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diff --git a/22839.txt b/22839.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b650195 --- /dev/null +++ b/22839.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1268 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Jesse Cliffe, by Mary Russell Mitford + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Jesse Cliffe + +Author: Mary Russell Mitford + +Release Date: October 2, 2007 [EBook #22839] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JESSE CLIFFE *** + + + + +Produced by David Widger + + + + + +JESSE CLIFFE + +By Mary Russell Mitford + + +Living as we do in the midst of rivers, water in all its forms, except +indeed that of the trackless and mighty ocean, is familiar to our +little inland county. The slow majestic Thames, the swift and wandering +Kennett, the clear and brimming Loddon, all lend life and verdure to our +rich and fertile valleys. Of the great river of England--whose course +from its earliest source, near Cirencester, to where it rolls calm, +equable, and full, through the magnificent bridges of our splendid +metropolis, giving and reflecting beauty,* presents so grand an image +of power in repose--it is not now my purpose to speak; nor am I about +to expatiate on that still nearer and dearer stream, the pellucid +Loddon,--although to be rowed by one dear and near friend up those +transparent and meandering waters, from where they sweep at their +extremest breadth under the lime-crowned terraces of the Old Park +at Aberleigh, to the pastoral meadows of Sandford, through which the +narrowed current wanders so brightly--now impeded by beds of white +water-lilies, or feathery-blossomed bulrushes, or golden flags--now +overhung by thickets of the rich wayfaring tree, with its wealth of +glorious berries, redder and more transparent than rubies--now spanned +from side to side by the fantastic branches of some aged oak;--although +to be rowed along that clear stream, has long been amongst the choicest +of my summer pleasures, so exquisite is the scenery, so perfect and so +unbroken the solitude. Even the shy and foreign-looking kingfisher, most +gorgeous of English birds, who, like the wild Indian retiring before the +foot of man, has nearly deserted our populous and cultivated country, +knows and loves the lovely valley of the Loddon. + + * There is nothing finer in London than the view from + Waterloo-bridge on a July evening, whether coloured by the + gorgeous hues of the setting sun reflected on the water in + tenfold glory, or illuminated by a thousand twinkling lights + from lamps, and boats, and houses, mingling with the mild + beams of the rising moon. The calm and glassy river, gay + with unnumbered vessels; the magnificent buildings which + line its shores; the combination of all that is loveliest in + art or in nature, with all that is most animating in motion + and in life, produce a picture gratifying alike to the eye + and to the heart--and the more exhilarating, or rather + perhaps the more soothing, because, for London, so + singularly peaceful and quiet. It is like some gorgeous town + in fairyland, astir with busy and happy creatures, the hum + of whose voices comes floating from the craft upon the + river, or the quays by the water side. Life is there, and + sound and motion; but blessedly free from the jostling of + the streets, the rattling of the pavement, the crowd, the + confusion, the tumult, and the din of the work-a-day world. + There is nothing in the great city like the scene from + Waterloo bridge at sunset. I see it in my mind's eye at this + instant. + +It is not, however, of the Loddon that I am now to speak. The scene +of my little story belongs to a spot quite as solitary, but far less +beautiful, on the banks of the Kennett, which, a few miles before +its junction with the Thames, passes through a tract of wild, marshy +country--water-meadows at once drained and fertilised by artificial +irrigation, and totally unmixed with arable land; so that the fields +being for the most part too wet to admit the feeding of cattle, divided +by deep ditches, undotted by timber, unchequered by cottages, and +untraversed by roads, convey in their monotonous expanse (except +perhaps at the gay season of haymaking) a feeling of dreariness and +desolation, singularly contrasted with the picturesque and varied +scenery, rich, glowing, sunny, bland, of the equally solitary Loddon +meadows. + +A large portion of these English prairies, comprising a farm called the +Moors, was, at the time of which I write, in the occupation of a wealthy +yeoman named John Cobbam, who, the absentee tenant of an absentee +landlord, resided upon a small property of his own about two miles +distant, leaving the large deserted house, and dilapidated outbuildings, +to sink into gradual decay. Barns half unthatched, tumble-down +cart-houses, palings rotting to pieces, and pigsties in ruins, +contributed, together with a grand collection of substantial and dingy +ricks of fine old hay--that most valuable but most gloomy looking +species of agricultural property--to the general aspect of desolation by +which the place was distinguished. One solitary old labourer, a dreary +bachelor, inhabited, it is true, a corner of the old roomy house, +calculated for the convenient accommodation of the patriarchal family of +sons and daughters, men-servants and maid-servants, of which a farmer's +household consisted in former days; and one open window, (the remainder +were bricked up to avoid taxes,) occasionally a door ajar, and still +more rarely a thin wreath of smoke ascending from one of the cold +dismal-looking chimneys, gave token that the place was not wholly +abandoned. But the uncultivated garden, the grass growing in the bricked +court, the pond green with duckweed, and the absence of all living +things, cows, horses, pigs, turkeys, geese, or chickens--and still more +of those talking, as well as living things, women and children--all +impressed on the beholder that strange sensation of melancholy which +few can have failed to experience at the sight of an uninhabited human +habitation. The one solitary inmate failed to relieve the pressing +sense of solitude. Nothing but the ringing sound of female voices, the +pleasant and familiar noise of domestic animals, could have done that; +and nothing