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diff --git a/old/svprt10.txt b/old/svprt10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..35c69f8 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/svprt10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1371 @@ +Project Gutenberg Etext of The Seven Poor Travellers, by Dickens +#36 in our series by Charles Dickens + + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world, be sure to check +the copyright laws for your country before posting these files!! + +Please take a look at the important information in this header. +We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an +electronic path open for the next readers. Do not remove this. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**Etexts Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*These Etexts Prepared By Hundreds of Volunteers and Donations* + +Information on contacting Project Gutenberg to get Etexts, and +further information is included below. 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FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.29.93*END* + + + + + +THE SEVEN POOR TRAVELLERS--IN THREE CHAPTERS + +by Charles Dickens + + + + +CHAPTER I--IN THE OLD CITY OF ROCHESTER + + + +Strictly speaking, there were only six Poor Travellers; but, being a +Traveller myself, though an idle one, and being withal as poor as I +hope to be, I brought the number up to seven. This word of +explanation is due at once, for what says the inscription over the +quaint old door? + + +RICHARD WATTS, Esq. +by his Will, dated 22 Aug. 1579, +founded this Charity +for Six poor Travellers, +who not being ROGUES, or PROCTORS, +May receive gratis for one Night, +Lodging, Entertainment, +and Fourpence each. + + +It was in the ancient little city of Rochester in Kent, of all the +good days in the year upon a Christmas-eve, that I stood reading +this inscription over the quaint old door in question. I had been +wandering about the neighbouring Cathedral, and had seen the tomb of +Richard Watts, with the effigy of worthy Master Richard starting out +of it like a ship's figure-head; and I had felt that I could do no +less, as I gave the Verger his fee, than inquire the way to Watts's +Charity. The way being very short and very plain, I had come +prosperously to the inscription and the quaint old door. + +"Now," said I to myself, as I looked at the knocker, "I know I am +not a Proctor; I wonder whether I am a Rogue!" + +Upon the whole, though Conscience reproduced two or three pretty +faces which might have had smaller attraction for a moral Goliath +than they had had for me, who am but a Tom Thumb in that way, I came +to the conclusion that I was not a Rogue. So, beginning to regard +the establishment as in some sort my property, bequeathed to me and +divers co-legatees, share and share alike, by the Worshipful Master +Richard Watts, I stepped backward into the road to survey my +inheritance. + +I found it to be a clean white house, of a staid and venerable air, +with the quaint old door already three times mentioned (an arched +door), choice little long low lattice-windows, and a roof of three +gables. The silent High Street of Rochester is full of gables, with +old beams and timbers carved into strange faces. It is oddly +garnished with a queer old clock that projects over the pavement out +of a grave red-brick building, as if Time carried on business there, +and hung out his sign. Sooth to say, he did an active stroke of +work in Rochester, in the old days of the Romans, and the Saxons, +and the Normans; and down to the times of King John, when the rugged +castle--I will not undertake to say how many hundreds of years old +then--was abandoned to the centuries of weather which have so +defaced the dark apertures in its walls, that the ruin looks as if +the rooks and daws had pecked its eyes out. + +I was very well pleased, both with my property and its situation. +While I was yet surveying it with growing content, I espied, at one +of the upper lattices which stood open, a decent body, of a +wholesome matronly appearance, whose eyes I caught inquiringly +addressed to mine. They said so plainly, "Do you wish to see the +house?" that I answered aloud, "Yes, if you please." And within a +minute the old door opened, and I bent my head, and went down two +steps into the entry. + +"This," said the matronly presence, ushering me into a low room on +the right, "is where the Travellers sit by the fire, and cook what +bits of suppers they buy with their fourpences." + +"O! Then they have no Entertainment?" said I. For the inscription +over the outer door was still running in my head, and I was mentally +repeating, in a kind of tune, "Lodging, entertainment, and fourpence +each." + +"They have a fire provided for 'em," returned the matron--a mighty +civil person, not, as I could make out, overpaid; "and these cooking +utensils. And this what's painted on a board is the rules for their +behaviour. They have their fourpences when they get their tickets +from the steward over the way,--for I don't admit 'em myself, they +must get their tickets first,--and sometimes one buys a rasher of +bacon, and another a herring, and another a pound of potatoes, or +what not. Sometimes two or three of 'em will club their fourpences +together, and make a supper that way. But not much of anything is +to be got for fourpence, at present, when provisions is so dear." + +"True indeed," I remarked. I had been looking about the room, +admiring its snug fireside at the upper end, its glimpse of the +street through the low mullioned window, and its beams overhead. +"It is very comfortable," said I. + +"Ill-conwenient," observed the matronly presence. + +I liked to hear her say so; for it showed a commendable anxiety to +execute in no niggardly spirit the intentions of Master Richard +Watts. But the room was really so well adapted to its purpose that +I protested, quite enthusiastically, against her disparagement. + +"Nay, ma'am," said I, "I am sure it is warm in winter and cool in +summer. It has a look of homely welcome and soothing rest. It has +a remarkably cosey fireside, the very blink of which, gleaming out +into the street upon a winter night, is enough to warm all +Rochester's heart. And as to the convenience of the six Poor +Travellers--" + +"I don't mean them," returned the presence. "I speak of its being +an ill-conwenience to myself and my daughter, having no other room +to sit in of a night." + +This was true enough, but there was another quaint room of +corresponding dimensions on the opposite side of the entry: so I +stepped across to it, through the open doors of both rooms, and +asked what this chamber was for. + +"This," returned the presence, "is the Board Room. Where the +gentlemen meet when they come here." + +Let me see. I had counted from the street six upper windows besides +these on the ground-story. Making a perplexed calculation in my +mind, I rejoined, "Then the six Poor Travellers sleep upstairs?" + +My new friend shook her head. "They sleep," she answered, "in two +little outer galleries at the back, where their beds has always +been, ever since the Charity was founded. It being so very ill- +conwenient to me as things is at present, the