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| author | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-14 18:33:04 -0700 |
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| committer | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-14 18:33:04 -0700 |
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diff --git a/40421-h/40421-h.htm b/40421-h/40421-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3e2f08c --- /dev/null +++ b/40421-h/40421-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,11580 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html + PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=US-ASCII" /> +<title>The Comical Adventures of Twm Shon Catty, by T. J. Llewelyn Prichard</title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + P { margin-top: .75em; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + P.gutsumm { margin-left: 5%;} + P.poetry {margin-left: 3%; } + .GutSmall { font-size: 0.7em; } + H1, H2 { + text-align: center; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + } + H3, H4, H5 { + text-align: center; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; + } + BODY{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + table { border-collapse: collapse; } +table {margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto;} + td { vertical-align: top; border: 1px solid black;} + td p { margin: 0.2em; } + .blkquot {margin-left: 4em; margin-right: 4em;} /* block indent */ + + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + + .pagenum {position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: small; + text-align: right; + font-weight: normal; + color: gray; + } + img { border: none; } + img.dc { float: left; width: 50px; height: 50px; } + p.gutindent { margin-left: 2em; } + div.gapspace { height: 0.8em; } + div.gapline { height: 0.8em; width: 100%; border-top: 1px solid;} + div.gapmediumline { height: 0.3em; width: 40%; margin-left:30%; + border-top: 1px solid; } + div.gapmediumdoubleline { height: 0.3em; width: 40%; margin-left:30%; + border-top: 1px solid; border-bottom: 1px solid;} + div.gapshortdoubleline { height: 0.3em; width: 20%; + margin-left: 40%; border-top: 1px solid; + border-bottom: 1px solid; } + div.gapdoubleline { height: 0.3em; width: 50%; + margin-left: 25%; border-top: 1px solid; + border-bottom: 1px solid;} + div.gapshortline { height: 0.3em; width: 20%; margin-left:40%; + border-top: 1px solid; } + .citation {vertical-align: super; + font-size: .8em; + text-decoration: none;} + img.floatleft { float: left; + margin-right: 1em; + margin-top: 0.5em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; } + img.floatright { float: right; + margin-left: 1em; margin-top: 0.5em; + margin-bottom: 0.5em; } + img.clearcenter {display: block; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0.5em; + margin-bottom: 0.5em} + --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> +</head> +<body> +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Comical Adventures of Twm Shon Catty, by +T. J. Llewelyn Prichard + + +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: The Comical Adventures of Twm Shon Catty + Commonly known as the Welsh Robin Hood + + +Author: T. J. Llewelyn Prichard + + + +Release Date: August 5, 2012 [eBook #40421] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE COMICAL ADVENTURES OF TWM SHON +CATTY*** +</pre> +<p>Transcribed from the 1900[?] W. Nicholson and Sons edition by +David Price, email ccx074@pglaf.org</p> +<h1>THE<br /> +COMICAL ADVENTURES<br /> +<span class="GutSmall">OF</span><br /> +TWM SHON CATTY,<br /> +<span class="GutSmall">(THOMAS JONES, ESQ.)</span><br /> +<span class="GutSmall">COMMONLY KNOWN AS THE</span><br /> +<span class="smcap">Welsh Robin Hood</span>.</h1> +<blockquote><p>“In Ystrad Feen a mirthful sound<br /> +Pervades the hollow hills around;<br /> +The very stones with laughter bound,<br /> +At Twm Shon Catty’s jovial round.”</p> +</blockquote> +<h2><a name="page5"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +5</span>PREFACE.</h2> +<p>In presenting to the public the following Enlarged and +Corrected Edition of “Twm Shon Catty,” the author +cannot forget that on its first appearance in 1836, with +“all its imperfections on its head,” it was received +with a welcome quite unlooked for on the part of the writer, and +he now presents this edition to the world, with several additions +and alterations.</p> +<p>On examining the cause of such unlooked-for approbation, he +found it, not in any merit of his own, but in the nationality of +his subject, and the humiliating suggestion that, slight as it +was, it was the first attempted thing that could bear the title +of a Welsh Novel.</p> +<p>It is true others have made Wales the scene of action for the +heroes of their Tales; but however talented such writers might +be, to the Welshman’s feelings they lacked nationality, and +betrayed the hand of the foreigner in the working of the web; its +texture perchance, filled up with yams of finer fleeces, but +strange and loveless to their unaccustomed eyes.</p> +<p>Were a native of one of the South Sea Islands to publish the +life and adventures of one of their legendary heroes, it is +probable that such a production would excite more attention, as a +true transcript of mind and manners of the people he essayed to +describe, than the more polished pages of the courtly English and +French novelist, who undertook to write on the same +subject. On the same principle, the author of this +unpretending little provincial production accounts for the sunny +gleams of favour that have flashed on the new tract which he has +endeavoured to tread down, among briers and brambles of an +unexplored way, while the smoother path of the practised +traveller has been shrouded in gloom.</p> +<p><a name="page6"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 6</span>The +expression of the Author’s gratitude is here presented to +the Rev. W. J. Rees, Rector of Cascob, for numerous favours; and +especially for the historic and traditional matter that his +researches furnished. To the Critics of the Cambrian +Quarterly for their favourable notice of the “Small +Book,” a skeleton as it then was, compared to the present +Edition, imperfect as it still remains. And lastly to the +revered memory of the late Archdeacon Benyon of Llandilo. +That lamented friend of Wales and Welshmen, (whose aims were ever +directed to the enlargement of the narrow boundary within which +prejudice and custom had encircled and enchained Welsh +literature,) in the town-hall of Carmarthen, before his highly +respectable Auditors, honoured this production with a favourable +notice. He warmly eulogised the Author’s attempt at +the production of the first Welsh Novel; and concluded by an +offer of a pecuniary reward to the person who could give the best +translation of it in the best Welsh language.</p> +<h2><a name="page7"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 7</span>CHAPTER +I.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm"><span class="smcap">The</span> name of Twm +Shon Catty, popular throughout Wales. “The +Inn-Keeper’s Album,” and the drama founded +thereon. Twm Shon Catty apparently born in different +towns. A correct account of his birth and parentage.</p> +<p>It is often the custom, however foolish it may be, to frighten +the occupants of an English nursery into submission by saying, +“The bogie is coming,” and though the exact form or +attributes of the said “bogie” are by no means +definitely known, the mere mention of the individual has +sufficient power to make the juveniles cover their heads, and +dive under the bed-clothes, with fear. The preface to the +once popular farce of “Killing no Murder” informs us, +that many a fry of infant Methodists are terrified and frightened +to bed by the cry of “the Bishop is +coming!”—That the right reverend prelates of the +realm should become bugbears and buggaboos to frighten the +children of Dissenters, is curious enough, and evinces a +considerable degree of ingenious <a name="page8"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 8</span>malignity in bringing Episcopacy into +contempt, if true. Be that as it may in England, in Wales +it is not so; for the demon of terror and monster of the nursery +there, to check the shrill cry of infancy, and enforce silent +obedience to the nurse or mother is Twm Shon Catty.</p> +<p>But “babes and sucklings” are not the only ones on +whom that name has continued to act as a spell; nor for fear and +wonder its only attributes, for the knavish exploits and comic +feats of Twm Shon Catty are, like those of Robin Hood in England, +the themes of many a rural rhyme, and the subject of many a +village tale; where, seated round the ample hearth of a farm +house, or the more limited one of a lowly cottage, an attentive +audience is ever found, where his mirth-exciting tricks are told +and listened to with vast satisfaction, unsated by the frequency +of repetition; for the “lowly train” are generally +strangers to that fastidiousness which turns disgusted, from a +twice-told tale.</p> +<p>Although neither the legends, the poetry, nor the history of +the principality, seem to interest, or accord with the taste of +our English brethren, the name of Twm Shon Catty, curiously +enough, not only made its way among them, but had the unexpected +honour of being woven into a tale, and exhibited on the stage, as +a Welsh national dramatic spectacle, under the title, and the +imposing second title, of Twn <i>John</i> Catty, or, the Welsh +Rob Roy. The nationality of the Welsh residents in London, +who always bear their country along with them wherever they go, +was immediately roused, notwithstanding the great offence of +substituting “John” for “Shon,” which +called at once on their curiosity and love of country to pursue +the “Inkeeper’s Album,” in which this tale +first appeared, and to visit the Cobourg Theatre, where +overflowing houses nightly attended the representation of the +“Welsh Rob Roy.” Now this second title, which +confounded the poor Cambrians, was a grand expedient of the +Dramatist, to excite the attention <a name="page9"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 9</span>of the Londoners, who naturally +associated it with the hero of the celebrated Scotch novel. +The bait was immediately swallowed, and that tale, an awkward and +most weak attempt to imitate the “Great Unknown,” and +by far the worst article in a very clever book, actually sold the +volume.</p> +<p>As Twm Shon Catty was invariably known to every Crymrian as a +great practical joker, they were of course proportionately +surprised to find him manufactured into a stilted, injured, +melo-dramatic chieftain, for the love of his <i>Ellen</i>, dying +the death of a hero!</p> +<p>“This may do for London, but in Wales, where +‘<i>Gwir yn erbyn y byd</i>’ <a +name="citation9a"></a><a href="#footnote9a" +class="citation">[9a]</a> is our motto, we know better!” +muttered many a testy Cambrian, which he felt doubly indignant at +the authors’ and actors’ errors in the mis-writing +and the mis-pronouncing the well-known “sponsorial or +baptismal appellation,” <a name="citation9b"></a><a +href="#footnote9b" class="citation">[9b]</a> as Doctor Pangloss +would say: and another source of umbrage to them was, that an +English author’s sacrilegiously dignifying Twm with the +qualities of a hero, conveying the villanous inference that Wales +was barren of <i>real</i> heroes—an insinuation that no +Welshman could tamely endure to forgive. In an instant +recurred the honoured names of Rodri Mawr, Owen Gwyneth, +Caswallon ab Beli, Own Glyndwr, Rhys ab Thomas, and a vast chain +of Cambrian worthies, not forgetting the royal race of Tudor, +that gave an Elizabeth to the English throne; on which the mimic +scene before them, and the high vauntings of Huntley in the +character of Twm Shon Catty, sunk into the insignificance of a +punch and puppet show, in comparison with the mighty men who then +passed before the mental eye.</p> +<p>Sir John Wynn, of Gwydir, bart., was the father of our hero, +who was a natural son by a woman called Catherine. Little +or nothing is known of her, but <a name="page10"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 10</span>surnames not being generally adopted +in Wales, her son, by Universal consent, was called “Twn +Shon Catty,” which means literally, “Thoms John +Catherine.” One very astute English Commentator +informs us that the name “Catty” originated in the +fact that of his armorial bearings included a Cat’s +Eye!! This is simply nonsense, as every Welshman can +testify.</p> +<p>Like the immortal Homer, different towns have put forth their +claims to the enviable distinction of having given our hero +birth; among which Cardigan, Llandovery, and Carmarthen, are said +to have displayed considerable warmth in asserting their +respective pretentions. A native of the latter far-famed +borough town, whose carbuncled face and rubicund +nose—indelible stamps of bacchanalian +royalty—proclaimed him the undisputed prince of topers, +roundly affirmed that no town but Carmarthen—ever famed for +its stout ale, large dampers, <a name="citation10"></a><a +href="#footnote10" class="citation">[10]</a> and blustering +heroes of the pipe and pot—could possibly have produced +such a jolly dog. It is with regret that we perceive such +potent authority opposed by the united opinions of our Cambrian +bards and antiquaries, who place his birth in the year 1570, at +Tregaron, that primitive, yet no longer obscure, Cardiganshire +town, but long celebrated throughout the principality for its +pony fair; and above all, as the established birthplace of Twm +Shon Catty.</p> +<p>He first saw the light, it seems, at a house of his +mother’s, situate on a hill south-east of Tregaron, called +Llidiard-y-Fynnon, (Fountain-Gate,) from its situation beside an +excellent well, that previous to the discovery of other springs +nearer to their habitations, supplied the good people of Tregaron +with water. That distinguished spot is now, however, more +generally known by the more elevated name of Plâs Twm Shon +Catty, (the mansion of Twm Shon Catty,) the ruins of which are +now pointed out by the neighbouring <a name="page11"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 11</span>people to any curious traveller who +may wish to enrich the pages of his virgin tour by their +important communications.</p> +<p>And now, having given our hero’s birth and parentage +with the fidelity of a true historian, who has a most virtuous +scorn of the spurious embellishments of fiction, a more excursive +pen shall flourish on our future chapters.</p> +<h2>CHAPTER II.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm"><span class="smcap">The</span> grandfather of +Twm Shon Catty. Squire Graspacre on morality. Sir +Jno. Wynn, the practical exponent of it—and our hero the +result thereof.</p> +<p>Catty, the mother of Twm, lived in the most unsophisticated +manner at Llidiard-y-Fynnon, with an ill-favoured, hump-backed +sister, who was the general drudge and domestic manager. +Their mother had long been dead, and their father, the horned +cattle, a small farm and all its appurtenances, had been lost to +them about two years. This little farm was their +father’s property, but provokingly situated in the middle +of the vast possessions of Squire Graspacre, an English +gentleman-farmer, who condescendingly fixed himself in the +principality with the laudable idea of civilizing the Welsh.</p> +<p>The most feasible mode of accomplishing so grand an +undertaking, that appeared to him, was, to dispossess them of +their property, and to take as much as possible of their country +into his own paternal care. The rude Welsh, to be sure, he +found so blind to their own interests as to prefer living on +their farms to either selling or giving them away, to profit by +his superior management. His master-genius now became +apparent to everybody; for after ruining the owners, and +appropriating to himself half the neighbouring country, the other +half became his own with <a name="page12"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 12</span>ease, as the poor little freeholders +found it better to accept a small sum for their property, than to +have all wasted in litigation, and perhaps, ultimately, to end +their days in prison.</p> +<p>The maternal grandfather of Twm Shon Catty, was the last who +held out against the tyranny of the squire. He triumphantly +won his cause; but because he could not pay the costs, he was +imprisoned by his own solicitor, in the county gaol of Cardigan, +where it is said he died of a broken heart. The squire then +gained his ends. The farm-house (separated from the land, +which was added to another farm) became the dwelling of the old +farmer’s two daughters: not a gift, as they had to pay +annually about twice as much rental as they ought to have +paid.</p> +<p>It was soon after this admirable settlement of his affairs, +that the squire had a grand visitor to entertain at Graspacre +Hall, who was no less a personage than Sir John Wynn, of Gwydir, +in North Wales, whose sister our deep-scheming squire had just +married, with the politic view of identifying himself with the +Cambrian principality, and becoming one of the landed proprietors +of the country. One day, after a long ride with his noble +guest, over his far-spreading hills and vales, it was poor +Catty’s lot to be observed by these lordly sons of +affluence. She was spinning wool at the cottage door, a +work which she seldom performed without the accompaniment of a +song; and at that time she was giving utterance to a mournful +ditty, as the recent death of her father had naturally attuned +her mind to melancholy, and cast a cloud over her usual +cheerfulness.</p> +<p>The great men stopped their horses: “a fine girl, Sir +John,” cried the squire.</p> +<p>“You are right!” said the baronet: “I wonder +if she would object to a few delicate attentions from a man of +honour?”</p> +<p>“Object! my dear sir, I am surprised that you should ask +the question. The girl is poor and <a +name="page13"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 13</span>friendless, +and has just buried her father. My dear sir, it would be +kind of you, if you were to call and offer her those +‘delicate attentions’ of which you speak.”</p> +<p>The amorous baronet was not slow to avail himself of this very +amiable suggestion, delivered with a significant leer which could +not be mistaken; he called for several successive evenings at +Llidiard-y-Fynnon; but we may very reasonably question the +<i>delicacy</i> of the attentions he proffered to the fair +Catty. The sequel to the adventure soon became notorious, +and the maiden Catty became the mother of our redoubted hero, +thence, with an illusion to his father, called Twm Shon +Catty.</p> +<h2>CHAPTER III.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm"><span class="smcap">The</span> boy indicative +of the man. Antiquarian propensities show themselves. +His mother rises in the world, and assumes the dignified office +of village schoolmistress. Her mode of tuition. Twm a +member of the “academy.”</p> +<p>As the period of early infancy seldom contains incidents +worthy the recording pen of history, we shall bring our hero at +once at his fourth year. The biographers of great men have +generally evinced a predilection to present their readers with +certain early indications of the peculiar genius that has +distinguished their heroes in after life; and far from us be the +presumption of deviating from such a popular and legitimate rule, +by any radical attempt at innovation or improvement.</p> +<p>Pope’s lispings in numbers, West’s quaker +daublings in childhood, with many other instances, not forgetting +Peter Pindar’s waggery on Sir Joseph Bank’s spreading +spiders and butterflies on his bread and butter, <a +name="page14"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 14</span>(certain +indication of the future Naturalist,) are cases in point, which +are familiar to every reader; true or not, we have also heard the +story of Sir Isaac Newton’s partiality for apples, in +childhood; that Paganini’s first desire was for a sixpenny +toy fiddle; that other great men in infancy exemplified the motto +that “Coming events cast their shadows before them;” +and it will not appear strange to those already acquainted with +his fame, that we have to add to these eminent names that of our +long neglected hero.</p> +<p>It is true he became neither a poet, a painter, nor a natural +historian, but, according to the unbiassed opinions of geniuses +of the same caste with himself, who could not be suspected of +either egotism or partiality, a superior character to +either—an eminent antiquary—to which may be added, +though perhaps it ought to take the lead—a no less eminent +thief—if thief he can be called whose illicit doings were +prompted by no motives of selfishness, but were ever the +spontaneous offspring of whim and madcap daring.</p> +<p>Twm’s mother affirms (and when a lady affirms anything +the gentlemen feel bound to believe in, and swear by it,) that +her son’s first predilection consisted of an intense +affection for street rubbish. The gutters and sweepings of +Tregaron furnished him with materials for an antiquarian +exhibition which he held in a stable manger. The pottery of +bygone days, somewhat the worse for wear and tear, but still +exhibiting the taste and substantial ideas of the original +manufactures—cutlery of Sheffield manufactures, discarded +and useless, but not beneath the notice of our juvenile +showman—twisted hemp and bits of figured rags and paper, +relics of time past—all formed part and parcel of his +“exhibition.”</p> +<p>To be sure his occupation was not of the cleanest. To +secure these priceless relics, he coated hands, face, and +clothes, with a thick crust of mud, and thus showed his origin, +by the close affection he had for mother earth. As in these +little fancies he spent the <a name="page15"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 15</span>greater part of his time, it became a +wonder to his mother that he seldom ran home for food; but it was +soon discovered that he had a mode peculiar to himself of raising +contributions on the public of which he was a member, by forcing +them to part with a portion of their bread and butter—a +praiseworthy act, and trebly commendable, as in the first place +it showed his filial piety, in saving his mother the expense of +his victuals; in the next, it taught courtesy to the churlish, +who in time anticipated his demand by voluntary offerings; and +thirdly, it engendered the principle of honesty in their tender +minds, by marking the propriety of paying for their curiosity in +gaping over the produce of his labours. This, it will also +be observed, was another feature that announced his future +character, which, it will be seen, “grew with his growth, +and strengthened with his strength.”</p> +<p>Sir Jno. Wynn was made acquainted with the result of those +“delicate attentions,” to which we have before +alluded, and as some sort of compensation, he bought the cottage +of Squire Graspacre, and presented it to Catty, as the reward of +her kind compliance with his “delicate” wishes. +The little property made her of great importance in the +district. As the house was large, and not overstocked with +inhabitants, it occurred to the good people of Tregaron, that a +day-school might be established within its walls; and having with +their own consent found a school-room, by the same indisputable +right they fixed on Catty for its mistress, and instituted her +governess, to rule their tender progeny.</p> +<p>Catty, with huge grin of approbation at her unexpected +promotion, immediately ratified their election, and declared both +her house and self ready for the reception of pupils at the +moderate terms of a penny a week. Her hump-backed sister +was by no means pleased with this arrangement, and very testily +asked, “Who was to clean up the house after the grubby +fry?” Catty made no reply, but in the pride of her +heart hummed a gay song, scratched the mud off her <a +name="page16"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 16</span>boy’s +clothes with an old birch broom, which being hardened by sweeping +the house, answered the purpose better than a brush, and had some +old coffers converted into benches for the service of her +scholars.</p> +<p>She then with singular alacrity, proceeded to cut from the +hedge, with her own fair hand, one of the most engaging-looking +birch rods, that ever was wielded by rural governess. This +premature display of the sceptre of severity was far from +fortunate, and nearly ruined the undertaking at the outset. +The tender mothers of Tregaron were startled at so unexpected a +proceeding, and practically declared they had rather their dear +babes should be brought up like calves and pigs, in the most +bestial ignorance, than have knowledge beaten into them at the +nether end with a birch rod.</p> +<p>Catty immediately quieted their fears, by protesting that she +entertained the utmost abhorrence of the flagellation system, and +that the bunch of birch was but bound together for a very +different purpose, namely, to be suspended as a sign over her +door. As Catty was all compliance with their requisitions, +every thing was set to rights; and without more ado children were +sent from every house where the affluence of the inmates enabled +them to give their offspring the first rudiments of +education. The mother of Twm became the pink and paragon of +schoolmistresses. ’Tis true, the noise and uproar of +her school was so great, that the pigs were frightened from their +trough, and the curate’s wife, who rode an ill-tamed horse, +was thrown headlong into the well, when passing the academy, from +the animal taking fright; but that was no fault of Catty’s; +people should break in their horses properly, and curates’ +wives should learn to ride and keep their seats better. +Besides, the alleged uproar was the greatest evidence in her +favour, as it proved the tenderness of her heart in not +correcting her scholars—a quality more valued by their +maternal parents than any other that could be substituted; and in +their appreciation of this prime <a name="page17"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 17</span>desideratum, they omitted to inquire +minutely into her other qualifications for a governess.</p> +<p>Unreasonable people might have asserted that she should at +least have been able to read and write with ordinary +ability. But poor Catty was not troubled with either of +these accomplishments, and believed with Dogberry, that +“reading and writing came by nature,” and that +“where ignorance is bliss, ’twere folly to be +wise.” She congratulated herself that none could say +to her “Too much learning hath made thee mad;” and +inwardly thanked heaven that her sanity would be unquestioned if +such a test was applied to her.</p> +<p>Many of Catty’s pupils had been taken by their wise and +considerate mothers out of the curate’s school, fearful +that his severity would break their hearts; and having there +learnt their letters and a little spelling, they kept possession +at least of what they had acquired, by teaching other children, +which flattered their childish vanity, while it served their +mistress, who, like a sage general that stands aloof from the +broil of battle, takes to herself the credit of success, while +the real operators are forgotten. Thus in time, with the +powerful support of the matrons of Tregaron, who took the lead of +their spouses, and directed the taste and opinions of the +clodhopping community, Catty’s school became an alarming +rival to the curate’s.</p> +<p>The mode of tuition adopted by Twm’s mother, was an +entirely original one, as the reader will have surmised. It +cost very little trouble in acquiring, because its chief secret +consisted in tutor and pupils doing just what they chose. +It may save a good deal of anxiety and trouble to those tutors +who are too conscientious if we furnish them with a leaf from the +book of this original preceptor.</p> +<p>“Come here, little Guenny Cadwgan,” said Catty one +day, “Come here, my little pretty buttercup, and say your +lesson, if you can; but if you can’t, never mind, I +won’t beat nor scold you.” Guenny came forward +bobbing a curtsey, and while his mistress <a +name="page18"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 18</span>broomed the +mud from little Twm’s breeches, began her lesson.</p> +<p><i>Guenny</i>.—a, b, hab.</p> +<p><i>Catty</i>.—There’s a good maaid!</p> +<p><i>Guenny</i>.—e, b, heb.</p> +<p><i>Catty</i>.—There’s a good maaid!</p> +<p><i>Guenny</i>.—o, b, hob.</p> +<p><i>Catty</i>.—There’s a good maaid!</p> +<p><i>Guenny</i>.—i, b,—can’t tell.</p> +<p><i>Catty</i>.—Skipe it, child, skipe it—(meaning +“skip it.”)</p> +<p><i>Guenny</i>.—u, b, cub.</p> +<p><i>Catty</i>.—There’s a good maaid! Twm you +little wicked dog, don’t kick the child. Go on, +Guenny vach.</p> +<p><i>Twm</i>.—(who had been struggling for some time to +get from under his mother’s combs,) I want to go a +fishing.</p> +<p><i>Catty</i>.—Lord love the darling child! +You’ll fall into the river and be drowned.</p> +<p><i>Twm</i>.—Oh! no, mother; I always fish in the +gutters.</p> +<p><i>Dio Bengoch</i>.—I want to go home for some bread and +butter.</p> +<p>“And I! and I! and I!” squalls every urchin in the +school; and out they would run in a drove, on perceiving the +independent exit of master Twm, without waiting for the +permission of his parent and governess.</p> +<h2><a name="page19"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +19</span>CHAPTER IV.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm">A <span class="smcap">lecture</span> on +learning. Astuteness below stairs. A +gentleman’s opinion on servants. A horse +milliner. Intimacy with Catty. More suspicion of +“delicate attentions,” which so far are not quite so +criminal as the squire’s.</p> +<p>Perhaps our modern governesses who possess the vain +accomplishment of reading and writing, may feel disposed to +undervalue the acquirements of our rural Welsh governess. +But let them not triumph; and be it recollected that tastes +differ, and that many of our living patricians, as well as +wealthy plebeians, who are considered the great, the mighty, and +the respectable of the land, deprecate with becoming vehemence +the prevailing mania for educating the poor. We have heard +ladies, and great ones too, attired in silks and velvets, pall +and purple, and “faring sumptuously every day,” +declare most positively that they never knew a servant good for +anything that could read and write.</p> +<p>No sooner were they capable of wielding a goose quill, than +the impudent hussies presumed to have a will of their own, and +their opinions mounted a step nearer to the attitude of their +mistresses. And on men, they said, education had a worse +effect, as thereby they became the idle readers of books and +newspapers, which made them saucy to their superiors, and +sometimes the most villanous cut-throat radicals. Now it +will be readily admitted, we should think, that there was little +danger of Catty’s scholars ever becoming such pernicious +characters; and therefore, let not liberal envy withhold from her +the well-merited meed of applause. Alas for the good old +times—we see no such school-mistresses now-a-days! those +days of the golden age of simplicity are gone for ever.</p> +<p>Perhaps we might wonder that the parents of the children, +those who paid such a round sum every <a name="page20"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 20</span>week for instruction administered to +those “babes and sucklings,” did not grumble at the +slow pace at which the process went on. But to criticise a +subject properly, we must be “well up” in it, and the +villagers of Tregaron were not exactly calculated to measure the +amount of “book larning” their babes did, or did not +acquire. They were satisfied if their children were +“out of the way, the livelong day” and a penny per +week was surely not so high a price to pay for that luxury.</p> +<p>Although our hero’s mother could not be called a woman +of letters, she certainly possessed qualities more original than +generally fell to the lot of persons in her station. At +carding wool or spinning it, knitting stockings or mittens, the +most envious admitted her superiority to every woman in +Tregaron.</p> +<p>She moreover had gained no small consideration in another +character, which her jealous neighbours satirically denominated a +hedge milliner, whose province it was to mend hedging gloves and +coarse frocks for ploughmen, to darn or patch with leather the +heels of their stout woollen stockings, and also to repair horse +collars at half the price charged by old Daff the saddler; the +latter part of her occupation, which required a delicate hand to +cut the slender sewing thongs from the raw bull hides, caused her +to be called a horse milliner, which, after all, was not much +more applicable than if she had been called a bull tailor. +This malignant waggery, however, was unable to disturb the +tranquil soul of Catty; she loved horses, and in her juvenile +days had often whiled away her mornings and evenings in the rural +pastime of driving them, both in plough and harrow, while +carolling some rural ditty, till the rocks and mountains echoed +with the cadence of her harmony.</p> +<p>Catty, with such capabilities and accomplishments, was of +course an object of wonder, awe, and admiration, to many of the +swains of Tregaron, notwithstanding those “delicate +attentions” bestowed upon her by Sir Jno. Wynn, bart., but +the success of her <a name="page21"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +21</span>original method of tuition made her quite independent of +their protestations. But, altering the sex in the +quotation, we may say that, “There is a tide in the affairs +of women;” and it proved to be so in Catty’s +case.</p> +<p>The right man came at last. Like all her amiable sex, +she professed the utmost abhorrence of mercenary motives in +marriage, though many insinuated that she knew the value of +property from having never possessed any worth mentioning. +It was observed that she treated with indifference, if not +aversion, those unprofitable lovers who had nothing but their +goodly persons to recommend them.</p> +<p>Certain innuendoes were even thrown out respecting a suspicion +of her coquettings with one of the most ugly, miserly, and +repulsive of clowns;—one who was not only a clown, but a +red-haired one;—not only knock-kneed, but +squint-eyed;—not only squint-eyed, but a woman-hater; and +worse than all, a foreigner!—being a native of a distant +part of the adjoining county of Carmarthen, and known only by the +nick-name of Jack of Sheer Gâr, or Carmarthenshire +Jack.</p> +<p>This person was repulsive in the extreme. Clad in old, +patched, dirty clothes, with such peculiar facial properties as +we have before enumerated, he was apparently the last man upon +whom one of the opposite sex would have cast her favouring +eye. He was at this time chief husbandman and bailiff to +the squire, an office which, giving him power over other +servants, we may be very sure did not increase his +popularity. But few showed their distaste and aversion +openly; it would have been a dangerous experiment with Jack of +Sheer Gâr.</p> +<p>The standing jest against him was, his qualifications as a +trencherman, and his reputation as a “huge feeder” +was certainly unrivalled. As there was not a single pastime +under the head of amusement, that the ingenuity of man has ever +devised for the entertainment of his fellows, save eating, that +possessed a charm for him, it might of course be expected that <a +name="page22"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 22</span>this solitary +recreation would be indulged in the proportion that he excluded +all others. He not only performed all the functions of the +gross glutton, but as the actors say, “looked the +character,” to perfection.</p> +<p>The reader, measuring him by other men, would make a very +erroneous guess on the most prominent feature of his face, if he +fixed on the nasal protuberance—no such thing—his +nose was flat and small, but his large projecting upper teeth, +like “rocks of pearl jutting over the sea,” were ever +bared for action, white as those of his only companion, the +mastiff, and nobly independent of a sheathing lip.</p> +<blockquote><p>Others more comely features might wear<br /> +But Jack was famed for his white teeth bare.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>As the squire’s lady was not the most liberal in +supplying the servants’ table, those wags, male or female, +who were in the habit of committing the silent mimicry against +Jack, were soon taught a severe lesson at the expense of their +bowels. It was discovered that, whenever enraged at their +treatment, instead of spending his breath in vain reproaches, or +taking to the more violent proceeding of fisty-cuffs, Jack +revenged himself by eating most outrageously, so that scoffers, +deprived of their shares, often found their stomachs minus. +His power of mastication increased with his anger; and the +flaming energy that was mentally inciting him to give an enemy a +fierce facer, or a destructive cross-buttock, was diverted from +his knuckles to his teeth; and in every quantum which he ground +in his relentless mill, he felt the glowing satisfaction of +having annihilated a foe.</p> +<p>Woe to those who were his next neighbours at table, and sat so +close to his elbows at those hours of excitement; fierce punches +in the ribs, as if by accident, were among the slightest +consequences; and those who were thus taught the manners to keep +a respectable distance, declared that the fears they <a +name="page23"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 23</span>entertained +was only of his knife. But his bloodthirsty propensities +were not so great as they were represented to be. Jack +believed in the “power of the eye,” and exemplified +it, in his own case, by making that organ express what his head +never meant to carry out. The squire knew his value as a +faithful servant, and turned a deaf ear to all the evil that was +reported of him.</p> +<p>Before fanaticism had cast its puritanic gloom over Wales, and +identified itself almost with the Welsh in character, mirth and +minstrelsy, dance and song, emulative games and rural pastimes +were the order of the day; and, as the people worked hard all the +week, it must be confessed that these sports often infringed upon +the sanctity of the Sabbath.</p> +<p>Sundays were often entirely spent in dancing, wrestling, and +kicking the foot-ball. The latter violent exercise, at this +time prevalent in Cardiganshire, was performed in large parties +of village against village, and parish against parish, when the +country brought together its mass of population either to partake +in the glories of the game or to enjoy the success of their +friends, as spectators. On these occasions Carmarthen Jack +loved to be present, but only as a spectator, as he was never +known to take a part in the game.</p> +<p>Jack thought the exercise of play was waste of time and +breath. He told others that he “kept his breath to +cool his flummery, and his strength to make money.” +Whilst the others were panting with efforts made in the game, +Jack was quietly cutting and carving his wooden spoons, made out +of the birch or alder which he stored all the week under his bed, +for the purpose of drying it.</p> +<p>At fairs also, Carmarthen Jack would be equally punctual, and +after having done his master’s business of buying or +selling a horse or so, would be seen with a load of merchandise +of his own manufacture, wooden spoons, ladles, and clog soles, in +abundance, which drew about him all the rural house-keepers far +and near. <a name="page24"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +24</span>“No milliner could suit her customers with +gloves” in greater variety than Jack with spoons to please +his purchasers. He had spoons for man, woman and child, +fashioned for every sort of mouth, from the tiny infant’s +to the shark-jaws of the hungry ploughman, which, like his own, +was said to present a gap from ear to ear. He had spoons +for use, and spoons for ornament; the latter, meant to keep +company with the showy polished pewter, were made of box or yew, +highly polished and curiously carved with divers characters, +supposed to be suns, moons, stars, hearts transfixed with the +dart of cupid, and sometimes a hen and chickens; with +hieroglyphics for fear of their being mistaken for a cat and +mice, with other such misconstructions, Jack always explained at +the time of bargaining, without any extra charge.</p> +<p>Nothing could more emphatically prove the excellency of +Jack’s wares, than the circumstance of his being personally +unpopular among the women, and yet his wares in the highest +esteem. The frowns of the fair, which threw a gloom on the +sunshine of his days, may be traced to a source not at all +dishonourable to him. The girls at the squire’s had +played him so many tricks, that once in the height of +aggravation, Jack waged war against the whole sex, devoting to +the infernal gods every creature that wore a petticoat, and +vowing, from that day forward, not one of the proscribed race +should ever enter his room, which was romantically situated over +the stable, its wickered lattice commanding a full view of both +the pigsty and the dunghill.</p> +<p>The consequence of this terrible row caused him, at first, +some trouble, as, to keep it, he was obliged thenceforward to be +his own chambermaid, laundress, and sempstress, offices that +accorded ill with his previous habits. The laudable +firmness of his nature, however, soon overcame these petty +difficulties; and so far was he from backsliding from his +previous determination, that he vowed to throw through the window +the first woman who entered his chamber, <a +name="page25"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 25</span>which the +satirical hussies called his den—a threat which effectually +secured him from further intrusion.</p> +<p>Sometimes, indeed, while sitting at the door of the cow-house, +or the stable, listening to the rural sounds of the cackling +geese and grunting pigs, and darning his hose, or patching his +leather breeches, or treading his shift in the brook by way of +washing it, those eternal plagues of his, the girls, would be +seen and heard behind the covert of a wall or hedge, smothering +their tittering, which at last would burst out, in spite of +suppression, into a loud horse-laugh, when, one and all, they +would take to their heels, while Jack amused himself by pelting +their rear, in their precipitate retreat, with clods of earth, +small stones or anything that came in his way.</p> +<p>“Circumstances alter cases.” In time Jack +gained the reputation of being rich. He had made spoons to +some purpose, and however the fair sex may cry up their +disinterestedness, we are all aware that money materially alters +the position of a man in their eyes. One of the maids with +this knowledge, became very suddenly enamoured of him, and tried +to gain his good will. But having one day ventured to +Jack’s “sanctum,” the wench was pitched into +the dunghill below, and as a consequence the “pangs of +despised love” raged in her bosom. The first act of +her resentment was to spread about the insidious report that Jack +Sheer was a woman-hater—an insinuation that rather preyed +upon his mind, as he dreaded the effect such an unmerited stigma +would have upon his private trade. But innocence is ever +predestined to an ultimate triumph; and an event soon happened +that proved the falsehood of those prevalent tales to his +discredit, and convinced his greatest foes that he possessed a +heart, if not overflowing with human charity, at least penetrable +to the blandishments of beauty, and quick with sensibility to +female merit.</p> +<p>On one auspicious market-day, Carmarthen Jack appeared in the +streets of Tregaron where the market is held, loaded with his +usual merchandise, which he <a name="page26"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 26</span>spread on the ground, and sat beside +them; but not meeting with a ready sale, and disdaining even +momentary idleness, began with earnestness to cut and scoop away +at a piece of alder, gradually forming it into a huge ladle, to +correspond with the largest size three-legged iron pot. On +this eventful morning Catty had occasion to perambulate the fair, +to purchase a new ladle, her cross-grained sister having broken +the old one, by thumping with it on the back of an overgrown hog, +whose foraging propensities had led him to investigate the +recesses of the schoolroom.</p> +<p>The notoriety occasioned by Jack’s peculiarities, and +the fact of his having money, reached the ears of Catty, and our +prudent tutor determined to make his acquaintance through the +medium of the broken ladle. Some people say that Catty +broke the ladle herself, broke it with a design and that design +was an excuse for visiting and conquering one who hated all her +sex. Be that as it may, she sought and found him in the +fair, and fell in love with him and his ladle at the same +instant. After an effort to conquer her native bashfulness, +and to look as lovely as possible, she accosted him with such +uncommon civility as utterly astounded the poor clownish +misanthropic bachelor. She examined the ladle in his hand, +and though not half finished, declared it to be the handsomest +ever her eyes beheld, and paid for it without seeking the least +abatement in the price. Jack gaped at her, with open mouth +and staring eyes, and thought her a very interesting woman, +though his first impression was, that she was mad, as he had +asked double the selling price, on purpose to abate one half, +according to the custom immemorial in Welsh dealings.</p> +<p>She next purchased half a dozen common birch-wood spoons, and, +as many ornamental ones made of box, to adorn her shelf, and, as +before paid him his own price. Jack thought her very lovely +indeed: and when she made another purchase of a pair of clog <a +name="page27"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 27</span>soles, quite +irresistible!—her ready money opened his heart as the best +key in the world would have done a patent lock; and he was almost +ready to offer them as a present, but for fear of wounding her +delicacy. As she found he had no further variety, she +ordered half a dozen more common spoons, and Jack, with all the +amiability that he could possibly throw into his hard features, +presented her with one of his most finished articles in +box. She received it with that peculiar smile with which a +lady accepts a welcome love-token, and replied in the softest +tone imaginable, “Indeed I will keep it for your sake, John +bach!”</p> +<p>Jack had nothing to do but wonder—he never had been +called John in his life before; at any other time he would have +thought she mocked him—and the endearing term of +“bach” too, was equally new to his ears, which seemed +to grow longer as they tingled with the grateful sound. +This interesting scene was closed by Catty asking him to her +house to partake of a dinner of flummery and milk, which he +accepted with the best grace imaginable, and trudged off with his +wares on his back and dangling from his arms and button-holes; +and thus gallanting her in the most amatory style; he walked by +her side to Llidiard-y-Fynon.</p> +<p>Unaccustomed to kindness in either word or deed, poor Jack of +Sheer Gâr, met her condescensions and advances with a +sheepish sort of gratitude. A cordial invitation on the +part of Catty to repeat his visit as soon, and as often, as +possible, affected him almost to tears; and as a proof of his +unbounded confidence, he left in her care his whole stock of +ready-made spoons and ladles, and almost blubbered when he shook +her hand at parting.</p> +<p>As a proof of the beneficial effect of kindness on a churlish +nature, and the contrary, of ridicule and persecution, we need +but contrast this rugged man’s previous character and +conduct with what followed, after <a name="page28"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 28</span>the tenderness of Catty had melted +the frost of misanthropy which formed a crusty coat round his +heart. The adventure of the day produced a most +extraordinary revolution in his habits. None of the +servants of the hall, male or female, could conceive what it +portended, when Jack asked one of them, his fellow husbandman, to +trim his hair; and while the fellow clipped his rough red locks +with his sheep-shears, once mischievously pinching his ear with +them till he roared, he was surprised at his questions about the +price of a new pair of leather breeches, and a red +neck-cloth. Greater still was the astonishment of the whole +house, when, in a few days after, he appeared changed into a +complete rustic buck in those very articles of dress, and while +he thought nobody saw him, endeavoured to cut a dancing caper on +the green, which they mistook for a frisky bullock. Changes +like these are seldom without a reason, thought his fellow +servants; and when they saw Jack’s elated steps lead him +towards Catty’s house, they jeered, and laughed, and +winked; and nothing knew of course, although their knowledge made +him all the worse. Tregaron and its neighbourhood had now +food for gossip, and gossip to some people is indeed the very +acme of human felicity.</p> +<p>Flummery and milk, named here as the food on which those +lovers regaled, has been considered in Wales a very popular mess, +common, but still a favourite among high and low, and might be +seen on the board of the lord lieutenant of county, as well as on +that of the humblest cottager. The lofty of the land whose +pampered stomachs have turned with loathing from more dainty +dishes in sultry seasons, have welcomed the simplicity of milk +and flummery, as the advocate of native charms would greet the +smilings of a rustic beauty, while the meretricious fair of +fashion would be passed by, neglected.</p> +<p>The English reader will not be offended if I dilate a little +praise of my favourite bowl or platter, (too much to call it a +dish perhaps,) while I explain its <a name="page29"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 29</span>nature; and if he be a bloated son of +affluence, overflowing with bile and spleen, he will thank us, +after adopting our recommendation of feeding on it often during +his rustication among our mountains. Our candid sages of +the pill and potion, also recommend it as very effective in +promoting an increase of good clear healthy blood.</p> +<p>Flummery is made of the inner hulls of ground oats, when +sifted from the meal, some of which still adheres to it, by +soaking it in water till it acquires a slight taste of acidity, +when it is strained through a hair sieve and boiled till it +becomes a perfect jelly. When poured from that prince of +culinary vessels, the large three-legged iron pot, into a vast +earthen dish, it presents a smooth smiling aspect of the most +winning equanimity, till destroyed by the numerous invading +spoons of the company, who plunge a portion of it, scalding hot, +into their bowls of cool milk. Thus much of the descriptive +history is given, to illustrate the following ode to its immortal +praise, with which we shall now close this long chapter.</p> +<blockquote><p style="text-align: center">MILK AND FLUMMERY.</p> +<p>Let luxury’s imbecile train,<br /> + Of appetites fastidious,<br /> +Each sauced provocative obtain,<br /> + The draught or viand perfidious;<br /> +But oh! give me that simple food,<br /> + Lov’d by the sons of Cymru.<br /> +With health, with nourishment imbued,<br /> + The sweet cool milk and flummery.</p> +<p>Let pudding-headed English folk<br /> + With boast of roast-beef fag us;<br /> +Let Scottish Burns crack rural jokes,<br /> + And vaunt kail-brose and haggis;<br /> +But Cymrian sons, of mount and plain,<br /> + From Brecknock to Montgomery,<br /> +Let us the honest praise maintain,<br /> + Of sweet cold milk and flummery.</p> +<p>On sultry days when appetites<br /> + Wane dull, and low, and queasy,<br /> +<a name="page30"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 30</span>When +loathing stomachs nought delights,<br /> + To gulph our flummery’s easy.<br /> +Dear oaten jelly, pride of Wales!<br /> + Thou smooth-faced child of Cymry.<br /> +On the ruddy swain regales,<br /> + And blesses milk and flummery.</p> +<p>’Tis sweet to stroll on Cambrian heights<br /> + O’er-looking vales and rivers.<br /> +Where thin and purest air invites,<br /> + The soul from spleen delivers;<br /> +That foe of bile the light repast<br /> + To bloated gout may come wry.<br /> +But Nature’s child, thy mid-day fast<br /> + Break thou with milk and flummery.</p> +</blockquote> +<h2>CHAPTER V.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm"><span class="smcap">Another</span> lecture in +Welsh. “Courting in bed.” Our +hero’s education progresses. The Curate’s +school.</p> +<p>Whilst our lovers were regaling themselves upon milk and +flummery, Twm Shon Catty was concocting and putting into +execution his first practical joke, for while they sat side by +side at the goodly oak table, he fastened them together by the +coat and gown with a peeled thorn spike, which before the +introduction of pins, was used by the fair sex to unite about +them their various articles of attire.</p> +<p>This freak being performed, Twm stole off unperceived, and +getting on the outside of the door, he was joined by Watt the +mole catcher, and a party of children instructed for the purpose, +in a loud and astounding cry of mad bull! a mad bull! at the same +time forcing before them into the house a little trotting calf, +whose buttocks were tortured by Twm’s ox-goad till he +reared and capered up to the very table where the lover’s +sat. Catty screamed, and both jumped up mutually terrified, +as sudden fear had <a name="page31"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +31</span>magnified the little animal to the proportions of an +enormous brute of an enraged bull, whose uninvited visit and +uncalled for appearance at their dinner table, portending nothing +less than death. When Twm and Watt’s laughter at +length undeceived them, the spoon merchant, who had been so +liberally assisted with spoon and meat, found to his dismay, that +with his heart Catty had carried away the skirt of his coat, by +the sudden jerk of rising from their seats; and had the gods made +Jack poetical, he might have exclaimed with the renowned Mr. +Tag,—<a name="citation31"></a><a href="#footnote31" +class="citation">[31]</a></p> +<blockquote><p>The lovely maid on whom I dote<br /> +Hath made a spencer of my coat.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>The wicked urchin who caused this unsanctioned union continued +with his mischievous party, their laughter long and loud, and +Catty’s grumpy sister Juggy, for the first time in her +life, astonished them with a grin on the occasion. Twm +received a severe rebuke from his parent, and poor hapless Jack, +with the view of propitiating an evil spirit that might prove +troublesome to him hereafter, made him a present of a new spoon, +which, because it was merely a common one he ungratefully threw +into the blazing turf fire, that on this festal occasion glowed +on the hearth in a higher pile and wider dimensions than usual, +and demanded one of his best box-wood ware.</p> +<p>Jack would have given it to him immediately but for the +intervention of his mother, who forbade the indulgence. No +sooner, however, was he gone than Twm watched his opportunity and +purloined as many of the better sort as he could conveniently +take away unperceived, and sold them at the cheap rate of stolen +goods, to an old woman named, or rather nick-named, Rachel Ketch, +from some supposed resemblance in her character to that finisher +of the law, although some persons roundly asserted that she was +in fact a <a name="page32"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +32</span>relict of one John Ketch, Esquire, of +Stretch-neck-Place, Session Court, Carmarthen.</p> +<p>As no further consequence followed this act of unprovoked +delinquency, it was scarcely worth mentioning, except that it +stands as the first of the kind on record; and when discovered, +Twm’s over affectionate parent did not punish him for +it,—an omission that might have watered the root of a vast +tree of after enormities, but the mirthful mind rarely produces +such an upas monstrosity.</p> +<p>We come now to the era of his history when our hero entered +another scene of life, in that of a new school, which event was +ushered in by an unlooked-for circumstance, that must be first +narrated.</p> +<p>To our English readers it may be a piece of information if we +make known that in some parts of Wales, “Courting in +bed” is very common. It was so, at least when the +first and second editions of this work were issued, but now is +confined only to a few particular districts. Some of our +readers may be shocked; but when they are assured that the custom +embraces nothing which is not consistent with the strictest +honour, they will perhaps accord our ancient custom a little more +charity. This comfortable mode of forwarding a marriage +connexion prevailed very generally at Tregaron, to the great +scandal and virtuous indignation of the lady of Squire +Graspacre. It was amazing to witness with what energy this +good gentlewoman set about reforming the people, by the forcible +abolishment of what she pleased to call, this odious, dangerous, +blasphemous, and ungodly custom.</p> +<p>Her patronage was for ever lost to any man or woman, youth or +maid, of the town or country, who was related to, or connected +with any person who connived at bed courtship. There was +not a cottager who called at the great house for a pitcher of +whey, skim milk, or buttermilk, as a return for labour in harvest +time, but was closely examined on this head; and woe to those who +had the temerity to assert that there was no harm in the custom; +or that the wooers <a name="page33"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +33</span>merely laid down in their clothes, and thus conversed at +their ease on their future plans or prospects; or who denied that +such a situation was more calculated for amorous caresses and +endearments than sitting by a scanty fire in a chimney +corner.</p> +<p>Mrs. Graspacre was certainly a very virtuous—a very +termagant of decorous propriety. If any person dared, in +her presence, to advocate this proscribed and utterly condemned +mode, disdaining to argue the point, she would settle the matter +in a summary manner, peculiarly her own, by protesting she would +have a woman burnt alive who would submit to be courted in +bed.</p> +<p>In the course of two years there were no less than four young +men, and twice as many damsels, turned away from her service for +courting in the hay-loft; and on these occasions the poor girls +never escaped personal violence from the indignant and +persevering Mrs. Graspacre. She also assured them in +language undistinguished for choiceness or delicacy, that +“they were not to try and hoodwink her by telling her it +meant nothing. She knew better, she had not lived all these +years to be lied to and cheated by a common +w—e.” In her flaming zeal for decorum, the +tongs, the poker, the pitchfork, or the hay-rake, became an +instrument of chastisement. A double advantage was +discovered in the terror thus created, the dignity of her sex +being in the first place asserted and supported: in the next, the +offenders preferred running away without payment of their wages, +to standing the chance of having their heads or arms broken with +a poker, or their bodies pierced by the terrible prongs of a +pitchfork.</p> +<p>All the lowly dependents of Mrs. Graspacre found it their +interest to become her spies, who soon vied with each other in +giving the earliest intimation of any amorous pair who committed +this most diabolical offence; and those who were least forward in +bringing intelligence on this score, immediately sunk in her +esteem, and were mulct of their allowance of skim milk and blue +whey.</p> +<p><a name="page34"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 34</span>But in +time the old hen-wives of the neighbourhood discovered the virtue +of sycophancy and the efficacy of a little seasonable cant! and +when they were not warranted by real occurrences, they contrived +to conciliate their patroness by drawing upon their fertile +imagination and inventions; at other times, their knowledge of +Mrs. Graspacre’s failing served their own revenge. +Let anybody offend them, and they immediately went to the lady +with a manufactured tale, doing more credit to the imagination +than the heart. Their enemy had been found courting in bed +with Miss So-and-so, which was the signal for immediate +condemnation without trial.</p> +<p>Not satisfied with these auxiliaries in the cause of virtue, +the zealous Mrs. Graspacre enlisted on her side a very powerful +champion, in the person of the reverend Mr. Inco Evans, the +curate of Tregaron. Great was her mortification to find her +attempts on the rector fail of success, as he declared it +dangerous and ungenerous to interfere with the peculiarities and +long-established customs of the people; especially as he +conceived it was rarely that any bad consequences ensued from the +mode in question; but when the evil really occurred, if the +faithless swain delayed making due reparation, a gaol, exile from +his native place, or a compelled marriage, was the consequence, a +penalty incurred. “Besides,” quoth the worthy +rector, with a hearty laugh, “that was the very way in +which I courted my own wife, and many persons who are no enemies +of virtue, consider it the best mode in the world, and were I +young again, ha, ha, ha! egad, I think I should pursue the same +fashion.”</p> +<p>“And I too!” cries Mr. Graspacre, “as I have +no objection in the world to the custom.” The +reader’s experience of the squire will certainly give him +credit for speaking truth in this instance. The notions of +morality would be highly forwarded by courting in bed. But +as for Mrs. Graspacre, had the faces of all the foul-fiends been +united in one for the purpose of producing a <i>ne plus ultra</i> +of concentrated devilry, it <a name="page35"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 35</span>would not have surpassed the amiable +expression upon her face. “You, Mr. Graspacre! +<i>you</i>! I’m astonished; but”—(with a +severe glance at the rector) “when the shepherd goes +astray, no wonder the silly sheep follow his +example!” With that, she bounced out of the room, and +slammed the door in a high fit of indignation, aggravated by the +calm looks of the rector, and the provoking tittering of her +liege lord.</p> +<p>The rector’s honest dissent from her scheme of +reformation, Mrs. Graspacre considered a direct declaration of +hostilities, and therefore, by her peculiar creed of morality, +she felt herself bound to vilify his name, and most piously +longed for his death, that the cause of virtue might be supported +by the talents of her favourite curate, who was now, she said, on +a poor stipend which he increased by keeping a school in the +church.</p> +<p>The reverend Inco Evans, the curate, played his cards well; he +was a hard-featured man, with lowering brows and a complete +ploughman’s gate; insolent to his poor parishioners, and a +very awkward cringer to the great. But flattery, direct or +covert, does much, and in time completely won him the favour of +the great lady. She encouraged his patience by assuring him +that the vicar, in his declined state of health, could not +possibly live long; and his death, happen when it might, must +appear, to all unprejudiced christians, as a judgment, for +advocating, or not prosecuting, that execrable custom courting in +bed.</p> +<p>As the living had long been promised to him, the hopes and +expectations of Mr. Inco Evans were very sanguine. Waiting +for dead men’s shoes is rather a wearisome thing, +especially if the object of your affectionate solicitude be +apparently in the best of health; but the curate was hopeful, and +patient; and as he was no less ambitious than sycophantic and +impervious, he looked forward with confidence to the period when +he should strut forth in a fire-shovel hat, as vicar of the +parish, and a magistrate in the county.</p> +<p>Notwithstanding that the living was promised him <a +name="page36"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 36</span>by the lady, +he was aware that she was not always paramount, and therefore +lost no opportunity of insinuating himself in the squire’s +favour. He would laugh loudly to the injury of his lungs, +at the squire’s most vapid jokes; praise the beauty of his +snub-nosed children, and call curs, pointers; tell him where the +prettiest lasses in the parish were to be found; with many such +<i>honourable</i> civilities, that Squire Graspacre at length +discovered him to be a very useful sort of person.</p> +<p>When Sir John Wynn of Gwydir paid his before mentioned visit, +his sister introduced and recommended our curate, as a right +worthy divine who deserved preferment; and the baronet promised +to remember her recommendation, if anything turned out, within +his power, to benefit him. Much time had elapsed, and +nothing followed this agreeable promise; but Inco Evans +persevered in his sycophancy, and if the labour and dirty work be +properly estimated, he certainly justified his claims to a good +living—in his majesty’s plantations, beyond the seas; +to which he ought to have been inducted at the expense of +government, and, as the artful Dodger says, he should have</p> +<blockquote><p>“Gone abroad for the good of his health,<br +/> +But not at his own expense!”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>He soon saw the weak side of his lady patroness: and anxious +to strengthen his influence by promoting her views, he gave great +encouragement to those boys in his school who brought him the +piquant tales of their grown up brothers and sisters. Much +scandal was afloat at this time respecting the loves of +Carmarthen Jack and Catty of Llidiard-y-Fynnon; he would almost +have given his right hand to know how it was carried on. +But Jack was wily; and though Catty possessed little +book-learning, she had enough knowledge to outwit the +curate. These lovers only went out at night, and took care +to choose a solitary place for their meetings, so that getting +information <a name="page37"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +37</span>was, in their case, difficult of attainment. At +length the cunning man thought he had hit upon a plan.</p> +<p>Little Twm Shon Catty, being the natural child of Sir John +Wynn, was of course the illegitimate nephew of the great lady; a +relationship which she, however, disdained to acknowledge; but +the cunning curate took the liberty of observing one day, it was +a great pity that the slightest drop of the noble blood of the +Wynns, however perverted and polluted, should be run to waste and +be neglected. Proceeding in this drift, he insinuated that +if the boy Twm Shon Catty were removed to his school, he should +not only be instructed and improved, but that he, the curate, +might thereby learn from the youngster something of his +mother’s proceedings; and especially, whether she +entertained her lover in the legal or the proscribed +manner. This was striking on the very string that made +music to her busy, meddling, troublesome soul;—she of +course warmly approved of his idea, and put it into immediate +execution. Thus, the very next day, in her own and in her +brother’s name, little Twm Shon Catty was ordered for the +future to be sent to the curate’s school, which of course +was complied with accordingly.</p> +<h2>CHAPTER VI.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm"><span class="smcap">Twm</span> progresses at +the opposition school. Flogging made easy. Out of the +frying-pan into the fire. Sports at Whirligoogan.</p> +<p>The great success of Catty’s school excited the ill-will +of parson Inco; although he had far more scholars than he could +possibly attend to. His indignation at his wife’s +fall from her horse into the well, while passing his humble +rival’s seminary, together with the humiliating +consideration that many <a name="page38"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 38</span>of the most juvenile deserted his +rule, to submit to hers, wounded this consequential personage to +the quick. Like the fox and the grapes, he sneered at that +which was out of his reach, protested that the “room” +of those scholars who had deserted him was much better than their +company.</p> +<p>This new arrangement respecting Twm, they thought could not +but be vexatious to Catty, and therefore Mistress Evans felt +herself avenged for the tittering that she heard in her school, +on her fall into the well as before mentioned. But far +different was the case from what they anticipated, for Catty no +sooner heard the order, than in the sincerity of her heart, she +exclaimed, “Thank God! the boy will learn something from +the parson, but I could teach him nothing.”</p> +<p>Little Twm was now in his seventh year, and as refractory a +pupil as ever was spoiled by a dawdling mother. Kept aloof +from his dear duck-ponds and puddles, and compelled to explore +the mysteries of the horn-book, this first change in his life was +acutely felt. Self-willed and stubborn, he conceived the +utmost abhorrence of horn-books, cross curates, and birch-rods; +he wept and sulked, struck the boys who mocked him, stayed away +from school, and was flogged so often, that at length he found it +much easier to learn his book than endure the consequence of +neglecting it.</p> +<p>Once arrived at this happy mood, and being one day praised by +his master, a new spirit possessed the boy; he resolved to +revenge himself on those youths who formerly had made him their +butt of ridicule, by getting the start of them in learning. +The horn-book was soon thrown by; the Reading-made-easy and +Spelling-book shared a similar fate; and the pride of a young +heart sparkled in his eyes when his great lady aunt, on hearing a +good account of him from his master, presented him with a bible, +on the inside of the cover of which was the following +couplet:—</p> +<blockquote><p>“Take this Holy Bible book,<br /> +God give thee grace therein to look.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p><a name="page39"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 39</span>A +specimen of poetry which was considered by everybody to be the +index to a master-mind. Mount Parnassus was scaled, and +that by an inhabitant of Tregaron! Poor Catty proudly +showed the book and the poetry to all her neighbours, who sagely +declared Mrs. Graspacre’s bounty and poetry equally +fine.</p> +<p>Notwithstanding his rapid advancement in book learning, parson +Evans was far from being satisfied with his pupil, nor was his +main end answered in having brought him to his school. Twm +loved his mother, and felt no great affection for his master, nor +gratitude for the floggings which had enforced so much learning +into his head; and never could the generous boy be brought to +tell any tales to her disadvantage. The curate’s +severity increased, and no longer praised or encouraged; Twm +became not only indifferent to his tasks, but wanton and unjust +severity had the effect of blunting his feelings; and making him +stubborn and revengeful; until at length he arrived at such an +extremity of youthful recklessness, as to study tricks for the +annoyance of his master, and the scholars whom he found +unfriendly.</p> +<p>In the eleventh year of his age, some decisive shoots of +character made their appearance; a taste for sharp sayings, a +skilful trickery in outwitting his opponents, appear to be his +striking peculiarities, as well as boldness and resolution on the +play-ground, where none could surpass him in robust or violent +exercises. His faithful ally and constant instructor, Watt +the mole catcher, taught him many useful and <i>striking</i> +lessons when the pedagogue had done with our hero for the +day. Twm, under his tuition, soon became proficient in the +use of cudgels and quarter-staff.</p> +<p>More particular in the latter he excelled; and his superiority +in this ancient and national exercise was exemplified by the loud +cries and broken heads of his defeated schoolfellows. A +catastrophe of that kind one day, even in school-time, brought +the enraged master out, who severely asked Twm what he meant by +such <a name="page40"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +40</span>conduct. “Why, sir,” cried the little +rogue, “You always say that you never can beat anything +into the head of Peter Penddwl, so I tried what I could do with +the cudgel, that’s all!” For this he was booked +for a future flogging. A few days after, his master sent +him from the school to his house, for a book which he wanted.</p> +<p>Twm found the mistress and maid out, the first at the Hall, +and the last had made a present of her little leisure to her +sweetheart, Watt the mole-catcher. On entering the parlour, +he saw there a fine bunch of grapes, which his great lady aunt +had sent his master. As this was a fruit hitherto unknown +to him, he deliberately tasted two or three to discover whether +they were eatable. Having gradually seen the bunch grow +“beautifully less,” it seemed a pity to separate the +lovely fruit, so Twm thought they should all go the same way.</p> +<p>He therefore resolved to finish it, and lay the blame on the +cat, if charged with the theft; as to dividing the spoil, and +leaving a portion for the owner, the scheme was impracticable, he +decided to abide by his master’s maxim, “that it was +not decent for two to eat from the same dish.” +Lifting up the remains of the luscious bunch with affected +ceremony, he exclaimed in a lofty tone, mimicking his master, +“I publish the banns of marriage between my mouth and this +bunch of grapes; if any one knows just cause or impediment why +they should not be joined together, let him now declare it, or +hereafter forever, hold his peace!” And as no +dissentient voice intervened, he abruptly +cried—“silence gives consent,” and hastily +consummated the delicious union.</p> +<p>No sooner had he gulped the grapes than his master made his +appearance. Suspecting the cause of his delay, he had +followed after, and witnessing the imposing ritual, he stood, rod +in hand, surrounded by his scholars, whom he had called. +When all was in readiness, he exclaimed, “I publish the +banns of marriage between my rod and your breech; if any <a +name="page41"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 41</span>one knows +just cause or impediment why they may not be lawfully joined +together in wedlock, let him now declare it.”</p> +<p>“I forbid the banns!” roared Twm Shon Catty; +“For what reason?” cried the awful pedant, +flourishing his rod in eager preparation.</p> +<p>“Because,” cried the waggish urchin, “the +parties are not agreed.” At this moment a servant +from Graspacre Hall brought a message from the lady of that +mansion, that she wished to see the Reverend Mr. Inco Evans +immediately; on which Twm obtained a remission of his +flogging. History does not furnish us with satisfactory +particulars as to whether Twm was liberated on account of his +ready wit, or because necessity demanded it, the pedagogue being +in a hurry.</p> +<p>The boys were now thrilled to ecstasy with that magic word, a +“holiday!” and away scampered each and all to their +respective amusements. Briefly, however, was their gust of +enjoyment, for parson Inco’s voice was soon heard, +vociferating his wrath in no gentle terms; and now he appeared in +his shirt sleeves, his best Sunday sable coat in his hand, +divested of every button.</p> +<p>His face at no time prepossessing, was now terrible to look +on, inflamed with anger, with a slight tint of blue-black over +his native strong ground of turkey-red. Great was the +terror of the poor enslaved scholars as he howled out “What +villain has cut off all the buttons from my coat?” A +general whimper of, “it was not I, sir,” passed among +the shivering train. And upon Mr. Inco’s threat to +flog them all round unless the culprit was instantly discovered, +one blue-nosed wretch, upon whom Evans had seized to commence his +vengeance, roared out that it was Twm Shon Catty. +“Where is the young catiff?” roared the Reverend Mr. +Inco Evans.