approaching to noise was ever heard in the Moors. It was a +silence that might be felt. + +The house itself was approached through a long, narrow lane, leading +from a wild and watery common; a lane so deeply excavated between +the adjoining hedge-rows, that in winter it was little better than a +water-course; and beyond the barns and stables, where even that apology +for a road terminated, lay the extensive tract of low, level, marshy +ground from whence the farm derived its title; a series of flat, +productive water-meadows, surrounded partly by thick coppices, partly +by the winding Kennett, and divided by deep and broad ditches; a few +pollard willows, so old that the trunk was, in some, riven asunder, +whilst in others nothing but the mere shell remained, together with here +and there a stunted thorn, alone relieving the monotony of the surface. + +The only regular inhabitant of this dreary scene was, as I have before +said, the old labourer, Daniel Thorpe, who slept in one corner of the +house, partly to prevent its total dilapidation, and to preserve the +valuable hayricks and the tumble-down farm buildings from the pillage to +which unprotected property is necessarily exposed, and partly to keep +in repair the long line of boundary fence, to clean the graffages, +clear out the moat-like ditches, and see that the hollow-sounding wooden +bridges which formed the sole communication by which the hay wagons +could pass to and from the distant meadows, were in proper order +to sustain their ponderous annual load. Daniel Thorpe was the only +accredited unfeathered biped who figured in the parish books as occupant +of The Moors; nevertheless that swampy district could boast of one +other irregular and forbidden but most pertinacious inhabitant--and that +inhabitant was our hero, Jesse Cliffe. + +Jesse Cliffe was a lad some fifteen or sixteen years of age--there +or thereabout; for with the exact date of his birth, although from +circumstances most easily ascertained, even the assistant-overseer did +not take the trouble to make himself acquainted. He was a parish child +born in the workhouse, the offspring of a half-witted orphan girl and a +sturdy vagrant, partly tinker, partly ballad-singer, who took good care +to disappear before the strong arm of justice, in the shape of a tardy +warrant and a halting constable, could contrive to intercept his flight. +He joined, it was said, a tribe of gipsies, to whom he was suspected to +have all along belonged; and who vanishing at the same time, accompanied +by half the linen and poultry of the neighbourhood, were never heard +of in our parts again; whilst the poor girl whom he had seduced and +abandoned, with sense enough to feel her misery, although hardly +sufficient to be responsible for the sin, fretted, moaned, +and pined--losing, she hardly knew how, the half-unconscious +light-heartedness which had almost seemed a compensation for her +deficiency of intellect, and with that light-heartedness losing also her +bodily strength, her flesh, her colour, and her appetite, until, about +a twelvemonth after the birth of her boy, she fell into a decline and +died. + +Poor Jesse, born and reared in the workhouse, soon began to evince +symptoms of the peculiarities of both his parents. Half-witted like his +mother, wild and roving as his father--it was found impossible to check +his propensity to an out-of-door life. + +From the moment, postponed as long as possible in such establishments, +in which he doffed the petticoat--a moment, by the way, in which the +obstinate and masterful spirit of the ungentle sex often begins to +show itself in nurseries of a far more polished description;--from that +moment may Jesse's wanderings be said to commence. Disobedience lurked +in the habit masculine. The wilful urchin stood, like some dandy +apprentice, contemplating his brown sturdy legs, as they stuck out from +his new trowsers, already (such was the economy of the tailor employed +on the occasion) "a world too _short_," and the first use he made of +those useful supporters was to run away. So little did any one really +care for the poor child, that not being missed till night-fall, or +sought after till the next morning, he had strayed far enough, when, at +last picked up, and identified by the parish mark on his new jacket, to +be half frozen, (it was mid-winter when his first elopement happened,) +half-starved, half-drowned, and more than half-dead of fatigue and +exhaustion. "It will be a lesson!" said the moralising matron of the +workhouse, as, after a sound scolding, she fed the little culprit and +put him to bed. "It will be a lesson to the rover!" And so it proved; +for, after being recruited by a few days' nursing, he again ran away, in +a different direction. + +When recovered the second time, he was whipped as well as fed--another +lesson which only made the stubborn recusant run the faster. Then, upon +his next return, they shut him up in a dark den appropriately called the +black-hole, a restraint which, of course, increased his zest for light +and liberty, and in the first moment of freedom--a moment greatly +accelerated by his own strenuous efforts in the shape of squalling, +bawling, roaring, and stamping, unparalleled and insupportable, even in +that mansion of din--in the very instant of freedom he was off again; he +ran away from work; he ran away from school; certain to be immersed in +his dismal dungeon as soon as he could be recaught; so that his whole +childhood became a series of alternate imprisonments and escapes. + +That he should be so often lost was, considering his propensities and +the proverbial cunning of his caste, not, perhaps, very remarkable. But +the number of times and the variety of ways, in which, in spite of the +little trouble taken in searching for him, he was sent back to the place +from whence he came, was really something wonderful. If any creature in +the world had cared a straw for the poor child, he must have been lost +over and over: nobody did care for him, and he was as sure to turn up +as a bad guinea. He has been cried like _Found_ Goods in Belford Market: +advertised like a strayed donkey in the _H----shire Courant_; put for +safe keeping into compters, cages, roundhouses, and bridewells: passed, +by different constables, through half the parishes in the county; and +so frequently