gentlemen are going to +take off a bit of the back-yard, and make a slip of a room for 'em +there, to sit in before they go to bed." + +"And then the six Poor Travellers," said I, "will be entirely out of +the house?" + +"Entirely out of the house," assented the presence, comfortably +smoothing her hands. "Which is considered much better for all +parties, and much more conwenient." + +I had been a little startled, in the Cathedral, by the emphasis with +which the effigy of Master Richard Watts was bursting out of his +tomb; but I began to think, now, that it might be expected to come +across the High Street some stormy night, and make a disturbance +here. + +Howbeit, I kept my thoughts to myself, and accompanied the presence +to the little galleries at the back. I found them on a tiny scale, +like the galleries in old inn-yards; and they were very clean. + +While I was looking at them, the matron gave me to understand that +the prescribed number of Poor Travellers were forthcoming every +night from year's end to year's end; and that the beds were always +occupied. My questions upon this, and her replies, brought us back +to the Board Room so essential to the dignity of "the gentlemen," +where she showed me the printed accounts of the Charity hanging up +by the window. From them I gathered that the greater part of the +property bequeathed by the Worshipful Master Richard Watts for the +maintenance of this foundation was, at the period of his death, mere +marsh-land; but that, in course of time, it had been reclaimed and +built upon, and was very considerably increased in value. I found, +too, that about a thirtieth part of the annual revenue was now +expended on the purposes commemorated in the inscription over the +door; the rest being handsomely laid out in Chancery, law expenses, +collectorship, receivership, poundage, and other appendages of +management, highly complimentary to the importance of the six Poor +Travellers. In short, I made the not entirely new discovery that it +may be said of an establishment like this, in dear old England, as +of the fat oyster in the American story, that it takes a good many +men to swallow it whole. + +"And pray, ma'am," said I, sensible that the blankness of my face +began to brighten as the thought occurred to me, "could one see +these Travellers?" + +"Well!" she returned dubiously, "no!" + +"Not to-night, for instance!" said I. + +"Well!" she returned more positively, "no. Nobody ever asked to see +them, and nobody ever did see them." + +As I am not easily balked in a design when I am set upon it, I urged +to the good lady that this was Christmas-eve; that Christmas comes +but once a year,--which is unhappily too true, for when it begins to +stay with us the whole year round we shall make this earth a very +different place; that I was possessed by the desire to treat the +Travellers to a supper and a temperate glass of hot Wassail; that +the voice of Fame had been heard in that land, declaring my ability +to make hot Wassail; that if I were permitted to hold the feast, I +should be found conformable to reason, sobriety, and good hours; in +a word, that I could be merry and wise myself, and had been even +known at a pinch to keep others so, although I was decorated with no +badge or medal, and was not a Brother, Orator, Apostle, Saint, or +Prophet of any denomination whatever. In the end I prevailed, to my +great joy. It was settled that at nine o'clock that night a Turkey +and a piece of Roast Beef should smoke upon the board; and that I, +faint and unworthy minister for once of Master Richard Watts, should +preside as the Christmas-supper host of the six Poor Travellers. + +I went back to my inn to give the necessary directions for the +Turkey and Roast Beef, and, during the remainder of the day, could +settle to nothing for thinking of the Poor Travellers. When the +wind blew hard against the windows,--it was a cold day, with dark +gusts of sleet alternating with periods of wild brightness, as if +the year were dying fitfully,--I pictured them advancing towards +their resting-place along various cold roads, and felt delighted to +think how little they foresaw the supper that awaited them. I +painted their portraits in my mind, and indulged in little +heightening touches. I made them footsore; I made them weary; I +made them carry packs and bundles; I made them stop by finger-posts +and milestones, leaning on their bent sticks, and looking wistfully +at what was written there; I made them lose their way; and filled +their five wits with apprehensions of lying out all night, and being +frozen to death. I took up my hat, and went out, climbed to the top +of the Old Castle, and looked over the windy hills that slope down +to the Medway, almost believing that I could descry some of my +Travellers in the distance. After it fell dark, and the Cathedral +bell was heard in the invisible steeple--quite a bower of frosty +rime when I had last seen it--striking five, six, seven, I became so +full of my Travellers that I could eat no dinner, and felt +constrained to watch them still in the red coals of my fire. They +were all arrived by this time, I thought, had got their tickets, and +were gone in.--There my pleasure was dashed by the reflection that +probably some Travellers had come too late and were shut out. + +After the Cathedral bell had struck eight, I could smell a delicious +savour of Turkey and Roast Beef rising to the window of my adjoining +bedroom, which looked down into the inn-yard just where the lights +of the kitchen reddened a massive fragment of the Castle Wall. It +was high time to make the Wassail now; therefore I had up the +materials (which, together with their proportions and combinations, +I must decline to impart, as the only secret of my own I was ever +known to keep), and made a glorious jorum. Not in a bowl; for a +bowl anywhere but on a shelf is a low superstition, fraught with +cooling and slopping; but in a brown earthenware pitcher, tenderly +suffocated, when full, with a coarse cloth. It being now upon the +stroke of nine, I set out for Watts's Charity, carrying my brown +beauty in my arms. I would trust Ben, the waiter, with untold gold; +but there are strings in the human heart which must never be sounded +by another, and drinks that I make myself are those strings in mine. + +The Travellers were all assembled, the cloth was laid, and Ben had +brought a great billet of wood, and had laid it artfully on the top +of the fire, so that a touch or two of the poker after supper should +make a roaring blaze. Having deposited my brown beauty in a red +nook of the hearth, inside the fender, where she soon began to sing +like an ethereal cricket, diffusing at the same time odours as of +ripe vineyards, spice forests, and orange groves,--I say, having +stationed my beauty in a place of security and improvement, I +introduced myself to my guests by shaking hands all round, and +giving them a hearty welcome. + +I found the party to be thus composed. Firstly, myself. Secondly, +a very decent man indeed, with his right arm in a sling, who had a +certain clean agreeable smell of wood about him, from which I judged +him to have something to do with shipbuilding. Thirdly, a little +sailor-boy, a mere child, with a