovely carving flowers too of the noblest kind and candles made by somebody who had learned how to clarify tallow This last thing amazed me more than all for our dips never will come clear melt the muttonfat how you will And methought that this hanging of flowers about was a pretty thing for if a man can worship God best of all beneath a tree as the natural instinct is surely when by fault of climate the tree would be too apt to drip the very best makebelieve is to have enough and to spare of flowers which to the dwellers in London seem to have grown on the tree denied them
Be that as it may when the King and Queen crossed the threshold a mighty flourish of trumpets arose and a waving of banners The Knights of the Garter whoever they be were to attend that day in state and some went in and some stayed out and it made me think of the difference betwixt the ewes and the wethers For the ewes will go wherever you lead them but the wethers will not having strong opinions and meaning to abide by them And one man I noticed was of the wethers to wit the Duke of Norfolk who stopped outside with the sword of state like a beadle with a rappingrod This has taken more to tell than the time it happened in For after all the men were gone some to this side some to that according to their feelings a number of ladies beautifully dressed being of the Queens retinue began to enter and were stared at three times as much as the men had been And indeed they were worth looking at which men never are to my ideas when they trick themselves with gewgaws but none was so well worth eyeservice as my own beloved Lorna She entered modestly and shyly with her eyes upon the ground knowing the rudeness of the gallants and the large sum she was priced at Her dress was of the purest white very sweet and simple without a line of ornament for she herself adorned it The way she walked and touched her skirt rather than seemed to hold it up with a white hand beaming one red rose this and her stately supple neck and the flowing of her hair would show at a distance of a hundred yards that she could be none but Lorna Doone Lorna Doone of my early love in the days when she blushed for her name before me by reason of dishonesty but now the Lady Lorna Dugal as far beyond reproach as above my poor affection All my heart and all my mind gathered themselves upon her Would she see me or would she pass Was there instinct in our love
By some strange chance she saw me Or was it through our destiny While with eyes kept sedulously on the marble floor to shun the weight of admiration thrust too boldly on them while with shy quick steps she passed some one perhaps with purpose trod on the skirt of her clear white dress—with the quickness taught her by many a scene of danger she looked up and her eyes met mine
As I gazed upon her steadfastly yearningly yet with some reproach and more of pride than humility she made me one of the courtly bows which I do so much detest yet even that was sweet and graceful when my Lorna did it But the colour of her pure clear cheeks was nearly as deep as that of my own when she went on for the religious work And the shining of her eyes was owing to an unpaid debt of tears
Upon the whole I was satisfied Lorna had seen me and had not according to the phrase of the high world then even tried to cut me Whether this low phrase is born of their own stupid meanness or whether it comes of necessity exercised on a man without money I know not and I care not But one thing I know right well any man who cuts a man except for vice or meanness should be quartered without quarter
All these proud thoughts rose within me as the lovely form of Lorna went inside and was no more seen And then I felt how coarse I was how apt to think strong thoughts and so on without brains to bear me out even as a hens egg laid without enough of lime and looking only a poor jelly
Nevertheless I waited on as my usual manner is For to be beaten while running away is ten times worse than to face it out and take it and have done with it So at least I have always found because of reproach of conscience and all the things those clever people carried on inside at large made me long for our Parson Bowden that he might know how to act
While I stored up in my memory enough to keep our parson going through six pipes on a Saturday night—to have it as right as could be next day—a lean man with a yellow beard too thin for a good Catholic which religion always fattens came up to me working sideways in the manner of a female crab
This is not to my liking I said if aught thou hast speak plainly while they make that horrible noise inside
Nothing had this man to say but with many sighs because I was not of the proper faith he took my reprobate hand to save me and with several religious tears looked up at me and winked with one eye Although the skin of my palms was thick I felt a little suggestion there as of a gentle leaf in spring fearing to seem too forward I paid the man and he went happy for the standard of heretical silver is purer than that of the Catholics
Then I lifted up my little billet and in that dark corner read it with a strong rainbow of colours coming from the angled light And in mine eyes there was enough to make rainbow of strongest sun as my anger clouded off
Not that it began so well but that in my heart I knew ere three lines were through me that I was with all heart loved—and beyond that who may need The darling of my life went on as if I were of her own rank or even better than she was and she dotted her is and crossed her ts as if I were at least a schoolmaster All of it was done in pencil but as plain as plain could be In my coffin it shall lie with my ring and something else Therefore will I not expose it to every man who buys this book and haply thinks that he has bought me to the bottom of my heart Enough for men of gentle birth who never are inquisitive that my love told me in her letter just to come and see her
I ran away and could not stop To behold even her at the moment would have dashed my fancys joy Yet my brain was so amiss that I must do something Therefore to the river Thames with all speed I hurried and keeping all my best clothes on indued for sake of Lorna into the quiet stream I leaped and swam as far as London Bridge and ate nobler dinner afterwards
CHAPTER LXVII
LORNA STILL IS LORNA
Although a man may be as simple as the flowers of the field knowing when but scarcely why he closes to the bitter wind and feeling why but scarcely when he opens to the genial sun yet without his questing much into the capsule of himself—to do which is a misery—he may have a general notion how he happens to be getting on
I felt myself to be getting on better than at any time since the last wheatharvest as I took the lane to Kensington upon the Monday evening For although no time was given in my Lornas letter I was not inclined to wait more than decency required And though I went and watched the house decency would not allow me to knock on the Sunday evening especially when I found at the corner that his lordship was at home
The lanes and fields between Charing Cross and the village of Kensington are or were at that time more than reasonably infested with footpads and with highwaymen However my stature and holly club kept these fellows from doing more than casting sheeps eyes at me For it was still broad daylight and the view of the distant villages Chelsea Battersea Tyburn and others as well as a few large houses among the hams and towards the river made it seem less lonely Therefore I sang a song in the broadest Exmoor dialect which caused no little amazement in the minds of all who met me
When I came to Earl Brandirs house my natural modesty forbade me to appear at the door for guests therefore I went to the entrance for servants and retainers Here to my great surprise who should come and let me in but little Gwenny Carfax whose very existence had almost escaped my recollection Her mistress no doubt had seen me coming and sent her to save trouble But when I offered to kiss Gwenny in my joy and comfort to see a farmhouse face again she looked ashamed and turned away and would hardly speak to me
I followed her to a little room furnished very daintily and there she ordered me to wait in a most ungracious manner Well thought I if the mistress and the maid are alike in temper better it had been for me to abide at Master Ramsacks But almost ere my thought was done I heard the light quick step which I knew as well as Watch my dog knew mine and my breast began to tremble like the trembling of an arch ere the keystone is put in
Almost ere I hoped—for fear and hope were so entangled that they hindered one another—the velvet hangings of the doorway parted with a little doubt and then a good face put on it Lorna in her perfect beauty stood before the crimson folds and her dress was all pure white and her cheeks were rosy pink and her lips were scarlet
Like a maiden with skill and sense checking violent impulse she stayed there for one moment only just to be admired and then like a woman she came to me seeing how alarmed I was The hand she offered me I took and raised it to my lips with fear as a thing too good for me Is that all she whispered and then her eyes gleamed up at me and in another instant she was weeping on my breast
Darling Lorna Lady Lorna I cried in astonishment yet unable but to keep her closer to me and closer surely though I love you so this is not as it should be
Yes it is John Yes it is Nothing else should ever be Oh why have you behaved so
I am behaving I replied to the very best of my ability There is no other man in the world could hold you so without kissing you
Then why dont you do it John asked Lorna looking up at me with a flash of her old fun
Now this matter proverbially is not for discussion and repetition Enough that we said nothing more than Oh John how glad I am and Lorna Lorna Lorna for about five minutes Then my darling drew back proudly with blushing cheeks and tearbright eyes she began to crossexamine me
Master John Ridd you shall tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth I have been in Chancery sir and can detect a story Now why have you never for more than a twelvemonth taken the smallest notice of your old friend Mistress Lorna Doone Although she spoke in this lightsome manner as if it made no difference I saw that her quick heart was moving and the flash of her eyes controlled
Simply for this cause I answered that my old friend and true love took not the smallest heed of me Nor knew I where to find her
What cried Lorna and nothing more being overcome with wondering and much inclined to fall away but for my assistance I told her over and over again that not a single syllable of any message from her or tidings of her welfare had reached me or any one of us since the letter she left behind except by soldiers gossip
Oh you poor dear John said Lorna sighing at thought of my misery how wonderfully good of you thinking of me as you must have done not to marry that little plain thing or perhaps I should say that lovely creature for I have never seen her Mistress Ruth—I forget her name but something like a towel
Ruth Huckaback is a worthy maid I answered with some dignity and she alone of all our world except indeed poor Annie has kept her confidence in you and told me not to dread your rank but trust your heart Lady Lorna
Then Ruth is my best friend she answered and is worthy of you dear John And now remember one thing dear if God should part us as may be by nothing short of death try to marry that little Ruth when you cease to remember me And now for the headtraitor I have often suspected it but she looks me in the face and wishes—fearful things which I cannot repeat
With these words she moved an implement such as I had not seen before and which made a ringing noise at a serious distance And before I had ceased wondering—for if such things go on we might ring the church bells while sitting in our backkitchen—little Gwenny Carfax came with a grave and sullen face
Gwenny began my Lorna in a tone of high rank and dignity go and fetch the letters which I gave you at various times for despatch to Mistress Ridd
How can I fetch them when they are gone It be no use for him to tell no lies—
Now Gwenny can you look at me I asked very sternly for the matter was no joke to me after a years unhappiness
I dont want to look at ee What should I look at a young man for although he did offer to kiss me
I saw the spite and impudence of this last remark and so did Lorna although she could not quite refrain from smiling
Now Gwenny not to speak of that said Lorna very demurely if you thought it honest to keep the letters was it honest to keep the money
At this the Cornish maiden broke into a rage of honesty A putt the money by for ee Ee shall have every farden of it And so she flung out of the room
And Gwenny said Lorna very softly following under the doorhangings if it is not honest to keep the money it is not honest to keep the letters which would have been worth more than any gold to those who were so kind to you Your father shall know the whole Gwenny unless you tell the truth
Now a will tell all the truth this strange maiden answered talking to herself at least as much as to her mistress while she went out of sight and hearing And then I was so glad at having my own Lorna once again cleared of all contempt for us and true to me through all of it that I would have forgiven Gwenny for treason or even forgery
I trusted her so much said Lorna in her old illfortuned way and look how she has deceived me That is why I love you John setting other things aside because you never told me falsehood and you never could you know
Well I am not so sure of that I think I could tell any lie to have you darling all my own
Yes And perhaps it might be right To other people besides us two But you could not do it to me John You never could do it to me you know
Before I quite perceived my way to the bottom of the distinction—although beyond doubt a valid one—Gwenny came back with a leathern bag and tossed it upon the table Not a word did she vouchsafe to us but stood there looking injured
Go and get your letters John said Lorna very gravely or at least your mothers letters made of messages to you As for Gwenny she shall go before Lord Justice Jeffreys I knew that Lorna meant it not but thought that the girl deserved a frightening as indeed she did But we both mistook the courage of this child of Cornwall She stepped upon a little round thing in the nature of a stool such as I never had seen before and thus delivered her sentiments
And you may take me if you please before the great Lord Jeffreys I have done no more than duty though I did it crookedly and told a heap of lies for your sake And pretty gratitude I gets
Much gratitude you have shown replied Lorna to Master Ridd for all his kindness and his goodness to you Who was it that went down at the peril of his life and brought your father to you when you had lost him for months and months Who was it Answer me Gwenny
Girt Jan Ridd said the handmaid very sulkily
What made you treat me so little Gwenny I asked for Lorna would not ask lest the reply should vex me
Because ee beest below her so Her shanna have a poor farmering chap not even if her were a Carnishman All her land and all her birth—and who be you Id like to know
Gwenny you may go said Lorna reddening with quiet anger and remember that you come not near me for the next three days It is the only way to punish her she continued to me when the maid was gone in a storm of sobbing and weeping Now for the next three days she will scarcely touch a morsel of food and scarcely do a thing but cry Make up your mind to one thing John if you mean to take me for better for worse you will have to take Gwenny with me
I would take you with fifty Gwennies said I although every one of them hated me which I do not believe this little maid does in the bottom of her heart
No one can possibly hate you John she answered very softly and I was better pleased with this than if she had called me the most noble and glorious man in the kingdom
After this we spoke of ourselves and the way people would regard us supposing that when Lorna came to be her own free mistress as she must do in the course of time she were to throw her rank aside and refuse her title and caring not a fig for folk who cared less than a figstalk for her should shape her mind to its native bent and to my perfect happiness It was not my place to say much lest I should appear to use an improper and selfish influence And of course to all men of common sense and to everybody of middle age who must know best what is good for youth the thoughts which my Lorna entertained would be enough to prove her madness
Not that we could not keep her well comfortably and with nice clothes and plenty of flowers and fruit and landscape and the knowledge of our neighbours affairs and their kind interest in our own Still this would not be as if she were the owner of a county and a haughty title and able to lead the first men of the age by her mind and face and money
Therefore was I quite resolved not to have a word to say while this young queen of wealth and beauty and of noblemens desire made her mind up how to act for her purest happiness But to do her justice this was not the first thing she was thinking of the test of her judgment was only this How will my love be happiest
Now John she cried for she was so quick that she always had my thoughts beforehand why will you be backward as if you cared not for me Do you dream that I am doubting My mind has been made up good John that you must be my husband for—well I will not say how long lest you should laugh at my folly But I believe it was ever since you came with your stockings off and the loaches Right early for me to make up my mind but you know that you made up yours John and of course I knew it and that had a great effect on me Now after all this age of loving shall a trifle sever us
I told her that it was no trifle but a most important thing to abandon wealth and honour and the brilliance of high life and be despised by every one for such abundant folly Moreover that I should appear a knave for taking advantage of her youth and boundless generosity and ruining as men would say a noble maid by my selfishness And I told her outright having worked myself up by my own conversation that she was bound to consult her guardian and that without his knowledge I would come no more to see her Her flash of pride at these last words made her look like an empress and I was about to explain myself better but she put forth her hand and stopped me
I think that condition should rather have proceeded from me You are mistaken Master Ridd in supposing that I would think of receiving you in secret It was a different thing in Glen Doone where all except yourself were thieves and when I was but a simple child and oppressed with constant fear You are quite right in threatening to visit me thus no more but I think you might have waited for an invitation sir
And you are quite right Lady Lorna in pointing out my presumption It is a fault that must ever be found in any speech of mine to you
This I said so humbly and not with any bitterness—for I knew that I had gone too far—and made her so polite a bow that she forgave me in a moment and we begged each others pardon
Now will you allow me just to explain my own view of this matter John said she once more my darling It may be a very foolish view but I shall never change it Please not to interrupt me dear until you have heard me to the end In the first place it is quite certain that neither you nor I can be happy without the other Then what stands between us Worldly position and nothing else I have no more education than you have John Ridd nay and not so much My birth and ancestry are not one whit more pure than yours although they may be better known Your descent from ancient freeholders for fiveandtwenty generations of good honest men although you bear no coat of arms is better than the lineage of nine proud English noblemen out of every ten I meet with In manners though your mighty strength and hatred of any meanness sometimes break out in violence—of which I must try to cure you dear—in manners if kindness and gentleness and modesty are the true things wanted you are immeasurably above any of our Courtgallants who indeed have very little As for difference of religion we allow for one another neither having been brought up in a bitterly pious manner