</p> +<p>“Playing at whirligoogan on the horseblock.”</p> +<p>“I’ll whirligoogan him with a vengeance,” +roared the Tyro, at the same time snatching up his terrific bunch +of birch which he had facetiously christened the tree of +knowledge. Either from having a foreboding of the <a +name="page42"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 42</span>cause of this +bustle, or being timely warned of the approaching danger, Twm had +now made good his retreat, wisely considering that +“Discretion was the better part of valour,” and that +“He who fights and runs away, may live to fight another +day.” So that at the precise moment when the curate +thought Twm’s presence desirable, that happy individual, +not the least afraid, was busy sketching a caricature of his +master.</p> +<p>The materials were blank wall, a piece of chalk, and an +extensive imagination, whilst he took care to place this artistic +production within the precincts of a small house never visited +except when absolutely necessary, but where he knew the curate +would be able to study the fine arts at his leisure, though +possibly it might turn out to be the “pursuit of knowledge +under difficulties.” On the horse-block, however, was +found his stock of whirligigs, which the Welsh boys called the +whirligoogans. These were no other than the identical +button moulds, which our hero had cut from the best gala-day coat +of the Reverend Inco Evans, with pegs driven through each centre +hole, so that when twirled between finger and thumb, on the +surface of the horse-block, they became the puerile pastime of +the younger scholars, who preferred “Whirligoogan” to +the more robust exercise of the ball or bandy.</p> +<p>Baffled in his present vengeance, parson Inco shuffled off +towards the house, and covered his buttonless coat with his gown +and cassock, vowing inwardly, as he adjusted his dress, future +chastisement, in the superlative degree, against our hero. +Unfortunately at this luckless moment, a perverse hog that seemed +to enter into the spirit of this disastrous hour, having risen +from his bed of mud in the horse-pond, where he had dreamed and +philosophised away the whole morning, was making his way towards +the feeding trough, when a lean and sour household cur which +appeared to envy him his swinish beauty, and easy-life +rotoundity, maliciously bit him in the breech, and drove him +snorting between the legs of the newly-dressed curate; so that <a +name="page43"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 43</span>the reverend +gentleman was thrown headlong into the mass of muck, uniting the +nature of matter and fluidity.</p> +<p>“The son of Catty shall pay for all,” muttered the +enraged Inco Evans, as the servant cleansed his soiled +sables. Thus when poor Twm was flogged next morning, with +the leniency that the tired arm of the pedagogue alone afforded, +he had to answer for the sins of the hog and the dog as well as +his own—and all for playing whirligoogan with the +parson’s buttons!</p> +<h2>CHAPTER VII.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm"><span class="smcap">Mr. Graspacre</span> +upholds the national customs, and Welsh custom receives his +support. A “tiff” with Lady Graspacre. +The squire defends bed courtships. Newcastle Emlyn +Ale. Thirsty rats.</p> +<p>At this time a warm altercation one day took place between the +squire and his lady, which terminated in consequences little +expected by either. Notwithstanding the prejudice to which +Squire Graspacre’s harsh conduct had given birth, on his +first settlement in Cardiganshire, he had about him certain +saving points, that not only reconciled them to his rule, but +really gained their esteem. He was a plain, bold, sensible +man, and although entertaining a most exalted opinion of English +superiority, generally, in particular instances he had the +liberality to confess that he found things in this nation of +mountaineers highly worthy of imitation among his more civilized +brethren.</p> +<p>There are many exceptions like the squire, but we are sorry to +add that in Wales we have more illiberal Englishmen, who sneer at +all Welsh customs, because they are Welsh, than people would +dream of. They forget that our usages are as dear to us, as +theirs to them, and that however peculiar they may be in the eyes +of an Englishman, the Welshman considers them <a +name="page44"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 44</span>a <i>sine qua +non</i> of his own nationality. But these instances are +fast dying out. Railroads, free and continued intercourse, +and a liberal spirit of toleration, enable the Englishman to see +our custom and our usages in a different light.</p> +<p>He had formerly expressed his disapprobation of a custom +prevalent among Welsh farmers of leaving their corn a long time +on the ground after being cut, instead of housing it as soon as +possible; but experience taught him that they were right and +himself in error; among the corn was a large quantity of weeds, +which required to be dried, before it could with safety be +brought to the barn or the rick, otherwise the grain was sweated, +and literally poisoned with the rank juice. He found the +Cardiganshire mode of cropping the young mountain furze, and +giving it as food for horses and cattle, worthy of his attention, +and after various trials, decided on its efficacy so far as to +adopt it for the future; and actually set Carmarthen Jack to +gather the seed of that mountain plant, which he forwarded to +England to be sown and reared on his Devonshire farms.</p> +<p>The planting of flowers on the graves of deceased friends, he +eulogized as a beautiful and endearing custom, forming an +agreeable contrast to the clumsy English tombstones with +barbarous lines, often setting truth, rhyme and reason at +defiance. The Welsh harp he declared the prince of all +musical instruments, and Welsh weddings the best contrived, and +conducted in the best manner in the world, and proved his +sincerity by always giving something at the <i>Biddings</i> of +the peasantry, and patronizing all those who entered that happy +state. Above all things he admired the female costume in +Wales, and protested with much truth, that the poor people in +England were not half so well or so neatly clothed.</p> +<p>His lofty lady, although a Welshwoman bred and born, +entertained a very different set of ideas on these +subjects. Whenever her husband related the anecdote of +Polydore Virgil’s ecstacy on his first landing <a +name="page45"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 45</span>in Britain, +when he beheld the yellow-blossomed furze, which gave a golden +glow to the swelling bosom of the hills—how he knelt on the +ground beside a bush of it, fervently worshipping the God of +Nature, that beautified the world with the production of such a +plant; she would instantly reply, “The man was a fool! for +<i>my part</i> I see nothing in the nasty prickly thing to +admire, but wish the fire would burn them all from one end of the +mountains to the other.”</p> +<p>“And yet, my dear,” he would answer, +“Polydore Virgil was a native of no rude soil, but came +from the land of the laurel, the cypress, and the vine, the +orange, the lemon, and the citron, and many other splendid +plants, the very names of which you perhaps never heard of; yet +he had the liberality to admire what he justly deemed beautiful, +even in a northern clime, and a comparatively harsh mountainous +district.”</p> +<p>As to the harp, whenever he praised its melody, she declared +it odious and unbearable, and gave preference to the fiddle, the +bagpipes, or even the hurdy-gurdy; and the Welsh female costume +she protested still more loudly against, and asked him with a +sneer if he did not conceive it capable of improvement.</p> +<p>“Oh, certainly, my dear,” would he reply; +“for instance, I would have the Glamorganshire girls wear +shoes, and feet to their stockings, and convert their awkward +wrappers into neat gowns; the Cardiganshire fair ones should doff +their clogs, and wear leathern shoes; and the Breconshire lass, +with all others who follow the abominable habit, should be +hindered from wearing a handkerchief around the head; but I know +of no improvement that can be suggested for the Pembrokeshire +damsel, except <i>one</i> which would be equally applicable to +all Welsh girls,—namely, to throw off their flannel shifts +and wear linen ones.”</p> +<p>Now this good gentlewoman, whose leading weakness it was to +suspect her husband’s fidelity when from home, kindled with +rage at this remark. “Shifts, Mr. Graspacre,” +exclaimed the angered lady, “what <a +name="page46"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 46</span>business have +you to concern yourself about such matters? You ought, at +least, to know nothing about such matters, but I dare say you +know too much. There’s but one woman’s shifts +in the world of which you ought to know anything, but no, you +seem to know the cut of every girl’s shifts, and you +couldn’t get that experience without other of a different +kind.”</p> +<p>Anxious as a seaman to turn his bark from the direction of a +dangerous rock, he mildly replied, “Surely, my dear, I may +exercise my eyes, when the washed clothes are bleaching on the +hedge,” and then adding in the same breath, “indeed, +if I were you, my dear, I would make some improvements, <i>such +as your good taste will suggest</i>, among our own maids; taking +care however, not to destroy the stamp of nationality on their +garbs at any rate.” This was a well-judged hit on his +part, and had the effect of averting the impending storm.</p> +<p>It should have been mentioned before, that the squire, soon +after his marriage, had made a tour of South Wales, and, as his +lady expressed it, taken a whim in his head of engaging a maid +servant in every county through which he passed; so that in +Graspacre Hall there were to be found maiden representatives in +their native costumes, of all the different shires in South +Wales, except Radnor, in which, the squire said, the barbarous +jargon of Herefordshire, and the English cottons, had supplanted +the native tongue and dress of Wales. There might you see +the neat maiden of Pembrokeshire in her dark cloth dress of one +hue, either a dark brown approximating to black, or a claret +colour, made by the skill of a tailor, and very closely +resembling the ladies’ modern riding-habit,—a perfect +picture of comfort and neatness, in alliance with good taste.</p> +<p>There would you see the extreme contrast, the Glamorganshire +lass in stockings cut off at the ankle, and without shoes; and, +although a handsome brunette with fine black eyes, dressed in a +slammatkin check wrapper of cotton and wool, utterly shapeless, +and tied <a name="page47"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +47</span>about the middle like a wheat-sheaf, or a faggot of +wood; possessing, however, the peculiar convenience that it could +be put on in an instant, without the loss of time in dressing +tastefully, and that it would fit every body alike, as it is +neither a gown nor a bedgown, but between both, and without a +waist.</p> +<p>There would you see the young woman of Breconshire, with her +pretty blushing face, half hidden in a handkerchief which +envelops her head that at first you would fancy the figure before +you to be a grandmother at least. Her long linsey gown is +pinned up behind, each extreme corner being joined together in +the centre, and confined a few inches below her waist; she has +her wooden-soled shoes for every day, and leathern ones for +Sunday, or for a dance, which, with her stockings, she very +economically takes off should a shower of rain overtake her on a +journey; and when it ceases, washes her feet in the first brook +she meets, and puts them on again. Some might term this a +curious method of appreciating the protective excellence of the +shoemaker’s art, but a Welsh girl, or rather, a Breconshire +girl studies economy quite as much as comfort, and considers her +shoes to be made as much for ornament as for use, and rather +more.</p> +<p>This fair one takes especial care that her drapery shall be +short enough to discover her pretty ankle, and her apron +sufficiently scanty to disclose her gay red petticoat with black +or white stripes, beneath, and at the sides. Then comes the +stout Carmarthenshire lass, with her thick bedgown and petticoat +of a flaring brick-dust red, knitting stockings as she walks, and +singing a loud song as she cards or spins.</p> +<p>Lastly, though not least in importance, behold the clogged and +cloaked short-statured woman of Cardiganshire. She scorns +the sluttish garb and bare feet of the Glamorganshire maiden, and +hates the abominable pride of the Pembrokeshire lass who is vain +enough to wear leathern shoes instead of honest clogs; proving at +the same time that her own vanity is of a more pardonable +stamp. “Thank God too, that she <a +name="page48"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 48</span>is not vain +like the others are. Yet in her thanks shows vanity,” +while she boasts with truth, that her dress costs twice as much +as either of the others. The Cardiganshire woman’s +dresses, in fact—generally blue, with red stripes and bound +at the bottom with red or blue worsted caddis, are entirely of +wool, solidly woven and heavy, consequently more expensive than +those made of linsey or minco, or of the common intermixture of +wool and cotton, and presenting an appearance of weighty warmth, +equally independent of a comely cut and tasty neatness.</p> +<p>It was one of the squire’s fancies never to call these +girls by their proper names, but by that of their shires, as +thus, “Come here little Pembroke, and buckle my shoe: and +you Carmarthen, bring me a bason of broth; Cardigan, call +Glamorgan and Brecon, and tell them they must drive a harrow a +piece through the ploughed part of Rockfield.”</p> +<p>On his return to dinner, a few days after the suggestion about +the dresses of the maids, he was astonished to find that Mrs. +Graspacre had used her privilege with a vengeance; having with +decided bad taste, put them all, <i>at their own expense</i>, to +be deducted from their wages, into glaring cotton prints.</p> +<p>The girls were unhappy enough at this change, as well as at +the expense thus incurred, and they could not enter the town +without experiencing the ridicule of their friends and +neighbours; the Cardiganshire maid, who considered such a change +in the light of disowning her country, and like a renegade +putting on the livery of the Saxon, in something of a termagant +spirit, tendered her resignation to her master rather than comply +with such an innovation.</p> +<p>This ungenerous invasion of his harmless rules, roused his +indignation; and after venting a few “damns,” <i>a la +John Bull</i>, against draggle-tail cotton rags, without a word +of expostulation with his rib, he desired the girls to bring all +their trumpery to him, which they gladly did, and he made them +instantly into a bonfire in the farm-yard. Then in a firm +undertone <a name="page49"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +49</span>of subdued resentment, gave strict injunctions that no +further liberties should be taken with their national costume; to +which his lady made the polite and submissive reply, that the +girls might all walk abroad without any dress at all if he chose, +and go to the devil his own way.</p> +<p>At this juncture little Pembroke came in with rosy smiles, and +told her master that Carmarthen Jack wanted to speak to him very +particularly, on which the squire laughed, and asked on what +<i>important</i> matter. “Why, sir,” said the +rustic beauty, while arch smiles and blushes contended in her +sweet oval face, “Parson Inco has found out that he has +been courting in bed, with Catty the schoolmistress, and he has +run here before the parson to say it is all a +falsehood.”</p> +<p>“There’s an impious rascal for you!” cried +the lady of the house, “to charge the clergyman with a +falsehood; but I am sure ’tis true, for I long suspected +it.”</p> +<p>“Madam, your own dignity and delicacy ought to suggest +to you that the less you interfere in these matters the more +creditable it will be to your own common sense,” said the +squire, in a tone which was unmistakable. “I +insist,” cried the imperious dame, “that he be put in +the stocks, and be ducked in the river.”</p> +<p>“Neither shall be done,” said he firmly, +“and from henceforward no person shall be annoyed or +persecuted on that score, but everyone shall court as he or she +pleases.” “What!” cried the indignant +lady, “would you fill the country with bastards!”</p> +<p>“No, madam,” was the reply, “but with as +happy a set of people as possible.”</p> +<p>Encouraged by the turn which affairs had taken, the +Cardiganshire maid now asked her master for her discharge; as her +mistress, she said, had thrown a slur on her brewing abilities, +which had almost broken her heart; “for” said she, +with a ludicrous whimper, “she says my brewing is unfit for +the drinking of Christian people, and hardly worthy of the +hogs!—but,” cried the sturdy little wench, raising +her voice <a name="page50"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +50</span>to an accusatory pitch, and at the same time a tone of +triumph, “I came from Newcastle Emlyn, the country of good +beer, the very home where the <i>Cwrw da</i> of <i>Hen Gymru</i> +<a name="citation50a"></a><a href="#footnote50a" +class="citation">[50a]</a> is bred and born, and I would rather +die than be told that I can’t brew!”</p> +<p>“Indeed, Cardy,” said the squire, with a smile, +“though your mistress may have been too severe in her +censure, I must say that your two last brewings were unequal to +the first.” “A good reason why, sir; who can +brew without malt and hops? who can make bricks without +straw? I hear some of the great London brewers do without +either malt or hops, but I wouldn’t drink their brewings, I +know; their brewings won’t do for us at Newcastle Emlyn! +and your wheat, <a name="citation50b"></a><a href="#footnote50b" +class="citation">[50b]</a> sir, which has grown by being cut in +the wet harvest, so as to be unfit for bread, is but a poor +make-shift for malt—it may do for the wish-wash paltry +brewers’ ale of Haverfordwest and Fishguard, or the Swansea +folk, Merthyr blacks, and Cardiff boys, but our ploughboys would +turn up their noses at such stuff at Newcastle Emlyn!</p> +<p>“Damn Newcastle Emlyn!” cried the squire, provoked +by her continual reference to her native place. +“Master! master!” cried the girl, as if rebuking him +for the greatest impiety conceivable, “don’t damn +Newcastle Emlyn; I had rather you should knock me down than damn +Newcastle Emlyn! it is the country of decent people and good +home-brewed ale,—the country where”—</p> +<p>“You brewed good ale from the grown wheat the first +time,” said the squire, not deeming it necessary to notice +her observations.</p> +<p>“Good! was it?” retorts the girl, struggling +between respect for her master and contempt for his taste in the +matter of malt drink; “good was it! I tell you what, +master, you are a good master, and I have nothing to <a +name="page51"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 51</span>say against +mistress, for it would not be decent, but you never tasted beer +like ours at Newcastle Emlyn! the real hearty <i>cwrw da</i>! +which I could make you to-morrow, if you would give me good malt +and hops, and let it stand long enough untapped.”</p> +<p>“But Cardy, there must be a sound reason for your two +last brewings being inferior to the first. You could brew a +well-flavoured, palatable beer, but you don’t now, although +you have the same ingredients given you.”</p> +<p>“The last was better, a good deal, than the other. +The first would have turned the devil’s stomach, had he +known what was in it.”</p> +<p>“Explain yourself,” said the squire, +surprised. “I will, sir, if I were to be hanged for +it,” cried the girl in a tone of confidence; “it +seems that rats love beer as well as any christian folks, and get +drunk and die in drink, as a warning to all sober-minded rats; +but that is neither here nor there, and I hate to tell a +rigmarole story; the long and the short of it is, that when I +came to wash out the barrels after the first brewing, I found +three rats in one, and two in the other.”</p> +<p>“You found what?” asked the squire and his lady at +the same time.</p> +<p>“I found three rats, sir, that had burst themselves with +drinking beer, and afterwards fell in and were drowned—they +were then putrid, and it was that, it seems, that made the ale so +palatable; there were no dead animals in the last brewing, so +that of course it wasn’t so ‘palatable’ and +well-flavoured as the other. But had I known your mind I +might have killed a couple of cats, or put you in a bushel of +lively cockroaches.”</p> +<p>This explanation excited a titter among the girls, and a loud +laugh from the squire, while the lady evinced the shock which her +delicacy had sustained, by making wry faces, and snuffing +violently at her smelling-bottle to avoid fainting.</p> +<p>The squire good-humouredly addressed the +girl,—“now, Cardy, you are perfectly right in the +praise you bestow on your own country ale, and I promise <a +name="page52"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 52</span>you shall +have the best of malt and hops for your next attempt, when I +expect it to be equal to the best <i>cwrw da</i> of Newcastle +Emlyn—and, do you hear? we shall dispense with either rats +or cats in it for the future.”</p> +<p>This amicable settlement of differences set every one in good +humour, except the haughty mistress, who, embittered with her +double defeat, retired in gloom, while her husband went to give +audience to Jack of Sheer Gâr.</p> +<h2>CHAPTER VIII.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm">“<span class="smcap">The</span> manners +and customs” attendant on a Welsh Wedding. The +Bidding. The Gwahoddwr. The Ystavell. Pwrs a +Gwregys. Pwython. In which our hero and his friend +Watt play rather important parts.</p> +<p>Carmarthen Jack had not been long waiting for his master, +before little Pembroke full of glee, ran to inform him that the +embargo had been taken for ever off bed courtship; and that he +was now free whether guilty or not. This happy news +affected him so well that he met his master with comparative +ease; and after some struggles with his native bashfulness, an +important secret came out—that he was going to be married +to Catty the schoolmistress; and wished to know whether he should +be retained in the squire’s service after that event.</p> +<p>Now this was a circumstance exactly to the squire’s +taste; as a Welsh wedding portrayed many national features in the +character of the peasantry, that pleased him; and, as he was +generally a donor on these occasions, his vanity was flattered by +being looked up to as their patron. He of course acquiesced +in his servant’s request, and after a little jocular and +rough rallying, <a name="page53"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +53</span>proposed that the <i>Bidding</i> should be immediately +commenced.</p> +<p>A <i>Bidding</i> was another of the excellent customs peculiar +to the Welsh, but of late years confined exclusively to the lower +classes, which the squire so much admired, and considered worthy +of imitation, he said, throughout the world. It signifies a +general and particular invitation to all the friends of the bride +and bridegroom elect, to meet them at the houses of their +respective parents, or any other place appointed. Any +strangers who choose to attend are also made welcome. It is +an understood thing that every person who comes, contributes a +small sum towards making a purse for the young pair to begin the +world with. They have a claim on those persons whose +weddings they had themselves attended; and at these times their +parents and friends also make their claims in their favour on all +whom they may have at any time befriended in a similar +manner. These donations are always registered, and +considered as debts, to be repaid, on the occurrence of weddings +only; but there are many contributors, especially the masters and +mistresses of the parties, that of course require no +repayment. These returns being made only by small +instalments, and only at the weddings of their donors, are easily +accomplished; and the benefit derived from this custom is great, +where the parties are respected.</p> +<p>A novel feature, to those who have been unaccustomed to the +Welsh wedding, is the Gwahoddwr or Bidder, who goes from house to +house, with his staff of office—a white wand embellished +with ribbons. His hat, and often the breast of his coat, is +similarly decorated. Thus attired, he enters each house +with suitable “pride of place,” amidst the smiles of +the old people, and giggling of the young ones; and taking his +stand in the centre of the house, and striking his wand on the +floor to enforce silence, announces the wedding which is to take +place, sometimes in rhyme, but more frequently in a set speech of +prose.</p> +<p><a name="page54"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 54</span>The +banns were immediately put in, and every preparation made for the +wedding. Watt the mole-catcher, as the greatest wag in the +parish, was appointed by the squire to the enviable office of +<i>Gwahoddwr</i>. The following homely lines, from a +correct and liberal translation of those written for the purpose +of giving Watt’s oratory full scope on this occasion. +The Rev. John David Rhys, a young poetical clergyman, at this +time a visitor with Squire Graspacre, was the author; and though +they do not betoken the “unapproachable of +Parnassus,” they yet suited the purpose for which they were +penned.</p> +<blockquote><p>List to the Bidder!—a health to all<br /> +Who dwell in this house, both great and small;<br /> +Prosperity’s comforts ever attend<br /> +The Bride and Bridegroom’s generous friend.</p> +<p>His door may it never need a latch;<br /> +His hearth a fire, his cottage a thatch;<br /> +His wife a card, or a spinning-wheel;<br /> +His floor a table, nor on it a meal!</p> +<p>On Saturday next a wedding you’ll see,<br /> +In fair Tregaron, as gay as can be,<br /> +Between John Rees, called Jack o Sheer Gâr,<br /> +And Catherine Jones, his chosen fair.</p> +<p>Haste to the wedding, its joy to share!<br /> +Mirth and good humour shall meet you there;<br /> +Come one, come all: there’s a welcome true<br /> +To master and mistress and servants too!</p> +<p>Stools you will find to sit upon,<br /> +And tables, and goodly food thereon,<br /> +Butter and cheese, and flesh and fish,<br /> +(If you can catch them!) all you wish.</p> +<p>There many a lad shall a sweetheart find,<br /> +And many a lass meet a youth to her mind,<br /> +While nut-brown ale, both good and strong,<br /> +Shall warm the heart for the dance and song.</p> +<p>Oft at the wedding are matches made,<br /> +When dress’d in their best come youth and maid,<br /> +And dance together, and whisper and kiss.—<br /> +Who knows what wedding may rise from this.</p> +<p><a name="page55"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 55</span>Whoever +may come to the bidding note,—<br /> +There’s thanks to the friend who brings three groat;<br /> +And ne’er may they hobble upon a crutch<br /> +Whoe’er gives the lovers twice as much!</p> +<p>Whatever is given, so much they’ll restore—<br /> +One shilling or two, or three, or four,<br /> +Whenever in similar case ’tis claim’d,<br /> +Else were defaulters ever shamed. <a name="citation55"></a><a +href="#footnote55" class="citation">[55]</a></p> +<p>So haste to the wedding, both great small,<br /> +Master and mistress and servants all!<br /> +Catty at home, Jack’s at the sign of the Cat;<br /> +Now God save the king and the bidder Watt!</p> +</blockquote> +<p>During this hubbub and preparation, Twm Shon Catty was granted +the glorious privilege of a week’s holiday, and his friend +Watt took him along with him to every house where he had to act +as bidder. To see, was to learn with Twm, and to learn was +to imitate. The thought soon struck him that he might be a +<i>Gwahoddwr</i>; so he at once cut a stout willow wand, peeled +it, and tacked a bunch of carpenter’s shavings and rush +flags to the top. Forth he went, and standing in the midst +of a group of admiring boys and girls, proceeded to imitate Watt +in every motion. On this occasion it is said he invoked the +aid of the tuneful nine, and composed the following effusion, but +we <a name="page56"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 56</span>suspect +that he was only the mouthpiece to the real poet.</p> +<p>After Watt had finished, our hero struck <i>his</i> emblem of +office upon each floor, and repeated the following:—</p> +<blockquote><p>Who’ll come to the wedding of Catty my +mother?<br /> +Come mother, come daughter, son, father, brother,<br /> +And bring all your cousins, and uncles, and aunts,<br /> +To revel the feast at our jolly courants.<br /> +Haste, haste to the Bidding, ye stingy scrubs!<br /> +And out with your purses, and down with your dubs.</p> +<p>Come Gwenny and Griffith, and Roger and Sal;<br /> +Morgan, Meredith, and Peggy and Pal;<br /> +Come one, come all, with your best on back,<br /> +To see mother married to spoon-making Jack;<br /> +He’s a spoon for his pains, as ye all shall see soon,<br /> +But lucky at finding a bowl to his spoon.</p> +<p>Haste, haste to the Bidding! my friends, if you please,<br /> +For lack of white money bring good yellow cheese,<br /> +And butter, but not in your pockets alack,<br /> +Bring bacon or mutton well dried on the rack.<br /> +So endeth my story; come, haste we, friend Watty;<br /> +Now God save the King, and his friend Twm Shon Catty!</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Twm’s delivery of these lines excited much mirth and +laughter, and, added to those of the real <i>Gwahoddwr</i>, drew +more than ordinary attention to this Bidding. Many of the +children of the different houses had been Twm’s +school-fellows, and the pupils of his mother, which had the +effect of influencing them, and became a sort of tie, to claim +their presence at her bidding. As Jack’s friends were +in Carmarthenshire, another <i>Gwahoddwr</i> was appointed by his +master to go with him to call on his at his own native place; and +so liberal was the squire on this occasion, that he sent them +both mounted on horses of their own.</p> +<p>Jack and his Bidder had no great success, as his friends +reproached him for his perverse intention of marrying a strange +woman in a far land; and finding but little pleasure in the +subject or manner of their lectures, he made a precipitate +retreat. Jack blushed for his countrymen, and he had +sufficient native delicacy to see that their liberality would +contrast <a name="page57"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +57</span>disadvantageously with the warm generosity of +Catty’s friends. He therefore bribed Ianto Gwyn, the +harper, who had acted as his bidder, to silence; and brought with +him to Tregaron, in a hired cart, the common contribution of a +bridegroom,—namely, a bedstead, a table, a stool, and a +dresser. These, he feigned had been bought with his +bidding-money, received at Carmarthen. Friday is always +allotted to bring home the <i>Yestavell</i>, or the woman’s +furniture; consisting generally of an oaken coffer or chest; a +feather-bed and blankets; all the crockery and pewter; wooden +bowls, piggings, spoons, and trenchers, with the general +furniture of the shelf; but as Catty was already provided with +every thing of this kind, she had but little to add to her +stock.</p> +<p>The landlord of the public-house originally called “The +Lion,” but with a sign resembling a more ignoble animal, +causing it to be ultimately known by no other designation than +that of “the cat,” offered Jack his parlour to +receive his Cardiganshire friends in. Accordingly, on the +Friday before the wedding, he was busily employed in receiving +money, cheese, and butter, from them, while Catty was similarly +engaged at her residence, with <i>her</i> partizans, which were +not a few. This custom in Welsh is called <i>Pwrs a +Gwregys</i>, or purse and girdle; and is, doubtless, of very +remote origin.</p> +<p>At length the long-looked-for, the important Saturday arrived; +a day generally fixed upon for the celebration of the hymeneal +ordinances, in Wales, from the sage persuasion that it is a +<i>lucky day</i>, as well as for the convenience of the Sabbath +intervening between it and a working day—a glorious season +of sunshine to the children of labour.</p> +<p>Jack was agreeably disappointed to see a great many of his +Carmarthen friends had repented of their unkind treatment of his +bidder, and had now come to make amends. They came mounted +on their ponies, and honourably paid their <i>Pwython</i>; that +is to say, returned the presents which he or his relatives or +friends <a name="page58"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +58</span>had made at different weddings. Jack’s +resentful and sudden disappearance, had a beneficial effect on +the feelings of his friends and countrymen; and a jealousy of +yielding the palm for liberality to a neighbouring country, +stirred a spirit of emulous contention among them, which ended in +a resolution that a party should attend the wedding, and bear +with them the <i>Pwython</i> of the others, who had an aversion +to travel such a very distant journey, being nearly five and +twenty miles, a distance in those days which was considered no +joke, but which we now, in this age of steam and locomotion, +bridge over in five and twenty minutes.</p> +<p>After depositing their offerings, and partaking of a little +refreshment, twelve of the bridegroom’s friends, headed by +Ianto Gwyn the harper, mounted their ponies and called at +Catty’s house, to demand the bride; and Watt the +mole-catcher and <i>Gwahoddwr</i>, who added to these functions +the father to Catty, expecting their arrival, at length heard +without appearing, the following lines, delivered by the merry +harper, from the back of his pony.</p> +<blockquote><p>Open windows, open doors,<br /> +And with flowers strew the floors,<br /> +Heap the hearth with blazing wood,<br /> +Load the spit with festal food<br /> +The <i>crochen</i> <a name="citation58"></a><a href="#footnote58" +class="citation">[58]</a> on its hook be placed,<br /> +And tap a barrel of the best!<br /> +For this is Catty’s wedding day!<br /> +Now bring the fair one out, I pray.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>On which Watt, with the door still closed, made this reply +without appearing.</p> +<blockquote><p>Who are ye all! ye noisy train!<br /> +Be ye thieves, or honest men,<br /> +Tell us now what brings you here,<br /> +Or this intrusion costs you dear!</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Ianto Gwyn then rejoins,</p> +<blockquote><p>Honest men are we, who seek<br /> +A dainty maid both fair and meek,<br /> +<a name="page59"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 59</span>Very good +and very pretty,<br /> +And known to all by name of Catty;<br /> +We come to claim her for a bride;<br /> +Come, father! let the pair be tied<br /> +To him who loves her ever well:—</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Watt still within, answers;</p> +<blockquote><p>So ye say, but time will tell;<br /> +My daughter’s very well at home,<br /> +So ye may pack and homeward roam.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Ianto Gwyn exclaims, in resolute tones,</p> +<blockquote><p>Your home no more she’s doom’d to +share,<br /> +Like every marriageable fair,<br /> +Her father’s roof she quits for one<br /> +Where she is mistress: woo’d and won,<br /> +It now remains to see her wedded,<br /> +And homeward brought and safely bedded;<br /> +Unless you give her up, we swear<br /> +The roof from off your house to tear,<br /> +Burst in the doors, and batter walls<br /> +To rescue her whom wedlock calls.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Another of the bridegroom’s party then calls aloud, in a +voice of authority,</p> +<blockquote><p>Ho! peace in the king’s name, here peace!<br +/> +Let vaunts and taunting language cease;<br /> +While we, the bridesmen, come to sue<br /> +The favour to all bridesmen due,<br /> +The daughter from the father’s hand,<br /> +And entertainment kindly bland.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Now the great Watt, the famous entrapper of moles, with airs +mighty and grand, well befitting the dignity of the +occasion—and however absurd our English brethren may term +the custom, it is considered of serious importance with +us—throws open the door of Catty’s dwelling, sallies +forth to give the querists a warm welcome, and as a preliminary +helps them to dismount. After taking a little more +refreshment, consisting of newly-baked oaten cakes, with butter +and cheese, washed down with copious draughts of ale, they all +remounted, and were joined by those of the bridegroom’s +party; the whole rustic cavalcade making their way towards the +church. A motley assemblage, in truth it was, but <a +name="page60"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 60</span>withal +picturesque, and agreeable to contemplate, for every face was +happy; save when now and then a cautious damsel, mounted behind +her father or brother, would exhibit a touch of the dismals in +the length of her features, on discovering that the <i>cwrw</i> +had any other effect but that of rendering her protector steady +in his seat on the saddle. Almost every sort of animal, +large or small, lame or blind, good or bad, seemed to have been +pressed into the service, and reduced to the levelling system, +and without regard to either size or quality, doomed to carry +double.</p> +<p>And thus they went on at a walking pace, while the loud chat +of many seemed drowned in the loud laughter and shouting of +others, till now and then rebuked by some of the elders; who +however, to little purpose, vociferated the words +decency—propriety—sober purposes—&c. +&c., the tendency of which seemed but little +understood. Jack, the happy bridegroom elect, bestrode a +wretched apology for a horse, whose antiquated legs trembled like +an aspen leaf; as for its bones, they were painfully apparent, +and the very curs seemed, as they looked upon this time worn +piece of cattle, to anticipate their feast. Elevated behind +her temporary father on a fleet horse of the squire’s, poor +Catty was doomed to present purgatory to contrast her enjoyment +of future happiness, for, unprovided with a pillion, she sat on +the crupper, holding fast by Watt’s coat. The quiet +pace which commenced this little journey was soon changed into +rough horsemanship, for the mad-cap mole-catcher turning his +steed into the Cardigan road, gave him the spur, and commenced an +outrageous gallop; the wedding party followed him with all the +might of their little beasts, and like valiant villagers in chase +of a highwayman, strove their utmost to rescue the bride. +Ianto Gwyn, the rural bard and harper, ever ready with an +extempore, produced on this occasion:—</p> +<blockquote><p>Oh yes! lost, strayed, or run away<br /> +This moment from the king’s highway,<br /> +<a name="page61"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 61</span>A tall and +sightly strapping woman,<br /> +A circumstance which is a rum ’un;<br /> +’Tis said a murderer of vermin<br /> +On her abduction did determine;<br /> +Whoe’er will bear to gaol th’ offender,<br /> +The lost one to her owner render,<br /> +Shall be as handsomely rewarded,<br /> +As can be readily afforded.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Having considerably distanced his pursuers, he stopped at +length, at Catty’s request, who complained sadly of being +sorely bumped upon the buckle of the crupper. Dexterously +turning to the bye-road toward the church, he was soon perceived +and followed by the party, and altogether they soon arrived at +their journey’s end, and alighting, they entered the sacred +fane with due decorum. Evans the curate, to enhance his own +services and increase his importance, took care to damp their +hilarity by keeping them waiting full three quarters of an hour, +before he made his appearance; and when he came, his looks and +demeanour partook more of the rigid priest of Saturn, than the +heart-joining, bliss-dispensing Hymen. His cherished plans, +which were to result in a discovery of dishonour to poor Catty, +were terribly overthrown by this decent Welsh marriage, and the +curate was in a corresponding temper. His nature was not +such as would rejoice at virtue triumphant, more especially as he +had calculated upon vice occupying the same position.</p> +<p>He very sternly rebuked their smiles and happy looks, and +actually threatened not to perform the marriage ceremony, until, +alarmed at the menace, they all became perfectly joyless, and +most orthodoxically gloomy. The indissoluble knot was soon +tied; and no longer dependent on the good offices of the +magisterial churchman, their spirit of joyousness burst forth; +while in the churchyard the mellow harp of Ianto Gwyn was playing +the sprightly air of <i>Morwynion Glan Meirionydd</i>, or the +Fair Maids of Merionethshire; while many of the party joined in +the words which belong to that beautiful and <a +name="page62"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 62</span>animating +tune. Suddenly changing the air, the eccentric harper +struck up “Megan has lost her garter,” which was +succeeded by “Mentra Gwen,” and a string of such +national melodies, equally gay and appropriate.</p> +<p>After the marriage ceremony, they returned in much the same +order, or rather disorder; with the difference that the bride sat +behind her husband, instead of her father; the harper playing the +whole time, and many sweet voices joining in the words of the +airs.</p> +<p>Coming to Catty’s house, the company found that Juggy +had been useful and hospitable. There was a first-rate +dinner provided, in ample proportions, of which all could and did +partake freely; every one had to pay for his own ale, but the +females, by courtesy, were “treated” at the expense +of males. In the course of the evening, jigs, reels, and +country dances, were successfully gone through with much +spirit. Catty danced with much agility; Jack, pressed on +all sides, and at length compelled to make one in a country +dance, showed every indication of this being his virgin attempt +at “the poetry of motion;” and alternately stumping +and blowing, while copious streams ran down his rugged forehead, +as they every instant corrected his erratic course, and literally +pushed him down the dance, he vowed that this his first, should +also be his last exhibition on the “light fantastic +toe.”</p> +<p>Young Twm, who had been playing at sweethearts, with little +Gwenny Cadwgan on his knee, to the great mirth of his seniors, +soon brought her out to try her foot at the dance with him. +The poor little wench blushed scarlet deep, made her first essay +with one equally young and inexperienced with herself; and the +juvenile pair were very good-naturedly instructed in the figure +of the dance, and they contributed not a little to the general +harmony. Juggy, the sister of Catty, absolutely refused to +sport her figure among the dancers, and treated Watt the <a +name="page63"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 63</span>mole-catcher +with a hard favour in the face for attempting to drag her in +perforce. At length, fatigued with the dancing, and alarmed +for the state of their inebriated friends and companions, many, +especially the females, turned their serious thoughts towards +home.</p> +<p>It was now drawing towards the hour of retiring for the night, +when the usual trick was played of concealing the bride from the +bridegroom. Poor Jack, whom nature had not favoured with a +great share of facetiousness, and who never mixed with such a +company before, began to be seriously alarmed. Great was +the mirth of the company, while, with a strange expression of +countenance, he sought her up and down in every corner of the +house. At length he discovered a part of her red petticoat +sticking out from under the bottom of the straw arm-chair, and +soon drew her out from the place of concealment.</p> +<p>The parting hour had now arrived; then came the general +shaking of hands, and serious expressions of good wishes among +the sober; while the tipsy folks vented their wit in jocular +allusions to their conjugal felicity: some offering themselves +for godfathers and godmothers to their future offspring, while +others far gone in drink, laid bets on the probability that the +first child would be either a boy or a girl. At this time +considerable surprise was excited by the conduct of an individual +who had been remarkably unsocial the whole evening, no person +having heard him speak a word; and when asked a question, or in +answer to a health being drank, he merely nodded in a hurried +manner, and immediately drew hard at his pipe, and puffed forth +volumes of smoke, as if to envelop himself in a cloud of +invisibility.</p> +<p>The mysterious stranger had been evidently “taking +stock” the whole of the evening, but whether pleased or +displeased with the proceedings did not appear, as reticence +seemed to be about the only accomplishment he possessed. +Every one was <a name="page64"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +64</span>too much engaged with their own pleasure to give him +much attention, and thus he remained till the moment of +departure, when he was observed to stagger as he rose from his +seat. Somebody then observed, that it must have been with +smoke and not the beer that affected his brains, as he drank but +little; a remark that imputed niggardly and curmudgeon +propensities to him. Determined to give him something of a +roast, a young farmer asked him, with a defying air, whether he +had paid his <i>Pwython</i>.</p> +<p>“No!” roared the hitherto silent man, “but +here it is—take it ‘Catty’ my girl, and much +good may it do thee!” On which he put five golden +angels into her hand. With emotions of wonder and +gratitude, while catching an eager glance at his face, Catty +involuntarily exclaimed—“the squire!” when he +darted out, mounted his horse, as did the rest of the party, rode +off, and disappeared.</p> +<h2>CHAPTER IX.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm"><span class="smcap">Twm Shon Catty</span> +improves under a more able tuition. Watt’s vagaries, +and the troubles and trials of a poor pedlar. Twm begins +his apprenticeship to a Cardiganshire farmer.</p> +<p>Determined to witness the humble festivities of the +“lowly train,” Squire Graspacre had been among them +the whole evening, disguised like a rough mountaineer husbandman, +and was heartily gratified, although his apparent incivility of +conduct had nearly subjected him to harsh treatment from the +jovial ale-fraught rustics, who, of course, but little relished +his strange behaviour. His deficiency in the Welsh language +had been concealed by alternately feigning deafness and +drunkenness, which, with the aid of the pipe left him free from +suspicion. The morning of Sunday after the wedding, which +is called <i>Neithior</i>, <a name="page65"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 65</span>being come, the happy pair stayed at +home, receiving their friends who called with their good-will, +which they manifested by the payment of <i>Pwython</i>. The +day was drank out, but not as in every other respect, save the +diminishing of ale, each seemed to recollect it was the Sabbath, +and tossed off their cups in quietness.</p> +<p>On Monday morning the supply of ale was exhausted, tottering +legs waggled homeward, and all was again quiet. Like +prudent accountants, Jack and Catty reckoned up the amount of +their wedding gifts, and found the amount to be twenty-seven +pounds eight shillings and sixpence, besides fourteen whole, and +twenty-two half cheeses, the greater part of which they soon +turned into cash.</p> +<p>In these days, when the value of money has been so much +decreased, the amount of the <i>Pwython</i>, and presents at a +Welsh wedding, have been known to reach more than treble the sum +here stated; especially when the friends of the party have been +numerous, and headed by the patronage of a wealthy and liberal +master and mistress, who generally enlist their friends and +visitors under the hymeneal banners of a faithful servant, the +architects of whose humble fortunes they become, by laying +themselves the foundation stone.</p> +<p>As, from this part of our history, the hero will rise in +importance, those who have hitherto stood forward, must +proportionably draw back, to give him due place; especially Jack +and Catty; the grand drama of whose lives has been closed by a +matrimonial union; whence, henceforth, they must sink into +inconsiderable personages.</p> +<p>In consequence of the squire’s liberality on the +celebration of Catty’s wedding, and a general report +prevailing that he was inclined towards the Welsh, a protector of +their customs, a general good-will towards him was manifested by +the country people. But his popularity reached its +culminating point when he gave forth the opinion that the Welsh +female costume was a <a name="page66"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 66</span>useful, elegant, and picturesque one, +and for once, a scion of John Bull became popular with us.</p> +<p>When he eulogized the Welsh harp, and gave, in addition to +various pieces of silver at different times, a golden angel to +Ianto Gwyn for his performances at Jack and Catty’s +wedding, he gained a few steps more into their good +opinion. But when he declared that bed courtship should not +be abolished, there was a burst of enthusiasm in his favour in +every breast, especially among the females. During this new +impulse given to the reign of happiness, the great lady at the +hall and her favourite curate hid their diminished heads; the +former declaring that it was utterly impossible that the world +could last many months longer, while such immorality and +ungodliness was practiced under the auspices of a declared +patron.</p> +<p>Whether it was the influence of this alarm, or the bitterness +of baffled malignity, that preyed on her mind, certain it is, she +was soon thrown on a sick bed, and considered seriously +indisposed. The squire, to his honour be it said, although +unfortunately married to a very disagreeable woman, allowed a +sense of duty to supply the place of affection, when his +attentions were so indispensably needed. During her +illness, the worthy old rector, who had been ill but a single +week, died; and Squire Graspacre, against his own judgment and +feelings, well knowing that such an arrangement would be +agreeable to his wife, inducted the curate, Evans, into the +vacant living. In a fortnight after, however, she died +herself; a circumstance, perhaps, that gave no real sorrow to any +creature breathing.</p> +<p>The general report of a liberal English squire in +Cardiganshire, who patronized and upheld the customs of the +Welsh, penetrated to the extremities of the neighbouring +counties, and became at last so strangely exaggerated, that he +was represented as the patron of the learned; consequently many +of the humbler sons of the church took long journeys to be +undeceived. Of the many who called upon him with a view of +seeking his <a name="page67"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +67</span>patronage of their literary undertakings, one especially +took his fancy; a young clergyman named John David Rhys, before +named as the author of the Bidder’s song.</p> +<p>But poetry was not his forte; his energy and perseverance in +the favourite study of Welshmen, British antiquities, and +systemizing his native language, deserved encouragement and +applause. He had been composing a Welsh grammar, and had +actually commenced a dictionary. As he spoke English very +well, the squire soon understood the merit of his undertakings, +and promised his patronage and good offices; in the mean time +requesting him to remain on the footing of a friend beneath his +roof, till something could be done for him. This excellent +person he now fixed upon to succeed Evans in the school and +curacy; stipulating, that for his fulfilment of the latter, he +was to have thirty pounds, and for the former ten pounds +a-year.</p> +<p>Fortunate for Rhys would it have been had the old rector +outlived the squire’s lady, in which case it is more than +probable he would have filled the living instead of Evans, whom +the squire never liked. The change was a fortunate one for +Twm Shon Catty, who, as we have before seen, had already a name +for composing doggerel, and had even tried his muse in the +orthodox four-and-twenty Welsh measures. When he found his +new master a kind young man, an historian, antiquarian, and +something of a poet, the homage of the heart was immediately paid +him. Twm thought he was the wisest man in the world, when +he heard him speak of the battles fought by the Britons in +ancient times, against the Romans, Danes, and Saxons. This +was to him a knowledge the most estimable, and he longed to be +enabled also to talk about battles and to write patriotic +songs. Having now his information from a better source, he +soon learnt to despise the jargon and misstatements of Ianto +Gwyn, with whom he argued boldly, and proved to him that Geoffry +of Monmouth was a fabulist, and no historian; that it was not +Joseph of Arimathea who christianized Britain, but <a +name="page68"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 68</span>Brân ab +Llyr, the father of renowned Caractacus, with various other such +knotty points.</p> +<p>The great deference which he paid his master, his attention to +every word which fell from his lips, with his close and +successful application to his lessons, gained him the esteem and +admiration of Rhys, with whom he became a great favourite. +The amiable young clergyman found much satisfaction on +discovering a youngster with taste, sufficient to appreciate his +favourite pursuits, and took pleasure in explaining to him every +subject of his enquiries. A thirst for information +possessed the boy; and he rummaged the most dry and tedious works +connected with Welsh antiquities, with an avidity that was +astonishing even to his master.</p> +<p>It would perhaps have been fortunate for Twm had this thirst +for study remained unchecked by any less noble desire. But +joking and learning, “larks” and Latin, practical +jests and Welsh history, are scarcely likely to agree well. +Watt the mole-catcher occupied his attention, and, in the end, +his acquaintance with that personage was an ill wind which blew +nobody good.</p> +<p>About eighteen months after Rhys’s appointment to the +school, one evening in the Christmas holidays, Watt asked him if +he would take a share in a freak that would keep him up the +greater part of the night. Twm immediately assented, +without enquiring its nature; enough for him it was that it was a +scheme of merry mischief, in the prospect of which his heart ever +bounded.</p> +<p>This idle whim of Watt’s was nothing more than to pull +down the signs of all the public-houses and shops; which being +few, was easily done, but the greater difficulty was to suspend +them from, or attach them to, the tenements of others, in which +they however succeeded. This trick elicited some humour; +and a satirical application was discernible in the new disposal +of the boards. When the light of day discovered their +handy-work, great was the astonishment of the ale-house-keepers +<a name="page69"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 69</span>and +others, to find their signs vanished, and gracing the fronts of +their neighbours’ private houses; and the anger of the +reverend Inco Evans was boundless, on perceiving the “Fox +and Goose” over the rectory house door, with the words +proceeding from the mouth of reynard, “I have thee +now;” and under the pictorial figures “Good +entertainment for man or horse.”</p> +<p>A crowd was in consequence collected about his door, and the +provoking laughter of the people stung him to the bitterest +degree of resentment. A most unlucky old carl of a Scotch +pedlar at this moment very innocently entered the house, taking +it, as the sign imported, for a tavern, and unstrapping his huge +pack, laid it on the clerical magistrate’s table, calling +about, “hollow! Fox and Goose;” on which the reverend +host and his spouse appeared, she laughing at the jest, and he +frowning with the aspect of a demon.</p> +<p>“Ah ye ’re come,” said the facetious Scot, +“by my saul aw never kenn’d twa that looked the +characters sa weal afore—a merry guse an a sour fox! come +gi us a pot of your best half and half.” The lady ran +out laughing, but Inco sourly answered, “O yes! friend, +thou shalt have half and half to thy heart’s +content;” and turning his back, shut and locked the door, +leaving the poor pedlar in gaping wonderment.</p> +<p>“They’re an aufu’ time coming! +I’se warrant they’re brewing the beer. Hech, +sirs, this is a strange place o’ ca’, and they +wouldna’ find sic a vile ’yun, frae John +o’Groat’s to John o’ +Aberdeen’s!” But his rumination on the subject +was cut short by the return of Inco, who unlocking the door, was +followed in by two serving damsels, each bearing a pewter vase +containing something less fragrant than the sweets of Araby, +which they duly discharged in the face of the unconscious pedlar, +accompanied with Inco’s exclamation “there’s +half and half for you!” and the girls retreated in roars of +laughter, while their poor victim cursed them for vile nanny +goats of the mountains.</p> +<p>At this moment young Twm, humanely feeling for the +stranger’s ill treatment, informed him of his error <a +name="page70"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 70</span>in mistaking +that house, the residence of the clergyman and magistrate of the +town, for a tavern. Adding that be feared the constables +were sent for, to put him in the stocks. It need scarcely +be added, that Sawney was soon many miles away from +Tregaron. Hop-o-my-Thumb never used his legs and his +seven-leagued boots to such express purpose as did Sawney, for he +pushed on as though he knew terrors were behind, and the safety +of the body depended upon the speed of his legs. Squire +Graspacre from indolence or dislike to all business except +farming, declined being in the commission of the peace himself, +and put the parson in his stead. Having now attained the +summit of his ambition, as rector and justice of the peace, his +overweening presumption and conceit became daily more +conspicuous; and therefore this slur upon his consequence was +intolerable. The actor in this simple freak became at +length known in consequence of the secret being intrusted, a very +common case, to a <i>confidential friend</i>.</p> +<p>Although the twenty shillings reward which the parson offered +could not induce the poorest to be base enough to become an +informer, yet an idle spirit of tattling among the women brought +it at length to the ears of Mistress Evans, and her husband soon +became possessed of the whole particulars. He instantly +made his complaint to the squire against both Twm and Watt, who +were merely reprimanded, cautioned for the future, and +dismissed.</p> +<p>The circumstances under which Twm Shon Catty was educated, now +suddenly occurred to him. “What the goodness is to +become of that young imp of mischief?” said he, one day, to +Rhys the curate, whom he had informed of the particulars of the +birth, and his deceased wife’s whim of having him well +educated, in consequence of him being a slip of Sir John +Wynn’s. That connection being entirely closed by the +death of his wife, he no longer felt himself bound or inclined to +notice him. When Rhys gave so good an account of his +proficiency, he was surprised to hear the squire <a +name="page71"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +71</span>exclaim—“I am sorry for it, for he has no +prospect in the world but labour and beggary. As he had +already had too good an education for his circumstances, he must +be instantly dismissed from the school. Since Sir John does +not think proper to protect his son, I don’t see why I +should. As the poet very properly says:—</p> +<blockquote><p>“Too much learning makes a man a fool;<br /> +I’d have no lad attend too long at school:<br /> +Give him a taste, then turn him out adrift;<br /> +In knowledge, at the least, he’s had a lift.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Twm and his master parted with mutual regret, for latterly +they were more like companions than master and scholar; and the +generous Rhys could not restrain a tear on beholding a youth of +so much promise destined to the uncertain wilderness of a hard +and cold world, especially after having evinced a superiority of +taste and intellect, that under favourable auspices would have +entitled him to shine and flourish in his day. Twm remained +awhile at his mother’s, a big boy of fifteen, idling away +his days without any view to the future. Greatly concerned +on his account and her own inability to support him, Catty went +one day to the squire, and implored him to do something for her +son; and he at last <i>generously</i> decided to send him as a +parish apprentice to a farmer, whose grounds were situate in the +neighbouring mountains.</p> +<h2>CHAPTER X.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm"><span class="smcap">The</span> family of the +Welsh farmer. Not a bright look-out for our hero.</p> +<p>Morris Greeg, the farmer to whom the parish had consigned our +hero, as an apprentice, possessed a small freehold farm, fourteen +miles up the mountain; and thither, in the company or custody of +<a name="page72"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 72</span>Watt the +mole-catcher, Twm was now marched. Dull and joyless was +their journey, unenlivened either by incident or the charms of +scenery. On their arrival at the destined spot, Twm could +scarcely forbear shuddering at the prospect before him. The +farm-house was a low long building, under the same roof as the +cow-house and stable, and as the whole was covered with a black +mass of rotten thatch, composed of varied patches of +half-perished straw and fern, the only signs of its being +inhabited by humanity were a chimney, with two or three farm +implements lying at the hovel door.</p> +<p>The farm, called Cwm y Gwarm Ddu, (Black marsh dingle,) was +abbreviated usually to Gwern Ddu; the latter word, be it known to +our English readers, is pronounced <i>Thee</i>. The land of +which it was composed, had been anciently cribbed from the +mountain, according to the Havod un-nôs <a +name="citation72"></a><a href="#footnote72" +class="citation">[72]</a> system. Being too remote from any +other settlements to be noticed by any of the parishioners but +the shepherds, who were bribed to silence by occasional +refreshment as they passed that way, the appropriation remained +long unquestioned. And when of later years some of the +nearest farmers became troublesome busy-bodies on the occasion, a +few days’ labour given gratis in harvest time by Morris +Greeg’s grandfather and father, made all quiet again, till +latterly, the farm of Gwern Ddu became incontestably a freehold +property.</p> +<p>Twm felt no great wonder that its existence, as narrated by +Watt, remained so long unknown, and wished an earthquake had been +so good as to swallow it before he had been destined to enter its +precincts.</p> +<blockquote><p><a name="page73"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +73</span>“It was in sooth a landscape harsh.<br /> +On one side rock, and three sides marsh:<br /> +With naught to please the restless eye,<br /> +A scene to cause a weary sigh.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>The farm occupied one side of a dreary dingle, being one +field’s breadth only from the rocky mountain above, and +divided from a swampy turbary marsh by a roaring torrent-like +brook. The house and the farm appertainments, with a view +to shelter at the expense of a healthier foundation, were +situated on the marsh-side of the brook, the waters of which were +crossed by a rustic bridge formed of a fallen tree, that led +towards the fields, and by a short lane and a path through the +wood, to the mountain above them. Instead of the hawthorn, +willow, birch, and the nut-bearing pleasant hazel, that usually +form the hedges in more favoured lands, these poor little fields +had their boundary ditches surmounted by that rude bantling of +barrenness, the prickly gorse, more poetically called the +yellow-blossomed furze; intermingled here and there, as in the +adjoining mountain, with its brunette sister, the +purple-flowering heath, immortalized in Scottish literature as +the mountain heather.</p> +<p>Above the rustic bridge, the bright pure water, yet unpolluted +by the touch of man, rolled in a small cascade over the smooth +black rock, contrasting by its foaming whiteness, with the sable +bed from which it sprung. This little water-fall was +called—Y Pistyll, or the spout; from which was obtained the +water destined for household uses. From its side the farm +lasses scooped the gravel wherewith they scoured their +milk-pails, hoops and staves, rivalling by their whiteness, the +nectarious stream within. Below the bridge, the brook had +been widened by human art, so as to form a considerable pool, +wherein the aquatic members of the farm-yard, the stately silent +geese and the noisy ducks, at times floated gravely, with their +young yellow brood, at others, ploughing and gambolling merrily +and undisturbed; save when the horses, cows, or oxen were driven +across; for the <a name="page74"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +74</span>upper part of the pool formed part of the regular +road.</p> +<p>Through this wood, ran an oblique path, that after turning the +corner of an angular rising whose upper end was bounded by a +terrific precipice of no less than ninety feet perpendicular +height, and known by the name of Allt y Craig Llwyd, or +Acclivious Forest of the Grey Rock, which indicated that trees at +some period clothed the scene now defaced by hideous +nakedness. On winding round and gaining the summit of the +peak above this quarry, an extensive tract of level mountain +appeared in one direction; in another, the dreary monotony was +broken by the appearance of petty lakes or mountain pools, on +which floated at times certain families of migratory aquatic +birds, that here made their temporary resting place, in their +hasty journeys to more favoured regions. Ravines, and +caves, the reputed bed-chambers of evil spirits, long-maned +unbroken horses, and numerous flocks of wild-looking small sheep, +were the other objects that diversified the scene; and the +horizon was closed by the distant mountain peaks, one above +another, wildly strange, but most grandly clustered.</p> +<p>On Watt’s presenting Twm to a tall, gaunt, swarthy-faced +man, who proved to be Morris Greeg himself, as the apprentice +which the parish had sent him, his brows contracted, and his +sunken eyes threw out their fires in a flash of indignation.</p> +<p>“Ha!” cried the old man, after eyeing our hero +with the contempt which a sordid clown might evince towards a +puny insect, as he wondered, in the dulness of his conception, +why heaven should trouble itself in creating a thing incapable of +hewing wood or carrying burdens—“a pretty help they +have sent me truly! Of what service will a weak creature +like this be to me?”</p> +<p>“None!” screamed a thin hag of a yellow-faced +woman, “but to eat up all the victuals; I warrant, by his +thin carcass and long crane neck, that he has the stomach of a +hound. This neck looks as if it had <a +name="page75"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 75</span>been +stretched already. But if it hasn’t, it soon will be +by the looks of him.”</p> +<p>Four damsels, the daughters of the house, now made their +appearance, and scrutinized our hero over each other’s +shoulder, as if he had been a reptile of some unquestionable +species, whom it was not safe to approach too near. A +sturdy ploughman in a white frock sat at the table, silently, but +sullenly, descanting on the merits of the food before him, by +alternately sneering and masticating what appeared to be more +necessary to his stomach than agreeable to his palate. On +the left of the ploughman sat a singular-looking thin +parrot-nosed boy, the only one that appeared to greet him with a +look of welcome; his small black eyes actually laughed with +satisfaction.</p> +<p>“Well, Moses, thou hast now a companion to help thee to +devour food, and do nothing,” said farmer Greeg, as he +motioned to Watt and Twm to sit and eat.</p> +<p>“Yes, thee hast now a companion to help thee to eat and +do nothing,” repeated the farmer’s eldest daughter +Shaan, whose habit it was to echo all the sayings of her father +and mother, so as to publish herself as one of the authorities of +the house. Moses said nothing audibly, but a rueful +expression of countenance gave it the lie to the insinuation most +pointedly, and Twm fancied that he brushed away a tear with his +sleeve, as he rose hastily and walked out of the house.</p> +<p>Watt had been busy “taking stock” of the +ploughman’s countenance; a compliment apparently by no +means appreciated by the object of his regard. The +ploughman hastily finished his dinner, and was about to beat a +retreat, when Watt enquired, “Is’nt thy name Abel +Prosser?”</p> +<p>“No!” cried the man.</p> +<p>“Yes,” cried Shaan, “what does thou deny thy +name for?”</p> +<p>“Then, I have a warrant against thee, as the runaway +father of Palley Bais Wen’s bantling,” cried Watt; +“help to secure him in the king’s name!”</p> +<p><a name="page76"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 76</span>The man +made a dart from the house, and Watt after him. The event +of the chase remained long unknown as neither were seen again by +the present party for many a month.</p> +<p>“The devil take that Watt Gwathotwr!” screamed +Sheeny Greeg the farmer’s wife, “for he brings us +nothing but trouble. Two years ago he brought us this +Moses, the deserted bantling of a rascally Jew, who deceived the +silly wench of a hedge-ale-house maid, where he lodged; and now +he has brought another of no more strength than a grey-hound +puppy; and worse than all, he has scared away Abel Prosser. +What are we to do now?”</p> +<p>“Do!” cried Shaan scornfully, “we shall do +very well; make these two fellows do Abel’s work, and their +own.” With this very comfortable prospect before him, +Twm went to rest with the Jew boy in the hay-loft, this first +night after his arrival in the alpine region of Cwmny Gwern +Ddu.</p> +<h2>CHAPTER XI.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm"><span class="smcap">Moses</span> has many +youthful yearnings. The exploits of the lads in fasting and +feasting.</p> +<p>Some say it is a comfort to have a brother in affliction, +visited by similar trials, and persecuted rigour. Now Moses +and Twm could be sympathetic enough, for they had to endure +labour enough and too much, but quite the opposite quantity of +eatables; they, therefore, in their misery, became firm and +attached companions. Twm at first found much to disgust him +with his fellow sufferer, as he seemed disposed to talk of +nothing but culinary matters; the roast and boiled, the stewed, +the fried, were his darling topics. When Twm dilated on +some of the festal doings at Graspacre-hall, the prematurely +sunken eyes <a name="page77"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +77</span>of this wretched starveling would glisten with a lambent +flame that threatened the immediate extinction of his senses, he +exclaimed, “O Lord, how I should like to make one of +them!—I heard a strange man once talk of an ox being +roasted whole—can such a thing be? what a—what a +sight! O Lord, how I should like to tear two, three, four, +hot ribs out of a roasting ox—I would get into the carcass, +and roast with it, so that I might tug, tear, and eat my fill +first. If I knew my way to any great town from this awful +place, I’ll tell thee Twm, how I should like to get my +living—I would eat for wagers—I have heard of such +doings, and I know I could die contented, if I had once my +stomach full of flesh—ha! ha! ha! I would tear it, +and ha! ha! ha! Oh! how I would tear and swallow +it!”</p> +<p>Twm felt horror-struck to hear these frantic ravings of this +poor famished being, his eyes starting from their sockets, and +his thin talon-like hands clutching vacantly at imaginary +food. He strove to comfort him with future hopes, but the +wretch had now sunk into a fit of weeping despondency, and as the +tears ran down his young emaciated face, he exclaimed, in a tone +of utter hopelessness, “no, no, I shall sleep on these +mountains, and never have my fill of any thing but work and +sorrow, work and sorrow till I die!” Suddenly +starting from his reclining posture to his feet, and as suddenly +changing his querulous tones to those of maniac rapture that was +alarming from the startling transition—“Canst thee +eat raw eggs, Twm? I have a store of them hid away in the +barn—we’ll have a feast of them to-night, +boy!”</p> +<p>Previous to this scene, they had been thrashing together till +over fatigued they sat themselves down on the straw. The +silence of their flails informed the quick ears of old Sheeny of +this pause in their labour. Hastening with stealthy steps +towards the barn, she unluckily arrived the moment when Moses +vaunted of the intended feast of eggs. With the soundless +steps and savage purpose of the taloned cat, that marks the +moment to dart upon the heedless bird, she reached over <a +name="page78"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 78</span>the latch; +unlatching it, she burst into the middle of the barn, and seizing +the first flail in her way, she vowed with a tremendous oath to +break every bone in his body with it unless the eggs were +immediately produced. As she had once broke his leg, which +Evans the blacksmith had imperfectly set for him, poor Moses made +a virtue of necessity, and at once took her to his little +hoard. Poor lad; it was like drawing his blood, to take +away this prospect of a feed, and his eyes filled with tears as +Sheeny gathered them all in her apron and marched off +triumphantly. The loss of the eggs, valuable as they were +in their hungry circumstances, was trivial to the daily +annoyances of the female tongues that trimmed and stung them both +within and without doors for many a day after, on this +subject.</p> +<p>Old Sheeny was certainly a notable manager, an economist to +the back bone. Abstemious moralists, those excellent +friends of the human race, have declared, that the new-fangled +improvements in modern cookery have inclined mankind to devour +twice the quantity of food requisite or beneficial for the health +and happiness of our species. Sheeny Greeg, the careful +mistress of this mountain mansion, had no idea of inflicting such +an evil on those favoured beings confided to her +protection. Therefore, in a pure philosophic spirit, as an +antidote to gluttony and intemperance, she took care, like an +ancient Spartan dame, that the food and drink of her providing +should be neither too rich nor too savory. Consequently +gout and plethora were never found among the maladies of her +inmates. She had an admirable contrivance that did honour +to her inventive powers, of substituting durability for the +dangerous quality of palatableness, in the food she +administered.</p> +<p>For instance, in the article of bread, her custom was to bake +an enormous batch at once; so that it soon got hard, musty and +mouldy, it must be admitted that the temptation to gluttonize on +it and its accompaniments, was diminished. In preparing +that standing dish of the Welsh farm, the flummery, <a +name="page79"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 79</span>she would +steep for a considerable time, a large portion of the oaten +commodity for that purpose, till thoroughly soured to the acidity +of crab-juice. The skim milk, in which this mess was +soused, she considered as too gross for their unsophisticated +stomachs, till diluted with the pure element from the brook.