profusion of rich dark brown hair, +and deep womanly-looking eyes. Fourthly, a shabby-genteel personage +in a threadbare black suit, and apparently in very bad +circumstances, with a dry suspicious look; the absent buttons on his +waistcoat eked out with red tape; and a bundle of extraordinarily +tattered papers sticking out of an inner breast-pocket. Fifthly, a +foreigner by birth, but an Englishman in speech, who carried his +pipe in the band of his hat, and lost no time in telling me, in an +easy, simple, engaging way, that he was a watchmaker from Geneva, +and travelled all about the Continent, mostly on foot, working as a +journeyman, and seeing new countries,--possibly (I thought) also +smuggling a watch or so, now and then. Sixthly, a little widow, who +had been very pretty and was still very young, but whose beauty had +been wrecked in some great misfortune, and whose manner was +remarkably timid, scared, and solitary. Seventhly and lastly, a +Traveller of a kind familiar to my boyhood, but now almost +obsolete,--a Book-Pedler, who had a quantity of Pamphlets and +Numbers with him, and who presently boasted that he could repeat +more verses in an evening than he could sell in a twelvemonth. + +All these I have mentioned in the order in which they sat at table. +I presided, and the matronly presence faced me. We were not long in +taking our places, for the supper had arrived with me, in the +following procession: + + +Myself with the pitcher. +Ben with Beer. +Inattentive Boy with hot plates. Inattentive Boy with hot plates. +THE TURKEY. +Female carrying sauces to be heated on the spot. +THE BEEF. +Man with Tray on his head, containing Vegetables and Sundries. +Volunteer Hostler from Hotel, grinning, +And rendering no assistance. + + +As we passed along the High Street, comet-like, we left a long tail +of fragrance behind us which caused the public to stop, sniffing in +wonder. We had previously left at the corner of the inn-yard a +wall-eyed young man connected with the Fly department, and well +accustomed to the sound of a railway whistle which Ben always +carries in his pocket, whose instructions were, so soon as he should +hear the whistle blown, to dash into the kitchen, seize the hot +plum-pudding and mince-pies, and speed with them to Watts's Charity, +where they would be received (he was further instructed) by the +sauce-female, who would be provided with brandy in a blue state of +combustion. + +All these arrangements were executed in the most exact and punctual +manner. I never saw a finer turkey, finer beef, or greater +prodigality of sauce and gravy;--and my Travellers did wonderful +justice to everything set before them. It made my heart rejoice to +observe how their wind and frost hardened faces softened in the +clatter of plates and knives and forks, and mellowed in the fire and +supper heat. While their hats and caps and wrappers, hanging up, a +few small bundles on the ground in a corner, and in another corner +three or four old walking-sticks, worn down at the end to mere +fringe, linked this smug interior with the bleak outside in a golden +chain. + +When supper was done, and my brown beauty had been elevated on the +table, there was a general requisition to me to "take the corner;" +which suggested to me comfortably enough how much my friends here +made of a fire,--for when had I ever thought so highly of the +corner, since the days when I connected it with Jack Horner? +However, as I declined, Ben, whose touch on all convivial +instruments is perfect, drew the table apart, and instructing my +Travellers to open right and left on either side of me, and form +round the fire, closed up the centre with myself and my chair, and +preserved the order we had kept at table. He had already, in a +tranquil manner, boxed the ears of the inattentive boys until they +had been by imperceptible degrees boxed out of the room; and he now +rapidly skirmished the sauce-female into the High Street, +disappeared, and softly closed the door. + +This was the time for bringing the poker to bear on the billet of +wood. I tapped it three times, like an enchanted talisman, and a +brilliant host of merry-makers burst out of it, and sported off by +the chimney,--rushing up the middle in a fiery country dance, and +never coming down again. Meanwhile, by their sparkling light, which +threw our lamp into the shade, I filled the glasses, and gave my +Travellers, CHRISTMAS!--CHRISTMAS-EVE, my friends, when the +shepherds, who were Poor Travellers, too, in their way, heard the +Angels sing, "On earth, peace. Good-will towards men!" + +I don't know who was the first among us to think that we ought to +take hands as we sat, in deference to the toast, or whether any one +of us anticipated the others, but at any rate we all did it. We +then drank to the memory of the good Master Richard Watts. And I +wish his Ghost may never have had worse usage under that roof than +it had from us. + +It was the witching time for Story-telling. "Our whole life, +Travellers," said I, "is a story more or less intelligible,-- +generally less; but we shall read it by a clearer light when it is +ended. I, for one, am so divided this night between fact and +fiction, that I scarce know which is which. Shall I beguile the +time by telling you a story as we sit here?" + +They all answered, yes. I had little to tell them, but I was bound +by my own proposal. Therefore, after looking for awhile at the +spiral column of smoke wreathing up from my brown beauty, through +which I could have almost sworn I saw the effigy of Master Richard +Watts less startled than usual, I fired away. + + + +CHAPTER II--THE STORY OF RICHARD DOUBLEDICK + + + +In the year one thousand seven hundred and ninety-nine, a relative +of mine came limping down, on foot, to this town of Chatham. I call +it this town, because if anybody present knows to a nicety where +Rochester ends and Chatham begins, it is more than I do. He was a +poor traveller, with not a farthing in his pocket. He sat by the +fire in this very room, and he slept one night in a bed that will be +occupied tonight by some one here. + +My relative came down to Chatham to enlist in a cavalry regiment, if +a cavalry regiment would have him; if not, to take King George's +shilling from any corporal or sergeant who would put a bunch of +ribbons in his hat. His object was to get shot; but he thought he +might as well ride to death as be at the trouble of walking. + +My relative's Christian name was Richard, but he was better known as +Dick. He dropped his own surname on the road down, and took up that +of Doubledick. He was passed as Richard Doubledick; age, twenty- +two; height, five foot ten; native place, Exmouth, which he had +never been near in his life. There was no cavalry in Chatham when +he limped over the bridge here with half a shoe to his dusty feet, +so he enlisted into a regiment of the line, and was glad to get +drunk and forget all about it. + +You are to know that this relative of mine had gone wrong, and run +wild. His heart was in the right place, but it was sealed up. He +had been betrothed to a good and beautiful girl, whom he had loved +better than she--or perhaps even he--believed; but in an evil hour +he had given her cause to say to him