Here though the tears were in my eyes at the loving things love said of me I could not help a little laugh at the notion of any bitter piety being found among the Doones or even in mother for that matter Lorna smiled in her slyest manner and went on again—
Now you see I have proved my point there is nothing between us but worldly position—if you can defend me against the Doones for which I trow I may trust you And worldly position means wealth and title and the right to be in great houses and the pleasure of being envied I have not been here for a year John without learning something Oh I hate it how I hate it Of all the people I know there are but two besides my uncle who do not either covet or detest me And who are those two think you
Gwenny for one I answered
Yes Gwenny for one And the queen for the other The one is too far below me I mean in her own opinion and the other too high above As for the women who dislike me without having even heard my voice I simply have nothing to do with them As for the men who covet me for my land and money I merely compare them with you John Ridd and all thought of them is over Oh John you must never forsake me however cross I am to you I thought you would have gone just now and though I would not move to stop you my heart would have broken
You dont catch me go in a hurry I answered very sensibly when the loveliest maiden in all the world and the best and the dearest loves me All my fear of you is gone darling Lorna all my fear—
Is it possible you could fear me John after all we have been through together Now you promised not to interrupt me is this fair behaviour Well let me see where I left off—oh that my heart would have broken Upon that point I will say no more lest you should grow conceited John if anything could make you so But I do assure you that half London—however upon that point also I will check my power of speech lest you think me conceited And now to put aside all nonsense though I have talked none for a year John having been so unhappy and now it is such a relief to me—
Then talk it for an hour said I and let me sit and watch you To me it is the very sweetest of all sweetest wisdom
Nay there is no time she answered glancing at a jewelled timepiece scarcely larger than an oyster which she drew from her waistband and then she pushed it away in confusion lest its wealth should startle me My uncle will come home in less than half an hour dear and you are not the one to take a sidepassage and avoid him I shall tell him that you have been here and that I mean you to come again
As Lorna said this with a manner as confident as need be I saw that she had learned in town the power of her beauty and knew that she could do with most men aught she set her mind upon And as she stood there flushed with pride and faith in her own loveliness and radiant with the love itself I felt that she must do exactly as she pleased with every one For now in turn and elegance and richness and variety there was nothing to compare with her face unless it were her figure Therefore I gave in and said—
Darling do just what you please Only make no rogue of me
For that she gave me the simplest kindest and sweetest of all kisses and I went down the great stairs grandly thinking of nothing else but that
CHAPTER LXVIII
JOHN IS JOHN NO LONGER
It would be hard for me to tell the state of mind in which I lived for a long time after this I put away from me all torment and the thought of future cares and the sight of difficulty and to myself appeared which means that I became the luckiest of lucky fellows since the world itself began I thought not of the harvest even nor of the men who would get their wages without having earned them nor of my mothers anxiety and worry about John Frys great fatness which was growing upon him and how she would cry fifty times in a day Ah if our John would only come home how different everything would look
Although there were no soldiers now quartered at Plovers Barrows all being busied in harassing the country and hanging the people where the rebellion had thriven most my mother having received from me a message containing my place of abode contrived to send me by the packhorses as fine a maund as need be of provisions and money and other comforts Therein I found addressed to Colonel Jeremiah Stickles in Lizzies best handwriting half a side of the dried deers flesh in which he rejoiced so greatly Also for Lorna a fine green goose with a little salt towards the tail and newlaid eggs inside it as well as a bottle of brandied cherries and seven or it may have been eight pounds of fresh homemade butter Moreover to myself there was a letter full of good advice excellently well expressed and would have been of the greatest value if I had cared to read it But I read all about the farm affairs and the man who had offered himself to our Betty for the five pounds in her stocking as well as the antics of Sally Snowe and how she had almost thrown herself at Parson Bowdens head old enough to be her grandfather because on the Sunday after the hanging of a Countisbury man he had preached a beautiful sermon about Christian love which Lizzie with her sharp eyes found to be the work of good Bishop Ken Also I read that the Doones were quiet the parishes round about having united to feed them well through the harvest time so that after the days hard work the farmers might go to bed at night And this plan had been found to answer well and to save much trouble on both sides so that everybody wondered it had not been done before But Lizzie thought that the Doones could hardly be expected much longer to put up with it and probably would not have done so now but for a little adversity to wit that the famous Colonel Kirke had in the most outrageous manner hanged no less than six of them who were captured among the rebels for he said that men of their rank and breeding and above all of their religion should have known better than to join ploughboys and carters and pickaxemen against our Lord the King and his Holiness the Pope This hanging of so many Doones caused some indignation among people who were used to them and it seemed for a while to check the rest from any spirit of enterprise
Moreover I found from this same letter which was pinned upon the knuckle of a leg of mutton for fear of being lost in straw that good Tom Faggus was at home again and nearly cured of his dreadful wound but intended to go to war no more only to mind his family And it grieved him more than anything he ever could have imagined that his duty to his family and the strong power of his conscience so totally forbade him to come up and see after me For now his design was to lead a new life and be in charity with all men Many better men than he had been hanged he saw no cause to doubt but by the grace of God he hoped himself to cheat the gallows
There was no further news of moment in this very clever letter except that the price of horses shoes was gone up again though already twopencefarthing each and that Betty had broken her lovers head with the stocking full of money and then in the corner it was written that the distinguished man of war and worshipful scholar Master Bloxham was now promoted to take the tolls and catch all the rebels around our part
Lorna was greatly pleased with the goose and the butter and the brandied cherries and the Earl Brandir himself declared that he never tasted better than those last and would beg the young man from the country to procure him instructions for making them This nobleman being as deaf as a post and of a very solid mind could never be brought to understand the nature of my thoughts towards Lorna He looked upon me as an excellent youth who had rescued the maiden from the Doones whom he cordially detested and learning that I had thrown two of them out of window as the story was told him he patted me on the back and declared that his doors would ever be open to me and that I could not come too often
I thought this very kind of his lordship especially as it enabled me to see my darling Lorna not indeed as often as I wished but at any rate very frequently and as many times as modesty ever my leading principle would in common conscience approve of And I made up my mind that if ever I could help Earl Brandir it would be—as we say when with brandy and water—the proudest moment of my life when I could fulfil the pledge
And I soon was able to help Lord Brandir as I think in two different ways first of all as regarded his mind and then as concerned his body and the latter perhaps was the greatest service at his time of life But not to be too nice about that let me tell how these things were
Lorna said to me one day being in a state of excitement—whereto she was over prone when reft of my slowness to steady her—
I will tell him John I must tell him John It is mean of me to conceal it
I thought that she meant all about our love which we had endeavoured thrice to drill into his fine old ears but could not make him comprehend without risk of bringing the house down and so I said By all means darling have another try at it
Lorna however looked at me—for her eyes told more than tongue—as much as to say Well you are a stupid We agreed to let that subject rest And then she saw that I was vexed at my own want of quickness and so she spoke very kindly—
I meant about his poor son dearest the son of his old age almost whose loss threw him into that dreadful cold—for he went without hat to look for him—which ended in his losing the use of his dear old ears I believe if we could only get him to Plovers Barrows for a month he would be able to hear again And look at his age he is not much over seventy John you know and I hope that you will be able to hear me long after you are seventy John
Well said I God settles that Or at any rate He leaves us time to think about those questions when we are over fifty Now let me know what you want Lorna The idea of my being seventy But you would still be beautiful
To the one who loves me she answered trying to make wrinkles in her pure bright forehead but if you will have common sense as you always will John whether I wish it or otherwise—I want to know whether I am bound in honour and in conscience to tell my dear and good old uncle what I know about his son
First let me understand quite clearly said I never being in a hurry except when passion moves me what his lordship thinks at present and how far his mind is urged with sorrow and anxiety This was not the first time we had spoken of the matter
Why you know John well enough she answered wondering at my coolness that my poor uncle still believes that his one beloved son will come to light and live again He has made all arrangements accordingly all his property is settled on that supposition He knows that young Alan always was what he calls a feckless neerdoweel but he loves him all the more for that He cannot believe that he will die without his son coming back to him and he always has a bedroom ready and a bottle of Alans favourite wine cool from out the cellar he has made me work him a pair of slippers from the size of a mouldy boot and if he hears of a new tobacco—much as he hates the smell of it—he will go to the other end of London to get some for Alan Now you know how deaf he is but if any one say Alan even in the place outside the door he will make his courteous bow to the very highest visitor and be out there in a moment and search the entire passage and yet let no one know it
It is a piteous thing I said for Lornas eyes were full of tears
And he means me to marry him It is the pet scheme of his life I am to grow more beautiful and more highly taught and graceful until it pleases Alan to come back and demand me Can you understand this matter John Or do you think my uncle mad
Lorna I should be mad myself to call any other man mad for hoping
Then will you tell me what to do It makes me very sorrowful For I know that Alan Brandir lies below the sod in Doonevalley
And if you tell his father I answered softly but clearly in a few weeks he will lie below the sod in London at least if there is any
Perhaps you are right John she replied to lose hope must be a dreadful thing when one is turned of seventy Therefore I will never tell him
The other way in which I managed to help the good Earl Brandir was of less true moment to him but as he could not know of the first this was the one which moved him And it happened pretty much as follows—though I hardly like to tell because it advanced me to such a height as I myself was giddy at and which all my friends resented greatly save those of my own family and even now are sometimes bitter in spite of all my humility Now this is a matter of history because the King was concerned in it and being so strongly misunderstood especially in my own neighbourhood I will overcome so far as I can my diffidence in telling it
The good Earl Brandir was a man of the noblest charity True charity begins at home and so did his and was afraid of losing the way if it went abroad So this good nobleman kept his money in a handsome pewter box with his coat of arms upon it and a double lid and locks Moreover there was a heavy chain fixed to a staple in the wall so that none might carry off the pewter with the gold inside of it Lorna told me the box was full for she had seen him go to it and she often thought that it would be nice for us to begin the world with I told her that she must not allow her mind to dwell upon things of this sort being wholly against the last commandment set up in our church at Oare
Now one evening towards September when the days were drawing in looking back at the house to see whether Lorna were looking after me I espied by a little glimpse as it were a pair of villainous fellows about whom there could be no mistake watching from the thicketcorner some hundred yards or so behind the good Earls dwelling There is mischief afoot thought I to myself being thoroughly conversant with theft from my knowledge of the Doones how will be the moon tonight and when may we expect the watch
I found that neither moon nor watch could be looked for until the morning the moon of course before the watch and more likely to be punctual Therefore I resolved to wait and see what those two villains did and save if it were possible the Earl of Brandirs pewter box But inasmuch as those bad men were almost sure to have seen me leaving the house and looking back and striking out on the London road I marched along at a merry pace until they could not discern me and then I fetched a compass round and refreshed myself at a certain inn entitled The Crossbones and Buttons
Here I remained until it was very nearly as dark as pitch and the house being full of footpads and cutthroats I thought it right to leave them One or two came after me in the hope of designing a stratagem but I dropped them in the darkness and knowing all the neighbourhood well I took up my position two hours before midnight among the shrubs at the eastern end of Lord Brandirs mansion Hence although I might not see I could scarcely fail to hear if any unlawful entrance either at back or front were made
From my own observation I thought it likely that the attack would be in the rear and so indeed it came to pass For when all the lights were quenched and all the house was quiet I heard a low and wily whistle from a clump of trees close by and then three figures passed between me and a whitewashed wall and came to a window which opened into a part of the servants basement This window was carefully raised by some one inside the house and after a little whispering and something which sounded like a kiss all the three men entered
Oh you villains I said to myself this is worse than any Doone job because there is treachery in it But without waiting to consider the subject from a moral point of view I crept along the wall and entered very quietly after them being rather uneasy about my life because I bore no firearms and had nothing more than my holly staff for even a violent combat
To me this was matter of deep regret as I followed these vile men inward Nevertheless I was resolved that my Lorna should not be robbed again Through us or at least through our Annie she had lost that brilliant necklace which then was her only birthright therefore it behoved me doubly to preserve the pewter box which must belong to her in the end unless the thieves got hold of it
I went along very delicately as a man who has learned to wrestle can do although he may weigh twenty stone following carefully the light brought by the traitorous maid and shaking in her loose dishonest hand I saw her lead the men into a little place called a pantry and there she gave them cordials and I could hear them boasting
Not to be too long over it—which they were much inclined to be—I followed them from this drinkingbout by the aid of the light they bore as far as Earl Brandirs bedroom which I knew because Lorna had shown it to me that I might admire the tapestry But I had said that no horse could ever be shod as the horses were shod therein unless he had the foot of a frog as well as a frog to his foot And Lorna had been vexed at this as taste and high art always are at any small accurate knowledge and so she had brought me out again before I had time to admire things
Now keeping well away in the dark yet nearer than was necessary to my own dear Lornas room I saw these fellows try the door of the good Earl Brandir knowing from the maid of course that his lordship could hear nothing except the name of Alan They tried the lock and pushed at it and even set their knees upright but a Scottish nobleman may be trusted to secure his door at night So they were forced to break it open and at this the guilty maid or woman ran away These three rogues—for rogues they were and no charity may deny it—burst into Earl Brandirs room with a light and a crowbar and firearms I thought to myself that this was hard upon an honest nobleman and if further mischief could be saved I would try to save it
When I came to the door of the room being myself in shadow I beheld two bad men trying vainly to break open the pewter box and the third with a pistolmuzzle laid to the nightcap of his lordship With foul face and yet fouler words this man was demanding the key of the box which the other men could by no means open neither drag it from the chain
I tell you said this aged Earl beginning to understand at last what these rogues were up for I will give no key to you It all belongs to my boy Alan No one else shall have a farthing
Then you may count your moments lord The key is in your old cramped hand One two and at three I shoot you
I saw that the old man was abroad not with fear but with great wonder and the regrets of deafness And I saw that rather would he be shot than let these men go rob his son buried now or laid to bleach in the tangles of the wood three or it might be four years agone but still alive to his father Hereupon my heart was moved and I resolved to interfere The thief with the pistol began to count as I crossed the floor very quietly while the old Earl fearfully gazed at the muzzle but clenched still tighter his wrinkled hand The villain with hair all over his eyes and the great horsepistol levelled cried three and pulled the trigger but luckily at that very moment I struck up the barrel with my staff so that the shot pierced the tester and then with a spin and a thwack I brought the good holly down upon the rascals head in a manner which stretched him upon the floor
Meanwhile the other two robbers had taken the alarm and rushed at me one with a pistol and one with a hanger which forced me to be very lively Fearing the pistol most I flung the heavy velvet curtain of the bed across that he might not see where to aim at me and then stooping very quickly I caught up the senseless robber and set him up for a shield and target whereupon he was shot immediately without having the pain of knowing it and a happy thing it was for him Now the other two were at my mercy being men below the average strength and no hanger except in most skilful hands as well as firm and strong ones has any chance to a powerful man armed with a stout cudgel and thoroughly practised in singlestick