</p> +<p>The whey and butter-milk underwent the same process; and the +cheese kept for home consumption was manufactured of that +fang-defying, heart of oak, sort of toughness, which answers the +patriotic purpose of cannon-balls, to repel invaders, should +their cupidity ever be inflamed by the reported felicities of +Cwmny Gwern Ddu: in which alarming supposition it is some +satisfaction to reflect, as a point to our moral, that the crime +would carry the punishment along with it. Whenever those +rare and almost denounced strangers to the table, the beef or +bacon made their appearance, the greedy fangs that seized them +would suddenly relax their tenacious grip, like the blind dog +that mistook a red-hot poker for a bone, in evident alarm, lest a +portion of Lot’s wife had accidentally fallen in their way; +a cannibal impression that seemed to haunt them long after, till +washed away by many a copious draught of the fluid that cost +nothing. Morris Greeg himself was a fine example to his +household, as a scorner of unnecessary dainties. Doubtless +it was very edifying to Twm and Moses, to hear him descant on the +enormities of gross feeding, enlivened by anecdotes of people who +had eaten themselves to death.</p> +<p>He would tell tales about the dreadful troubles brought upon a +man by being over fat—obesity was, to hear him, a state of +existence only equalled in horror by the pains and penalties of +the lower regions. He narrated a veritable instance of a +Daniel Lambert, who got so fat, and so immovable, that he rolled +himself into a large trough of water, and voluntarily died the +death of a suicide. Moses, the young infidel, would gape +incredulously at such an intimation, <a name="page80"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 80</span>and evidently doubted the probability +of such a death; and if it were possible, impious cormorant as he +was, he would have no objection to martyrdom on such a score.</p> +<p>“Plain food, and as little of it as possible,” +quoth Morris, “is a fine thing,” grinding as he spoke +a mass of black-eyed winter-dried beans with rusty bacon. +“And leaven,” cried the sage of the mountains, +“is far better in the bread than barn; it warms the stomach +with its generous acid, and makes me content with +little.”</p> +<p>Our hero, however, had a bold heart; and if a little better +fed, would have endured all with that indifference and vein of +whim which were natural to him. As it was, with the wild +companionship of Moses, he turned misery herself into a scarecrow +of mirth rather than of terror. Together those +mischievously merry boys dispatched their breakfasts of highly +watered milk and porridge, thickened with mouldy bread, with +hungry yet loathing stomachs, and indulged in under currents of +laughter, as either of them aped some peculiarity of gait or +visage in their amiable hostess.</p> +<p>And when the rusty bacon liquor was enlarged for repeated +messes of broth, their wry faces gave indications of their inmost +feelings, whilst the latter manifested themselves by a waterspout +movement generally supposed to indicate disquietude of the +stomach. Their patience was severely tried; often when they +felt a conviction that this species of drenching was over, they +had the unexpected mortification to find a quantity of water +added, to spin it out for another meal. This was truly a +sad change to Twm, compelled as he was daily to embrace his +antipathies, and disconnect himself from all that he had learned +to love. He loved ballad lore, rural festivities, rambling, +and all those light modes of passing his time that were most +allied to idleness.</p> +<p>But in this dreary house, not a book was to be seen nor the +sound of mirth, harp, or song, ever heard; still Twm did not +despond; his good humour had <a name="page81"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 81</span>the effect of brightening, by many a +shade, the desponding apprehensions of Moses; and more than once +he actually won a smile from one or two of the younger daughters +of the house, who, however, soon rebuked themselves for +descending to be pleased with anything that a parish apprentice +boy could advance.</p> +<p>In the long winter evenings, when no one could possibly invent +a task or job for them, Twm and Moses would be allowed to sit a +little by the turf fire; when the latter would venture to narrate +some hungry tale of gastronomic heroism, in which his fancy +revelled, Twm would recite ghost stories that terrified the +damsels; and war tales of olden times that he had heard from +Ianto Gwyn, or his master, Rhys, that astonished and amused his +auditors, at least part of them, for Sheeny Greeg and her echo +Shaan disdained to be among the number, but cried shame on him +for repeating such audacious lies.</p> +<p>Miserly people often overshoot their mark, and it was so in +this farm-house. Old Elwes would have called Morris Greeg a +worthy disciple, whilst other misers of even greater note would +have looked upon the farm-house and its ways as the very acme of +human felicity. But “greed” begets greater +evils; and when Morris was by chance called away, the girls +indulged themselves in the best way they could find. Theft +was largely patronized, and as we should charitably think not +without very reasonable excuse. One fair, day when Morris +and Sheeny had betaken themselves to a distant corn and cattle +mart, the girls, as usual, commenced their preparation for a +regular junketing. Twm and Moses, whom they kept at the +humble distance of lowly menials, were out together, mending some +gaps in the hedges, when Moses sniffing the wind that blew from +the direction of the house, with the gifted nose of a dog of the +chase, called out with ecstacy, “Twm, I smell +pan-cake!”</p> +<p>“So do I, Moses,” returned our little hero, +expanding his nostrils with jocular comicality, “Ha!” +cried Moses, with an envious snarl, “The selfish wenches <a +name="page82"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 82</span>of the house +are treating their dainty chops with something nice.”</p> +<p>“Aye!” retorted Twm, quoting from some learned +Theban, “when the cat’s away the mice will +play. But stop thee here, Moses, and see if I don’t +bring thee a share of what is going, in five +minutes.” Moses grinned and licked his lips in eager +anticipation as Twm hurried off. He entered the house with +a sudden startling step, and a bundle of firewood under his arm +as an excuse for the intrusion. All was panic within an +instant. Two of the girls dashed their jug of sweetened +small beer into the pail of hog’s wash, as they heard the +first rattle of the wooden latch on Twm’s entrance; Shaan +turned pale as the unfried pancake before her, so great was their +fear that their parents had returned in the midst of their +underhand clandestine doings. “It is only that devil +Twm Shon Catty,” cried Shaan, who was the first to recover +from the general terror; “Never mind, girls, go and sweeten +more beer, for father and mother can’t be home before +night.”</p> +<p>“Aye, go and sweeten more beer, and let poor Moses and I +have a share of your beer and pancakes,” cried Twm, +pointedly eyeing a raised heap of them in a wooden platter before +the fire;—“let <i>us</i> have a part, and we +won’t tell.”</p> +<p>“Get along to thy work, thou saucy cur!” cried +Shaan, striking him with all her strength with the hot +frying-pan. “Not till I have our share to take with +me,” cried our hero, making a grasping snatch at the heaped +pancakes, which he bore off in spite of the united efforts of the +lasses to re-capture them. His manner of bestowing them was +more commendable on the score of security than of delicacy, as +the greater portion was thrust into his shirt-breast and breeches +pockets; off he ran over the wooden bridge and along the path +through the wood.</p> +<p>In this chase the great heat against his breast gave him +considerable pain, and almost arrested his steps, half persuaded +to throw away the larded delicacy; St. <a name="page83"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 83</span>Vitus never danced faster nor more +spasmodically under his pains, than did our hero under the +effects of his hot pancakes. They gave him shocks equal in +intensity to those from the voltaic pile; in fact he may be said +to have been a Salamander enduring the scorchings of heat, but +with this difference.—Twm Shon Catty could not well bear +them, whereas the Salamander was represented as rather enjoying +them than otherwise.</p> +<p>But, like the Spartan boy, Twm heroically determined to bear +the self-inflicted torture, and endure to the last. +However, it must be confessed, to the minoration of his fame, +that not having been favoured with so stoical an education as the +aforesaid Lacedemonian, he yielded to nature, and ran and roared, +and roared and ran, till he outran his pursuers, who returned +breathless home, and he as breathless joined young Moses, where, +in their secret haunt, they enjoyed the fruit of his +dexterity.</p> +<p>The spot they occupied was one of the discoveries of Moses, +before Twm’s arrival, the craggy recesses of which became +the depositaries of his filching achievements, and which +recurring to in after years, he called his larder. It was +situated above the torrent, beside the mountain, at the extreme +end of the farm—just where the wilderness had refused to +yield another patch to add to former accumulation. But +these gormandizing youths were at present too busily engaged to +remark on either the beauties or the horrors of the scene.</p> +<h2><a name="page84"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +84</span>CHAPTER XII.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm"><span class="smcap">Studies</span> piscatorial +and fleshy, and certain tricks connected therewith. Pork +capers—a new dish.</p> +<p>Emboldened by the impunity with which they had foraged for +themselves during the last three months that had followed the +doings in our last chapter, both Twm and Moses grew somewhat +daring in their gastronomical speculations. Moses, among +his restless peerings for something to gratify appetite, had +peeped into one of the mountain pools, and joyfully detected the +existence of a certain sizeable fish there. This was a +discovery which made the young Jew’s mouth water, and his +eyes distend with visions of future work for the jaws! Here +was an El Dorado of good food, and Moses went into proportionate +rapture at the prospect. Twm annoyed him not a little, by +laughing at his futile attempts to spear a pike with the dull and +clumsy prongs of a dungfork.</p> +<p>Our hero was more successful in his warfare on the trout and +eels that abounded in a brook which ran through one of the +tarns. Without any contrivance that resembled +fishing-tackle in the most remote degree, he remarked a sweeping +curve, of a horse-shoe shape, in one part of the brook, and +determined, with the assistance of Moses, on sporting his +engineering skill, in cutting a new channel for the water, so +that it might for the future, run a straight course, and leave +the horseshoe portion of it dry. This at different +intervals, with no small labour, they at last effected; and when +the flood ran along the new channel, its deserted curve became a +mess of slimy mud. Into this, with naked feet, they soon +waded, and groping cautiously about, succeeded in gathering an +abundant harvest of trout and eels. Moses was noisy in his +raptures at the result, and so anxious to have them immediately +cooked, that he could scarcely wait for that tedious +progress.</p> +<p><a name="page85"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +85</span>However, they soon kindled a fire by rubbing together +some rotten wood, and with the aid of some dry turf, the quarry +under the precipice of Allt y Craig became a temporary heath of +blazing beauty. Utterly void of any culinary utensils, they +resolved on the primitive mode of broiling their fish on hot +stones, and Moses, all alacrity, proceeded on the task of +preparing them.</p> +<p>But, alas, for the sequel of their adventure! Before +they could realize their project, the dark countenance of Morris +Greeg paralyzed their efforts, as the serpent’s gaze is +said to fascinate its victim. The angry farmer gruffly +demanded where they had been, how they had dared to idle away +their time, and what was the meaning of that wasteful fire +against the rock. The ready lie, or presence of mind as it +is favourably called, of Twm and Moses soon supplied answers, +such as they were. Twm said, that hearing the good woman of +the house complain of a visit from the old enemy the cholic, he +determined to catch a dish of fish for her, to drive it away, +pointing triumphantly to his piscatory store; thus beating a +retreat with all the diplomacy and tact of a good general, who +when he finds he cannot obtain a victory, at any rate manages to +gain credit for a wise ‘retrograde.’</p> +<p>Moses followed up Twm’s assertion by declaring that the +fire was to frighten away the crows and the kites that might take +fancy to the young lambs, or the wheat in the neighbouring field; +a manifestation of care over his master’s property, which +had, at any rate, the claim of originality to back it. +Morris was as great an economist of his words as in matters of +worldly goods, and therefore, whatever he thought, he did not +waste breath with reply; but suddenly ordered Moses to carry the +fish into the house, and Twm to give some hay to the cows. +“And be sure,” quoth the careful farmer, “that +you give most hay to the cow that gives most milk.”</p> +<p>“I will be sure of it!” replied Twm pointedly, and +with sulky asperity. The next moment, to the great <a +name="page86"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 86</span>astonishment, +and greater anger of Morris Greeg, he threw as much hay as his +two arms could embrace, under the water-spout. +“There,” cried the redoubted son of Catty, +“that is the cow which gives me most milk, for that cursed +broth and porridge is almost wholly made from this never-failing +animal.”</p> +<p>A precipitous retreat of course, followed this explanation, +and Morris Greeg was left alone to chew the cud of his +resentment. At dinner the next day, the wrath of Morris +having evaporated, all grew smooth again. While Twm and +Moses bolted their insipid mess of dovery, otherwise called +burgoo, the gratification was rather questionable in having as +their share merely the smell of the fried fish, on which Sheeny +and Shaan with the younger daughters were regaling, and praising +the flavour at every mouthful they swallowed. Moses ground +his teeth, and would have impaled them in the excess of his rage, +for the loss of his expected feast. Twm said nothing, but +inwardly resolved on faring better, and that very speedily. +Shaan grinned like a hyena as she treated her dainty gums with +fish after fish, and spitefully enjoyed their mortification, as +she whispered to Twm, “now we are even for the +pancakes.”</p> +<p>Just at the finishing of this mid-day meal, the barking of a +strange dog drew Twm and Moses out to the yard. There they +saw a half-starved cur, belonging to a cottager who was cutting +turf in the adjoining turbary. This wretched animal, +evidently a cut-throat leveller in principle, was disputing with +one of the pigs his right to engross the whole trough to himself, +which the bristly conservative at length resented by snapping in +two one of the hind legs of his canine enemy.</p> +<p>The dog set up a dismal howl as a requiem for the loss of the +fourth part of his understanding, which was soon silenced by +Moses striking him on the head with a large stone, which killed +him on the spot. The cottager hurried home, frightened by +Twm, who told him would be sued for the damages done by his +dog. Our hero, with the assistance of Moses, to whom he <a +name="page87"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 87</span>imparted the +scheme he had now in hand, immediately bathed the buttocks of the +pig with the dog’s blood; and then pouring some dry sand in +his ear, drove him howling down the yard. Annoyed with the +freedom thus taken with his auricular organ, the offended +gentleman of the sty rushed to and fro, at a rate as violent as +some of his celebrated ancestors, when they sought to drown both +themselves and the devils within them in the sea. Morris +lifted his hands amidst the assembled household, and ruefully +exclaimed, “the devil is in the pig!” His +gambols were certainly most extraordinary, and far surpassed the +evolutions’ of the bull’s frisky wife, commonly +called the cow’s courante. He sometimes aimed to +stand on his hind legs, to emulate the figure, intimating in +pantomime, “I am as good a man as the best of +you!”</p> +<p>While in this position, he would toss his head as loftily as +an envious beauty that heard her rival praised; and then, as if +to evince his unrivalled versatility, he aimed to reverse his +position, and stand on his head.</p> +<p>Thus did he enliven the farm-yard, and cut sundry unusual +capers, not at all in keeping with the hitherto grave tenor of +all his modest life; at which Morris was scandalized, the women +astonished, and the two mischievous imps that caused this +torture, amused as if a party of mountebanks had exhibited before +them. “Such things have been in the days of +old,” cried Morris, with a pious whine, “the pig is +possessed of a devil.”</p> +<p>“Of a legion of devils!” screamed Sheeny and +Shaan, in the utmost alarm; “the pig is mad!” cried +Moses; “the dog was mad that bit the pig!” cried +Twm. This remark, which assigned a natural cause for the +frisky gambols of the tortured grunter, had the effect of +sobering every one from their wild supernatural speculations, to +the no less alarming fact that poor porker was the victim of +hydrophobia. Morris all at once turned pious, and remarked +that “this might be <a name="page88"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 88</span>one of the signs which were to +precede the end of the world.”</p> +<p>“Ah!” whispered Twm to Moses, “it is a sign +which certainly precedes the end of the pig.”</p> +<p>Convinced by the reiteration of Twm and Moses, that the pig +was really stark staring maliciously and mischievously mad, +Morris seemed more grieved at his prospect of worldly loss in so +much hog’s flesh, than as if his first suggestion had been +verified about the dissolution of the world. He +pathetically lamented the loss it would be, to kill him before he +was duly fattened. “He must be killed and eaten +fresh,” whined Morris, “as he is too lean to be +salted and baconed.”</p> +<p>“He shall be killed and buried like a dog!” cried +Sheeny, “or we shall all be maddened and biting one +another, if we swallow a bit of him, fat or lean—Oh! the +pity to lose this precious griskin!” “I +won’t eat mad pork!” cried Shaan; “nor +I,”—“nor I!” cried the younger lasses, +deeply horrified at the idea of being smothered between two +feather-beds, which Twm assured them, with a very grave and +serious face, was an easy and comfortable death, and such as was +always allotted by law to those who got mad by the bite of a mad +dog, or by eating what was venomed by his bite. “I +will never touch a bit of him,” cried all the girls at +once; “but I will!” muttered both Twm and Moses, to +themselves, glowing with the thought of future feasting.</p> +<p>Morris in the deepest tribulation pondered on the perversity +of his household, and at last decided on waiting till next +morning before he would give his ultimatum as to how the pig was +to be disposed of, in the meantime locking him up in a +stable. It was a night of trial for Morris. To lose +an entire porker at one fell swoop, and the household to be so +very unaccommodating as not to eat him, was a really serious +thing. He mentally prayed for the renewed health on the +part of the pig, or else that some kind pig-drover would fall +from the clouds and be the saving angel of him. The said +Morris Greeg’s conscience <a name="page89"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 89</span>did not see further than his own +acts. If the imaginary drover bought the pig, and others +were made mad, why it was none of Morris’s concern. +So much for his refined morality. Thus he comforted himself +by reflecting, that whoever got mad with eating him, that was +<i>their</i> concern, not <i>his</i>; as it would be unbecoming +in him to dictate to others what they were to buy or to +eat. And as to mentioning his faults, as some unreasonable +readers require, he defied any one to prove <i>that</i> to be a +fault, which was evidently his misfortune.</p> +<p>Boundless was the mirth of Twm and Moses, as in their season +of rest they agitated the question as to what report they were to +make in the morning. “Suppose,” said the +waggish Jew-boy “that we let the pig out, and say that he +escaped into the yard, and bit a goose, (which we can kill and +eat;) that the goose got mad and bit the wheel-barrow; that the +wheel-barrow dashed itself frantically against the dung-cart; and +that both together they rolled and rattled all night about the +yard, like the capering of ten thousand devils.” Twm +over-ruled this wild suggestion, and gave a report more consonant +with probabilities that the animal was more mad than ever, and +that he feared his malady would infect the stable, so as to make +it unsafe to put the horses there again till the walls were +white-washed and every part of it purified.</p> +<p>This was a grave and plausible position in which to place the +affair, and quite fell in with Morris’s own way of +thinking; and at last he determined on having the maddened +monster, as he called him, killed and buried. This was at +last carried into effect by our young worthies, with the +assistance of Mike the mat-man, who inhabited a wretched hovel in +the neighbourhood, and maintained himself, a wife, and one child, +by making rush mats, and coarse willow baskets, which he hawked +over the country. Mike, of course, was let into the secret, +and in the night the worthy trio commenced their avocations of +body-snatchers. The much injured porker was disinterred, +and more honours were paid him after death, than had ever been +conferred <a name="page90"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +90</span>upon him in life. But this is the way with human +beings, sometimes, as well as with the denizens of the sty; and +if we choose to moralize, we have an excellent opportunity given +us—but we forbear.</p> +<p>Many and merry were the evenings spent over the remains of the +pork, by Twm and Moses, under the humble roof of Mike the mat-man +and his wife, who were equal partakers of the feast. These +promising youths, on pretending to retire to their nightly rest, +made a point of hastening to the place of goodly food and +pleasant smells, where they spent the greater part of the night, +and thus acquired their earliest taste for dissipation.</p> +<h2>CHAPTER XIII.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm"><span class="smcap">Moses</span> displays his +inventive power in catching mutton. The storm bursts, and +the tricks of Twm and Moses are discovered. Hukin Heer +informs, and receives his reward. The house is in an +uproar.</p> +<p>As the material of their feasting was waning, like a pleasant +moon that declines towards the latter quarter, Moses grew more +and more uneasy, as foul food or starvation was staring him in +the face, night and day. As he utterly failed to sleep, he +employed the silent hours of midnight to hatch a scheme for the +procurement of future provender. “Twm,” quoth +the young schemer one morning, “you love mutton, and so do +I; and as you provided the pancakes and the pigs, as well as the +fish, (a quinsey fill the throats that swallowed them!) it is now +my turn to be founder of the feast. I will not only find +the feast, but I will manage matters so well, that Sheeny Greeg +herself shall cook it for us.”</p> +<p>Then he related, as Morris had informed him, <a +name="page91"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 91</span>how in former +years the sheep had repeatedly fallen headlong from the height of +Allty Craig, and been killed, and how since those times he had +made a thick hedge to keep them from the edge of the +precipice. “But we won’t be so particular +now,” said Moses, “for I mean to get up an accident +for one of the sheep. Then we may eat and be happy again; +we’ll have a change this time. It was pork before, +and now we’ll have mutton.”</p> +<p>“With all my heart,” said Twm, “only do it +all yourself, then we shall see what you can do without my +assistance.” Thus challenged, Moses felt it as a +point of humour to proceed in the affair alone.</p> +<p>Explanatory of what follows, it is here necessary to quote the +observation of one of our best South Wales tourists, on the +subject of the Welsh hilly sheep. “I was much +struck,” says Malkin, “with the difference between +the hilly sheep and those of the vale; the former are not only +smaller, but infinitely more elegant and picturesque in +figure. They seemed to have all their wits about them, so +that one would think the race had acquired its proverbial +character for silliness by feeding on rich and artificial +pastures, without having inherited it originally in the state of +nature. When we got into the lane, we met with a flock of +several hundred, which live among the rocks all the year round, +only coming down in shearing time. They had us in front, +and their shepherd and his dog in the rear. <i>The bounds +many of them made in avoiding us</i>, <i>were equally powerful +and lofty with those of wild goats</i>.”</p> +<p>Even such was the woolly tribe, from which the insatiate Jew +was now preparing to select a victim. Ambitious of the sole +credit of the enterprise, he desired Twm to stay below and leave +him to follow his own plan. Scarcely thinking of the matter +in hand, Twm took his seat on a gate, opposite to the lofty cliff +of Allty Craig Llwyd, pondering in his mind about his distant +home, the loved scenes which he had left for these, and above +all, his mother, from <a name="page92"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 92</span>whom he had been so long +separated. Moses wound up the hill, and attained the top at +the back of the cliff.</p> +<p>With the assistance of the farm-dog he soon drove one of the +finest of the wethers into the angular nook formed by the hedge +of the adjoining wood, and that which screened from the edge of +the terrific cliff. The dog, being set on, barked and bit +incessantly, while Moses shouted and bellowed with waving arms, +till, worried by stupidity at last, the sheep bounded up, and +sprang far over the hedge, and downward in the yielding +air—ignorant of the yawning gulf behind the hedge, and the +snare laid for his life! Moses set up a triumphant yell +like that of a wild Indian, as he peered over the precipice and +saw the downward movements of the poor sheep. Startled with +the shout of Moses, at this moment Twm looked up, and saw the +animal describing a rainbow sweep, and turning over and over in +its descent through the air, and its ultimate fall into the +quarry beneath, where it dropped lifeless.</p> +<p>So little did our hero relish this cruel affair that he would +scarcely speak to Moses, when the latter expected high applause +for his handywork. But the Jew-boy, nothing daunted, ran to +the farmer, whom he found cobbling up an old plough in the yard, +to save expense of paying a wheelwright.</p> +<p>“Oh dear! Oh dear!” whined Moses, with the +greatest appearance of heart-touched concern, “a terrible +accident has happened—one of the sheep—the fattest +and finest of the whole flock—has just sprung over the +hedge above Allty Craig, and broke its beautiful +neck.” Morris threw down the axe he was using, and +looked nearly as sorry, angry, and despondent as he felt. +“Nothing but misfortunes!” cried he at last, +“nothing but misfortunes for me, wretched man that I +am!” his thoughts dwelling at that moment on the fine pig +that he lately lost. “First a fine pig, and now my +finest sheep. Verily, this must be the end of the world, +such judgments could not come without reason!”</p> +<p><a name="page93"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +93</span>“Hadn’t we better cut his throat to save his +life,” inquired Moses in the most compassionate and tender +tone that he could assume, forgetting the slight anomaly which +his suggestion presented; “and then, sir, hadn’t we +better skin him too?” continued the young slip of +Judaism. “If he isn’t bled directly, and +nothing said about the accident, the women will vote him to be +buried in the same grave with the hog, considering his beautiful +mutton as no better than so much carrion. You know the +women are so shamefully dainty in such matters.”</p> +<p>This wily speech won the entire approbation of Morris Greeg, +and patting Moses’s shoulder, he thanked Providence that he +had so faithful a servant; adding in the same breath, “be +sure you don’t cut the skin.”</p> +<p>This gave Twm and Moses full employment for the rest of the +evening, while Morris entered the house, and delivered the +startling intelligence to his household that he had determined to +give them all a treat, and that for this purpose he had ordered +one of the finest sheep to be slaughtered, that they might have +fresh mutton.</p> +<p>It was just as the first dinner from this promised feast was +finished, on the day following, that Hukin Heer, that tall lanky +cottager, whose dog had been killed by Moses, under the +imputation of madness, called on Morris and Sheeny; and in a +self-sufficient mysterious manner, informed them that he had a +long story to tell them. As he cast a furious look at +Moses, that worthy felt an inward conviction that his long story +boded him no good; so taking up his hat in a hurried manner, he +prepared to depart. Hukin Heer, however, told Morris, that +as his tidings concerned the whole household, and that he was a +man who scorned to criminate any one behind his back, he +particularly wished that Moses and Twm should be present, to hear +all that he had to urge against them. Moses treated his +insinuations with a bold look of defiance as his insignificant +features could <a name="page94"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +94</span>possibly assume, yet trembling with dread that some +important discoveries to his disadvantage were to be made.</p> +<p>Twm’s only amusement at that moment consisted in +watching the terrified expression upon the countenance of the +young Israelite, and in mentally commenting upon the probable +consequences of Heer’s information. Now all the +family were seated round; Hukin occupying a chair that commanded +the passage, in case the culprits aimed to escape, and Sheeny +with her female brood, bursting with curiosity to hear what +diableries Hukin had to unfold.</p> +<p>It turned out that this unlucky cottager, on the destruction +of whose cur, by the relentless hand of Moses, fled in the utmost +alarm at the supposed damages done by him, according to the +insinuations of Twm, under the influence of canine madness. +This, Hukin knew to be a fabrication, and suspecting the rest to +be so, indulged in bitter feelings of resentment against the +insignificant Jew whelp, as he called him, who on false pretences +had destroyed his poor dog. Brooding over his wrongs, he at +times revenged himself, in the early dark winter evenings, by +tearing the hedges of Morris Greeg, by which amiable pastime he +repaired the deficiency of his own fuel, and gave endless labour +to those parish apprentices to repair them.</p> +<p>One eventful evening he caught up the clue which furnished him +with the means of revenge. He was returning home, after +despoiling the hedges, when he heard the sound of footsteps; at +once he concealed himself and his load of faggots, and like a +stealthy spy, awaited the results. While in this position, +by the imperfect light of a dull moon, he caught a full view of +Twm and Moses. Abandoning his load of wood, he dogged their +steps till they were housed in the hovel of Mike the +mat-man. He then saw the inmates enjoying the lingering +remains of the pig, gloating over it, and making sundry comments +which might, to say the least, be considered suspicious. +For <a name="page95"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +95</span>several nights Heer followed them, and saw the same +scene enacted; he had at last gathered a full and connected +narrative of the whole affair, and it was an intense satisfaction +to have these sweet means of revenge in his possession.</p> +<p>On the day previous to the present, in the full glow of +triumphant malice, he called on Mike, and informed him that his +midnight feastings were discovered. Poor Mike trembled with +apprehension of the evil consequences that might accrue to him; +and in the hope of propitiating the angry spirit of his +revengeful neighbour, confessed all he knew, which was +everything, about the matter. It seemed as if the spirit of +vengeance had yielded a favourable ear to Hukin’s desires; +for on this same evening, as he lurked in the wood adjoining +Allty Craig, and only separated from it by the hedge, it was his +lot to witness the last enormity of Moses, in driving the sheep, +on which they had been feeding, over the dreadful precipice.</p> +<p>All these particulars, with the exception of his own part in +despoiling the hedges, he narrated before the present assembled +party, with the most enlarged minuteness, while the different +members of the family were agitated with various feelings as they +listened to his exaggerated account of the affair.</p> +<p>Vain would be the attempt to seek words that could do adequate +justice in describing the effects of this discovery on the +countenance of the economic Morris, and that amiable provider of +short commons, his wife. If one groaned forth her +unutterable grief, the other ground his teeth; and in the +vehemence of his wrath could not help thinking that the penal +statutes required amendment—that it was an infamous +interference on the part of the law to call the sacrifice of a +parish apprentice or two, in the way of just resentment, by the +hideous name of murder; while to his thinking, it was much less +criminal than clandestinely killing a pig or a sheep, that would +fetch so much more money. Almost delirious with his +troubles, he paced the house to and fro, at the frantic rate of +five miles to the hour, <a name="page96"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 96</span>muttering to himself a complete +summary of the evils that had befallen him.</p> +<p>“Pig not mad—tickled by the sand in his +ear—all eaten by the boys and the mat-man—curse their +stomachs!—sheep driven over the precipice—worth ten +shillings—Oh!—villainy unheard of—the world was +innocent till now—all former villainy child’s play to +this—the latter day is coming fast—signs like these +are not given for nothing! The prophets have +said”—</p> +<p>“What’s become of all the fine lard, you +cut-throat villains?” whined Sheeny, in the most touching +accents, thinking of the <i>tesian vroy</i>, or short cake, that +was lost to her forever; while the younger lasses looked +bewildered at the prophetic passage alluded, and wondering where +it was to be found. As nobody answered her interesting +inquiry, Sheeny continued to bite her nails and drum the +devil’s tattoo with the heel of the wooden shoe; while +Hukin Heer grinned like a demon at the mischief which he had +made.</p> +<p>Both Morris and Sheeny were at length roused from their stupor +by the inquiry of Hukin,—“Well, what be you going to +do with them? I have a couple of hairy halters in my +pockets here, that I brought for the purpose; we had better tie +their hands behind them, and send them at once in a cart to jail, +where they will be hanged, drawn, and quarted, as a warning to +all rogues who take away the lives of innocent +dogs,”—“and pigs!” roared Griffith; +“and sheep!” shrieked Sheeny, as a climax to the +whole.</p> +<p>Twm and Moses were on the alert, and in less time than it +takes us to narrate the fact, Moses threw a three-legged stool at +the informer, and that with such force that it fractured the +elbow-bone of his right arm. In an instant Hukin recovered +himself, and was about to rush on the young Jew. But Twm +Shon Catty was ready, his “soul was in arms and eager for +the fray.” As Hukin advanced, Twm launched a heavy +oaken stool at his head, which laid his lank carcass on the +floor, bathed in blood. The scene was almost taking a +tragic turn when Sheeny changed its spirit by attacking <a +name="page97"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 97</span>Moses with a +birch broom, while one of the younger was pricking him in the +breech with a toasting-fork, till he blared like a beaten +calf. In the confusion of the fray, Shaan attacked her +father with a dirty flummery ladle, that whitened and disfigured +his black beard and whiskers, as if a barber had commenced his +operations, while the good man stood open-mouthed marvelling +whether these were not additional signs of approaching doom.</p> +<p>Aware that these ladle-bastings were intended for himself, Twm +caught Shaan behind, and holding her elbows fast to her sides, +gave her a twist round, and inflicting a tremendous kiss on her +fat blubbery lips; then pouting with passion, he loosened his +hold, and springing over the prostrate carcass of Hukin Heer, +retreated through the doorway in good order. Moses +followed, but with considerable confusion; dodging his head, and +rubbing his seat of honour in his retreat, as the visions of +birch-brooms and toasting-forks haunted him long after he was far +beyond their reach, whilst seating himself was made a painful +operation, and he mentally thought he had undergone the same +punishment as he had seen somewhere in an old print, where his +satanic majesty was impaling an old witch in that portion of her +body, <i>for the convenience of which</i>, <i>chairs were +originally invented</i>.</p> +<h2><a name="page98"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +98</span>CHAPTER XIV.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm"><span class="smcap">The</span> flight of the +Israelite and Mike. Mirth changed to grief. Killing +by kindness, and saving by neglect. A bright vision, and a +supernatural seánce. The end of the miserly +household.</p> +<p>On Twm’s rushing out of the house, he sought his bed in +the hay-loft, and laying himself down, laughed incessantly, at +the thought of the scene just passed; at the same time wondering +what had become of his luckless fellow in mischief, whom he +momentarily expected to follow him. Moses, however, was so +confused by his head-drubbings from the broom of Sheeny, and +tail-piercing from the fork of little Gwenny, that failing to see +Twm in his retreat, he ran straight forward, without knowing +whither. But the very legs of Moses without the guidance of +his head, seemed to have a predilection for the favourite road +which led to the house of feasting; as in this instance they bore +him without pause, till housed in the hovel of Mike, the +mat-man.</p> +<p>Poor Mike, he found busied in packing up, and loading his pony +with a cargo of mats, and preparing for immediate departure, +fearing that day-light would send somebody to take cognizance of +the share which he had taken in devouring Morris Greeg’s +swine-flesh. Moses related all that had passed, and +entreated that he might become his companion in his present +excursion; assuring him that he had as sweet a voice for crying +mats as he could meet with in a month’s march.</p> +<p>Mike assented, and told him to fortify his stomach with what +his hut afforded, against the dangers of the midnight air, a hint +which was seldom thrown away upon him. The good-natured +wife of the mat-man earnestly requested her husband to divide the +head of the pig (the only part left!) between himself and +Moses. That youth seconded the motion; observing <a +name="page99"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 99</span>it was +dangerous to leave any portion of it behind, as, though dead, it +might tell tales, and be claimed by some of the Greeg family; +feelingly remarking, “if you have any more pork, rather +than you should get into a scrape, I’ll risk it, and take +it all myself.—I am not so selfish as to begrudge to carry +it.”</p> +<p>Mike winked at his wife, intimating that he <i>knew</i> his +customer. Next morning our hero called at the +mat-man’s house, with the laudable desire of putting him on +his guard, intending to communicate the adventures and +disclosures of the preceding day. But he was doomed to +disappointment. Mike had “cleared out” three +hours before, escorted by the Israelite, whilst the wife had been +left behind to “take care of the things,” and to be +the link that should join them to more auspicious times. +This breach of good-fellowship on the part of Moses, in leaving +him so abruptly, piqued and fretted him not a little. With +a commendable spirit that disdained to act the paltry part of a +run-away, he entered the house of Morris Greeg at the usual +breakfast hour, and took his meal in silence. Sheeny kept +her bed this morning, overcome by the tumults of the preceding +evening, and Shaan officiated in her place.</p> +<p>The absence of Moses was very slightly commented upon, both +father and daughter declaring it would have been well for them if +he had taken himself off much sooner; yet, under all this feigned +indifference, it was very perceivable to Twm that his loss was +much felt by them. Under a couple of old sacks on the +settle by the fire lay the damaged body of Hukin Heer, where he +had been groaning all night. Without the slightest +reference to the past, Twm was told that his first job that +morning would be to take Hukin home in a dung-cart, charging him +to put plenty of clean straw under him, so that he might ride in +style and comfort.</p> +<p>Thus Twm had to perform an office for an enemy, who the day +before volunteered to do the same for him,—under different +circumstances, that he was to <a name="page100"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 100</span>be pinioned like a felon, bound hand +and foot, and escorted to the county jail, a reversion of the +scene which Twm liked rather than otherwise. It reminded +him of the gallows which the scriptural Jew had made for some one +else, but eventually took his position there himself.</p> +<p>On Twm’s return, after depositing Hukin with his wife, +whose inquiries he cut short, by urging his haste, he was +surprised to find that although it was the dinner hour, no food +was prepared, nor was any one member of the family to be seen or +heard. This unusual stillness he considered as strangely +contrasting with the bustle and agitation of the previous day, +nor could he in any way account for it. At length the deep +silence was feebly broken by some voices upstairs, in the +softened tones of pitying condolement, succeeded by the heavy +sobbing of a female, amidst the earnest and agonized prayer of a +gruff broken voice, which he at once knew to be that of +Morris.</p> +<p>At length he recognized the well-known voice of Sheeny, amidst +the loud wailing of her daughters, passionately exclaiming, +“It is—O God, it is—that murderous disorder, +the white-plague pest!” Such was the expressive name +by which that awful visitor since known by the name of small-pox, +was announced to be in the house. An indescribable vague +feeling of terror thrilled through his whole frame, as the +dreadful fact became known to him. As in those days +scarcely any one knew how to treat this remorseless enemy of the +race of man, its very existence in the neighbourhood was deemed a +certain messenger of doom, and even in those rare cases where the +life of the infected was spared, the envious demon stamped +fearful foulness on the face of beauty, and hideously scarified +the smoothest cheek, so that the parent knew not the features of +his child.</p> +<p>The first hasty thought that crossed our hero’s mind, +was to fly, and escape while yet clear of the contagion; but in +an instant his nobler though mistaken feelings abjured the +thought, bad as they had <a name="page101"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 101</span>been to him, of deserting this +afflicted family in the dark day of their heavy visitation. +However, his presence was no more noticed than his absence would +have been. Day after day, things remained in a similar +state; at length the lower part of the house was absolutely +deserted, or inhabited by him alone. Even the fire was +extinguished, and the house might have been uninhabited for +anything to be seen to the contrary. There were no sounds, +except the occasional groans of Morris, and the cries of the +frightened females. The family assembled together upstairs, +almost courting infection by their presence, and Twm was +therefore left to provide for his own wants.</p> +<p>Rarely could he meet with any one to enquire, as his feelings +prompted, who were the sufferers, and how they fared. The +third day since the commencement of the sickness, as he sat +lonely and languidly, from the disordered state of his stomach, +unable to partake of the dry food before him, a shriek of women +announced some fatality to have taken place. Morris came +down, with streaming eyes and agitated face, and for the first +time in his life grasping his hand in friendly wise, emphatically +proved how suffering had subdued his selfishness, and humanized +his hard heart. At length, with broken voice, he said, +“She is gone—my youngest girl is gone,—and I +fear my little Gwen will follow soon.”</p> +<p>Even while commiserating with Morris, Twm complained of a +head-ache, and a loathing sickness, with a feverish burning of +the whole frame, that was overwhelming him. Morris +immediately saw that he was infected, and told him to go and lie +down; informing his family of the feeling evinced by him for +their suffering, and that he was decidedly in the disorder. +Then taking his staff he hurried to the different cottages that +were thinly scattered among the lonely mountain cwms or dingles, +with the hope that either kindness or considerations of interest +would induce an elderly female or two to engage with him as +nurses, to watch and attend the sick.</p> +<p><a name="page102"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +102</span>Accordingly, two that had gone through the ordeal of +the <i>frech wen</i>, or the white pest, as the small-pox was +called, accompanied him home. They commenced their office +by making a regular, roasting fire, and feasting themselves in +the best manner the house afforded, attending to number one +first, as it behoved all nurses to do, their patients for the +time being of course quite a secondary consideration. +Feasting to inaugurate their arrival, they averred was an ancient +custom, and must be adhered to. He knew not whether it was +an ancient one; but that it is a <i>convenient</i> one, none +could deny. Twm soon found himself at the height of the +malady. Well for him was it, that the fever and other +accompaniments of this fearful disorder removed from him all +desire for food—for none was brought to him; none called to +offer their kindly offices, nor to inquire how he fared; and he +had to feel in the acutest degree the abandoned lot of that +“no man’s child,” the sick and suffering parish +apprentice. His bed in the hay-loft was an old hop-sack, +half filled with the chaff of oats; and his covering an old +tattered blanket, and a musty rug that had served several offices +for horses.</p> +<p>Thus, with the whistling of the wind through the numerous +crevices of the crazy walls, and the rain dripping on him at +times, through the imperfect rotten thatch, he remained hours, +days, and dreary nights, groaning away his time, impatiently +longing for death, or speedy recovery. When daylight +dawned, his mind wearied by aches and pains of the body, and by a +complete absence of the power of thought, would seek some +occupation and amusement in speculation on the formation of the +dark heavy folds of the numerous cob-webs that waved to and fro +over his head, from the mouldy beams and rafters, like the +triumphant flags of squalid penury; while the squeaking of mice, +that ran in troops about him, became the miserable music that +served to vary the monotony of his heavy hours.</p> +<p>One night, while doubly darkened, both by the deep <a +name="page103"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 103</span>shades of +midnight, and his eyes scaled by the glutinous adhesion of the +putrid “pest,” lonely and uncared for, he was cheered +and comforted in a manner as mysterious as it was +delightful. In after years, when referring to the +circumstances about to be detailed, marvellous and incredible as +it may appear, he always protested with a solemnity that he +deemed the subject called for, that he was neither absorbed in +slumber at its occurrence, nor under the influence of the +slightest delirium, but wakeful and sensible as ever he was +during his healthful mid-day avocations.</p> +<p>Turning upon his humble bed, wearied by the long and continued +gloom, weakened by continual aches and pains, a chorus of sweet +voices broke upon his ear, ravishing from the beauty of its +strains. In an instant afterwards, the wretched gloom was +dispersed by a brilliant light which burst into the loft, and +made all the old familiar objects radiant with a most unearthly +brilliance. Simultaneously with the sight and sound, +pleasant sensations sprang within his breast, and every pain had +vanished. While striving with the efforts of reason to +account for what he had felt and mentally beheld, to his +unutterable wonder, a tall female form appeared beside his lowly +bed, in full glow of youth and beauty, arrayed in costly +attire.</p> +<p>She had nothing about her allied to what he called the +supernatural—all seemed perfect reality—and although +exceedingly lovely, and benevolent in aspect, she was nothing +more nor less than a living “lady of the land,” in +widow’s weeds of the costly habiliments of the present +time. As he sank abashed from her fixed and smiling gaze, +she extended one of the finest hands he had ever beheld, and +pointed to two marriage rings, one above the other, on the third +finger of the left hand. He gazed steadfastly on the rings, +and, as he thought, he saw a third one above the others, of a +much paler hue; but on viewing it closer, it appeared simply a +white narrow silken ribbon, tied in that peculiar fashion, called +a true-lover’s knot. Twice <a +name="page104"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 104</span>he looked +from the finger to the face, struggling to give utterance to the +question that was trembling on his lips, as to the meaning +indicated, when a shriek from the house thrilled through his +heart; the glorious vision with the heavenly accompaniments of +light and music, were in an instant gone.</p> +<p>The lovely picture vanished, leaving poor Twm more chagrined +than ever was Tantalus. Like the mirage, it vanished and +faded away, leaving the weary gazer disappointed and +dispirited. But still the heart of Twm was comforted with +high, though baseless hopes, that fortune had some precious gift +in store for him, which time would yet bring forth.</p> +<p>The pleasurable sensations excited in the breast of our +worthy, by what he ever after called his “glorious +vision,” in healing the mind, had the auspicious effect in +cicatrizing his body. But as he recovered his sight, and +found the fever abandoning him, his appetite increased, and he +became at length tremendously hungry, with apparently nothing +within his reach to appease his inward cravings; and he was yet +too weak to quit his loft in search of any food.</p> +<p>At times, indeed, somewhat nerved, or rather maddened by his +rage for food, his weak hands would rustle in the pea-straw that +was heaped between his bed and the wall; and occasionally, after +a long search, to his great joy, he would discover an unbroken +pea-shell that had escaped the searching of the flail, while in +the act of thrashing in the barn. He had heard tales of +shipwreck and disaster, when lots had been cast between the +mariners as to which should be killed to furnish food for the +rest. He could believe them all now, whatever doubt he +might have had before. If he could now discover a neglected +pea-shell, in spite of the soreness of his hands and mouth, he +would open it and devour it with the utmost avidity. Just +as this wretched resource was failing him, one day, after a vain +and heart-aching search for another pea-pod, a sudden rustle in +the straw startled him, and <a name="page105"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 105</span>in great alarm he drew back his +hand, in the dread of coming in contact with a rat.</p> +<p>From this feeling he was agreeably relieved by the clucking of +a hen, that in the same moment descended through a hole in the +floor of the loft into the stable below. This homely +“household fowl” now became his “bird of good +omen,” which in after years he adopted as his crest; for +after a short search he discovered no less than three of her +eggs. This was indeed “manna in the wilderness” +to his declining hopes. A spring in the desert to the +parched pilgrim; a port and safety to the shipwrecked mariner; +wealth unexpected to the victim of poverty. Not one of +those electrifying “God-sends” was ever welcome with +greater heartfelt thankfulness, than the humble prize presented +to our hero. But this assistance, however welcome at the +time,—and wildly welcome it most truly was,—proved +after all but temporary.</p> +<p>Thus, although recovering fast from the horrors of the +small-pox, he was in the perilous jeopardy of becoming a victim +to starvation. Yet hope was strong within him, and wild, +young, and thoughtless as he was, he was no stranger to the +comfort to be derived from a dependence on Providence.</p> +<p>While the cravings of hunger assailed the poor parish +apprentice with unrelenting wolfishness, very different was the +treatment of the suffering children of the house. The +neglect visited upon the poor parish apprentice, was avenged by +the attention paid to the children of Morris. Twm’s +neglect proved his salvation, while the unremitting kindness +(mistaken though it was), shown to the farmer’s offspring, +proved their destruction, for Morris literally <i>killed them +with kindness</i>. Without judgment, or advice, except from +those self-interested conceited nurses, who were more ignorant +than herself; Sheeny Greeg sought every delicacy to coax the +waned and pampered appetites of her afflicted ones.</p> +<p>Every breath of pure air studiously excluded from <a +name="page106"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 106</span>their room, +they were almost suffocated by the quantity of clothes in which +they were wrapped. She gave them the most delicate cakes +that the homely hands of her assistants could contrive, with +spiced and sugared ale, and even wine; so thoroughly was the +accumulating spirit of avarice swallowed up by the nobler and +more powerful passion of affection for their perishing young +ones; a feeling after all, more eulogized than it really merits, +as it is but another mortification of human selfishness.</p> +<p>Three victims had already succumbed to the ravages of the +disease, and their fourth child now lay at the door of +death. Lamentations and groans were continual, but no +proper means for the recovery of the patients were adopted. +A poor hedge carpenter came from the distant village of Mawn Dee, +and brought with him the last covering of the victims of disease, +placing them, with assistance, in the slight alder coffins; the +parents took their heart-rent final look, and sank insensible +with excessive grief;—and yet the nurses feasted. +They continued to roast and boil, piously hoping their valuable +services would be long wanted; and although none of the family +could partake of their cookery, yet, the nurses feasted! +These good ladies, however, were rather disturbed at this time in +their comfortable doings, as some of the Mawn Dee women, like the +vulture which smells the warfield and the human gore afar off, +followed in the wake of the carpenter, hoping by a little canting +condolement with the family, to be engaged; but finding the field +occupied, they were guilty, as their opponents said, of the +heinous offence of offering their services gratis, to sit up in +their turn and watch the sick.</p> +<p>This, it must be said, was ever a welcome office to persons of +this description, especially at a substantial house; as on such +occasions as watching the sick, and laying out the dead, feasting +is as prevalent as at weddings. As the paid nurses who +assumed the consequence of regulars, failed to eject the +volunteers, who were more numerous, they revenged themselves by +<a name="page107"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 107</span>giving +them all the work to do except what appertained to swilling and +mastication; their own veteran talents bearing the full brunt of +that important piece of service, which was not to be trusted to +mere mercenary recruits.</p> +<p>Superstition was rampant amongst these old hen-wives. +All sorts of intimations concerning future events were made out +of very simple occurrences. No one must go under a ladder, +if they would enter the matrimonial noose. Salt was a very +unfortunate article of diet, whilst candlewicks were made a +medium for the discovery of a coming death. Some of these +old grannies dilated upon corpse candles seen by them previous to +the deaths of the young women of the house; others dilated on the +awfulness of a spectral burial, where shadows of the living +supported the bier of the departed towards the church-yard.</p> +<p>One night, between twelve and one, while the three coffins and +their contents presented a woeful sight, lying side by side on +the oak table, Morris, afflicted as he was, assisted his wife in +supporting by the fireside his fourth daughter, whose death they +also deeply dreaded, as an old cottage woman, while she basted a +loin of mutton roasting before the fire, dwelt much on the +certainty of supernatural appearances, illustrating her +convictions by instances of her own experience. All at +once, the current of her discourse was arrested by a shudder that +overcame and struck her dumb, on hearing a rumbling and irregular +noise, as of falling furniture, which also terrified the group +about the fire. The noise increased, and at last seemed as +if somebody was stumbling in his way in the dark.</p> +<p>Some shrieked, some rose and ran to remote corners, covering +their head with their aprons, while others sat breathless, as if +nailed to the bench, and dissolved in streams of perspiration, +their eyes starting from their sockets—when a figure with +the air and rush of a maniac darted in, tore the roasting meat +from the string, and disappeared with it, uttering in a dismal +hollow tone,</p> +<p><a name="page108"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +108</span>“O God, I am famished by these +wretches!” The consciences of the farmer and his wife +were dreadfully wrung, as they recollected the poor apprentice +Twm, whom they had left in the depth of the malady which had +deprived them of three of their children, to live or to die, as +he might; nor would Morris allow anybody to rescue the meat, but +snatching a loaf from the shelf, he entreated Twm to come in and +eat his fill at the fire. But the youngster having secured +the bread, re-entered his hay-loft, and with the ravenousness of +a starved hound devoured his precious prey in darkness. +That was the sweetest meal ever eaten by our hero.</p> +<p>In narrating this event in after life, he used to say that the +theft of this joint saved his life. He was then as ravenous +as a wolf, and was only endowed with supernatural strength for +the moment, to effect his purpose. While yet the farmer, +with tears of real penitence, was calling out to him, a loud +scream from his wife convinced him that his fourth child was also +dead.</p> +<p>With wild and insupportable agony, Morris fell upon his knees, +and with interrupting sobs exclaimed, “I see the hand of +Heaven in this, and a heavy judgment has befallen us for our +cruelty to the poor boy; but he will live! he! the lad whom we +treated fouler than the beast! he will outlive this pest, while I +and mine perish.”</p> +<p>The suffering of the unhappy man was pitiable and +heart-rending to witness; and on the very day of his +children’s burial, with loud cries of remorse and sorrow, +he expired.</p> +<p>Twm recovered, according to the farmer’s prediction, +which was further verified, inasmuch as the remainder of his +children did not live to see the end of the year; and his wife, +losing her senses, was ever after a wretched moping idiot.</p> +<h2><a name="page109"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +109</span>CHAPTER XV.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm"><span class="smcap">The</span> return of our +hero to Tregaron. His welcome from old friends, cronies, +and acquaintances. Is engaged by Squire Graspacre, and is +elevated socially and physically.</p> +<p>After setting out early in the morning, and walking all day +over the rugged mountain road, the heart of Twm Short Catty +thrilled with delight, and the tears filled in his eyes, when, +late in the evening, his own native place, the humble town of +Tregaron appeared before him. Each object that met his +eager gaze was familiar; not a shrub but Twm knew it, not a spot +but was remembered in Twm’s mind by some vagary or other +practised either by himself or the renowned Watt; and although +his feet were so blistered that he could scarcely move, he +attempted to make his limbs partake of the new vigour which +sprung up in his heart, and essayed to run, but failing in his +aim, fell down completely mastered by exhaustion and +fatigue. Whether, like Brutus, he was re-nerved by +breathing awhile on the bosom of his mother earth, or that the +thoughts within, of home and its association, gave him strength, +he rose much refreshed, but with considerable pain continued the +short untraced portion of his journey.</p> +<p>Entering the town, at length, just as the darkness began to +veil every object, he came to his mother’s door, which was +open, and cast an inquiring look before he entered. Catty +had long dismissed her scholars, and sat in the chimney corner +with her back towards the door; whilst Carmarthen Jack was busily +engaged upon an artistic combination upon the handle of a +ladle. He was a thoroughly business man, as far as spoons +and ladles were concerned, and on this occasion he sat sullenly +busy in scooping out the bowl of a new ladle.</p> +<p>Twm’s merry trick-loving soul is not to be subdued by +his troubles; having drawn his flat-rimmed old hat over his eyes, +he leaned over his mother’s hatch, and in <a +name="page110"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 110</span>a feigned +voice, begged for a piece of bread and cheese, saying that he was +a poor boy, very hungry and tired, who was making his way home to +Lampeter. “We are poor folk ourselves, and have +nothing to give,” said Carmarthen jack, rather +gruffly. “Stop!” cried Catty, “he’s +a poor child, Jack, a bit of bread and cheese is not much, and +somebody might take pity on my poor Twm, and give him as much, if +he should need it.”</p> +<p>The affectionate heart of Twm could no longer contain itself, +but opening the latch, he burst forward, dashing his hat on the +ground, and falling on her neck, giving the most ardent utterance +to the word “mother,” and after the tender pause of +nature’s own embrace, he cried with streaming eyes, +“My good, kind, charitable mother! you shall never want +bread and cheese while your poor Twm has health and strength to +earn it.” Warmly returning his embrace and kisses, +Catty long clasped her boy, and was quite terrified to see his +pale lean cheek, and altered looks. Ashamed of the exposure +of his pitiless nature, Jack now came up, shook hands and +condoled with him, but Twm <i>had seen the man</i>, <i>and loved +him not</i>.</p> +<p>Twm was an excellent judge of human nature, and he knew well +the duplicity and cunning of his father-in-law, and shunned him +accordingly. Twm would never fraternize harmoniously with +those he did not like. In this, he was invariably +honest.</p> +<p>After being refreshed, Catty eagerly enquired of all that had +happened to him since he left home, and wept much as he detailed +his narrow escape from starvation and the small-pox. By +twelve o’clock next day, his tale was known to everybody at +Tregaron.</p> +<p>The catastrophe at Morris Greeg’s, of course, was +considered a judgment from heaven for his miserly propensities; +and Ianto Gwyn again set his poetical muse at work, and after a +slight effort wrote a pathetic ballad, to the great edification +of old women and tender-hearted damsels, giving a <i>true and +particular</i> account of the whole affair; to which was attached +a moral on the <a name="page111"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +111</span>cruelty of mal-treating parish apprentices, and +stuffing them with mouldy bread and sour flummery. This +interesting ballad was daily sung by Watt, the mole-catcher, to +the English tune of Chevy Chase, which gained the good-will of +all those old cronies who had taken deep offence at his numerous +tricks.</p> +<p>Carmarthen Jack, although so careful of his bread and cheese, +was determined not to be outdone on this occasion, but brought +the graphic art to perpetuate his stepson’s tale; that is +to say, he carved on a wooden bowl the figures of four beings, +well-attended, in bed, with the scythe of death across their +throats, while in the distance a meagre boy was snatching a joint +of meat from the fire. The effort, artistically regarded, +was not calculated to carry away the Royal Academy’s prize; +the idea perhaps was better than the execution; but altogether it +gained Jack very great applause.</p> +<p>Right glad were all Twm’s cronies to see him again at +Tregaron; but dearer than all to him was the welcome of the +curate Rhys, with whose books he was again permitted to make +free, while he profited by his instructions and +conversation. He had now been at home about three months, +and recovered his health, strength and spirits to perfection; +when his mother fancied he had become an eye-sore to her husband, +who she thought looked at him with the scowling brow of a +step-father, which Twm’s conduct, she might imagine, +justified, as his behaviour towards Jack had been very +unconciliating, ever since the bread and cheese adventure.</p> +<p>With this impression, Catty once more waited on Squire +Graspacre, to solicit that some employment should be found for +her boy, as she could not afford to keep him in idleness. +The tale of his sufferings at <i>Gwern Ddu</i>, interested the +squire in his favour; and he felt some reluctance to send him +again as a parish apprentice. The worthy curate, Rhys, had +also spoken a kind word in his late pupil’s favour; and +Carmarthen Jack, gaping, hat in hand, looked as if he would say +much to get rid of his step-son, could he hit on <a +name="page112"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 112</span>words to +his purpose. Amused by his simplicity and awkward gestures +the squire asked him,</p> +<p>“Well, Jack, what would you advise me to do with +Catty’s boy?” This plain question met with as +blunt an answer, “Make him your servant boy, sir, if you +please.” “And so I will, old hedgehog!” +cried the squire, slapping him on the shoulder, “Your +oratory has settled the matter.”</p> +<p>Accordingly, our hero next appears as the squire’s man +at Graspacre-Hall. This was an agreeable change in life to +him, where he lived, as they say in clover; and by his good +temper and turn for mirth, gained the good-will and admiration of +his fellow-servants, particularly the girls, with whom he became +an especial favourite. Behold him now in the seventeenth +year of his age, with his looks and habits of twenty, gay, happy, +and as mischievous as an ape; kissing and romping with the girls, +caring for none of them, but showing attentions to all, while he +jeered and mocked the cross-grained and disagreeable, and +whenever he could, raised a laugh at their peculiarities. +His employments at the squire’s were various, among which, +waiting at table every day, neatly dressed, and carrying his +master’s gun, and attending him during his shooting +excursions, formed the principal.</p> +<p>To these, Squire Graspacre, who since the death of his wife +was ever wench-hunting, aimed to add the noble office of pimp, +which Anglicized, means, the honourable office of wench-procurer, +to satisfy the lustful appetite of the squire. Twm, +however, had been swayed too long by the counsels of Rhys the +curate, to lend himself to any such service; and having by his +conversations with him, and by the tenor of his readings, imbibed +a taste for romantic honour, he was not without a secret hope +that his great father might some day own him, and destine him to +a very different sphere in life. With the growth of these +notions, rose in his mind a distaste for servitude, and an ardent +longing to shine in a sphere allied to literature and +respectability.</p> +<h2><a name="page113"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +113</span>CHAPTER XVI.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm"><span class="smcap">Twm</span> goes the way of +all flesh, and “falls in love.” So does the +Squire, with Twm’s maiden. Twm defeats his +master’s scheme. The adventures of farmer +Cadwgan’s ass. Twm makes his exit from Squire +Graspacre’s “local habitation.”</p> +<p>The squire and his man Twm returning one evening from grousing +on the hills, in their descent towards the valleys had to pass by +a small farm-house, inhabited by a tenant of the squire’s, +who whispered Twm, “This is the keep, the close, that +contains better game, and can afford livelier sport than any I +have had to-day.” Twm by his silence testified his +ignorance of his drift; but he resumed, “What! you +don’t understand me? haven’t you seen this +farmer’s plump partridge of a daughter, the pretty Gwenny +Cadwgan, you young dog! I am determined to have that bird +down, some way or other, and you must help me. She is fine +game, and well worth bringing down. She will take time, I +know, but if she should be shy why then</p> +<blockquote><p>“I’ll weedle, coax, and try my +arts,<br /> +For I can play a thousand parts;<br /> +When she shall weep, I’ll laugh and sing:<br /> +The devil to my aid I’ll bring.<br /> +She’ll ne’er resist me long, I ween,<br /> +For many a victory I have seen;<br /> +The wench will kick, but what of that?<br /> +I’ll bear the brunt: she’s plump and fat.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Before Twm could reply, the squire alighted and entered the +cottage, at the door of which the farmer and Gwenny Cadwgan, now +grown a fine and blooming young woman, met and welcomed their +landlord. Some oaten bread, butter, and cheese, and a cup +of homely-brewed ale were put before him; and while he ate, the +pretty Gwenny carried a portion to Twm, as he held the horses in +the yard. While he received the welcome food from the hand +of the happy smiling <a name="page114"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 114</span>girl, he perceived the blush with +which she gave it, and felt in his breast certain sensations no +less new than agreeable.</p> +<p>Thus, while each other made brief allusions to their days of +childhood, a tear started in the eyes of Twm, on seeing which the +bright eyes of Gwenny were also suffused, till the pearly drops +over-ran her fresh ruddy cheeks. Her father then calling +her in, she suddenly shook hands with, and left our hero, who in +that hour became a captive to her charms, while the innocent girl +herself then felt the first shooting of a passion that daily +grew, in sympathy with his own.</p> +<p>The squire having finished his hasty lunch, he remarked to his +tenant Cadwgan in a hurried manner, that he should have company +the next day to entertain at his house, and would thank him to +let his lass come to the hall to assist in attending on +them. The farmer of course, assented in words, for what +small farmer would dare to deny his landlord such a favour, +though his heart might tremble with apprehensions?</p> +<p>After the squire’s departure, Cadwgan became deeply +distressed at the predicament in which he found himself; to deny +his landlord, was probably to lose his farm; and to assent to his +specious proposal, was to endanger, if not utterly ruin the +innocence of his darling daughter; as since the death of Mistress +Graspacre, more than one of the neighbouring damsels had to rue +their intimacy with the squire, who inveighled them to the hall +with all sorts of arts, pretences, and excuses, and then +contriving that he should be alone with the object of his lust, +had paid them a little of that “delicate attention” +which he had previously recommended to the father of Twm. +The poor farmer passed a restless night of bitter reflection, and +saw daylight with an agonized spirit; but the active mind imbued +with honourable ideas, never fails in due season to work its own +relief.</p> +<p>When Twm appeared next morning on horse-back before his door, +with a pillion behind, Cadwgan’s terrors <a +name="page115"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 115</span>had +vanished, his indignation at the premeditated injuries intended +him, was roused, and with braced nerves, and a firm heart, he +determined to deny the squire, and abide the consequences, be +what they might. But honest nature was elsewhere at work in +Cadwgan’s favour, and unknown to him, had raised a friend +to save him from the impending perils, to the preservation of +both his farm and his more precious daughter, in the person of +young Twm Shon Catty.</p> +<p>On his journey home the last evening, while listening to his +master’s commands, and hearing his plan to inveigle the +innocent Gwenny, Twm was mentally engaged in studying some mode +to preserve her from his clutches; and at length heroically +determined to save the object of his admiration, even at the risk +of losing his place, and being cast again on the wide +world. He fed his fancy all night in dwelling on her +beauty, and the merit of preserving her, while he ardently +enjoyed in anticipation the sacrifice he was about to make for +her sake.</p> +<p>The morning came, and the squire gave the dreaded order, +“Take the horse Dragon, put a saddle and pillion on him, +and bring the farmer’s lass behind you here; tell Cadwgan +not to expect her back to-night, but she shall be brought +to-morrow, and by that time, Twm, we shall have shot the plump +partridge, and found her good game, I doubt not.” +Although Twm had been preparing himself to give a doughty reply, +and so commence the heroic character he had modelled, yet when +the moment came, his resolution failed him, and the high-sounding +words were not forthcoming; although the determination to disobey +remained as strong as ever. He rode off, through Tregaron, +and up the hills, in a melancholy mood, without any settled +purpose, except that of straightforward resistance to the orders +he had received. As he jogged on listlessly, he was +suddenly roused from his reverie by the braying of +Cadwgan’s ass, that was grazing in a green lane, which he +was about to enter. Such an animal being a rarity in the +country, Twm, <a name="page116"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +116</span>with surprise, audibly muttered, “What the devil +is that!”