solemnly, "Richard, I will +never marry another man. I will live single for your sake, but Mary +Marshall's lips"--her name was Mary Marshall--"never address another +word to you on earth. Go, Richard! Heaven forgive you!" This +finished him. This brought him down to Chatham. This made him +Private Richard Doubledick, with a determination to be shot. + +There was not a more dissipated and reckless soldier in Chatham +barracks, in the year one thousand seven hundred and ninety-nine, +than Private Richard Doubledick. He associated with the dregs of +every regiment; he was as seldom sober as he could be, and was +constantly under punishment. It became clear to the whole barracks +that Private Richard Doubledick would very soon be flogged. + +Now the Captain of Richard Doubledick's company was a young +gentleman not above five years his senior, whose eyes had an +expression in them which affected Private Richard Doubledick in a +very remarkable way. They were bright, handsome, dark eyes,--what +are called laughing eyes generally, and, when serious, rather steady +than severe,--but they were the only eyes now left in his narrowed +world that Private Richard Doubledick could not stand. Unabashed by +evil report and punishment, defiant of everything else and everybody +else, he had but to know that those eyes looked at him for a moment, +and he felt ashamed. He could not so much as salute Captain Taunton +in the street like any other officer. He was reproached and +confused,--troubled by the mere possibility of the captain's looking +at him. In his worst moments, he would rather turn back, and go any +distance out of his way, than encounter those two handsome, dark, +bright eyes. + +One day, when Private Richard Doubledick came out of the Black hole, +where he had been passing the last eight-and-forty hours, and in +which retreat he spent a good deal of his time, he was ordered to +betake himself to Captain Taunton's quarters. In the stale and +squalid state of a man just out of the Black hole, he had less fancy +than ever for being seen by the captain; but he was not so mad yet +as to disobey orders, and consequently went up to the terrace +overlooking the parade-ground, where the officers' quarters were; +twisting and breaking in his hands, as he went along, a bit of the +straw that had formed the decorative furniture of the Black hole. + +"Come in!" cried the Captain, when he had knocked with his knuckles +at the door. Private Richard Doubledick pulled off his cap, took a +stride forward, and felt very conscious that he stood in the light +of the dark, bright eyes. + +There was a silent pause. Private Richard Doubledick had put the +straw in his mouth, and was gradually doubling it up into his +windpipe and choking himself. + +"Doubledick," said the Captain, "do you know where you are going +to?" + +"To the Devil, sir?" faltered Doubledick. + +"Yes," returned the Captain. "And very fast." + +Private Richard Doubledick turned the straw of the Black hole in his +month, and made a miserable salute of acquiescence. + +"Doubledick," said the Captain, "since I entered his Majesty's +service, a boy of seventeen, I have been pained to see many men of +promise going that road; but I have never been so pained to see a +man make the shameful journey as I have been, ever since you joined +the regiment, to see you." + +Private Richard Doubledick began to find a film stealing over the +floor at which he looked; also to find the legs of the Captain's +breakfast-table turning crooked, as if he saw them through water. + +"I am only a common soldier, sir," said he. "It signifies very +little what such a poor brute comes to." + +"You are a man," returned the Captain, with grave indignation, "of +education and superior advantages; and if you say that, meaning what +you say, you have sunk lower than I had believed. How low that must +be, I leave you to consider, knowing what I know of your disgrace, +and seeing what I see." + +"I hope to get shot soon, sir," said Private Richard Doubledick; +"and then the regiment and the world together will be rid of me." + +The legs of the table were becoming very crooked. Doubledick, +looking up to steady his vision, met the eyes that had so strong an +influence over him. He put his hand before his own eyes, and the +breast of his disgrace-jacket swelled as if it would fly asunder. + +"I would rather," said the young Captain, "see this in you, +Doubledick, than I would see five thousand guineas counted out upon +this table for a gift to my good mother. Have you a mother?" + +"I am thankful to say she is dead, sir." + +"If your praises," returned the Captain, "were sounded from mouth to +mouth through the whole regiment, through the whole army, through +the whole country, you would wish she had lived to say, with pride +and joy, 'He is my son!'" + +"Spare me, sir," said Doubledick. "She would never have heard any +good of me. She would never have had any pride and joy in owning +herself my mother. Love and compassion she might have had, and +would have always had, I know but not--Spare me, sir! I am a broken +wretch, quite at your mercy!" And he turned his face to the wall, +and stretched out his imploring hand. + +"My friend--" began the Captain. + +"God bless you, sir!" sobbed Private Richard Doubledick. + +"You are at the crisis of your fate. Hold your course unchanged a +little longer, and you know what must happen. I know even better +than you can imagine, that, after that has happened, you are lost. +No man who could shed those tears could bear those marks." + +"I fully believe it, sir," in a low, shivering voice said Private +Richard Doubledick. + +"But a man in any station can do his duty," said the young Captain, +"and, in doing it, can earn his own respect, even if his case should +be so very unfortunate and so very rare that he can earn no other +man's. A common soldier, poor brute though you called him just now, +has this advantage in the stormy times we live in, that he always +does his duty before a host of sympathising witnesses. Do you doubt +that he may so do it as to be extolled through a whole regiment, +through a whole army, through a whole country? Turn while you may +yet retrieve the past, and try." + +"I will! I ask for only one witness, sir," cried Richard, with a +bursting heart. + +"I understand you. I will be a watchful and a faithful one." + +I have heard from Private Richard Doubledick's own lips, that he +dropped down upon his knee, kissed that officer's hand, arose, and +went out of the light of the dark, bright eyes, an altered man. + +In that year, one thousand seven hundred and ninety-nine, the French +were in Egypt, in Italy, in Germany, where not? Napoleon Bonaparte +had likewise begun to stir against us in India, and most men could +read the signs of the great troubles that were coming on. In the +very next year, when we formed an alliance with Austria against him, +Captain Taunton's regiment was on service in India. And there was +not a finer non-commissioned officer in it,--no, nor in the whole +line--than Corporal Richard Doubledick. + +In eighteen hundred and one, the Indian army were on the coast of +Egypt. Next year was the year of the proclamation of the short +peace, and they were recalled. It had then become