So I took these two rogues and bound them together and leaving them under charge of the butler a worthy and shrewd Scotchman I myself went in search of the constables whom after some few hours I found neither were they so drunk but what they could take roped men to prison In the morning these two men were brought before the Justices of the Peace and now my wonderful luck appeared for the merit of having defeated and caught them would never have raised me one step in the State or in public consideration if they had only been common robbers or even notorious murderers But when these fellows were recognised by some one in the court as Protestant witnesses out of employment companions and understrappers to Oates and Bedloe and Carstairs and hand in glove with Dangerfield Turberville and Dugdale—in a word the very men against whom His Majesty the King bore the bitterest rancour but whom he had hitherto failed to catch—when this was laid before the public with emphasis and admiration at least a dozen men came up whom I had never seen before and prayed me to accept their congratulations and to be sure to remember them for all were of neglected merit and required no more than a piece of luck
I answered them very modestly and each according to his worth as stated by himself who of course could judge the best The magistrate made me many compliments ten times more than I deserved and took good care to have them copied that His Majesty might see them And ere the case was thoroughly heard and those poor fellows were committed more than a score of generous men had offered to lend me a hundred pounds wherewith to buy a new Court suit when called before His Majesty
Now this may seem very strange to us who live in a better and purer age—or say at least that we do so—and yet who are we to condemn our fathers for teaching us better manners and at their own expense With these points any virtuous man is bound to deal quite tenderly making allowance for corruption and not being too sure of himself And to tell the truth although I had seen so little of the world as yet that which astonished me in the matter was not so much that they paid me court as that they found out so soon the expediency of doing it
In the course of that same afternoon I was sent for by His Majesty He had summoned first the good Earl Brandir and received the tale from him not without exaggeration although my lord was a Scotchman But the chief thing His Majesty cared to know was that beyond all possible doubt these were the very precious fellows from perjury turned to robbery
Being fully assured at last of this His Majesty had rubbed his hands and ordered the boots of a stricter pattern which he himself had invented to be brought at once that he might have them in the best possible order And he oiled them himself and expressed his fear that there was no man in London quite competent to work them Nevertheless he would try one or two rather than wait for his pleasure till the torturer came from Edinburgh
The next thing he did was to send for me and in great alarm and flurry I put on my best clothes and hired a fashionable hairdresser and drank half a gallon of ale because both my hands were shaking Then forth I set with my holly staff wishing myself well out of it I was shown at once and before I desired it into His Majestys presence and there I stood most humbly and made the best bow I could think of
As I could not advance any farther—for I saw that the Queen was present which frightened me tenfold—His Majesty in the most gracious manner came down the room to encourage me And as I remained with my head bent down he told me to stand up and look at him
I have seen thee before young man he said thy form is not one to be forgotten Where was it Thou art most likely to know
May it please Your Most Gracious Majesty the King I answered finding my voice in a manner which surprised myself it was in the Royal Chapel
Now I meant no harm whatever by this I ought to have said the Antechapel but I could not remember the word and feared to keep the King looking at me
I am wellpleased said His Majesty with a smile which almost made his dark and stubborn face look pleasant to find that our greatest subject greatest I mean in the bodily form is also a good Catholic Thou needest not say otherwise The time shall be and that right soon when men shall be proud of the one true faith Here he stopped having gone rather far but the gleam of his heavy eyes was such that I durst not contradict
This is that great Johann Reed said Her Majesty coming forward because the King was in meditation for whom I have so much heard from the dear dear Lorna Ah she is not of this black countree she is of the breet Italie
I have tried to write it as she said it but it wants a better scholar to express her mode of speech
Now John Ridd said the King recovering from his thoughts about the true Church and thinking that his wife was not to take the lead upon me thou hast done great service to the realm and to religion It was good to save Earl Brandir a loyal and Catholic nobleman but it was great service to catch two of the vilest bloodhounds ever laid on by heretics And to make them shoot one another it was rare it was rare my lad Now ask us anything in reason thou canst carry any honours on thy club like Hercules What is thy chief ambition lad
Well said I after thinking a little and meaning to make the most of it for so the Queens eyes conveyed to me my mother always used to think that having been schooled at Tiverton with thirty marks a year to pay I was worthy of a coat of arms And that is what she longs for
A good lad A very good lad said the King and he looked at the Queen as if almost in joke but what is thy condition in life
I am a freeholder I answered in my confusion ever since the time of King Alfred A Ridd was with him in the isle of Athelney and we hold our farm by gift from him or at least people say so We have had three very good harvests running and might support a coat of arms but for myself I want it not
Thou shalt have a coat my lad said the King smiling at his own humour but it must be a large one to fit thee And more than that shalt thou have John Ridd being of such loyal breed and having done such service
And while I wondered what he meant he called to some of the people in waiting at the farther end of the room and they brought him a little sword such as Annie would skewer a turkey with Then he signified to me to kneel which I did after dusting the board for the sake of my best breeches and then he gave me a little tap very nicely upon my shoulder before I knew what he was up to and said Arise Sir John Ridd
This astonished and amazed me to such extent of loss of mind that when I got up I looked about and thought what the Snowes would think of it And I said to the King without forms of speech—
Sir I am very much obliged But what be I to do with it
CHAPTER LXIX
NOT TO BE PUT UP WITH
The coat of arms devised for me by the Royal heralds was of great size and rich colours and full of bright imaginings They did me the honour to consult me first and to take no notice of my advice For I begged that there might be a goodsized cow on it so as to stamp our pats of butter before they went to market also a horse on the other side and a flock snowed up at the bottom But the gentlemen would not hear of this and to find something more appropriate they inquired strictly into the annals of our family I told them of course all about King Alfred upon which they settled that one quarter should be three cakes on a bar with a lion regardant done upon a field of gold Also I told them that very likely there had been a Ridd in the battle fought not very far from Plovers Barrows by the Earl of Devon against the Danes when Hubba their chief was killed and the sacred standard taken As some of the Danes are said to be buried even upon land of ours and we call their graves if such they be even to this day barrows the heralds quite agreed with me that a Ridd might have been there or thereabouts and if he was there he was almost certain to have done his best being in sight of hearth and home and it was plain that he must have had good legs to be at the same time both there and in Athelney and good legs are an argument for good arms and supposing a man of this sort to have done his utmost as the manner of the Ridds is it was next to certain that he himself must have captured the standard Moreover the name of our farm was pure proof a plover being a wild bird just the same as a raven is Upon this chain of reasoning and without any weak misgivings they charged my growing escutcheon with a black raven on a ground of red And the next thing which I mentioned possessing absolute certainty to wit that a pig with two heads had been born upon our farm not more than two hundred years agone although he died within a week my third quarter was made at once by a twoheaded boar with noble tusks sable upon silver All this was very fierce and fine and so I pressed for a peaceful corner in the lower dexter and obtained a wheatsheaf set upright gold upon a field of green
Here I was inclined to pause and admire the effect for even De Whichehalse could not show a bearing so magnificent But the heralds said that it looked a mere signboard without a good motto under it and the motto must have my name in it They offered me first Ridd non ridendus but I said for Gods sake gentlemen let me forget my Latin Then they proposed Ridd readeth riddles but I begged them not to set down such a lie for no Ridd ever had made or made out such a thing as a riddle since Exmoor itself began Thirdly they gave me Ridd never be ridden and fearing to make any further objections I let them inscribe it in bronze upon blue The heralds thought that the King would pay for this noble achievement but His Majesty although graciously pleased with their ingenuity declined in the most decided manner to pay a farthing towards it and as I had now no money left the heralds became as blue as azure and as red as gules until Her Majesty the Queen came forward very kindly and said that if His Majesty gave me a coat of arms I was not to pay for it therefore she herself did so quite handsomely and felt goodwill towards me in consequence
Now being in a hurry—so far at least as it is in my nature to hurry—to get to the end of this narrative is it likely that I would have dwelled so long upon my coat of arms but for some good reason And this good reason is that Lorna took the greatest pride in it and thought or at any rate said that it quite threw into the shade and eclipsed all her own ancient glories And half in fun and half in earnest she called me Sir John so continually that at last I was almost angry with her until her eyes were bedewed with tears and then I was angry with myself
Beginning to be short of money and growing anxious about the farm longing also to show myself and my noble escutcheon to mother I took advantage of Lady Lornas interest with the Queen to obtain my acquittance and full discharge from even nominal custody It had been intended to keep me in waiting until the return of Lord Jeffreys from that awful circuit of shambles through which his name is still used by mothers to frighten their children into bed And right glad was I—for even London shrank with horror at the news—to escape a man so bloodthirsty savage and even to his friends among whom I was reckoned malignant
Earl Brandir was greatly pleased with me not only for having saved his life but for saving that which he valued more the wealth laid by for Lord Alan And he introduced me to many great people who quite kindly encouraged me and promised to help me in every way when they heard how the King had spoken As for the furrier he could never have enough of my society and this worthy man praying my commendation demanded of me one thing only—to speak of him as I found him As I had found him many a Sunday furbishing up old furs for new with a glaze to conceal the moths ravages I begged him to reconsider the point and not to demand such accuracy He said Well well all trades had tricks especially the trick of business and I must take him—if I were his true friend—according to his own description This I was glad enough to do because it saved so much trouble and I had no money to spend with him But still he requested the use of my name and I begged him to do the best with it as I never had kept a banker And the John Ridd cuffs and the Sir John mantles and the Hollystaff capes he put into his window as the winter was coming on ay and sold for everybody was burning with gossip about me must have made this good mans fortune since the excess of price over value is the true test of success in life
To come away from all this stuff which grieves a man in London—when the brisk air of the autumn cleared its way to Ludgate Hill and clever prentices ran out and sniffed at it and fed upon it having little else to eat and when the horses from the country were a goodly sight to see with the rasp of winter bristles rising through and among the soft summercoat and when the new straw began to come in golden with the harvest gloss and smelling most divinely at those strange liverystables where the nags are put quite tail to tail and when all the London folk themselves are asking about white frost from recollections of childhood then I say such a yearning seized me for moory crag and for dewy blade and even the grunting of our sheep when the sun goes down that nothing but the new wisps of Samson could have held me in London town
Lorna was moved with equal longing towards the country and country ways and she spoke quite as much of the glistening dew as she did of the smell of our oven And here let me mention—although the two are quite distinct and different—that both the dew and the bread of Exmoor may be sought whether high or low but never found elsewhere The dew is so crisp and pure and pearly and in such abundance and the bread is so sweet so kind and homely you can eat a loaf and then another
Now while I was walking daily in and out great crowds of men few of whom had any freedom from the cares of money and many of whom were even morbid with a worse pest called politics I could not be quit of thinking how we jostle one another God has made the earth quite large with a spread of land large enough for all to live on without fighting Also a mighty spread of water laying hands on sand and cliff with a solemn voice in stormtime and in the gentle weather moving men to thoughts of equity This as well is full of food being twothirds of the world and reserved for devouring knowledge by the time the sons of men have fed away the dry land Yet before the land itself has acknowledged touch of man upon one in a hundred acres and before one mile in ten thousand of the exhaustless ocean has ever felt the plunge of hook or combing of the haulnets lo we crawl in flocks together upon the hot ground that stings us even as the black grubs crowd upon the harried nettle Surely we are too much given to follow the tracks of each other
However for a moralist I never set up and never shall while common sense abides with me Such a man must be very wretched in this pure dearth of morality like a fisherman where no fish be and most of us have enough to do to attend to our own morals Enough that I resolved to go and as Lorna could not come with me it was even worse than stopping Nearly everybody vowed that I was a great fool indeed to neglect so rudely—which was the proper word they said—the pushing of my fortunes But I answered that to push was rude and I left it to people who had no room and thought that my fortune must be heavy if it would not move without pushing
Lorna cried when I came away which gave me great satisfaction and she sent a whole trunkful of things for mother and Annie and even Lizzie And she seemed to think though she said it not that I made my own occasion for going and might have stayed on till the winter Whereas I knew well that my mother would think and every one on the farm the same that here I had been in London lagging and taking my pleasure and looking at shops upon pretence of Kings business and leaving the harvest to reap itself not to mention the spending of money while all the time there was nothing whatever except my own love of adventure and sport to keep me from coming home again But I knew that my coat of arms and title would turn every bit of this grumbling into fine admiration
And so it fell out to a greater extent than even I desired for all the parishes round about united in a sumptuous dinner at the Mother Melldrum inn—for now that good lady was dead and her name and face set on a signpost—to which I was invited so that it was as good as a summons And if my health was no better next day it was not from want of good wishes any more than from stint of the liquor
It is needless to say that the real gentry for a long time treated my new honours with contempt and ridicule but gradually as they found that I was not such a fool as to claim any equality with them but went about my farmwork and threw another man at wrestling and touched my hat to the magistrates just the same as ever some gentlemen of the highest blood—of which we think a great deal more than of gold around our neighbourhood—actually expressed a desire to make my acquaintance And when in a manner quite straightforward and wholly free from bitterness I thanked them for this which appeared to me the highest honour yet offered me but declined to go into their company because it would make me uncomfortable and themselves as well in a different way they did what nearly all Englishmen do when a thing is right and sensible They shook hands with me and said that they could not deny but that there was reason in my view of the matter And although they themselves must be the losers—which was a handsome thing to say—they would wait until I was a little older and more aware of my own value
Now this reminds me how it is that an English gentleman is so far in front of foreign noblemen and princes I have seen at times a little both of one and of the other and making more than due allowance for the difficulties of language and the difference of training upon the whole the balance is in favour of our people And this because we have two weights solid and even in scale of manners outweighing all light complaisance to wit the inborn love of justice and the power of abiding
Yet some people may be surprised that men with any love of justice whether inborn or otherwise could continue to abide the arrogance and rapacity and tyranny of the Doones
For now as the winter passed the Doones were not keeping themselves at home as in honour they were bound to do Twenty sheep a week and one fat ox and two stout red deer for wholesome change of diet as well as threescore bushels of flour and two hogsheads and a half of cider and a hundredweight of candles not to mention other things of almost every variety which they got by insisting upon it—surely these might have sufficed to keep the people in their place with no outburst of wantonness Nevertheless it was not so they had made complaint about something—too much ewemutton I think it was—and in spite of all the pledges given they had ridden forth and carried away two maidens of our neighbourhood
Now these two maidens were known because they had served the beer at an alehouse and many men who had looked at them over a pint or quart vessel especially as they were comely girls thought that it was very hard for them to go in that way and perhaps themselves unwilling And their mother although she had taken some money which the Doones were always full of declared that it was a robbery and though it increased for a while the custom that must soon fall off again And who would have her two girls now clever as they were and good
Before we had finished meditating upon this loose outrage—for so I at least would call it though people accustomed to the law may take a different view of it—we had news of a thing far worse which turned the hearts of our women sick This I will tell in most careful language so as to give offence to none if skill of words may help it
The following story is strictly true and true it is that
the countrypeople rose to a man at this dastard cruelty
and did what the Government failed to do—Ed
Mistress Margery Badcock a healthy and upright young woman with a good rich colour and one of the finest henroosts anywhere round our neighbourhood was nursing her child about six of the clock and looking out for her husband Now this child was too old to be nursed as everybody told her for he could run say two yards alone and perhaps four or five by holding to handles And he had a way of looking round and spreading his legs and laughing with his brave little body well fetched up after a desperate journey to the end of the table which his mother said nothing could equal Nevertheless he would come to be nursed as regular as a clock almost and inasmuch as he was the first both father and mother made much of him for God only knew whether they could ever compass such another one