</p> +<p>An old woman at that moment opening the gate, which she +civilly held for our hero to pass into the lane which she was +leaving, hearing his words, replied, “It is only +Cadwgan’s <i>ass</i>.” Twm, whose thoughts ran +entirely on the farmer’s fair daughter, mistaking what she +said, rejoined, “Cadwgan’s <i>lass</i>, did you +say?” “You are very ready with your mocks and +pranks, Master Twm,” cried the old woman, slamming the gate +against the buttocks of the horse, “but you know very well +that I said Cadwgan’s <i>ass</i>, and not <i>lass</i>! for +I should be very sorry to compare the good and pretty Gwenny +Cadwgan to such an ugly ill-voiced animal.” Twm was +amused at the error he had made, made the good dame the <i>amende +honourable</i>, bade her good day, and rode forward with new +spirits, for this little adventure had furnished him with the +means of deliverance for little Gwenny, and a defeat to his +master’s unlawful desires.</p> +<p>The farmer’s mind being made up, as before observed, to +refuse the attendance of his daughter at his landlord’s, he +was astonished to hear Twm say, “Master Cadwgan, it was +Squire Graspacre’s order to me, that I should saddle this +horse, come to your house, and, with your consent, bring your +<i>ass</i> to him, on the pillion behind me.” Cadwgan +stared doubtfully, and Twm resumed, “I hope you are too +sensible to question or look into the reasonableness of his +whims, and will be so good as to catch the strange animal, which +I passed on the road, that we may tie him across the +pillion.”</p> +<p>Cadwgan immediately concluded this to be a providential +mistake of the young man’s, that might have the most +desirable effect of relieving him from his apprehended trouble, +and with a ready presence of mind said, laughing, “To be +sure it is no business of mine to look into the oddness of his +fancies, and he shall have my ass by all means.”</p> +<p>“Put an L to ass, and ’twill be +<i>lass</i>,” said Twm seriously, and with emphasis, +“and such is the squire’s <a name="page117"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 117</span>demand; but,” said the youth +with, rising enthusiasm, “I will risk my life to save your +daughter from his snares, and will feign that I thought he said +<i>ass</i> instead of <i>lass</i>, to be brought on the +pillion.” Affected by this instance of generosity, +the farmer, as well as his lovely daughter, burst into tears, +thanking and blessing him; whilst the former told him that if he +lost his place through the adventure, his home was always open to +him. Twm was not slow in thanking them for their kindness, +but a smile from Gwenny rewarded him more than anything said, or +anything promised could do.</p> +<p>While Cadwgan went out to catch the long-eared victim, Twm +spent a delicious half-hour in the company of fair Gwenny; and +took that opportunity to protest the ardour of his affection for +her, and vowed that whatever fortune favoured him with the means +of getting a livelihood independent of servitude, it would be the +glory of his life to come and ask her to be his own. The +maiden heard him with streaming eyes and heaving breast, nor +withdrew her cheek when her lover imprinted on it +affection’s first kiss; she considered it as a sacred +compact, the seal of a true lover’s faithful covenant; one +never to be broken by the intrusion of another.</p> +<p>Cadwgan at length returned, with his charge in a halter, +grumbling and abusing the beast at every step, in consequence of +having led a pretty dance in chase of her. With the +assistance of Twm and a neighbouring cottager, he now tied the +animal’s legs and lifted her into the seat of the pillion, +a situation that her struggling and resistance indicated to be +more elevated than comfortable. Twm, however, rode on +slowly with his grotesque companion, without the occurrence of an +accident, till they arrived at Tregaron; when the whole town, +men, women, and children, came to enjoy the strange sight, amidst +roars and shouts of laughter. The ass either was not +comfortable, or she felt her asinine dignity assailed, and <a +name="page118"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 118</span>therefore +“he haw’d” her disapproval of the +proceedings. She further manifested her displeasure by +making a strong attempt to reach terra firma, eventually thinking +it unjust to make her ride when she was perfectly able and +willing to walk.</p> +<p>Straining every nerve to liberate her captive limbs, she at +length succeeded in breaking the cord by which she was fastened +to the pillion, and tumbled in a heap to the ground, where she +struggled hard, and soon shook off every remnant of her hempen +gyves; and in all the pride of high achievement and newly +acquired freedom, ran with all her might through the town, +brandishing her heels to right and left whenever any person +approached to impede her career, till through a long narrow lane +she reached the mountains. Here she seemed to defy her +numerous pursuers; but after a long chase, which lasted till +dusk, she was surrounded, secured, and placed in her former +situation behind our hero on the pillion.</p> +<p>At length he reached Graspacre Hall, and made his approach at +the back of the house. His step-father assisted him and his +companion to alight, leading the latter to the stable, while Twm +went to inform his master of his arrival, and the cause of his +long delay. A tremor suddenly seemed to paralyze poor Twm, +well knowing the wrath his disappointed master would shower down +upon his devoted head. He mentally thought he should be +thankful to anybody who could liberate him out of this dilemma; +but after his fit of apprehension had lasted a few minutes, he +plucked up his courage and his breeches at the same time, +exclaiming, “Well! he can’t kill me for it:” +and thus self-comforted he entered the house.</p> +<p>The squire at this time was seated at the head of the table, +pushing down the bottle among his friends, principally consisting +of the neighbouring gentry.</p> +<p>In the course of the day he had sent several times to know +whether Twm had arrived. When little Pembroke at length +went in to announce his return, he desired he should be +immediately sent in, and Twm <a name="page119"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 119</span>approached him with a burning cheek +and an agitated heart. He questioned him in an undertone, +asking <i>if he had brought her</i>, and where he had been so +long; to which Twm replied, “Yes, sir, I have brought her, +and much trouble I had with her, for she didn’t like to +come, thinking perhaps you meant her foul play; and once she +escaped off the pillion into the mountain.”</p> +<p>“The devil she did!” cried the squire; “but +you caught her again?”</p> +<p>“Oh yes, sir, after losing much time, I have brought her +at last, and she is now much tamer than at first; and you can do +what you like with her.”</p> +<p>“That’s very well,” said the squire; +“I like the notion that she is very tractable.”</p> +<p>“Oh! you’ll find she’ll do anything now, +though I had to make her know her right position. She +rolled off the pillion in Tregaron, and showed her legs most +dreadfully.”</p> +<p>“Fie! fie!” said the squire, “I hope you did +not look at them?”</p> +<p>“Faith, but I did then, and very pretty they +looked. But you’ll be able to give your own opinion, +sir, by and bye.”</p> +<p>“A good lad, Twm, a good lad, remind me to give you a +golden angel for this day’s work; but what have you done +with her? where is she?”</p> +<p>“Why, sir,” cried Twm. “I tied her up +to the manger and locked the door, to prevent her +escape.”</p> +<p>“Shame, Twm, shame! you ought not to have done that, for +she will think it was by my orders, and hate me perhaps for my +supposed cruelty,” quoth the squire, thinking all the time +that Cadwgan’s <i>lass</i>, and not his ass was the subject +of discussion.</p> +<p>“No, sir,” replied Twm, “but it is likely +though, that she will have an ill-will towards me, as long as she +lives, for it.”</p> +<p>“Well, well,” said his master hastily, “take +her from the stable into the housekeeper’s room, and tell +Margery to comfort her and give her a glass of wine.”</p> +<p>This was too much for Twm, and the smothered <a +name="page120"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 120</span>laugh burst +out in spite of his efforts; on which, his master with a severe +brow, asked how he dared to laugh in his presence. +“Indeed I could not help it,” cried Twm, “but I +don’t think she ever drank a glass of wine in her life, and +perhaps might not like it.”</p> +<p>“Why, that’s true; then tell the butler to give +out a bottle of the sweet home-made wine for her—let it be +a bottle of the cowslip wine, and say that I am very sorry for +the trouble and vexation she has had.”</p> +<p>“Yes, sir,” cried Twm, who made his bow and +retired to the servants’ hall, where he made them +acquainted with the squire’s freak of having farmer +Cadwgan’s ass brought there on a pillion behind him; and +that it was his master’s orders that she was to be brought +into the house-keeper’s room, and a glass of wine given to +her, and that Margery was to make her comfortable.</p> +<p>They were all aware of their master’s occasional +eccentricities, and that he was as absolute in demanding +obedience to his wildest whims, as to the most important matter +in the world. With one accord they therefore brought the +ass, not without great trouble and opposition on the part of the +poor animal, into the housekeeper’s room, where Glamorgan +Margery spread a small carpet for her to lie on, and amidst the +side-aching laughter of the servants, offered a glass of wine, +which no persuasion could induce her to accept.</p> +<p>The squire had given orders that no person was to answer the +bell the rest of the evening but Twm. It was now rung, and +in went our hero, when he was asked, “How is she +now?” “Rather fatigued sir; she doesn’t +like wine, nor would she touch a drop of it.” +“Well, well,” said the squire, “if she likes +ale better let her have some, with a cold fowl and something of +the nicest in the house, though perhaps she would prefer a cup of +tea to anything. After she has taken the refreshment she +chooses, tell Margery to put her to bed, in the green chamber, +then lock the door and bring me the key. I can then <a +name="page121"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 121</span>visit her +when I am ready, you know Twm, and depend upon it I will reward +you in the morning.” Here Twm’s risible +faculties were again oppressed to bursting, but a look from his +master checked him, though he bit his lip till the blood started +in the aid to check his laughter.</p> +<p>Squire Graspacre now secretly anticipated the completion of +his scheme, anxiously waiting for the departure of his guests, +who by their noisy hilarity had long given notice that a little +more devotion to the bottle would lay them under the table. +The wily squire however desisted, before he had passed the +boundary of what topers call <i>half and half</i>, considering in +the mean time, that his plan would best succeed by not appearing +before Gwenny Cadwgan till midnight, when all his household would +be asleep, and himself supposed to have retired to his room.</p> +<p>After some trouble, which was heightened by their forced +suppression of laughter, that however, broke out in spite of +them, the servants got the donkey up stairs, having previously +fed her with bread, oaten cakes, and oats, on her rejection of +ale, wine, fowl, and tea, which to their great amusement they had +successively offered her in vain. Having brought the poor +animal into the green room, the best chamber in the house, and +kept only for particular guests, they placed her on the fine +handsome bed; the legs being already tied, they fastened them +also to the bed-posts. Twm heightened the drollery of the +scene by cutting two holes in a night-cap, drawing through the +donkey’s ears, and slitting it at the edge, he drew the cap +down carefully towards the eyes. The bed-clothes were then +carefully drawn up to the ass’s neck, the curtains half +drawn, and the first ass that ever slept in a feather bed was +then left to enjoy its slumbers as best it could. They bade +her good night, locked the door, and gave the key to their +master.</p> +<p>The guests at length dispersing, they all rode off as well as +their muddled heads would let them, to their respective homes; +the squire, as was his custom, <a name="page122"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 122</span>locked the door himself, and saw +every light in the house out before he retired. At length +he gained his chamber, and all was still in Graspacre-Hall. +The amorous squire, chuckling at his luck as he thought of the +fair lass in the green-room, grew too impatient to wait till the +proposed hour of midnight, and leaving his candle on his own +table, took off his shoes, and softly approached the casket that +he deemed contained his precious jewel.</p> +<p>Applying the key, he opened the door very gently, and +cautiously approaching the side of the bed, said in a whisper +towards the pillow, “Don’t be alarmed, Gwenny, my +dear, ’tis I, the squire; fear nothing, my girl, this will +be the making of your fortune, my dear; and if you are as kind +and loving as I could wish you to be, you may soon become the +second Mrs. Graspacre.”</p> +<p>Hearing no reply, he considered that according to the old +usage, <i>silence gives consent</i>, and proceeded to bend his +face down to kiss the fair one, when a severe bounce inflicted by +his <i>incognita’s</i> snout, knocked him backwards off the +bed to the floor, and set his nose a-bleeding.</p> +<p>After recovering himself a little, though labouring under the +delusion that the blow had been struck by the hand of the fair +maiden, he exclaimed in an under-tone, “You little wixen! +how dare you treat me in this manner?” The answer +received was a loud and repeated “he-haw,” with the +clattering of hoofs against the bedposts. Now hoofs are +suggestive, and the squire rather believed in the +supernatural. He again proceeded towards the bed, but was +completely horror-struck at the loud bray which the terrified ass +sent forth; while the poor terrified animal, after a hard +struggle, liberating her limbs, struck him a severe blow on the +forehead with her hoof, and getting off the bed, made a terrible +clatter with her shod feet over the boards of the room. The +unfortunate squire, although hitherto a loud decrier of +superstition, now felt a thrill of the utmost horror pervade him, +while he decreed himself ensnared by <a name="page123"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 123</span>the enemy of man, as the punishment +of his guilty intentions; and after a clamorous outcry fell +senseless on the floor.</p> +<p>The servants having but concealed the light, expecting some +<i>denouement</i> of this sort, now rushed in, and saw their +fallen master ghastly pale, with streams of perspiration running +over his forehead, while his wildly-staring eyes alternately +looked at, and turned from, the monster of alarm. When he +had sufficiently recovered to learn the real state of affairs, +from little Pembroke, who had been made Twm’s confidante in +this matter—how that wight had brought the farmer’s +ass according to his orders behind him on the pillion, although +he had been in some doubt whether he had said Cadwgan’s +<i>ass</i> or Cadwgan’s <i>lass</i>, the squire’s +rage was boundless.</p> +<p>Squire Graspacre’s rage can be better imagined than +described, and all the dormant fiends of evil were at once +awakened in his bosom, and the feeling which first actuated him +was that of revenge upon Twm, and secondly shame at having been +duped, and that with the knowledge of all his household. +Exasperated at the trick put upon him by a mere youngster, and a +menial, and scarcely less provoked at the exposure he had made of +himself before his servants, down he rushed into the hall, and +snatched a heavy horsewhip, unlocked the door, and made his way +towards our hero’s chamber over the laundry; but when he +reached the bedside, prepared to inflict the severest punishment +that the thong of a whip was capable of, how great was his +mortification to find the bird had flown! His chagrin and +resentment were anything but lessened, when he took a piece of +paper off the bed, on which, in a large hand, were written these +pretty lines:—</p> +<blockquote><p>If from lass you take the letter L.<br /> +Then lass is ass if I have learnt to spell;<br /> +Yes ass and lass methinks are coupled ill.<br /> +Though human asses follow lasses still!<br /> +An ass were I too—could I so arrange ill,<br /> +If now I stay’d to claim my promised angel.</p> +</blockquote> +<h2><a name="page124"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +124</span>CHAPTER XVII.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm"><span class="smcap">Twm</span> finds that his +father-in-law is as churlish as ever, but Carmarthen Jack comes +to grief in consequence. The Squire turns reformer. +His children arrive at the hall. A tender Devonian. +Twm satirizes the cook. Thrashes the young squire, and then +“disappears.” Calls upon Cadwgan and +Rhys. An adventure on the hills.</p> +<p>Twm reached his mother’s at Tregaron about one +o’clock in the morning, and alarmed her greatly by the +account he gave of his flight from the squire’s, and the +cause which led to it. Jack consoled poor Catty by assuring +her that her son would go to the devil, and that ruin would come +upon them through his tricks, to a certainty. Number one +again, as the reader will see, with very little affection for his +wife’s offspring. It is a selfish world, and Jack did +as Rome did, none the less eagerly because it always suited his +own convenience. He concluded by saying that they ought to +turn poor Twm adrift, and leave him to himself in order to +conciliate the squire. While Jack beneath the bed-clothes, +was grunting these suggestions of worldly wisdom, Catty +half-dressed, was sitting dejectedly in the chimney corner.</p> +<p>Having caught the drift of his father-in-law’s +mutterings, he rose abruptly, snatched up his hat, and while +striding to the door, cried, “Good night, +mother.” Alarmed at his precipitate movement, and the +tone in which he spoke,—“Where are you going, +Twm?” said Catty. Turning around, while he held the +door in his left hand, he replied, “Anywhere +mother—the world is wide—and I’ll go headlong +to the devil, rather than stay here, where I am not +welcome.” With that he closed the door, and was in a +moment out of sight, notwithstanding the cries and entreaties of +his mother, who ran after, and earnestly sought to bring him +back.</p> +<p>Catty, with a bitter conscience, now found that <a +name="page125"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 125</span>her son had +a step-father, and she a husband, who was a rude and churlish +tyrant. To give him his due, Jack was far from being +regardless of her sorrow, but showed the tenderness of a husband +in comforting her, in a manner most natural to himself. +“What signifies crying for such an imp of a devil as +that?” said this kind step-father: “if he starves in +the field by being out to-night, it will save him from dying at +the gallows, where he would be sure to come some day or +other.”</p> +<p>This tender-hearted speech had the unexpected effect of +immediately curing Catty’s grief, which turned to a +desperate fit of rage, and without a word to signify the +transition wrought by his oratory, she snatched up a stout +broom-stick from the floor, and be-laboured him with all her +strength, as he lay beneath the bed-clothes, till he roared like +a baited bull. When the strength of her arm failed, the +energy of her tongue commenced; and after rating him soundly, she +concluded her harangue with eloquent pithiness, hoping that she +had left him a shirtful of bones; and expressing a devout hope +that he would eventually arrive at that elevated position in +society which he had described as the probable fate of her +darling son. After which exertion and speechifying, she +thought proper to disappear.</p> +<p>Jack, although he received some hard blows, by dodging under +the bed-clothes, escaped better than his help-mate intended he +should; he soon rose, dressed himself and went to his +master’s sauntering sullenly about the outhouses till +daylight, when a servant informed him, after narrating +Twm’s trick on his master, that he was to take +Cadwgan’s ass home.</p> +<p>Squire Graspacre, since the death of his wife, gave such free +range to his licentious pleasures, as placed him, especially at +his years, in a most unseemly light. His only son had been +two years at Oxford, returning only occasionally during the +vacations; while his two daughters on the death of their mother, +were sent to a boarding-school at Exeter. Thus in his own +family he had no witnesses of his vices and follies. <a +name="page126"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 126</span>He soon +found, however, that in Wales, his offences against religion and +morality were not to be committed with impunity. The +respect in which he was formerly held by the country people +gradually declined, while those who had daughters became +extremely shy, and sent their female inmates out of the way +whenever he approached.</p> +<p>The squire was not slow to discover these changes, and all the +pride of his nature, that pride which loved ambition and power, +which demanded implicit obedience, and loved to sway the sceptre +of power, had aroused him within; determined to subdue the +glaring insolence, as he deemed it, of his neighbours. +Never deficient in penetration, he was not long in discovering +this change in the bearings of his tenants and neighbours, which +to a mind like his, proud, fond of domineering, and being looked +up to as the superior—the grand central luminary of his +sphere, round which all others moved as silent and respectful +satellites—was a very hell.</p> +<p>The minds of men, however, are not to be overruled, and with a +wisdom rare as effective, he immediately resolved, as the only +mode of re-establishing his credit and happiness, to retrace his +steps—to which end he sent for his daughters home, at a +time when his son was about to return from Oxford—and thus, +by the presence of his children, place a restrictive guard upon +his future conduct. With this change in his ideas, it will +be no wonder that Twm Shon Catty was again taken into favour, and +replaced in his former situation.</p> +<p>At length the merry bells of Tregaron announced the arrival of +the heir, and the young ladies of Graspacre Hall, which mansion +soon became a scene of festivity. The meeting of the squire +with his daughters was ardently affectionate; but his son +Marmaduke had nothing of cordiality in his nature. His +figure was tall and thin, with loose joints and ill-knit bones, +while his countenance indicated both phlegm, and a fidgetty, +nervous peevishness. He bore the marks of late and <a +name="page127"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 127</span>dissipated +hours upon his countenance. His face was sallow, and his +eyes sunken; he had the unmistakable air and <i>tout ensemble</i> +of a rouè and a libertine.</p> +<p>He was by no means prepossessing, whilst his pride and +self-sufficiency made him an object of dislike to all who +approached him. He scrupled not to say openly that he hated +Wales and Welshmen. He condescended, however, to say, that +until he could get a clever English servant, in the place of the +last, who ran away from him, he must put up with one of the Welsh +savages. Accordingly, our hero was appointed to be his +temporary valet, and ordered to attend exclusively on the young +squire.</p> +<p>With the ladies came their aunt, the squire’s younger +sister, a very affected fantastical spinster from Exeter; who +gave every fashion its Devonshire latitude in her conformation to +it, carrying the mode to an extreme that left London absurdity +far in the back-ground. The Misses Graspacre were neither +imitators nor very ardent admirers of their aunt, whose silly +affectation of excessive delicacy became their standing-point of +ridicule, which they put in practice on the evening of their +arrival.</p> +<p>The hearty girls wanted something substantial for their +supper, after travelling their long journey; but their aunt +intimated her desire to have something that would be light upon +the stomach. The poet expresses the old lady’s +opinion when he wrote in homely phrases:—</p> +<blockquote><p>Sup on dainty calf-foot jelly,<br /> +Never sleep with well-filled belly;<br /> +Sup upon the lightest food,<br /> +Rice; or anything that’s good.<br /> +Mind you never eat cold meat!<br /> +If you’d sleep, that is no treat!<br /> +The nightmare black you’ll have, be sure!<br /> +But suppers light are just the cure.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>But great was the aunt’s dismay on finding a duck and +green peas brought to the table. She resolved, however, +even on this fare, to show her superior Devonshire <a +name="page128"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 128</span>breeding; +and while the young ladies lifted their peas from their plates to +their mouths in half-dozens or more at a time, she, delicate +soul, cut every pea in four, and swallowed a quarter at a +time!</p> +<p>Another circumstance of note happened at this supper, which, +as it relates to our hero, must be told. It seems that +during Twm’s disgrace, and consequent absence from the +hall, the servants there indulged themselves in making remarks on +his conduct, and its probable consequence. This discussion +displayed their various dispositions. Some spoke of him +with charity, and dwelt upon his rare qualities of good nature +and cheerfulness; while others took a malignant pleasure in +speaking of his satirical and mischievous propensities. +Among the latter was the cook. Twm, on his return, heard of +her <i>kindness</i>, and determined to take the first opportunity +of showing his sense of the obligations she had laid him +under. On the removal of the remains of the duck and its +accompaniments, the company having just been helped round with +tart or pie, their attention was suddenly arrested by the voice +of Twm in the passage, who loudly sung the following +distich:—</p> +<blockquote><p>“Apple pie is very rich,<br /> + And so is venison pasty;<br /> +But then our cook has got the itch,<br /> + And that is very nasty.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Ye gods! what sounds for ears polite! The young ladies +laughed immoderately on perceiving the distress of their aunt, +who showed a wry-faced consciousness of having partaken food +prepared by unclean hands; her countenance underwent various +contortions, and she mentally thought of the old proverb about +the obligatory rule set down upon each member of humanity, that +we must all eat a peck of dirt in our lifetime, but she devoutly +hoped that all her share was not to be eaten at one meal. +Those awful thoughts had a tragic ending, for they terminated in +the grand climax of a shriek and a fit. The squire’s +anger was instantly kindled against Twm, probably from an +unquenched spark <a name="page129"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +129</span>of his former resentment, which he evinced by telling +his son to “give that rascal a good thrashing.”</p> +<p>Proud of his commission, out ran Marmaduke; and finding Twm in +the hall, ran up and struck him a blow in the face; but great was +the amazement of the servants to see the young man turn upon him +like a lion, and with the most dexterous management of his fists +overpowering their young master in an instant, whom he left +groaning with pain, and covered with bruises, and then made a +precipitate retreat.</p> +<p>While walking to Tregaron, it occurred to Twm, that for that +night at least, he should be favoured with a lodging by his +constant friend, Rhys, the curate. Thither he went, and +found the worthy man by the parlour fire, with a book in his +hand, and papers before him, busily employed in preparing for the +press a new edition of his Welsh Grammar. He was received +by him with his usual kindness; and when Twm told him his tale, +with the important addition that he must leave his native place +for ever, and that immediately, he showed the goodness of his +heart by assuring him of a retreat for the present, and a little +pecuniary aid on his departure. He however gave him a +friendly lecture on the impropriety of his conduct; observing +that if he must be satirical, he ought to choose the subject for +his lash from the famous among the great and wealthy, and not the +puny and defenceless, to attack whom, he said, evinced a paltry +and most dastardly spirit; concluding with the pithy injunction, +“while you live, whatever your state while on earth, act +the generous and manly part; and never, never, either manually, +or with the lash of satire, war with the weak.”</p> +<p>These words formed in a great measure the leading rule in +Twm’s after life. He never forgot them, and all the +more because they came from the lips of one whom he revered and +loved; and however reprehensible the after vagaries of +Twm’s life may have been, their harsher features were +considerably modified by the remembrance of the words, “War +not against the <a name="page130"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +130</span>weak!” Our hero was heartily pleased with +his preceptor, inasmuch, that amidst all his observations and +lectures he imputed to him but slight blame for his retaliation +on young Graspacre; but when he vowed further vengeance, should +he ever meet him alone in the mountains remonstrated with him on +the risk he ran, urged the necessity of self-preservation, and +advised him not to endanger himself needlessly.</p> +<p>The next morning Rhys assured Twm that he had reflected on the +peculiarity of his case, and found it by no means so bad as he +had imagined. “As to leaving this place,” said +he, “I see no necessity; merely keep out of the way awhile, +and in due time make your submissions to the squire; as he is by +no means a hard man, I have no doubt but all will speedily be +well again.” Twm adopted this idea, though he +ill-stomached the thought of submission, or of asking pardon for +an act of manliness which he would on a similar case of +aggravation repeat.</p> +<p>Thus matters rested for the present; and in the dusk of the +evening he crossed the hills towards Cadwgan’s, and soon +had the grateful satisfaction of seeing once more his beauteous +mistress, sitting by her father before a cheerful fire. Her +mild kind face was unusually pale, but brightened on his +approach; and when he related his new mishap, and that he thought +of immediately quitting the country in consequence, her cheek +assumed an ashy paleness, and she nearly fainted in her +father’s arms. Cadwgan dissuaded him from the thought +of quitting his native place for such a trifle, and advised him +by all means to follow up the worthy curate’s suggestion; +and when the fair Gwenny repeated her father’s wishes as +her own, Twm at once acquiesced, and resolved not to quit.</p> +<p>Thus time passed on pleasantly, for some days, when our hero +said he longed exceedingly for a day’s coursing on the +neighbouring mountains. Cadwgan remarked that the squire +had shown no desire to pursue him, as he had heard at Tregaron +and he conceived <a name="page131"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +131</span>there would be no danger; and so in accordance with his +opinion, he lent him his dog and gun, both great favourites, and +never before entrusted to any one breathing. He advised him +to confine his excursion to a certain remote hill called Twyn Du +(<i>Black Hill</i>) which being rugged of ascent and marshy, +seldom invited the steps of the sons of pleasure in the character +of sportsmen.</p> +<p>Thus with dog and gun, and accoutred with a shot-belt, our +hero felt himself another and superior being to what he had ever +been before, especially as Gwenny assured him that the +sportsman’s paraphernalia became him exceedingly. He +shook Cadwgan’s hand, kissed the lips of his fair mistress, +and gallantly sallied forth. Having gone a few yards, he +turned his face back to assure them, that he should return and +well loaded with game.</p> +<p>Twm enjoyed himself thoroughly. There was a complete +sense of freedom and independence in his sport which more than +pleased him; with light heart, cool head, and steady aim, he +brought down bird after bird, filling his bag, and carolling old +Welsh airs the while. He had been on Twyn Du about an hour +and a half, and in that time had killed several birds, when the +report of his gun attracted others to the spot. He could +hear several persons on the hill contiguous, and saw one well +mounted, descending into the deep dingle that, like a gulf, +yawned between the two hills, and making his way up the steep +side of Twyn Du.</p> +<p>He now felt a presentiment that this visit portended him no +good; but scorning an ignominious flight, he carelessly paced the +brow of the hill till the sportsman approached, when, to his +great amazement, who should present himself before him but his +inveterate foe, Marmaduke Graspacre. He approached Twm with +the fury of a demoniac, asking how he dared fire a gun on those +grounds, and after a few harsh words of abuse, which our hero +returned with interest, he took an aim at Cadwgan’s +pointer, and instantly shot him on the spot.</p> +<p><a name="page132"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 132</span>This +butcherly, cowardly act, aroused the indignation of our +hero. He felt his Welsh blood course madly through his +veins. The thought too, that this was Cadwgan’s dog, +his favourite pointer, the animal petted and nursed by his own +sweet Gwenny, drove Twm furious, and he was further aggravated by +the young squire demanding his gun, and laughing the while at his +distress and rage. The youth was not formed of stuff so +tame as to endure his insolent triumph. Snatching up his +loaded gun with desperate rapidity, he in a moment lodged the +contents in the head of the squire’s fine hunter, on which +his enemy sat taunting him. No sooner had Marmaduke reached +the ground, disengaged himself from his fallen horse, and stood +up, than Twm flew at him, and disregarding his threats, with his +dexterous fists inflicted the most perfect chastisement; leaving +him in a far worse predicament than after their first +encounter.</p> +<p>By this time the men who attended the young squire, hearing +the report of the guns, and fearing that their young master had +fallen in with poachers, made best of their way down across the +dingle, and up the sides of Twyn Du.</p> +<p>Roused by their shouts, Twm left his vanquished foe groaning +on the ground by the side of the dead hunter, and darting down +the opposite side he made a safe retreat. This was an +adventure which constituted the turning point of our hero’s +life. The magnitude of the consequences it involved, he +scarcely dreamt of at that moment.</p> +<h2><a name="page133"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +133</span>CHAPTER XVIII.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm"><span class="smcap">Twm</span> is +“wanted.” Hides himself in a wood. Love +takes him to Cadwgan’s house, where he is welcomed. +Parson Evans acting as “detector.” Twm escapes +in the disguise of a female. Affectionate parting with the +farmer and Gwenny.</p> +<p>No sooner was Marmaduke Graspacre taken home, and the affair +made known by him to his father, with some little exaggeration +against the assailant, such as the trifling mis-statement that +the blows inflicted on him were by the butt-end of the +fowling-piece, instead of the fist, than the squire’s +indignation was roused.</p> +<p>“As this is not the first offence, and my forbearance +has encouraged his atrocious conduct, I am now determined to make +an example of him,” said he, and immediately sent a servant +for Parson Evans, who, in the capacity of magistrate, was ordered +to take cognizance of the affair, and send constables in all +directions to arrest the culprit. This was an office that +well accorded with this malignant man; he had not the generosity +enough to forget and forgive the follies of youth; and had a +bloodhound been set upon Twm’s track, he would not have +scented him out with more pleasure than Parson Evans.</p> +<p>The hue and cry instantly was raised and spread abroad, and +excited as great a commotion throughout the country as if a +convicted murderer were chased through the land. All +Twm’s haunts were searched, especially his mother’s +and farmer Cadwgan’s; in each of which places there was +heaviness and wailing for his misfortunes; and Parson Evans, who +went there in person, took care to assure them, that when caught, +all the world could not save him from the gallows, as he had +attempted to murder the young squire of Graspacre-Hall.</p> +<p>But with all the vigilance of his enemies, Twm’s retreat +remained undiscovered and those who were <a +name="page134"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 134</span>friendly +disposed towards him began to wonder among themselves what had +become of him. Some thought that, in a fit of despondency, +he had drowned himself; and others, that he had escaped into the +neighbouring counties of Pembroke, Carmarthen, or Brecon; or that +he had shipped himself in some vessel at Aberayon, or +Aberystwyth, and got off in safety. The constables, +however, had visited each of these places, and at length returned +without any further intelligence than that their journey had been +in vain.</p> +<p>While the search was most hot, our hero concealed himself in a +small patch of marshy underwood, a spot on which the keen eye of +suspicion never glanced, his pursuers having passed the edge of +it many times without a thought occurring of seeking him +there. In this retreat he fed himself on nuts and +blackberries, and in the night roved about for recreation, but +returned to his green-wood shelter before day-light. Even +here, Twm’s love of mischief was as prominent as ever.</p> +<p>One night, while the moon gave a good light, he found a large +deep hole, close by his retreat. Knowing that his pursuers +would very probably pass that way shortly, he covered over the +opening with sticks and a thin layer of earth and leaves. +Presently came Parson Evans, who had separated himself from the +rest of the searchers, and coming to the trap, immediately sunk +over-head, to the depth of twelve feet, giving a wild and very +unparsonic yell as he descended. He bawled loudly for help, +but Twm bounded from his retreat, and shouting down the hole, +“Ha! ha! Evans the fox is trapped at last,” +made best of his way to another part of the forest.</p> +<p>His concealment and life in the woods continued four days, +when, exceedingly tired of his solitude, he one midnight ventured +to Cadwgan’s door, and both surprised and gratified the +farmer and his kinder daughter, when they heard the lost +one’s voice once more. They rose and let him in +immediately, made a fire, gave every necessary refreshment, and +then persuaded him to go to bed.</p> +<p><a name="page135"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 135</span>Twm +remained hidden here a week, when suspicion fixed upon +Cadwgan’s house, although searched before, as the probable +place of concealment. One day, Gwenny ran in a fright to +tell her father to conceal Twm immediately, as the constables, +headed by Parson Evans, were coming. Twm started up and +said, “Bolt the door for ten minutes, and I shall be +safe.” Gwenny replied that they could not be there in +that time, as they were then descending the opposite side of the +Cwm, which was three long fields off, and that they approached +slowly, with fox-like cunning, so as to excite no suspicion of +their purpose.</p> +<p>With that, at Twm’s request, they both went up stairs +with him, for a purpose which he said he was there to explain to +them, as neither of them could conceive in what manner he was +going to preserve himself. They all remained above +’till the loud summons of authority, in the raven voice of +old Evans, brought Cadwgan down, when the cleric magistrate told +him, in no gentle terms, that there was a suspicion attached to +his house, as the place where the young villain, Twm Shon Catty, +was concealed.</p> +<p>The farmer replied, “I must say this is very hard usage, +as I have no one with me but my daughter and my eldest sister, +who has come on a few weeks’ visit; but, as you are come, +you may search in welcome.” After a brief scrutiny +below, they all went up stairs, where sat, busily employed at +their needles, the fair Gwenny Cadwgan and the ingenious Twm Shon +Catty, excellently disguised in the dress of Cadwgan’s late +wife; which having been the property of a tall women fitted him +very well. His face was slightly coloured with the juice of +blackberries; beneath his chin was pinned a dowdyish cap, which +in the scant light of a small window, by the aid of a pair of +spectacles he appeared a complete old granny.</p> +<p>On the entrance of these amiable visitors, he turned his full +spectacled face on Parson Evans, muttering, in the tone of an old +woman, which he mimicked well, “lack a day! lack a day! +this is sad usage;” <a name="page136"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 136</span>then whispered Gwenny, who took the +hint, and, while they were searching, laid some hog’s lard +on different parts of the stairs, so that, on their descent, the +precious party, with their rascally leader, slipped and fell +headlong down from top to bottom, to the great amusement of those +above. On being charged with this contrivance, each denied +all knowledge of, and the quick witted Gwenny accounted for the +cause of their accident by saying that they had been carrying +butter and lard to the store, up stairs, the whole morning.</p> +<p>In addition to this, Twm emptied the contents of a certain +piece of crockery upon the devoted heads of the searchers, just +as they emerged from the doorway, and when he discovered the +splutterings and surprise manifested by the parson, shouted down +from the upper window, “Dear! dear! I thought you +lazy folk would be half a mile from the house before now. +Well well! ye’ll get a washing for nothing.” +The parson muttered something very like a curse, while the +constables “d—d” the old woman +unceremoniously.</p> +<p>They were no sooner gone than Twm assured Cadwgan that he saw +there was no safety for him except in flight, which must take +place that very night. His plan, he said, was matured, that +he had no fear but he should do well, and that his only regret +was in parting with them. He purposed, he said, to make his +way towards Carmarthenshire, or perhaps farther and seek +employment among the farmers; or, what was more agreeable to him, +he might, perhaps, get to some village where he could set up a +school; so that after saving a sum of money to begin life with, +he should return and make Gwenny his wife. With tearful +eyes Cadwgan expressed his admiration of his plan, while poor +Gwenny wept herself almost into fits, at the thought of his +perils, and sudden departure.</p> +<p>“At any rate, my boy, thou shalt not go penniless to +wander the wide world,” said Cadwgan, and put an old +pocket-book, containing several angels, and near twenty shillings +in silver, which Twm reluctantly took, <a +name="page137"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 137</span>promising +its return doubly when fortune favoured him. “I have +two favours more to ask,” said he; “the first is, +that you will make the best of my affair when you tell my poor +mother and the worthy Mr. Rhys of my flight, and my future plans +in life; and my next request is, that you will give me this old +woman’s dress, with the red cloak belonging to it, as it +will answer for a disguise should I be troubled before I get far +enough off.” Cadwgan kindly acquiesced, though he +smiled at the latter whimsical fancy. At length, thus +attired to avoid observation, with his own clothes in a bundle, +he took an affecting leave of them, and made a hasty departure +from their friendly door.</p> +<h2>CHAPTER XIX.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm"><span class="smcap">Twm</span> risks another +visit to Tregaron. Alarms his friend Watt. Danger of +betrayal by him. His cunning is more than a match for Watt, +Parson Evans, and his wife. Escapes, and with a good +booty. Disappearance of the Parson’s horse, great +coat, and cash.</p> +<p>It was a dull heavy night, in which fog and darkness contended +for precedence, and the moon gleamed as if about to retire +altogether, when Twm Shon Catty shaped his course over the +mountain, in the direction which led to Lampeter; he looked +instinctively towards his dear native town, which a fashionable +tourist would perhaps have called the most wretched village in +the universe; but, to him, it was full of sweet associations, and +recollections the most agreeable; the scene of his childhood, the +home of his mother:</p> +<blockquote><p>Dear to all their natal spot,<br /> +Although ’twere Nature’s foulest blot;<br /> +For, wherever we may roam,<br /> +There’s ne’er a place like Home, sweet Home.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>He stopped, and looked wistfully towards Tregaron; <a +name="page138"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 138</span>the lights +were glistening in their various humble casements, and he fancied +that among them all he could distinguish his +mother’s—his kind fond mother’s—whom, +perhaps, he was never to see again,—and now he recollected +many instances of her tenderness, which had long slumbered in his +recollection. His eyes filled with tears, and the softness +of his heart was put at once into mournful harmony.</p> +<p>A sudden thought, no less eccentric than daring, now took him, +that thus disguised, he might safely pass through Tregaron, and +perhaps see his mother before his departure. This idea was +no sooner started than acted upon; and, before an hour had +expired, he found himself once more in the long and almost only +street in Tregaron. He met two or three old women whom he +knew well, but there was no recognition on their part, only a +long, vacant stare of astonishment, no doubt wondering who the +stranger could be, venturing into Tregaron at that late +hour. His mother’s door was closed for the night, and +he durst not call to her, as Jack was not to be trusted. He +moved on, looking earnestly to every door. The whole street +seemed still as death, except that various snores, here and +there, reminded Twm of the sweet sleep enjoyed by others though +denied to him; while the stray villagers whom he had met were +busy locking their doors, or barring them with the wooden +sash.</p> +<p>He sauntered slowly along, meditating on the circumstance that +made him afraid to face those who knew him, till opposite to the +cottage of his old companion and elder brother in mischief, Watt +the mole-catcher. Watt had long lived with a widowed +mother, who had recently died, and now sojourned alone in her +solitary hut; it was even reported that he had forsaken all his +wicked ways, grown serious, and was consequently likely to do +well. It occurred to Twm that he had often heard Watt deny +the existence of ghosts and hobgoblins, and vaunt that nothing of +that description could in the least frighten him; and now, +thought Twm, I’ll put his courage to the trial.</p> +<p><a name="page139"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +139</span>Peeping through the casement, he saw Watt in bed, at +the farther end of the cottage, and the fire burning through the +peat heaped up to preserve it for the night, so that the white +walls within were brightened by the gleams cast on them from the +hearth. Softly lifting the latch, he opened the door, +entered, and, walking quietly towards the hearth, sat on the +three-legged stool, took up the old snoutless bellows, and began +blowing the fire with all his might. Watt awoke in extreme +terror, and seeing the figure of a tall woman in the chimney +corner, deeming it no other than his mother’s spirit, his +fright increased.</p> +<p>Trembling and almost dissolved in perspiration, he at last +burst out into a roar of “Lord have mercy on me! oh, +mother’s dear spirit, pity me!” Twm laughed +out, and ran to his bed-side to stop his roaring cries, +exclaiming, “Silence, man, ’tis I, Twm, your old +friend, Twm Shon Catty.” Watt slowly awoke to the +consciousness that his theory did not stand the test of practice, +and that this had been proven by one who had often heard him +vaunting as to his fearlessness of the supernatural.</p> +<p>Convinced of his identity, and having heard our hero’s +story, he said, “’Twere better you were at the bottom +of a river, Twm, than here, for I have been compelled, by Parson +Evans, to make an oath that if you came here, I would immediately +either send or run myself to inform him of your arrival; and I +can’t break, an oath, Twm, for anybody.”</p> +<p>“I did not think,” said our hero coolly, +“that you, who have broken so many laws, would scruple much +about breaking a forced oath; but old companionship pleads +weakly, opposed to the reward that will be given for my +apprehension; I thought, though the whole town were to turn +against me that you, Watt would have been my friend, for you have +led me into many troubles, and I never laid a jot of blame to +your charge, but took all to myself, and have often suffered on +your account.”</p> +<p><a name="page140"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 140</span>Watt, +who by this time had nearly dressed himself, was much affected by +this appeal, and said, “No, Twm, I will never betray you, +but, if I were known in the least to favour you it would ruin all +my hopes of success in life. I am, next week, to be married +to Betsy Gwevelheer, <a name="citation140"></a><a +href="#footnote140" class="citation">[140]</a> Parson +Evan’s maid that I have courted these ten years; and the +parson has promised to do great things at the bidding: and more +than that, I am to be the parish clerk and grave-digger when old +Morgan Meredith dies, and he can’t live long, as I have +made him a present of a good church-yard cough, by breaking a +hole in the thatch over his bed, by which he has gained a great +hoarseness, and nearly lost his voice; so that I expect to be +called in to officiate for him next Sunday.”</p> +<p>“I see you are still my friend,” said Twm, who had +been lost in a reverie during part of Watt’s remarks, +“and I give you joy of your fair prospects, which I would +not destroy on any account; you shall serve me, and, at the same +time keep your oath. You know my talent at mimicry, and see +how well this dress becomes me; aye, I become the dress equally +as you shall see. Had I not already disclosed myself, I +could have discoursed to you a whole hour at mid-day, fearless of +a discovery; but let us see how this cloak becomes you, +Watt.” With that he took off the cloak and put it on +Watt, and, after a little jesting on the subject, Twm suddenly +exclaimed, “Only sit down here with the cloak on your +shoulders for ten minutes, while I step out, and, with the +assistance of my bundle, I will astonish you with my +transformation.”</p> +<p>All this was uttered with the gay rapidity of an anticipated +freak, and Watt taken by surprise, immediately acquiesced, +without knowing what he was about. Twm ran immediately to +the Rectory House, and making a great clatter, roused Parson +Evans, who opened the window and asked what was the matter; when, +assuming Watt’s voice, he said hastily, “Mister +Evans! Mister Evans! Twm Shon Catty is now in my +cottage, <a name="page141"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +141</span>dressed in a cloak, and sitting at the fire. You +had best be quick and secure him. He wanted me not to +betray him, but I could not break my oath, you know; so pray you, +Parson, make haste if you would have your desire.”</p> +<p>Delighted with this intelligence, Evans awakened the whole +house, especially two strapping fellows, whom he called his +bull-dogs, sometimes employing them as husbandry servants, at +others, on account of their large size, and muscular power, as +constables. Both these fellows were first sent to saddle +his horse, in case he should have to take Twm to Cardigan +gaol,—and then to attend him to Watt’s cottage, where +the trio soon went.</p> +<p>Peeping through the casement, Evans discovered a tall figure +wrapped in a cloak, as described. “There he is sure +enough,” quoth he in a whisper; “now get your cords +ready for binding his hands, and stay here till I call you in; be +sure that you watch the door well.” With that he +lifted the latch and went in. Watt, who, in the interim of +our hero’s absence, had made up a good fire, now stood up, +and, as he saw the clerical magistrate before him, exclaimed, +“Well done, Twm, my boy! I now give you credit; well, +well, well, this is indeed strange; a wonderful disguise; you +look the old rascal to the life; if you had not told me +before-hand of your intended transformation, I could have sworn +you were old Evans himself; you look now just as he did when he +promised to make me parish clerk.”</p> +<p>Evans remained petrified with astonishment till the last words +were uttered, when he replied, “Parish devil! you infernal +scoundrel, have you roused me out of my bed at midnight to hoax +and insult me in this manner? but you shall dearly repent your +insolence.”</p> +<p>Watt stared with wonder, and replied, “Well, well, +well! I never did hear such a thing in my life; you have +just the old villain’s voice and swaggering way; I wish I +may die if you don’t so frighten me; and I <a +name="page142"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 142</span>could +almost swear the spiteful old Evans himself stood before me; hang +him, I hate his very looks, and I am only holding a candle to the +devil, in hopes of the parish clerkship, by seeming so civil to +him.” Evans thought him certainly either mad or +drunk; and without any further explanation, he called the two men +in, and ordered them to secure him. The light at length +broke in on Watt’s mind; Twm’s trick on him, and the +real state of the case appeared; and he struggled hard before the +fellows could secure him.</p> +<p>At length he cleared up his confused and chagrined +countenance, and said, in an undaunted tone, “Well, well, +well, I see the worst; farewell to mole-catching; farewell to +parish-clerkship, and Bessy Gwevelheer; and you, you evil-minded +old scourge, may bid farewell to all hopes of having me to father +your brat, of which your maid Bessy is big. I will make the +country ring with the stories of your rascalities if you dare to +send me to the round house; but if you liberate me at once, I +shall leave Tregaron for ever, in the course of a few days, and +go abroad, to see the world and seek my fortune.”</p> +<p>To the great surprise of the men, and, perhaps, of Watt +himself, Evans seemed cowed by his threats, and, after a little +show of parleying, gave him that freedom of which he had no right +to deprive him. Leaving him alone in his cottage, he +shuffled home, accompanied by his worthless followers.</p> +<p>While Watt’s cottage became the theatre of the +above-described scene, Twm Shon Catty had a performance of his +own elsewhere—a dance if you will—to which the same +reverend gentleman was doomed to pay the piper. Having +watched the party to Watt’s door, Twm hastened to the +parson’s, calling loudly in the assumed voice of one of the +fellows who accompanied, “Mistress Evans! Mistress +Evans! make haste and send master his pocket-book with his money, +immediately; Twm Shon Catty is taken, and we are going off with +him to Cardigan gaol.”</p> +<p>Mrs. Evans sleeping in a front room, heard him <a +name="page143"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 143</span>instantly, +and with unusual alacrity jumped off bed; she soon threw down the +pocket-book, which was caught by Twm, and asked him, +“Doesn’t he want his weather-proof great coat +also?” Our hero replied, “Yes, but, dear me, I +did forget that,” and immediately received the great coat +likewise. Mrs. Evans wishing them safe home from Cardigan, +shut the window. The saddled horse was already at the gate, +and Twm, well coated and cashed, instantly mounted and rode off, +glorying in his triumph over his old rancorous enemy. +“Here,” thought Twm, “is tangible revenge for +all the trouble and persecution this reverend gentleman has +brought upon me.” A full pocket-book, a good horse, +and a warm great coat, after all, were not bad equivalents for +Twm’s injuries. Some philosophers might consider that +outraged feelings could not be solaced in this way. But in +Twm’s case, at any rate, they were mistaken.</p> +<h2>CHAPTER XX.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm"><span class="smcap">Twm</span> is robbed by a +highwayman. His meditations. Again is despoiled by a +gipsy and a ballad-singer at Aberayon. He adopts the +musical profession at Cardigan Fair.</p> +<p>Twm took a circuitous route over the mountains towards +Lampeter, and, when he felt himself secure from pursuit, his +first thought was to change his feminine attire for his own, as +more convenient for riding, which was soon accomplished, and the +suits changed places in the bundle. In his ignorance of the +world, he scarce knew whither to direct his course after reaching +Lampeter, where he arrived between one and two o’clock in +the morning. He recollected that this was a central place, +from which different roads led to Aberystwith, Llandovery, +Carmarthen, Aberayon, and Cardigan; but found a difficulty in +deciding which way to take.</p> +<p><a name="page144"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 144</span>It +suddenly occurred to him that there was a fair at Cardigan the +next day, and he determined to go there and sell the +parson’s horse. The whole town being wrapped in +slumbers, he was now at a stand, not knowing the road which led +through Aberayon to Cardigan; but, rousing a cottager, he soon +gained the necessary information, and proceeded on.</p> +<p>As he approached Aberayon, for the first time in his life, the +distant roaring of the sea struck upon his ear, still increasing +as he neared the ocean side. Wonder, awe, and even terror, +were the successive sensations that agitated our hero. The +saddening sobs of the mighty waters as they retreated from the +shore, and the fearful fury of their rallying and re-assaulting +the repulsing beach, with their successive wailing retreats, to +gather the powers of the advancing tide, came on his soul like an +accusing spirit that seemed to reproach him for his late +misdeeds.</p> +<p>Severe self-accusing reflection on the atrocity of his last +act, succeeded the triumphs of enmity that had first given a gust +to its perpetration. Consciousness of guilt and terror of +punishment at once assailed him, for he was yet young in +crime. On the impulse of the moment, he determined to leave +the parson’s nag behind him, and then return his cash and +coat as early as possible.</p> +<p>While these bitter agitations were racking his breast, the +clatter of a galloping horse increased his terrors, and he +discerned both horse and rider making briskly towards him. +Strange as it may appear, notwithstanding the opposite quarter +from where the danger proceeded, in the wildness of his +apprehensions he conceived it could be no other than Squire +Graspacre, Parson Evans, and their party. He was actually +glad when made to understand that the horseman was a +highwayman. His unwelcome assailant quickly approached him +and presenting his pistol, with a loud oath, to oblige “Dio +the Devil” with all his cash and valuables, or prepare for +immediate death.</p> +<p>The name of this terrific freebooter, who had, <a +name="page145"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 145</span>among many +other descriptions of persons, robbed half the farmers in the +country, and was supposed to have committed more than one murder, +had its full effect upon Twm. He instantly resigned the +parson’s purse, assuring him it was all he possessed and +begged that he would allow him to retain a single angel; these +terms, the robber, in a manner, acceded to, doubling his quest by +giving two; but in return insisted on having his horse and great +coat, which Twm gave up. Dio (whose name, by the way, is a +familiar diminutive of David,) then with sarcastic politeness +wished him good morning, and a pleasant journey! and galloped off +in the direction of Lampeter, having the rein of the +parson’s horse over his left arm.</p> +<p>No sooner had the highwaymen disappeared, than Twm was struck +with a full conviction of the folly of the fears he had +entertained, which by depressing his mind, he thought, led to +confusedly yielding his property too easily: vowing to himself, +after some reflection, that if possessed of a pair of pistols, no +highwayman in the world should make him stand. His thoughts +taking their course through this channel, wandered and diverged, +till his mind rested on new, but perilous prospects.</p> +<p>“What a life,” thought he, “this Dio the +Devil leads—a gentleman of the road—the terror of +wealthy scoundrels, who are themselves the scourge of the hapless +poor, that are starved into crime—famed, feared, and mained +at the general cost, while many an honest fool toils like the +gulled drudge-horse, crawls through the world half-starved, and +is despised for meanness!” The weight and magnitude +of his reflections were such as for a few moments to reduce him +to absolute silence, when recovering himself, he continued, +“What does it matter to me what others do? I shall +please myself, and I don’t like hard work, nor do I care +for coarse fare, and still less for great folk’s abuse and +buffets; and if I had a pistol, why, I shouldn’t mind +if—”</p> +<p>At this moment a countryman was about to pass <a +name="page146"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 146</span>him on the +road, in whose hand he recognized his bundle, containing his +feminine attire, which in his terror he had dropped, and it +rolled from the side of the road, it seems, into the ditch, +previous to the halt of the highwayman. Twm immediately +claimed his property, but the fellow seemed disinclined to attend +to him, until vehemently insisting on his right, he evinced an +inclination to battle with him; when satisfied with this very +convincing sort of logic, the clown made restitution.</p> +<p>His little affray with the would-be-dishonest countryman, had +not obliterated the thought of our hero with respect to +highwaymen, and their independent style of existence, and with +his mind still occupied, with the gentlemen of the road, he came +to a small public-house near Aberayon, but which was so +inconveniently crowded that he could scarce find a seat.</p> +<p>With the exception of two or three fishermen and other +seafarers, these were people who made a temporary halt on their +way to Cardigan fair; low booth-keepers, fruit and gingerbread +sellers, and suchlike. Twm called for beer and refreshment, +and while eating, observed the habits of these strange people +with much curiosity. He had contrived to squeeze himself +into a window-seat between two females who sat apart and civilly +made room for him, and pressed his acceptance of the place.</p> +<p>Twm was delighted with his new position, and he was not a +little surprised with the contrast which the kindness and +affability of his fair companions offered to the rude gestures +and uncouth speech of the remainder of the party. He did +not think worse of them when he discovered that one was a gipsy +fortune-teller, and the other a ballad-singer. He could not +do less, he thought, than ask them to partake of his cup, and +they found themselves bound in honour, in their great devotion to +his health, to return it empty each time he handed it to them +full.</p> +<p>Such gallantry on the one hand, and confidence and affability +on the other, begot a sudden friendship <a +name="page147"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 147</span>between +them; the gipsy insisting upon telling his fortune gratis, and +the ballad-singer on the acceptance of two or three favourite +songs; while Twm reciprocating in the warmest style, their +affectionate attentions, ordered indefinite supplies of +“nut-brown,” on which he and his fair ones regaled to +their hearts’ content.</p> +<p>While Twm was busily employed in looking over the bundle of +ballads, among which he met many old friends, which he had +frequently sung, one of the friendly nymphs was beckoned to, by a +man at the opposite end of the kitchen, with whom they went out, +and the gipsy soon followed them.</p> +<p>Our hero having selected the songs that pleased him, waited +impatiently the return of the damsels. No sign of their +re-appearance being visible, and all the fair people having left +one by one, until Twm found himself quite alone, he inquired of +the landlord if he knew where the young women had gone to. +He said he did not, but that the whole party having paid him were +gone off, and he had no further business with them.</p> +<p>Twm thought the ballad-singer a singular good-natured young +woman, as she had left her bundles of melody with him, doubtless +as a present, and merely taken herself away thus modestly, +instead of ostentatiously proclaiming her gift, and receiving his +thanks. His opinion was slightly changed, when wishful to +pay the landlord, he found he had not a halfpenny in his +pocket. His vexation and confusion were evident to mine +host, who declared that his face was turned as white as the +wall. Having searched every pocket over and over, at length +the doleful tale came out that he had lost his money, and could +not tell how.</p> +<p>“Why, as to that,” said the landlord, with bitter +coolness, “if it is any satisfaction to know <i>how</i> you +lost your money, I can tell you; it was by sitting between two +thieves—a gipsy and a ballad-singer and what could you +expect else from mixing with <a name="page148"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 148</span>such cattle?” Poor Twm +remained silent, in a miserable mood, with his elbows resting on +the table, and with his temples in the palms of his hands, for a +full half hour; when the landlord disturbed his meditations by +asking payment for his fare; good-naturedly adding, “If you +have no money, I don’t wish to be hard with you, you can +merely leave your jacket with me instead.” “My +jacket!” quoth he indignantly; “why that is ten times +the value of what I owe you.” “That’s +just as people think; but those are my terms, and you should be +glad that I’ll take it in place of good hard cash,” +was the reply of the uncompromising old fellow. The +fishermen in the mean time passed on him their rough and scurvy +jokes, one observing, “You can sing ballads without a +jacket, so I advise you to go to the fair at Cardigan, where you +may perhaps meet your old friends.”</p> +<p>Twm was too despondent to be much effected by these feeble +attempts at wit, but he determined to accept the suggestion of +the last speaker, and make his first appearance as a public +vocalist in Cardigan, so without more ado he took off his jacket +and gave it to the host, muttering a curse on his cruelty, and +commenced his journey. The dress of Cadwgan’s wife +was again put on, not only as a fit disguise for his minstrel +vocation, but a more perfect guard against the weather than his +own, since deprived of his upper-garment; and thus equipped he +once more took to the road, his late experience having completely +sobered him, and left him depressed in spirits, as he glanced at +the scene in which he had been thoroughly victimized.</p> +<h2><a name="page149"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +149</span>CHAPTER XXI.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm"><span class="smcap">Twm’s</span> +appearance as a “fair” ballad singer at +Cardigan. A sudden alarm. Poor Parson Inco. +Twm’s hasty flight.</p> +<p>“The longest lane has a turning,” and the weariest +journey has an end, and at length Twm found himself in Cardigan, +and prepared himself at once to commence his whimsical +vocation. Although naturally bold, and more full of +confidence than beseemed the modesty of youth, it was not without +considerable efforts in struggling with some remains of +diffidence that he at length ventured to sing in the public +street; but he had fortified himself with a draught of strong +beer, and his voice, in his own opinion, being almost unequalled +in the country, he thought it foolish to hesitate. He fixed +himself in rather an obscure part of the fair; but his musical +voice and humorous execution of a comic song soon drew a crowd +about him, and put his ballads in speedy request.</p> +<p>Adapting the usual gait and manner of street-vocalists, +holding his hand to his mouth to secure increased power, he +introduced each song with a whimsical description of its matter, +in a strain of drollery that set the grinning rustics in high +glee; “Here, my merry men and maidens,” quoth he, +“is a pretty song about a young damsel, who was taken in by +a false lover, that courted her for what he could get, and having +wheedled her out of her heart and money, ran away and left her to +wear the willow.”</p> +<blockquote><p style="text-align: center">THE SLIGHTED +MAID’S LAMENT. <a name="citation149"></a><a +href="#footnote149" class="citation">[149]</a></p> +<p>In comfort and in credit,<br /> + By the side of Pen-y-vole<br /> +I lived:—all knew and said it,<br /> + None could my will control;<br /> +<a name="page150"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 150</span>Until a +worthless lover<br /> + Did try my heart to move:<br /> +Ah, soon my joys were over!<br /> + I listened to his love.</p> +<p>From far he travelled to me,<br /> + Full many and many a night,<br /> +I thought he came to woo me—<br /> + My heart was all delight:<br /> +My cash he thought of gaining,<br /> + It was not me he sought,<br /> +E’er mourning and complaining<br /> + For clothes—and clothes I bought.</p> +<p>A pair of shoes I placed him<br /> + Between his soles and ground,<br /> +With stockings then I graced him,<br /> + With hat his head I crown’d;<br /> +Red garters then I bought him,<br /> + At fair the best I saw,<br /> +To bind his hose, od rod him!<br /> + Instead of bands of straw.</p> +<p>I bought him leather breeches<br /> + Strong as a barley sack,<br /> +And laid out half my riches<br /> + To clothe the beggar’s back;<br /> +I gave him money willing,<br /> + (Vexation now upbraids!)<br /> +With which the thankless villain<br /> + Soon treated other maids.</p> +<p>When thus he had bereft me<br /> + Of cash, and ah, my heart!<br /> +The cruel rover left me,<br /> + It grieved me then to part;<br /> +Those clothes will rend in tatters,<br /> + They cannot last him long:<br /> +A curse attends such matters,<br /> + False lovers curse is strong!</p> +<p>His coat will rend in creases,<br /> + His stockings break in holes,<br /> +His breeches go to pieces,<br /> + His shoes part from their soles;<br /> +His hair, like garden carrot,<br /> + Full soon will want a hat;<br /> +How soon, indeed I care not,—<br /> + The devil care for that!</p> +</blockquote> +<p><a name="page151"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 151</span>His +listeners appreciated his first song so much that all his copies +were soon disposed of; so he selected another, before singing +which he said: “Now this, my friends, is about a Welsh boy, +who was so foolish as to leave old Cymry and go to London, from +which place, I warrant you, he would have been glad enough to +return, as they have neither leeks, cheese, nor flummery, nor +anything else there fit for a Christian people.”</p> +<blockquote><p><span class="smcap">When</span> a wild rural Welsh +boy I ran o’er the hills,<br /> +And sprang o’er the hedges, the gates, brooks, and +rills,<br /> +The high oak I climb’d for the nest of the kite,<br /> +And plung’d in the river with ardent delight!<br /> +Ah, who then so cheerful, so happy as me,<br /> +As I skipp’d through the woodlands and meads of +Brandee?</p> +<p>How oft have I wander’d through swamp, hedge, or +brake,<br /> +While fearful of nought but the never-seen snake,<br /> +And gather’d brown nuts from the copses around,<br /> +While ev’ry bush echoed with harmony’s sound!<br /> +Oh, gladness then thrill’d me! I bounded as free<br +/> +As a hart o’er the lawn through the meads of Brandee.</p> +<p>Whenever I wander’d to some neighb’ring farm,<br +/> +How kindly was tendered the new milk so warm,<br /> +O’er her best loaf as butter-or-honey she’d +spread,<br /> +The farm wife so friendly would stroke my white head,<br /> +And sure that she shortly again would see me<br /> +Whenever my rambles led forth from Brandee.</p> +<p>How oft have I run with my strawberry wreath<br /> +To rosy young Gwenny of fair Llwyn-y-neath,<br /> +And help’d her to drive the white sheep to the pen!<br /> +Oh! still I think how joyously sung little Gwen!<br /> +The old folks, oft chuckling, vow’d sweet-hearts were +we,<br /> +Then Llwyn-y-neath maiden and boy of Brandee.</p> +<p>At the fair of Devynnock, o’ertaken by night,<br /> +Returning, I’ve dreaded the corpse-candle light,<br /> +The wandering spirit, the hobgoblin fell,<br /> +Of which cottage hen-wives so fearfully tell:<br /> +I’ve ran, with my eyes shut, ghosts dreading to see,<br /> +Prayed, whistled, or sang as I flew to Brandee.</p> +<p>Pleasure and innocence hand in hand went,<br /> +My deeds ever blameless, my heart e’er content,<br /> +<a name="page152"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 152</span>Unknown +to ambition, and free from all care,<br /> +A stranger to sorrow, remorse, or despair;<br /> +Oh bless’d were those days! long departed from me,<br /> +Far, far’s my loved Cambria! far, far is Brandee!</p> +</blockquote> +<p>This did not take so well as the first, but Twm, now +thoroughly interested in his new vocation, commenced a fresh +ditty, which he announced as a sequel to the last.</p> +<blockquote><p style="text-align: center">ROSY GWEN.</p> +<p>Rosy Gwen, Rosy Gwen,<br /> +Beloved of maids, beloved of men:<br /> +Aye, dearly loved of grave and gay,<br /> +In youth’s early day—ah, what cheer’d me +then?<br /> + ’Twas her voice so sweet,<br +/> + Her person neat,<br /> + Her form so sleek,<br /> + Her spirit meek,<br /> +And the cherry-merry cheek of Rosy Gwen.</p> +<p>Gentle girl, gentle girl,<br /> +Coral lipp’d, with teeth of pearl,<br /> +On either cheek a vivid rose,<br /> +And raven tresses graced thy brows!<br /> +Ah, thou wert my love and playmate then!<br /> + Happy lass of smiles,<br /> + Unvers’d in wiles,<br /> + Of guileless breast—<br /> + Of minds the best.<br /> +Oh my merry-cheek’d young Rosy Gwen!</p> +<p>Years have flown, years have flown,<br /> +And Gwenny thour’t a woman grown,<br /> +While Time, that bears for most a sting,<br /> +Has fann’d thy beauties with his wing;<br /> +Yet brighter thou canst not be than when<br /> + O’er the mountain steep<br +/> + Thou drov’st thy sheep,<br +/> + And sang in glee<br /> + A child with me,<br /> +Oh my cheery-merry-cheek’d young Rosy Gwen.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>As the last was but tolerated, the singer soon found that a +merry strain was most congenial to their fancies. He +therefore gave them the old and popular duet of <a +name="page153"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 153</span>“Hob +y deri dando,” rendered more comical by his singing +alternately shrill and gruff, for male and female’s +parts.</p> +<blockquote><p style="text-align: center">HOB Y DERI DANDO. <a +name="citation153"></a><a href="#footnote153" +class="citation">[153]</a></p> +<p><i>Ivor</i>. The summer storm is on the mountain,<br /> +Hob y deri dando, my sweet maid!</p> +<p><i>Gweno</i>. And foul the stream, though bright the +fountain,<br /> +Hob y deri dando for the shade.</p> +<p><i>Ivor</i>. Let my mantle love protect thee,<br /> +Gentle Gweno dear;</p> +<p><i>Gweno</i>. Ivor kind will ne’er neglect me<br +/> +Faithful far and near;</p> +<p><i>Both</i>. Through life the hue of first love true,<br +/> +Will never never fade.</p> +<div class="gapspace"> </div> +<p><i>Ivor</i>. Thus may the frowns of life pass over,<br +/> +Happy then our lot,</p> +<p><i>Gweno</i>. And the smile of peace be bright as +ever<br /> +In our humble cot!