well known to +thousands of men, that wherever Captain Taunton, with the dark, +bright eyes, led, there, close to him, ever at his side, firm as a +rock, true as the sun, and brave as Mars, would be certain to be +found, while life beat in their hearts, that famous soldier, +Sergeant Richard Doubledick. + +Eighteen hundred and five, besides being the great year of +Trafalgar, was a year of hard fighting in India. That year saw such +wonders done by a Sergeant-Major, who cut his way single-handed +through a solid mass of men, recovered the colours of his regiment, +which had been seized from the hand of a poor boy shot through the +heart, and rescued his wounded Captain, who was down, and in a very +jungle of horses' hoofs and sabres,--saw such wonders done, I say, +by this brave Sergeant-Major, that he was specially made the bearer +of the colours he had won; and Ensign Richard Doubledick had risen +from the ranks. + +Sorely cut up in every battle, but always reinforced by the bravest +of men,--for the fame of following the old colours, shot through and +through, which Ensign Richard Doubledick had saved, inspired all +breasts,--this regiment fought its way through the Peninsular war, +up to the investment of Badajos in eighteen hundred and twelve. +Again and again it had been cheered through the British ranks until +the tears had sprung into men's eyes at the mere hearing of the +mighty British voice, so exultant in their valour; and there was not +a drummer-boy but knew the legend, that wherever the two friends, +Major Taunton, with the dark, bright eyes, and Ensign Richard +Doubledick, who was devoted to him, were seen to go, there the +boldest spirits in the English army became wild to follow. + +One day, at Badajos,--not in the great storming, but in repelling a +hot sally of the besieged upon our men at work in the trenches, who +had given way,--the two officers found themselves hurrying forward, +face to face, against a party of French infantry, who made a stand. +There was an officer at their head, encouraging his men,--a +courageous, handsome, gallant officer of five-and-thirty, whom +Doubledick saw hurriedly, almost momentarily, but saw well. He +particularly noticed this officer waving his sword, and rallying his +men with an eager and excited cry, when they fired in obedience to +his gesture, and Major Taunton dropped. + +It was over in ten minutes more, and Doubledick returned to the spot +where he had laid the best friend man ever had on a coat spread upon +the wet clay. Major Taunton's uniform was opened at the breast, and +on his shirt were three little spots of blood. + +"Dear Doubledick," said he, "I am dying." + +"For the love of Heaven, no!" exclaimed the other, kneeling down +beside him, and passing his arm round his neck to raise his head. +"Taunton! My preserver, my guardian angel, my witness! Dearest, +truest, kindest of human beings! Taunton! For God's sake!" + +The bright, dark eyes--so very, very dark now, in the pale face-- +smiled upon him; and the hand he had kissed thirteen years ago laid +itself fondly on his breast. + +"Write to my mother. You will see Home again. Tell her how we +became friends. It will comfort her, as it comforts me." + +He spoke no more, but faintly signed for a moment towards his hair +as it fluttered in the wind. The Ensign understood him. He smiled +again when he saw that, and, gently turning his face over on the +supporting arm as if for rest, died, with his hand upon the breast +in which he had revived a soul. + +No dry eye looked on Ensign Richard Doubledick that melancholy day. +He buried his friend on the field, and became a lone, bereaved man. +Beyond his duty he appeared to have but two remaining cares in +life,--one, to preserve the little packet of hair he was to give to +Taunton's mother; the other, to encounter that French officer who +had rallied the men under whose fire Taunton fell. A new legend now +began to circulate among our troops; and it was, that when he and +the French officer came face to face once more, there would be +weeping in France. + +The war went on--and through it went the exact picture of the French +officer on the one side, and the bodily reality upon the other-- +until the Battle of Toulouse was fought. In the returns sent home +appeared these words: "Severely wounded, but not dangerously, +Lieutenant Richard Doubledick." + +At Midsummer-time, in the year eighteen hundred and fourteen, +Lieutenant Richard Doubledick, now a browned soldier, seven-and- +thirty years of age, came home to England invalided. He brought the +hair with him, near his heart. Many a French officer had he seen +since that day; many a dreadful night, in searching with men and +lanterns for his wounded, had he relieved French officers lying +disabled; but the mental picture and the reality had never come +together. + +Though he was weak and suffered pain, he lost not an hour in getting +down to Frome in Somersetshire, where Taunton's mother lived. In +the sweet, compassionate words that naturally present themselves to +the mind to-night, "he was the only son of his mother, and she was a +widow." + +It was a Sunday evening, and the lady sat at her quiet garden- +window, reading the Bible; reading to herself, in a trembling voice, +that very passage in it, as I have heard him tell. He heard the +words: "Young man, I say unto thee, arise!" + +He had to pass the window; and the bright, dark eyes of his debased +time seemed to look at him. Her heart told her who he was; she came +to the door quickly, and fell upon his neck. + +"He saved me from ruin, made me a human creature, won me from infamy +and shame. O, God for ever bless him! As He will, He Will!" + +"He will!" the lady answered. "I know he is in heaven!" Then she +piteously cried, "But O, my darling boy, my darling boy!" + +Never from the hour when Private Richard Doubledick enlisted at +Chatham had the Private, Corporal, Sergeant, Sergeant-Major, Ensign, +or Lieutenant breathed his right name, or the name of Mary Marshall, +or a word of the story of his life, into any ear except his +reclaimer's. That previous scene in his existence was closed. He +had firmly resolved that his expiation should be to live unknown; to +disturb no more the peace that had long grown over his old offences; +to let it be revealed, when he was dead, that he had striven and +suffered, and had never forgotten; and then, if they could forgive +him and believe him--well, it would be time enough--time enough! + +But that night, remembering the words he had cherished for two +years, "Tell her how we became friends. It will comfort her, as it +comforts me," he related everything. It gradually seemed to him as +if in his maturity he had recovered a mother; it gradually seemed to +her as if in her bereavement she had found a son. During his stay +in England, the quiet garden into which he had slowly and painfully +crept, a stranger, became the boundary of his home; when he was able +to rejoin his regiment in the spring, he left the garden, thinking +was this indeed the first time he had ever turned his face towards +the old colours with a woman's blessing! + +He followed them--so ragged, so scarred and pierced now, that they +would scarcely hold together--to Quatre Bras and