Christopher Badcock was a tenant farmer in the parish of Martinhoe renting some fifty acres of land with a right of common attached to them and at this particular time being now the month of February and fine open weather he was hard at work ploughing and preparing for spring corn Therefore his wife was not surprised although the dusk was falling that farmer Christopher should be at work in blind mans holiday as we call it
But she was surprised nay astonished when by the light of the kitchen fire brightened up for her husband she saw six or seven great armed men burst into the room upon her and she screamed so that the maid in the back kitchen heard her but was afraid to come to help Two of the strongest and fiercest men at once seized poor young Margery and though she fought for her child and home she was but an infant herself in their hands In spite of tears and shrieks and struggles they tore the babe from the mothers arms and cast it on the lime ash floor then they bore her away to their horses for by this time she was senseless and telling the others to sack the house rode off with their prize to the valley And from the description of one of those two who carried off the poor woman I knew beyond all doubt that it was Carver Doone himself
The other Doones being left behind and grieved perhaps in some respects set to with a will to scour the house and to bring away all that was good to eat And being a little vexed herein for the Badcocks were not a rich couple and finding no more than bacon and eggs and cheese and little items and nothing to drink but water in a word their taste being offended they came back to the kitchen and stamped and there was the baby lying
By evil luck this child began to squeal about his mother having been petted hitherto and wont to get all he wanted by raising his voice but a little Now the mark of the floor was upon his head as the maid who had stolen to look at him when the rough men were swearing upstairs gave evidence And she put a dishcloth under his head and kissed him and ran away again Her name was Honour Jose and she meant what was right by her master and mistress but could not help being frightened And many women have blamed her as I think unduly for her mode of forsaking baby so If it had been her own baby instinct rather than reason might have had the day with her but the child being born of her mistress she wished him good luck and left him as the fierce men came downstairs And being alarmed by their power of language because they had found no silver she crept away in a breathless hurry and afraid how her breath might come back to her For oftentime she had hiccoughs
While this good maid was in the oven by side of backkitchen fireplace with a faggot of wood drawn over her and lying so that her own heart beat worse than if she were baking the men as I said before came downstairs and stamped around the baby
Rowland is the bacon good one of them asked with an oath or two it is too bad of Carver to go off with the only prize and leave us in a starving cottage and not enough to eat for two of us Fetch down the staves of the rack my boy What was farmer to have for supper
Naught but an onion or two and a loaf and a rasher of rusty bacon These poor devils live so badly they are not worth robbing
No game Then let us have a game of loriot with the baby It will be the best thing that could befall a lusty infant heretic Ride a cockhorse to Banbury Cross Bye bye baby Bunting toss him up and let me see if my wrist be steady
The cruelty of this man is a thing it makes me sick to speak of enough that when the poor baby fell without attempt at cry or scream thinking it part of his usual play when they tossed him up to come down again the maid in the oven of the backkitchen not being any door between heard them say as follows—
If any man asketh who killed thee
Say twas the Doones of Bagworthy
Always pronounced Badgery
Now I think that when we heard this story and poor Kit Badcock came all around in a sort of halfcrazy manner not looking up at any one but dropping his eyes and asking whether we thought he had been welltreated and seeming void of regard for life if this were all the style of it then having known him a lusty man and a fine singer in an alehouse and much inclined to lay down the law as show a high hand about women I really think that it moved us more than if he had gone about ranting and raving and vowing revenge upon every one
CHAPTER LXX
COMPELLED TO VOLUNTEER
There had been some trouble in our own home during the previous autumn while yet I was in London For certain noted fugitives from the army of King Monmouth which he himself had deserted in a low and currish manner having failed to obtain free shipment from the coast near Watersmouth had returned into the wilds of Exmoor trusting to lurk and be comforted among the common people Neither were they disappointed for a certain length of time nor in the end was their disappointment caused by fault on our part Major Wade was one of them an active and wellmeaning man but prone to fail in courage upon lasting trial although in a moment ready Squire John Whichehalse not the baron and Parson Powell caught him two or three months before my return in Farley farmhouse near Brendon He had been up at our house several times and Lizzie thought a great deal of him And well I know that if at that time I had been in the neighbourhood he should not have been taken so easily
Not our parson Bowden nor any more a friend of his Our
Parson Bowden never had naught whatever to do with it and
never smoked a pipe with Parson Powell after it—JR
John Birch the farmer who had sheltered him was so fearful of punishment that he hanged himself in a few days time and even before he was apprehended But nothing was done to Grace Howe of Bridgeball who had been Wades greatest comforter neither was anything done to us although Eliza had added greatly to mothers alarm and danger by falling upon Rector Powell and most soundly rating him for his meanness and his cruelty and cowardice as she called it in setting men with firearms upon a poor helpless fugitive and robbing all our neighbourhood of its fame for hospitality However by means of Sergeant Bloxham and his good report of us as well as by virtue of Wades confession which proved of use to the Government my mother escaped all penalties
It is likely enough that good folk will think it hard upon our neighbourhood to be threatened and sometimes heavily punished for kindness and humanity and yet to be left to help ourselves against tyranny and base rapine And now at last our gorge was risen and our hearts in tumult We had borne our troubles long as a wise and wholesome chastisement quite content to have some few things of our own unmeddled with But what could a man dare to call his own or what right could he have to wish for it while he left his wife and children at the pleasure of any stranger
The people came flocking all around me at the blacksmiths forge and the Brendon alehouse and I could scarce come out of church but they got me among the tombstones They all agreed that I was bound to take command and management I bade them go to the magistrates but they said they had been too often Then I told them that I had no wits for ordering of an armament although I could find fault enough with the one which had not succeeded But they would hearken to none of this
All they said was Try to lead us and we will try not to run away
This seemed to me to be common sense and good stuff instead of mere bragging moreover I myself was moved by the bitter wrongs of Margery having known her at the Sundayschool ere ever I went to Tiverton and having in those days serious thoughts of making her my sweetheart although she was three years my elder But now I felt this difficulty—the Doones had behaved very well to our farm and to mother and all of us while I was away in London Therefore would it not be shabby and mean for me to attack them now
Yet being pressed still harder and harder as day by day the excitement grew with more and more talking over it and no one else coming forward to undertake the business I agreed at last to this that if the Doones upon fair challenge would not endeavour to make amends by giving up Mistress Margery as well as the man who had slain the babe then I would lead the expedition and do my best to subdue them All our men were content with this being thoroughly well assured from experience that the haughty robbers would only shoot any man who durst approach them with such proposal
And then arose a difficult question—who was to take the risk of making overtures so unpleasant I waited for the rest to offer and as none was ready the burden fell on me and seemed to be of my own inviting Hence I undertook the task sooner than reason about it for to give the cause of everything is worse than to go through with it
It may have been three of the afternoon when leaving my witnesses behind for they preferred the background I appeared with our Lizzies white handkerchief upon a kidneybean stick at the entrance to the robbers dwelling Scarce knowing what might come of it I had taken the wise precaution of fastening a Bible over my heart and another across my spinal column in case of having to run away with rude men shooting after me For my mother said that the Word of God would stop a twoinch bullet with three ounces of powder behind it Now I took no weapons save those of the Spirit for fear of being misunderstood But I could not bring myself to think that any of honourable birth would take advantage of an unarmed man coming in guise of peace to them
And this conclusion of mine held good at least for a certain length of time inasmuch as two decent Doones appeared and hearing of my purpose offered without violence to go and fetch the Captain if I would stop where I was and not begin to spy about anything To this of course I agreed at once for I wanted no more spying because I had thorough knowledge of all ins and outs already Therefore I stood waiting steadily with one hand in my pocket feeling a sample of corn for market and the other against the rock while I wondered to see it so brown already
Those men came back in a little while with a sharp short message that Captain Carver would come out and speak to me byandby when his pipe was finished Accordingly I waited long and we talked about the signs of bloom for the coming apple season and the rain that had fallen last Wednesday night and the principal dearth of Devonshire that it will not grow many cowslips—which we quite agreed to be the prettiest of spring flowers and all the time I was wondering how many black and deadly deeds these two innocent youths had committed even since last Christmas
At length a heavy and haughty step sounded along the stone roof of the way and then the great Carver Doone drew up and looked at me rather scornfully Not with any spoken scorn nor flash of strong contumely but with that air of thinking little and praying not to be troubled which always vexes a man who feels that he ought not to be despised so and yet knows not how to help it
What is it you want young man he asked as if he had never seen me before
In spite of that strong loathing which I always felt at sight of him I commanded my temper moderately and told him that I was come for his good and that of his worshipful company far more than for my own That a general feeling of indignation had arisen among us at the recent behaviour of certain young men for which he might not be answerable and for which we would not condemn him without knowing the rights of the question But I begged him clearly to understand that a vile and inhuman wrong had been done and such as we could not put up with but that if he would make what amends he could by restoring the poor woman and giving up that odious brute who had slain the harmless infant we would take no further motion and things should go on as usual As I put this in the fewest words that would meet my purpose I was grieved to see a disdainful smile spread on his sallow countenance Then he made me a bow of mock courtesy and replied as follows—
Sir John your new honours have turned your poor head as might have been expected We are not in the habit of deserting anything that belongs to us far less our sacred relatives The insolence of your demand wellnigh outdoes the ingratitude If there be a man upon Exmoor who has grossly illused us kidnapped our young women and slain half a dozen of our young men you are that outrageous rogue Sir John And after all this how have we behaved We have laid no hand upon your farm we have not carried off your women we have even allowed you to take our Queen by creeping and crawling treachery and we have given you leave of absence to help your cousin the highwayman and to come home with a title And now how do you requite us By inflaming the boorish indignation at a little frolic of our young men and by coming with insolent demands to yield to which would ruin us Ah you ungrateful viper
As he turned away in sorrow from me shaking his head at my badness I became so overcome never having been quite assured even by peoples praises about my own goodness moreover the light which he threw upon things differed so greatly from my own that in a word—not to be too long—I feared that I was a villain And with many bitter pangs—for I have bad things to repent of—I began at my leisure to ask myself whether or not this bill of indictment against John Ridd was true Some of it I knew to be however much I condemned myself altogether out of reason for instance about my going away with Lorna very quietly over the snow and to save my love from being starved away from me In this there was no creeping neither crawling treachery for all was done with sliding and yet I was so out of training for being charged by other people beyond mine own conscience that Carver Doones harsh words came on me like prickly spinach sown with raking Therefore I replied and said—
It is true that I owe you gratitude sir for a certain time of forbearance and it is to prove my gratitude that I am come here now I do not think that my evil deeds can be set against your own although I cannot speak flowingly upon my good deeds as you can I took your Queen because you starved her having stolen her long before and killed her mother and brother This is not for me to dwell upon now any more than I would say much about your murdering of my father But how the balance hangs between us God knows better than thou or I thou low miscreant Carver Doone
I had worked myself up as I always do in the manner of heavy men growing hot like an illwashered wheel revolving though I start with a cool axle and I felt ashamed of myself for heat and ready to ask pardon But Carver Doone regarded me with a noble and fearless grandeur
I have given thee thy choice John Ridd he said in a lofty manner which made me drop away under him I always wish to do my best with the worst people who come near me And of all I have ever met with thou art the very worst Sir John and the most dishonest
Now after all my labouring to pay every man to a penny and to allow the women over when among the couchgrass which is a sad thing for their gowns to be charged like this I say so amazed me that I stood with my legs quite open and ready for an earthquake And the scornful way in which he said Sir John went to my very heart reminding me of my littleness But seeing no use in bandying words nay rather the chance of mischief I did my best to look calmly at him and to say with a quiet voice Farewell Carver Doone this time our day of reckoning is nigh
Thou fool it is come he cried leaping aside into the niche of rock by the doorway Fire
Save for the quickness of spring and readiness learned in many a wrestling bout that knavish trick must have ended me but scarce was the word fire out of his mouth ere I was out of fire by a single bound behind the rocky pillar of the opening In this jump I was so brisk at impulse of the love of life for I saw the muzzles set upon me from the darkness of the cavern that the men who had trained their guns upon me with goodwill and daintiness could not check their fingers crooked upon the heavy triggers and the volley sang with a roar behind it down the avenue of crags
With one thing and another and most of all the treachery of this dastard scheme I was so amazed that I turned and ran at the very top of my speed away from these vile fellows and luckily for me they had not another charge to send after me And thus by good fortune I escaped but with a bitter heart and mind at their treacherous usage
Without any further hesitation I agreed to take command of the honest men who were burning to punish ay and destroy those outlaws as now beyond all bearing One condition however I made namely that the Counsellor should be spared if possible not because he was less a villain than any of the others but that he seemed less violent and above all had been good to Annie And I found hard work to make them listen to my wish upon this point for of all the Doones Sir Counsellor had made himself most hated by his love of law and reason
We arranged that all our men should come and fall into order with pike and musket over against our dunghill and we settled early in the day that their wives might come and look at them For most of these men had good wives quite different from sweethearts such as the militia had women indeed who could hold to a man and see to him and bury him—if his luck were evil—and perhaps have no one afterwards And all these women pressed their rights upon their precious husbands and brought so many children with them and made such a fuss and hugging and racing after little legs that our farmyard might be taken for an outdoor school for babies rather than a review ground
I myself was to and fro among the children continually for if I love anything in the world foremost I love children They warm and yet they cool our hearts as we think of what we were and what in young clothes we hoped to be and how many things have come across And to see our motives moving in the little things that know not what their aim or object is must almost or ought at least to lead us home and soften us For either end of life is home both source and issue being God
Nevertheless I must confess that the children were a plague sometimes They never could have enough of me—being a hundred to one you might say—but I had more than enough of them and yet was not contented For they had so many ways of talking and of tugging at my hair and of sitting upon my neck not even two with their legs alike and they forced me to jump so vehemently seeming to court the peril of my coming down neck and crop with them and urging me still to go faster however fast I might go with them I assure you that they were sometimes so hard and tyrannical over me that I might almost as well have been among the very Doones themselves
Nevertheless the way in which the children made me useful proved also of some use to me for their mothers were so pleased by the exertions of the great Geegee—as all the small ones entitled me—that they gave me unlimited power and authority over their husbands moreover they did their utmost among their relatives round about to fetch recruits for our little band And by such means several of the yeomanry from Barnstaple and from Tiverton were added to our number and inasmuch as these were armed with heavy swords and short carabines their appearance was truly formidable
Tom Faggus also joined us heartily being now quite healed of his wound except at times when the wind was easterly He was made second in command to me and I would gladly have had him first as more fertile in expedients but he declined such rank on the plea that I knew most of the seat of war besides that I might be held in some measure to draw authority from the King Also Uncle Ben came over to help us with his advice and presence as well as with a band of stout warehousemen whom he brought from Dulverton For he had never forgiven the old outrage put upon him and though it had been to his interest to keep quiet during the last attack under Commander Stickles—for the sake of his secret gold mine—yet now he was in a position to give full vent to his feelings For he and his partners when fullyassured of the value of their diggings had obtained from the Crown a licence to adventure in search of minerals by payment of a heavy fine and a yearly royalty Therefore they had now no longer any cause for secrecy neither for dread of the outlaws having so added to their force as to be a match for them And although Uncle Ben was not the man to keep his miners idle an hour more than might be helped he promised that when we had fixed the moment for an assault on the valley a score of them should come to aid us headed by Simon Carfax and armed with the guns which they always kept for the protection of their gold