</p> +<p><i>Both</i>. Through life the hue of first love true<br +/> +Will never never fade!</p> +<p><i>Ivor</i>. The rain is past, the clouds are gone +too,<br /> +Hob y deri dando, far they spread;</p> +<p><i>Gweno</i>. The lark is up, and bright the sun too,<br +/> +Hob y deri dando, on the mead!</p> +</blockquote> +<p>He sang the last three tunes, and sold a dozen copies; but +just as he was going to favour his audience with <i>Nos +Galan</i>, the malignant face of Parson Evans presented itself +before him.</p> +<p>As our hero wore petticoats, many gallant swains offered their +treats of cake and ale, some of which was accepted; and presuming +on that circumstance, they amusingly put in their claims to +further notice, and seemed inclined to quarrel, as for a +sweetheart.</p> +<p>With this phalanx of protectors, beaus, and chaperons, Twm +resolved to employ them in a new scheme of vengeance on the +unpopular parson. “You see <a +name="page154"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 154</span>that old +fellow in black,” said he, directing their attention to him +as he passed, “he is a bumbailiff, and the greatest villain +in all the country I come from; and at this very moment, +I’ll be bound for it, he is hunting out some poor fellow to +put him in prison. He wanted to be a lover of mine, but +only intended to ruinate me; but if he had loved me ever so much +I would not have had him, if his old yellow skin was stuffed with +diamonds. The villainous old catchpole! it was owing to +refusing him for a sweetheart, that he grew as spiteful as a +snake, and by telling a parcel of falsehoods he got me turned out +of my place without a character, so that I am now brought to +this—to sing ballads in the streets.”</p> +<p>Here, assuming a whimpering tone, Twm was compelled to smother +a fit of laughter, which emotion was taken for sobbing, and +consequently drew much on the sympathy of those now addressed! +but suddenly withdrawing the apron that veiled the features, he +exclaimed, with the vehemence of a young termagant, +“I’d give the world to see that old fellow tossed in +a blanket!” Mark Antony’s effort of eloquence +to rouse the Roman citizens to avenge the death of Cæsar, +was not more effective than our hero’s appeal.</p> +<p>Every one of those swains manifested the usual predilection +for the smiles of a handsome young woman; being “full of +distempering draughts” and ripe for a freak, their zeal +became inflamed to a ferment; each felt himself the leading hero +to avenge the wrongs of the fair ballad singer, in the manner +suggested by himself.</p> +<p>One of the young men, a native of the town, and son to the +innkeeper, immediately procured a blanket, when, watching their +opportunity as the supposed bailiff passed along, one tripped up +his heels, while the rest received him in the extended blanket, +and proceeded to the work-like play of giving the Black Kite an +airing; or as Ready Rosser, a cunning clod of the party, +expressed it, playing the wind-instrument to the tune of the +Bumbailiff’s courante. The athletic <a +name="page155"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 155</span>employments +of grasping the plough-handles, as they guided it through a +stubborn soil, and the no less powerful exertions of wielding the +axe, or hedge-bill, had their due effect in nerving the brawny +arms of those youths of the farm and woodlands for this rough +exercise.</p> +<p>Drawing the extended blanket as tight as a drumhead, with +their united efforts, up they tossed, re-tossed, and received +into what threatened to be his winding-sheet, the quivering and +terribly-frightened body of the Rev. and very worshipful Inco +Evans. Whatever it might be to the parson, (and we do not +venture to assert that it was agreeable to him,) the spectator of +this singular and unexpected entertainment could not but enjoy it +for the comical revolutions of the right rev. gentleman were, to +say the least of them, very mirth-inspiring. As he flew +upward, all legs and wings, and descended in the same sprawling +style, one compared him to a cat shot from a cannon; another to a +staked toad tossed in the air; while the hapless victim of their +frolic foamed at the mouth with rage, and uncouthly floundered in +his attempt to grasp the blanket in his fall. If for a +moment he seized its edge, and shouted his threats of vengeance, +a terrific bump against the stony street loosened his hold, and +up he bounced, again like the rebounding ball, struck on the +flag-stone by the eager hand of a merry schoolboy.</p> +<p>Wearied by their arduous labours, and tempted by the shining +handful of silver which the woe-begone parson eagerly offered as +a conciliatory bribe, they at length desisted, each venting his +jest on the crest-fallen Evans, “hoping it would be a +warning not to prosecute again a poor friendless +girl.” Inco answered not; but finding himself unable +to walk, he was carried to the Inn, where he remained some days +before he was able to remount his horse.</p> +<p>The knot of swains now separated, and ran in different +directions to avoid being recognized as the perpetrators of the +“freak;” but soon met again at <a +name="page156"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 156</span>an +appointed place, where they had left our hero, between the empty +carts of the ware vendors.</p> +<p>On their arrival at the place, they searched in vain for their +enchantress, in whose service they had wrought so gallantly, but +no traces of the fair one could they find. There was a +general smelling of a trick put upon them, and consequent +“curses on all jilting jades, and biting +ballad-singers,” uttered by the unlucky clods.</p> +<p>A brilliant idea suddenly struck Ready Rosser. He had +taken off his coat and left it in the careful custody of the +injured damsel. Where was she? Could she have +disappeared? All doubts were soon removed, for on +ascertaining the precise spot where he had left her, he found her +complete feminine attire, made into a bundle and fastened to a +cart with a band of straw, left as a love-gift for him, while she +kept his as a similar token of affection; having inscribed with +chalk on the side of the cart.—“An exchange is no +robbery;” a motto in which our rustic could not see, in its +present application, any principles of justice whatever.</p> +<h2>CHAPTER XXII.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm"><span class="smcap">Escape</span> of Twm from +Cardigan. Meets an old friend. The heiress of +Maes-y-velin, a most tragical legendary ballad.</p> +<p>The addition to his wardrobe pleased Twm exactly, and he had +no qualms of conscience to prevent him from using it, for he +remembered how easily he had been despoiled of his own. Not +being fastidious about a dressing-room, Twm retired to a stable, +and soon came out fully clad in his male attire; of which a coat +only was before wanting.</p> +<p>Bent on a precipitate retreat, as the urgency of his case +demanded, he bolted down St. Mary’s Street, and soon found +himself on the turnpike road, with <a name="page157"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 157</span>the good town of Cardigan some miles +behind him. In little more than two hours he reached the +small town of Dinas Emlyn, now called New-castle-in-Emlyn, on a +romantic part of the Teivy, dividing the counties of Cardigan and +Carmarthen, and occupying its banks on each side. Entering +a small public-house, he regaled himself on the fine potent ale +for which that place has been so long famous.</p> +<p>After addressing himself steadily for a good half hour to the +pleasures of the table, he commenced a little private +conversation with himself regarding his present and future +prospects, and came to the conclusion that, on the whole, they +were not worth much. Although the most serious cogitations +on the subject might have availed little or nothing, chance very +unexpectedly decided him, and relieved his apprehensions for the +present.</p> +<p>He could hear, in the adjoining room, a pig-drover, whose +potations had not only loosened his tongue, but invested it with +unusual power, boasting of his roaring trade at Cardigan fair, +and he determined to take the same route, wherever it might lead, +and on inquiry, found he was going to Llandovery.</p> +<p>The inebriated dealer in cattle, glad of company, stretched +out his hand at once and welcomed him as a fellow +traveller. About ten o’clock that night they arrived +together at Lampeter, which Twm now visited for the second +time. The geography of the country being but little known +to him, he felt some alarm on finding himself so contiguous to +his own native place.</p> +<p>Twm and the pig-drover were getting thoroughly jolly and +comfortable over a pot of foaming ale, when Twm caught sight of +an old friend. It was worthy Rhys the curate, who had spied +him from the little parlour where he had been sitting before his +arrival, and now cordially welcomed him to partake of his supper, +which was then preparing.</p> +<p>Shaking hands with the elated pig-jobber, from whom he had +heard all the mysteries of his calling, and bidding him good +night and wishing him success <a name="page158"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 158</span>in his future dealings, Twm joyously +accepted the curate’s invitation to partake of his evening +repast. Supper dispatched, Mr. Rhys informed him that he +had left Tregaron for ever, disgusted with the treatment he had +met with from old Evans, and was on his way to Llandovery to take +possession of the curacy of Llandingad, to which he had been just +appointed by the vicar, the reverend Rhys Prichard.</p> +<p>In return, Twm recited his late adventures, colouring them in +such a manner as to create a favourable impression on the curate, +who laughed heartily at many points of his story, and finished by +saying that he had also determined to visit Llandovery in quest +of his fortune, which, somehow or another, he thought he should +find there.</p> +<p>“Well,” said he, “your fortunes are +altogether romantic, and fortitude such as yours is a virtue that +becomes us all. Whatever I can do to get you into +employment, when you are there, rest assured shall not be +wanting.” With this understanding Twm’s hopes +were buoyed up to the highest pitch, and to his sanguine mind, +became already certainties, which presented themselves in dreams +of various felicitous shapes.</p> +<p>They were both early astir the following morning, and were +soon on the road, the curate leading his horse by the bridle, +that (generous and considerate soul) he might be on a level with +Twm. They had nearly reached the top of Pen-y-garreg hill, +over which the road leads from Lampeter to Llandovery, while a +bright prospect of the newly-risen sun attracted their mutual +attention, when the clergyman thus addressed his companion:</p> +<p>“We are now on the spot to be yet immortalized, perhaps, +by the legendary muse, for a deed of blood perpetrated here in +our own times; when the banks of the impetuous Teivy, now before +us, became the scene of a lamentable tragedy. The towers in +the distance, are all that now remain of the family mansion of +<span class="smcap">Maes-y-velin</span>, the fair seat of the +ancient family of the <a name="page159"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 159</span>Vaughans, once of considerable note +in this part of the principality. Ten years ago, a young +lady and her three brothers, the last of that race, were its +possessors. The lady named Ellen, was exceedingly +beautiful, and beloved by the son of the venerable Rhys Prichard, +the present vicar of Llandovery, whose curate I am now +become.</p> +<p>“On the very place where we now stand, the young man +tied his handkerchief to the end of a rod, that he held as a +flag-staff, which was immediately seen by the heiress of +Maes-y-velin; and when she could succeed in getting her brothers +out of the way, the signal of love was answered by hoisting her +own handkerchief to a branch of a tree above the house, on which, +both ran down from their respective hills, till they stood face +to face on either side of the Teivy, when the fond lover, +whenever the stream was unfordable, dashed into the river, +crossed over, and caught the fair one in his arms. Perhaps +you would like to hear the tragical story at further length; if +so, I have employed my leisure time lately in versifying it, and +will now read it to you.”</p> +<p>Twm signifying his willing assent, they took their seats on +the side of the hill, when Rhys drew a manuscript from his pocket +and read to his attentive auditor</p> +<blockquote><p style="text-align: center">THE HEIRESS OF +MAES-Y-VELIN<br /> +<span class="smcap">and</span><br /> +<span class="smcap">The Flower of Llandovery</span>.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">What</span> is amiss with the maiden +fair,<br /> + What is the sweet one ailing?—<br /> +Why pale her cheek, and her spirits low<br /> +And why up the hill doth she daily go,<br /> + The heiress of Maes-y-velin?</p> +<p>Why are the brows of her brothers dark?<br /> + Nor mother nor sire hath Ellen;—<br /> +Her brothers whisper—her steps they watch—<br /> +The heart of her mystery eager to catch,<br /> + The maiden of Maes-y-velin.</p> +<p>The parents of Ellen her merits knew,<br /> + And frown’d on her brothers’ vices:<br +/> +<a name="page160"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 160</span>Her +brothers are disinherited,<br /> +And Ellen is heiress in either’s stead;<br /> + Thereat all the land rejoices.</p> +<p>Her brothers one day went out to hunt,<br /> + And alone at home left Ellen;<br /> +She watch’d them away, then flew to her bower,<br /> +And cried “Oh now for Llandovery’s Flower!<br /> + Right welcome to Maes-y-velin.”</p> +<p>She hoisted her silken kerchief red,<br /> + To the highest branch of her bower,<br /> +To Pen-garreg hill then strained her eyes,<br /> +And the flag of her hope was seen to rise,<br /> + ’Twas thine, oh Llandovery’s Flower!</p> +<p>Long had he watch’d—the faithful youth!<br /> + His wish each day unavailing.<br /> +At length he sees with wild delight,<br /> +His true love’s signal, the lady bright,<br /> + The heiress of Maes-y-velin.</p> +<p>The signal that was chosen between the twain,<br /> + When absent her stern proud kindred;<br /> +And then would they rush from either hill,<br /> +The lovers true, with a right good-will,<br /> + Till the waters of Teivy sunder’d.</p> +<p>Now as ers’t they rush’d, and as ers’t they +paused,<br /> + When arrived on the banks of Teivy,<br /> +They gazed at each other across the stream,<br /> +And gestured affection’s high glow supreme,<br /> + Till the two hearts grew less heavy.</p> +<p>In plung’d the youth with most anxious speed,<br /> + The flower of fair Llandovery,<br /> +The maiden trembling with wild alarms—<br /> +She brightens—she sinks in her true lover’s arms,<br +/> + Deem’d lost her past recovery.</p> +<p>Oh nature hath many warm generous glows—<br /> + But they say love’s joys are fleeting;<br /> +Most dear to her mother her new-born son,<br /> +And sweet is the fame that’s fairly won,<br /> +To the blind restor’d, oh the summer’s sun<br /> + Less sweet than the lovers meeting!</p> +<p>Sweet to the donor the generous deed,<br /> + That serves merit’s child, unweeting;<br /> +<a name="page161"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 161</span>Healing +is sweet when gashed by the sword;<br /> +To the wounded heart, the benevolent word:<br /> +Oh sweet is the breeze to the sick restored;<br /> + But sweeter true lover’s greeting.</p> +<p>Each flower that flaunts in vanity’s cap,<br /> + And sets youthful hearts a gadding,<br /> +Has its charms, its zest,—but the whole above,<br /> +Is the magical thrill of sweet woman’s love,<br /> + That drives heart and brain a madding.</p> +<p>And fondly loved this youthful pair,<br /> + The heiress of Maes-y-velin,<br /> +And he to whom they called Llandovery’s Flower;<br /> +Oh frequent their meeting and parting hour,<br /> + Their moments of joy and wailing.</p> +<p>Once when they met on Teivy’s banks,<br /> + Canopied o’er by the wild wood,<br /> +Mid fragrance of flowers that graced the shade,<br /> +The youth sung his song, of true lovers betrayed,<br /> +An ominous song—that drew tears from the maid,<br /> + For her heart was as simple as childhood.</p> +<p>“‘Oh come to the banks of the Teivy with me,<br /> +To the deep woodland glade, ’neath the shady green tree,<br +/> +Fearless of foemen, of guile, or of might,<br /> +In the face of the day and the bright eye of light,<br /> +That God and his angels may witness our troth,<br /> +That God and his angels may favour us both.</p> +<p>“‘I’ll go the green-wood,’ the lady +replied,<br /> +‘Fore God and his angels be fairly affied,<br /> +Fearless of foemen, of guile, or of might,<br /> +In the face of the day and the bright eye of light;<br /> +That God and his angels may witness our troth,<br /> +That God and his angels may favour us both.</p> +<p>“So sung a young chief to his lady love,<br /> +At the base of her tower—she answered above—<br /> +Vile vassals espied them, and flew to their lord,<br /> +The lady’s true lover soon fell ’neath his sword;<br +/> +She hurled herself headlong, fulfilling her troth,<br /> +And Death was the priest that united them both.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center">PART II.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Over</span> the hill of Pen-garreg road<br +/> + Is seen that leads from Llandovery,<br /> +<a name="page162"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +162</span>Maes-y-velin’s green hill is opposite,<br /> +The mansion below—oft on either height,<br /> + The lovers are making discovery.—</p> +<p>But envious eyes were on the watch,<br /> + And the genius of evil hover’d;<br /> +The brothers who wish’d their sister unmatch’d,<br /> +For any approach of a lover watch’d,<br /> + At length their flags discover’d.</p> +<p>They hatch’d a scheme to enmesh the youth,<br /> + And see him at length on the mountain;<br /> +His flag they answer—he runs down the hill—<br /> +Now forth rush the wretches resolved to kill,<br /> + And waste his youth heart’s warm fountain.</p> +<p>Like prey-beasts they hide on the Teivy’s banks,<br /> + In the covert of thick-leaved bushes;<br /> +The youth he dashes across the river,<br /> +And ardent to seek his fond receiver,<br /> + He seeks her form in the rushes—</p> +<p>He deems she plays him at hide and seek,<br /> + Her heart he knew was gayful—<br /> +“Oh come from thy covert, my Ellen dear?<br /> +Oh come forth and meet thy lover here!”<br /> + He cries in soft accents playful.</p> +<p>No Ellen appears—rustling steps he hears—<br /> + Perhaps some perfidious stranger;—<br /> +He quits the rushes, and steals to a copse,<br /> +But there not an instant for breathing stops,<br /> +Peril’s presentiment suddenly drops,<br /> + And he flies for his life from danger.</p> +<p>He knew not his foes, up the hill he goes,<br /> + With the speed of the hart that’s hunted:<br +/> +The brothers pursue, till fatigued they grew<br /> +To Maes-y-velin his course they knew,<br /> + And eager revenge is blunted—</p> +<p>They saw him enter—“the foe is snared!”<br +/> + Exclaimed the elder brother;<br /> +“To kill him surely be firmly prepared,<br /> +Accursed be the arm by which he is spared!<br /> + Let’s stab him, or drown, or +smother.”</p> +<p>“Let’s do him dead, and no matter how,<br /> + And our sister’s fortune is ours;<br /> +<a name="page163"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 163</span>No brats +of her’s shall supplant our hope:<br /> +Prepare we a dagger, a sack, and rope,<br /> + For brief are the stripling’s +hours.”</p> +<p>Now rush’d the youth through the mansion door,<br /> + And fell at the feet of Ellen;<br /> +Ere he could speak the brothers appear,<br /> +The maiden shrieks with terrific fear,<br /> + The heiress of Maes-y-velin.</p> +<p>She fell in a swoon, the brothers soon<br /> + Gag and proceed to bind him,<br /> +His hands they fasten’d behind his back,<br /> +And over his head they drew a sack,<br /> +They jump on his body—his rib bones crack,<br /> + Till a corpse on the ground they find him.</p> +<p>Oh God! ’twas a barbarous, bloody deed;<br /> + ’Twas piteous to hear him groaning;<br /> +A demon’s heart might relent to hear<br /> +The sobs of death, and convulsions drear—<br /> +Oh Christ! is no merciful angel near,<br /> + Call’d down by this woeful moaning!—</p> +<p>Oh murderous fiends! the eye of God<br /> + Hath flamed on this tearless murder!<br /> +They grasp at his throat to check his breath—<br /> +With knees on his breast—oh merciful death!<br /> + Thou sav’st him from anguish further.</p> +<p>And dead in the sack his body they bore,<br /> + And sunk in a pool of the Teivy;<br /> +After many days when the corpse was found,<br /> +No tongue could tell whether smother’d or drown’d,<br +/> + Or crush’d by men’s buffets heavy.</p> +<p>Thus fell in its bloom the blameless youth;<br /> + Insanity seized on Ellen,<br /> +The lovely maniac! with bosom bare,<br /> +And eyes of wildness, and streaming hair,<br /> + Roved frantic o’er Maes-y-velin.</p> +<p>She said he was thrown in the Teivy’s stream,<br /> + The flower of fair Llandovery;<br /> +She cross’d o’er the hills to his father’s +town,<br /> +And he bless’d the maid like a child of his own;<br /> + But Ellen was past recovery.</p> +<p>Rhys Prichard wept long o’er his murder’d son<br +/> + And buried the hapless Ellen;<br /> +<a name="page164"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 164</span>He +curs’d her brothers—the land of their birth—<br +/> +He curs’d their mansion, its hall and hearth,<br /> + And the curse is on Maes-y-velin.</p> +<p>Strong was the curse on the savage race,<br /> + The murderers and their kindred;<br /> +Their bosoms possess’d by the furies of hell,<br /> +Oft vented the scream, the curse, and the yell;<br /> + All men stood aloof and wonder’d.</p> +<p>They quarrell’d and stood forth in mortal strife,<br /> + Each one oppos’d to the other:<br /> +They never, oh never! are doom’d to agree,<br /> +While sharing poor Ellen’s property,<br /> + To murder their elder brother.</p> +<p>And yet the murderers still are foes,<br /> + Furious and unrelenting;<br /> +Each coveting all his sister’s share;<br /> +At length one falls in the other’s snare,<br /> + Ere yet of his crimes repenting.</p> +<p>Now lived the survivor, a man forbid,<br /> + For murder his brow had branded—<br /> +Shunn’d by all men, none bade him God speed,<br /> +But solitude work’d wild remorse for his deed,<br /> +In madness he seiz’d on a poisonous weed,<br /> + And in a suicide’s grave he landed.</p> +<p>Maes-y-velin became a deserted spot,<br /> + The roof of the mansion tumbled;<br /> +The lawns and the gardens o’er-ran with weeds,<br /> +And reptiles, vile emblems of hellish deeds,<br /> + Bred there, and the strong walls +crumbled.—</p> +<p>They crumbled to dust, and fell to the earth,<br /> + And strangers bought Maes-y-velin;<br /> +Vain, it is said, their attempts to rebuild,<br /> +Vain was their labour in garden or field.<br /> +Snakes, toads, baneful weeds alone they yield.<br /> + Not a stone to another adhering.</p> +<p>The possessors fled, and oft others came,<br /> + But all their aims unavailing;<br /> +The peasants protest that at midnight hour,<br /> +The spirit of Ellen is seen in her bower.<br /> +While on Pen-gorreg stands Llandovery’s Flower,<br /> + And shrieks burst from Maes-y-velin.</p> +</blockquote> +<p><a name="page165"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 165</span>Twm +had listened with the most earnest attention to the terrible +account, and rivetted his eyes on Maes-y-velin, the two hills, +the banks of the Teivy, and scenes now subordinate to the modern +grandeur of the new college of Lampeter; and still remaining +silent, seemed, by the force of his imagination, to bring before +his eyes the whole action of this domestic tragedy. Rhys +assured him that all the particulars of the murder, as narrated +in the ballad, were well authenticated, both by the evidence of +the unhappy young lady herself, and that of a countryman who +beheld the murderers bearing the body by night, and who +distinctly saw, as the moon shone upon them while in the act of +casting their burden into the river, the shining spurs of the +murdered youth, projecting from the end of the sack which +contained his body. But in so disorderly a state was the +country at the time, from the civil wars between the king and the +parliament, that no cognizance was taken of the atrocious +circumstance. <a name="citation165"></a><a href="#footnote165" +class="citation">[165]</a> After these remarks, they got up +from their grassy resting-place, and re-commenced their walk to +Llandovery.</p> +<h2><a name="page166"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +166</span>CHAPTER XXIII.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm">A <span class="smcap">sermon</span> on +mountains and country labourers. Twm retaliates upon Dio +the devil, with whom he returns in triumph to Llandovery. +The lady of Ystrad Feen, and Twm’s gallant service in her +behalf.</p> +<p>As they advanced on their journey, which was amongst a most +mountainous country, Twm expressed his wonder at seeing the +turf-cutters and haymakers following their avocations almost side +by side in this wild district. “Well,” cried +he, “I know that much has been said, sung and written, in +praise of mountain scenery; and where ’tis truly romantic +as well as wild, I am a great lover of it myself; but this is not +to my liking—it is too dead in its deserted appearance for +me. Here no sound salutes the ear but the lonely cry of a +few melancholy kites, hungry enough to prey upon one another; and +no object strikes the eye but the flat, tame desert, and a few +wretched cottages thinly scattered over this desolate region, +whose inhabitants are miserably employed in scooping peat from +the marsh for their fires, or cutting their bald thin crop of hay +from the unenclosed mountain—<i>the gwair rhos cwtta</i>, +or moor hay, which dispensing with the incumbrance of a cart or +sledge, the women carry home in their aprons, as the winter +maintenance of a half-starved cow. To me, there is nothing +that associates more with squalid poverty than turf fires: the +crackling faggot and the Christmas log, have their rustic +characteristics; coal has its proud and solid warmth; the +clay-and-culm fires of Cardigan and Pembrokeshire, formed of +balls, and fantastically arranged by the industrious hands of +fair maidens, are bright and durable, revealing the gay faces of +the cheerful semi-circular group—and above all, the +smokeless cleanly stone coal; but turf, smoky, ill-savoured, +ash-creating, dusty turf—recalls the marsh and moor, +rain-loaded skies, and fern-thatched cottages, <a +name="page167"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 167</span>whose +battered roofs swept by the blast, discover the rotten rafters +grinning like the bare ribs of poverty; worse than all, the +joyless faces of the toil-bowed children of the desert. The +old stanza is quite to my mind when it says—</p> +<blockquote><p>“How gay seems the valley with rich waving +wheat,<br /> +Fair hands and fair houses, with shelters so neat;<br /> +While the whole feather’d choir to delight us conspires,<br +/> +There’s nought on the mountain but turf and turf +fires.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>“And besides that,” added Twm, “I can give +you a few rhyming lines of my own, bearing in the same +direction. Here they are,</p> +<blockquote><p>Three things—to my mind each with loveliness +teems;<br /> +A vale between mountains that’s threaded by streams;<br /> +A neat white-wall’d cottage, ’mid gardens and +trees;<br /> +And a young married pair that appreciate these.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>“Well,” replied Rhys, “do not let us find +too much fault with these scenes, for the recollection of what +our mountain land has been, would induce me to kiss the sod of +its dullest region, when I remember how it became the refuge of +our war-worsted fore-fathers in the days of old, as the star of +liberty seemed to vanish for ever from our sphere.” +The curate grew warm with his subject, and his eyes kindled with +enthusiasm as he proceeded. “I could as soon twit my +beloved mother with the furrows which Time has ploughed on her +honoured brows, as censure the homeliest part of our dear +mountains, hallowed of old by the tread of freemen, when the +despot foreigner usurped the valleys.</p> +<blockquote><p> “Freedom, amid a cloudy +clime,<br /> + Erects her mountain throne sublime,<br /> + While natives of the vales and plains<br /> + Are gall’d with yokes and slavish +chains—<br /> + Then shrink we ne’er, unnerved as +bann’d<br /> +In the cloudy clime of the Mountain Land.</p> +<p> Turban’d in her folds of mist<br /> + Our Mountain Land the sky has kiss’d,<br /> + While on her brow the native wreath<br /> + Of yellow furze and purple heath<br /> + <a name="page168"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +168</span>The rural reign her vales command,<br /> +And the freeman’s sword of the Mountain Land.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Twm accepted the remarks of Rhys as rebukes, for his own +depreciatory observations on his native country, and was about to +clear himself from all suspicion of lack of nationality; when the +latter, looking up at the sun, declared the day so far advanced +that he must instantly mount his horse and ride with speed, so as +to meet the vicar of Llandovery at the place appointed; on which, +directing Twm on the route he was to take, he rode off and left +him to pursue his way at leisure.</p> +<p>Thus left alone, Twm prepared for a lengthened walk, and +pursued his way in thoughtful silence for many miles, but was at +length brought to a stand by the discovery that the way he trod +had ceased to be either a road or beaten path; and that he was +actually pacing the trackless mountain, with the disagreeable +conviction that he had gone wrong, without a clue to recover the +right way.</p> +<p>Taking a careful and critical view of the surrounding country, +he came to the conclusion that there must be a road through +<i>bwlch</i>, or gap, which he perceived dividing the mountains +at some distance. He entered it, and hastened on with the +utmost alacrity, till he came to a cottage on the road side, +opposite to which was an immense rick of turf, that at a distance +looked like a long black barn. He called at the cottage, +and asked if he was right in his route to Llandovery, +“Right!” squeaked a thin old man who met him at the +door, “God bless you young man, you could not be more +wrong, as your back is to Llandovery, and you are making straight +for Trecastle.”</p> +<p>Twm’s face indicated his deep chagrin, as he listened to +the response, and the old man seeing him vexed, asked him to walk +in and rest himself, an invitation that he gladly accepted. +“What, I suppose you thought to be at Llandovery to hear +the great preaching there to-day?” said the man’s +wife, a little <a name="page169"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +169</span>fat woman who was carding wool by the fire. +“No,” replied Twm, “I never heard of any +preaching that is to be there.” “That’s +very odd,” rejoined the old man, “as the whole +country has been crowding there to hear the good Rhys Prichard, +the great vicar of Llandovery.” “I have heard +he is very popular,” said Twm.</p> +<p>“Popular!” screamed the weazon-faced old man, as +if indignant at the coldness of our hero’s eulogy, +“he is the shining light of our times, and hardly less than +a prophet; wisely has he called his divine book the +<i>Welshman’s Candle</i>, for it blazes with exceeding +brightness, and men find their way by it from the darkness of +perdition. When it is known that his health permits him to +preach, the country hereabouts is up in swarms, to the distance +of two score miles and more. Then, the farmer forsakes his +cornfield, the chapman his shop, and every tradesman and artizan +quits his calling, to listen to the music of his discourse. +Infirmity alone has kept me from going to hear him to-day; but my +wife is no better than an infidel, and would rather listen to a +profane fiddler, or a vagrant harper, than the finest preacher +that ever breathed out a pious discourse.”</p> +<p>This was too much for any woman to listen quietly to, without +saying a word or two in reply, and his spouse assured Twm that he +was a miserable dreamer, whose brains had been turned by the +ravings of fanatical preachers; that some months ago he ran three +miles, howling, thinking he was pursued by the foul fiend, when +it turned out to be only his own shadow; and that when a patch of +the mountain furze was set on a blaze to fertilize the land, +nothing could convince him that the world was not on fire, and +the day of judgment come, till he caught an ague by hiding +himself up to the chin in the river for twelve hours.</p> +<p>“Facts are stubborn things,” and as these were +most unpleasant ones to be served up at his cost, for the +entertainment of a stranger, the old man’s reply was angry +and indignant, and the war of words seemed likely to degenerate +into one of actual blows, when <a name="page170"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 170</span>the violent galloping of a horse +drew their attention, and in an instant a steed and rider passed +the door; but suddenly checking his speed he returned, and +calling at the cottage door, asking in a tone of authority if a +lady had passed that way towards Llandovery within the last half +hour.</p> +<p>The old man, trembling as he spoke, protested that no lady had +passed for many hours; on which the bluff horseman told him as he +valued his life, that neither he nor his wife should appear on +the outside of the cottage door till he gave them leave. +The old man assured him of his entire obedience, when the fellow +quietly crossed the road, and effectually concealed himself and +horse behind the opposite turf-stack.</p> +<p>This scene had received all attention from Twm, who had +recognized in the despotic horseman, his late dearly-remembered +friend, Dio the devil. He suspected Dio’s intentions +and prepared forthwith to take part in some approaching business +in which his presence had not been reckoned upon. He asked +the timorous old cottager if he possessed such a thing as a +long-handled hedge bill-hook, to which the poor dotard, his teeth +chattering the while, replied in the negative. On searching +the cottage, with the assistance of his mistress, to his great +vexation he could find no weapon, but a blunt old hatchet, and a +rusty reaping hook.</p> +<p>While they were yet seeking, Twm’s ear, sharpened to the +utmost by the excitement and impending danger, heard another +horse approaching, his heart caught fire at the sound, and with +almost fierce vehemence he called to the people of the cottage, +“Give me some weapon in the name of God! to defend you and +myself from having our throats cut;” but it only increased +their terror and confusion.</p> +<p>As he still spoke, there stopped opposite the cottage, a lady +on a beautiful white horse, and the horseman darted forward from +behind the turf-rick, and producing pistols demanded her +money. The lady protested, in the most piteous and earnest +tone, that she had accidentally left her purse behind and must be +indebted to <a name="page171"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +171</span>a friend at Llandovery, should she fail to meet her +husband there, for some small change.</p> +<p>A momentary thrill, mysteriously strange and unaccountable, +overcame our hero, as he caught a view of the lady’s face, +and recognized one that he felt certain he had seen before; and +when, or where, he could not recollect; and the enquiring thought +was checked in its birth by the consideration of her present +danger. “I’ll not be disappointed for +nothing,” cried the ruffian, “Dio the devil is not to +be fooled, and my pretty lady of Ystrad Feen, I have depended on +a good booty from you to-day, so that unless in two minutes you +strip, and give me every article in which you are clothed, a +pistol bullet shall pass through your fair and delicate +body.”</p> +<p>The fair horseman begged for consideration, and promised a +liberal reward for any mercy shown to her. But the +scoundrel laughed scornfully in her face, and cocked his pistol, +on which she uttered a loud scream and fainted, when he +immediately approached to dismount, strip, and rifle her.</p> +<p>Our hero whose blood was boiling with honest indignation, now +started up from behind the lady’s horse, and struck the +highwayman an astounding blow on the temples, with a stout +hedge-stake grasped with both hands, and repeated that delicate +treatment till it brought the desperado senseless to the +ground. After the first terrible blow, confused as he was, +he instinctively presented his pistol at random, but Twm struck +him heavily on the extended arm, which caused it to fall like a +withered oak branch smote by the thunderbolt.</p> +<p>In a few minutes the lady began to recover under the kind and +attentive treatment of the old woman, who bathed her face with +water. How Twm was rewarded by the deeply grateful +expression on her countenance! Truly he had delivered her +from peril, but into what a difficulty had he brought +himself! He was in love; over head and ears. The fair +one appeared to be still in dread of other dangers, but Twm, in +the gentlest manner, assured her of her entire safety, and that +he would have the happiness of conducting and protecting <a +name="page172"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 172</span>her to +Llandovery, where he intended to bring the highwayman dead or +alive, and deliver him, with an account of the whole affair, to +the magistrate.</p> +<p>Poor Twm! The lady praising his courage, informed him +that she was the wife of Sir George Devereaux, and that her +husband would not allow his services to pass without pecuniary +reward. Poor Twm! in love with another man’s wife, +and that man with an aristocratic handle to his name. +“For my own part,” continued she, “as I assured +the merciless highwayman, I am at present without my purse, +having left it accidentally at the house of a poor sick person, +whom I relieved, and stayed with many hours this morning, by +which delay I have missed hearing the sermon preached to-day by +the Rev. Rhys Prichard.”</p> +<p>Twm declared he did not in the least feel himself entitled to +any reward; sufficient for him was the approval of so beautiful +and amiable a lady; but that he had another gratification in the +action he had performed, as it was his fortune to have punished +the man who had once stopped him on the highway and robbed him of +his little all. Our hero felt quite sure he had seen the +lady before, and in endeavouring to remember where, he fell into +a silent reverie; from which, however, he was suddenly roused by +the loud groaning of his wounded captive.</p> +<p>The fears of the old man had driven him beneath the rickety +old bedstead, and no threat nor offer of reward could induce him +to leave his retreat, where he lay exclaiming, “Oh Lord! oh +dear! I shall surely have my throat cut.” The +lady of Ystrad Feen, however, alighted and lent an active hand in +binding the thief, still insensible, with old halters contributed +by the fat woman of the cottage, who also gave all possible +assistance; so that with their united aid Twm soon got him across +his own horse, like a sack of barley, and secured him by tying +him neck and heels under the horse’s belly. Our +elated hero leaped into the saddle, and rode side by side with +the lady of Ystrad <a name="page173"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +173</span>Feen, and conversing freely with her, no longer +embarrassed with his former bashfulness, till they reached +Llandovery.</p> +<p>The good people of the town were just leaving Llandingad +church, and were considerably astonished with what they saw, and +Twm and his fair companion were soon surrounded by a large and +curious crowd. Sir George Devereaux, a ruddy and hearty +fox-hunting Baronet, came up and assisted his lady to alight, Mr. +Rhys the curate approached Twm, and each in a few minutes was in +possession of the whole story. The baronet eagerly grasped +our hero by the hand, and assured him of his protection and +favour to the utmost of his power; declaring at the same time +that no possible reward could equal his deserts or repay his +services.</p> +<p>All were delighted to hear of the defeat and capture of Dio +the Devil, as, with very few exceptions, the farmers of that +district had suffered from the highwayman’s depredations, +and a subscription was immediately raised, to reward the captor; +so that our hero was soon in possession of a sum of no less than +ten pounds, in addition to five more that the county awarded.</p> +<p>Twm and Mr. Rhys received an invitation to dinner for the +following day, at Ystrad Feen, where Sir George promised them +good entertainment, and added that they would decide in what +manner our hero’s gallant service could be best +repaid. As for Dio the Devil, when the constables advanced +to unloose him, it was discovered that he was dead. +“Dead as a fox within the jaws of Juno!” exclaimed +Sir George, as the lifeless robber fell heavily on the ground, +amid the crowd of spectators.</p> +<h2><a name="page174"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +174</span>CHAPTER XXIV.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm"><span class="smcap">Twm</span> remains at +Ystrad Feen. The vicar of Llandovery. A famous run +with the hounds. An enthusiastic hunter’s leap.</p> +<p>Twm took up his abode, for the time, at a tavern recommended +by Mr. Rhys, where, being decidedly the hero of the day, he was +surrounded by a large company, all anxious to minister to the +bodily wants of so brave a fellow, and wishful to hear the +details of his desperate encounter with the famous robber, from +the lips of Twm himself. Cautioned by the worthy curate, +however, his potations were rather limited; and urging his +fatigue as an excuse for retiring, he soon left his admirers, and +slept on a bed of roses.</p> +<p>At an early hour Mr. Rhys awoke Twm, and told him that they +were invited to breakfast with the Rev. Rhys Prichard, who had +expressed a desire to see the brave young man that had captured +the highway robber. This invitation was the more acceptable +to Twm, as he was exceedingly anxious to see so celebrated a +character as the vicar of Llandovery; though no less for his +pious than his poetical celebrity, and more especially the +association of his name with his own family calamity, in the +death of his son Samuel, poetically called the “Flower of +Llandovery,” at the murderous hands of the young men of +Maes-y-velin, as before related.</p> +<p>Twm was desirous to change his country suit for something +better, and commenced negotiations with Mr. Rhys, for the +purchase of one of the latest clerical cut from him. The +worthy curate, however, cut him short, and generously presented +him with one a little the worse for wear, that as the mass of +mankind were apt to judge by external appearances, an appropriate +<a name="page175"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 175</span>garb +would aid even a man of merit in making a favourable +impression.</p> +<p>The house of the vicar of Llandovery was among the best in the +town; a well built strong mansion, distinguished from all others +by a neat small cupola on the top, for a bell, to call the boys +to school. Twm and Rhys waited in the breakfast parlour +about half an hour, filling up the time by noticing and remarking +on the well-waxed oaken floor and furniture, that, with the +prints of some of the English martyrs, with which the room was +hung, gave it something of a gloomy appearance; and in skimming +over some dusty old volumes of divinity, till the clock struck +six.</p> +<p>The worthy vicar received his visitors with a few brief but +courteous sentences, in which he quietly yet earnestly expressed +his gratification at their presence. Breakfast was preceded +by prayers; after which came in bowls of milk and hot cakes, with +cold meat, butter and cheese, and ale. Twm looked at his +venerable host with awed reverence. This eminent character +was of a tall, stately figure; his hair white as wool, his face +pale, and rather long, with a countenance beaming with sedate +benignity. He regarded Twm for some time with silent +attention, and afterwards made a few enquiries respecting his +recent feat, which when answered, he indulged in some pious +ejaculations on the fortunate event.</p> +<p>Their host compared the physical capacity and appearance of +Twm to the well developed and robust figure of Dio the Devil, and +referred to the scriptural records of the combat between David +and Goliah; strictly charging the fortunate youth to take no +credit to himself for the achievement, as he was but an humble +instrument in a mighty hand, and for a special purpose unknown to +the actors of the scenes themselves.</p> +<p>All justice having been done to the good things before them, +grace was said, and Twm received some excellent advice from the +celebrated divine, who <a name="page176"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 176</span>placed twenty shillings and a copy +of his “Welshman’s Candle” in the hand of Twm; +and after shaking him warmly by the hand, he saw the pair to the +door and bade them farewell.</p> +<p>In an hour or so afterwards, Rhys and Twm prepared for +departure to Ystrad Feen, the latter mounting the noble hunter +which Dio the Devil had so lately bestrode in all his arrogant +pride. The road was entirely over the mountains, through +diversified scenery of much interest. At times it ran above +the edge of a deep ravine; at others, hills overtopped them, in +peaks of various, fantastic forms; till a length succeeded the +tame and flat moorland, abounding with wild ducks and various +aquatic and mountain fowl. These scenes were soon left +behind, and others of a different character succeeded, tamed to +softer beauty by the indefatigable hand of industrious man.</p> +<p>Passing through a small ravine at the base of a well-wooded +hill, they emerged suddenly upon a view which embraces the rural +chapel of Boiley, the ornamented estate of Ystrad Feen, the hill +of Dinas, and a glimpse of the river Towey. The ancient +mansion of Ystrad Feen they found most romantically situated, +terminating a sloping descent from the mountain, with a roaring +alpine brook falling headlong through its rocky bed, at the back; +while the high conical hill of Dinas stood, an object of singular +beauty, in front; and the background was occupied by an almost +endless perspective of forest, vale and mountain.</p> +<p>They entered the farm-yard, which occupied one side of the +house, in which stood several large elms and oaks, and, here and +there, a huge hollow yew, that associated well with the antique +appearance of the house.</p> +<p>They were expected, for the baronet and his lady were awaiting +their arrival, and hastened, as they appeared, to give them +hearty welcome. It wanted about a couple of hours to dinner +time, which interim Sir George wished to fill up by introducing +them to his fox-hounds and pigs, while his lady urged <a +name="page177"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 177</span>the +superior attractions of the lawn and flower-garden, to the terror +of the sporting baronet, who seemed to consider her taste not +only questionable, but absolutely depraved. Sir George +shook his comical head in a comical manner, inferring a protest +against their choice, when the young men decided on seeing the +garden first, and the kennel and pig-stye after; a preference +that seemed to involve an absolute inversion of the order of +things, apparently, to his thinking.</p> +<p>What a contrast there was between the lady of Ystrad Feen and +her lord and master! Twm’s attention was almost +entirely taken up with the sweet and unaffected grace of the +lady; but we must be impartial and take some notice of her +husband. Sir George was a spare and somewhat tall figure, +the erectness of which was frequently disturbed by what at first +appeared some constitutional fidgetiness—a habit of +perpetually drawing up, and letting down, his right shoulder; +while he conversed in jerking short sentences, never standing +still an instant when speaking. These peculiarities, at +first sight, gave him the appearance of a man afflicted with St. +Vitus’s dance; and affected the observer with the repulsive +sensations endured by those who, from delicacy towards the +afflicted, aim to conceal their notice of a personal blemish or +deformity.</p> +<p>But this strange habit had its source in a fox-hunting +accident that occurred in a chase wherein Sir George, in the heat +and ardour of the pursuit, leapt down a terrific precipice in +which the fox had sought cover. His noble hunter, named +Dare-devil, was killed by the achievement of this feat, his own +neck nearly broken, and his shoulder so dislocated and otherwise +injured, that no surgical skill could cure him of the nervous +affection which caused the continual restlessness alluded to.</p> +<p>Sir George, however, gloried in his dearly-bought triumph, and +boasted like a veteran detailing the particulars of a famous +battle in which he had figured; <a name="page178"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 178</span>winding up his narrative +with—“glorious and remarkable hunt—the world +never saw the like—and I was solus in at the death—in +a hell-hole that none but myself dared approach.”</p> +<p>His face was no less curious than his figure. He was +rather small featured, with very light blue eyes; indeed so +exceedingly light that they were often described as literally +white; and when he gazed, with the wildness of imperfect +consciousness, caused by indulgence in the potent cup, might give +no inapt idea of Pygmalion’s marble statue, on its first +wild stare when imbued with inward light and life; although his +merry neighbour, Squire Prothero, summed their description up, +less classically, as the nearest approach to a boiled +salmon’s eyes, or the lack-lustre dullness of a couple of +baked gooseberries. His face was fair, and much freckled in +the upper part; while a shock head of closely-curling red hair, +and white, or rather sandy eyebrows, concludes the description of +this strange piece of eccentric manhood.</p> +<p>The walk through the garden was by no means to his +taste. He did not understand flowers, and could not +restrain his expression of impatience, protesting that there was +nothing worth seeing there. “Besides,” added +he, with the gravity of a philosopher who aimed to eradicate a +vulgar error, and instil a superior principle, “flowers are +bad—a great evil—showy nuisance—bank of violets +often a snare to the hounds—like beauty to the boy, to lure +him from the paths of duty;—but come and see my +kennel—finest dogs in the world—no false charms +there—they say truth’s hid in a well—all a +mistake—she’s hid in the snouts of my +fox-hounds;—strong as bulls, and swift as hell—a +cannon ball’s a fool to them—deadly as the doctor +wherever they rush—but what’s your name, my young +Cæsar of the Welsh mountains, hey?”</p> +<p>Twm was too busy with the lady of Ystrad Feen to listen to the +rattling tongue of Sir George, and Mr. Rhys hastened to give the +story of Twm’s parentage, dwelling with much emphasis on +the cruel <a name="page179"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +179</span>neglect of his father, Sir John Wynn of Gwydir; and, in +conclusion, he said his friend’s name, derived from his +humble mother as well as from his stately father, was Thomas ap +John a Catty, familiarized into Twm Shon Catty; but that which he +intended to adopt, and desired to be known by, was Thomas +Jones.</p> +<p>The promenade had, in the fox-hunter’s opinion, been +unreasonably prolonged, and he hailed with delight their approach +to his sanctum sanctorum, the dog-kennel, where he anticipated +the delight of his visitors, when—how shall we express the +intensity of his disappointment!—a voice struck on his ear, +like the croak of the bird of ill-omen with the intelligence of +“dinner waits!”</p> +<p>Fain would he have horse-whipped the intruding messenger, and +expatiated with his friends on the absurdity of eating dinners, +when the sublimer pastime of entering a kennel of fox-hounds was +offered to them. But before he found words to his purpose +he had the mortification to see his auditors accompany his lady +wife into the house, where, musing on their questionable taste, +he followed them.</p> +<p>We need not dwell on the delicacy of the viands, the rarity of +the wines, the jocularity of Squire Prothero, the laughing +magistrate, who dropped in and joined them after dinner; the +beauty and fascination of Miss Meredith, the lady’s +companion, who almost made a conquest of the heart of poor +Rhys—and, above all, the captivating sweetness of our +heroine, the young hostess! and other interesting details. +But we must find space to say that a short hunt was got up, +contrary to usual custom, in the evening, to save the baronet +from dying of chagrin for his failure of exhibiting his animal +treasures to his guests before dinner.</p> +<p>A young fox being started, our hero acquitted himself so +amazingly to the satisfaction of his host by the most daring +feats of leaping and yelling out, in the fox-hunter’s +strain, “yoy, yoy, hark forward, wind him Juno!” and +many other such expressions, that Sir George in <a +name="page180"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 180</span>the ecstacy +of his feelings almost wept in the contemplation of such a +promising genius, vowing that a year’s tuition under his +first whipper-in would make him a truly great man, and a fit +companion of princes. Grasping his hand with the tenacity +of a blacksmith’s vice, he vowed that from that moment he +had engrossed his name upon his heart, high on the list of his +most choice friends.</p> +<p>Sir George was not one who limited his friendship to +profession only; and, having learned from Twm his position in +life, he became desirous to aid him permanently, and put him on +the road to fortune, knowing right well that if he had only a +glimpse of it, that he was wide awake enough never again to lose +sight of it. He lost many nights’ rest in striving to +settle this knotty point, and at last determined that he should +live with him on the footing of a friend; indeed so necessary had +he become to him in his hunts, that he at length declared it was +impossible to part with him.</p> +<p>Thus, as an inmate of Ystrad Feen, Twm spent some of the +happiest days of his life, for the best part of this, and the +following year. Alternately hunting with the baronet and +reading with his lady, who called him her hero, and made him an +absolute show lion among her friends, Twm could not but feel +this, as a remarkable contrast to the wretched life passed at the +house of Morris Greeg.</p> +<p>Twm also enjoyed many happy hours with his staunch friend +Rhys, at the houses of the surrounding rural potentates, where, +on account of his brave reputation, and for his ready wit, so +unsparingly lavished by him wherever he went, he speedily became +a favourite. We shall close this somewhat long chapter with +the relation of one of these adventures which gave universal +satisfaction to his friends, and became the subject of remark and +wonderment for many a year.</p> +<p>Llandovery was just at this time honoured by a visit from a +London buck, who, thoroughly convinced of the utter darkness and +benighted state of that retired district, had charitably come to +reside amongst the <a name="page181"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +181</span>miserable inhabitants thereof, that they might know and +understand what civilization meant, as evinced in his own proper +and illustrious person. He took a very ungracious way of +teaching the important fact, for he did nothing but boast of the +immense superiority of everything appertaining to his glorious +self, and depreciate that which belonged to others.</p> +<p>Mr. Tomkins (that was his euphonious title) insisted that his +gun, his fishing tackle, his boots, the cut of his coat, and +everything that was his, was better than those belonging to any +body else. But if there was one object above all others +that engrossed his volubility, it was the praise of his horse; +daily did he ring the changes on his wonderful animal, his feats, +his beauty, blood, and pedigree, at every house where he +visited.</p> +<p>One day after dinner at Ystrad Feen, in company with the +baronet, Squire Prothero, our hero, and the ladies, he rudely +asserted the superiority of his own horse to any in that country, +when both our baronet and the squire seemed nettled at his +disparaging remarks, which, had he not been his guest, it is +probable Sir George would have resented.</p> +<p>He offered to wager fifty pounds that his horse should surpass +the best of theirs in running or leaping, be the given feat what +it might. Great and gratifying was their surprise when our +hero, with much emphasis cried “done!” Adding, +“I have a mare of no very splendid exterior that shall +perform a feat, with myself on her back, that you and your +boasted hunter dare not follow for your lives.”</p> +<p>“Done! for fifty pounds,” cried the London buck; +“I’ll back him for a hundred, without knowing what he +is at,” exclaimed the baronet; “And so will I,” +roared and laughed the excited Squire Prothero. With +unusual alacrity up rose all four, bent on having the bet lost or +won instanter. “Now hasten all together up the hill +towards Craig Ddu, and I will be with you in the cracking of a +whip,” said Twm, as he hurried off in another +direction. The two neighbours looked at each other, and +wondered what would be the upshot <a name="page182"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 182</span>of this adventure; but, having all +faith in Twm, they attended the boastful Londoner to the place +appointed.</p> +<p>The summit of Craig Ddu (the Black Rock) was soon reached, +where they waited Twm’s arrival. The town-bred buck +expressed impatience at the delay; adding with great complacency, +“I intend, gentlemen, to teach this youngster a lesson that +he will not forget as long as he lives.” “Ho, +ho, ho!” laughed the portly Squire Prothero, “take +care that he does not teach you one!” Scarcely were +these words uttered when our hero appeared among them; but what +was their dismay, and the sneers of his antagonist, when they +beheld him mounted on a sorry old blind mare, scarcely worth a +dozen shillings!</p> +<p>“You’ll do as I do?” asked our hero, +addressing the Londoner, “or forfeit fifty +pounds?” “That I will, and something more +too!” cried the buck, vauntingly, “in which case the +forfeit of that sum will be yours.”</p> +<p>“Agreed!” replied Twm; and gradually facing his +animal towards a rising sward or ditch, that had been raised to +prevent the cattle from falling over the almost perpendicular +side of a deep ravine; “Now for it then,” cried he, +imitating the sound of a trumpet, and spurring his sorry jade, +“neck or nothing for the fifty pounds!” and at the +word the blind mare reached the ditch, and obedient to the spur +and rein, sprung over, and was out of sight in an instant.</p> +<p>“Good God, he has gone to a sure death!” cried +Prothero; the stout heart of the baronet (accustomed as he was to +such mad freaks,) seemed to have leapt to his throat and choked +his utterance, as he expanded his singular white eyes in a chalky +stare towards the spot of his disappearance. The party rode +forward, and, with the most thrilling anxiety looked down the +precipice.</p> +<p>Down at the bottom of the ravine, lay the poor old mare, +evidently having concluded a hard life by an equally hard +death. But they had no time for sympathy with the +unfortunate beast; they were too anxious <a +name="page183"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 183</span>about its +daring rider to waste much consideration on it. Their +phrenzied eyes at length rested on the object of their search; +scarcely six feet beneath their standing place lay the redoubted +son of Catty, sound in wind and limb!</p> +<p>The baronet yelled a terrific <i>view halloo</i> that made the +old rocks echo with his dissonance, and the kind-hearted old +Prothero was so over-joyed at his safety that he actually failed +to laugh. Our hero, who had dexterously thrown himself off +at the critical instant that the mare sprung over, and fell, as +he had calculated, on a projecting ledge, which was thickly +covered with a mass of heath and long grass; so that, although +rather stunned, he was but little hurt. An instant’s +delay in throwing himself off would have precipitated him to the +bottom, and the fate of the poor mare would have been his +own.</p> +<p>Great was the delight of his friends to see him rise, and wave +a handkerchief in token of his safety, and in a few minutes he +stood before his disconcerted antagonist, who had calculated, +from the appearance of the ground, that a race was the thing in +contemplation; but when the feat here narrated took place, the +pallid hue of his countenance evinced his inward feelings. +“Now, sir, it is your turn,” cried our hero, bowing +courteously to Mr. Tomkins, who looked paler and paler as he +peered down the declivity; and as his eye for a moment rested on +the dead mare in the bottom, his teeth chattered, and he turned +away shuddering.</p> +<p>“I have no notion of such mad doings,” muttered +the crest-fallen Mr. Tomkins. “Then you lose the +bet,” cried Prothero; “which I can afford to pay, as +well as any one here,” replied the Londoner, in a tone of +haughty sulkiness, as he witnessed the applause bestowed on our +hero by the admiring baronet and his friend the squire.</p> +<p>Mr. Tomkins rightly arguing that he had lost caste by this +little transaction, had sense enough to leave the district and +take his departure for town, dispensing <a +name="page184"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 184</span>with the +ceremony of bidding farewell to any of those country friends, of +whose hospitality he had so often partaken.</p> +<h2>CHAPTER XXV.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm"><span class="smcap">The</span> Land of +Dreams. Twm’s journey to London. A bet upon a +bull. Ready Rosser outwitted, and Squire Prothero’s +fright.</p> +<p>When Twm had any leisure or reflection, his mind was occupied +with but one subject, so that at this period of his life he could +hardly be said to be a man of many ideas. This remark +applies only to the time when he indulged in retired country +rambles, or when he was in the solitude of his own +apartment. Confront him with any specimen of male humanity +extant, and his faculties returned in all their natural vigour, +and success generally attended his enterprises.</p> +<p>As before related, the moment he first set his eyes on the +remarkable and pleasing countenance of the lady of Ystrad Feen, +he felt a conviction that it was not the first time that he +experienced the pleasurable sensation that then pervaded his +whole soul. His continued intercourse with her during his +prolonged stay stubbornly maintained his first conviction that +they had met before; but when, where, and under what +circumstances, he could not discover. At length, when the +mind had been repeatedly fatigued with these vain tuggings at the +nerve of memory, although compelled by exhaustion to give up the +point, it was only for a season, to be resumed on the first +opportunity for putting his powers of recollection again into +practice.</p> +<p>After analyzing these mental enquiries with the closest +precision, he came to the successive negative conclusions, that +he could not possibly have seen her <a name="page185"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 185</span>either at Graspacre Hall, at Inco +Evan’s, nor, most assuredly, at the cottage of his +mother. “Then, where on earth else?” muttered +he, wiping his moist brow, which was a little fevered by the +intensity of his labours in this mental research. +Determined, for his future ease, to dismiss the thought +altogether, he answered himself peevishly, “nowhere, +surely, but in the land of <i>dreams</i>.”</p> +<p>Yes, indeed, this chance thought provided him with the key so +long sought, to his remembrance of the face and form of his +charming hostess, for scarcely had he uttered those talismanic +words than they acted on his memory like Ithuriel’s +spear;—the sentence fell like a flash of fire on the +touch-spring of the whole mystery, and flashed in full +effulgence, illuminating fully his long-darkened powers of +recollection!</p> +<p>Little had he thought of putting to himself what appeared so +vain a query, whether it was at Morris Greeg’s home of +misery that he had beheld the never-to-be-forgotten face of +beauty and intellect—but at length he traced it! And, +of all places in the world, the most unfitting to be associated +with it—the murky hay-loft of Cwm y Wern Ddu: in short +mysterious still as the inference gave out, Lady Devereaux, in +every glance, feature, and movement, was indeed the spirit of his +glorious vision—the lady of his dream!</p> +<p>Thoroughly absorbed by this unexpected and most interesting +discovery, he forgot altogether the lapse of time, and was +startled by the sudden appearance of Sir George by his bed +side. The friendly baronet inquired with much concern, if +he was unwell, as they had been waiting breakfast for him full +half an hour. On being assured of the contrary, and that he +had only overslept himself, Sir George hastened down with the +glad tidings, as the whole family feared the consequence of his +temerity on the day before.</p> +<p>Our hero was soon among them, tendering his apologies, and +parrying the graceful banterings and rallyings of the ladies, who +rated him playfully for a sluggard and <a +name="page186"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 186</span>a +lie-abed. The baronet soon recurred to the punishment +inflicted by our hero on the intolerable vanity and presumption +of the London buck. A knock at the parlour door checked the +current of his discourse, and, on permission being given, in +walked that little comical undersized fellow, familiarly called +Tommy Thomas, the second whipper-in, with a face of ruefully long +dimensions.</p> +<p>After a very worshipful bow, accompanied with many a bodily +turn and twist, while his fingers wandered among the regions of +his head and his whiskers, it turned out that honest Tom Thomas +came to report a calamitous visitation that had befallen this +very respectable house. During this worthy +functionary’s absence at Llandovery, yesterday, (of course +his stay was not prolonged by his curiosity to examine the +quality of the different taps there!) he said that some audacious +villain had been to the stable, and stolen all the food which he +had purchased for the hounds.</p> +<p>“What food—what food?” inquired the baronet; +for everything was important to him that was in any way connected +with his darling hounds. “Why look you now, I wass py +an oil plind mare for ten shillings and two quarts of beer from a +travelling packman that wass sold off his goots, and not want her +agen; so I did pargen for hur, see you now, and wass paay for +hur, and dit put hur in te stapples, for foots for te hounce; and +look you now, some loucey peggar wass steal hur.”</p> +<p>All the party except the baronet laughed heartily at this +intimation; but our hero soon relieved both Sir George and honest +Tommy Thomas, by informing the latter that his bargain was to be +found at the bottom of the Craig Ddu ravine; on which the poor +fellow joyfully withdrew. Twm immediately called him back, +and astonished him with the present of a broad piece, in company +with divers smaller silver coins, in acknowledgment that his +precious bargain had enabled him to win his bet from the +Londoner.</p> +<p>This was another piece of information for the baronet <a +name="page187"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 187</span>and his +friends, and the cause of another explosion of triumphant +laughter, at the expense of their late nuisance, the bragging Mr. +Tomkins,—Sir George declaring that he had repeatedly +thought of asking the question as to how he had possessed himself +of the wretched animal; and now the mystery was amusingly +explained.</p> +<p>One long winter’s morning, when the weather was so +stormy as to forbid all hope of being able to stir out for the +day, the baronet broke an unusually protracted silence by saying, +“Mr. Jones, I have a favour to ask you.”</p> +<p>“Glad in my heart,” replied Twm, “for some +change to make any return for the favours I have +received.”</p> +<p>“Fiddle-de-dee with your favours! you talk like a +mountainer, lad,” cried Sir George; “balance against +us—owe thee much—Joan’s life—thy merry +company; but how the devil to part with thee!—joy to thee, +this London—death to me—no fox-hunting, all smoke and +devilment!”</p> +<p>Lady Devereaux came out and explained that Sir George had a +pressing necessity which he had long put off, of sending to +London a considerable sum, due to a certain Mr. Martyn, being the +last instalment of the purchase-money for some land bought of him +by our baronet.</p> +<p>Having just received an application for the cash, Sir George +was startled to find how much time had elapsed in the delay +caused by his aversion to going personally to London; for nothing +less would do in those days, except by a trusty messenger. +“Thou’rt a lad of mettle, Twm, head as well as +heart,” resumed Sir George—“arms to fight, and +legs to run—roads full of thieves—can’t fight +them all—out-wit them!”</p> +<p>Twm was at no loss to discover that the baronet was loth to +leave his family residence, his fox-hunting, and his +neighbours’ society, to encounter the perils and +discomforts of a journey to the metropolis, and that he was +wishful that Twm should go there as his representative, and +accordingly he declared himself <a name="page188"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 188</span>ready to commence his journey +whenever Sir George might please.</p> +<p>“Let us have a little fine weather first,” replied +his engaging hostess, “and in the meantime we will make the +necessary preparations for your departure.”</p> +<p>Our hero gazed on her animated friendly face, with an +admixture of the romantic gallantry of the knights of old, and +the religious veneration of a devotee towards his patron saint; +for he felt that his fate was somehow mysteriously connected with +her influence, and never forgot that she was the spirit of his +glorious vision, the lady of his dream.</p> +<p>Squire Prothero’s hearty laugh disturbed somewhat these +gentle reflections. He had just bought a bull and hired a +servant, and was in high glee at what he considered the +accomplishment of a favourable bargain. The bull, he said, +was a large and glorious white creature of the Herefordshire +breed, and the man a small black one, of the true Cardiganshire +runt description; but cunning as a fox, and keen as a kite. +A fellow, the worthy squire said, who was proverbially known in +the neighbourhood of Aberteivy for his exceeding shrewdness, by +no other cognomen than Ready Rosser.</p> +<p>Twm chuckled inwardly at his recollection of the swain whom he +had outwitted at Cardigan; and, in the hair-brain spirit that +often possessed him, longed to break a lance with this worthy +once more. As robbing the fields and hills was the +prevalent villainy of the period, and as Prothero, as well as +some of his neighbours, had been a considerable loser in numerous +instances, he was the more elated with his present +acquisition. “I have now,” quoth he, with the +usual accompaniment of a hearty laugh, “a guardian for my +ox and my ass, my bull, and my bulwarks, and I defy the most +cunning thief in the country to ferret away my live things from +the custody of Ready Rosser of Aberteivy.”</p> +<p>“Well, I’ll undertake to walk off with your bull, +in spite of Ready Rosser, if you’ll leave it out three <a +name="page189"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 189</span>nights, let +him do what he pleases,” said Twm, with a confident +air.</p> +<p>“Done!” roared the merry Prothero, with a loud ho, +ho! that shook the room; but recollecting himself, he +added—“but hark ye, my buck of bucks; my bull shall +not be left out to starve of these cold winter nights; he shall +be secured within the shelter of the cow-house, and if thou canst +abduct him from thence, within the three days and nights, welcome +shalt thou be to his carcase, and twenty pounds to reward thy +cleverness.”</p> +<p>“Done!” cried the baronet, “and I’ll +pay forty pounds for him if he fails.”</p> +<p>“Remember, three days and three nights is the time +given,” cried Twm, “as it will take two to get all in +train.”</p> +<p>The squire lost no time in communicating his wager to the +members of his household, and putting them on their guard. +“Now mind,” he exclaimed, “our friendly +antagonist is a sharp fellow, and you must sleep with your eyes +open during the next three days. Look out, Ready +Rosser.”</p> +<p>The worthy thus addressed merely laughed at the impudence of +any one that could venture on such a bet. The emphasis +which Twm laid upon the period of three days was merely a <i>ruse +de guerre</i> of his, to throw his opponents off their guard, as +he fully intended commencing operations soon as darkness came +on.</p> +<p>The snow was thick on the ground; therefore, as the nearest +approach to invisibility, our hero arrayed himself in a white +frock and a cloth cap of the same colour, and sallied forth at +eight o’clock in the evening, on a march of +observation. Having arrived at Llwyn-mawr, the residence of +Prothero, crossing the garden hedge, he coolly leaned over the +gate, and listening to the squire and his party in the adjoining +farm yard heard the whole plan of defence, as laid down by that +skilful Cardiganshire engineer, Ready Rosser. The white +bull the hero of the present wager, <a name="page190"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 190</span>had been placed in his stall for the +night, the door of the cow-house duly locked; and now the whole +party of farm servants, under the command of Rosser, were busily +employed by lantern light in forming the outward +fortification.</p> +<p>In the first place, four harrows were laid one upon the other, +across the entrance to the cow-house; on the upper harrow was +placed a heavy roller, then a new implement in Welsh farming, and +beside it two ploughs; the whole being surmounted by a sledge, +used in those days for a harvest cart. To make this sledge, +which was placed across the ploughs and roller, still more +unmovable, Rosser had it heaped with hay, duly trodden down, +carefully, as if intended for the foundation of a rick. His +last stroke of masterly management was to suspend to one of the +shafts of the sledge a large bell, which the squire, at the +request of vicar Prichard, had procured from Bristol, to ornament +the dome of his school, and to call the boys to their meals and +studies. Rosser shrewdly remarked that any movement of +these barricades, would be announced by its peal in the +night.</p> +<p>By nine o’clock the whole party, including, the squire, +were wrapt in sound slumber, and the field was open to the +operations of our hero, who, in the meantime had returned to +Ystrad Feen, and brought back from thence the tools that he +required for the purpose. These consisted of an iron +crow-bar and a saw, a bag containing something, and little Tommy +Thomas for his <i>avante courier</i>, or look out, in case of +surprisal. Twm had observed that the cow-house was formed +of two pine-ends, substantially built of stone, while the back +and front, were on planks, nailed across horizontally. The +cunning Rosser had effectually fortified the front, where there +was a door, but entirely neglected the back, where there was +none; considering perhaps that the duck-pool or horse-pond, which +ran parallel the length of the lowly edifice, would prove a +sufficient rear-guard. <a name="page191"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 191</span>But greatly did that scheming wight +err in his estimation of the ingenious daring of his adversary; +for although three feet deep, black, and full of frogs and their +spawn, it was through the middle of this domestic lake, our Twm, +shouldering his crow-bar, made his way to commence the attack, +while Tommy Thomas occupied his post of observation on the top of +an old blighted oak stump.