Ligny. He stood +beside them, in an awful stillness of many men, shadowy through the +mist and drizzle of a wet June forenoon, on the field of Waterloo. +And down to that hour the picture in his mind of the French officer +had never been compared with the reality. + +The famous regiment was in action early in the battle, and received +its first check in many an eventful year, when he was seen to fall. +But it swept on to avenge him, and left behind it no such creature +in the world of consciousness as Lieutenant Richard Doubledick. + +Through pits of mire, and pools of rain; along deep ditches, once +roads, that were pounded and ploughed to pieces by artillery, heavy +waggons, tramp of men and horses, and the struggle of every wheeled +thing that could carry wounded soldiers; jolted among the dying and +the dead, so disfigured by blood and mud as to be hardly +recognisable for humanity; undisturbed by the moaning of men and the +shrieking of horses, which, newly taken from the peaceful pursuits +of life, could not endure the sight of the stragglers lying by the +wayside, never to resume their toilsome journey; dead, as to any +sentient life that was in it, and yet alive,--the form that had been +Lieutenant Richard Doubledick, with whose praises England rang, was +conveyed to Brussels. There it was tenderly laid down in hospital; +and there it lay, week after week, through the long bright summer +days, until the harvest, spared by war, had ripened and was gathered +in. + +Over and over again the sun rose and set upon the crowded city; over +and over again the moonlight nights were quiet on the plains of +Waterloo: and all that time was a blank to what had been Lieutenant +Richard Doubledick. Rejoicing troops marched into Brussels, and +marched out; brothers and fathers, sisters, mothers, and wives, came +thronging thither, drew their lots of joy or agony, and departed; so +many times a day the bells rang; so many times the shadows of the +great buildings changed; so many lights sprang up at dusk; so many +feet passed here and there upon the pavements; so many hours of +sleep and cooler air of night succeeded: indifferent to all, a +marble face lay on a bed, like the face of a recumbent statue on the +tomb of Lieutenant Richard Doubledick. + +Slowly labouring, at last, through a long heavy dream of confused +time and place, presenting faint glimpses of army surgeons whom he +knew, and of faces that had been familiar to his youth,--dearest and +kindest among them, Mary Marshall's, with a solicitude upon it more +like reality than anything he could discern,--Lieutenant Richard +Doubledick came back to life. To the beautiful life of a calm +autumn evening sunset, to the peaceful life of a fresh quiet room +with a large window standing open; a balcony beyond, in which were +moving leaves and sweet-smelling flowers; beyond, again, the clear +sky, with the sun full in his sight, pouring its golden radiance on +his bed. + +It was so tranquil and so lovely that he thought he had passed into +another world. And he said in a faint voice, "Taunton, are you near +me?" + +A face bent over him. Not his, his mother's. + +"I came to nurse you. We have nursed you many weeks. You were +moved here long ago. Do you remember nothing?" + +"Nothing." + +The lady kissed his cheek, and held his hand, soothing him. + +"Where is the regiment? What has happened? Let me call you mother. +What has happened, mother?" + +"A great victory, dear. The war is over, and the regiment was the +bravest in the field." + +His eyes kindled, his lips trembled, he sobbed, and the tears ran +down his face. He was very weak, too weak to move his hand. + +"Was it dark just now?" he asked presently. + +"No." + +"It was only dark to me? Something passed away, like a black +shadow. But as it went, and the sun--O the blessed sun, how +beautiful it is!--touched my face, I thought I saw a light white +cloud pass out at the door. Was there nothing that went out?" + +She shook her head, and in a little while he fell asleep, she still +holding his hand, and soothing him. + +From that time, he recovered. Slowly, for he had been desperately +wounded in the head, and had been shot in the body, but making some +little advance every day. When he had gained sufficient strength to +converse as he lay in bed, he soon began to remark that Mrs. Taunton +always brought him back to his own history. Then he recalled his +preserver's dying words, and thought, "It comforts her." + +One day he awoke out of a sleep, refreshed, and asked her to read to +him. But the curtain of the bed, softening the light, which she +always drew back when he awoke, that she might see him from her +table at the bedside where she sat at work, was held undrawn; and a +woman's voice spoke, which was not hers. + +"Can you bear to see a stranger?" it said softly. "Will you like to +see a stranger?" + +"Stranger!" he repeated. The voice awoke old memories, before the +days of Private Richard Doubledick. + +"A stranger now, but not a stranger once," it said in tones that +thrilled him. "Richard, dear Richard, lost through so many years, +my name--" + +He cried out her name, "Mary," and she held him in her arms, and his +head lay on her bosom. + +"I am not breaking a rash vow, Richard. These are not Mary +Marshall's lips that speak. I have another name." + +She was married. + +"I have another name, Richard. Did you ever hear it?" + +"Never!" + +He looked into her face, so pensively beautiful, and wondered at the +smile upon it through her tears. + +"Think again, Richard. Are you sure you never heard my altered +name?" + +"Never!" + +"Don't move your head to look at me, dear Richard. Let it lie here, +while I tell my story. I loved a generous, noble man; loved him +with my whole heart; loved him for years and years; loved him +faithfully, devotedly; loved him without hope of return; loved him, +knowing nothing of his highest qualities--not even knowing that he +was alive. He was a brave soldier. He was honoured and beloved by +thousands of thousands, when the mother of his dear friend found me, +and showed me that in all his triumphs he had never forgotten me. +He was wounded in a great battle. He was brought, dying, here, into +Brussels. I came to watch and tend him, as I would have joyfully +gone, with such a purpose, to the dreariest ends of the earth. When +he knew no one else, he knew me. When he suffered most, he bore his +sufferings barely murmuring, content to rest his head where your +rests now. When he lay at the point of death, he married me, that +he might call me Wife before he died. And the name, my dear love, +that I took on that forgotten night--" + +"I know it now!" he sobbed. "The shadowy remembrance strengthens. +It is come back. I thank Heaven that my mind is quite restored! My +Mary, kiss me; lull this weary head to rest, or I shall die of +gratitude. His parting words were fulfilled. I see Home again!" + +Well! They were happy. It was a long recovery, but they were happy +through it all. The snow had melted on the ground, and the birds +were singing in the leafless thickets of the early spring, when +those three were first able to ride out together, and when people +flocked about the open carriage to cheer and congratulate Captain +Richard