Now whether it were Uncle Ben or whether it were Tom Faggus or even my own self—for all three of us claimed the sole honour—is more than I think fair to settle without allowing them a voice But at any rate a clever thing was devised among us and perhaps it would be the fairest thing to say that this bright stratagem worthy of the great Duke himself was contributed little by little among the entire three of us all having pipes and schnappsandwater in the chimneycorner However the world which always judges according to reputation vowed that so fine a stroke of war could only come from a highwayman and so Tom Faggus got all the honour at less perhaps than a third of the cost
Not to attempt to rob him of it—for robbers more than any other contend for rights of property—let me try to describe this grand artifice It was known that the Doones were fond of money as well as strong drink and other things and more especially fond of gold when they could get it pure and fine Therefore it was agreed that in this way we should tempt them for we knew that they looked with ridicule upon our rustic preparations after repulsing Kings troopers and the militia of two counties was it likely that they should yield their fortress to a set of ploughboys We for our part felt of course the power of this reasoning and that where regular troops had failed halfarmed countrymen must fail except by superior judgment and harmony of action Though perhaps the militia would have sufficed if they had only fought against the foe instead of against each other From these things we took warning having failed through overconfidence was it not possible now to make the enemy fail through the selfsame cause
Hence what we devised was this to delude from home a part of the robbers and fall by surprise on the other part We caused it to be spread abroad that a large heap of gold was now collected at the mine of the Wizards Slough And when this rumour must have reached them through women who came to and fro as some entirely faithful to them were allowed to do we sent Captain Simon Carfax the father of little Gwenny to demand an interview with the Counsellor by night and as it were secretly Then he was to set forth a list of imaginary grievances against the owners of the mine and to offer partly through resentment partly through the hope of gain to betray into their hands upon the Friday night by far the greatest weight of gold as yet sent up for refining He was to have one quarter part and they to take the residue But inasmuch as the convoy across the moors under his command would be strong and strongly armed the Doones must be sure to send not less than a score of men if possible He himself at a place agreed upon and fit for an ambuscade would call a halt and contrive in the darkness to pour a little water into the priming of his companys guns
It cost us some trouble and a great deal of money to bring the sturdy Cornishman into this deceitful part and perhaps he never would have consented but for his obligation to me and the wrongs as he said of his daughter However as he was the man for the task both from his coolness and courage and being known to have charge of the mine I pressed him until he undertook to tell all the lies we required And right well he did it too having once made up his mind to it and perceiving that his own interests called for the total destruction of the robbers
CHAPTER LXXI
A LONG ACCOUNT SETTLED
Having resolved on a nightassault as our undisciplined men threefourths of whom had never been shot at could not fairly be expected to march up to visible musketmouths we cared not much about drilling our forces only to teach them to hold a musket so far as we could supply that weapon to those with the cleverest eyes and to give them familiarity with the noise it made in exploding And we fixed upon Friday night for our venture because the moon would be at the full and our powder was coming from Dulverton on the Friday afternoon
Uncle Reuben did not mean to expose himself to shooting his time of life for risk of life being now well over and the residue too valuable But his counsels and his influence and above all his warehousemen well practised in beating carpets were of true service to us His miners also did great wonders having a grudge against the Doones as indeed who had not for thirty miles round their valley
It was settled that the yeomen having good horses under them should give account with the miners help of as many Doones as might be despatched to plunder the pretended gold And as soon as we knew that this party of robbers be it more or less was out of hearing from the valley we were to fall to ostensibly at the Doonegate which was impregnable now but in reality upon their rear by means of my old waterslide For I had chosen twenty young fellows partly miners and partly warehousemen and sheep farmers and some of other vocations but all to be relied upon for spirit and power of climbing And with proper tools to aid us and myself to lead the way I felt no doubt whatever but that we could all attain the crest where first I had met with Lorna
Upon the whole I rejoiced that Lorna was not present now It must have been irksome to her feelings to have all her kindred and old associates much as she kept aloof from them put to death without ceremony or else putting all of us to death For all of us were resolved this time to have no more shillyshallying but to go through with a nasty business in the style of honest Englishmen when the question comes to Your life or mine
There was hardly a man among us who had not suffered bitterly from the miscreants now before us One had lost his wife perhaps another had lost a daughter—according to their ages another had lost his favourite cow in a word there was scarcely any one who had not to complain of a hayrick and what surprised me then not now was that the men least injured made the greatest push concerning it But be the wrong too great to speak of or too small to swear about from poor Kit Badcock to rich Master Huckaback there was not one but went heart and soul for stamping out these firebrands
The moon was lifting well above the shoulder of the uplands when we the chosen band set forth having the short cut along the valleys to foot of the Bagworthy water and therefore having allowed the rest an hour to fetch round the moors and hills we were not to begin our climb until we heard a musket fired from the heights on the lefthand side where John Fry himself was stationed upon his own and his wifes request so as to keep out of action And that was the place where I had been used to sit and to watch for Lorna And John Fry was to fire his gun with a ball of wool inside it so soon as he heard the hurlyburly at the Doonegate beginning which we by reason of waterfall could not hear down in the meadows there
We waited a very long time with the moon marching up heaven steadfastly and the white fog trembling in chords and columns like a silver harp of the meadows And then the moon drew up the fogs and scarfed herself in white with them and so being proud gleamed upon the water like a bride at her lookingglass and yet there was no sound of either John Fry or his blunderbuss
I began to think that the worthy John being out of all danger and having brought a counterpane according to his wifes directions because one of the children had a cold must veritably have gone to sleep leaving other people to kill or be killed as might be the will of God so that he were comfortable But herein I did wrong to John and am ready to acknowledge it for suddenly the most awful noise that anything short of thunder could make came down among the rocks and went and hung upon the corners
The signal my lads I cried leaping up and rubbing my eyes for even now while condemning John unjustly I was giving him right to be hard upon me Now hold on by the rope and lay your quarterstaffs across my lads and keep your guns pointing to heaven lest haply we shoot one another
Us shant never shutt one anoother wi our goons at that mark I reckon said an oldish chap but as tough as leather and esteemed a wit for his dryness
You come next to me old Ike you be enough to dry up the waters now remember all lean well forward If any man throws his weight back down he goes and perhaps he may never get up again and most likely he will shoot himself
I was still more afraid of their shooting me for my chief alarm in this steep ascent was neither of the water nor of the rocks but of the loaded guns we bore If any man slipped off might go his gun and however good his meaning I being first was most likely to take far more than I fain would apprehend
For this cause I had debated with Uncle Ben and with Cousin Tom as to the expediency of our climbing with guns unloaded But they not being in the way themselves assured me that there was nothing to fear except through uncommon clumsiness and that as for charging our guns at the top even veteran troops could scarcely be trusted to perform it properly in the hurry and the darkness and the noise of fighting before them
However thank God though a gun went off no one was any the worse for it neither did the Doones notice it in the thick of the firing in front of them For the orders to those of the sham attack conducted by Tom Faggus were to make the greatest possible noise without exposure of themselves until we in the rear had fallen to which John Fry was again to give the signal of
Therefore we of the chosen band stole up the meadow quietly keeping in the blots of shade and hollow of the watercourse And the earliest notice the Counsellor had or any one else of our presence was the blazing of the logwood house where lived that villain Carver It was my especial privilege to set this house on fire upon which I had insisted exclusively and conclusively No other hand but mine should lay a brand or strike steel on flint for it I had made all preparations carefully for a goodly blaze And I must confess that I rubbed my hands with a strong delight and comfort when I saw the home of that man who had fired so many houses having its turn of smoke and blaze and of crackling fury
We took good care however to burn no innocent women or children in that most righteous destruction For we brought them all out beforehand some were glad and some were sorry according to their dispositions For Carver had ten or a dozen wives and perhaps that had something to do with his taking the loss of Lorna so easily One child I noticed as I saved him a fair and handsome little fellow whom if Carver Doone could love anything on earth beside his wretched self he did love The boy climbed on my back and rode and much as I hated his father it was not in my heart to say or do a thing to vex him
Leaving these poor injured people to behold their burning home we drew aside by my directions into the covert beneath the cliff But not before we had laid our brands to three other houses after calling the women forth and bidding them go for their husbands and to come and fight a hundred of us In the smoke and rush and fire they believed that we were a hundred and away they ran in consternation to the battle at the Doonegate
All Doonetown is on fire on fire we heard them shrieking as they went a hundred soldiers are burning it with a dreadful great man at the head of them
Presently just as I expected back came the warriors of the Doones leaving but two or three at the gate and burning with wrath to crush under foot the presumptuous clowns in their valley Just then the waxing fire leaped above the red crest of the cliffs and danced on the pillars of the forest and lapped like a tide on the stones of the slope All the valley flowed with light and the limpid waters reddened and the fair young women shone and the naked children glistened
But the finest sight of all was to see those haughty men striding down the causeway darkly reckless of their end but resolute to have two lives for every one A finer dozen of young men could not have been found in the world perhaps nor a braver nor a viler one
Seeing how few there were of them I was very loath to fire although I covered the leader who appeared to be dashing Charley for they were at easy distance now brightly shone by the firelight yet ignorant where to look for us I thought that we might take them prisoners—though what good that could be God knows as they must have been hanged thereafter—anyhow I was loath to shoot or to give the word to my followers
But my followers waited for no word they saw a fair shot at the men they abhorred the men who had robbed them of home or of love and the chance was too much for their charity At a signal from old Ikey who levelled his own gun first a dozen muskets were discharged and half of the Doones dropped lifeless like so many logs of firewood or choppingblocks rolled over
Although I had seen a great battle before and a hundred times the carnage this appeared to me to be horrible and I was at first inclined to fall upon our men for behaving so But one instant showed me that they were right for while the valley was filled with howling and with shrieks of women and the beams of the blazing houses fell and hissed in the bubbling river all the rest of the Doones leaped at us like so many demons They fired wildly not seeing us well among the hazel bushes and then they clubbed their muskets or drew their swords as might be and furiously drove at us
For a moment although we were twice their number we fell back before their valorous fame and the power of their onset For my part admiring their courage greatly and counting it slur upon manliness that two should be down upon one so I withheld my hand awhile for I cared to meet none but Carver and he was not among them The whirl and hurry of this fight and the hard blows raining down—for now all guns were empty—took away my power of seeing or reasoning upon anything Yet one thing I saw which dwelled long with me and that was Christopher Badcock spending his life to get Charleys
How he had found out none may tell both being dead so long ago but at any rate he had found out that Charley was the man who had robbed him of his wife and honour It was Carver Doone who took her away but Charleworth Doone was beside him and according to cast of dice she fell to Charleys share All this Kit Badcock who was mad according to our measures had discovered and treasured up and now was his revengetime
He had come into the conflict without a weapon of any kind only begging me to let him be in the very thick of it For him he said life was no matter after the loss of his wife and child but death was matter to him and he meant to make the most of it Such a face I never saw and never hope to see again as when poor Kit Badcock spied Charley coming towards us
We had thought this man a patient fool a philosopher of a little sort or one who could feel nothing And his quiet manner of going about and the gentleness of his answers when some brutes asked him where his wife was and whether his baby had been welltrussed these had misled us to think that the man would turn the mild cheek to everything But I in the loneliness of our barn had listened and had wept with him
Therefore was I not surprised so much as all the rest of us when in the foremost of red light Kit went up to Charleworth Doone as if to some inheritance and took his seisin of right upon him being himself a powerful man and begged a word aside with him What they said aside I know not all I know is that without weapon each man killed the other And Margery Badcock came and wept and hung upon her poor husband and died that summer of heartdisease
Now for these and other things whereof I could tell a thousand was the reckoning come that night and not a line we missed of it soon as our bad blood was up I like not to tell of slaughter though it might be of wolves and tigers and that was a night of fire and slaughter and of very longharboured revenge Enough that ere the daylight broke upon that wan March morning the only Doones still left alive were the Counsellor and Carver And of all the dwellings of the Doones inhabited with luxury and luscious taste and licentiousness not even one was left but all made potash in the river
This may seem a violent and unholy revenge upon them And I who led the heart of it have in these my latter years doubted how I shall be judged not of men—for God only knows the errors of mans judgments—but by that great God Himself the front of whose forehead is mercy
CHAPTER LXXII
THE COUNSELLOR AND THE CARVER
From that great confusion—for nothing can be broken up whether lawful or unlawful without a vast amount of dust and many people grumbling and mourning for the good old times when all the world was happiness and every man a gentleman and the sun himself far brighter than since the brassy idol upon which he shone was broken—from all this loss of ancient landmarks as unrobbed men began to call our clearance of those murderers we returned on the following day almost as full of anxiety as we were of triumph In the first place what could we possibly do with all these women and children thrown on our hands as one might say with none to protect and care for them Again how should we answer to the justices of the peace or perhaps even to Lord Jeffreys for having without even a warrant taken the law into our own hands and abated our nuisance so forcibly And then what was to be done with the spoil which was of great value though the diamond necklace came not to public light For we saw a mighty host of claimants already leaping up for booty Every man who had ever been robbed expected usury on his loss the lords of the manors demanded the whole and so did the Kings Commissioner of revenue at Porlock and so did the men who had fought our battle while even the parsons both Bowden and Powell and another who had no parish in it threatened us with the just wrath of the Church unless each had tithes of the whole of it
Now this was not as it ought to be and it seemed as if by burning the nest of robbers we had but hatched their eggs until being made sole guardian of the captured treasure by reason of my known honesty I hit upon a plan which gave very little satisfaction yet carried this advantage that the grumblers argued against one another and for the most part came to blows which renewed their goodwill to me as being abused by the adversary
And my plan was no more than this—not to pay a farthing to lord of manor parson or even Kings Commissioner but after making good some of the recent and proven losses—where the men could not afford to lose—to pay the residue which might be worth some fifty thousand pounds into the Exchequer at Westminster and then let all the claimants file what wills they pleased in Chancery
Now this was a very noble device for the mere name of Chancery and the high repute of the fees therein and low repute of the lawyers and the comfortable knowledge that the woolsack itself is the golden fleece absorbing gold for ever if the standard be but pure consideration of these things staved off at once the lords of the manors and all the little farmers and even those whom most I feared videlicet the parsons And the Kings Commissioner was compelled to profess himself contented although of all he was most aggrieved for his pickings would have been goodly
Moreover by this plan I made—although I never thought of that—a mighty friend worth all the enemies whom the loss of money moved The first man now in the kingdom by virtue perhaps of energy rather than of excellence was the great Lord Jeffreys appointed the head of the Equity as well as the law of the realm for his kindness in hanging five hundred people without the mere brief of trial Nine out of ten of these people were innocent it was true but that proved the merit of the Lord Chief Justice so much the greater for hanging them as showing what might be expected of him when he truly got hold of a guilty man Now the King had seen the force of this argument and not being without gratitude for a highseasoned dish of cruelty had promoted the only man in England combining the gifts of both butcher and cook