</p> +<p>To the great satisfaction of our hero, his onset was +auspicious; he succeeded without noise in wrenching off numerous +planks, and in a short time entered the building. He made +up at once to the grand object of his enterprise, and approached +the mighty brute with deference; then patting him kindly with a +patronizing air, he called familiarly by his name, which he had +learnt was Bishop, from the fair resemblance perhaps, of his +outward bull to the outward man of the lord of the lawn sleeves; +or, in his dignified rotundity, to some specimens of that +princely priest of our favoured land. Bishop having sniffed +and snorted a little, wondering at the temerity of the two-legged +animal that so daringly sought his acquaintance treated his +advances as due homage, and resumed his easy contemplative +posture, like a politic Autocrat that condescendingly gives +audience to a loyal peasant. Guessing the yearning of his +mighty mind, and no less mighty carcase, our hero presented him +with a small bag of oats, to conciliate his good-will, which +being graciously received, gave goodly omen of the magnanimity of +his disposition.</p> +<p>Twm now proceeded to his task of enlarging the opening for his +egress. After having heaved up, with his crowbar, two of +the uprights which formed the ribs of the old cow-house, from +which he had removed its sinews the planks, just as he was +enjoying his conquest over his worst obstructions, he found to +his dismay, that he had reckoned without his hostess, as Lady +Fortune claimed more from his exertions than he thought +due. A strong square heart-of-oak piece of timber ran +along, horizontally, the whole length of <a +name="page192"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 192</span>the +building, which nothing but a saw could remove. As the +bull, Bishop, was too lordly and unaccustomed to diminish his +lofty altitude by dropping on his knees, like the meek docile +camel, and too stiff and heavy to spring like the active dog, +nothing remained but to remove in some way, the stout wood that +formed a bar across his furious-looking forehead.</p> +<p>As he considered the noise of sawing would rouse the +Philistines of Llwynmawr, for an instant Twm’s inventive +powers were at a stand; but they soon rallied, and he how had to +strike a bold stroke, that promised anything but success, while +certain failure would otherwise be his lot. From the bag he +took two pairs of top-boots which he had provided, and drew them, +one at a time, with the toes pointing backward, on the feet of +the bull, Bishop, who seemed at first modestly to decline such an +unusual honour. But as Twm was very pressing, he meekly +submitted, like a bashful maid to don her wedding robes, or like +King Richard, to have fortune buckled on his back; for he in fact +endured to have his boots corded above his knees.</p> +<p>Twm now took the crow-bar to the front of the house, and fixed +it firmly through an old-fashioned iron ring in the farm-house +door, so as utterly to prevent the opening of it from the +inside. Fastening next a halter to the bell attached to the +sledge-shaft, he instructed Tommy Thomas to ring and roar +“fire” with all the strength of his arms and might of +his lungs; applying as he spoke, a candle to the hay on the +sledge, while he retreated to saw, amid this din, the stubborn +wood that barred alike the bull’s departure and the +progress of the enterprise.</p> +<p>Whiz, crick, crack went the blaze! ding, dong! went the +clapper of the bell! fire, fire! roared the scare-crow voice of +little Tommy Thomas; Twm’s saw being unheard through the +prevalence of these mightier sounds. The squire was the +first awakened by the unusual noise, and terrible was the fat +man’s fright on seeing the blazing pyramid that illumined +the whole house inwardly, and all over the yard, while <a +name="page193"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 193</span>he beheld +some little devil ringing the bell and roaring +“fire!” like a sergeant major while drilling a +battalion.</p> +<p>The activity of a fat man in a fright is truly +ludicrous. The nimbleness of the thinnest frightened tailor +that ever hid himself behind a fishing-rod, was mere sluggishness +compared to the flea-hopping trips of Squire Prothero, although +almost too large to conceal himself behind a church, in some +mountain parishes of Wales. Down stairs he rolled, ten +steps at a time, and tried in vain to open the outward +door. Up he rushed again, as if his unbreeched hams and +shirted shoulders had wings appended to them, to assist his +upward flight, bellowing “fire! fire!” till +hoarseness silenced him.</p> +<p>Just as he lost his voice, he found a deputy for it in a +broomstick, with which he ran into the men’s room, +cudgelling Ready Rosser and the rest through the bed-clothes, +till they roared a dissonant chorus to the hoarse bass of +“fire, fire!” “get up and be d—ned to +you, or be fried in your own tallow!”</p> +<p>Still the bell rung, and still Tommy Thomas lustily roared +“fire!” Ready Rosser, overwhelmed with fear and +stupidity, proved his name to be henceforth a misnomer, having, +with the rest of the clowns, utterly failed to open the +door. Running up stairs again, they met the squire at the +top, flourishing his cudgel like a flail about their heads. +In his extremity, to give poor Rosser his due, he tried the +notable plan of rising above his troubles by climbing up the +chimney; but when he had nearly attained the top, like many other +ambitious aspirants, he lost his footing, and tumbled down to the +bottom, blackened with soot, and smarting with his bruises. +At length this scene of confusion received a turn by the +adventurous daring of Gaby Snipe, a parish apprentice boy, who, +squeezing himself through a narrow casement, dropped to the +ground, and ultimately succeeded in removing the crow-bar and +opening the door.</p> +<p>During this scene of dire confusion, Twm’s enterprise +had progressed swimmingly, and he had his worship the bull out of +the cow-house, through the <a name="page194"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 194</span>horse-pond, over the snow-clad +field, and into a lane that led to the parish road, which brought +them to a sheep-cot on the high mountain top, that almost +overhung the mansion Ystrad Feen. Just as he had bestowed +his precious charge within the aforesaid shelter, he was joined +by little Tommy Thomas, terribly out of breath with running and +laughing. Our hero had also his full share of laughter, +daylight having now pretty well advanced, in noting the paces of +the mighty brute as he stamped it along in his top-boots, with, +the toes reversed, being the first of the family, as he deemed, +that ever was honoured with such a dashing leg and heel +trimmings.</p> +<p>Tommy Thomas related that on the descent of Gaby Snipe, he +quitted his bell-rope and hid himself awhile to witness the +result of the outpouring from the house. The rush was +whimsical to witness, for fear, as usual, had exaggerated the +danger, and when in the yard they ran to and fro like scared +rabbits, not knowing what to do, nor what was required of +them. The hay being all consumed, and the fire +self-extinguished, Ready Rosser called out, “water, +water!” which, in their confusion and imperfect state of +wakefulness, they dashed, by pailsful, at one another, till at +length a general fight commenced in the farm-yard; and when the +squire came and parted them, not one could tell how the fray +began, any more than they could account for the stirring +incidents that had frightened them all out of their senses.</p> +<h2><a name="page195"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +195</span>CHAPTER XXVI.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm"><span class="smcap">Philosophy</span> of +smiles. Twm sets out for modern Babylon. New use of a +pack-saddle. A gentleman of the road, and how Twm borrowed +his horse.</p> +<p>Laughter was the order of the morning at Ystrad Feen. +Grief causes the loss of the appetite, but mirth produced the +same effect in a different way on this particular occasion, as no +one seemed to have strength nor leisure to attack the tempting +delicacies spread before them in such profusion. Laughter, +loud, strong, boisterous, hearty ringing laughter, burst forth +again and again as Twm, in the drollest manner, excited their +risibility by a relation of what had passed the preceding +evening.</p> +<p>“A bull in boots!” chuckled the Baronet, laughing +till the tears ran down his florid countenance. “A +bull in boots!” cried the lady of Ystrad Feen, till a sweet +glow diffused itself over her whole countenance, developing, by +the effort a pair of the finest dimples that ever lent their +attraction to a female face. “A bull in boots!” +cried the Reverend John David Rhys, whose excited countenance +bore animated contrast to the “pale cast of thought” +that usually distinguished him, and with whom laughter was not +habitual.</p> +<p>“A bull in boots!” tittered Miss Meredith, with +something more than a simper, or small grin, used to exhibit a +fine set of teeth (which Parson Rhys thought peerless;) for +honest, hearty, spleen-dispersing laughter, was not voted to be +vulgar in those days; nor gentility and insipidity considered as +synonymous terms.</p> +<p>“A bull in boots!” muttered a tall elderly +gentleman with a long saturnine nose, that seemed to curl away, +half disdainfully, from the mouth beneath it, which laughed, +however, in spite of the nose, inclining to extend itself from +ear to ear, in revenge for never having so indulged itself +before. “A bull in boots!” <a +name="page196"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 196</span>repeated he +sneeringly; “how ridiculous! I should have as soon +thought to see a pig in pattens.”</p> +<p>In the midst of this merriment, Tommy Thomas made his +appearance, to announce something; but catching the exclamation +of “a bull in boots,” and “a pig in +pattens,” was immediately infected with the general +contagion, and laughed and snorted like a pig in a hay-field, +when a cunning cur has suddenly seized him by the buttocks. +The new arrival promised additional fun, and all were prepared to +enjoy it. At length he explained himself in a brief +sentence, “Mr. Prothero is coming!”</p> +<p>Twm now made a hasty retreat for some unexplained purpose; and +in a few minutes the portly figure of Squire Prothero was seen in +the yard, sitting on his horse, and laughing till too convulsed +to alight. The company ran out and greeted him, while the +good-natured squire co-mingled with their mirthful peals as +hearty a “ho, ho, ho!” as ever shook his jolly fat +sides.</p> +<p>“Laugh away, ho, ho, ho! laugh away,” cried he, +“I know I look an ass, after bragging up such a nincompoop +as my fellow against this young wag of yours. But where is +he? where is the young dog? I suppose my noble bull is +slaughtered by this time.”</p> +<p>“Tough steaks he gave us for breakfast,” cried the +baronet, “tough as an alligator with his scales +on.”</p> +<p>“Fine fun if he had choked you all! but never +mind!” returned the squire, “a joke is a joke, and a +bet is a bet; and I have come to pay mine.”</p> +<p>Scarcely had he uttered these magnanimous sentiments, that +proved him worthy of the Grand Master’s chair in a society +of laughing philosophers, than the booted bull, Bishop, gravely +approached, with our hero on his back. A fresh explosion +now burst from the party, to note the stately and apparently +conceited paces of the buskind king of the kine, who now wore his +boots with toes foremost, like any other gentleman; but none +laughed so heartily as Prothero himself, who seemed in raptures +to find his bull unbutchered.</p> +<p><a name="page197"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +197</span>“This fellow would tame a fiery dragon,” +quoth he, “aye, and ride him through the air, too, without +fear, or he could never have coaxed Bishop into such a good +humour as to become a steed for him.”</p> +<p>The whole party now entered the house, and Prothero narrated, +to their boundless amusement, their ultimate discovery of the +bull’s abduction. Rosser and his fellows had been +sent in a body to trace the foot-prints of the bull in the snow, +and recapture him if possible; but as such signs were utterly +invisible, Rosser returned in the utmost dismay, with a face half +a yard long, from the effect, he said, of a new light that had +just broken in upon him. With great solemnity, he declared +his conviction that the supposed bull was no beast at all, but +the devil in disguise, as not a print of his hoof was to be found +anywhere, although four set of human feet were traceable, +backwards and forwards.</p> +<p>“That was no bull,” said the wise Rosser; +“it was a devil which, after kicking down the cow-house, +and firing the hay with his brimstone breath, flew away in a clap +of thunder, which indeed I heard myself, as plainly as I hear my +own voice at this moment.”</p> +<p>“For all these abominable bounces,” quoth the +squire, “I called him a liar and a fool, when the fellow +turned upon me with ‘the devil take the bull! you +didn’t think I could keep him in my pocket!’ +Now the whimsicality of the idea of a fellow’s pocketing a +bull, tickled me so much that I forgave him +everything!” Another chorus of the trebles and bass +aforesaid burst out again, and, at the conclusion, the ladies +declared they had almost laughed themselves into illness.</p> +<p>“Never mind, fair ones, let the stay-laces +crack—cut them asunder, and give the lungs and laughter +fair play!” cried the squire; closing his period with as +hearty a “ho, ho, ho!” as usually formed the climax +of his sayings and doings. In the present instance the +elderly gentleman chimed in with him, and <a +name="page198"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 198</span>exclaiming, +“droll as ever, Prothero, but now outwitted by a mere +boy.”</p> +<p>“True, Sir John, (your pardon for the omission of my +respects thus long),” cried the squire, as he cordially +shook his hand, “but such a boy as our combined manhood +here never met with before.”</p> +<p>The worthy here referred to, and before noticed as the +gentleman with the saturnine nose, was no less a personage than +Sir John Price, Baronet, of Priory House, Brecon, the highly +respected father of Lady Devereaux. He had arrived the +preceding evening, about the time that Twm commenced his attack +upon the bull.</p> +<p>Lady Devereaux explained to her father the great and gallant +services which she had received at Twm’s hands, and her +statement was made in the most earnest and impassioned manner, as +if her gratitude was as great as on the day she was attacked by +Dio the Devil, and rescued by our hero. Sir John Price at +once rose from his chair, in a way that strongly contrasted with +his usual cold and ceremonious habit, and extending his white, +diamond-ringed, aristocratic hand to Twm, assured him of his +friendship and protection in all things wherein he could serve +him.</p> +<p>Twm would not accept the money which Prothero tendered in +liquidation of his bet. “No,” said the +successful champion, “it was all for fun and amusement, and +you will allow that we have had some enjoyment out of it, and all +I ask is that, when I am far away, and you are brought face to +face with your well-prized bull, Bishop, you will think of +me.”</p> +<p>The generosity of his sentiments met with the encomiums of all +present; and the worthy squire reluctantly consenting to receive +back his bull without fee or fine, absolutely insisted on leaving +the forfeited twenty pounds in the hands of Lady Devereaux, who +received it accordingly. Recollecting the manner in which +he had been hunted from Tregaron, it was truly gratifying to his +feelings, and flattering to his pride, to hear persons of the +rank of the present company express <a name="page199"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 199</span>their regret that he was to leave +them the next morning.</p> +<p>The following day was the one appointed for Twm’s +departure to London, and he arose with a sorrowful heart, (for he +was thinking of the lady of his dream,) to make a preparation for +his departure. The baronet having presented him with a sum +of money for his expenses, insisted on his leaving behind him, +with Lady Devereaux, whatever cash he possessed, till his return; +while the lady herself, playfully promising to be a faithful +banker, threw on his neck a heavy golden chain, as her +present. Twm had often seen her wear it; and fervently +kissing the splendid article, returned it to her keeping till his +return.</p> +<p>If anything could add to his satisfaction, it was to +experience the attention of his two fast friends, Rhys and the +Squire, who even at this early hour had hastened to bid him +farewell. Right glad was he of the opportunity of sending +some cash to his mother, and to remit what he had borrowed from +his friend, Cadwgan. In the yard, he had to receive the +good wishes and parting civilities of every man and maidservant +in the establishment, particularly of the huntsman and the +whippers-in, with whom he had become an amazing favourite.</p> +<p>It had been concerted that his best mode of travelling +<i>incog.</i> would be on a mean horse, with a pack-saddle, and +disguised as a lowly country lad. Thus mounted and +accoutred, behold him at length disappearing through the +yard-gate of Ystrad Feen; the cash and papers entrusted to his +care having been studiously concealed about his person. +Although but ill-contented with his homely harness, he found his +mountain pony, like his race in general, far better than his +looks promised; so that he rode on with a heart full of glee, +proud of the honours which he had gained, and glowing with bright +anticipations of the future.</p> +<p>Through his native principality, his journey was interesting +enough, so we need not note the scenes, which, <a +name="page200"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 200</span>however +charming in their rural beauty and romantic wildness to Twm, +would lose most of their attraction in mere description. He +jogged on steadily and perseveringly till he had left Bristol +behind, and he had even passed through Bath and Chippenham before +a single adventure occurred worthy of record.</p> +<p>Riding late one evening, between the last-named town and +Marlborough, he found it necessary to put up at a small +public-house on the road-side, distinguished by the sign of the +“Hop-pole,” the obscurity of which he considered +favourable to his safety.</p> +<p>Having fed his beast and eaten his supper, he went immediately +to bed; and, with a view of preserving his treasure in the best +manner, slept without divesting himself of his clothes. He +had slept some hours, and day was just breaking, when he was +aroused by the trampling of a horse, and the gruff voice of a +traveller whom he heard alight and enter the house.</p> +<p>A strong impulse of curiosity determined him to rise from his +bed; and, as the large treble-bedded room which he occupied was +over the parlour, to which the guest was introduced, he listened, +to learn whether anything portended danger to himself. He +found, to his surprise and dismay, that he was the subject of +conversation between the landlady and her guest, whom he +discovered to be no other than the very character of which he +stood most particularly in peril—a highwayman.</p> +<p>He had heard himself described to him by the landlady, as an +uncouth booby of a countryman from the Welsh mountains, miserably +mounted on a piece of animated carrion, for which the crows cawed +as it limped along; and what booty was to be expected from such a +beggar inquired she?</p> +<p>“You are wrong, mistress, you are quite wrong,” +cried the stranger; “from your account I expect much from +him. I have robbed more than one such, dressed like a +scarecrow, while making for London, and bearing with him the +twelvemonth’s rent of half-a-dozen of his neighbours to pay +the landlord in town. I shall be <a +name="page201"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 201</span>at this +fellow as soon as he quits your roof; I have no doubt but what he +is a prize, and if he is, you of course come in for +shares.”</p> +<p>Having learnt thus much, Twm, in some trepidation, retired to +his bed, and began to consider how he should contrive, in order +to preserve the property in his possession. He rose again, +thinking to escape through the window, but found it too small to +admit his egress, and therefore gave up the idea.</p> +<p>As he looked out through the miserable casement, busily +plotting to hatch a scheme of deliverance, he could perceive no +favourable object to aid his purpose except a large pool on the +road-side, in which he thought of dropping his cash if he could +reach it, and do the act unobserved, so that he might recover it +at his leisure.</p> +<p>As nothing better offered, he determined to adopt his plan +immediately; and therefore, after making a studied clattering in +putting on his shoes, he went down stairs, and called for a jug +of beer and toast for his breakfast. The freebooter did not +show himself, but the landlady and her daughter, who seemed to be +in the habit of sitting up all night to receive and entertain +such guests, scrutinized our hero very closely.</p> +<p>The worthy hostess asked him some apparently careless +questions respecting his business in travelling the country, to +which he replied he was trying to overtake a brother pigman, who +was driving their joint charge to London.</p> +<p>While at breakfast, Twm’s brain showed him another +project for securing his valuables, which he considered an +improvement upon the pond scheme. To give a more clownish +character to his manners, the night before, he had carried the +old pack-saddle up stairs, brought it down in the morning, and +while at breakfast sat on it before the fire, instead of a +stool.</p> +<p>It occurred to him that this peculiarity of his would have +been attributed to other motives, and that, no doubt, the honest +inmates of the place thought that he would not have exhibited +such care for his pack-saddle <a name="page202"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 202</span>if it were not worth more than it +looked. He was ultimately convinced that they had decided +that all his treasure was contained therein.</p> +<p>Indeed, it was not a bad idea, for he could then sit on it all +day and make a pillow of it by night. He determined to +encourage their suspicions; accordingly, bursting a hole in the +fore end of it, he called the landlady to receive her reckoning, +and in her presence, pushing his fist into the straw cushion of +the pack-saddle, he drew out several pieces of gold, and asked +her if she could give him change; but she answered in the +negative, on which he again thrust his hand into the pack-saddle, +and brought out more gold and silver intermixed; and with the +latter settled his bill, and went to the stable for his +horse.</p> +<p>Securing all his money about his person, he mounted his +Rosinante. Having cut away the girths from the pack-saddle, +he bade the landlady farewell, and rode with all his might +towards the pool, which was about a quarter of a mile forward on +the road. He soon heard the highwayman brushing forward in +his rear, with many oaths calling on him to stop, a summons that +increased our hero’s speed, till, being opposite the pond, +his pursuer overtook him.</p> +<p>Twm rode to the edge of the water, and threw the pack-saddle, +with all his strength, towards the centre of the pool; but in +bustling to regain a steady seat as he made towards the road, he +fell headlong from his horse. The free-booter cursed him +for a Welsh fool, and with a thundering voice ordered him to hold +his horse, or he would blow his brains out, (brandishing his +pistol all the while,) that he might go into the water to recover +the booty.</p> +<p>Twm appeared to be frightened out of his senses, and trembled +with very visible terror as he approached to do the +robber’s bidding; but no sooner had the highwayman reached +the centre of the pool, and began groping about for the object of +his search, than Twm, with one spring, mounted his fine tall +horse, and rode away with all his might.</p> +<p><a name="page203"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 203</span>So +far all went well; but, to Twm’s unspeakable horror, the +knight of the road, finding himself thus tricked, placed his +fingers in his mouth and gave a loud whistle, on which his horse +immediately stopped quite still.</p> +<p>Twm, in real terror, as he was within pistol-shot, roared +“murder!” with all his might; when the horse, to his +great amazement, took his exclamation of terror for a counter +order, and again started into a gallop. The freebooter +repeated his whistle, and again the horse stood still as a +mile-stone: Twm reiterated “murder!” with all the +power of his lungs; and the well-taught horse instantly resumed +his gallop.</p> +<p>Thus the highwayman’s whistle and Twm’s roaring of +“murder!” had an alternate effect on the noble +animal, till at length, our hero got completely out of hearing of +the baffled robber. As he rode on triumphantly, he sang the +old Welsh pennill or stanza—<a name="citation203"></a><a +href="#footnote203" class="citation">[203]</a></p> +<blockquote><p>“No cheat is it to cheat the cheater<br /> +No treason to betray the traitor:<br /> +Nor is it theft, but just deceiving,<br /> +To thieve from him who lives by thieving.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>As he rode into Marlborough, in the highest spirit, one of the +church chimes was playing “See the conquering hero +comes!” which appeared to him to be a singularly +appropriate greeting, and which he accepted as a personal tribute +to his ingenious trickery upon the highwayman, whom, Twm secretly +hoped, had not yet got out the old pack-saddle from the pool.</p> +<p>How Twm laughed when he pictured to himself the rage and +dismay of the villain when he discovered its contents! That +was a thought to chuckle over and enjoy. It would extort +many a boisterous “ho, ho, ho!” from old Squire +Prothero, when he should have the pleasure of giving him the +story.</p> +<p><a name="page204"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 204</span>He +received great commendation at the inn where he stayed for the +night, when he related his adventure; and many of the inhabitants +were loud in their congratulations to the young Welshman, who had +so cleverly outwitted the English highwayman.</p> +<h2>CHAPTER XXVII.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm"><span class="smcap">Watt</span>, the +mole-catcher, in a pleasant mood. Twm hears of his old +love, Gwenny Cadwgan. Tom Dorbell, and his feats. +Another adventure with a knight of the road.</p> +<p>Twm had reason to be satisfied with his progress on his road +to London, for he had met danger, and his wit and ingenuity had +proved equal to any emergency. But success did not make him +over-confident, and consequently careless; but, on finding +himself yet seventy-four miles from his journey’s end, he +prepared for more trials of his skill and courage. He was +sent for next morning by the mayor of Marlborough, who had heard +of his adventure, and required to bring the horse with him, which +he had so adroitly won.</p> +<p>Many gentlemen having assembled at the entrance to the +town-hall, our hero appeared in all the pride of a conqueror, +mounted on his goodly steed; although so humbly clad, their hats +were doffed, and loud shouts of applause were immediately +given. It was soon ascertained by the mayor and the +gentlemen present, that the horse was regularly bred to the road, +and instructed by a highwayman, therefore, not, as at first +conjectured, the property of any person deprived of it by one of +these free-faring gentry; consequently, his worship, with many +comments on his cleverness and courage told our hero that the +horse was his own by right of <a name="page205"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 205</span>conquest; but that if he were +inclined to part with it, he would give forty pounds for it Twm +directly assented; and the money was paid to him the same +morning.</p> +<p>Being now in want of an animal on which to continue his +travel, Twm determined to walk on to Hungerford, and purchase one +nearly like the one he had set out upon at the commencement of +his journey, as he was still of the same opinion, that the less +temptation in his outward appearance to the gentlemen of the +road, the less likely were they to interfere with him.</p> +<p>About three miles out of Hungerford, he saw before him a +pig-drover, with a large herd of porkers, that he alternately +cursed in his ancient British tongue, and cut up with a whip; +while at intervals between these amusing recreations he loudly +sang, or roared, certain scraps of Welsh songs. Twm’s +ear was quick in recognizing the well-known voice, and he soon +stood side by side with his old friend Watt the +mole-catcher. After mutual expressions of wonder and +congratulation, Twm immediately asked him how his mother was, as +well as farmer Cadwgan and his daughter Gwenny.</p> +<p>Watt replied that his mother and her husband were well; but +instead of answering the latter question, enquired his adventures +since he left Tregaron. Twm, with animated vanity, ran over +that bright portion of his history, occasionally heightening the +colour of events, according to the general practice of +story-tellers, from time immemorial; dwelling particularly on his +fortunate preservation of the lady of Ystrad Feen, and the +benefits which accrued to him in consequence, from the liberality +of Sir George Devereaux, whose confidential agent he then was, on +business of the utmost importance, to London.</p> +<p>These extraordinary events were intended by Twm to astonish +the sulky-looking mole-catcher, Watt, who was not in an +impressionable mood; but Twm, nothing daunted, still ran on, +saying, in allusion to his “friend” Sir +George,—“Well, Watt, were he ten times as rich and +happy as he is, I should never envy him any <a +name="page206"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 206</span>thing he +possessed, but one lovely piece of property.” +“And what might that be?” asked Watt. +“Why,” replied the other, “could I once forget +poor Gwenny Cadwgan, which I never can, I should envy him the +possession of his charming young wife, the beautiful lady of +Ystrad Feen—the finest, the handsomest, and cleverest woman +I ever saw! and although now married to a second husband, she is +little more than one-and-twenty years of age. But I was +asking of my old sweet-heart Gwenny, poor Gwenny +Cadwgan.”</p> +<p>“Poor Gwenny Cadwgan indeed!” echoed Watt.</p> +<p>The sneering manner in which the mole-catcher spoke this, +alarmed our hero; “What of her, Watt?” cried he +eagerly; “is anything the matter? tell me quickly, for +Heaven’s sake!” Watt replied evasively, that +great trouble had come to both her and her father, in consequence +of their having harboured him when the hue and cry was up. +That fact, he said, was discovered a few days after his +disappearance, by old Rachel Ketch, who sold the secret to the +Squire for the highest price she could get; and would have sold +her own soul on similar terms to the Devil himself.</p> +<p>Twm observed Watt writhing as he spoke, and struggling +inwardly, with some terrible feeling, that for awhile deprived +him of utterance. He noticed with regret the deep furrows +of worldly care on his cheek, so lately ruddy and mirthful; and +thought he observed a sinister expression in his sunken eye and +trembling lips, that now were paler than his sallow face. +Fiercely resenting the closeness of our hero’s scrutiny by +an assumption of rude abruptness, he said “but why do I +waste time in talking here, when—but I must be +off—good-bye!”</p> +<p>“But you have not told me of Gwenny and her +father,” quote Twm, in amazement at his demeanour.</p> +<p>“That is soon told,” replied Watt, pettishly; +“the squire turned him out of his farm, and made so many +claims one sort or other, that Cadwgan was beggared, and left him +so poor that he could scarcely take a cottage for himself and +daughter. If I hadn’t let him <a +name="page207"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 207</span>mine, he +would have had none.” “Good heavens!” +exclaimed Twm, “thy hovel for farmer Cadwgan and the gentle +Gwenny!”</p> +<p>“Why not?” replied Watt, with a lowering brow; +“is he not a day labourer? it served me <i>when I was +one</i>, for many a bitter day. His daughter too, the +dainty Gwenny, she was too good for me—turned with scorn +from poor Watt the mole-catcher—but never mind! she was a +bit of a sweet-heart of thine too, Twm, I remember; but set thy +heart at rest, lad, if she won’t be mine, she will never be +thine, at any rate.”</p> +<p>All this was uttered in a tone of bitter sarcasm, that both +surprised and enraged our hero; especially when he thus learned +from his own mouth that Watt had sought to win the affections of +the fair and generous Gwenny Cadwgan. He +replied—“Well, the devil take thee when he will, for +he must have marked thee for his own, long since, or thou wouldst +never have had the impudence to court Gwenny Cadwgan!”</p> +<p>“Ha! ha!” laughed Watt, with a bitter snarl; +“she will never be thine nor mine! so don’t burden +thy memory with one who has already forgotten thee. +Farewell! and better luck with thy next sweet-heart!” +With that he cracked his whip and drove on his herd of swine, +with an air of excited fierceness that was actually fearful to +witness.</p> +<p>So much hurt was Twm at the bearing and conduct of Watt that +he allowed him to go without asking more questions. His +sorrow to hear of the change in the fortunes of Cadwgan and his +lovely daughter, threw a heavy cloud over his mind; and he +regretted that his remittance to him, by the hand of his friend, +was so small. He felt rather relieved by the reflection +that however small the sum was, it would be deemed a +“God-send” to them under present circumstances; and +at the same time prove to friends that he was not unmindful of +them, nor ungrateful for their boundless kindness in his dark +days of peril. However, he felt somewhat embittered by the +<a name="page208"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +208</span>insinuations of Watt, that the fair Gwenny’s +regard for him was on the wane, if not altogether given to +another; and right glad would he have been to learn the exact +bearing of the whole affair, at which the mole-catcher’s +hints but darkly hinted.</p> +<p>Twm was detained at Hungerford for some days, by starving +weather; and while looking about for another animal, was taken by +an old pedlar, down a green lane, to a creature of his, left +there to graze. He was not a little surprised to find it to +be his own pony, left in exchange with the highwayman, having on +his back the identical pack-saddle in which he had formerly +concealed his money. Twm made a purchase of both, and the +next morning took his departure from Hungerford.</p> +<p>His enforced leisure at Hungerford had not been unprofitably +spent, for he had listened attentively to the conversation of the +different drinking parties at the tavern where he stayed; and +found the dangers of the road to be the general theme. The +great hero of the turnpikes at this time, was a certain knight of +the road called the Gallant Glover, alias Tom Dorbell, originally +a leather-breeches maker and glover. It appeared that he +was a man who, by his shrewdness in general, as well as +particular instances of cunning, combined with his dauntless +daring, had become so much an object of admiration to those who +had nothing to lose, as of terror to the men of money, who had +become the victims of his audacity.</p> +<p>The following anecdote of him, told by one of these tavern +worthies, interested our worthy much, and had the effect of +putting him on his mettle, in case of an accidental meeting with +him during his journey.</p> +<p>It seems, a gentleman’s son was taken for robbing on the +highway; and as he had been formerly pardoned, he despaired of +mercy a second time. Upon this, Tom Dorbell opened a treaty +with his wealthy relatives, and undertook, for five hundred +pounds, to bring him off. It was stipulated and agreed to, +that one half of that sum be paid in hand, and the other half <a +name="page209"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 209</span>when the +deliverance was effected. On the trial of the young +gentleman, he was found guilty; but just as the judge was about +to pass sentence, Tom Dorbell cried out “Oh! what a sad +thing it is to shed innocent blood!” and continuing to +reiterate the expression, he was apprehended, and the judge asked +him what he meant by such exclamations, he +answered,—“May it please your Lordship, it is a +dreadful thing for a man to die wrongfully; but one may see how +hard-mouthed some people are, by the witnesses swearing that this +gentleman now at the bar robbed them on the highway, at the time +stated in the indictment, when, indeed, my Lord, I was the person +who committed that robbery.”</p> +<p>Accordingly the “Gallant Glover” was taken into +custody, and the young gentleman liberated. Being brought +to trial the following assizes, to the astonishment of the court, +he pleaded not guilty. “Not guilty!” exclaimed +the judge in a voice of thunder, “did you not at the last +assizes own yourself guilty of the robbery in +question?”</p> +<p>“I don’t know,” replied Tom Dorbell, as meek +as a mouse, “how far I was guilty then, but, upon my word, +I am not guilty now; therefore, if any person can accuse me of +committing such a robbery, I desire them to prove the +same.” No witnesses appearing, the Gallant Glover was +of course acquitted.</p> +<p>What Twm had heard about the Gallant Glover and his +achievements, warned him that fresh trials on the road awaited +him; but he was no “Bob Acre,” and, “screwing +his courage to the sticking-point,” he manfully resumed his +journey.</p> +<p>He had got within ten miles of Reading, in Berkshire, +anxiously hoping to reach it without disaster, when the sudden +discharge of a pistol, close to his ear, convinced him that he +was in the centre of danger. Instantly a horseman, well +mounted, rode fiercely down a lane that entered the road, and +ordered him to stop and deliver in a minute, or have his brains +scattered on the hedge beside him.</p> +<p><a name="page210"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +210</span>“Catch a weasel asleep!” You might do +that, but to surprise Twm Shon Catty when he had reason to be on +the alert, was almost impossible. Assuming an air of +clownish simplicity, he replied, “Lord bless ye master, I +ha gotten nothing to deliver but an old testament, a crooked +sixpence, and a broken fish-hook, +and—and—” “And what, you +prevaricating young scoundrel!” roared the +highwayman. “Why, this purse,” continued Twm, +“which uncle Timothy gave I to market for him, and pay his +bills at Reading to-morrow;” producing at the same time an +old stocking, which he had stuffed with old nails and cockle +shells, in order to make a jingle. <a name="citation210"></a><a +href="#footnote210" class="citation">[210]</a> The robber +made a grasp at the supposed well-stocked purse, which Twm +dexterously evaded, and flung it over the hedge into the +adjoining field, riding on; while the former instantly alighted, +blustering out a string of oaths and threats as he made his way +to the field to search for the coveted treasure.</p> +<p>Twm was, of course aware that as soon as the robber had +discovered how he had been tricked, that he would doubtless ride +after him, and in his rage, shoot him on the spot. As +Twm’s poor pony would have no chance in a race with the +highwayman’s high-spirited charger, he determined that a +daring act, if carried out successfully, would both ensure his +safety and prove profitable to him likewise. The knight of +the road, when he alighted, had thrown his bridle over a +hedge-stake; so Twm, abandoning his pony for the second time, +watched the robber into the field, crawled along the ditch till +he reached his horse, which he <a name="page211"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 211</span>instantly seized by the bridle, +mounted and rode off in a hot gallop, till he got safe into the +ancient town of Reading, as the clear-toned bells of St. Lawrence +were chiming their last evening peal.</p> +<h2>CHAPTER XXVIII.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm">A <span class="smcap">gracious</span> +Lawyer. Twm determines to “pedestrianize” a +bit. Watt’s horrible tale. A fair bevy of +lasses from Cardigan. Guilt and the punishment.</p> +<p>Next morning, Twm had the horse which he had taken from the +robber, cried through the town of Reading, in the honest hope +that he should find the rightful owner. He was right in his +conjecture that it would prove to be the property of some one in +that town, for a wealthy attorney claimed it, with a considerable +degree of hauteur and insolence. So far was this limb of +the law from either allowing our hero anything for the loss of +his own humble beast, or even thanking him for his +instrumentality in recovering a valuable horse, that he told him +he might think himself very lucky he was not prosecuted for its +being found in his possession. Our worthy did think himself +so, and took a precipitate departure accordingly.</p> +<p>Being now within eight-and-thirty miles of London, he resolved +to throw off his disguise, and walk the rest of the +journey. Accordingly, he bought a suit of clothes at +Reading, in which he concealed his money and valuables, with a +pair of pocket pistols; and thus provided he resumed his journey +to the metropolis. Having walked twelve miles, he attained +the town of Maidenhead.</p> +<p>On a seat outside the Bear Inn, he beheld a jovial company of +topers, and in the midst of them, Watt the mole-catcher. It +turned out that he had sold his <a name="page212"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 212</span>pigs without going to London, and +was now sauntering from tavern to tavern, squandering the money +that was not his own. The moment he recognized our hero, he +started on his legs, and offered him his hand.</p> +<p>“Twm, I take shame to myself for the manner in which we +met and parted last, but I was sober then! and in my grave and +sober moods all the evil and bitterness of my heart come out; now +I am rather mellow, there’s nothing but good in +me.” On being asked when he intended to return to +Tregaron, Watt ground his teeth and +exclaimed—“never!” adding, “it is not +from fear of old Inco Evans, for I stayed there as long as I +pleased, in spite of him, notwithstanding my promise to the +contrary. But for other reasons Tregaron has been made too +hot for me.”</p> +<p>The whole of the drinking party having gradually dropped off, +Watt and our hero were left alone, when the latter with much +feeling asked his old companion what was the meaning of the +extraordinary change of manner, and of character, which he +perceived in him.</p> +<p>“I’ll tell thee, lad, what’s the +meaning—it means that instead of the frank merry fellow I +was in the dear gone days, I now am—call it what you like, +but,”—cried Watt, laughing with wet eyes, “some +of my dear friends who scorn flattery, would say a d—ed +rascal, and I quite agree with them. But never mind—I +belong to the strongest party after all.”</p> +<p>Our hero here pressed him for something of a connected account +of his adventures since he left Tregaron; on which Watt +immediately assented, and ran them over in the following off-hand +strain.</p> +<p>“You remember, I dare say, Twm, that when you were only +a child, that I was famed throughout the village as a wit and +joker; in short, that I was the funny fellow of Tregaron, and my +ambition was to retain this title. The comical tricks and +humorous saying of Watt the mole-catcher, made mirth at every +farmer’s heath, and their tables were spread with food for +me whenever I called. As I grew older, my pleasures <a +name="page213"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 213</span>and +antipathies acquired a stronger cast; and there were but few in +our adjoining parishes who were subject either to execration or +ridicule, and dreaded my satire and exposure.</p> +<p>“I formed attachments more than once among the daughters +of the farmers, whom I had frequently entertained at the social +evening hearth; but although my jests were relished, my overtures +were rejected. In short, I found that while mirth, +innocence and harmless wit were my companions, parents generally +disposed of their daughters to young men of characters directly +opposite to mine—the stupidly grave, and thrifty, no matter +how knavish. My eyes were at length opened; and I found +that the funny man, however amusing as an acquaintance, was +coveted by none as a relative, but considered as a mere diverging +vagabond at best. Well, thought I, this will never do; but +since gravity is the order of the day, I will be as grave and +roguish as the most successful of my fellow-men. Having +come to this conclusion, I studied knavery, that is to say, +thrifty rascality like a science.</p> +<p>“As the first step I went immediately to my grandmother, +who had often exhorted me to quit my sinful mirth and become +serious, when I assured her of my conversion, in token of which I +threw myself on my knees, and entreated her blessing. She +afterwards took me to a puritanic chapel, and in that assembly, +where I had often pinned the skirts and gown-tails of the elect +together, the poor old doting soul in the pride of her heart +exhibited her convert to the gaze of the saints; but neglected to +inform them that I had robbed her that same evening of half the +contents of her pocket, as she lay asleep. I was not long +in discovering that a sedate aspect was a goodly mask for the +most profitable villainy, and therefore determined to wear it for +life. Laughter, jest, and mirthful humour, and all those +thriftless indications of the light and harmless heart, I abjured +for ever.</p> +<p>“I now gave a respite to the rats and moles, and set up +as a butcher at Tregaron; and for one sheep that <a +name="page214"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 214</span>I bought of +the farmers, I stole three, and slaughtered them either by +moonlight on the hills, or by candle-light in my own +cottage. Although I daily bettered my condition, I +considered this but a slow and creeping course of thrift; and +therefore, as conscience no longer stood in my way, I meditated +some bolder way of leaping into property at once.</p> +<p>“You know that wrinkled old she-usurer of Tregaron, +Rachel Ketch, who made money, Heaven knows how, and increased it +by lending out to country people, at a higher rate than city +usurers dared to ask. In the bitterness of my heart, after +losing all hope of a girl, whom I had long doated on, I went to +the old Jezabel and sought her hand in marriage; aye, and would +have taken her were she ten times as loathsome, in the anxious +hope of her speedy death, and of succeeding to her golden +hoards. I strove to recommend myself by assuring her I was +the most finished scoundrel in existence; and that when gain was +my object, theft, perjury, and even murder, however hideous to +silly innocents, had no power to scare me from my pursuit. +This avowal of my noble qualifications I thought would have won +her heart forever, but I was mistaken. The keen-eyed hag, +who was never seen to smile before, laughed outright at my +proposal.</p> +<p>“‘What! you want the old woman’s gold, +master cut-throat of the muttons, do you? to slit her weasand +also, and make away with her a month after marriage, like a +troublesome old ewe;’ screamed she, as her spiteful black +and broken snags grinned defiance, and her shrill tones broke out +in laughs of mockery. I never saw mirth so damnable +before! I felt myself the butt of her ridicule, humbled and +degraded; and as my anger rose against the beldame, I resolved +that since I could not wed her, to rob her would answer my +purpose full as well. Accident supplied an opportunity; the +little boys who had formerly been my favourites, and who in their +innocence failed to recognize my change of character, I found it +difficult to drive from me.</p> +<p><a name="page215"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +215</span>“A neighbour’s child one day asked me to +lift him up to Rachel Ketch’s thatch, to take from it a +wren’s nest, which he had long watched, and said he was +sure that the young ones were on the eve of flying. It was +a winning little urchin that made the request, and I could not +refuse him. The moment that I raised him to a standing +position on my shoulders, he eagerly thrust his little hand into +the thatch, and cried, ‘Dear, dear, how cold!’ when a +snake which he had felt, that had destroyed the young birds, +coiled itself round in the nest, darted out into his face, and +the youngster shrieked and fainted in my arms. I carried +him home, where he soon died of the fright, for it appeared he +was not stung.</p> +<p>“Supposing there was a nest of these reptiles in the old +rotten straw thatch, I poked it in all directions with a long +hooked stick, and at last felt something attached to it. As +I drew it forward and examined it, to my great astonishment, I +found it to be an old woollen stocking, closely stuffed with +various golden coins. Here was a discovery! I felt +myself a man for ever! The old woman was at this time in +Carmarthenshire, where she had gone to enforce her claims to +certain debts among her former neighbours; and therefore, having +no fear of detection, I pushed back the golden prize and went +away, intending to return for it at night. As I anxiously +watched the hours and minutes pass away, reflecting on my +newly-acquired wealth, a raging savage spirit of avarice so +possessed me, that I determined to plunder old Rachel’s +cottage of all the money I could find.</p> +<p>“Night came, and with breathless haste I made an +entrance through the thatch, on the side furthest from the +street, and at midnight went away with a heavy booty, the greater +part of which I buried beneath the floor of my own cottage, +determined to seek an opportunity of quitting Tregaron for +ever. Fortune seemed to favour me beyond my hopes; Squire +Graspacre having a numerous herd of fine pigs, engaged me to +drive them to England, and sell them at a good price; I <a +name="page216"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 216</span>have done +so, and pocketed the cash, not one farthing of which will the +squire ever handle. To relate all my rogueries since I +became a grave man, would take too much of your time; so here +ends my story.”</p> +<p>Twm had heard Watt’s tale with sorrow and regret, and +his spirits were fast sinking below zero, when a party of +Cardiganshire lasses, who were making their annual journey to +weed the gardens in the neighbourhood of London, passed opposite +the tavern door where our worthies were sitting. With +heart-touched delight, our hero recognized the comfortable and +not unpicturesque costume of his native country; and his +satisfaction was still increased when he found among the rural +damsels, two Tregaron girls; one of whom, named Martha Gwyn, was +a fast friend of Gwenny Cadwgan’s. These poor girls +expressed their gladness to see their long-lost +“neighbour’s child,” as their homely but +touching phrase went; but their recognition of Watt amounted to +such terror and abhorrence that the rose of health and innocence +faded on their cheeks, while their expanded eyes were fearfully +fixed on his countenance, as if something unearthly met their +stony stare.</p> +<p>At length they found words to say that he was charged, not +only with the robbery of Rachael Ketch’s cottage, but with +murder; that the constables were out to search for him in all +quarters, and that Squire Graspacre had sent out a man to +supersede Watt in the care of his pigs.</p> +<p>This unexpected news, and the evident horror evinced by the +fair maidens for him, quite overcame Watt, and he showed +unmistakable signs of the fear which had taken possession of +him. From Martha Gwyn, Twm learned that poor Gwenny’s +affection for him was unchanged, but it was thought, for all +that, said the candid girl, that she will be married to a +Breconshire farmer’s son, who met her in Herefordshire, +when she went a hop-picking there.</p> +<p>“But if Gwenny has him,” said Martha, “it +will be for the sake of making a home for her poor +father.”</p> +<p><a name="page217"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +217</span>Twm’s generous heart prompted him to give each +maiden a piece of silver; and, having made them eat heartily of a +good homely, substantial meal of cheese and bread and ale, he +dismissed them on their journey. Watt, in great agony of +mind, exclaimed—</p> +<p>“Oh God, where shall I fly! all my supposed security I +find but a dream, and misery alone awaits me! When I told +you the tale of my enormities, I kept back the relation of one +crime—a dreadful one—which, lost as I am, I felt +averse to acknowledge, and too heart-smote with the consciousness +of its atrocity, to turn to it my most secret +thought—’twas a deed of blood, the crime of +murder!</p> +<p>“You remember a tall, thin, skeleton-like man, generally +dressed in a suit of grey, who lived in a cottage on the +mountain, in the neighbourhood of Tregaron, known by the nickname +of Stalking Simon the Mooncalf, from his wandering by moon-light +over the hills. This man was known to be a spy, employed +and paid by all the neighbouring farmers. His habits were, +to sleep all day and to spend the night on the hill, watching to +identify the hedge-pluckers and sheep-stealers. Many poor +persons who depended on their nightly excursions for fuel, while +they deemed themselves unobserved of any human being, cutting +down a tree, or drawing dry wood from an old hedge, would +suddenly find themselves in the presence of Stalking Simon. +So instantaneous was his appearance, as to startle his victims +with the idea of an apparition suddenly sprung up through the +ground, as his approach was never seen till close upon them.</p> +<p>“‘’Tis only me, neighbour,’ would be +the hypocrite’s reply, ‘searching for my stray +pony:’ but when two persons had been executed and three +transported, on his evidence, the nature of his employment became +known, and he was execrated by the whole country.</p> +<p>“One moon-light night, as I was skinning a fine weather, +which I had suspended and spread out on an old storm-beaten +thorn, in a field adjoining the mountain, easy in mind, and so +fearless of danger, that I <a name="page218"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 218</span>whistled in a half hushed manner, as +I followed my illicit occupation, a circumstance took place that +wrought a violent change in the tone of my mind. My +thoughts ran on the whimsicality of the idea of selling this very +mutton to the rightful owner, on the morrow, which was +market-day, and laughing inwardly at the thought: all at once, +Stalking Simon, with a single stride, moved from behind a mossy +dwarf thorn, gray as his own suit, and stood before me. My +blood curdled with terror; but when the old stone-hearted wretch +made the old Judas-like reply—</p> +<p>“‘It is only me, searching for my pony,’ I +knew my danger, and my terror changed to savage ferocity against +the vile informer, who had ruined so many of my friends and +neighbours. I darted on him, grasped his collar with one +hand, and with the other stabbed him to the heart.”</p> +<p>Watt’s tale was now ended, and he seemed to be terribly +agitated at the recollection of old Simon’s murder, and of +the dreadful position into which his crime had brought him.</p> +<p>“O God! what shall I do; where shall I fly?” he +exclaimed, “I cannot return, for that road leads straight +to the gallows, and in London I should be in hourly danger of +being seen by somebody from the country. Since the +perpetration of this deed of blood, I have not known an +hour’s peace. Heaven is my witness, I could be +content with slavery, and smile beneath the man-driver’s +whip—could strip myself and wander the world in nakedness, +or herd with beasts, to regain my former peace and +innocence! Oh, I could labour till my bones ached, and my +exhausted body dropped to the earth with fatigue, to be once more +free from the keen stings of a guilty conscience!”</p> +<p>Twm was but a poor comforter; for his strict ideas of justice +and retribution made him look upon Watt’s terrible agony as +part of the punishment which he was called upon to pay for the +awful crime of murder.</p> +<p>After all, Watt’s distress was due quite as much to the +fear of the gallows, which he now saw to be in close <a +name="page219"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 219</span>proximity +to him, as to regret and repentance for his unwarrantable +deed.</p> +<p>Twm hardly recognized Watt as he sat there, his face blanched +with fear, large drops of sweat rolling down his pale checks, +with quivering lips and staring eyes, all showing the effect +which his knowledge of the dreadful penalty which, from every +prospect, speedily awaited him.</p> +<p>A grey-coated man now approaching the tavern, brought dreadful +associations to Watt’s terrified conscience, and, in the +utmost trepidation, he darted out at the back door of the inn, +and ran across the fields with the speed of a pursued +murderer.</p> +<h2>CHAPTER XXIX.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm"><span class="smcap">Twm</span> encounters Tom +Dorbell. The quick encounter of their wits, in which our +hero has the advantage. Twm rescues a high dignitary of the +church. Twm’s triumphal entry into London in a +bishop’s carriage.</p> +<p>It was yet only four o’clock the following morning, when +our hero was once more upon the road. The stars were bright +as at midnight, and the fine bracing frost, the glory of our +northern clime, seemed to have purified his blood, and at the +same time excited his fancy, so that both mind and body were +sweetly attuned, and in the full glow of enjoyment. It +might be thought the knowledge he had gained of Gwenny’s +coquettings would have disheartened him; but his residence at +Ystrad Feen, with his communion with the “lady of his +vision,” had a little tinged his mind with something of +romantic forebodings, that overshone the rusticity of earlier +impressions.</p> +<p>Elastic and lusty were his healthy limbs, as they bounded to +the music of his heart, while he strode forward on the highway, +exulting in the thought that the day had at length arrived on +which his eyes were <a name="page220"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 220</span>to be regaled with a sight of the +far-famed city of London.</p> +<p>In this happy spirit, he successively passed through Langley +Broom and Colnbrook, anxiously hoping to reach Hounslow by +mid-day. Thus, light of heart, and full of brilliant +anticipations, he continued to bound along the road.</p> +<p>In this overweening fit of enthusiasm, he considered danger of +every sort entirely out of the question; and this, too, if he +knew the truth, while he wandered over the very hot-bed of +robbers, both foot-pads and equestrians! Deluded by such a +course of cogitation, he began to jeer himself on his simplicity +in keeping his pistols loaded, and considered whether he had best +fire them off for amusement or not.</p> +<p>Before he had formed his resolution, he was startled to hear a +rude and heavy tread close at his heels. Sudden as the +thought, he turned round, and reeled some steps backward at the +sight that presented itself! In the advanced light of the +morning, he beheld a villainous-looking powerful man, with a long +black-beard, who might have passed for the high-priest of a +Jewish synagogue. He grasped a pistol that was levelled at +his head, while his forefinger seemed actually pressing on the +trigger. By his ominous silence, and the fierce glare of +his eye, Twm conceived that murder and not robbery was his +object, till the ruffian roared, “Garnish or +die!”</p> +<p>“Wha—what is garnish?” stuttered Twm.</p> +<p>“Money, and be d—d to you, or here goes!” +replied the bearded man, without the slightest touch of the +dialect of the people whose chin-trimmings he had assumed. +Our hero saw at once that this prepared ruffian was not to be +trifled with, and that an instant’s delay might cost him +his existence; therefore, he immediately produced from his bosom +the packet entrusted to him by Sir George Devereaux.</p> +<p>As the robber reached to snatch it, Twm’s wits were at +work; assuming the dialect and foolery which he knew passed among +the English for Welsh, “Here <a name="page221"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 221</span>wass the money, look you now, but +God tam! it wass not mine, but you shall haf it in the +tifel’s name, only let master see I wass praave, and show +fight for it, look you, and not gif it up like a +craaven.” With that he gave it into the +fellow’s hand, saying, “Now, her begs, and solicits, +and entreats you to be so kind ass to shoot some holes in hur +cott lappets, just a pounce or two, look you, to prove hur hard +fight and praavery.”</p> +<p>“Aye, with the greatest pleasure in life!” cried +the ruffian, laughing. Here Twm put off his coat in an +instant, and threw it over a bush on the roadside. When the +robber fired at it, Twm leapt up, laughing with idiotic glee, +crying, “Got pless hur for a praave marksman! that was a +noble pounce, look you! But now another pounce for tother +lappet, and I wass have great praise for praavery!”</p> +<p>So the foot-pad, apparently amused, fired again, and Twm leapt +and laughed as before, exclaiming, “That was another nople +pounce, look!” He now ran to the bush, and snatching +up his coat, put it on, seemingly as delighted with its +perforations as a warrior of his vaunted scars. “Now, +one pounce more through my hat, look you, and all will be +right!” added he, appealingly.</p> +<p>“Why, as to that!” replied the robber, commencing +to break open the parcel with great eagerness, “I have no +more pounces, as you call them, to give you.”</p> +<p>“But I have!” thundered our hero, holding a pistol +in each hand to the robber’s breast, “return the +packet and garnish!” continued he, “or I will pounce +your rascal prains apout the road, look you—and that wass +not goot for your health, look you, this fine morning.”</p> +<p>The robber was no bad judge of circumstances, so immediately +returned the packet. “Garnish!” roared Twm, +laughing, and holding the pistols nearer to his head; “I +must have a new suit for the one you pounced for me, look you +now!” The robber handed him a heavy purse, with a +couple of splendid watches, exclaiming “the devil’s +luck to you with them!” on <a name="page222"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 222</span>which Twm snatched off his false +beard, as he laughingly said, “So much for a shallow knave +whose length of beard is greater than his brains!” No +sooner was the beard removed, than Twm saw a deep scar on his +left jaw, which cleared all doubt as to the identity of his +antagonist.</p> +<p>“Never was Tom Dorbell so humbugged before!” cried +the baffled ruffian, as he tore his hair up by the roots in +resentment against Fortune, that allowed such an inauspicious day +to dawn on him.</p> +<p>“What! Tom Dorbell, the Gallant Glover?” +queried Twm, with amazement. “The same,” +growled the knight of the road, “till my luck turned; but +now I am nobody.”</p> +<p>“By that blushing witness on your jaw-bone, I perceive +we once met before,” quoth Twm, jeeringly; “I think, +on the other side of Reading. I think, too, that, in token +of friendship, we exchanged horses on that occasion, a Welsh pony +for a gallant grey; and, I think, also, but perhaps I am +mistaken, that I threw thee a long purse full of something +<i>that uncle Timothy gave I to market for him at +Reading</i>.”</p> +<p>By the well mimicked simplicity of the latter words, the +freebooter knew him at once, and laughing in his turn, vowing +that he was now satisfied that he was outdone by no common +’un, “but a d—ned clever fellow, whoever thee +bee’st” Quick as the fox who hears the hounds +and hunters long before the sound can reach indifferent ears, Tom +Dorbell started—gave a hasty farewell, dashed through the +hedge, over a field, and was soon out of sight.</p> +<p>The Gallant Glover’s well-trained ears had heard the +sound of horses’ feet, and, taking all things into +consideration, he had thought it best to decline any fresh +interview with travelling humanity until he had recovered his +serenity of mind, and was in a position to enforce any demands it +might please him to make.</p> +<p>As the approaching horse and rider neared him, Twm perceived +the latter to be a wounded man, evidently so much disabled as to +be scarcely capable <a name="page223"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 223</span>of sitting on his horse. With +courteous but hurried accents, the stranger addressed our hero, +lifting his hat as he spoke.</p> +<p>“Your pardon, sir; if you are armed and inclined to act +a brave and generous part, you have now an opportunity of doing +so.” Twm declared his readiness. The stranger +dismounted, with pain; “Take this horse,” cried he, +“ride forward as fast as you can, and a quarter of a mile +on you will find a couple of robbers rifling a coach. Other +assistance may arrive—on! on, sir! in heaven’s name! +the party assaulted are of no common rank or +estimation—profit and reputation will attend their +liberator, and”—Twm was out of hearing before he +could finish his sentence.</p> +<p>Never did a young medical practitioner, called on an emergency +to the bedside of a wealthy patient, whom he never thought to +have the honour to approach, ride forth with a more excited +imagination. Fire flashed from the stones, ground to powder +by his horse’s hoofs, and brief was the gallop that brought +him in sight of the scene of villainy.</p> +<p>The first object that struck his view were three or four +horses, with their harness cut, one dead, and the others +struggling on the road-side, while the centre was occupied by an +un-horsed coach. As he came nearer, he distinctly made out +a man at each door of the vehicle, their feet resting on the +steps, while their heads, and the greater portion of their +bodies, were invisible, implying their activity in the work of +depredation. So intently devoted were they to this grand +undertaking, that Twm’s approach seemed either unnoticed or +mistaken, perhaps, for the wounded and unharmed +gentleman’s, who had apprised him of this nefarious +business. With that happy forethought given by indulgent +Providence to the self-dependent, and which forms one of the +grand ingredients in the chalice of success, our hero turned his +horse from the thundering road to the soundless green beside it, +and silently gained upon his object.</p> +<p>He arrived within twenty paces of the coach, when <a +name="page224"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 224</span>the green +altogether ceased. Dismounting with the alacrity of the +occasion, silent as the mole, and swift as the greyhound, he made +a rush forward, and, contrary to his expectation, he found +himself, unchallenged or unnoticed, close to the coach. He +heard one of the amiable threatening instant death to his +“Lordship’s reverence” unless his watch +accompanied his purse into the hands of his +“solicitors.”</p> +<p>The opposite worthy was equally polite to a lady, after his +own fashion, declaring that he had shot one of her sex lately for +less provocation than she had shown, in withholding his fair +demands, which was merely all her cash and jewels.</p> +<p>Twm’s instantaneous action was to catch the nearest +gentleman by the ankles. With a powerful drag backwards, +his feet were jerked off the coach-steps, and his full face +literally <i>scraped</i> an ungentle acquaintance with their iron +edges, in its rapid descent to the frosty road, which was flooded +with his blood.</p> +<p>“Hollo! where are you, Bill?” enquired his active +partner, thinking that he had merely lost his footing and falling +accidentally.</p> +<p>“Here!” cried Twm, firing at the word, when the +robber fell backward from his perch, a lifeless corpse. +Before he could recover himself, our hero was grappled at the +throat by the powerful hands of the first robber. In the +struggle, Twm managed to strike him twice with his discharged +pistol on his blood-covered face; but the strong ruffian’s +tenacious grip tightened notwithstanding; and our tale must have +terminated here, with the death of its hero, but for an +unexpected relief.</p> +<p>The venerable and aged gentleman in the coach with his +daughter, looking out on this deadly struggle with intense +anxiety, snatched up a pistol which had been dropped in the +carriage, seized a critical moment, and discharged it at the ear +of the freebooter, whose head was perforated by the bullet, so +that his grasp relaxed, and he fell backward, with his eyes +glaring on his <a name="page225"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +225</span>intended victim, and, with a ferocious oath in his +mouth, he expired.</p> +<p>The aged gentleman now called to the lady, who sprang from the +coach, declaring he feared that the villain had succeeded in +destroying their deliverer. Well, indeed, might he have +thought so, as Twm had sunk senseless on the road, the stagnant +blood blackening in his face, and his eyes projecting from their +sockets.</p> +<p>On recovering a little, he found a young lady bathing his +temples, and applying her scent-bottle, while the venerable old +gentleman was busied in rubbing his neck to restore the +circulation of the blood, which now happily took place.</p> +<p>On his recovery, our hero learnt that the party whom he had +succoured were the venerable Doctor Morgan, Bishop of St. Asaph, +translator of the Scriptures into Welsh, and his only daughter; +and that the wounded gentleman who sent Twm to their rescue, and +who had now rejoined the party, was his lordship’s +chaplain.</p> +<p>This spirited clergyman had manfully opposed the depredators, +when they first attacked the coach, but was sadly wounded by a +bullet in the right arm. In the midst of the +congratulations, compliments, and explanations that followed, the +spirit of the scene became suddenly changed to one that is +patronized by the comic muse.</p> +<p>Alarmed by the report of the bishop’s servants, who +liberated themselves, having been tied to a tree by the thieves, +the town of Hounslow evinced its heroism by sending forth its +constabulary force, with the principal inn-keeper, who was also a +farmer, and his farm-servants.</p> +<p>A motley assemblage, in truth, it proved! Some were on +foot, and some on horse or ass-back, and one fellow was seen +bestriding a large horned ox, that reluctantly yielded the speed +required of him; while each and all were as whimsically armed as +mounted. The valiant joskin on the ox, flourished a flail, +threatening annihilation to the rogues of the road, but +lucklessly <a name="page226"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +226</span>struck his own sconce by exercising the weapon. +The ostler and waiter, who was also the plough-boy, was mounted +on a superannuated blind mare, and grasped a dung-fork with the +consequence of a Neptune’s trident. Among the others +were seen bill-hooks, a scythe, three spades, an awfully long +spit, and a ponderous wooden beetle.</p> +<p>But the most amusing figure in the group was the old landlady +and farm-wife, who had hastily mounted a donkey, and was riding +it in a more masculine style than is usual to the fair sex, and +thumping the restive brute with a vast wooden ladle, with which, +for she led the van, she was prepared to battle with the +highwaymen. Finding them already conquered, her heroic +spirit vented itself in discontent, that she had had no hand in +the great event.</p> +<p>“Dang un!” quoth the doughty dame, “I would +ha baisted the chops o’un noicely!”</p> +<p>“Shame on thee, dame! cover thy garters—whoy +dusten roide like a christen woman,” cried her lord and +master, who rode a high horse, and bore a huge cavalry sword.</p> +<p>At this rebuke, the bishop’s daughter, his lordship, and +the chaplain, laughed most heartily; while our hero, now pretty +well recovered, joined in their glee.</p> +<p>The fallen being consigned to the care of the landlord, and +the coach somewhat righted, our hero was seated by the chaplain, +and facing his lordship, who, with his amiable daughter, +cordially acknowledged his services; which the worthy prelate +declared were not to be requited with mere words.</p> +<p>Twm, with truth, averred he was indebted for his life to the +promptitude with which his lordship brought the ruffian down; and +therefore the services he received, he said, far over-balanced +any that he had rendered. The modest position in which he +had thus placed himself, worked well in his favour, and was fully +estimated. After having refreshed at Hounslow, and the +chaplain’s arm dressed, depositions having been made, +before the judicial authorities, of the attack and rescue, the +party <a name="page227"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +227</span>filled his lordship’s carnage again, and all were +driven off towards London, well guarded by a rustic patrol sent +from Hounslow.</p> +<p>On the way, Twm explained that he was an agent of Sir George +Devereaux’s to a Mr. Martyn’s in Holborn, and the +bearer of a sum of money to him. The bishop seemed +surprised, and declared that Mr. Martyn was his very good friend, +and chosen by him to be an umpire on the following day, in a +matter of great importance.</p> +<p>“To-morrow, then,” added the bishop, “I +shall see you at my friend’s house, and learn from you in +what manner I can serve your interests.”</p> +<p>Our hero bowed.</p> +<p>“Your lordship will have your long deferred explanation +with the fiery old baronet, Sir John Wynn, then, +to-morrow?” asked the chaplain.</p> +<p>“Yes,” replied the old bishop, “and heaven +send me scatheless from a contest with that self-willed +man! In our interview I can only repeat what I have +objected in my letters; and right well I know, he can only +reiterate his former ill-grounded assertions.”</p> +<p>Our hero was thunderstruck with these observations and became +silent and thoughtful.</p> +<p>Many were the villages and suburbs through which they passed, +before the lady, breaking a silence which had endured some time, +exclaimed, “The stones of London, at last, my +Lord.”</p> +<p>The worthy prelate directed his coachman to drive to Mr. +Martyn’s; and, in a brief space, the carriage stopped at a +large, lofty, and many gabled house, opposite to St. +Andrew’s Church, in Holborn, where Twm was put down, and +kindly received by Mr. Martyn, who helped him from the +bishop’s coach. His lordship observed that he was +waited for by his brother, the Bishop of London, at Lambeth +Palace; briefly referred to the business of the morrow, kindly +shook hands with our hero, as did the young lady and the +chaplain, each repeating their acknowledgments, and when the <a +name="page228"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 228</span>carriage +drove off, Twm Shon Catty was ceremoniously ushered into the fine +town-house of Mr. Martyn.</p> +<h2>CHAPTER XXX.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm"><span class="smcap">Twm</span>, at last, face +to face with his paternal parent. A little scene between a +Baronet and a Bishop. Twm’s particular star +brightens.