and minutely described in handbills and the _Hue and Cry_, +that by the time he was twelve years old, his stature, features, and +complexion were as well known to the rural police as those of some great +state criminal. In a word, "the lad _would_ live;" and the Aberleigh +overseers, who would doubtless have been far from inconsolable if they +had never happened to hear of him again, were reluctantly obliged to +make the best of their bargain. + +Accordingly, they placed him as a sort of boy of all-work at "the shop" +at Hinton, where he remained, upon an accurate computation, somewhere +about seven hours; they then put him with a butcher at Langley, where he +staid about five hours and a-half, arriving at dusk, and escaping before +midnight: then with a baker at Belford, in which good town he sojourned +the (for him) unusual space of two nights and a day; and then they +apprenticed him to Master Samuel Goddard, an eminent dealer in cattle +leaving his new master to punish him according to law, provided +he should run away again. Run away of course he did; but as he had +contrived to earn for himself a comfortably bad character for stupidity +and laziness, and as he timed his evasion well--during the interval +between the sale of a bargain of Devonshire stots, and the purchase of +a lot of Scotch kyloes, when his services were little needed--and as +Master Samuel Goddard had too much to do and to think of, to waste his +time and his trouble on a search after a heavy-looking under-drover, +with a considerable reputation for laziness, Jesse, for the first +time in his life, escaped his ordinary penalties of pursuit and +discovery--the parish officers contenting themselves by notifying to +Master Samuel Goddard, that they considered their responsibility, legal +as well as moral, completely transferred to him in virtue of their +indentures, and that whatever might be the future destiny of his unlucky +apprentice, whether frozen or famished, hanged or drowned, the blame +would rest with the cattle-dealer aforesaid, to whom they resolved to +refer all claims on their protection, whether advanced by Jesse himself +or by others. + +Small intention had Jesse Cliffe to return to their protection or their +workhouse! The instinct of freedom was strong in the poor boy--quick and +strong as in the beast of the field, or the bird of the air. He betook +himself to the Moors (one of his earliest and favourite haunts) with a +vague assurance of safety in the deep solitude of those wide-spreading +meadows, and the close coppices that surrounded them: and at little +more than twelve years of age he began a course of lonely, half-savage, +self-dependent life, such as has been rarely heard of in this civilised +country. How he lived is to a certain point a mystery. Not by stealing. +That was agreed on all hands--except indeed, so far as a few roots of +turnips and potatoes, and a few ears of green corn, in their several +seasons, may be called theft. Ripe corn for his winter's hoard, he +gleaned after the fields were cleared, with a scrupulous honesty that +might have read a lesson to peasant children of a happier nurture. +And they who had opportunities to watch the process, said that it was +curious to see him bruise the grain between large stones, knead the rude +flour with fair water, mould his simple cakes, and then bake them in a +primitive oven formed by his own labour in a dry bank of the coppice, +and heated by rotten wood shaken from the tops of the trees, (which he +climbed like a squirrel,) and kindled by a flint and a piece of an old +horse-shoe:--such was his unsophisticated cookery! Nuts and berries from +the woods; fish from the Kennett--caught with such tackle as might be +constructed of a stick and a bit of packthread, with a strong pin +or needle formed into a hook; and perhaps an occasional rabbit or +partridge, entrapped by some such rough and inartificial contrivance, +formed his principal support; a modified, and, according to his vague +notions of right and wrong, an innocent form of poaching, since he +sought only what was requisite for his own consumption, and would have +shunned as a sin the killing game to sell. Money, indeed, he little +needed. He formed his bed of fern or dead grass, in the deepest recesses +of the coppice--a natural shelter; and the renewal of raiment, which +warmth and decency demanded, he obtained by emerging from his solitude, +and joining such parties as a love of field sports brought into his +vicinity in the pursuit of game--an inspiring combination of labour +and diversion, which seemed to awaken something like companionship and +sympathy even in this wild boy of the Moors, one in which his knowledge +of the haunts and habits of wild animals, his strength, activity, and +actual insensibility to hardship or fatigue, rendered his services of +more than ordinary value. There was not so good a hare-finder throughout +that division of the county; and it was curious to observe how +completely his skill in sportmanship overcame the contempt with which +grooms and gamekeepers, to say nothing of their less fine and more +tolerant masters, were wont to regard poor Jesse's ragged garments, the +sunburnt hair and skin, the want of words to express even his simple +meaning, and most of all, the strange obliquity of taste which led +him to prefer Kennett water to Kennett ale. Sportsmanship, sheer +sportsmanship, carried him through all! + +Jesse was, as I have said, the most popular hare-finder of the +country-side, and during the coursing season was brought by that good +gift into considerable communication with his fellow creatures: amongst +the rest with his involuntary landlord, John Cobham. + +John Cobham was a fair specimen of an English yeoman of the old +school--honest, generous, brave, and kind; but in an equal degree, +ignorant, obstinate and prejudiced. His first impression respecting +Jesse had been one of strong dislike, fostered and cherished by the old +labourer Daniel Thorpe, who, accustomed for twenty years to reign sole +sovereign of that unpeopled territory, was as much startled at the sight +of Jesse's wild, ragged figure, and sunburnt face, as Robinson Crusoe +when he first spied the track of a human foot upon _his_ desert island. +It was natural that old Daniel should feel his monarchy, or, more +correctly speaking, his