Nevertheless I do beg you all to believe of me—and I think that after following me so long you must believe it—that I did not even know at the time of Lord Jeffreyss high promotion Not that my knowledge of this would have led me to act otherwise in the matter for my object was to pay into an office and not to any official neither if I had known the fact could I have seen its bearing upon the receipt of my money For the Kings Exchequer is meseemeth of the Common Law while Chancery is of Equity and well named for its many chances But the true result of the thing was this—Lord Jeffreys being now head of the law and almost head of the kingdom got possession of that money and was kindly pleased with it
And this met our second difficulty for the law having won and laughed over the spoil must have injured its own title by impugning our legality
Next with regard to the women and children we were long in a state of perplexity We did our very best at the farm and so did many others to provide for them until they should manage about their own subsistence And after a while this trouble went as nearly all troubles go with time Some of the women were taken back by their parents or their husbands or it may be their sweethearts and those who failed of this went forth some upon their own account to the New World plantations where the fairer sex is valuable and some to English cities and the plainer ones to field work And most of the children went with their mothers or were bound apprentices only Carver Doones handsome child had lost his mother and stayed with me
This boy went about with me everywhere He had taken as much of liking to me—first shown in his eyes by the firelight—as his father had of hatred and I perceiving his noble courage scorn of lies and high spirit became almost as fond of Ensie as he was of me He told us that his name was Ensie meant for Ensor I suppose from his fathers grandfather the old Sir Ensor Doone And this boy appeared to be Carvers heir having been born in wedlock contrary to the general manner and custom of the Doones
However although I loved the poor child I could not help feeling very uneasy about the escape of his father the savage and brutal Carver This man was left to roam the country homeless foodless and desperate with his giant strength and great skill in arms and the whole world to be revenged upon For his escape the miners as I shall show were answerable but of the Counsellors safe departure the burden lay on myself alone And inasmuch as there are people who consider themselves illused unless one tells them everything straitened though I am for space I will glance at this transaction
After the desperate charge of young Doones had been met by us and broken and just as Poor Kit Badcock died in the arms of the dead Charley I happened to descry a patch of white on the grass of the meadow like the head of a sheep after washingday Observing with some curiosity how carefully this white thing moved along the bars of darkness betwixt the panels of firelight I ran up to intercept it before it reached the little postern which we used to call Gwennys door Perceiving me the white thing stopped and was for making back again but I ran up at full speed and lo it was the flowing silvery hair of that sage the Counsellor who was scuttling away upon all fours but now rose and confronted me
John he said Sir John you will not play falsely with your ancient friend among these violent fellows I look to you to protect me John
Honoured sir you are right I replied but surely that posture was unworthy of yourself and your many resources It is my intention to let you go free
I knew it I could have sworn to it You are a noble fellow John I said so from the very first you are a noble fellow and an ornament to any rank
But upon two conditions I added gently taking him by the arm for instead of displaying any desire to commune with my nobility he was edging away toward the postern the first is that you tell me truly for now it can matter to none of you who it was that slew my father
I will tell you truly and frankly John however painful to me to confess it It was my son Carver
I thought as much or I felt as much all along I answered but the fault was none of yours sir for you were not even present
If I had been there it would not have happened I am always opposed to violence Therefore let me haste away this scene is against my nature
You shall go directly Sir Counsellor after meeting my other condition which is that you place in my hands Lady Lornas diamond necklace
Ah how often I have wished said the old man with a heavy sigh that it might yet be in my power to ease my mind in that respect and to do a thoroughly good deed by lawful restitution
Then try to have it in your power sir Surely with my encouragement you might summon resolution
Alas John the resolution has been ready long ago But the thing is not in my possession Carver my son who slew your father upon him you will find the necklace What are jewels to me young man at my time of life Baubles and trash—I detest them from the sins they have led me to answer for When you come to my age good Sir John you will scorn all jewels and care only for a pure and bright conscience Ah ah Let me go I have made my peace with God
He looked so hoary and so silvery and serene in the moonlight that verily I must have believed him if he had not drawn in his breast But I happened to have noticed that when an honest man gives vent to noble and great sentiments he spreads his breast and throws it out as if his heart were swelling whereas I had seen this old gentleman draw in his breast more than once as if it happened to contain better goods than sentiment
Will you applaud me kind sir I said keeping him very tight all the while if I place it in your power to ratify your peace with God The pledge is upon your heart no doubt for there it lies at this moment
With these words and some apology for having recourse to strong measures I thrust my hand inside his waistcoat and drew forth Lornas necklace purely sparkling in the moonlight like the dancing of new stars The old man made a stab at me with a knife which I had not espied but the vicious onset failed and then he knelt and clasped his hands
Oh for Gods sake John my son rob me not in that manner They belong to me and I love them so I would give almost my life for them There is one jewel I can look at for hours and see all the lights of heaven in it which I never shall see elsewhere All my wretched wicked life—oh John I am a sad hypocrite—but give me back my jewels Or else kill me here I am a babe in your hands but I must have back my jewels
As his beautiful white hair fell away from his noble forehead like a silver wreath of glory and his powerful face for once was moved with real emotion I was so amazed and overcome by the grand contradictions of nature that verily I was on the point of giving him back the necklace But honesty which is said to be the first instinct of all the Ridds though I myself never found it so happened here to occur to me and so I said without more haste than might be expected—
Sir Counsellor I cannot give you what does not belong to me But if you will show me that particular diamond which is heaven to you I will take upon myself the risk and the folly of cutting it out for you And with that you must go contented and I beseech you not to starve with that jewel upon your lips
Seeing no hope of better terms he showed me his pet love of a jewel and I thought of what Lorna was to me as I cut it out with the hinge of my knife severing the snakes of gold and placed it in his careful hand Another moment and he was gone and away through Gwennys postern and God knows what became of him
Now as to Carver the thing was this—so far as I could ascertain from the valiant miners no two of whom told the same story any more than one of them told it twice The band of Doones which sallied forth for the robbery of the pretended convoy was met by Simon Carfax according to arrangement at the ruined house called The Warren in that part of Bagworthy Forest where the river Exe as yet a very small stream runs through it The Warren as all our people know had belonged to a fine old gentleman whom every one called The Squire who had retreated from active life to pass the rest of his days in fishing and shooting and helping his neighbours For he was a man of some substance and no poor man ever left The Warren without a bag of good victuals and a few shillings put in his pocket However this poor Squire never made a greater mistake than in hoping to end his life peacefully upon the banks of a troutstream and in the green forest of Bagworthy For as he came home from the brook at dusk with his flyrod over his shoulder the Doones fell upon him and murdered him and then sacked his house and burned it
Now this had made honest people timid about going past The Warren at night for of course it was said that the old Squire walked upon certain nights of the moon in and out of the trunks of trees on the green path from the river On his shoulder he bore a fishingrod and his book of troutflies in one hand and on his back a wickercreel and now and then he would burst out laughing to think of his coming so near the Doones
And now that one turns to consider it this seems a strangely righteous thing that the scene of one of the greatest crimes even by Doones committed should after twenty years become the scene of vengeance falling like hail from heaven upon them For although The Warren lies well away to the westward of the mine and the gold under escort to Bristowe or London would have gone in the other direction Captain Carfax finding this place best suited for working of his design had persuaded the Doones that for reasons of Government the ore must go first to Barnstaple for inspection or something of that sort And as every one knows that our Government sends all things westward when eastward bound this had won the more faith for Simon as being according to nature
Now Simon having met these flowers of the flock of villainy where the rising moonlight flowed through the weirwork of the wood begged them to dismount and led them with an air of mystery into the Squires ruined hall black with fire and green with weeds
Captain I have found a thing he said to Carver Doone himself which may help to pass the hour ere the lump of gold comes by The smugglers are a noble race but a miners eyes are a match for them There lies a puncheon of rare spirit with the Dutchmans brand upon it hidden behind the broken hearth Set a man to watch outside and let us see what this be like
With one accord they agreed to this and Carver pledged Master Carfax and all the Doones grew merry But Simon being bound as he said to see to their strict sobriety drew a bucket of water from the well into which they had thrown the dead owner and begged them to mingle it with their drink which some of them did and some refused
But the water from that well was poured while they were carousing into the primingpan of every gun of theirs even as Simon had promised to do with the guns of the men they were come to kill Then just as the giant Carver arose with a glass of pure hollands in his hand and by the light of the torch they had struck proposed the good health of the Squires ghost—in the broken doorway stood a press of men with pointed muskets covering every drunken Doone How it fared upon that I know not having none to tell me for each man wrought neither thought of telling nor whether he might be alive to tell The Doones rushed to their guns at once and pointed them and pulled at them but the Squires well had drowned their fire and then they knew that they were betrayed but resolved to fight like men for it Upon fighting I can never dwell it breeds such savage delight in me of which I would fain have less Enough that all the Doones fought bravely and like men though bad ones died in the hall of the man they had murdered And with them died poor young De Whichehalse who in spite of his good fathers prayers had cast in his lot with the robbers Carver Doone alone escaped Partly through his fearful strength and his yet more fearful face but mainly perhaps through his perfect coolness and his mode of taking things
I am happy to say that no more than eight of the gallant miners were killed in that combat or died of their wounds afterwards and adding to these the eight we had lost in our assault on the valley and two of them excellent warehousemen it cost no more than sixteen lives to be rid of nearly forty Doones each of whom would most likely have killed three men in the course of a year or two Therefore as I said at the time a great work was done very reasonably here were nigh upon forty Doones destroyed in the valley and up at The Warrens despite their extraordinary strength and high skill in gunnery whereas of us ignorant rustics there were only sixteen to be counted dead—though others might be lamed or so—and of those sixteen only two had left wives and their wives did not happen to care for them
Yet for Lorna s sake I was vexed at the bold escape of Carver Not that I sought for Carvers life any more than I did for the Counsellors but that for us it was no light thing to have a man of such power and resource and desperation left at large and furious like a famished wolf round the sheepfold Yet greatly as I blamed the yeomen who were posted on their horses just out of shot from the Doonegate for the very purpose of intercepting those who escaped the miners I could not get them to admit that any blame attached to them
But lo he had dashed through the whole of them with his horse at full gallop and was nearly out of shot before they began to think of shooting him Then it appears from what a boy said—for boys manage to be everywhere—that Captain Carver rode through the Doonegate and so to the head of the valley There of course he beheld all the houses and his own among the number flaming with a handsome blaze and throwing a fine light around such as he often had revelled in when of other peoples property But he swore the deadliest of all oaths and seeing himself to be vanquished so far as the luck of the moment went spurred his great black horse away and passed into the darkness
CHAPTER LXXIII
HOW TO GET OUT OF CHANCERY
Things at this time so befell me that I cannot tell one half but am like a boy who has left his lesson to the masters very footfall unready except with false excuses And as this makes no good work so I lament upon my lingering in the times when I might have got through a good page but went astray after trifles However every man must do according to his intellect and looking at the easy manner of my constitution I think that most men will regard me with pity and goodwill for trying more than with contempt and wrath for having tried unworthily Even as in the wrestling ring whatever man did his best and made an honest conflict I always laid him down with softness easing off his dusty fall
But the thing which next betided me was not a fall of any sort but rather a most glorious rise to the summit of all fortune For in good truth it was no less than the return of Lorna—my Lorna my own darling in wonderful health and spirits and as glad as a bird to get back again It would have done any one good for a twelvemonth to behold her face and doings and her beaming eyes and smile not to mention blushes also at my salutation when this Queen of every heart ran about our rooms again She did love this and she must see that and where was our old friend the cat All the house was full of brightness as if the sun had come over the hill and Lorna were his mirror
My mother sat in an ancient chair and wiped her cheeks and looked at her and even Lizzies eyes must dance to the freshness and joy of her beauty As for me you might call me mad for I ran out and flung my best hat on the barn and kissed mother Fry till she made at me with the sugarnippers
What a quantity of things Lorna had to tell us And yet how often we stopped her mouth—at least mother I mean and Lizzie—and she quite as often would stop her own running up in her joy to some one of us And then there arose the eating business—which people now call refreshment in these dandyfied days of our language—for how was it possible that our Lorna could have come all that way and to her own Exmoor without being terribly hungry
Oh I do love it all so much said Lorna now for the fiftieth time and not meaning only the victuals the scent of the gorse on the moors drove me wild and the primroses under the hedges I am sure I was meant for a farmers—I mean for a farmhouse life dear Lizzie—for Lizzie was looking saucily—just as you were meant for a soldiers bride and for writing despatches of victory And now since you will not ask me dear mother in the excellence of your manners and even John has not the impudence in spite of all his coat of arms—I must tell you a thing which I vowed to keep until tomorrow morning but my resolution fails me I am my own mistress—what think you of that mother I am my own mistress
Then you shall not be so long cried I for mother seemed not to understand her and sought about for her glasses darling you shall be mistress of me and I will be your master
A frank announcement of your intent and beyond doubt a true one but surely unusual at this stage and a little premature John However what must be must be And with tears springing out of smiles she fell on my breast and cried a bit
When I came to smoke a pipe over it after the rest were gone to bed I could hardly believe in my good luck For here was I without any merit except of bodily power and the absence of any falsehood which surely is no commendation so placed that the noblest man in England might envy me and be vexed with me For the noblest lady in all the land and the purest and the sweetest—hung upon my heart as if there was none to equal it
I dwelled upon this matter long and very severely while I smoked a new tobacco brought by my own Lorna for me and next to herself most delicious and as the smoke curled away I thought Surely this is too fine to last for a man who never deserved it
Seeing no way out of this I resolved to place my faith in God and so went to bed and dreamed of it And having no presence of mind to pray for anything under the circumstances I thought it best to fall asleep and trust myself to the future Yet ere I fell asleep the roof above me swarmed with angels having Lorna under it
In the morning Lorna was ready to tell her story and we to hearken and she wore a dress of most simple stuff and yet perfectly wonderful by means of the shape and her figure Lizzie was wild with jealousy as might be expected though never would Annie have been so but have praised it and craved for the pattern and mother not understanding it looked forth to be taught about it For it was strange to note that lately my dear mother had lost her quickness and was never quite brisk unless the question were about myself She had seen a great deal of trouble and grief begins to close on people as their power of life declines We said that she was hard of hearing but my opinion was that seeing me inclined for marriage made her think of my father and so perhaps a little too much to dwell on the courting of thirty years agone Anyhow she was the very best of mothers and would smile and command herself and be or try to believe herself as happy as could be in the doings of the younger folk and her own skill in detecting them Yet with the wisdom of age renouncing any opinion upon the matter since none could see the end of it
But Lorna in her bright young beauty and her knowledge of my heart was not to be checked by any thoughts of haply coming evil In the morning she was up even sooner than I was and through all the corners of the hens remembering every one of them I caught her and saluted her with such warmth being now none to look at us that she vowed she would never come out again and yet she came the next morning
These things ought not to be chronicled Yet I am of such nature that finding many parts of life adverse to our wishes I must now and then draw pleasure from the blessed portions And what portion can be more blessed than with youth and health and strength to be loved by a virtuous maid and to love her with all ones heart Neither was my pride diminished when I found what she had done only from her love of me
Earl Brandirs ancient steward in whose charge she had travelled with a proper escort looked upon her as a lovely maniac and the mixture of pity and admiration wherewith he regarded her was a strange thing to observe especially after he had seen our simple house and manners On the other hand Lorna considered him a worthy but foolish old gentleman to whom true happiness meant no more than money and high position