Doubledick. + +But even then it became necessary for the Captain, instead of +returning to England, to complete his recovery in the climate of +Southern France. They found a spot upon the Rhone, within a ride of +the old town of Avignon, and within view of its broken bridge, which +was all they could desire; they lived there, together, six months; +then returned to England. Mrs. Taunton, growing old after three +years--though not so old as that her bright, dark eyes were dimmed-- +and remembering that her strength had been benefited by the change +resolved to go back for a year to those parts. So she went with a +faithful servant, who had often carried her son in his arms; and she +was to be rejoined and escorted home, at the year's end, by Captain +Richard Doubledick. + +She wrote regularly to her children (as she called them now), and +they to her. She went to the neighbourhood of Aix; and there, in +their own chateau near the farmer's house she rented, she grew into +intimacy with a family belonging to that part of France. The +intimacy began in her often meeting among the vineyards a pretty +child, a girl with a most compassionate heart, who was never tired +of listening to the solitary English lady's stories of her poor son +and the cruel wars. The family were as gentle as the child, and at +length she came to know them so well that she accepted their +invitation to pass the last month of her residence abroad under +their roof. All this intelligence she wrote home, piecemeal as it +came about, from time to time; and at last enclosed a polite note, +from the head of the chateau, soliciting, on the occasion of his +approaching mission to that neighbourhood, the honour of the company +of cet homme si justement celebre, Monsieur le Capitaine Richard +Doubledick. + +Captain Doubledick, now a hardy, handsome man in the full vigour of +life, broader across the chest and shoulders than he had ever been +before, dispatched a courteous reply, and followed it in person. +Travelling through all that extent of country after three years of +Peace, he blessed the better days on which the world had fallen. +The corn was golden, not drenched in unnatural red; was bound in +sheaves for food, not trodden underfoot by men in mortal fight. The +smoke rose up from peaceful hearths, not blazing ruins. The carts +were laden with the fair fruits of the earth, not with wounds and +death. To him who had so often seen the terrible reverse, these +things were beautiful indeed; and they brought him in a softened +spirit to the old chateau near Aix upon a deep blue evening. + +It was a large chateau of the genuine old ghostly kind, with round +towers, and extinguishers, and a high leaden roof, and more windows +than Aladdin's Palace. The lattice blinds were all thrown open +after the heat of the day, and there were glimpses of rambling walls +and corridors within. Then there were immense out-buildings fallen +into partial decay, masses of dark trees, terrace-gardens, +balustrades; tanks of water, too weak to play and too dirty to work; +statues, weeds, and thickets of iron railing that seemed to have +overgrown themselves like the shrubberies, and to have branched out +in all manner of wild shapes. The entrance doors stood open, as +doors often do in that country when the heat of the day is past; and +the Captain saw no bell or knocker, and walked in. + +He walked into a lofty stone hall, refreshingly cool and gloomy +after the glare of a Southern day's travel. Extending along the +four sides of this hall was a gallery, leading to suites of rooms; +and it was lighted from the top. Still no bell was to be seen. + +"Faith," said the Captain halting, ashamed of the clanking of his +boots, "this is a ghostly beginning!" + +He started back, and felt his face turn white. In the gallery, +looking down at him, stood the French officer--the officer whose +picture he had carried in his mind so long and so far. Compared +with the original, at last--in every lineament how like it was! + +He moved, and disappeared, and Captain Richard Doubledick heard his +steps coming quickly down own into the hall. He entered through an +archway. There was a bright, sudden look upon his face, much such a +look as it had worn in that fatal moment. + +Monsieur le Capitaine Richard Doubledick? Enchanted to receive him! +A thousand apologies! The servants were all out in the air. There +was a little fete among them in the garden. In effect, it was the +fete day of my daughter, the little cherished and protected of +Madame Taunton. + +He was so gracious and so frank that Monsieur le Capitaine Richard +Doubledick could not withhold his hand. "It is the hand of a brave +Englishman," said the French officer, retaining it while he spoke. +"I could respect a brave Englishman, even as my foe, how much more +as my friend! I also am a soldier." + +"He has not remembered me, as I have remembered him; he did not take +such note of my face, that day, as I took of his," thought Captain +Richard Doubledick. "How shall I tell him?" + +The French officer conducted his guest into a garden and presented +him to his wife, an engaging and beautiful woman, sitting with Mrs. +Taunton in a whimsical old-fashioned pavilion. His daughter, her +fair young face beaming with joy, came running to embrace him; and +there was a boy-baby to tumble down among the orange trees on the +broad steps, in making for his father's legs. A multitude of +children visitors were dancing to sprightly music; and all the +servants and peasants about the chateau were dancing too. It was a +scene of innocent happiness that might have been invented for the +climax of the scenes of peace which had soothed the Captain's +journey. + +He looked on, greatly troubled in his mind, until a resounding bell +rang, and the French officer begged to show him his rooms. They +went upstairs into the gallery from which the officer had looked +down; and Monsieur le Capitaine Richard Doubledick was cordially +welcomed to a grand outer chamber, and a smaller one within, all +clocks and draperies, and hearths, and brazen dogs, and tiles, and +cool devices, and elegance, and vastness. + +"You were at Waterloo," said the French officer. + +"I was," said Captain Richard Doubledick. "And at Badajos." + +Left alone with the sound of his own stern voice in his ears, he sat +down to consider, What shall I do, and how shall I tell him? At +that time, unhappily, many deplorable duels had been fought between +English and French officers, arising out of the recent war; and +these duels, and how to avoid this officer's hospitality, were the +uppermost thought in Captain Richard Doubledick's mind. + +He was thinking, and letting the time run out in which he should +have dressed for dinner, when Mrs. Taunton spoke to him outside the +door, asking if he could give her the letter he had brought from +Mary. "His mother, above all," the Captain thought. "How shall I +tell her?" + +"You will form a friendship with your host, I hope," said Mrs. +Taunton, whom he hurriedly admitted, "that will last for life. He +is so true-hearted and so generous, Richard, that you can hardly +fail to esteem one another. If He had been spared," she kissed (not +without tears) the locket in which she wore his hair, "he would have +appreciated him with his own magnanimity, and would have been truly +happy that the evil days were past which made such a man his enemy." + +She left the room; and the Captain walked, first to one window, +whence he could see the dancing in the garden, then to another +window, whence he could see the smiling prospect and the peaceful +vineyards. + +"Spirit of my departed friend," said he, "is it through thee these +better thoughts are rising in my mind? Is it thou who hast shown +me, all the way I have been drawn to meet this man, the blessings of +the altered time? Is it thou who hast sent thy stricken mother to +me, to stay my angry hand? Is it from thee the whisper comes, that +this man did his duty as thou didst,--and as I did, through thy +guidance, which has wholly saved me here on earth,--and that he did +no more?" + +He sat down, with his head buried in his hands, and, when he rose +up, made the second strong resolution of his life,--that neither to +the French officer, nor to the mother of his departed friend, nor to +any soul, while either of the two was living, would he breathe what +only he knew. And when he touched that French officer's glass with +his own, that day at dinner, he secretly forgave him in the name of +the Divine Forgiver of injuries. + + +Here I ended my story as the first Poor Traveller. But, if I had +told it now, I could have added that the time has since come when +the son of Major Richard Doubledick, and the son of that French +officer, friends as their fathers were before them, fought side by +side in one cause, with their respective nations, like long-divided +brothers whom the better times have brought together, fast united. + + + +CHAPTER III--THE ROAD + + + +My story being finished, and the Wassail too, we broke up as the +Cathedral bell struck Twelve. I did not take leave of my travellers +that night; for it had come into my head to reappear, in conjunction +with some hot coffee, at seven in the morning. + +As I passed along the High Street, I heard the Waits at a distance, +and struck off to find them. They were playing near one of the old +gates of the City, at the corner of a wonderfully quaint row of red- +brick tenements, which the clarionet obligingly informed me were +inhabited by the Minor-Canons. They had odd little porches over the +doors, like sounding-boards over old pulpits; and I thought I should +like to see one of the Minor-Canons come out upon his top stop, and +favour us with a little Christmas discourse about the poor scholars +of Rochester; taking for his text the words of his Master relative +to the devouring of Widows' houses. + +The clarionet was so communicative, and my inclinations were (as +they generally are) of so vagabond a tendency, that I accompanied +the Waits across an open green called the Vines, and assisted--in +the French sense--at the performance of two waltzes, two polkas, and +three Irish melodies, before I thought of my inn any more. However, +I returned to it then, and found a fiddle in the kitchen, and Ben, +the wall-eyed young man, and two chambermaids, circling round the +great deal table with the utmost animation. + +I had a very bad night. It cannot have been owing to the turkey or +the beef,--and the Wassail is out of the question--but in every +endeavour that I made to get to sleep I failed most dismally. I was +never asleep; and in whatsoever unreasonable direction my mind +rambled, the effigy of Master Richard Watts perpetually embarrassed +it. + +In a word, I only got out of the Worshipful Master Richard Watts's +way by getting out of bed in the dark at six o'clock, and tumbling, +as my custom is, into all the cold water that could be accumulated +for the purpose. The outer air was dull and cold enough in the +street, when I came down there; and the one candle in our supper- +room at Watts's Charity looked as pale in the burning as if it had +had a bad night too. But my Travellers had all slept soundly, and +they took to the hot coffee, and the piles of bread-and-butter, +which Ben had arranged like deals in a timber-yard, as kindly as I +could desire. + +While it was yet scarcely daylight, we all came out into the street +together, and there shook hands. The widow took the little sailor +towards Chatham, where he was to find a steamboat for Sheerness; the +lawyer, with an extremely knowing look, went his own way, without +committing himself by announcing his intentions; two more struck off +by the cathedral and old castle for Maidstone; and the book-pedler +accompanied me over the bridge. As for me, I was going to walk by +Cobham Woods, as far upon my way to London as I fancied. + +When I came to the stile and footpath by which I was to diverge from +the main road, I bade farewell to my last remaining Poor Traveller, +and pursued my way alone. And now the mists began to rise in the +most beautiful manner, and the sun to shine; and as I went on +through the bracing air, seeing the hoarfrost sparkle everywhere, I +felt as if all Nature shared in the joy of the great Birthday. + +Going through the woods, the softness of my tread upon the mossy +ground and among the brown leaves enhanced the Christmas sacredness +by which I felt surrounded. As the whitened stems environed me, I +thought how the Founder of the time had never raised his benignant +hand, save to bless and heal, except in the case of one unconscious +tree. By Cobham Hall, I came to the village, and the churchyard +where the dead had been quietly buried, "in the sure and certain +hope" which Christmas time inspired. What children could I see at +play, and not be loving of, recalling who had loved them! No garden +that I passed was out of unison with the day, for I remembered that +the tomb was in a garden, and that "she, supposing him to be the +gardener," had said, "Sir, if thou have borne him hence, tell me +where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away." In time, the +distant river with the ships came full in view, and with it pictures +of the poor fishermen, mending their nets, who arose and followed +him,--of the teaching of the people from a ship pushed off a little +way from shore, by reason of the multitude,--of a majestic figure +walking on the water, in the loneliness of night. My very shadow on +the ground was eloquent of Christmas; for did not the people lay +their sick where the more shadows of the men who had heard and seen +him might fall as they passed along? + +Thus Christmas begirt me, far and near, until I had come to +Blackheath, and had walked down the long vista of gnarled old trees +in Greenwich Park, and was being steam-rattled through the mists now +closing in once more, towards the lights of London. Brightly they +shone, but not so brightly as my own fire, and the brighter faces +around it, when we came together to celebrate the day. And there I +told of worthy Master Richard Watts, and of my supper with the Six +Poor Travellers who were neither Rogues nor Proctors, and from that +hour to this I have never seen one of them again. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg eText The Seven Poor Travellers by Dickens + diff --git a/old/svprt10.zip b/old/svprt10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..ee29ccf --- /dev/null +++ b/old/svprt10.zip |