</p> +<p>When it became known that Twm was the bearer of money from the +baronet to Mr. Martyn, that he had rescued the bishop of St. +Asaph and party, and that he was the hero of many other +encounters with daring highwaymen, he became quite a lion in the +house, was regarded as a fine specimen of a Welshman, and, in +homely language, was “made much of.”</p> +<p>Previous to the sound slumber that soon overcame his +softly-pillow’d head, he pondered much on what he had heard +of his reputed father, and felt his mind strongly impressed with +the idea that the coming morrow teemed with events that would +cast their shade or sunshine on his future days.</p> +<p>In a dream that followed, he found himself in the presence of +a passionate little gentleman who threatened him with terrible +vengeance, unless he returned to the house of Morris Greeg, and +gave his hand in marriage to the amiable daughter Shaan; and he +thought he discovered in a murky recess, a parrot-nosed sprite, +resembling Moses, who was grinning at his dilemma; when the lady +of his former dream appeared suddenly, and smiled like an angel +on the churlish old man, who forthwith smiled again, when Ianto +Gwyn stood forth with his harp; on which he joined her in a Welsh +jig. Then came a long and dreamless sleep, which at length +was broken by the numerous clocks of London, clamorously +informing its citizens of the seventh hour of a new day.</p> +<p><a name="page229"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 229</span>The +letters borne by our hero to Mr. Martyn from Sir George Devereaux +spoke most highly of his abilities and good qualities; and the +trust reposed in him by the baronet was fully evinced by his +being trusted with such an important pecuniary mission as that +which had brought him to London.</p> +<p>In addition, his introduction by the Bishop of St. Asaph, with +the details of his acknowledged services to that venerable +prelate, insured our hero the most marked consideration among his +present friends, who vied with each other in their attentions to +him. The whole family expressed their hope that his stay +would be long in town; and Mrs. Martyn insisted that he would +make their house his home the while.</p> +<p>After breakfast, Twm requested a private conversation with his +host; when he explained, with straightforward candour, that, +although unlooked-for circumstances had placed him in his present +favourable position, he was, in reality, the most friendless of +human beings; inasmuch that he was a natural son, unacknowledged +by his father.</p> +<p>Mr. Martyn kindly commiserated him; and our hero +continued,—“I learnt yesterday evening that the +Bishop of St. Asaph is to-day engaged to meet the man, who, of +all others, I wish, yet dread to see—my father, Sir John +Wynn of Gwydir.”</p> +<p>“Sir John Wynn, your father!” exclaimed Mr. +Martyn, in great astonishment. “The same,” +replied Twm, “yet he knows me not, nor have I a single +document or a witness to prove it. Yet did I hope, ardently +hope, that some chance would turn up in my favour, to avail +myself of the meeting of this day, between Sir John and the good +bishop.” Mr. Martyn said, with much concern, that, +although their mutual friend, he saw great difficulties to oppose +the introduction of such a matter.</p> +<p>“This conference,” continued he, “cannot end +amicably; one party is bent on urging a claim, while the other is +resolved to reject it, and they will part bad friends at last; +while I, their umpire, cannot prevent <a name="page230"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 230</span>it. Sir John, ruffled by +disappointment, will be in no cue to listen to any claims on his +kindness, especially one of a nature so serious, more especially +as the very existence of such a complaint, criminates his past +conduct.”</p> +<p>It struck our hero, that it would be well to make the +benevolent bishop acquainted with his tale, and take his advice; +with which suggestion, Mr. Martyn entirely agreed.</p> +<p>“The Bishop,” observed the latter, “is an +early man, generally, and will, no doubt, be the first to call +this morning.” While they were yet speaking, a +servant announced Sir John Wynn’s carriage; and before Mr. +Martyn could reply, or rise from his chair, Sir John Wynn +entered. Martyn, rising with a bland countenance, met the +Baronet’s advances with courtesy, if not cordiality. +Our hero having retired to the window, was unseen by Sir John, +although Twm seized the opportunity of exercising all his powers +of observation.</p> +<p>“Well, I am the first in the field, I see,” +observed the Baronet; “and now, my dear Mr. Martyn, let me +again impress you with the sense of the wrongs I endured from +this ungrateful Priest, this Bishop of my own +making.” “My dear Sir John,” replied +Martyn, “he may arrive this instant, and then see how +unseemly it will be to find you touching on the case before his +arrival, and me your unbiassed umpire.”</p> +<p>“Oh, Martyn, Martyn!” replied the Baronet, +disregarding the delicacy of the appeal, “there is no grief +like the grief of unkindness; he rewarded me with evil for good, +to the great discomfort of my soul. I may well say so, and +justly complain to you of my Lord of St. Asaph, who, besides what +his ancestors received of mine, is in many matters beholden to +me. My mind is eased by opening to you his hard dealings +with me, and my benefits towards him;—but who is +that?”</p> +<p>Our hero, feeling the awkwardness of his situation, had +coughed gently, to inform the gentleman of his presence, and +while making towards the door, was not <a +name="page231"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +231</span>ungracefully apologizing for his presence. He +stopped as Mr. Martyn took his hand, and replied, “A young +countryman of yours, Sir John; or, I should say, a South Walian, +whom I beg leave to introduce to you as my friend.”</p> +<p>“Ha, ha!” cried Sir John, with his constitutional +heartiness, “a young Welshman, a countryman of my own; your +hand, Sir!” and the old gentleman shook it with a friendly +feeling towards his country, if not the individual. +“I could have sworn,” continued Sir John, “he +was a native of our glorious mountain land, by his frank open +countenance, and healthy look, unlike your suet-pudding-faced +cockneys here.”</p> +<p>A servant answering the bell, Mr. Martyn desired that his son +should show his guest to the picture gallery, on which our hero +withdrew, with a tear in his eye which he found it impossible to +suppress, when he felt the pressure of his father’s +hand.</p> +<p>The parlour door being closed, Martyn recounted briefly our +hero’s adventures, in bringing him a considerable sum of +money, from Carmarthenshire. Sir John gave one of his most +loud and hearty laughs, when he heard how he outwitted the +notorious Tom Dorbell. But when he related his part in the +rescue of the Bishop, at the imminent peril of his life, the +Baronet grew serious; but giving way to his spleen against the +prelate, he replied, “I wish he had saved some one more +worthy of his bravery!—but, Martyn, I must be better +acquainted with this gallant. A brave young Welshman like +this, should be known, noted, and patronized! but perhaps he has +abundance of friends without my thought of him.”</p> +<p>“Not so, Sir John, he is a stranger in London, and +almost friendless anywhere,—he is a natural son; but you +may hear his history hereafter,” replied Mr. Martyn, almost +pointedly, as he fixed his eyes on the Baronet.</p> +<p>This was not unobserved by him, as he smiled, and said, +“You mean something, Martyn; but let it pass <a +name="page232"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 232</span>for the +present; so let us proceed with this matter of mine.”</p> +<p>“In honour and truth, I can hear no more till his +lordship arrives,” was the reply.</p> +<p>“Well, why doesn’t he come, then,” said Sir +John, with the unamiable frown that at times distinguished him; +adding, rather superciliously, “is it fitting Mr. Martyn, +that the head of the house of Gwydir should be waiting the +leisure of this parson lord,—I shall drive out a little, +and let him wait for me in his turn.”</p> +<p>Sir John took a quick turn towards the door, but, stopping +suddenly, said he would join the young men in the picture +gallery, where, accompanied by Mr. Martyn, he went. With +the younger Martyn, the Baronet was well enough acquainted; and +now his aim was to chat with our hero.</p> +<p>Twm became a little agitated as he found himself in close +contact with his father, and a something like an equality in +society, since they were both friends in the same family. +True, this was really owing to the accident of circumstances, but +Twm was there fairly upon his own merits, and not by +imposition. Sir John asked him particulars concerning his +adventures on the highway, and Twm, throwing all his natural wit +into the account, made a favourable impression on his father.</p> +<p>The Martyns, father and son, being summoned down stairs, the +stately baronet was left alone with his humble and unknown +son. Twm looked towards the walls, with some feelings of +awkwardness. The old-fashioned gallery was hung with +numerous paintings: portraits by Holbein and Vandyke, with +interesting and humorous pieces by foreign masters. Sir +John pointed out and warmly expatiated on the merits and +peculiarities of the various schools, fixing his eyes more on our +hero’s face than on the paintings, to measure the extent of +his taste and intellect by the effect they might produce on him; +for the Baronet was quite an enthusiast in the fine arts, and +would be quick in discovering whether or not he <a +name="page233"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 233</span>was +throwing away his observations on a blockhead. He was not +slow in observing the evidence of mind in his auditor, from the +deep interest which he took in his details; but he especially +remarked that his fancy was principally taken by the drolleries +and homeliness of the Dutch and Flemish pictures, in one of which +Twm fancied he saw a resemblance to Carmarthen Jack, his aunt +Juggy, of hump-backed peculiarity, and even a counterpart to the +starveling Moses. Apologizing for the rusticity of his +taste, he owned his admiration of the boors and the lowly +damsels, as they reminded him of some such, the familiars of his +childhood in Wales.</p> +<p>“And where might that be passed?” enquired the +Baronet, smilingly.</p> +<p>“In the humble town of Tregaron, in +Cardiganshire,” replied Twm.</p> +<p>“Who are the principal gentry in that +neighbourhood?” enquired the Baronet. When Twm +mentioned Squire Graspacre and his late lady, Sir John looked him +hard in the face; then, silently fixing his eyes on the floor, he +recollected a certain passage in his life, that prevented him +visiting Graspacre-Hall, from the dread he entertained of the +censures and lectures of his decorous and straight-laced sister, +Mrs. Graspacre.</p> +<p>“Did you know the lady you mentioned, Mrs. +Graspacre?” enquired the baronet. “Very well, +Sir John,” was Twm’s reply, “I have great +reason, for, to that lady’s benevolence I am indebted for +the little education I have received.”</p> +<p>Now, Sir John knew very well that his sister was anything but +benevolent, so that by this assertion our hero lost a little in +his opinion, and he suspected him of a little cant.</p> +<p>“If she sent you to school, she had some motive; what +was it?” “I am a natural son, Sir John, which, +perhaps Mr. Martyn informed you of: the lady sent me to school, +because one of her great relations was said to be my +father,” replied Twm, fixing his eyes on the <a +name="page234"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +234</span>baronet’s face, which he had the satisfaction of +seeing quail beneath his riveting gaze.</p> +<p>Recovering himself, however, he cast a severe look on our +hero, and, in a harsh tone and manner, said, “Now must I +doubt all your assertions, as one falsehood is apparent to +me. The lady you named was my sister, and certain it is +that no relation of hers could be your father.”</p> +<p>Here the lion in our hero’s heart was roused, and he +indignantly repelled the charge of falsehood, saying that he +expected neither truth nor honour from his father, since he was +known to him.</p> +<p>“And what may be your father’s name then?” +asked the Baronet, biting his lip, to prevent the laughter that +seemed ready to burst out. “Sir John Wynn of +Gwydir!” exclaimed Twm in a dare-devil strain, that made +the Baronet start at his vehemence. Admiring the fire that +flashed in his eyes, his honest, fearless, and energetic +behaviour, Sir John opened his arms, and received him in his +embrace!</p> +<p>When Mr. Martyn came to announce the arrival of the bishop, he +found our hero sobbing on his father’s neck, who soothed +him by promises, that the neglect of years should now be +remedied, and that he was glad and proud of the original, which +he found in Mr. Martyn’s picture gallery.</p> +<p>The interview had ended very differently to what Twm and Mr. +Martyn had expected, and our hero felt grateful to a protecting +Providence which had so ordered events.</p> +<p>Sir John and Mr. Martyn descended, and our hero was left alone +in the picture gallery. They joined the worthy Bishop at +the table in the old-fashioned saloon, which, being overlooked +from the rails of the gallery, Twm saw and heard all that passed, +by the particular invitation of his worthy host.</p> +<p>The Bishop commenced addressing Mr. Martyn:—</p> +<p>“We are here met to-day, Mr. Martyn,” said he, +“to submit to your arbitration, a matter in dispute between +Sir John and myself. Sir John has expressed <a +name="page235"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 235</span>himself to +you with reference to me, in an unfriendly manner, yet I have +every confidence in your impartial judgment.” Here +Mr. Martyn bowed, and Sir John, coughing to keep down his choler, +of which he had as good a share as ever fell to the lot of a +Cambro Briton, flourished his laced cambric handkerchief about +his face, as he added, “His lordship cannot be more glad of +an unbiassed umpire than I am myself, Mr. Martyn.”</p> +<p>The Bishop continued:—“Sir John’s request to +me, was, that I would confirm a lease for three lives, upon the +rectory of Llanrwst, at the yearly rent of fifty pounds; the same +being worth one hundred and forty pounds, and is of my +patronage. This request much perplexed my mind, for it +grieved me to deny Sir John anything, yet my conscience cried +aloud against such a grant, so prejudicial to the church itself, +and especially to the next incumbent, whom I should have +grievously wronged by beggaring the See, and injuring the living +for future Clergymen.”</p> +<p>Here the Bishop resumed his seat, and the Baronet with great +assumption of stateliness, rose and spoke in a slow and +acrimonious strain.</p> +<p>“The sower went out to sow; and some of his seed fell in +stony ground, where it withered, because it took not root; the +seed was good, but the land nought. I may justly say so by +you, my lord. I have in all things showed myself a friend, +my lord; inasmuch that if I had not pointed the way with my +finger, whereof I have yet good testimony, your lordship would +have been still humble vicar of Llaurhaiader.”</p> +<p>The Bishop, without rising, mildly replied, “You have +done me much kindness, Sir John, but no dishonest kindness; nor +do I mean to deny you any of your fair requests.”</p> +<p>“I am really much obliged to your lordship, for your +present good opinion,” replied the Baronet, with sneering +courtesy, “more particularly that you express your opinion +before Mr. Martyn. But the words you <a +name="page236"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 236</span>have just +uttered agree only indifferently with others you have at various +times used in reference to me.”</p> +<p>“Good Sir John,” replied the Bishop, “you do +wrong me very much to say so.”</p> +<p>Sir John replied with much warmth, “I have good proof, +my lord, that you protested to your late servant, Thomas Vaughan, +that all the good I ever did you, when vicar of Llaurhaiader, was +to go to Llandda Church, and with my family add so much to your +scanty congregation there; and, forsooth! that I had once on a +time sent you a fat ox, on your installation in the See of Asaph; +truly, my lord, this is to strain at a gnat, and swallow a +camel.”</p> +<p>The good Bishop’s reply was mild and conciliating. +“Good Sir John, you wrong yourself as much as me, to +believe such idle sayings. If this were not a case of +conscience, you should not need to ask me twice; remembering +ancient kindness, your request is of great force to +me.”</p> +<p>“You plead conscience when you should give, and make no +pains to receive courtesy of your friends,” replied Sir +John. Then, changing from the sarcastic tone in which this +was uttered to one of vehemence, he proceeded. “But I +appeal to Him who searches the consciences of all men, whether +you have used me well; and whether conscience, which you have +ever in your mouth, be the sole hindrance of my request. I +will avow and justify it before the greatest divines in England, +that has always been the usage, now is, and ever will be, that a +man may with a safe conscience be a farmer of a living, paying in +effect for the same as much as it is worth. I stand on your +word, my lord of St. Asaph, your sacred word of promise, the +confirmation of my lease and the advowson.”</p> +<p>Temperate and patient still was the Prelate’s +reply. “I made no such promise; my words were +‘that I would be very loath to confirm any lease upon any +presentative benefice; that I would do as much, and more for you, +than for any other; that if I would confirm any <a +name="page237"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 237</span>lease, +yours would be the first.’ In conclusion, I never did +confirm any, nor do I mean so to do; therefore is such +conditional promise void, and my honour and word sufficiently +vindicated.”</p> +<p>The Baronet tenaciously urged,—“It is well known +that your Lordship has favoured others in such a +matter.”</p> +<p>“Not so,” replied the Bishop, rather more +impatiently; “you well know there is a difference between +granting a lease of our own, and confirming the lease of another; +between a presentative benefice and an impropriation; between a +public usage and a private one: still you refuse to note these +distinctions, and exclaim that I have confirmed the lease, and +will not, according to my promise, confirm yours.”</p> +<p>The last remark of the Bishop’s appeared to be +unanswerable, and Sir John seemed to think so too, as, instead of +replying to the argument directly, he began to beg the question, +and give way to the overbearing petulance of a spoiled child of +fortune.</p> +<p>“It is not,” replied he, “the loss of the +thing that I regard a dobkin, but your unkind dealing; it shall +lessen me hereafter to expect no sweet fruit from so sour a +stock. But my lord of St. Asaph, you know my stand in the +world. I never have been a man to make requests and be +denied; therefore having never failed before in my requests, my +grief is the greater.”</p> +<p>“Pray Heaven, Sir John, that your grief of missing be +not like Ahab’s grief for Naboth’s vineyard,” +was the Bishop’s pithy and characteristic reply.</p> +<p>Here Sir John sprang to his feet, exclaiming almost fiercely, +“My lord, my lord, I am not of a nature to put up with +wrongs; for as I have studied for your good, and wrought the +same, so be assured of me as bitter an enemy as ever I was a +steadfast friend!”</p> +<p>“A fiery little father have I found to-day,” +thought Twm, as he noticed the vehemence of the baronet.</p> +<p>“I am ashamed of you,” continued he, “almost +forgetting the courtesy of a gentleman, and the firm, <a +name="page238"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 238</span>but mild +and patriachal character of the Bishop. I am ashamed for +you, that you have hereby given cause to your enemies and mine to +descant on the ingrate disposition. You have made use of +gentlemen when they serve you, and afterwards discard them, on +the pretence of conscience, forsooth! I laboured in your +cause, my lord, as if it had been to save the life of one of my +children.”</p> +<p>These hard uncompromising words did not exasperate the +venerable prelate, whose command of temper under trying +circumstances, and unjust aspersions, was worthy of his +reputation. He rose with dignified demeanour, and said, +“Amongst other kindnesses, Sir John you gave good testimony +of me; I pray you let me continue worthy of it; so many chips +have been already hewed from the church, that it is ready to +fall; you ought rather to help than to despoil it. Thus it +stands with us, Sir John, which I pray you Mr. Martyn note. +You ask of me certain leases—you ask me to injure my +successor in my diocese, to benefit you! you urge the favours I +have received at your hands, and claim from me rewards that are +not mine to give. Were I to grant your desires I should +prove myself a dishonest, unconscionable, irreligious man, a +sacrilegious robber of the church, a perfidious spoiler of my +diocese, and an unnatural foe to preachers and scholars. I +do verily think it were better to rob on the highway than to do +the thing you request. However hard you may take my denial, +be it known to you, if the father and mother whom I loved and +honoured were alive and made such requests, I should have the +grace to say nay.”</p> +<p>The Bishop took his seat, and began to repeat his regrets, +when the Baronet started from the table, and in a furious mood +began to pace the saloon to and fro; but stopping suddenly he +exclaimed, “Your verbal love I esteem as nothing! I +have ten sons—(eleven interrupted the Bishop, with quite +jocoseness;) I say I have ten sons,” repeated the Baronet; +and “if <a name="page239"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +239</span>ever they forget this,”—“Eleven sons +and the last as good as the best;” interrupted the Bishop +again. “But where is this gallant +deliverer?”</p> +<p>Mr. Martyn beckoned our hero down, while Sir John suddenly +resumed his seat at the table. On the good Prelate’s +pressing Twm to name in what manner he could reward his services, +he at last replied, “By yielding to Sir John’s +request as far as your Lordship sees right.”</p> +<p>The whole party stared with amazement at the unexpected +reply. The Baronet was softened to tears, and but for +compromising his dignity, would have embraced him before them +all. The Bishop smiled, and shaking his hand very cordially +replied, “The request is as graceful in you to make as in +me, to deny; that question is disposed of. In a few days I +will call again, when you may decide in what I can be of service +to you.”</p> +<p>He then took a courteous leave of Mr. Martyn and of our hero, +with a ceremonious bow to Sir John, and departed. Right +glad was Martyn to be relieved, by the temper of the Baronet, +from the unpleasant office of an arbitrator of their +differences.</p> +<h2>CHAPTER XXXI.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm"><span class="smcap">Twm</span> meets one of +his best friends from Wales. Death of Sir George +Devereaux. Hopes and fears. Interruption of happy +hours. Lady Devereaux’s forced return to Wales. +Twm follows her.</p> +<p>Our hero was now living amongst the <i>elite</i> of the +metropolis, and his daily communion with men of taste, feeling, +and education, produced a quick and remarkable change for the +better in his manners and personal appearance. His +new-found father assisted him largely in his finances, and a +handsome pecuniary present from the worthy bishop, accompanied +with a <a name="page240"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +240</span>complimentary letter, which was doubly gratifying to +him, as emanating from so respectable a source.</p> +<p>When he had been eight months in London, he was sitting alone +one morning in Mr. Martyn’s picture gallery, intently +pondering on his future plans of life, considering whether to +return to his friends at Ystrad Feen, or seek employment in +town. His reverie was disturbed by a servant’s +informing him that a gentleman was waiting to see him.</p> +<p>On his descent to the parlour, great and gratifying was his +surprise to meet there his old friend Rhys. The cordiality +of their mutual greetings but faintly echoed the ardour of their +feelings. News from the country was our hero’s first +inquiry, and Rhys assured him he had an abundance to +relate. Gwenny Cadwgan is married, and living with her +husband and father on a fine farm at Kevencoer-Cummer, near +Merthyr. Walt the mole-catcher is transported, having +narrowly escaped the gallows. Your mother and step-father +are well. “So much for Tregaron news,” said +Rhys; “and now for Ystrad Feen and Llandovery. A +singular coincidence,—in the same week we lost the +venerable Vicar Prichard, and your friend Sir George +Devereaux.”</p> +<p>“The last is a climax indeed to your budget; but is it +really a fact that Sir George is no more?” enquired Twm, +looking hard in his friend’s face.</p> +<p>“Fact as deeth! as the Scotchman says,” replied +Rhys; “He threw his life away in one of his foolish +fox-hunting leaps.”</p> +<p>“Well, well! I am truly sorry,” exclaimed +Twm, “for he was a kind being.” “He was +so; but tell me truly,” said Rhys, looking archly in his +friend’s eyes, “is it for death, or his lady’s +being left so young a widow, that your sorrow is most +intense?” Twm looked grave, but finally smiled, as +Rhys, with great archness, added, “It somewhat strikes me +that this is a sorrow which you will soon get over; and, if I +mistake not, so will the widow too.”</p> +<p>Here Twm took his hand, and said, “You look deeper into +the hearts of men than I thought; but listen to a <a +name="page241"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 241</span>mystery and +expound the dream that has so long haunted me.”</p> +<p>Here he related the particulars of the “glorious +vision” in the hay-loft of Morris Greeg, and of its +repetition since he came to London; “and strange to +say,” added he, “it was in widow’s weeds the +fair spirit each time appeared. What can be the meaning or +end of such dreams?” “I’ll tell +thee,” answered Rhys, leaning on his shoulder and looking +in his face; “Dreams long nursed, especially waking dreams, +in time become realities—so will yours; you will marry this +young widow, Twm!”</p> +<p>“Me! impossible!” cried Twm, blushing from the +chin to the forehead. “Oh, very well, I’ll +court her myself, then!” cried Rhys; on which they both +burst into a most hearty laugh.</p> +<p>Our hero was growing silent and meditative, when Rhys, +striking him a hearty smack on the shoulder, asked, “What +would you say now, if the fair widow was herself in town at this +moment?”</p> +<p>“What!” cried Twm, starting up, with an expression +of interest that nothing could repress. Rhys in a most +serious strain, assured him that her father, being chosen a +knight of the shire for the ancient county of Brecon, was now in +town with his widowed daughter. That he had ridden to town +in their company, by which he had availed himself of a safe +escort from the dangers of the road. Rhys added, that he +had frequently conversed with the Lady Devereaux, both at home +and on the journey, and that he, Master Thomas Jones, had always +been the subject of her conversation and eulogy.</p> +<p>Very shortly after this conversation, in fact as shortly after +as sufficed to take Twm and his friend Rhys to the town-house of +Sir John Price, which was situated in Derby-street, Westminster, +our hero was shaking hands and exchanging hearty good-wishes and +congratulations with the “lady of his dream.” +His recollection of his dearly-cherished vision was now <a +name="page242"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 242</span>stronger +than ever, in consequence of the widows’ cap which she had +lately assumed.</p> +<p>On the part of Sir John, our hero’s reception was more +ceremonious than friendly, but the feeling evinced in his +daughter’s eyes, and the speaking pressure of her hand, +made ample amends for the baronet’s stately coldness.</p> +<p>Having dined together, Sir John retired early on a more +ceremonial visit, and the three friends were left together; for +Lady Devereaux held Rhys in great esteem for his high +professional character, and unassuming manners; and, in truth, we +must add, more than all, for the friendship evinced by him for +our hero, and the friendly way in which he spoke of him in his +absence. It was with surprise and regret they heard the +announcement of Rhys’ intention (being now superceded in +his curacy by the new incumbent,) of quitting his country and +entering a foreign university, to seek in a far land that +consideration and advancement not attainable in his own.</p> +<p>Lady Devereaux being only in the fifth month of her widowhood, +the conversation, although kindly in the extreme, was of a +melancholy cast. Rhys having to embark in the morning, +urged the necessity of retiring early, and took his final leave +of the fair widow, who expressed the kindest wishes for his +prosperity and success in all undertakings.</p> +<p>Accompanying his friend, Twm bade her adieu for the evening, +and gained her leave to repeat his visit on the morrow. The +permission to repeat his visits was eagerly seized by Twm, and +not once a day only, but many times did he trouble Sir +John’s stately domestic to open the door to him. That +he was welcome by the fair enchantress, he could not doubt, and +pleasant were the mid-day walks in the Park or Mall, their indoor +conferences, and the evening parties at which they shone as +twin-stars; but trebly pleasant to our hero was the hour in which +he ventured to break to her his tender feelings and his darling +hopes.</p> +<p><a name="page243"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 243</span>With +the utmost candour, and without the least reservation, he told +the humbleness of his origin, the blemish in his birth, his +wretched bringing-up, and withal, the mysterious matter of his +glorious vision. The assertion that the moment he beheld +her, on rescuing her from the robber, he identified her face and +figure with the lady of his dream, called forth her deepest +blushes, and she audibly whispered +“Incredible!” His repeated assertions, +passionately urged, of the truth of his assertion, silenced and +perhaps convinced her.</p> +<p>Certain it is that, like the gentle Desdemona, “She gave +him for his pains a world of sighs;” and time evinced to +him that the lady had a tale to tell also, which proved that +although highly born, and affluent as she was, her lot had not +been entire sunshine.</p> +<p>“I am yet hardly twenty-one,” replied she, +“although I have been twice married. To neither of +these husbands have I been able to give my entire heart. My +first union was at my father’s <i>command</i>, when +solicitations proved useless, to his contemporary and old +schoolfellow, who was old-fashioned enough to restore the +long-exploded <i>abs</i> in his name, vaunting himself as Thomas +ab Rhys ab Thomas Gock, of Ystrad Feen; who could carry on the +antique and rusty chain of <i>abs</i>, without a broken link, +through several centuries up to the patriarch of his tribe, +Elystan Glodrydd.</p> +<p>“Poor old gentleman! I fed him with a pap-spoon, +in his large gothic arm-chair, when a stroke of paralysis had +withered his right hand; but in six months after our marriage +(marriage!) he fell a victim to his ruling passion, which I will +not name to his disparagement, and died of apoplexy. My +year’s mourning for him had barely expired, when my mother +claimed her right of choosing my next husband; and, in the course +of time, poor Sir George (peace to the memory of a harmless man!) +became my second husband. Had I lived to these days +unwedded,” said she, with a look and tone of resolute +firmness, almost foreign to her usual gentleness, “it is +more than probable that I <a name="page244"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 244</span>should not have become the victim of +either of my parents’ whims.”</p> +<p>“My poor mother has been long deceased; but well I know +my father’s future aim respecting me—to have me +united to some other choice of his own; but no! the sapling may +bend to the storm, but, springing up again, who shall re-bend the +youthful oak that time matures? If my good father inclines +to play the tyrant with me, he will find some difference between +the woman and the child.” Applauding her resolution, +Twm, kissed her hand with rapture; and, she added in a tone of +gaiety, “if ever I change my state, I shall become the +votary of a different shrine to any that I have yet bowed +to;”</p> +<blockquote><p>“The little god shall shoot the porch,<br /> +Ere faithful Hymen waves his torch.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>With that expressive couplet, she rose, and our hero, with +enlarged hopes, took a tender, but restrained and respectful +leave of her.</p> +<p>If Twm was heartily welcomed by Lady Devereaux, he was no less +heartily disliked by her father. Sir John had learnt that +he was a natural son of Sir John Wynn of Gwydir’s, and no +earthly merit could compensate, in his estimation, the bar of +bastardy in his escutcheon. He sternly desired his daughter +to break off all intercourse with our hero, as he had discovered, +he said, the baseness of his origin. Although Twm appeared +no more in his house, he had the mortification to learn that at +the play, the ball, and in the Park and Mall, their meetings had +been frequent. In a bitter spirit of resentment against his +daughter, without the least previous warning, he one morning +compelled her roughly to enter a coach at the door, which soon +drove off, taking her she knew not whither.</p> +<p>Our hero’s surmises became numerous and agonizing, when +for three long weeks he had neither seen nor heard from his +charmer, although he had not missed one opportunity of +encountering her at any of <a name="page245"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 245</span>their accustomed places of meeting, +and his days became burdensome, and his nights sleepless. +Just as he was sinking into a state of despondency, he one +evening received a note in the hand of Lady Devereaux, informing +him of her forcible conveyance to, and safe arrival at Ystrad +Feen. His father having long since returned to North Wales, +he took an affectionate but hasty leave of the hospitable family +of the Martyns, and commenced his journey to his native +principality.</p> +<h2>CHAPTER XXXII.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm"><span class="smcap">Twm</span> in Wales +again. His meeting with the “lady of his +dream.” “The course of true love never did run +smooth,” which Twm ruefully acknowledges.</p> +<p>The dangers of the road had been somewhat reduced by the +vigorous prosecution of highwaymen and robbers, many of whom had +been lately convicted and executed. Travellers could pursue +their way in comparative security, so Twm encountered no +“hair-breadth escapes by flood or field” and his +journey home, consequently added no exciting incident to swell +his gallant reputation. At Reading, he heard of the late +execution there of his former antagonist Tom Dorbell.</p> +<p>Our hero’s impatience towards the close of his journey +was so great that he rode all night, that he might reach Ystrad +Feen a day earlier. How would the “lady of his +dream” receive him? With what delight would he not +gaze upon her dear face again! When Twm, mounted on a +goodly steed, dashed into the court-yard, Lady Devereaux, who +witnessed his arrival sprang from her seat and hurried to meet +him as he reached the entrance hall. We fear, for the +honour of prudery, that her resistance was not very great.</p> +<p><a name="page246"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 246</span>When +our gallant hero caught her in his arms, and impressed a certain +number of kisses somewhere about the region of the cheeks and +lips, both of which looked many degrees redder than when, a few +minutes before, she complained to Miss Meredith of his strange +delay in town.</p> +<p>“Kiss her also, so that she can’t tell tales of +me!” said the gay young widow; so Twm, somewhat less +ardently, kissed Miss Meredith, and seemed to look about to see +if there were any more business of that kind on hand.</p> +<p>“My dear Mr. Jones, you are welcome, most welcome, back +to Wales, and trebly welcome to me, and the lonely walls of +Ystrad Feen,” were the kind Lady Joan’s first +words. Neither of the ladies was slow in discovering the +change for the better which had taken place in his address, his +former diffidence and indecision of manner being supplanted by +easy confidence, and high animal spirits.</p> +<p>Twm was now, indeed, happy with the “lady of his +dream;” for he was on much more intimate terms with her +than he had, at one time, ever hoped to be. She told him +that when her father so suddenly forced her into the coach, to be +hurried towards the country, she was joined by two lofty ladies, +his maiden sisters, who literally became her jailors in the +travelling vehicle. Our hero remembered them well, from +seeing them at cards one evening at their brother’s; and he +did not fail to describe them to young Martyn, as ugly as +heartless pride, ill-temper, long saturnine noses, yellow ribbons +and slippers, could make them.</p> +<p>The ancient gentlewomen had chosen the state of ceaseless +virginity, they said, to keep up the dignity of the family, +which, in their persons, they proudly added, should never be +lowered by an unworthy alliance. During their homeward +journey, they entertained their victim with ingenious reproaches +and disparaging observations respecting “the strange young +man who had obtruded himself into their brother’s +house—the unknown Mr. Jones.”</p> +<p><a name="page247"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +247</span>“Why, the creature has no family,” observed +the long-waisted Miss Felina Tomtabby Price. +“Then,” replied our heroine, “he is never +likely to be pestered with the claims of poor relations, nor the +persecution of rich ones.” “No, he is of no +stock,” said Miss Euphemia Polparrot Price, following up +her sister’s remark; “the creature was only born +yesterday.” “Then he is singularly young and +harmless,” answered the lady of Ystrad Feen. +“And, above all blemishes, he is base-born,” added +Miss Felina Tomtabby Price. “That is less his fault +than his misfortune, as the Irishman said who warranted his blind +mare free from faults,” answered their merry niece.</p> +<p>The young lady was evidently more than a match for the two +elder ones, and so these ancient gentlewomen kept a dignified +silence, or spoke only to each other, during the rest of the +journey; which terminated at length by their seeing her to Ystrad +Feen, and betaking themselves to the Priory House at Brecon.</p> +<p>In the course of many private conversations between Miss +Meredith and the young widow, the subject of which discourses, +strange to say, being invariably Twm himself; she declared +herself delighted with him, and Twm, it was easy to see, returned +the compliment with interest. At her invitation, he became +an inmate of the house, until, as she said, he could put himself +to rights. The golden chain and sum of money left to her +care, were delivered up to him with considerable additions, in +return for his services by a journey to London and from her own +private bounty.</p> +<p>With the evident encouragement vouchsafed to him by the lady +of Ystrad Feen, Twm was soon madly and irrecoverably lost in his +warm affection for her, and there is nothing to surprise any +reasonable being when he is told that Twm, with energetic +enthusiasm, protested that he admired—nay, loved her! +If the lady chided him, it was with such winning gentleness that +it seemed to say, “Pray, do so again.” If she +turned aside her head to conceal her blushes, smiles ever +accompanied them, in coming and retreating; or if <a +name="page248"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 248</span>she +frowned, it was so equivocally, that, for the life of him, our +hero could not help considering each transient bend of the brow +as so many invitations to kiss them away, which the gallant Twm +never failed to accept and obey.</p> +<p>These golden days were too rich in delight to last long. +As the <i>good-natured and most virtuous world</i> discovered +that they were very happy, and pleased with each other, it +breathed forth its malignant spirit, and doubted whether they had +a legitimate right to be so; of course, deciding negatively, and +consequently awarding to the lovers the pains and penalties of +persecution and mutual banishment.</p> +<p>When they had become for some time, undivided companions, and +walked, rode, danced at Brecon balls, and resided under the same +roof together, although under the strict guidance of moral +propriety, as daily witnessed by the lady’s female friend; +it will be no wonder that scandal at last became busy with the +lady’s fame. An additional incentive for raising +these evil reports was that she had rejected the attentions of +several of the rural noblesse, who had endeavoured to recommend +themselves to her good graces.</p> +<p>All at once like the inmates of a hornet’s nest, the +various members of her family, the proud Prices of Brecon, buzzed +about her ears and stung her with their reproaches. She +bore all with determined patience, until assured that her fame +had been vilified, and that she had been described as living a +life of profligacy and dishonour. Conscious of rectitude, +however indiscreet she might have been, the haughtiness of her +spirit now rose, as she indignantly repelled the infamous +charges; in the end, requested her <i>dear friends and +relations</i> to dismiss their tender fears for her reputation, +and keep to their own homes for the future, or at least not to +trouble hers.</p> +<p>Although she had treated her officious friends with the +contumely they deserved, she could not afford to set at nought, +altogether, the opinions of the little world in which she lived; +and, tired, irritated, and <a name="page249"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 249</span>vexed, by hearing the same tale from +day to day, she at last consented to send away her deliverer and +friend, as she called him, from the protection of her roof. +Our hero, however, could never be brought to distinguish between +her real kind feelings towards him, and the constrained +appearance which her altered conduct made in his sight.</p> +<p>Free as the air, as he felt himself, he could not understand +why a great and wealthy lady was not equally unshackled and +independent. Explanations and excuses were entirely thrown +away upon him, as he could not, or would not, understand aught so +opposed to his happiness and pre-conceived notions.</p> +<p>When, at length, it was made known to him that the separation +was inevitable, and the season of it arrived, he received the +astounding intelligence like a severe blow of fortune, that +struck him at once both sorrowful and meditative. Pride and +resentment, from a supposed sense of injury at last supplanted +every other feeling; and, starting up with a frenzied effort, he +ordered his horse to be got ready, and gave directions for his +things to be forwarded to Llandovery; after which, he wrote a +note, and sent it to the lady’s room requesting a momentary +interview with her alone, before he took his departure.</p> +<p>She came down with a slow, languid step, and met him in the +parlour. Her eyes were red with weeping; and, before she +uttered a syllable, our hero’s much-altered looks affected +her so much, that she burst out into a heavy fit of +sobbing. “Do not think hardly—do not feel +unkindly towards me, Jones,” were her first words! +“I entreat you to give me the credit due to my sincerity, +when I assure you that the sacrifice I made on consenting to part +with you, was—yes! although I have buried two husbands who +loved me tenderly, it was the heaviest of my life.”</p> +<p>Twm replied in a tone and manner that evinced both his pride +and his suffering; “I have but few words, madame, and they +shall not long intrude upon your leisure. I came here a +stranger, and had some <a name="page250"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 250</span>trifling claims, perhaps, on your +attention. Those claims have been more than +satisfied—noble has been your remuneration of my humble +services, your beneficence generous and princely.</p> +<p>“A change took place in your destiny; you honoured me +beyond my merits, and bade me stand to the world in a new +character. You called me friend, your sole friend, in a +faithless world; nay, lady, your lover; I loved, and love you +with a pure but unconquerable flame! Blame me not if I am +presumptuous;—it was your own condescension, your own +encouragement, that made me so, and elevated me to an equality +with yourself. You gave me hopes to be the future, the only +husband of your choice. You stretched forth your hand to +aid my efforts, as I eagerly climbed towards the darling object +of my aim; but before I attained the summit, you, madame, in the +spirit of caprice or treachery, dashed me headlong downwards, to +perish in despair.</p> +<p>“Your great and wealthy friends will praise you for +this, while the mincing madames and the insipid misses of Brecon +shall learn a noble lesson by your conduct, and emulating you, +become in their day as arrant coquettes and tramplers on manly +hearts, as their limited powers and vanity will permit. But +enough! you shall have your generous triumph,—and from this +hour I tread the world without an aim, a wanderer in the +wilderness, reckless of everything. Advancement, +estimation, I here abjure; nor, from this hour, would I raise my +hand to save from annihilation the being I am—for life is +henceforth hateful to me.</p> +<p>“Lady, farewell!—never more will I cross your +path; but you may hear of my wayward steps,—and if in me +you are told of a wretched idiot, a being whose mind had perished +while his frame was strong, remember that it was yourself who +wrought that mental desolation. Or, if they name me as a +lawless being, plunged head-long into deeds of guilt, remember it +is you, you, madame, who are the authoress of my crimes and +sorrows, and, may be, of an ignominious death. And <a +name="page251"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 251</span>now, +madame, farewell!” On which he darted out, mounted +his horse, and rode off; while the unhappy lady of Ystrad Feen, +whose agitation choked her utterance, caught a last glimpse of +him, and fell on the parlour floor in a swoon.</p> +<h2>CHAPTER XXXIII.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm"><span class="smcap">Fine</span> Arts at a +discount. Hungry Moses, whose appetite was his ruin. +New tricks and jokes on Ready Rosser. Parson Inco once +more.</p> +<p>Twm left Ystrad Feen in no enviable state of mind. He +was in a similar temper to that of a child when deprived of a +favourite toy, and as he urged his horse with speed in the +direction of Llandovery, he determined never to place faith in +woman again,—a resolution which underwent some slight +modification before he reached the “Cat and Fiddle,” +a diminutive-looking ale-house, where for the present he decided +to take up his quarters.</p> +<p>Notwithstanding his chagrin, he could not help smiling at this +whimsical sign, then newly painted,—a droll-faced creature +of the feline race, drawn, as an enthusiast in melody, erect on +her hind feet, her eyes turned up in ecstacy, while her open +mouth seemed to be mewing music, or tow-rowing harmony at a fine +rate, in concord with the fiddle that she handled with the most +artist-like taste, and professional gravity. If the sign +was to his taste, a sort of homely snuggery in the form of a +small parlour, and a good-humoured-looking fat landlady, were no +less so.</p> +<p>Dinah Dew, the widowed mistress of the Cat and Fiddle informed +him that she owed her sign to the skill of a poor tramping +painter, who had run into her debt, to the enormous amount of +five shillings and sevenpence half-penny, for board, washing, +lodging, and drinking: and the poor fellow being penniless <a +name="page252"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 252</span>and without +work, “I let him free,” said she, “for the +sign, and gave him a shilling and a brown loaf over.”</p> +<p>This liberal patronage of the fine arts, (for the sign +included music, poetry, and painting,) gave Twm a favourable +opinion of his hostess. She apologized to him for the +absence of her hostler, and said he was a poor ragged fellow with +a pregnant wife, and two children; by trade a mat and basket +maker; also a waiter at two other taverns; and an occasional +husbandry servant with several farmers, who employed him in their +busy times. “The fellow is well enough,” said +the little round woman, “but for his cormorant appetite; +and eat what he may, he never looks better for it. Indeed +your horse would scarcely be safe with him, but that this is not +the most hungry time of year.”</p> +<p>“I knew such another once,” thought Twm, his mind +reverting to the hungry house of Morris Greeg; as he went forward +on his walk over the fields. The said “hostler” +soon overtook him, to ask his commands about his horse. Twm +looked with compassion on the ragged Guy Fawkes figure before +him, and conceived that he might earn a fair livelihood by merely +walking over the farmer’s grounds, as all the kites and +crows must inevitably flap their departing wings at his +approach. Twm looked into a keen pair of ferret eyes, that +glistened above a high-bridged parrot nose, and found no +difficulty in identifying the miserable Moses of past days.</p> +<p>Twm’s spirit of joking was rampant within him, +notwithstanding the morning’s vexations, and he determined +upon having a little fun, in refreshing Moses’s memory +regarding a few incidents which were best forgotten. +Assuming an attitude of tremendous importance, and overwhelming +authority, he commenced:</p> +<p>“You are the very fellow I have been long seeking. +You ran away from the comfortable and very plentiful house of +Morris Greeg, in Cardiganshire; after having in concert with a +young scamp, named Twm Shon Catty, eaten all his pork and +mutton.” Moses started and <a +name="page253"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 253</span>looked blue +as indigo. “I’ll have thee put in stocks, and +taken back to the house of that generous and most injured +man,” cried Twm, in the tone of a jack-in-office.</p> +<p>Compassionating the perplexity of the poor devil, he caught +his hand and cried, “Don’t you know me?—Twm, +your former fellow-starveling.” “Well, well! +who could have thought it!” cried the astonished Moses; +“dear, dear, what a many good dinners you must have had to +make you look so well.”</p> +<p>Twm assured him, he should have dinners too, if he behaved +himself, but charged him to be silent as to their former +acquaintance. Moses so bounced and bounded up, in token of +his rapture, that Twm feared the wind would bear away the poor +creature like a paper kite from him.</p> +<p>Poor fellow! anticipating warmth and comfort from such a +proceeding, he married a very fat widow of a butcher, who was +accomplished in her husband’s calling. Moses had +often sought the pleasant shelter of her slaughter-house, and +amusingly admired the dexterous and delicate manner in which she +cut the throats, and flayed the hides off the subjects that she +operated on; inasmuch that he conceived the creatures themselves +ought to be delighted at being so skilfully finished. After +he had wooed and won the widow, oftentimes, when she was almost +broken-hearted at her failing to sell certain joints towards the +close of the market-day, Moses would be in raptures, as he +feelingly observed, they would eat the unsold portion +themselves. Somehow their trade gradually declined, till +latterly it ceased altogether, and the widow was no longer a +butcher, owing, as she protested, to her husband’s being a +“huge feeder,” and the mysterious disappearance of +various joints that she suspected him of devouring in secret.</p> +<p>Where were now the lover’s despair and tears, his +dedication to a life of solitude, nay, his refusal even of +life? True, for some days, Twm stalked about in the +neighbourhood of the “Cat and Fiddle” as if his <a +name="page254"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 254</span>earthly +mission had been brought to a sudden termination; as if, like +Othello, his occupation was gone, and there was no likelihood of +any other suitable employment turning up. Alas for the +consistency of the lover!—days we repeat, and not weeks nor +months, much less years, of seclusion of this kind. He soon +illustrated the Shaksperian adage, “Men have died, and +worms have eaten them, but not for love.” But by him +everything was to be done by strokes of impulse. To banish +his cares, he plunged at once into intemperance; and from merely +tolerating a little cheerful company, he entered the society of +the greatest topers and madcaps to be found, till he emulated and +outdid the highest, and became the very prince of wags and +practical jokers.</p> +<p>He was of course recognized as the conqueror of the tremendous +Dio the Devil, and the acknowledged preserver of the lady of +Ystrad Feen, which, with his relation of many freaks and vagaries +in England, together with the assured fact that he had been once +to London, and spent a year there, gained him no inconsiderable +share of celebrity.</p> +<p>The good-humoured Justice Prothero, he found as merry, and as +much a friend as ever. “Fear not for the fair widow, +boy!” would he exclaim, slapping him heartily on the back; +“she’ll have thee yet, in spite of the long-nosed +Prices and their pedigrees.”</p> +<p>To divert him from his frequent fits of melancholy, and +dangerous freaks of folly among his newly-made companions at +Llandovery, Prothero would keep him a week at a time under his +friendly roof, and make trifling bets, to amuse him, by which +freaks he secured some enjoyment for himself also.</p> +<p>Ready Rosser again became his antagonist in these rustic feats +and stratagems. The first wager that Prothero laid, was of +twenty shillings, that Twm would not by his cunning decoy a sheep +out of the safe keeping of this worthy, as he was to fetch one +home for butchering on the morrow; but if he succeeded, the +mutton and the money would both <a name="page255"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 255</span>become his own; otherwise he would +forfeit that sum and resign the woolly victim to its owner. +To all this our hero agreed, and prepared accordingly.</p> +<p>Ready Rosser was as loud in bidding defiance to our hero, now +as he had been on a former occasion, where the result had +scarcely justified his extravagant bragging. He shouldered +his sheep, vowing before his grinning fellow-servants, who +grouped round to crack their jests on him, that the devil himself +should not deprive him of his burden. As he proceeded along +a part of the high road, up a slight ascent, he discovered with +surprise, a good leathern shoe lying in the mud. A shoe of +leather, be it known, in a country where wooden clogs are +generally worn, is no despicable prize. Rosser looked at +the object before him with a longing eye; but reflecting that one +shoe, however good, was useless unmatched with a fellow, spared +himself the trouble of stooping, for troublesome it would have +been with such a weight on his shoulders, and passed on without +lifting it. On walking a little farther, and going round a +bend in the road, great was his surprise on finding another shoe, +a fellow to the former, lying in the sledge mark, which like the +rut of a wheel, indented the mud with hollow stripes. In +the height of his joy he laid down the sheep, with its legs tied, +beside the shoe, and ran back for the other; when Twm Shon Catty, +watching his opportunity, sprang over the hedge, and seized his +prize, which he bore off securely; won his bet, and ate his +mutton undisturbed.</p> +<p>The termination of this sheep wager did not add to Ready +Rosser’s reputation, and that worthy was nearly beside +himself with rage, on finding himself again beaten. His +master, Squire Prothero, although the most good-humoured of +country gentlemen, was rather angry with Rosser, whose shrewdness +always became questionable when opposed to Twm’s. It +was admitted, in excuse, that the most cunning at times may be +accidentally over-reached by his inferior in wit. On this +plea the merry magistrate was conciliated, and induced into <a +name="page256"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 256</span>another +wager, precisely like the former, when a similar sum, against our +hero, and in favour of his servant, was laid and accepted. +The man of shrewdness, as before, determined to use the utmost +vigilance and caution to preserve his charge and redeem his +reputation. He grasped his load, which was a fine fat ewe, +most manfully, and swore violent oaths in answer to his +master’s exhortation to chariness, that human ingenuity +should never trick him again; but</p> +<blockquote><p>“Great protestations do make that +doubted,<br /> +Which we would else right willingly believe.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>In his way to Llangattock, he had to pass through a wood, +which he had scarcely entered, when the bleating of a sheep +attracted his attention, and he came to a dead stand, as he +intently listened to what he conceived a well-known voice. +“Baa—baa!” again saluted his ear. A +sudden conviction rushed across his mind, that this was the very +sheep he had before lost, which he imagined might have been +concealed by Twm in the recess of the woody dingle.</p> +<p>What a glorious chance, thought he, of recovering his lost +credit with his master, and depriving his antagonist of his +laurels! He instantly deposited his burden beneath a tree; +and eagerly forcing his way through the copse and bushes, he +followed the bleating a considerable way down the wood, when to +his great dismay it ceased altogether. A thought now struck +him, though rather too late, that the bleating proceeded from no +sheep, but a more subtle ram, in the presence of Twm Shon Catty; +he hurried back in a grievous fright, and found his surmises but +too true—the second sheep, and his high reputation for +shrewdness, had both taken flight together.</p> +<p>Moses’s face and figure began to improve, for he +received the greater proportion of the winnings both of money and +mutton, and he secretly thanked the good fortune which had +brought him into Twm’s service.</p> +<p>Squire Prothero, not yet being tired of our hero’s witty +genius and cunning cleverness, offered to oppose <a +name="page257"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 257</span>to his +cunning, the collective vigilance of his husbandmen and maidens; +laying a bet with him that he should not steal a white ox, with +which a black one was to be yoked to the plough. The plough +to be held by Rosser and driven by another servant; while two +girls, driving each a harrow, should also be on their guard, to +prevent his aim if possible.</p> +<p>There could be no doubt that Twm would accept this wager as he +had done the others, and accordingly he very obligingly undertook +to convey away the white ox, as he had formerly done the bull +Bishop; and to eat the gentleman’s beef, provided it turned +out sufficiently tender; protesting with a half yawn, and the +perfect ease of a modern Corinthian, that he was absolutely tired +of mutton, which he had too long persisted in eating, against the +judgment and advice of his physician.</p> +<p>The morning at length dawned, when the test of Twm’s +sagacity, the most severe to which it had yet been exposed, was +to be applied. The plough was guided and the cattle driven, +while two bare-footed maidens giggled and laughed till the rocks +echoed, as they whipped the horses and ran by their sides, till +the harrows bounced against the stones, and sometimes turned +over; their mirth was excited by the idea of Twm’s folly in +accepting such a bet, and thinking to steal the white ox from +under their noses, the impossibility of which was so evident.</p> +<p>The two servants at the plough also cracked and enjoyed their +clumsy jokes at the thought of our hero’s temerity, at the +same time keeping a wary eye in every direction, armed against +surprisals, and exulting in the thought that for once, at least, +the dexterous Twm would be baffled in his aim. Time went +on; the day waned away towards the evening, and as their fatigue +increased, their vigilance gradually lessened.</p> +<p>Such was the state of matters when Moses, who seemed to be +loitering about without any particular purpose in view, +encountered them, and, laughing loudly at the cautious and +careful way in which they continued to <a +name="page258"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 258</span>guard their +prize, assured them that Twm had given up the idea of outwitting +such a wary and clever party, and was at that moment drinking his +wine with their master, whom he allowed to win the wager.</p> +<p>“Allowing, indeed!” quoth a sharp-tongued lass, as +she stopped her harrow to listen, “pretty allowing, when he +could not help himself!” “Aye,” cried the +other girl, “so the fox allowed the goose to escape, when +she took to flight and escaped his clutches!”</p> +<p>Rosser and the plough-boy exulted in their anticipated reward +of a skin-full of strong beer. Thus the whole party was +excited to a high pitch of triumphant mirth. Moses was, of +course, a decoy, and his report had really the effect of throwing +them off their guard, which another circumstance contributed to +aid. The rural party had rested, sitting on their ploughs +and harrows, at one end of the field, while they listened to +their informant; and now were about to resume their labours, when +a hare started from the adjoining thicket, crossing the ground +towards the opposite hedge.</p> +<p>Suddenly the halloo arose; away ran the ploughman and girls, +over hedges and ditches, and away ran the yelping sheep-dog, amid +the clamour of shouting and barking; but the wondering oxen stood +still, and their grave looks of astonishment gradually changed to +a more animated expression of alarm on the arrival of Twm Shon +Catty.</p> +<p>Having loosed his captive hare to decoy the clowns, he availed +himself of their absence to dress the black ox in a white morning +gown,—that is to say, a sheet, which became him much, and +contrasted with his complexion amazingly; and the white ox he +attired in a suit of mourning, formed of the burial pall which he +had borrowed from the clerk of Llandingad church for that express +purpose; and, having unloosened his fair friend from the yoke, +they suddenly disappeared through a gap in the hedge.</p> +<p>Although busily engaged in the gentlemanly pastime of the +chase, the husbandry worthies now and <a name="page259"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 259</span>then glanced towards the plough, but +seeing, as they thought, the white ox safe, returned to it at a +leisurely pace, till quickened, as they neared it, by the +singular sight before them; and their petty vexation at losing +the hare was now swallowed up by the terrible circumstance of +their loss of their especial charge. A suitable lamentation +followed, of course, which was succeeded by fear and trembling, +from a conviction that Twm Shon Catty dealt with the devil; and +that the hare which they had chased was no other than the foe of +man in disguise. This reasonable and self-evident +assumption quite satisfied their merry master, who deemed himself +quite compensated for his loss by the hearty laugh he +enjoyed.</p> +<p>Twm and his singular charge entered Llandovery in triumph, the +white ox being gaily decorated with ribbons, and the +half-starved, but trustworthy, Moses seated on its back. +Loud were the huzzas and laughter by which he was received by the +juvenile part of the population of Llandovery; not one of whom +enjoyed the sight more than the good-humoured Prothero, who +cheerfully paid the bet, and from a tavern window had full view +of the scene, which he declared excited his laughter till his +heart and sides ached with the agreeable convulsion.</p> +<p>Twm did not confine himself to love of beef and mutton. +He had higher aspirations which evinced a very ardent passion for +horse-flesh; and pursued it with all the fiery zest of a +first-love, when impeded by difficulties the most +insurmountable.</p> +<p>The lady of Ystrad Feen, still sitting on his heart like a +night-mare, and pinching it with pain rendered him, however +amusing to others, miserable enough within himself. +Lassitude, chagrin, and bitterness, often betrayed themselves in +his countenance and manners, and were only transiently removed by +the hilarity of the company with which he mixed, or the freaks +which he played, in his ill-combined humours of mirth and +sorrow. Reckless of consequences, he now entered into the +follies less innocent than hitherto <a name="page260"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 260</span>detailed; led to them, however, more +by a spirit of youthful wildness than by any really criminal +intention.</p> +<p>In one of his many walks he found himself one day at +Machynlleth, in Montgomeryshire, and who should he see but his +old enemy Inco Evans of Tregaron, riding into the town on a fine +grey horse? “Ho, ho!” quoth he, “my dear +friend still alive! Now is that horse to be mine or +his?” said he to himself, as he produced a copper coin; +“now heads for Inco, and tails for Twm,” added he, as +he tossed the penny high up in the air. On its fall to the +ground he found that fortune had declared against the parson.</p> +<p>With the utmost coolness he made himself known to the amiable +Inco, whose features underwent various contortions at the +recognition; nor did they settle to serenity when Twm with +provoking laughter told him that he must journey homeward on +foot, as it was a settled thing fixed by fate, that he was to +have the gallant grey himself. Inco started and stared; +but, without answering a word, he hurried to the innkeeper and +the hostler, charging them to lock the stable, and assist him to +secure a daring delinquent whom he had discovered in the +street. On reaching the stable, the grey, like the grey +mist of morning, had dissolved from view, and our hero was +equally invisible in the ancient town of Machynlleth.</p> +<p>This last transaction sat uneasily on Twm’s +conscience. He thought that it hardly came within the +legitimate bounds of a joke, although the free and unlicensed +spirit of the times permitted a long tether in this respect; he +therefore promised himself some mirth in returning the grey horse +to Inco, if he could be found in a Welshpool fair, which was +probable, as the accumulating clerical magistrate was a great +trafficker in farm stock of all kinds. Thither proceeded +the gallant Twm, on a fine Monday morning, in the following week; +but the purpose of his better thoughts was unluckily +thwarted.</p> +<p><a name="page261"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 261</span>On +entering this little wool-combing town, a certain countenance +burst upon his recollection; the owner of the face made known to +him as a stranger, and made overtures for the purchase of the +steed. It struck our hero that there would be some fun in +selling it to this personage—no other than young Marmaduke +Graspacre—as it could not but cause a whimsical altercation +with Inco Evans. Accordingly a bargain was struck, and Twm +received the amount in hard cash.</p> +<p>Both parties were highly pleased with their transaction, and +Twm praised the grey steed still more warmly now that he had +pocketed the money. He spoke quite enthusiastically of the +animal’s points, remarking that its merits were far away in +excess of what he had represented them to be. “I +protest to you in honesty and truth,” he exclaimed with +much earnestness, “you have a greater bargain than you +imagine. As I was not anxious to sell him, I have omitted +to inform you of half his good qualities; he is capable of +performing such wonderful feats as you never heard of.”</p> +<p>“You don’t say so!” exclaimed the elated +Marmaduke, staring alternately at his horse and at our +hero. “In fact, I assure you,” cries Twm, with +the most sober face imaginable; “and if you don’t +believe me, I’ll convince you in a moment, if you will +allow me to mount him.” “Oh, certainly, with +many thanks,” quoth the delighted heir of Graspacre +Hall. Twm very leisurely mounted, and after a variety of +postures and curvetings, gradually got out of the fair into the +high-road; suddenly giving spur and rein to the “gallant +steed,” he astonished Marmaduke by his disappearance.</p> +<p>The “green” one had to confess with bitterness of +heart, that the jockey had certainly kept his word, as he showed +him such a trick as he never before saw, or heard of. But +when he received a note informing him that the horse-dealer was +his old “friend” Twm, his wrath was boundless.</p> +<p>The fame of Twm’s cunning and adroitness spread <a +name="page262"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 262</span>through the +whole country round, and his wide-spread reputation brought him +many country people to consult him respecting their +difficulties.</p> +<p>One morning, while sitting in his favourite corner at the Cat +and Fiddle, a person called, who described himself as a small +farmer in the neighbourhood, his name Morgan Thomas; and having +heard so much of his cleverness, he came to ask his advice on an +affair of great weight. He had been annoyed, he said, by +the continual trespassing of a certain squire’s pigeons on +his ground, which had made such a havoc amid his wheat yearly, +that the loss was grievous to him; he had computed his damages, +and applied for the amount, for the last four years; reckoning +that the forty pigeons would devour at least a bushel of wheat +each annually. The squire only laughed at his claims and +complaints, telling him he might pound them and be d—d, if +he liked when he would pay the alleged damages and not till +then.</p> +<p>“Now, to pound them, I should like vastly,” quoth +Morgan Thomas, “but without the squire’s polite +invitation to be d—ned, at the same time. But,” +added the poor farmer, “pounding pigeons, I look upon as +impossible; yet as you have done feats no less wonderful, if you +will pound those mischievous pigeons for me, I will engage to +give you half the amount of my claims.” +“Agreed?” cried Twm, and grasped his hand, in token +that he undertook the task.</p> +<p>He sent a quantity of hot grains from the brewing, to the +farmer, next morning, which he afterwards scattered about the +farm-yard. The pigeons came, as usual; and eagerly +devouring the grain, each and all soon appeared as top-heavy as +the veriest tress-pot in Carmarthenshire; and, like the said +fraternity incapable of returning home, they fell in stupor on +the ground. Our hero, assisted by the farmer, picked them +up, tied their legs, and put the whole party in the pound. +The squire, who was no other than Prothero, the laughing +magistrate, ever pleased with a jest, especially when cracked by +our hero, immediately paid the farmer’s demand; <a +name="page263"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 263</span>and Twm +generously refused the proffered remuneration for his very +effective assistance.</p> +<p>Our hero never used the money acquired by his art for his own +requirements, and we must not forget to say here that the cash +our hero received for the parson’s horse, was cast into the +parish poor-box.</p> +<h2>CHAPTER XXXIV.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm"><span class="smcap">Twm’s</span> +poetical address to his “lady love.” “A +gipsy’s life is a joyous life.” Dinas and a +singular natural cave. Faithless woman.</p> +<p>Twm’s thoughts were not often forgetful of Ystrad Feen, +and its inhabitants: the lady “of the ilk” seldom +indulged in silent reverie, without making the absent Twm the +principal figure in her day-dream. She had not known a +day’s peace since his absence, and was daily waving between +a resolution to send for him back, to bestow on him her hand, and +a deference for her father and proud relatives, who insisted that +if she ever married again, it should only be to a title and +fortune; by which they themselves might share in the honour.</p> +<p>Information was brought to her of his wild excesses, which +gave her the greatest concern, as she conceived herself in part +the authoress of his misfortunes. Twm, at the same time, +felt that his tedious absence from the fair widow was no longer +to be endured; and as he knew her to be watched by her +father’s spies, he determined on paying her a visit in +disguise. Previous to putting his design into execution, he +composed and sent her the following poem, in which he dwells on, +and exaggerates, his own misfortunes, in a strain calculated to +move her tenderness in his favour.</p> +<blockquote><p style="text-align: center"><a +name="page264"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 264</span>CYWYDD Y +GOVID. <a name="citation264"></a><a href="#footnote264" +class="citation">[264]</a></p> +<p><span class="smcap">The</span> outcast’s forced ally is +mine<br /> + And Govid is his name;<br /> +It is a ruthless savage mate,<br /> +And like a foe that’s pale with hate,<br /> + To crush me is his aim:<br /> +His cruel shafts are fiercely hurl’d,<br /> +He forced me friendless on the world.</p> +<p>If forward, seeking good I wend,<br /> +My eager steps outstrip the fiend;<br /> +If backward I retreat from ill,<br /> +My cruel foe arrests me still:</p> +<p>I seek the flood to end despair,<br /> +Relentless Govid meets me there,<br /> +And tells of endless pangs of pride,<br /> +The wages of the suicide.</p> +<p>Fell Govid’s mighty in the land,<br /> +His children are a horrid band,<br /> +Who joy in hapless man’s distress,<br /> +Lo, one in debt—one nakedness:—<br /> +And need against me doth combine;<br /> +(Fierce Govid’s loveless concubine;)<br /> +And care, that knows not how to yearn,<br /> +Is Govid’s consort, keen and stern:<br /> +And thus this family of ill,<br /> +E’er bruise my heart and curb my will.</p> +<p>Though lost to me the tranquil day,<br /> +My vanquisher I hope to slay;<br /> +The fierce enormous giant fiend<br /> +No more the heart of Twm shall rend,<br /> +If thou, my lady-love! but smile,<br /> +Thou gentle fair, devoid of guile—<br /> +Thou darling object of my choice,<br /> +Oh bless me with assentive voice,<br /> +And soon shall Govid lay his length,<br /> +A curse! struck down by Rapture’s strength.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>The Lady of Ystrad Feen did not read the pathetic poem without +being deeply affected, and tears ran down her fair cheeks as she +sobbingly perused it for the fourth <a name="page265"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 265</span>time. She still bowed her head +in grief, when her maid entered her chamber, and in a tone of +complaint informed her mistress that there was a very important +and troublesome gipsy in the kitchen, who, after having told the +fortunes of all the servants in the house, insisted on seeing her +also.</p> +<p>“I am not in a mood to relish such foolery now, so send +her about her business,” answered the lady, in a tone more +sorrowful than angry. “It is quite useless,” +replied the girl, “to attempt to send her away; big Evan +the gardener tried to take her by the shoulders, and turn her out +by force, but she whirled round, grasped him by his arms, tripped +up his heels, and laid him in a moment on the floor. There +she sits in the kitchen, and vows she will not budge from thence +for either man or woman, till she sees the Lady of Ystrad Feen, +whom she loves, she says, dearer than her life, and would not for +millions harm a hair of her head.”</p> +<p>Although too deeply absorbed in sorrow to have curiosity much +excited, she went down stairs, and approached the sybil, who had +now taken her station in the hall, asking her, “What do you +want, my good woman?”