These two last she had been ready to abandon wholly and had in part escaped from them as the enemies of her happiness And she took advantage of the times in a truly clever manner For that happened to be a time—as indeed all times hitherto so far as my knowledge extends have somehow or other happened to be—when everybody was only too glad to take money for doing anything And the greatest moneytaker in the kingdom next to the King and Queen of course who had due preeminence and had taught the maids of honour was generally acknowledged to be the Lord Chief Justice Jeffreys
Upon his return from the bloody assizes with triumph and great glory after hanging every man who was too poor to help it he pleased his Gracious Majesty so purely with the description of their delightful agonies that the King exclaimed This man alone is worthy to be at the head of the law Accordingly in his hand was placed the Great Seal of England
So it came to pass that Lornas destiny hung upon Lord Jeffreys for at this time Earl Brandir died being taken with gout in the heart soon after I left London Lorna was very sorry for him but as he had never been able to hear one tone of her sweet silvery voice it is not to be supposed that she wept without consolation She grieved for him as we ought to grieve for any good man going and yet with a comforting sense of the benefit which the blessed exchange must bring to him
Now the Lady Lorna Dugal appeared to Lord Chancellor Jeffreys so exceeding wealthy a ward that the lock would pay for turning Therefore he came of his own accord to visit her and to treat with her having heard for the man was as big a gossip as never cared for anybody yet loved to know all about everybody that this wealthy and beautiful maiden would not listen to any young lord having pledged her faith to the plain John Ridd
Thereupon our Lorna managed so to hold out golden hopes to the Lord High Chancellor that he being not more than three parts drunk saw his way to a heap of money And there and then for he was not the man to daily long about anything upon surety of a certain round sum—the amount of which I will not mention because of his kindness towards me—he gave to his fair ward permission under sign and seal to marry that loyal knight John Ridd upon condition only that the Kings consent should be obtained
His Majesty welldisposed towards me for my previous service and regarding me as a good Catholic being moved moreover by the Queen who desired to please Lorna consented without much hesitation upon the understanding that Lorna when she became of full age and the mistress of her property which was still under guardianship should pay a heavy fine to the Crown and devote a fixed portion of her estate to the promotion of the holy Catholic faith in a manner to be dictated by the King himself Inasmuch however as King James was driven out of his kingdom before this arrangement could take effect and another king succeeded who desired not the promotion of the Catholic religion neither hankered after subsidies whether French or English that agreement was pronounced invalid improper and contemptible However there was no getting back the money once paid to Lord Chancellor Jeffreys
But what thought we of money at this present moment or of position or anything else except indeed one another Lorna told me with the sweetest smile that if I were minded to take her at all I must take her without anything inasmuch as she meant upon coming of age to make over the residue of her estates to the nextofkin as being unfit for a farmers wife And I replied with the greatest warmth and a readiness to worship her that this was exactly what I longed for but had never dared to propose it But dear mother looked most exceeding grave and said that to be sure her opinion could not be expected to count for much but she really hoped that in three years time we should both he a little wiser and have more regard for our interests and perhaps those of others by that time and Master Snowe having daughters only and nobody coming to marry them if anything happened to the good old man—and who could tell in three years time what might happen to all or any of us—why perhaps his farm would be for sale and perhaps Lady Lornas estates in Scotland would fetch enough money to buy it and so throw the two farms into one and save all the trouble about the brook as my poor father had longed to do many and many a time but not having a title could not do all quite as he wanted And then if we young people grew tired of the old mother as seemed only too likely and was according to nature why we could send her over there and Lizzie to keep her company
When mother had finished and wiped her eyes Lorna who had been blushing rosily at some portions of this great speech flung her fair arms around mothers neck and kissed her very heartily and scolded her as she well deserved for her want of confidence in us My mother replied that if anybody could deserve her John it was Lorna but that she could not hold with the rashness of giving up money so easily while her nextofkin would be John himself and who could tell what others by the time she was oneandtwenty
Hereupon I felt that after all my mother had common sense on her side for if Master Snowes farm should be for sale it would be far more to the purpose than my coat of arms to get it for there was a different pasture there just suited for change of diet to our sheep as well as large cattle And beside this even with all Annies skill and of course yet more now she was gone their butter would always command in the market from one to three farthings a pound more than we could get for ours And few things vexed us more than this Whereas if we got possession of the farm we might without breach of the marketlaws or any harm done to any one the price being but a prejudice sell all our butter as Snowe butter and do good to all our customers
Thinking thus yet remembering that Farmer Nicholas might hold out for another score of years—as I heartily hoped he might—or that one if not all of his comely daughters might marry a good young farmer or farmers if the case were so—or that even without that the farm might never be put up for sale I begged my Lorna to do as she liked or rather to wait and think of it for as yet she could do nothing
CHAPTER LXXIV
DRIVEN BEYOND ENDURANCE
Also known as BLOOD UPON THE ALTAR in other editions
Everything was settled smoothly and without any fear or fuss that Lorna might find end of troubles and myself of eager waiting with the help of Parson Bowden and the good wishes of two counties I could scarce believe my fortune when I looked upon her beauty gentleness and sweetness mingled with enough of humour and warm womans feeling never to be dull or tiring never themselves to be weary
For she might be called a woman now although a very young one and as full of playful ways or perhaps I may say ten times as full as if she had known no trouble To wit the spirit of bright childhood having been so curbed and straitened ere its time was over now broke forth enriched and varied with the garb of conscious maidenhood And the sense of steadfast love and eager love enfolding her coloured with so many tinges all her looks and words and thoughts that to me it was the noblest vision even to think about her
But this was far too bright to last without bitter break and the plunging of happiness in horror and of passionate joy in agony My darling in her softest moments when she was alone with me when the spark of defiant eyes was veiled beneath dark lashes and the challenge of gay beauty passed into sweetest invitation at such times of her purest love and warmest faith in me a deep abiding fear would flutter in her bounding heart as of deadly fates approach She would cling to me and nestle to me being scared of coyishness and lay one arm around my neck and ask if I could do without her
Hence as all emotions haply of those who are more to us than ourselves find within us stronger echo and more perfect answer so I could not be regardless of some hidden evil and my dark misgivings deepened as the time drew nearer I kept a steadfast watch on Lorna neglecting a field of beans entirely as well as a litter of young pigs and a cow somewhat given to jaundice And I let Jem Slocombe go to sleep in the tallat all one afternoon and Bill Dadds draw off a bucket of cider without so much as a by your leave For these men knew that my knighthood and my coat of arms and most of all my love were greatly against good farming the sense of our country being—and perhaps it may be sensible—that a man who sticks up to be anything must allow himself to be cheated
But I never did stick up nor would though all the parish bade me and I whistled the same tunes to my horses and held my ploughtree just the same as if no King nor Queen had ever come to spoil my tune or hand For this thing nearly all the men around our parts upbraided me but the women praised me and for the most part these are right when themselves are not concerned
However humble I might be no one knowing anything of our part of the country would for a moment doubt that now here was a great to do and talk of John Ridd and his wedding The fierce fight with the Doones so lately and my leading of the combat though I fought not more than need be and the vanishing of Sir Counsellor and the galloping madness of Carver and the religious fear of the women that this last was gone to hell—for he himself had declared that his aim while he cut through the yeomanry—also their remorse that he should have been made to go thither with all his children left behind—these things I say if ever I can again contrive to say anything had led to the broadest excitement about my wedding of Lorna We heard that people meant to come from more than thirty miles around upon excuse of seeing my stature and Lornas beauty but in good truth out of sheer curiosity and the love of meddling
Our clerk had given notice that not a man should come inside the door of his church without shillingfee and women as sure to see twice as much must every one pay two shillings I thought this wrong and as churchwarden begged that the money might be paid into mine own hands when taken But the clerk said that was against all law and he had orders from the parson to pay it to him without any delay So as I always obey the parson when I care not much about a thing I let them have it their own way though feeling inclined to believe sometimes that I ought to have some of the money
Dear mother arranged all the ins and outs of the way in which it was to be done and Annie and Lizzie and all the Snowes and even Ruth Huckaback who was there after great persuasion made such a sweeping of dresses that I scarcely knew where to place my feet and longed for a staff to put by their gowns Then Lorna came out of a pew halfway in a manner which quite astonished me and took my left hand in her right and I prayed God that it were done with
My darling looked so glorious that I was afraid of glancing at her yet took in all her beauty She was in a fright no doubt but nobody should see it whereas I said to myself at least I will go through it like a gravedigger
Lornas dress was of pure white clouded with faint lavender for the sake of the old Earl Brandir and as simple as need be except for perfect loveliness I was afraid to look at her as I said before except when each of us said I will and then each dwelled upon the other
It is impossible for any who have not loved as I have to conceive my joy and pride when after ring and all was done and the parson had blessed us Lorna turned to look at me with her glances of subtle fun subdued by this great act
Her eyes which none on earth may ever equal or compare with told me such a depth of comfort yet awaiting further commune that I was almost amazed thoroughly as I knew them Darling eyes the sweetest eyes the loveliest the most loving eyes—the sound of a shot rang through the church and those eyes were filled with death
Lorna fell across my knees when I was going to kiss her as the bridegroom is allowed to do and encouraged if he needs it a flood of blood came out upon the yellow wood of the altar steps and at my feet lay Lorna trying to tell me some last message out of her faithful eyes I lifted her up and petted her and coaxed her but it was no good the only sign of life remaining was a spirt of bright red blood
Some men know what things befall them in the supreme time of their life—far above the time of death—but to me comes back as a hazy dream without any knowledge in it what I did or felt or thought with my wifes arms flagging flagging around my neck as I raised her up and softly put them there She sighed a long sigh on my breast for her last farewell to life and then she grew so cold and cold that I asked the time of year
It was WhitTuesday and the lilacs all in blossom and why I thought of the time of year with the young death in my arms God or His angels may decide having so strangely given us Enough that so I did and looked and our white lilacs were beautiful Then I laid my wife in my mothers arms and begging that no one would make a noise went forth for my revenge
Of course I knew who had done it There was but one man in the world or at any rate in our part of it who could have done such a thing—such a thing I use no harsher word about it while I leaped upon our best horse with bridle but no saddle and set the head of Kickums towards the course now pointed out to me Who showed me the course I cannot tell I only know that I took it And the men fell back before me
Weapon of no sort had I Unarmed and wondering at my strange attire with a bridal vest wrought by our Annie and red with the blood of the bride I went forth just to find out this whether in this world there be or be not God of justice
With my vicious horse at a furious speed I came upon Black Barrow Down directed by some shout of men which seemed to me but a whisper And there about a furlong before me rode a man on a great black horse and I knew that the man was Carver Doone
Your life or mine I said to myself as the will of God may be But we two live not upon this earth one more hour together
I knew the strength of this great man and I knew that he was armed with a gun—if he had time to load again after shooting my Lorna—or at any rate with pistols and a horsemans sword as well Nevertheless I had no more doubt of killing the man before me than a cook has of spitting a headless fowl
Sometimes seeing no ground beneath me and sometimes heeding every leaf and the crossing of the grassblades I followed over the long moor reckless whether seen or not But only once the other man turned round and looked back again and then I was beside a rock with a reedy swamp behind me
Although he was so far before me and riding as hard as ride he might I saw that he had something on the horse in front of him something which needed care and stopped him from looking backward In the whirling of my wits I fancied first that this was Lorna until the scene I had been through fell across hot brain and heart like the drop at the close of a tragedy Rushing there through crag and quag at utmost speed of a maddened horse I saw as of anothers fate calmly as on canvas laid the brutal deed the piteous anguish and the cold despair
The man turned up the gully leading from the moor to Cloven Rocks through which John Fry had tracked Uncle Ben as of old related But as Carver entered it he turned round and beheld me not a hundred yards behind and I saw that he was bearing his child little Ensie before him Ensie also descried me and stretched his hands and cried to me for the face of his father frightened him
Carver Doone with a vile oath thrust spurs into his flagging horse and laid one hand on a pistolstock whence I knew that his slung carbine had received no bullet since the one that had pierced Lorna And a cry of triumph rose from the black depths of my heart What cared I for pistols I had no spurs neither was my horse one to need the rowel I rather held him in than urged him for he was fresh as ever and I knew that the black steed in front if he breasted the steep ascent where the track divided must be in our reach at once
His rider knew this and having no room in the rocky channel to turn and fire drew rein at the crossways sharply and plunged into the black ravine leading to the Wizards Slough Is it so I said to myself with a brain and head cold as iron though the foul fiend come from the slough to save thee thou shalt carve it Carver
I followed my enemy carefully steadily even leisurely for I had him as in a pitfall whence no escape might be He thought that I feared to approach him for he knew not where he was and his low disdainful laugh came back Laugh he who wins thought I
A gnarled and halfstarved oak as stubborn as my own resolve and smitten by some storm of old hung from the crag above me Rising from my horses back although I had no stirrups I caught a limb and tore it like a mere wheatawn from the socket Men show the rent even now with wonder none with more wonder than myself
Carver Doone turned the corner suddenly on the black and bottomless bog with a start of fear he reined back his horse and I thought he would have turned upon me But instead of that he again rode on hoping to find a way round the side
Now there is a way between cliff and slough for those who know the ground thoroughly or have time enough to search it but for him there was no road and he lost some time in seeking it Upon this he made up his mind and wheeling fired and then rode at me
His bullet struck me somewhere but I took no heed of that Fearing only his escape I laid my horse across the way and with the limb of the oak struck full on the forehead his charging steed Ere the slash of the sword came nigh me man and horse rolled over and wellnigh bore my own horse down with the power of their onset
Carver Doone was somewhat stunned and could not arise for a moment Meanwhile I leaped on the ground and awaited smoothing my hair back and baring my arms as though in the ring for wrestling Then the little boy ran to me clasped my leg and looked up at me and the terror in his eyes made me almost fear myself
Ensie dear I said quite gently grieving that he should see his wicked father killed run up yonder round the corner and try to find a pretty bunch of bluebells for the lady The child obeyed me hanging back and looking back and then laughing while I prepared for business There and then I might have killed mine enemy with a single blow while he lay unconscious but it would have been foul play
With a sullen and black scowl the Carver gathered his mighty limbs and arose and looked round for his weapons but I had put them well away Then he came to me and gazed being wont to frighten thus young men
I would not harm you lad he said with a lofty style of sneering I have punished you enough for most of your impertinence For the rest I forgive you because you have been good and gracious to my little son Go and be contented
For answer I smote him on the cheek lightly and not to hurt him but to make his blood leap up I would not sully my tongue by speaking to a man like this
There was a level space of sward between us and the slough With the courtesy derived from London and the processions I had seen to this place I led him And that he might breathe himself and have every fibre cool and every muscle ready my hold upon his coat I loosed and left him to begin with me whenever he thought proper
I think that he felt that his time was come I think he knew from my knitted muscles and the firm arch of my breast and the way in which I stood but most of all from my stern blue eyes that he had found his master At any rate a paleness came an ashy paleness on his cheeks and the vast calves of his legs bowed in as if he were out of training
Seeing this villain as he was I offered him first chance I stretched forth my left hand as I do to a weaker antagonist and I let him have the hug of me But in this I was too generous having forgotten my pistolwound and the cracking of one of my short lower ribs Carver Doone caught me round the waist with such a grip as never yet had been laid upon me
I heard my rib go I grasped his arm and tore the muscle out of it as the string comes out of an orange then I took him by the throat which is not allowed in wrestling but he had snatched at mine and now was no time of dalliance In vain he tugged and strained and writhed dashed his bleeding fist into my face and flung himself on me with gnashing jaws Beneath the iron of my strength—for God that day was with me—I had him helpless in two minutes and his fiery eyes lolled out