vice-royalty, invaded and endangered; and +at least equally natural that he should communicate his alarm to his +master, who sallied forth one November morning to the Moors, fully +prepared to drive the intruder from his grounds, and resolved, if +necessary, to lodge him in the County Bridewell before night. + +But the good farmer, who chanced to be a keen sportsman, and to be +followed that day by a favourite greyhound, was so dulcified by the +manner in which the delinquent started a hare at the very moment of +Venus's passing, and still more by the culprit's keen enjoyment of +a capital single-handed course, (in which Venus had even excelled +herself,) that he could not find in his heart to take any harsh measures +against him, for that day at least, more especially as Venus seemed to +have taken a fancy to the lad--so his expulsion was postponed to another +season; and before that season arrived, poor Jesse had secured the +goodwill of an advocate far more powerful than Venus--an advocate who, +contrasted with himself, looked like Ariel by the side of Caliban, or +Titania watching over Bottom the Weaver. + +John Cobham had married late in life, and had been left, after seven +years of happy wedlock, a widower with five children. In his family +he may be said to have been singularly fortunate, and singularly +unfortunate. Promising in no common degree, his sons and daughters, +inheriting their mother's fragile constitution as well as her amiable +character, fell victims one after another to the flattering and fatal +disease which had carried her off in the prime of life; one of them +only, the eldest son, leaving any issue; and his little girl, an orphan, +(for her mother had died in bringing her into the world,) was now the +only hope and comfort of her doting grandfather, and of a maiden sister +who lived with him as housekeeper, and, having officiated as head-nurse +in a nobleman's family, was well calculated to bring up a delicate +child. + +And delicate in all that the word conveys of beauty--delicate as the +Virgins of Guido, or the Angels of Correggio, as the valley lily or the +maiden rose--was at eight years old, the little charmer, Phoebe Cobham. +But it was a delicacy so blended with activity and power, so light and +airy, and buoyant and spirited, that the admiration which it awakened +was wholly unmingled with fear. Fair, blooming, polished, and pure, her +complexion had at once the colouring and the texture of a flower-leaf; +and her regular and lovely features--the red smiling lips, the +clear blue eyes, the curling golden hair, and the round yet slender +figure--formed a most rare combination of childish beauty. The +expression, too, at once gentle and lively, the sweet and joyous temper, +the quick intellect, and the affectionate heart, rendered little Phoebe +one of the most attractive children that the imagination can picture. +Her grandfather idolised her; taking her with him in his walks, never +weary of carrying her when her own little feet were tired--and it was +wonderful how many miles those tiny feet, aided by the gay and buoyant +spirit, would compass in the course of the day; and so bent upon keeping +her constantly with him, and constantly in the open air, (which he +justly considered the best means of warding off the approach of that +disease which had proved so fatal to his family,) that he even had a pad +constructed, and took her out before him on horseback. + +A strange contrast formed the old farmer, so gruff and +bluff-looking--with his stout square figure, his weather-beaten face, +short grey hair, and dark bushy eyebrows--to the slight and graceful +child, her aristocratic beauty set off by exactly the same style of +paraphernalia that had adorned the young Lady Janes and Lady Marys, +Mrs. Dorothy's former charge, and her habitual grace of demeanour adding +fresh elegance to the most studied elegancies of the toilet! A strange +contrast!--but one which seemed as nothing compared with that which was +soon to follow: for Phoebe, happening to be with her grandfather and +her great friend and playmate Venus, a jet-black greyhound of the +very highest breed, whose fine limbed and shining beauty was almost as +elegant and aristocratic as that of Phoebe herself;--the little damsel, +happening to be with her grandfather when, instigated by Daniel Thorpe's +grumbling accusation of broken fences and I know not what, he was a +second time upon the point of warning poor Jesse off the ground--was +so moved by the culprit's tattered attire and helpless condition, as he +stood twirling, between his long lean fingers, the remains of what had +once been a hat, that she interceded most warmly in his behalf. + +"Don't turn him off the Moors, grandpapa," said Phoebe, "pray don't! +Never mind old Daniel! I'm sure he'll do no harm;--will you, Jesse? +Venus likes him, grandpapa; see how she puts her pretty nose into his +hand; and Venus never likes bad people. How often I have heard you say +that. And _I_ like him, poor fellow! He looks so thin and so pitiful. Do +let him stay, dear grandpapa!" + +And John Cobham sat down on the bank, and took the pitying child in his +arms, and kissed and blessed her, and said, that, since she wished it, +Jesse _should_ stay; adding, in a sort of soliloquy, that he hoped +she never would ask him to do what was wrong, for he could refuse her +nothing. + +And Jesse--what did he say to these, the first words of kindness that he +had ever heard from human lips? or rather, what did he feel? for beyond +a muttered "Thankye," speak he could not, But gratitude worked strongly +in the poor boy's heart: gratitude!--so new, so overpowering, and +inspired by one so sweet, so lovely, so gentle as his protectress, as +far as he was concerned, all-powerful; and yet a mere infant whom he +might protect as well as serve! It was a strange mixture of feelings, +all good, and all delightful; a stirring of impulses, a quickening of +affections, a striking of chords never touched before. Substitute the +sacred innocence of childhood for the equally sacred power of virgin +purity, and his feelings of affectionate reverence, of devoted service +and submission, much resembled those entertained by the Satyr towards +"the holy shepherdess," in Fletcher's exquisite drama.* + + _Our_ + + "Rough thing, who never knew + Manners nor smooth humanity," + +could not have spoken nor have thought such words as those of the satyr; +but so far as our English climate and his unfruitful territory might +permit, he put much of the poetry into action. Sluggish of intellect, +and uncouth of demeanour, as the poor lad seemed, it was quite wonderful +how quickly he discovered the several ways in which he might best please +and gratify his youthful benefactress. + + * That matchless Pastoral, "The Faithful Shepherdess," is + so much less known than talked of, that subjoin the passage + in question. One more beauti can hardly be found in the + wide range of English poetry. + + _Satyr_. Through yon same bending plain That flings his + arms down to the main; And through these thick woods, have I + run, Whose depths have never kiss'd the sun; Since the lusty + Spring began, All to please my master, Pan, Have I trotted + without rest To get him fruit; for at a feast He entertains, + this coming night, His paramour, the Syrinx bright. + + [_He sees Clorin and stands amazed_. + + But behold a fairer sight! + By that heavenly form of thine, + Brightest fair, thou art divine, + Sprung from great, immortal race + Of the Gods; for in thy face + Shines more awful majesty, + Than dull, weak mortality + Dare with misty eyes behold + And live! Therefore on this mould + Slowly do I bend my knee, + In worship of thy deity. + Deign it, goddess, from my hand + To receive whate'er this land, + From her fertile womb doth send + Of her choice fruits; and but lend + Belief to that the Satyr tells: + Fairer by the famous wells + To this present day ne'er grew, + Never better nor more true. + Here be grapes whose lusty blood + Is the learned poet's good; + Sweeter yet did never crown + The head of Bacchus; nuts more brown + Than the squirrel whose teeth crack 'em. + Deign, oh fairest fair, to take 'em! + For these black-eyed Dryope + Hath often times commanded me, + With my clasped knee to climb; + See how well the lusty time + Hath deck'd their rising cheeks in red, + Such as on your lips is spread. + Here be berries for a queen, + Some be red, and some be green; + These are of that luscious sweet, + The great god Pan himself doth eat; + All these, and what the woods can yield, + The hanging mountain, or the field, + I freely offer, and ere long + Will bring you more, more sweet and strong; + Till when, humbly leave I take, + Lest the great Pan do awake, + That sleeping lies in a deep glade, + Under a broad beech's shade. + I must go,--I must run + Swifter than the fiery sun. + + _Clorin_. And all my fears go with thee! + What greatness or what private hidden power + Is there in me to draw submission + From this rude man and beast? sure I am mortal; + The daughter of a shepherd; he was mortal, + And she that bore me mortal: Prick my hand + And it will bleed; a fever shakes me, and + The self-same wind that makes the young lambs shrink + Makes me a-cold. My fear says I am mortal. + Yet I hare heard (my mother told it me, + And now I do believe it) if I keep + My virgin flower uncropt, pure, chaste, and fair, + No goblin, wood-god, fairy, elf, or fiend, + Satyr, or other power, that haunts the groves, + Shall hurt my body, or by vain illusion + Draw me to wander after idle fires, + Or voices calling me in dead of night + To make me follow, and so tempt me on + Through mire and standing pools to find my swain + Else why should this rough thing, who never knew + Manners nor smooth humanity, whose herds + Are rougher than himself, and more misshapen, + Thus mildly kneel to me? &c. &c. + + _Beaumont and Fletcher's Works_, + (Seward's edition,) vol. iii. p. 117--121. + + How we track Milton's exquisite Comus in this no less + exquisite pastoral Drama! and the imitation is so beautiful, + that the perception of the plagiarism rather increases than + diminishes the pleasure with which we read either + deathless work. Republican although he were, the great poet + sits a throned king upon Parnassus, privileged to cull + flowers where he listeth in right of his immortal laurel- + crown. + +Phoebe loved flowers; and from the earliest tuft of violets ensconced +under the sunny southern hedge, to the last lingering sprig of woodbine +shaded by some time-hallowed oak, the blossoms of the meadow and the +coppice were laid under contribution for her posies. + +Phoebe had her own little garden; and to fill that garden, Jesse was +never weary of seeking after the roots of such wild plants as he himself +thought pretty, or such as he found (one can hardly tell how) were +considered by better judges to be worthy of a place in the parterre. +The different orchises, for instance, the white and lilac primrose, the +golden oxslip, the lily of the valley, the chequered fritillary, which +blows so freely along the banks of the Kennett, and the purple campanula +which covers with equal profusion the meadows of the Thames, all found +their way to Phoebe's flower-plats. He brought her in summer evenings +glow-worms enough to form a constellation on the grass; and would spend +half a July day in chasing for her some glorious insect, dragon-fly, or +bee-bird, or golden beetle, or gorgeous butterfly. He not only bestowed +upon her sloes, and dew-berries, and hazel-nuts "brown as the squirrel +whose teeth crack 'em," but caught for her the squirrel itself. He +brought her a whole litter of dormice, and tamed for her diversion a +young magpie, whose first effort at flattery was "Pretty Phoebe!" + +But his greatest present of all, most prized both by donor and receiver, +(albeit her tender heart smote her as she accepted it, and she made her +faithful slave promise most faithfully to take nests no more,) was a +grand string of birds' eggs, long enough to hang in festoons round, and +round, and round her play-room, and sufficiently various and beautiful +to gratify more fastidious eyes than those of our little heroine. + +To collect this rope of variously-tinted beads--a natural rosary--he +had sought the mossy and hair-lined nest of the hedge-sparrow for her +turquoise-like rounds; had scrambled up the chimney-corner to bear away +those pearls of the land, the small white eggs of the house-martin; had +found deposited in an old magpie's nest the ovals of the sparrow-hawk, +red and smooth as the finest coral; had dived into the ground-mansion of +the skylark for her lilac-tinted shells, and