A far more terrible clutch than this is handed down to
weaker ages of the great John Ridd—Ed
I will not harm thee any more I cried so far as I could for panting the work being very furious Carver Doone thou art beaten own it and thank God for it and go thy way and repent thyself
It was all too late Even if he had yielded in his ravening frenzy—for his beard was like a mad dogs jowl—even if he would have owned that for the first time in his life he had found his master it was all too late
The black bog had him by the feet the sucking of the ground drew on him like the thirsty lips of death In our fury we had heeded neither wet nor dry nor thought of earth beneath us I myself might scarcely leap with the last spring of oerlaboured legs from the engulfing grave of slime He fell back with his swarthy breast from which my gripe had rent all clothing like a hummock of bogoak standing out the quagmire and then he tossed his arms to heaven and they were black to the elbow and the glare of his eyes was ghastly I could only gaze and pant for my strength was no more than an infants from the fury and the horror Scarcely could I turn away while joint by joint he sank from sight
CHAPTER LXXV
LIFE AND LORNA COME AGAIN
When the little boy came back with the bluebells which he had managed to find—as children always do find flowers when older eyes see none—the only sign of his father left was a dark brown bubble upon a newly formed patch of blackness But to the center of its pulpy gorge the greedy slough was heaving and sullenly grinding its weltering jaws among the flags and the sedges
With pain and ache both of mind and body and shame at my own fury I heavily mounted my horse again and looked down at the innocent Ensie Would this playful loving child grow up like his cruel father and end a godless life of hatred with a death of violence He lifted his noble forehead towards me as if to answer Nay I will not but the words he spoke were these—
Don—for he could never say John—oh Don I am so glad that nasty naughty man is gone away Take me home Don Take me home
It has been said of the wicked not even their own children love them And I could easily believe that Carver Doones coldhearted ways had scared from him even his favorite child No man would I call truly wicked unless his heart be cold
It hurt me more than I can tell even through all other grief to take into my arms the child of the man just slain by me The feeling was a foolish one and a wrong one as the thing has been—for I would fain have saved that man after he was conquered—nevertheless my arms went coldly round that little fellow neither would they have gone at all if there had been any help for it But I could not leave him there till some one else might fetch him on account of the cruel slough and the ravens which had come hovering over the dead horse neither could I with my wound tie him on my horse and walk
For now I had spent a great deal of blood and was rather faint and weary And it was lucky for me that Kickums had lost spirit like his master and went home as mildly as a lamb For when we came towards the farm I seemed to be riding in a dream almost and the voices both of man and women who had hurried forth upon my track as they met me seemed to wander from a distant muffling cloud Only the thought of Lornas death like a heavy knell was tolling in the belfry of my brain
When we came to the stable door I rather fell from my horse than got off and John Fry with a look of wonder took Kickums head and led him in Into the old farmhouse I tottered like a weanling child with mother in her common clothes helping me along yet fearing except by stealth to look at me
I have killed him was all I said even as he killed Lorna Now let me see my wife mother She belongs to me none the less though dead
You cannot see her now dear John said Ruth Huckaback coming forward since no one else had the courage Annie is with her now John
What has that to do with it Let me see my dead one and pray myself to die
All the women fell away and whispered and looked at me with side glances and some sobbing for my face was hard as flint Ruth alone stood by me and dropped her eyes and trembled Then one little hand of hers stole into my great shaking palm and the other was laid on my tattered coat yet with her clothes she shunned my blood while she whispered gently—
John she is not your dead one She may even be your living one yet your wife your home and your happiness But you must not see her now
Is there any chance for her For me I mean for me I mean
God in heaven knows dear John But the sight of you and in this sad plight would be certain death to her Now come first and be healed yourself
I obeyed her like a child whispering only as I went for none but myself knew her goodness—Almighty God will bless you darling for the good you are doing now
Tenfold ay and a thousandfold I prayed and I believed it when I came to know the truth If it had not been for this little maid Lorna must have died at once as in my arms she lay for dead from the dastard and murderous cruelty But the moment I left her Ruth came forward and took the command of every one in right of her firmness and readiness
She made them bear her home at once upon the door of the pulpit with the cushion under the drooping head With her own little hands she cut off as tenderly as a pear is peeled the bridaldress so steeped and stained and then with her dainty transparent fingers no larger than a pencil she probed the vile wound in the side and fetched the reeking bullet forth and then with the coldest water stanched the flowing of the lifeblood All this while my darling lay insensible and white as death and needed nothing but her maiden shroud
But Ruth still sponged the poor side and forehead and watched the long eyelashes flat upon the marble cheek and laid her pure face on the faint heart and bade them fetch her Spanish wine Then she parted the pearly teeth feebly clenched on the hovering breath and poured in wine from a christening spoon and raised the graceful neck and breast and stroked the delicate throat and waited and then poured in a little more
Annie all the while looked on with horror and amazement counting herself no secondrate nurse and this as against all theory But the quiet lifting of Ruths hand and one glance from her dark bright eyes told Annie just to stand away and not intercept the air so And at the very moment when all the rest had settled that Ruth was a simple idiot but could not harm the dead much a little flutter in the throat followed by a short low sigh made them pause and look and hope
For hours however and days she lay at the very verge of death kept alive by nothing but the care the skill the tenderness and the perpetual watchfulness of Ruth Luckily Annie was not there very often so as to meddle for kind and clever nurse as she was she must have done more harm than good But my broken rib which was set by a doctor who chanced to be at the wedding was allotted to Annies care and great inflammation ensuing it was quite enough to content her This doctor had pronounced poor Lorna dead wherefore Ruth refused most firmly to have aught to do with him She took the whole case on herself and with Gods help she bore it through
Now whether it were the light and brightness of my Lornas nature or the freedom from anxiety—for she knew not of my hurt—or as some people said her birthright among wounds and violence or her manner of not drinking beer—I leave that doctor to determine who pronounced her dead But anyhow one thing is certain sure as stars of hope above us Lorna recovered long ere I did
For the grief was on me still of having lost my love and lover at the moment she was mine With the power of fate upon me and the black cauldron of the wizards death boiling in my heated brain I had no faith in the tales they told I believed that Lorna was in the churchyard while these rogues were lying to me For with strength of blood like mine and power of heart behind it a broken bone must burn itself
Mine went hard with fires of pain being of such size and thickness and I was ashamed of him for breaking by reason of a pistolball and the mere hug of a man And it fetched me down in conceit of strength so that I was careful afterwards
All this was a lesson to me All this made me very humble illness being a thing as yet altogether unknown to me Not that I cried small or skulked or feared the death which some foretold shaking their heads about mortification and a green appearance Only that I seemed quite fit to go to heaven and Lorna For in my sick distracted mind stirred with many tossings like the bead in the spread of frogspawn carried by the current hung the black and central essence of my future life A life without Lorna a tadpole life All stupid head and no body
Many men may like such life anchorites fakirs highpriests and so on but to my mind it is not the native thing God meant for us My dearest mother was a show with crying and with fretting The Doones as she thought were born to destroy us Scarce had she come to some liveliness though sprinkled with tears every now and then after her great bereavement and ten years time to dwell on it—when lo here was her husbands son the pet child of her own good John murdered like his father Well the ways of God were wonderful
So they were and so they are and so they ever will be Let us debate them as we will our ways are His and much the same only secondhand from Him And I expected something from Him even in my worst of times knowing that I had done my best
This is not edifying talk—as our Nonconformist parson says when he can get no more to drink—therefore let me only tell what became of Lorna One day I was sitting in my bedroom for I could not get downstairs and there was no one strong enough to carry me even if I would have allowed it
Though it cost me sore trouble and weariness I had put on all my Sunday clothes out of respect for the doctor who was coming to bleed me again as he always did twice a week and it struck me that he had seemed hurt in his mind because I wore my worst clothes to be bled in—for lie in bed I would not after six oclock and even that was great laziness
I looked at my right hand whose grasp had been like that of a blacksmiths vice and it seemed to myself impossible that this could be John Ridds The great frame of the hand was there as well as the muscles standing forth like the guttering of a candle and the broad blue veins going up the back and crossing every finger But as for colour even Lornas could scarcely have been whiter and as for strength little Ensie Doone might have come and held it fast I laughed as I tried in vain to lift the basin set for bleeding me
Then I thought of all the lovely things going on outofdoors just now concerning which the drowsy song of the bees came to me These must be among the thyme by the sound of their great content Therefore the roses must be in blossom and the woodbine and clovegillyflower the cherries on the wall must be turning red the yellow Sally must be on the brook wheat must be callow with quavering bloom and the early meadows swathed with hay
Yet here was I a helpless creature quite unfit to stir among them gifted with no sight no scent of all the changes that move our love and lead our hearts from month to month along the quiet path of life And what was worse I had no hope of caring ever for them more
Presently a little knock sounded through my gloomy room and supposing it to be the doctor I tried to rise and make my bow But to my surprise it was little Ruth who had never once come to visit me since I was placed under the doctors hands Ruth was dressed so gaily with rosettes and flowers and what not that I was sorry for her bad manners and thought she was come to conquer me now that Lorna was done with
Ruth ran towards me with sparkling eyes being rather short of sight then suddenly she stopped and I saw entire amazement in her face
Can you receive visitors Cousin Ridd—why they never told me of this she cried I knew that you were weak dear John but not that you were dying Whatever is that basin for
I have no intention of dying Ruth and I like not to talk about it But that basin if you must know is for the doctors purpose
What do you mean bleeding you You poor weak cousin Is it possible that he does that still
Twice a week for the last six weeks dear Nothing else has kept me alive
Nothing else has killed you nearly There and she set her little boot across the basin and crushed it Not another drop shall they have from you Is Annie such a fool as that And Lizzie like a zany at her books And killing her brother between them
I was surprised to see Ruth excited her character being so calm and quiet And I tried to soothe her with my feeble hand as now she knelt before me
Dear cousin the doctor must know best Annie says so every day What has he been brought up for
Brought up for slaying and murdering Twenty doctors killed King Charles in spite of all the women Will you leave it to me John I have a little will of my own and I am not afraid of doctors Will you leave it to me dear John I have saved your Lornas life And now I will save yours which is a far far easier business
You have saved my Lornas life What do you mean by talking so
Only what I say Cousin John Though perhaps I overprize my work But at any rate she says so
I do not understand I said falling back with bewilderment all women are such liars
Have you ever known me tell a lie Ruth in great indignation—more feigned I doubt than real—your mother may tell a story now and then when she feels it right and so may both your sisters But so you cannot do John Ridd and no more than you can I do it
If ever there was virtuous truth in the eyes of any woman it was now in Ruth Huckabacks and my brain began very slowly to move the heart being almost torpid from perpetual loss of blood
I do not understand was all I could say for a very long time
Will you understand if I show you Lorna I have feared to do it for the sake of you both But now Lorna is well enough if you think that you are Cousin John Surely you will understand when you see your wife
Following her to the very utmost of my mind and heart I felt that all she said was truth and yet I could not make it out And in her last few words there was such a power of sadness rising through the cover of gaiety that I said to myself half in a dream Ruth is very beautiful
Before I had time to listen much for the approach of footsteps Ruth came back and behind her Lorna coy as if of her bridegroom and hanging back with her beauty Ruth banged the door and ran away and Lorna stood before me
But she did not stand for an instant when she saw what I was like At the risk of all thick bandages and upsetting a dozen medicine bottles and scattering leeches right and left she managed to get into my arms although they could not hold her She laid her panting warm young breast on the place where they meant to bleed me and she set my pale face up and she would not look at me having greater faith in kissing
I felt my life come back and warm I felt my trust in women flow I felt the joys of living now and the power of doing it It is not a moment to describe who feels can never tell of it But the rush of Lornas tears and the challenge of my brides lips and the throbbing of my wifes heart now at last at home on mine made me feel that the world was good and not a thing to be weary of
Little more have I to tell The doctor was turned out at once and slowly came back my former strength with a darling wife and good victuals As for Lorna she never tired of sitting and watching me eat and eat And such is her heart that she never tires of being with me here and there among the beautiful places and talking with her arm around me—so far at least as it can go though half of mine may go round her—of the many fears and troubles dangers and discouragements and worst of all the bitter partings which we used to have somehow
There is no need for my farming harder than becomes a man of weight Lorna has great stores of money though we never draw it out except for some poor neighbor unless I find her a sumptuous dress out of her own perquisites And this she always looks upon as a wondrous gift from me and kisses me much when she puts it on and walks like the noble woman she is And yet I may never behold it again for she gets back to her simple clothes and I love her the better in them I believe that she gives half the grandeur away and keeps the other half for the children
As for poor Tom Faggus every one knows his bitter adventures when his pardon was recalled because of his journey to Sedgemoor Not a child in the country I doubt but knows far more than I do of Toms most desperate doings The law had ruined him once he said and then he had been too much for the law and now that a quiet life was his object here the base thing came after him And such was his dread of this evil spirit that being caught upon Barnstaple Bridge with soldiers at either end of it yet doubtful about approaching him he set his strawberry mare sweet Winnie at the lefthand parapet with a whisper into her dovecoloured ear Without a moments doubt she leaped it into the foaming tide and swam and landed according to orders Also his flight from a publichouse where a trap was set for him but Winnie came and broke down the door and put two men under and trod on them is as well known as any ballad It was reported for awhile that poor Tom had been caught at last by means of his fondness for liquor and was hanged before Taunton Jail but luckily we knew better With a good wife and a wonderful horse and all the country attached to him he kept the law at a wholesome distance until it became too much for its master and a new king arose Upon this Tom sued his pardon afresh and Jeremy Stickles who suited the times was glad to help him in getting it as well as a compensation Thereafter the good and respectable Tom lived a godly though not always sober life and brought up his children to honesty as the first of all qualifications
My dear mother was as happy as possibly need be with us having no cause for jealousy as others arose around her And everybody was well pleased when Lizzy came in one day and tossed her bookshelf over and declared that she would have Captain Bloxham and nobody should prevent her For that he alone of all the men she had ever met with knew good writing when he saw it and could spell a word when told As he had now succeeded to Captain Stickles position Stickles going up the tree and had the power of collecting and of keeping what he liked there was nothing to be said against it and we hoped that he would pay her out
I sent little Ensie to Blundells school at my own cost and charges having changed his name for fear of what anyone might do to him I called him Ensie Jones and we got him a commission and after many scrapes of spirit he did great things in the Low Countries He looks upon me as his father and without my leave will not lay claim to the heritage and title of the Doones which clearly belong to him
Ruth Huckaback is not married yet although upon Uncle Reubens death she came into all his property except indeed 2000 pounds which Uncle Ben in his driest manner bequeathed to Sir John Ridd the worshipful knight for greasing of the testators boots And he left almost a mint of money not from the mine but from the shop and the good use of usury For the mine had brought in just what it cost when the vein of gold ended suddenly leaving all concerned much older and some I fear much poorer but no one utterly ruined as is the case with most of them Ruth herself was his true mine as upon deathbed he found I know a man even worthy of her and though she is not very young he loves her as I love Lorna It is my firm conviction that in the end he will win her and I do not mean to dance again except at dear Ruths wedding if the floor be strong enough
Of Lorna of my lifelong darling of my more and more loved wife I will not talk for it is not seemly that a man should exalt his pride Year by year her beauty grows with the growth of goodness kindness and true happiness—above all with loving For change she makes a joke of this and plays with it and laughs at it and then when my slow nature marvels back she comes to the earnest thing And if I wish to pay her out for something very dreadful—as may happen once or twice when we become too gladsome—I bring her to forgotten sadness and to me for cure of it by the two words Lorna Doone