groped amongst the bushes +for the rosy-tinted ones of the woodlark; climbed the tallest trees for +the sea-green eggs of the rooks; had pilfered the spotted treasures from +the snug dwelling which the wren constructed in the eaves; and, worst of +all--I hardly like to write it, I hardly care to think, that Jesse could +have committed such an outrage,--saddest and worst of all, in the very +midst of that varied garland might be seen the brown and dusky egg, as +little showy as its quaker-like plumage, the dark brown egg, from which +should have issued that "angel of the air," the songstress, famous in +every land, the unparagoned nightingale. It is but just towards Jesse +to add, that he took the nest in a mistake, and was quite unconscious of +the mischief he had done until it was too late to repair it. + +Of course these gifts were not only graciously accepted, but duly +returned; cakes, apples, tarts, and gingerbread, halfpence in profusion, +and now and then a new shilling, or a bright sixpence--all, in short, +that poor Phoebe had to bestow, she showered upon her uncouth favourite, +and she would fain have amended his condition by more substantial +benefits: but authoritative as she was with her grandfather in other +instances, in this alone her usual powers of persuasion utterly failed. +Whether infected by old Daniel's dislike, (and be it observed, an +unfounded prejudice, that sort of prejudice for which he who entertains +it does not pretend to account even to himself is unluckily not only +one of the most contagious feelings in the world, but one of the most +invincible:) whether Farmer Cobham were inoculated with old Daniel's +hatred of Jesse, or had taken that very virulent disease the natural +way, nothing could exceed the bitterness of the aversion which gradually +grew up in his mind towards the poor lad. + +That Venus liked him, and Phoebe liked him, added strength to the +feeling. He would have been ashamed to confess himself jealous of their +good-will towards such an object, and yet most certainly jealous he +was. He did not drive him from his shelter in the Moors, because he had +unwarily passed his word--his word, which, with yeomanly pride, John +Cobham held sacred as his bond--to let him remain until he committed +some offence; but, for this offence, both he and Daniel watched and +waited with an impatience and irritability which contrasted strangely +with the honourable self-restraint that withheld him from direct abuse +of his power. + +For a long time, Daniel and his master waited in vain. Jesse, whom +they had entertained some vague hope of chasing away by angry looks and +scornful words, had been so much accustomed all his life long to taunts +and contumely, that it was a great while before he became conscious of +their unkindness; and when at last it forced itself upon his attention, +he shrank away crouching and cowering, and buried himself in the closest +recesses of the coppice, until the footstep of the reviler had passed +by. One look at his sweet little friend repaid him twenty-fold; and +although farmer Cobham had really worked himself into believing that +there was danger in allowing the beautiful child to approach poor Jesse, +and had therefore on different pretexts forbidden her visits to the +Moors, she did yet happen in her various walks to encounter that devoted +adherent oftener than would be believed possible by any one who has not +been led to remark, how often in this best of all possible worlds, an +earnest and innocent wish does as it were fulfil itself. + +At last, however, a wish of a very different nature came to pass. Daniel +Thorpe detected Jesse in an actual offence against that fertile source +of crime and misery, the game laws. + +Thus the affair happened. + +During many weeks, the neighbourhood had been infested by a gang of +bold, sturdy pilferers, roving vagabonds, begging by day, stealing and +poaching by night--who had committed such extensive devastations +amongst the poultry and linen of the village, as well as the game in the +preserves, that the whole population was upon the alert; and the lonely +coppices of the Moors rendering that spot one peculiarly likely to +attract the attention of the gang, old Daniel, reinforced by a stout lad +as a sort of extra-guard, kept a most jealous watch over his territory. + +Perambulating the outside of the wood one evening at sunset, he heard +the cry of a hare; and climbing over the fence, had the unexpected +pleasure of seeing our friend Jesse in the act of taking a leveret still +alive from the wire. "So, so, master Jesse! thou be'st turned poacher, +be'st thou?" ejaculated Daniel, with a malicious chuckle, seizing, at +one fell grip, the hare and the lad. + +"Miss Phoebe!" ejaculated Jesse, submitting himself to the old man's +grasp, but struggling to retain the leveret; "Miss Phoebe!" + +"Miss Phoebe, indeed!" responded Daniel; "she saved thee once, my lad, +but thy time's come now. What do'st thee want of the leveret, mon? Do'st +not thee know that 'tis part of the evidence against thee? Well, he may +carry that whilst I carry the snare. Master'll be main glad to see un. +He always suspected the chap. And for the matter of that so did I. Miss +Phoebe, indeed! Come along, my mon, I warrant thou hast seen thy last o' +Miss Phoebe. Come on wi' thee." + +And Jesse was hurried as fast as Daniel's legs would carry him to the +presence of Farmer Cobham. + +On entering the house (not the old deserted homestead of the Moors, +but the comfortable dwelling-house at Aberleigh) Jesse delivered the +panting, trembling leveret to the first person he met, with no other +explanation than might be comprised in the words, "Miss Phoebe!" and +followed Daniel quietly to the hall. + +"Poaching, was he? Taking the hare from the wire? And you saw him? +You can swear to the fact?" quoth John Cobham, rubbing his hands with +unusual glee. "Well, now we shall be fairly rid of the fellow! Take +him to the Chequers for the night, Daniel, and get another man beside +yourself to sit up with him. It's too late to disturb Sir Robert this +evening. To-morrow morning we'll take him to the Hall. See that the +constable's ready by nine o'clock. No doubt but Sir Robert will commit +him to the county bridewell." + +"Oh, grandpapa!" exclaimed Phoebe, darting into the room with the +leveret in her arms, and catching the last words. "Oh, grandpapa! poor +Jesse!" + +"Miss Phoebe!" ejaculated the culprit + +"Oh, grandfather, it's all my fault," continued Phoebe; "and if anybody +is to go to prison, you ought to send me. I had been reading about +Cowper's hares, and I wanted a young hare to tame: I took a fancy for +one, and told poor Jesse! And to think of his going to prison for that!" + +"And did you tell him to set a wire for the hare, Phoebe?" + +"A wire! what does that mean?" said the bewildered child. "But I dare +say," added she, upon Farmer Cobham's explaining the nature of the +snare, "I dare say that the poachers set the wire, and that he only +took up the hare for me, to please my foolish fancy! Oh, grandpapa! Poor +Jesse!" and Phoebe cried as if her heart would break. + +"God bless you, Miss Phoebe!" said Jesse. + +"All this is nonsense!" exclaimed the unrelenting fanner. "Take the +prisoner to the Chequers, Daniel, and get another man to keep you +company in sitting up with him. Have as much strong beer as you +like, and be sure to bring him and the constable here by nine o'clock +to-morrow morning." + +"Oh, grandfather, you'll be sorry for this! I did not think you had been +so hard-hearted!" sobbed Phoebe. "You'll be very sorry for this." + +"Yes, very sorry, that he will. God bless you, Miss Phoebe," said Jesse. + +"What! does he threaten? Take him off, Daniel. And you, Phoebe, go to +bed and compose yourself. Heaven bless you, my darling!" said the fond +grandfather, smoothing her hair, as, the tears still chasing each other +down her cheeks, she stood leaning against his knee. "Go to bed and to +sleep, my precious! and you, Sally, bring me my pipe:" and wondering +why the fulfilment of a strong desire should not make him happier, the +honest farmer endeavoured to smoke away his cares. + +In the meanwhile, old Daniel conducted Jesse to the Chequers, and having +lodged him safely in an upper room, sought out "an ancient, trusty, +drouthy crony," with whom he sate down to carouse in the same apartment +with his prisoner. It was a dark, cold, windy, October night, and the +two warders sate cosily by the fire, enjoying their gossip and their +ale, while the unlucky delinquent placed himself pensively by the +window. About midnight the two old men were startled by his flinging +open the casement. + +"Miss Phoebe! look! look!" + +"What? where?" inquired Daniel. + +"Miss Phoebe!" repeated the prisoner; and, looking in the direction to +which Jesse pointed, they saw the flames bursting from Farmer Cob-ham's +house. + +In a very few seconds they had alarmed the family, and sprung forth in +the direction of the fire; the prisoner accompanying them, unnoticed in +the confusion. + +"Luckily, master's always insured to the value of all he's worth, stock +and goods," quoth the prudent Daniel. + +"Miss Phoebe!" exclaimed Jesse: and even as he spoke he burst in the +door, darted up the staircase, and returned with the trembling child in +his arms, followed by aunt Dorothy and the frightened servants. + +"Grandpapa! dear grandpapa! where is grandpapa? Will no one save my dear +grand-papa?" cried Phoebe. + +And placing the little girl at the side of her aunt, Jesse again mounted +the blazing staircase. For a few moments all gave him up for lost But he +returned, tottering under the weight of a man scarcely yet aroused from +heavy sleep, and half suffocated by the smoke and flames. + +"Miss Phoebe! he's safe, Miss Phoebe!--Down, Venus, down--He's safe, +Miss Phoebe! And now, I sha'n't mind going to prison, 'cause when I come +back you'll be living at the _Moors_. Sha'n't you, Miss Phoebe? And I +shall see you every day!" + +One part of this speech turned out true and another part false--no +uncommon fate, by the way, of prophetic speeches, even when uttered by +wiser persons than poor Jesse. Phoebe did come to live at the Moors, and +he did not go to prison. + +On the contrary, so violent was the revulsion of feeling in the honest +hearts of the good yeoman, John Cobham, and his faithful servant, old +Daniel, and so deep the remorse which they both felt for their injustice +and unkindness towards the friendless lad, that there was considerable +danger of their falling into the opposite extreme, and ruining him +by sudden and excessive indulgence. Jesse, however, was not of a +temperament to be easily spoilt. He had been so long an outcast from +human society that he had become as wild and shy as his old companions +of the fields and the coppice, the beasts of the earth and the birds +of the air. The hare which he had himself given to Phoebe was easier to +tame than Jesse Cliffe. + +Gradually, very gradually, under the gentle influence of the gentle +child, this great feat was accomplished, almost as effectually, +although by no means so suddenly, as in the well-known case of Cymon +and Iphigenia, the most noted precedent upon record of the process of +reaching the head through the heart. Venus, and a beautiful Welsh pony +called Taffy, which her grandfather had recently purchased for her +riding, had their share in the good deed; these two favourites being +placed by Phoebe's desire under Jesse's sole charge and management; +a measure which not only brought him necessarily into something like +intercourse with the other lads about the yard, but ended in his +conceiving so strong an attachment to the animals of whom he had the +care, that before the winter set in he had deserted his old lair in +the wood, and actually passed his nights in a vacant stall of the small +stable appropriated to their use. + +From the moment that John Cobham detected such an approach to the habits +of civilised life as sleeping under a roof, he looked upon the wild +son of the Moors as virtually reclaimed, and so it proved. Every day +he became more and more like his fellow-men. He abandoned his primitive +oven, and bought his bread at the baker's. He accepted thankfully the +decent clothing necessary to his attending Miss Phoebe in her rides +round the country. He worked regularly and steadily at whatever labour +was assigned to him, receiving wages like the other farm servants; and +finally it was discovered that one of the first uses he made of these +wages was to purchase spelling-books and copy-books, and enter himself +at an evening school, where the opening difficulties being surmounted, +his progress astonished every body. + +His chief fancy was for gardening. The love, and, to a certain point, +the knowledge of flowers which he had always evinced increased upon him +every day;--and happening to accompany Phoebe on one of her visits +to the young ladies at the Hall, who were much attached to the lovely +little girl, he saw Lady Mordaunt's French garden, and imitated it the +next year for his young mistress in wild flowers, after such a fashion +as to excite the wonder and admiration of all beholders. + +From that moment Jesse's destiny was decided. Sir Robert's gardener, a +clever Scotchman, took great notice of him and offered to employ him at +the Hall; but the Moors had to poor Jesse a fascination which he could +not surmount. He felt that it would be easier to tear himself from +the place altogether, than to live in the neighbourhood and not there. +Accordingly he lingered on for a year or two, and then took a grateful +leave of his benefactors, and set forth to London with the avowed +intention of seeking employment in a great nursery-ground, to the +proprietor of which he was furnished with letters, not merely from his +friend the gardener, but from Sir Robert himself. + + N. B. It is recorded that on the night of Jesse's departure, + Venus refused her supper and Phoebe cried herself to sleep. + +Time wore on. Occasional tidings had reached the Moors of the prosperous +fortunes of the adventurer. He had been immediately engaged by the great +nurseryman to whom he was recommended, and so highly approved, that in +little more than two years he became foreman of the flower department; +another two years saw him chief manager of the garden; and now, at the +end of a somewhat longer period, there was a rumour of his having been +taken into the concern as acting partner; a rumour which received +full confirmation in a letter from himself, accompanying a magnificent +present of shrubs, plants, and flower-roots, amongst which were two +Dahlias, ticketed 'the Moors' and 'the Phoebe,' and announcing his +intention of visiting his best and earliest friends in the course of the +ensuing summer. + +Still time wore on. It was full six months after this intimation, that +on a bright morning in October, John Cobham, with two or three visiters +from Belford, and his granddaughter Phoebe, now a lovely young woman, +were coursing on the Moors. The townspeople had boasted of their +greyhounds, and the old sportsman was in high spirits from having beaten +them out of the field. + +"If that's your best dog," quoth John, "why, I'll be bound that our +Snowball would beat him with one of his legs tied up. Talk of running +such a cur as that against Snowball! Why there's Phoebe's pet Venus, +Snowball's great grandam, who was twelve years old last May, and has not +seen a hare these three seasons, shall give him the go-by in the first +hundred yards. Go and fetch Venus, Daniel! It will do her heart good to +see a hare again," added he, answering the looks rather than the words +of his granddaughter, for she had not spoken, "and I'll be bound to say +she'll beat him out of sight He won't come in for a turn." + +Upon Venus's arrival, great admiration was expressed at her symmetry and +beauty; the grayness incident to her age having fallen upon her, as it +sometimes does upon black greyhounds, in the form of small white spots, +so that she appeared as if originally what the coursers call "ticked." +She was in excellent condition, and appeared to understand the design +of the meeting as well as any one present, and to be delighted to find +herself once more in the field of fame. Her competitor, a yellow dog +called Smoaker, was let loose, and the whole party awaited in eager +expectation of a hare. + +"Soho!" cried John Cobham, and off the dogs sprang; Venus taking the +turn, as he had foretold, running as true as in her first season, doing +all the work, and killing the hare, after a course which, for any part +Smoaker took in it, might as well have been single-handed. + +"Look how she's bringing the hare to my grandfather!" exclaimed Phoebe; +"she always brings her game!" + +And with the hare in her mouth, carefully poised by the middle of the +back, she was slowly advancing towards her master, when a stranger, well +dressed and well mounted, who had joined the party unperceived during +the course, suddenly called "Venus!" + +And Venus started, pricked up her ears as if to listen, and stood stock +still. + +"Venus!" again cried the horseman. + +And Venus, apparently recognising the voice, walked towards the +stranger, (who by this time had dismounted,) laid the hare down at his +feet, and then sprang up herself to meet and return his caresses. + +"Jesse! It must be Jesse Cliffe!" said Phoebe, in a tone which wavered +between exclamation and interrogatory. + +"It can be none other," responded her grandfather. "I'd trust Venus +beyond all the world in the matter of recognising an old friend, and we +all know that except her old master and her young mistress, she never +cared a straw for anybody but Jesse. It must be Jesse Cliffe, though to +be sure he's so altered that how the bitch could find him out, is beyond +my comprehension. It's remarkable," continued he in an under tone, +walking away with Jesse from the Belford party, "that we five (counting +Venus and old Daniel) should meet just on this very spot--isn't it? +It looks as if we were to come together. And if you have a fancy for +Phoebe, as your friend Sir Robert says you have, and if Phoebe retains +her old fancy for you, (as I partly believe maybe the case,) why my +consent sha'nt be wanting. Don't keep squeezing my hand, man, but go and +find out what she thinks of the matter." + +Five minutes after this conversation Jesse and Phoebe were walking +together towards the house: what he said we have no business to inquire, +but if blushes may be trusted, of a certainty the little damsel did not +answer "No." + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Jesse Cliffe, by Mary Russell Mitford + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JESSE CLIFFE *** + +***** This file should be named 22839.txt or 22839.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/2/8/3/22839/ + +Produced by David Widger + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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