—“To tell you,” +answered she, “not your fortune, but what may be your +fortune if you choose.” “Let me hear +then,” said the Lady Joan, with a faint incredulous smile, +walking before her, at the same time, into a little back +parlour. Before she could seat herself, the apparent gipsy +caught her right hand wrist, and looking round, whispered in her +ear,—</p> +<blockquote><p>“To heal your torn bosom, and ease every +smart,<br /> +Oh take—he’s before you—the youth of thy +heart.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>The colour fled from the fair widow’s cheeks, and in a +moment she sank into a swoon in her lover’s arms. +Soon recovering, she desired her maid to deny her to every body +that called, “as,” added she, with a smile, “I +have particular business with the gipsy.”</p> +<p>A scene of tears and tenderness ensued; when Twm, <a +name="page266"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 266</span>with the +utmost fervour, urged his suit. She replied that her father +had insisted on, and received her promise that she should wed no +being but who either bore a title or stood within a prospect of +one.</p> +<p>“You did well,” replied our hero, with the most +easy confidence, “and your promise, so far from militating +against me, would really be in my favour, for am I not the son of +a baronet? his nature child, ’tis true, but still his son; +and you would break no promise to your father in marrying me; but +if you did, so much the better broke than kept. I have +friends at this moment who are doing their utmost to move my +father, Sir John Wynn, of Gwydir, to own me publicly, for his +right worthy son; and if he does not, the loss is his, not mine, +for I shall certainly disown him else for a father, and claim +parentage of some greater man.”</p> +<p>In this interview, Twm pleaded his affection with such +persuasive vigour and tender persistence, that the old +“lady of his dream” resisted the promptings of her +own heart no longer, and promised to be his in spite of every +obstacle. The joy of our hero knew no bounds, nor did the +lady very strenuously resist his rapturous embraces; but seemed +to find her heart relieved by the resolution she had come to, +that now for ever put an end to the conflicting doubts as to her +future course, which had so long torn her heart, and banished her +peace.</p> +<p>It was now time for the pretended gipsy to depart, as the sun +was descending rapidly, and Twm was chary of the fair +widow’s reputation. He would not have the faintest +breath of slander associated with her name and so he unwillingly +left. She directed him to wait for her, and her +confidential friend Miss Meredith, at the entrance to the ancient +cave on the top of Dinas, which was the name of the conical hill +exactly fronting the mansion of Ystrad Feen. He accordingly +took his departure; and winding round the base of Dinas, he +crossed the river <a name="page267"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +267</span>Towey, which, being then in summer, was there little +more than a brook.</p> +<p>After walking over a couple of fields, and a piece of rough +common, he had to cross the Towey once more, when he commenced +his ascent at the only part of this very steep hill where it was +possible to climb.</p> +<p>During his former stay at Ystrad Feen, this wildly-romantic +height had been his favourite haunt, as the cave in its side was +the greatest wonder. It was in fact a mighty mound, that +bore all the appearance of having been, at the period of its +formation, convulsed by an earthquake, and in the height of +nature’s tremendous heavings, suddenly arrested and +becalmed, even while the huge crags were in the act of tumbling +down its steep sides.</p> +<p>A narrow valley encircled its base, and the mountains around +of equal height with itself, separated only by this deep and +scanty dell, seemed as if rent from it, during the convulsions of +the earth, and Dinas left alone, an interesting monument of the +memorable event. The surface of the acclivity was so +speckled with huge loose stones, that it was dangerous to hold by +them in ascending, as the slightest impetus would roll them +downward.</p> +<p>Once in poetical mood, when accompanied by his mistress, while +tenderly and lovingly protecting her during their ascent at this +very spot, he had said, that no doubt an earthquake had turned +the bosom of the hill inside out, so that no secret could be +therein concealed: archly insinuating that he trusted the time +would soon come, when, without so violent a process, her own fair +bosom would be equally open to him, while it rejected the stony +barriers that then stood between him and her heart.</p> +<p>But let us proceed with our description, while Twm awaits the +arrival, according to promise, of the Lady of Ystrad Feen.</p> +<p>The approach to this curious place was as romantic as the cave +itself. It was through a narrow aperture, formed of two +immense slate rocks that face each other, <a +name="page268"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 268</span>with the +space between them narrower at the bottom than the top, so that +the passage could be entered only side-ways, with the figure +inclined forward, according to the slant of the rocks, a thin +person being barely able to make his way in, while a man of some +rotundity might also succeed, rising on his toes, forcing himself +upwards. Between these rocks of entrance a massive stone +block was wedged at the top, so that it formed a rude resemblance +to an arch.</p> +<p>After <i>sideling</i> so far through a comparatively long +passage, it was a great surprise that it led to so small a cave; +for it was scarcely large enough to shelter three persons huddled +close together. What it wanted in breadth, it possessed in +height, as it ran up like a chimney, to the attitude of +forty-five feet, and was opened at the top to the very summit of +the mount, forming a skylight to the <i>room</i> below. +Although the little cave was void of a solid roof, a very rural +one was formed by the large tufts of heather and fern, which +sprung through the crevices of the rocks; the whole being +surmounted by the pendant branch of a dwarf oak, that with many +other trees stood like a crown on the elevated head of Dinas.</p> +<p>However singular the interior of this cave might appear to our +hero, he had great pleasure in examining the grand combination +that graced its exterior. There he saw, with +never-satisfied delight and wonder, objects of the most romantic +character, curiously united, near the junction of the three +counties. The rocky Dinas, with its many inaccessible +sides, besides the loose crags before mentioned, was partially +covered with aged dwarfish trees, all bending in the same +direction; many with their heads broken by tempests, but still +throwing out branches, while others, stark, sere, and shrouded in +green moss, were things to which seasons brought no change.</p> +<p>From the mouth of the cave a beautiful view was obtained of +the well-wooded mountain of Maesmaddegan, while the junction of +the rivers Towey and <a name="page269"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 269</span>Dorthea <a name="citation269"></a><a +href="#footnote269" class="citation">[269]</a> enlivened the +gloom caused by the deep gulf which separated Dinas.</p> +<p>Twm was, however, careless for this once of the extremely +attractive character of the scenery around him. One of the +most interesting pages in the Book of Nature lay open before him, +but it remained unperused, unnoticed at his feet. His eager +eye was fixed steadily on the spot where it would catch the +earliest glimpse of his approaching mistress. Out of all +patience at her long delay, he now began to wonder at the cause +of it; when at length, to his great dismay, he saw <i>one</i> +female hurrying on, and her not the one, although the faithful +Miss Meredith.</p> +<p>Having reached the side of the river, which separated her from +the base of Dinas, and finding that he was watching her, she +placed a paper on the rock, and a stone upon it, then kissing her +hand sportively, turned about and hastened homeward with the +utmost precipitation. In his eagerness to overtake her, Twm +attempted to run down the declivity, but soon lost his footing, +sliding and rolling down several yards, by which he was for a few +moments rather stunned. Losing all hope of overtaking his +mistress’s confidante, he applied to the paper on the rock, +which he found to be a note hastily scrawled with a pencil, +containing merely these words:—</p> +<p>“My father has unexpectedly arrived, with several of his +friends—can’t see you at Llandovery on the Fair +day. Yours ever.” “By the Dood!” +muttered Twm to himself, “if this is a coquette’s +trick which she put on me, it shall avail her nothing;—mine +she is, by promise, and mine she shall be, in spite of the devil, +and all her Brecknockshire friends to boot!” +Determined to bring his affairs to a speedy crisis, he changed +his clothes, and soon made his way to Llandovery.</p> +<h2><a name="page270"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +270</span>CHAPTER XXXV.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm"><span class="smcap">Twm</span> assumes various +disguises, and accomplishes many clever things at Llandovery +fair. A strange scene in a court of justice. Twm +flies and is pursued.</p> +<p>Twm set off to Llandovery fair with a fluttering heart and +hopeful anticipations of seeing his mistress, and planned another +little drama, in which he intended the grey horse should have an +important part.</p> +<p>Much to their credit, the neighbouring gentry had recently +opened a subscription for rebuilding between thirty and forty +poor people’s houses, which had unfortunately been burnt +down; and our hero resolved that every farthing henceforward +gained by the grey horse, or otherwise, clandestinely, should be +appropriated to this laudable purpose. It was no small +satisfaction to him to find that, while it mortified the +purse-proud vanity of the haughty squires to see so large a sum +attached to his name, it had the good effect of increasing their +contributions, resolved not to be outdone, in money matters at +least, by so obscure a personage as Twm.</p> +<p>It was necessary for him to disguise himself thoroughly, for +he intended, in the first place, to offer the horse for +sale. He decided to dress as a country booby; and after he +had finished, his most intimate friend would have been puzzled to +recognize him. Twm Shon Catty, (we beg his pardon,) Mr. +Thomas Jones was effectually concealed in the rough garb of a +Welsh country ploughman. His feet got thrust into a very +heavy pair of clogs, or wooden-soled shoes, which being stiff and +large, maintained such a haughty independence of the inmates, as +to need being tied on by a hay-band. His legs were +enveloped in a pair of wheat-stalk leggings, or bands of twisted +straw, winding round and round, and covering them from the knee +to the ankle.</p> +<p><a name="page271"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 271</span>A raw +hairy cow-hide formed the material of his <i>inexpressibles</i>, +which were loose, like trowsers cut at the knee; and his jerkin +was of a brick-dust red, with black stripes, like the faded garb +of the Carmarthenshire women. A load of red locks, straight +as a bunch of carrots, hung dangling behind, but in front rather +matted and entangled, quite innocent of the slightest +acquaintance with that useful article, a comb; the whole +surmounted with a soldier’s cast-off Monmouth cap, so +highly varnished with grease, as to appear waterproof.</p> +<p>Without any apology for a waistcoat, he wore a blue flannel +shirt, striped with white, opened from the chin to the waistband, +to contain his enormous cargo of bread and cheese and leeks, +which, as he was continually drawing upon his store, stood a +chance of all becoming wholly inside passengers. Added to +this, his booby gait and stupid vacant stare was such that he +might have passed muster anywhere for what he pretended to +be.</p> +<p>He took up his post on the outskirts of the town, preferring +that position to elbowing his way through the busy crowd in the +middle of the fair. He did not appear anxious for a +customer, and munched his bread and cheese and onions with quiet +perseverance. Many persons, in passing by, gazed with +wonder at this piece of cloddish rusticity, and asked if the +horse was for sale; but receiving such drivelling and dolt-like +answers, that it became a matter of wonder who could have trusted +their property to such an oaf.</p> +<p>When Twm had stood some time, patiently bearing the ridicule +of many bystanders, who cracked jokes at his expense, a +gentlemen, well-mounted on a chestnut-coloured hunter, entered +the town, and cast an eager eye at the grey horse. Twm +recognized him at a glance as a Breconshire magistrate, named +Powell, one of the many rejected admirers of the lady of Ystrad +Feen. Riding up to our hero, he asked if the horse was for +sale. Twm answered in broken English, imitating the dialect +of the lower class, “I don’t no but it <a +name="page272"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 272</span>iss, if I +cann get somebody that is not wice, look you, somebody that was +fools to buy him.”</p> +<p>“But why,” asked the gentleman, “don’t +you take him into the horse-fair?”</p> +<p>“Why inteed to goodness,” answered Twm, “I +was shame to take him there; for look you, he has a fault on him, +and I do not find in my heart and my conscience to take honest +people in with a horse that has a fault on him, for all master +did send me here to sell him.”</p> +<p>“Well, and what is this mighty fault?” asked the +stranger, smiling.</p> +<p>“Why inteed to goodness and mercy,” replied Twm, +“it was a fault that do spoil him—it was a fault +that—”</p> +<p>“But what is the fault?” asked the Breconshire +magistrate impatiently: “give it a name, man.”</p> +<p>“Why inteed to goodness,” replied the scrupulous +horse-dealer, “I will tell you like an honest christian +man, without more worts about it; I will make my sacrament and +bible oaths”—“I don’t ask your +oath,” cried Powell, almost out of humour, “merely +tell me in word, what ails the horse?”</p> +<p>“Inteed and upon my soul and conscience to boot, I +can’t say what do ail him.” “You +can’t?” cried Powell in an angry tone, and looking as +surprised and wrath as might be expected from a proud Breconian; +“Confound me if I do,” replied Twm, “but I will +tell you why he was no good to master; it wass thiss—Master +iss a parson, a gentleman parson, not a poor curate, one mister +Inco Evans, rector of Tregaron, and the white hairs do come off +the grey horse here, and stick upon his best black coat and +preeches; and that was his fault.”</p> +<p>This was a curious reason for disposing of so good-a-looking +animal as that Twm held by the bridle, and one that did not deter +Powell from buying him without further parley, and paying for him +there and then. He disappeared with his prize, wondering at +the stupid dolt from whom his purchase had been made.</p> +<p><a name="page273"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 273</span>Twm +retired now to a small public-house, where having asked for a +bed-room, he contrived, after making a total change in his garb, +to slip out again unperceived, not wishing, for various reasons, +to appear before his mistress <i>in propria +personæ</i>. He now wore a grey sober suit, shining +black buckles, stockings of the wool of a black sheep, and a +knitted Welsh wig, of the same, that fitted him like a skullcap, +and concealed every lock of his hair. Thus arrayed, he +presented the appearance of a grave puritanical farmer, from the +remote district of Cardiganshire.</p> +<p>After gazing awhile at the motley crowd that constitutes a +fair, in a Welsh country town, he noticed a well-known crone, who +had the reputation of being exceedingly covetous. Lean, +yellow, and decrepid, her ferret-eyes glanced eagerly about for a +customer, as she held beneath her arm a large roil of stout +striped flannel. Twm, unobserved, took his stand behind +her, and dexterously stitching her bale to his coat, he, with a +sudden jerk, transferred it from the old woman’s grasp to +his own. Her wonder and dismay was unutterable.</p> +<p>Elbowed and tossed about by the bustling crowd who were +passing to and fro, she knew not who to vent her spleen upon; +but, in utter despair, set up a tremendous howl, as a requiem for +her beloved departed. Instead of seeking the assistance of +a light pair of heels, Twm scarcely moved a yard, but drew from +his pocket a little black tobacco-pipe, and puffed a cloud with +admirable coolness, while his right arm lovingly embraced the +bale of flannel.</p> +<p>Roused by the old beldame’s outrageous expressions of +grief and fury, he asked in a very pathetic tone, the cause of +her sorrow, which she related with many curses, sobs, and furious +exclamations. Shocked at her impiety, and want of +resignation, Twm took upon him to rebuke her, and edified her +much, by a discourse on the virtue of patience; assuring her she +ought to thank heaven that she was not a neglected <a +name="page274"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +274</span>being. In conclusion, he remarked, that fairs and +markets in these degenerate days were so sadly infested with +rogues and vagabonds, that an honest person was completely +encompassed by dangers.</p> +<p>“Now for my part,” continued he, “I never +enter such places without previously sewing my goods to my +clothes, which you ought also to have done, in this +manner.”—showing at the same time, the roll beneath +his arm, which he thought the old crone’s eyes had glanced +on, with something like a light of suspicion, that instantly +vanished, on this notable display and explanation.</p> +<p>Our hero’s appetite only grew by what it fed upon, and +the taste of fun he had as yet been able to snatch only made him +wish for more. He did not wait long for an opportunity; it +was his habit to be so; he either met “opportunity” +half-way or entirely created his chance, making circumstances, in +a measure, contribute to his especial purposes.</p> +<p>Casting a sharp glance around, he saw making towards him, a +man of the cadaverous aspect, one who was an entire stranger to +substantial creature comforts, or, if not, one who “shamed +his pasture” considerably.</p> +<p>On closer scrutiny, Twm saw it was his old friend Moses, whose +hungry stomach had kept him hopelessly poor. Moses advanced +and tried to bargain for a few yards of his flannel; but on +reckoning his money found he could not come up to the price, as +he said he had to buy a three legged iron pot, in addition to a +winter petticoat for his wife: “and,” observed the +man of tatters, with a grin of miserable mirth, “it will be +better for her to go without flannel than our whole family to +want a porridge pot.”</p> +<p>Twm liked Moses, but not his logic; which implied a want of +courtesy and due deference to his better half, whose indisputable +right to warm petticoats claimed precedence to all the pots, +pans, and every earthly consideration.</p> +<p>“Here take this bale, take it all, for I have lost <a +name="page275"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 275</span>my yard and +scissors, and pay me when you grow rich;—confound your +thanks! away with you, bestow it safe, then return here; perhaps +I may get thee an iron pot at as cheap a rate as the +flannel.”</p> +<p>Moses did not want twice bidding to induce him to avail +himself of his good fortune, but entering into the spirit of the +scene at once, appeared to understand our hero’s joking +propensities, although he had no suspicion that it was the +veritable Twm himself. Off Moses ran with his enormous +present, and immediately returned; when our hero accompanied him +to the shop of an old curmudgeon of an ironmonger, whose face, +hardly distinguishable behind his habitual screen of snuff and +spectacles, seemed of the same material as his own hardware.</p> +<p>The man of rags was quite in luck, and as instructed, followed +his benefactor into the shop in silence. Twm examined the +culinary ware, with all the caution of an old farm-wife, asking +the prices of various articles, and turned up the whites of his +eyes in the most approved puritanic fashion, expressive of +astonishment at such excessive charges. Old hammerhead +repelled the insinuation, and swore that cheaper or better pots +were never seen in the kitchen of a king. “Then you +must mean the king of the beggars,” quoth Twm, “for +you have nothing here but damaged ware.”</p> +<p>“Damaged devil! what do you mean?” roared the +enraged ironmonger. “I mean,” replied Twm Shon +Catty, with provoking equanimity, “that there is scarcely a +pot here without a hole in it; now this which I hold in my hand +for instance, has one.” “Where! where!” +asked the fiery old shop keeper, holding it up between his eyes +and the light: “if there is a hole in this pot, I’ll +eat it: where is the hole that you speak of?” +“Here!” bawls the inexorable hoaxer, pulling it over +his ears, and holding it there, while Moses took the wink from +his patron, and walked off with a most choice article, which he +had selected from the whole lot.</p> +<p><a name="page276"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 276</span>Here +was a predicament for a respectable old tradesman! Our hero +fairly held his sides with laughter as the old curmudgeon +sprawled about, vainly endeavouring to free himself from the pot, +in which his terrible shouts for help were entirely lost. +Having tied his hands behind his back, Twm left him howling and +sweating beneath his huge extinguisher, and made as he took his +departure, this consolatory speech—“Had there not +been a hole in it how could that large stupid knob of yours have +entered such a helmet?”</p> +<p>Twm left the enraged ironmonger to get out of his dilemma as +best he could, having very little sympathy with him in his +distress. When once more in the street, he found that the +people were all moving in one direction, and Twm discovered +shortly that there was some unusual attraction at the Town +Hall. As the assemblage increased, the way, like a choaked +mill-dam, became more and more impeded, until the whole restless +mass was consolidated, and stood still perforce.</p> +<p>Our hero had forced his way till near the entrance of the +hall, where he ventured to ask what cause had drawn together such +a crowd; but he got no immediate answer, as many came there, like +himself, drawn by the powerful influence of curiosity.</p> +<p>At length he heard his own name buzzed about; one said that +Twm Shon Catty whose humorous tricks were the themes of every +tongue, was discovered to be a great thief: and that he who had +fought against highwaymen, had at last become one himself, and +committed all the robberies which had taken place in that country +for years past. One said that he could never be taken; and +a third contradicted that assertion, declaring that he was then +fettered in the hall, and waiting to be conveyed to Carmarthen +gaol. One assigned him to the gallows as his due, while +another tenderly replied that hanging was too good for him. +Opposing the sentiments and opinions of all these, more than one +declared that the hemp was neither <a name="page277"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 277</span>spun nor grown that would hang Twm; +and pity it should, as he was a friend of the poor, and an enemy +to none but the stupid, the cruel, and the oppressive.</p> +<p>The disputed argument was disposed of summarily by the +appearance of an important functionary, resplendent in the +gorgeous dress which he wore in virtue of his exalted +office. This individual, who was the town crier, obtaining +silence, informed the assembled multitude that the magistrates +who were now sitting, required that any “<i>person or +persons</i>” who might have been defrauded in the fair, +should now come forward, so as to form a clue towards the +identity of the robber, which it was generally believed was no +other than the notorious Twm Shon Catty. The crier retired, +and in a few minutes re-appeared, and read the court’s +proclamation, offering a reward of twenty pounds to any person +who would apprehend the said Twm Shon Catty; which was answered +with loud hisses by the majority of the crowd, and effectually +drowned the applause of the rest.</p> +<p>This was a most flattering ovation for Twm, and his spirits +rose accordingly; while, at the same time, he felt himself +aggrieved by this public proclamation concerning him by the +authorities, who, he considered, had, in this instance, somewhat +exceeded their vocation. He resolved to “beard the +lion in his den,” or in other words, to enter the hall and +give the lie to any base-minded cur who should dare to associate +his name with common robbers and felons.</p> +<p>Softly, Twm, softly, my boy! On second thoughts he came +to the conclusion that that would not be quite prudent—he +would make his way into the Hall of Justice, and preserving his +disguise, see how matters were progressing, and try if he could +not secure a little personal entertainment for himself.</p> +<p>Daring Twm! thy genius adapted itself to circumstances; many +people would be doubtless astonished that our hero should venture +on such cause, but when enthusiasm, and the pride of achievement, +even in a worthless cause, actuates the passion-fraught breast, +<a name="page278"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +278</span>supplanting the place of reasoning calculation, the +wonder vanishes. The desperate outlaw, whose temerity is +applauded, feels the gust of heroism in as warm a degree as the +generous patriot whose claim to renown is better founded and +graced with national approbation. Twm soon found himself in +the hall; for it was his own native energies stood him in better +stead than the fabled cap of Fortunatus: he wished, and obtained; +hated, and was revenged; desired to tread a difficulty under +foot, and gained his purpose; while the generality of men would +be analyzing every shadow of obstruction that impeded their +aim.</p> +<p>He took his stand in a conspicuous place near the bench, the +“awful judgment-seat,” which was at this time filled +by three magistrates including his laughter-loving friend +Prothero, whose ruddy happy round face deprived law itself of +half its terrors. Before him, he found his old +<i>friend</i> Evans of Tregaron, who had been sputtering a +confused account of our hero’s gracelessness from his +childhood, to the last trick he had played him, by stealing his +grey horse at Machynlleth. How he had cheated the heir of +Graspacre-Hall of the horse at Welshpool; and how the same horse +was traced into the possession of a simple fellow in straw boots +and cow-hide breeches, who that very day had sold it to his +friend Mr. Powell; which sale, he contended, could not stand +good, as the stolen horse was his property to all intents and +purposes, which he could prove by credible witnesses.</p> +<p>This recapitulation of Twm’s tricks tickled the gravity +of Prothero amazingly; and at every pause which Evans made in his +narration, he was answered by the loud “ho, ho, ho!” +of that merry magistrate.</p> +<p>Mr. Powell then told his story, and, in conclusion, said he +was in the commission of the peace in the town of Brecon. +“Ho, ho, ho!” roared Prothero, “here we are, +three magistrates, ho, ho, ho! three magistrates, and all fooled +by Twm Shon Catty.—Clever fellow, ho, ho, ho! wild dog, ho, +ho, ho!—means no great harm—never keeps what he +steals—gives all to the poor <a name="page279"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 279</span>fellows that want—ho, ho, +ho! Never mind, gentlemen, the fun of the thing repays the +loss, which can be shared between you. Let Mr. Evans take +the horse, on paying Mr. Powell what he gave young cow-breeches, +ho, ho, ho! better than lose all.”</p> +<p>Mr. Powell immediately acceded to the arrangement, but the +unaccommodating Evans insisted on having the horse without the +payment, and made some tart remarks on conniving at a +rascal’s tricks and villanies. “For my part, +I’d shoot him dead like a dog!” cried the reverend +preacher of peace and concord; drawing at the same time, a pair +of pistols from his pocket, and replacing them, in a fiery fit of +passion. “Ho, ho, ho!” roared Prothero, +“but you’d catch him first, brother, ho, ho, +ho!—too cunning for you, for me, and all of us—might +be here this moment, laughing in his sleeve at us, for what we +know, ho, ho, ho!”</p> +<p>Twm thought it was now time to be taking a more active part in +the scene, so taking out a small book, while appearing to be +deeply absorbed in its perusal, he gave a deep groan as if much +moved by what he read, and the mourning sound at once attracted +notice.</p> +<p>Prothero, alive to everything allied to comicality, burst out +into a loud ho, ho, ho! Evans arrayed his naturally gloomy +brows in a magisterial frown, and Powell smiled, with an +expression of wonder. “What are you reading, +friend?” asked Prothero, chuckling as he surveyed the black +Welsh wig. “The wisdom of Solomon,” quoth the +man of solemnity, drawing the muscles of his face most +ludicrously long; “but mark you, worshipful gentlemen, I +mean not the Solomon of the scriptures, but our own Cambrian +Solomon—that is to say, Catwg the Wise, the excellent and +erudite abbot of Llancarvan, and teacher of the Bard +Taliesin.”</p> +<p>“That’s all right enough. Catwg was +doubtless a clever man, but why do you bring him here?” +enquired Prothero, with a broad smile on his face. +“Wherever I go, I have resolved to make his wisdom known, +and <a name="page280"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 280</span>to +reprove all deviators from it, in the sage’s own +words,” quoth Twm. “Poor man, poor man, +he’s crazy, his brain turned, perhaps by too much +study,” observed Prothero. “An impudent +fellow!” cried Evans; “but you are strangely lenient +here in Carmarthenshire; were I the king, I would have such +fellows put in Bedlam.”</p> +<p>Twm looked at the clerical magistrate, then read from the +book, “If a crown were worn by every fool, we should all of +us be kings.” “Gentlemen, he calls us all +fools!” cried Evans. Twm, without raising his eyes +from the book, read on, “were there horns on the head of +every fool, a good sum might be gained by showing a bald +man.” “Gentlemen, he makes us all +cuckolds!” cried Evans, in his usual sputter; +“however it may fit you, gentlemen, I can safely say, that +no disgrace as a horn belongs to my brow.”</p> +<p>Twm read on:—“If the shame of every one were +written on his forehead, the materials for masks would be +surprisingly dear.” “Ho, ho, ho!” roared +Prothero, till the hall echoed with his loud laughter, which the +Cardiganshire magistrate seemed to take as a personal affront, +and sulkily observed, that this was no place for foolery, but for +gravity, wisdom, and truth.</p> +<p>Twm read on:—“If no tongue were to speak other +than truth and wisdom, the number of mutes would be astonishingly +great.” The consequential Inco, mumbled something +about his own mode of doing business at Cardigan, and declared +that he would commit such a fellow to gaol for three months, at +least, for disturbing a court of justice. Twm cut him short +with another passage from Catwg:—“Were the talkative +to perceive the folly of his chattering, he would save his breath +to cool his broth.”</p> +<p>Here Powell of Brecon entered a little into the spirit of the +scene, by quoting also from the well-known aphorisms of Catwg, +applying the passage to Twm himself;—“If the buffoon +were to see the vanity of his feat, he would leave it off for +shame.” This feeble hit excited the applause of the +good-humoured <a name="page281"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +281</span>Prothero, who clapped the speaker heartily on the back, +and, amid his eternal ho, ho, ho! exclaimed, “Well said, +brother, well said; better silence him with wit than by +authority; well done, well done.”</p> +<p>Twm was not slow in taking up the gauntlet which the +Breconshire magistrate had thrown at his feet, and so turning +pointedly to him, he read;—“If the lover were to see +his weakness, terror would drive him to a premature +end.” A general laugh at the expense of Powell, +instantly followed. To him that passage was considered +peculiarly applicable, as the unsuccessful woer of the gay widow +of Ystrad Feen. It was a tender string to touch so +roughly. Losing his ease and temper at the same instant, he +cast a most ungracious frown at the utterer of proverbs, and said +in an undertone of threatening energy, “Whoever you may be, +it were not wise of you to repeat such conduct towards me +again.” “Again?” said Twm, pretending to +misunderstand him, “Oh, certainly, I’ll give you the +passage again, or any other, to you; ‘If the +lover—’” here Powell’s face blazed with +anger, as he clenched his fist, and cried, “You had better +not.”</p> +<p>Twm began again,—“If the lover—of war, were +to see his cruelty, he would fear that every atom in the sunbeam +might stab him as a sword.” The dexterous evasion, +with the point given to the words “of war,” had its +full effect in restoring the good humour, so suddenly disturbed; +but that beautiful passage from the aphorisms of the old Welsh +abbot failed to elicit the applause which its moral merits +deserve.</p> +<p>At this moment the attention of all present was attracted by +the noisy entrance of the ex-proprietress of the flannel, who +almost deafened them by the vehemence of her complaints; which, +however, were too incoherently expressed to be immediately +understood.</p> +<p>“Oh! my roll of flannel, my fine, my excellent flannel! +all of my own spinning too,—eight and twenty good yards, +and a yard and a half wide—my wooden <a +name="page282"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 282</span>shoe too, +that I lost in the crowd—and my poor corns trod off by the +villains—my dear sweet flannel, all of my own carding and +spinning—nobody but the devil himself, or his first cousin +Twm Shon Catty, could have taken it in such a manner—it was +whisked from me as if a whirlwind had swept it away.”</p> +<p>At length she paused for want of breath, and Twm approached +her with the air of a comforter, and read from his +book,—“Were a woman as quick with her feet as with +her tongue, she would catch the lightning to kindle her fire in +the morning.” It is probable that she did not +perfectly hear this passage, as on perceiving Twm, she gave a +shout of joy, and then as incoherently as before, appealed to the +magistrate; “This honest man, your worship, knows it +all. I told him, the moment I lost my flannel—this +worthy man, your worship—a good man, a man who reads books, +your worship, he can witness.”</p> +<p>This vehement outburst of eloquence was brought to a sudden +termination, and the old woman’s wordy complaint +effectually strangled by the laughter and applause which greeted +the appearance of a more ridiculous applicant for justice and his +right.</p> +<p>Supported by two constables, who rather dragged forward, than +led him, came Twm’s friend the hardwareman, crowned with +the identical iron pot before named, which the officers, as a +matter of official formality, or to indulge their own +facetiousness, refused to remove, till in the presence of a +magistrate. When his laughter had a little subsided, +Prothero ordered the pot to be removed, and his hands +untied. The hardwareman then told his lamentable tale in a +few words; in conclusion, he declared, that having overheard +certain words between the robber and his accomplice, he had +learned that the thief was no other than Twm Shon Catty. +His eye now caught on the figure of our hero, and with a yell as +astounding as if the eternal enemy of man stood before him, he +cried, “There he is! there he is! As heaven shall +save me, there stands the man, or devil, who crowned me with <a +name="page283"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 283</span>the iron +pot, while his accomplice ran off with the other.”</p> +<p>“And who robbed me of my flannel!” roared the old +woman, who now changed her opinion, as her earliest suspicions +became thus suddenly confirmed.</p> +<p>“And who stole my grey horse!” bawled Evans of +Tregaron.</p> +<p>“And who sold it to me when disguised in straw boots and +cow-hide breeches!” cried Powell of Brecon, who had now +closely examined his features.</p> +<p>Things looked desperate as far as Twm was concerned, as an +attack was now made upon him by three or four of his most +determined enemies; but Twm eluding their eager attempts to grasp +him, sprang upon the table before the bench, and drawing a couple +of pistols from his coat pockets, held one in each hand, and kept +them all at bay, protesting he would shoot the first who would +advance an inch towards him. Loud was his laughter when +they all started back: but Prothero, now sat silently on the +bench, alarmed for his safety, which he had thought to secure by +giving him warning of his danger, in the feint of his proclaimed +reward for his apprehension.</p> +<p>As he stood in this manner, with extended arms, watchful eyes, +and grasping the pointed pistols with a finger to each trigger, +Powell of Brecon exclaimed, “Thou art a clever fellow, by +Jove, Twm! very clever for a Cardy; but wert thou with us, the +quick-witted sons of Brecon, thou wouldst soon find thyself +overmatched. I dare thee to enter Brecon, to trust to thy +cunning—come there, and welcome, and thou shalt stand +harmless of me, in the affair of the grey horse.” Twm +smiled, and nodded, in token of having accepted his +challenge.</p> +<p>Rather daunted by the failure of their first attempt to seize +Twm, his assailants had held back awed by his resolute and +defiant attitude, but recovering their courage on reflecting upon +the odds against him, they now, headed by Evans of Tregaron, got +behind him, and clung to his right arm, but with one <a +name="page284"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 284</span>violent +effort Twm shook them away, as the mighty bull throws off the +yelping curs that dare to attack him. Then, with a single +leap, he sprang from the table into the crowded court, where a +lane was formed for him, and rushed out of the door unimpeded, +and pursued by his accusers. They soon lost sight of him +among the moving multitude, some of whom dispersed from fear of +accidents, while others followed him as spectators.</p> +<p>To the great astonishment of his pursuers they next caught a +view of him mounted on that grand subject of contention, the grey +horse. He took the route of Ystrad Feen, followed by +several constables in the employ of Evans of Tregaron, and many +disinterested persons from the fair. Loud were the shouts +of the numerous riders; loud the tramp of galloping horses; and +wild the disorder and terror created, as Twm at different +intervals turned on his pursuers, and fired his pistols. +This caused a powerful retrograde movement among them, by which +the foremost horses fell back to those behind them, unhorsing +some who lay groaning and crying with fright on the ground, and +frightening others altogether from the pursuit.</p> +<p>It was on this occasion that a bard of that day wrote the +stanza which appears on the title page, thus translated by the +late Iolo Morganwg:—</p> +<blockquote><p>“In Ystrad Feen a doleful sound<br /> +Pervades the hollow hills around;<br /> +The very stones with terror melt,<br /> +Such fear of Twn Shon Catty felt.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Fortune still favoured Twm, who reaching the foot of Dinas +somewhat in advance of his motley train of pursuers, dismounted, +sprung from stone to stone, that formed the ford of the Tower, +and climbed the steep side of that majestic mount, with the +utmost ease. Like a prudent sea-captain, Twm was chased in +his small boat by a fleet of rovers, till he reaches his own +war-ship, and springs up her fort-like side, <a +name="page285"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 285</span>and treads +his deck in the ecstasy of surmounted peril, conscious strength, +and superiority.</p> +<p>Thus Twm now attained the summit of a prominent knoll, and +waved his hand triumphantly, in defiance of his foes below. +Evans of Tregaron, with his crew of catchpoles, made an attempt +to climb also; Twm permitted them to advance about twenty yards +above the river, when he ended the warfare, by rolling down +several huge stones, that swept them in a mass into the bed of +the river Towey, sadly bruised, but more frightened, from whence +they were extricated by the amazed and terrified spectators.</p> +<p>Evans of Tregaron met with an accident, which during the +remainder of his life reminded him of his hasty chase after Twm +Shon Catty. In starting aside to avoid the dreadful leaping +crags that threatened to crush him, his pistols went off in his +pockets, and carried away, besides his coat skirts and the rear +of his black breaches, a large portion of postern flesh, that +deprived him forever after of that agreeable cushion which nature +had provided.</p> +<p>Amusing to the population of Tregaron was the singular sight +of their crest-fallen magistrate and his hated gang, brought home +in woeful plight, as inside passenger of a dung-cart, which had +been hired for the purpose; and more than all, that his +discomfiture should have been caused by their long-lost +countryman Twm Shon Catty.</p> +<p>Our hero was clearly in an unassailable position, and his +enemies were not so stupid as to be entirely blind to that +important fact. So, like a princely chieftain of the days +of old, enthroned upon his native tower of strength, marking in +his soul’s high pride the awkward predicament of his +baffled foes, perceiving them all depart; leaving him the +undisputed lord of his alpine territory, the glorious height of +Dinas.</p> +<p>After witnessing, with his limbs stretched upon his mountain +couch, the glorious beauty of the setting <a +name="page286"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 286</span>sun, he +entered the cave, tore from its top a sufficiency of fern and +heather to form his bed, threw on it his fatigued, over-exerted +frame, and slept soundly until morning.</p> +<h2>CHAPTER XXXVI.</h2> +<p class="gutsumm"><span class="smcap">Twm</span> at +Brecon. An angling feat. Twm in a musical +character. Wins the prize offered for a poem. A new +style of marriage—and some other little “odds and +ends.” Conclusion.</p> +<p>With the earliest rays of the morning’s sun Twm was +astir, and during a long ramble on the hills, was busily turning +over in his mind the exciting-incidents of the previous +day. Unable to account for his second disappointment of +seeing his mistress, according to promise, he gave way to +despondency, and conjectured the worst—that she was no +longer true to his vows, but had yielded to the persuasions of +her haughty relative, and become a renegade both to love and to +honour. He was now, however, so near her residence, he +would at least ascertain how matters stood; and, after many +efforts of resolution, he descended the hill for that +purpose.</p> +<p>On crossing the Towey, he was surprised to find that the +“gallant grey” was still left for him; he was busily +feeding in an adjoining field, and the saddle and bridle hung +dangling from a storm-stricken old thorn. He felt this, +directly, as a handsome piece of attention to him, on the part of +Powell of Brecon, who, doubtless, had left it there for +convenience.</p> +<p>On examining further, he found a note, tied to the bridle, +from that generous individual, inviting him to be present at the +Eisteddvod, the Races and the Ball, which were to take place +successively in the gay town of Brecon.</p> +<p><a name="page287"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 287</span>He +was doomed to disappointment; for on reaching Ystrad Feen he +found nobody but the servants, who informed him that their lady, +Miss Meredith, and the late visitors, were all gone to Brecon, +and would not return for some days. This intelligence +determined him to go there also; and recollecting a trunk of +clothes of his, which had been left ever since his sojourning +there, he called for it; and having dressed himself, and placed +with other things, in his saddle-bags, an elegant suit which he +had brought from London, he mounted his horse, and rode off for +Brecon.</p> +<p>About a couple of miles beyond Trecastle, he overtook a poor +fellow driving an ass, laden with coarse crockery ware, who +turned out to be no other than Ready Rosser. Having long +been married to a Cardiganshire lass, they both, pretending to be +single, entered Squire Prothero’s service at the same time; +but the circumstance being at length discovered, they were both +discharged a few days since, and now commenced the crockery +business for a livelihood. After a few jests on the white +bull, ox, and sheep, Twm spurred on, but not before he had +purchased the whole of Rosser’s stock, which, however, that +worthy was to take to Brecon, for a purpose to be hereafter +described.</p> +<p>At Brecon he took lodgings at the Three Cocks’ inn, to +which he gave a preference, on account of the sign being the +armorial bearings of the celebrated David Gam, +(Shakespeare’s Captain Fuellin,) the hero of Agincourt.</p> +<p>Crowds still poured into the town from all points of the +compass, until it seemed impossible that the streets would hold +them. While our hero looked through the window to observe +Rosser, who arranged his crockery in front of the inn, his +attention was suddenly caught by the sound of a harp, which +proceeded from the kitchen. To his great surprise, he found +the performer to be his old friend the venerable Ianto Gwyn of +Tregaron.</p> +<p>The old man was very glad to see him, and after learning the +particulars of the fortunes he had met since <a +name="page288"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 288</span>he left his +native town, proceeded to inform him of the Tregaron news. +His mother was well three weeks ago, and had received the various +sums which he had sent her at different times, and was in daily +hopes of burying her churl of a husband. Rachael Ketch was +now dead; having broken her heart for the loss of her money, +which had been stolen by Watt the mole-catcher, who was +transported.</p> +<p>In conclusion, the old man said that he had come to the +Eisteddvod rather as a spectator than a candidate for the prize, +having accidentally hurt his right hand, which nearly disabled +him altogether from playing. “That circumstance is +now the more provoking,” said the old man, “as I am +convinced that were my hand well, I should certainly win the +noble silver harp, which is to be the meed of the best +player.”</p> +<p>Twm took his musical friend upstairs, and, after dining +together, began coquetting with the harp, which with the hand of +a ready player, he soon tinkled into alternate fits of grief and +laughter, as he ran over many of our most popular airs.</p> +<p>The old man jumped up from his seat, and embraced him with +rapture, protesting that he could not fail to win the harp, if he +chose to be a candidate. Our hero, having practised but +little on the harp since he left London, felt considerable +diffidence in becoming a competitor among proficients in music, +but resolved, at any rate to avail himself of the instructions of +his friend Ianto Gwyn.</p> +<p>Intensely anxious to meet his mistress once more, he sought an +early opportunity of a walk through the streets; but instead of +the desired one, it was his lot to meet Powell the magistrate, +who gave him a jocular and right hearty welcome. They were +soon joined by two other high bloods of the town, one a wealthy +attorney, named Phillips, and the other a reverend and +right-portly son of the church, who shone more at the punch-bowl +than in the pulpit. They all adjourned to the parlour of +the Three Cocks, where the best of <a name="page289"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 289</span>wine was soon in request, and a gay +scene of conviviality and good fellowship ensued.</p> +<p>Twm’s fame had of course preceded him, for +Powell’s tongue had been busy in his praise, although he +had done him no more than justice, and those four worthies soon +understanding each other, they spent a pretty jolly time of +it. Being all lads of the turf, the practice of betting was +familiar to them; and the lawyer offered to oppose Twm in a match +of angling for five pounds; and the bet should be, that +“<i>whoever fished the largest weight</i>, <i>no matter of +what kind</i>, <i>in half an hour</i>, <i>should be declared the +winner</i>.” Our hero, although a poor angler, +accepted the wager, and Powell, as the umpire, wrote down the +terms of it, which was signed by each.</p> +<p>Possessing himself of angling paraphernalia, he repaired with +them to the bridge, and had the upper side of it assigned to him, +while Phillips had the lower. The latter displayed a grand +morocco pocket-book, filled in the neatest order with the most +choice artificial flies, of every description, and soon had his +handsome rod in order; while the former had nothing better than +what could be procured at a shop. The lawyer landed fish +after fish, with great rapidity, and when half the given time had +expired, Twm found himself much in arrears, and the continued +good fortune of his antagonist left him, apparently, no chance of +ultimate success.</p> +<p>“Confound these good-for-nothing flies! fetch me a beef +steak!” cried he at last, and gave money for that purpose +to a by-stander, who immediately brought the article wanted.</p> +<p>“There’s a Cardy angler, fishing for trout with a +beef steak!” cried the Breconians, with an exulting +laugh. Twm made no reply, but fastened several hooks in +different parts of a strong line, to each of which he attached a +small piece of beef; and, watching the movement of a flock of +ducks that floated in luxurious ease down the Usk, he threw the +whole among them.</p> +<p>Loud was the clamour of the aquatic crew, as they <a +name="page290"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 290</span>hustled +each other, in their eagerness to partake of the showered feast, +which they soon gobbled, and were drawn up to the top of the +bridge by the singular angler above, amid the shouts of laughter +of the numerous spectators.</p> +<p>This feat was greeted by the by-standers with shouts of +derision, as they thought that Twm, in thus trifling, had +practically confessed his inability to win the wager. +Powell called time, saying that the half hour had struck. +Phillips, as the conscious winner, produced a goodly show of +trout, and, as Twm had caught but four small fish, said it would +be idle to weigh them.</p> +<p>“Not so,” replied our wag, “let the written +terms of the bet be read, and you will find that my ducks have a +right to be weighed against your boasted trout, aye! and shall +make them kick the beam.”</p> +<p>Phillips started at such an assertion made in earnest, and +Powell read, “Whoever fished the largest weight, no matter +of what kind, would be declared the winner,” and as umpire, +awarded the five pounds to our hero.</p> +<p>Some merriment at the expense of Powell was caused by his +declaring himself the unlucky proprietor of the said flock of +ducks; but with his usual good-humour, he proposed that the ducks +and the trout should be cooked at his house for their supper, in +which Phillips acquiesced.</p> +<p>After dinner, when the bottle had passed pretty freely, and +all were prepared for any fun which might fall in their way, our +hero contrived to bring Powell, who had hitherto fought shy, into +a bet with him. He declared that a stranger as he was to +Brecon, he firmly believed that he could command, and be obeyed +there, with greater promptitude than himself, although a justice +of the peace and one of the quorum.</p> +<p>“I’ll lay you twenty pounds to the +contrary,” cried the magistrate.</p> +<p>“Done!” replied Twm, “and we can prove it +without <a name="page291"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +291</span>quitting this room, by opening the window, and +practising on some of those people opposite.”</p> +<p>“Let it be yon crockery-wareman, who is the most +conspicuous,” said Powell, and Twm, of course, could have +no possible objection.</p> +<p>The magistrate opened the window, and called in a tone of +authority, “Come here, you fellow; go directly to the Black +Lion, and tell the landlord to let you have Justice +Powell’s black mare, and bring her here to me.”</p> +<p>“I can’t quit my goods, sir,” said Rosser, +“or I would willingly oblige you.”</p> +<p>“I tell you, fellow, do as I order you, or I shall kick +you and your ware out of the town,” said Powell in a +blustering tone, and with a look the most terrifying that he +could assume.</p> +<p>Rosser repeated his former answer; and when the magistrate +increased his threats, he burst out into a rude laugh, and, +without further difference, said he really believed that his +worship was drunk: this was enough, and the worthy magistrate +felt himself completely put down.</p> +<p>Our wag now took his turn, and commenced with him: “I +say, fellow, did’st thou ever see or hear of Twm Shon +Catty?”</p> +<p>“Yes,” replied Rosser, “often at Llandovery; +once at Cardigan; and now I see him before me at +Brecon.”</p> +<p>“Well then,” continued Twm, “I order thee to +give us a dance in the middle of the crockery.”</p> +<p>“With all my heart, if <i>you</i> order it, for I should +dread to disobey Twm Shon Catty more than twenty times my +loss.” On which he jumped, capered and danced, in the +midst of his brittle commodities, kicking and treading the +dishes, pans, basins, and other articles, to powder beneath his +feet.</p> +<p>“By the Lord, thou art a strange fellow!” said +Powell, as he paid him the amount of his forfeit; “and I +foresee that there’s much more luck for thee than thou +dreamest of: and I confidently anticipate what will come in thy +favour, my Cardiganian hero.”</p> +<p><a name="page292"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 292</span>Twm +was much surprised to hear Powell speak thus, as his manner +implied much more than his words; but his astonishment was +considerably augmented when, in a subsequent conversation, our +hero discovered that Powell knew all his affairs and connections +with the lady of Ystrad Feen.</p> +<p>“She once,” said he, “played me a +jade’s trick; but no matter, we are now friends, and she +has even assisted me in my suit with her amiable friend, Miss +Meredith. In heart and soul, she is attached to you, Jones; +but she is a weak yielding woman beneath the terrors of her +father’s frown, and in some evil hour might again sacrifice +herself, if you are too long out of her sight. She is proud +of you and of your wild achievements, and even finds excuses for +your most blameable courses. Now, my advice is, that you +will endeavour to distinguish yourself during the races, and +start for the gold plate: the grey horse, I suspect, has blood in +him, and will beat the best that is to run.”</p> +<p>“But why,” asked Twm, “did she not keep her +promise to meet me at Llandovery fair?”</p> +<p>Powell replied that she was prevented by her father’s +sudden illness; and great is her sorrow for the disappointment +she must have caused.</p> +<p>On the following day the town speedily put on its gala +dresses, and flags waved from every corner. Bells were rung +and guns fired in honour of the festival, which consisted of a +rather extensive programme, namely the Eisteddvod, Races, and +Ball. Between eleven and twelve o’clock, our hero, +with other musical and literary competitors, entered the +Town-Hall, in bardic trim, with the harp of his friend Ianto +Gwyn, slung by a blue ribbon, and attached to his shoulder.</p> +<p>The audience included all the intellect, taste, and fashion of +the district, and the competitors were greeted on their +appearance, with hearty and long-continued applause.</p> +<p>At length the business of the meeting was begun by a speech +from the president, who occupied a central seat on the raised +platform. He dwelt emphatically <a name="page293"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 293</span>on the laudable object of the +Eisteddvod; “to preserve from annihilation one of the most +ancient languages spoken by mankind, remarkable for its +perspicuousness, energy, and expression; that, like a perpetual +living miracle, kept its firm stand in this solitary nook of +country;—to revive and preserve the beautiful melodies +which had been the delight of our gallant and patriotic +forefathers;—and lastly by emulation, to keep alive the +brilliant blaze of the native Awen, the darling poesy of the +land, which yielded their fragrant and refreshing blossoms, +lovely sacrifice on the altar of Taste.”</p> +<p>Penillion singing succeeded; in which the minstrels of +Merionethshire excelled. The rest went on in rotation, +minutely according to the description given by the ever-faithful +Drayton, to whose pages we refer the reader.</p> +<p>There was a surprise awaiting Twm. Among the given +subjects for the Cowydd, or Poem, was “Govid,” or +Affliction, for which it turned out that there was but one who +had written on it; and, to his unutterable astonishment, he heard +his own poem on that title recited, and more than all, a prize +awarded to it by the umpires.</p> +<p>Lady Devereaux, who had attached her name to this effusion, +was called upon to receive the meed of her talents. That +lady, who sat by her father, as one of the audience, now rose, +and said, with some emotion, that the poem so highly honoured was +not of her composition, but had been sent to her by its author, a +person of taste and ingenuity, whom she was bound ever to esteem; +as to his valour and courtesy she had once been indebted for the +preservation of her life. Then naming Mr. Thomas Jones as +the author, she pointed him out; and, amid loud and long +applause, a handsome silver medal was placed round his neck.</p> +<p>We will not occupy more space in relating what the reader can +so readily imagine. Our hero was the most successful +competitor at the Eisteddvod, and at the <a +name="page294"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +294</span>Races. At the Ball too he won the admiration of +the ladies, and withal, the wonder and esteem of the +Breconians. But alas! the buoyancy of spirits, and the +exultation of heart, which owed their evanescent existence to +these distinction, were soon doomed to give way to feelings of +contrasted severity.</p> +<p>Now, while in the zenith of his glory, confidently +anticipating, as the final crown of his happiness, the willing +hand of his mistress, a note for him arrived at the inn, from the +fair widow, that threw him into absolute despair. She told +him in plain terms, that unless he could outwit her, all his +hopes of her hand would be utterly in vain. This intimation +he could understand only as a formal <i>permit</i> to wear the +willow as soon as he pleased; that she was otherwise engaged, and +had altogether done with him.</p> +<p>His reasoning and conclusions in this argument received +absolute and entire confirmation by the tantalising conduct of +Miss Meredith, who accidentally meeting him one day, did nothing +but laugh and jest at his anxious-looking face and restless +behaviour. She would give no answers to his eager, +importunate questioning, and ran away and left him, half wild and +desperate. The next hour, at least, was spent by Twm in +railing bitterly the “vile caprice and inconsistency of +woman.”</p> +<p>Hearing that her company had preceded her in the way home, +next evening, and that she was about to follow them alone, he +resolved to way-lay and put her under contribution, at any rate; +which he conceived would be one way, at least, of out-witting +her, and perhaps the right one.</p> +<p>He hastily assumed a dress which thoroughly disguised him, for +his features were almost altogether concealed by a large hairy +travelling cap, which he wore well down over his ears, and his +figure was equally lost amongst the ample folds of a great coat, +which had never been made for him.</p> +<p>His preparations made, he took his stand by the gate <a +name="page295"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 295</span>that in +those days led from the town into the mountains, through which +the road ran to Llanspyddyd, Trecastle, and Llandovery.</p> +<p>At length the gay widow arrived, and Twm immediately caught +hold of her bridle, and, in an assumed snuffling tone of voice, +demanded her money. She begged hard for mercy on her +pocket, but in vain; and gave at last a considerable sum, which, +she said, was the whole contents of her pocket. Our hero, +having placed the booty in the crown of his cap, declared himself +quite satisfied; “And so am I!” cried the spirited +widow; and, at the same moment, grasping his cap and its whole +contents, laughing aloud as she galloped away from him, she +cried, “Thus the widow outwits and triumphs over Twm Shon +Catty!”</p> +<p>Had Fortune determined to spite poor Twm Shon Catty as much as +she had previously favoured him? It looked most +unpleasantly like; for he had never been in such a deplorable +condition as now, standing there in the road, glancing wistfully +at the fast retreating figure of the widow. He was shorn of +his laurels completely, and at once a bankrupt in love and +fortune; as the cap contained the whole of the money he brought +with him to Brecon, as well as what he had gained there.</p> +<p>This inauspicious adventure, although it damped his spirits +for a time, had the ultimate effect of rousing his latent +energies to the highest pitch. He was not long in hatching +a scheme to forward his purposes, which, however, required the +aid (which was soon offered to him) of Powell and his two +friends.</p> +<p>Twelve o’clock the next morning saw him dismounting at +the door of Ystrad Feen, accoutred in a military undress; +originally used by him in London, as at present, for masquerading +purposes. In this disguise, he expected immediate +admittance as a stranger; but to his unutterable dismay, instead +of finding the door fly open to his knock, it appeared to have +been doubly barricaded against him.</p> +<p>After his repeated summons, the lady of the mansion, <a +name="page296"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 296</span>with +pompous formality, appeared at the window, like the warder of a +fortress holding a parley at the outpost. In a gay spirit +of bantering, she declared that the military uniform became him +exceedingly, and begged to know what rank he held in the +army. Our hero parried these home-thrusts but with an +ordinary degree of grace, and, in a bowed spirit, entreated +admission to the inner walls. The lady Joan was quite +peremptory in her refusal, declaring, that having lately heard so +much to his disadvantage, she had decided on breaking off all +future acquaintance with him as a lover; +“especially,” added she, “as, instead of the +witty person I thought you, I find you quite a dull animal, that +any school-girl might outwit.”</p> +<p>Here she indulged in a provoking laugh, and bade him +“good bye,” as she turned to close the window.</p> +<p>“Nay then,” said Twm in a desponding key, +“if we are indeed to be henceforth strangers, as we have +been friends, true and warm friends, you will give me your hand, +at least, in parting.” She slowly stretched out her +hand through the window, and our hero, with the eager spring of a +hungry tiger, darted forward, grasped her wrist with his left +hand, and drawing his sword with the right, exclaimed in a tone +of affected fury, “Revenge at least is left me—by yon +blessed sky above us, I’ll be trifled with no +longer—off goes your hand unless you consent to our union +this instant, and on this very spot.”</p> +<p>“Lord! don’t squeeze so hard and look so +fierce,” cried the lady of Ystrad Feen.</p> +<p>Twm, with increased boisterousness, resumed, “On your +answer will depend, whether, for the remainder of your life, you +have a single hand or a pair of them—for on the pronouncing +of a negative, this hand, this soft white hand, beautiful as it +is, will instantly fly, severed from the wrist; and only think +now, my gentle lady Joan, how dreadful you would look with a +stump.”</p> +<p>Twm looked determined enough, and what could a lady do in +respectable society with only one hand? The idea was +preposterous. In her vexation, she <a +name="page297"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 297</span>stretched +her pretty neck out, and endeavoured to make her tormentor relax +his grasp by inflicting a bite on the back of his hand. Twm +seized this opportunity of imprinting a very decisive kiss on her +check, on which she drew back her head, her face glowing +radiantly with blushes.</p> +<p>“You villain!” cried she, “I suspected you +were about to bite my ear off.”</p> +<p>“No, only your hand, Joan,” replied Twm; +“and that I <i>will</i> have, unless you consent to be mine +this instant.”</p> +<p>“I would not so much care,” cried the lady of +Ystrad Feen, “but your horrid name; I could not endure to +be called Mrs. Twm Shon Catty.”</p> +<p>“I have protested bitterly, and will not be +foresworn,” cried Twm, “that here, even here, with +your hand stretched through the window, the marriage ceremony +shall be performed; and so your answer at once without +evasion.”</p> +<p>“The parson of our parish has gone to a +christening,” said the lady of Ystrad Feen.</p> +<p>“Yes or no!” roared the terrific Twm, menacing the +threatened blow.</p> +<p>“Well then, as I could not handle a knife or fork, or +play my spinnet, or give you a box on the ear when I want +pastime, I may as well say—Yes!”</p> +<p>“Bless thee for that,” cried Twm in ecstacy, and +eagerly kissed the captured hand. Sticking his sword in the +ground, he drew forth a small bugle, and blew a loud blast that +was re-echoed by the surrounding mountains. Immediately a +party of ten persons, wearing masks, appeared, one of which was +arrayed in a clerical habit, who drawing forth his book, at once +commenced the marriage ceremony, Twm the while holding her hand +through the window.</p> +<p>The Lady of Ystrad Feen had never calculated upon being +married in this unceremonious fashion; but she was fairly at a +loss, and therefore came to the conclusion to endure her fate, +patiently and with resignation, yet in her heart very glad that +<a name="page298"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 298</span>she was +under such a pleasant pressure of circumstances.</p> +<p>The ceremonial was nearly half over, when four windows of the +first floor were suddenly opened, and several highly-dressed +ladies and gentlemen put out their heads and displayed most +mirthful countenances, the fair ones waving their whitest +cambrics above their heads; and with shaking peals of laughter, +looked down upon this singular wedding. The “ho, ho, +ho!” of the merry Prothero, was heard with surpassing +loudness; and “Well done, Twm!” were the first words +that the spirit of titillation permitted him to utter.</p> +<p>Notwithstanding this interruption, the ceremony was finished, +and parson Hughes pronounced them man and wife. Unwilling +to loosen the hand which he now considered his own, our hero held +it fast till he entered the house through the window.</p> +<p>Once within the mansion that now called him master, an amazing +change of circumstances took place. The lady endearingly +asked for forgiveness for her latter conduct, while Twm entreated +the same for himself. Squire Prothero had been the author +of many good offices for our hero; having conciliated Sir John +Price, who, although a proud man, was also something of a +humorist, as he proved himself in this instance. A plan was +concerted to throw every impediment in the way of Twm’s +union, for him to surmount them as he could, to afford sport for +the old baronet and his merry friend Prothero, in which trickery +the lady herself was by promise compelled to join, which accounts +for her latter conduct.</p> +<p>Being ushered by his bride into the drawing-room, our hero was +introduced to, and warmly greeted by two most unexpected +personages, his lady’s father and his own! Sir John, +who had been a visitor at the Priory-House for a week, was the +gayest of the gay on this occasion. Placing an elegant +tiara of jewels on her brow, the northern Baronet embraced her +tenderly; and handing her to our hero, said, <a +name="page299"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +299</span>“Here, you lucky dog! prove thyself worthy of the +blood of the Wynns, and that shall warm to thee yet.”</p> +<p>This most unexampled wedding was followed in a few days by +another ceremony more befitting the social position of Lady +Devereaux, and at the same time Miss Meredith gave her hand to +the delighted Justice Powell. Somehow, it did not occur to +any of the parties that its brilliance was much impaired by the +absence of Miss Felina Tomtabby Price, and her high-minded +sister. These stately spinsters determined to punish their +family for this unprecedented proceeding, by withdrawing their +countenance from them, and the degenerate world for ever.</p> +<p>Some of the <i>great</i>, (great fools!) that is to say, the +most eminently useless residents of the then proud town of +Brecon, were in the most embarrassing state of dilemma on this +occasion. They entertained very serious doubts as to the +possibility of admitting our hero into their exquisitely select +circle, on account of his left-handed origin; and more than all, +his former questionable doings:—certain malignant spirits +having insinuated suspicions of his once figuring in London as a +black-leg, if not a thief. But as the patronizing influence +of Sir John Price was scanned, they condescended to overlook +these supposed peccadilloes; as it was decidedly proved to them +that he had never vulgarized himself by any practice of +usefulness in the world, by what they deemed worse than +witchcraft in the debasement of gentility—the following of +a trade or profession.</p> +<p>Our tale is almost ended; we have only to add a word or two +with respect to our principal characters, as it would hardly be +respectful to dismiss them without some appearance of +attention.</p> +<p>Reparation having been made to all parties who were sufferers +by our hero’s faults and follies, the Graspacres, father +and son, by the good offices of Sir John Wynn and the friendly +Prothero, were in time conciliated. The luckless Inco Evans +had soon after <a name="page300"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +300</span>to add to his other losses, that of his clerical gown, +on account of a certain complaint preferred against him to his +diocesan, by Miss Bessy Gwevel-heer: and his magisterial function +was also numbered with the things that were, but are not. +When despised and impoverished, in his old age, Twm stepped +forward with timely aid, that more than compensated for the +injuries he had ever done him.</p> +<p>Twm showed most kindly consideration for hungry Moses and his +ever starving family, and made a praiseworthy attempt to fatten +them up. All was in vain, and Moses was struck with wonder +and admiration when he saw an unusually stout specimen of +humanity.</p> +<p>The venerable Ianto Gwyn was installed as the family harper; +while each and all of the humbler companions of his wild days, +were acknowledged, befriended, and aided in their views in +life.</p> +<p>The landlady of the Cat and Fiddle was so greatly benefited by +the association of our hero’s name in her house, that her +increased wealth and charms gained her another husband, in the +person of little Tommy Thomas, the late under whipper-in of +Ystrad Feen; and their sign underwent a change to “The Twm +Shon Catty Inn.”</p> +<p>One day, many years after all these things had been so happily +and comfortably settled, to the satisfaction of the principal +parties concerned, an old friend called upon Twm in the person of +Doctor John David Rhys, who had acquired great fame and honour in +far-off Continental cities. Their meeting was most joyous; +and when he reminded his old pupil of his prophecy respecting his +union with the lady of his dream, a friendly pressure of her hand +accompanied by an inexpressibly sweet smile, acknowledged her +pleasure in the truth of his foresight.</p> +<p>Poetical justice and fact, are unhappily at variance in our +closing notice of this most excellent character. During his +residence abroad, he changed his profession of a Protestant +Divine, and became a Catholic, and a <a name="page301"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 301</span>physician; practising among princes +and nobles, he soon realized an ample fortune. For the +enjoyment of a further intercourse with these, his friends, in +preference to his own native Anglesea, he fixed his residence at +Llanllwch, in the neighbourhood of Brecon.</p> +<p>Here our hero’s friendship stood him much in stead; for +when the <i>enlightened</i> Protestant mobs of the time +persecuted him for his faith, forcibly entering his house to +search for the Pope in the cavity of his porridge pot, and a +legion of Friars in his night-chair and warming-pan, Squire Jones +was the magistrate that stood forward to check their +lawlessness. His great popularity and known Protestant +principles were all sufficient warrants for his word, when he +assured the many-headed monster of the groundlessness of such +suspicions.</p> +<p>Our hero, who, the reader must be aware, has shown no little +power in poesy, set to work to write the history of the Gwydir +family, when he discovered that his father was devoting himself +to the same purpose. The old man candidly declared that +among his ten sons, not one of them possessed a literary taste, +or evinced a congenial feeling with him in his pursuits. +But his left-handed eleventh seemed to justify the adage +respecting luck in odd numbers, which drew on him his affections +accordingly.</p> +<p>Squire Jones never forgot the humble way in which he spent the +earliest portion of his life; his was a nature as little likely +to be unduly elevated by prosperity as unnecessarily cast down by +adversity.</p> +<p>When he built a mansion at Tregaron, beside the cottages of +his childhood, he would never suffer the homely fabric to be +removed, but kept it as a private appendage to his house; the +interior containing all its rude characteristics, as left at his +mother’s death, which took place a week before his union; +although poor Catty survived both her sister Juggy and her +husband. There, once a year he made a lonely visit of many +hours; and felt his heart soften as he surveyed the rude shelves +and wooden bowls and piggins; <a name="page302"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 302</span>platters and trenchers; and even the +spoons and ladles manufactured by the coarse hand of his late +step-father. The unflattering reminiscences awakened by the +annual visits were better than sackcloth to the skin of kings, as +an antidote to worldly pride, and a check to the overweening +heartiness and want of sympathy with our humbler brethren in +their struggles for a little firmer feeling on the earth; which +is ever the result of the undisputed despotism of prosperity.</p> +<p>Thomas Jones, Esq., filled many most honourable offices in the +good town of Brecon, and in such a manner as to prove that +fortune for this once had not showed her favours upon one +unworthy of them. His early friend, Dr. John David Rhys, +mentions him with respect as an accomplished antiquary, and +testifies to the general excellence and worth of his +character. For many years he was Mayor and Sheriff of +Brecon, and we will close our chronicle of his various +achievements by one more anecdote.</p> +<p>“Bless me!” cried the lady mayoress one day to her +husband, as they passed arm in arm through the street from +church, “the people are always laughing to think of my +marrying you.” “I don’t wonder,” +replied the hero of these adventures, “for whenever I think +of it, I laugh myself.”</p> +<h1><a name="page303"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +303</span>APPENDIX.</h1> +<p><span class="smcap">The</span> Triads referred to, as the +collection made by Thomas Jones, of Tregaron, (Twm Shon Catty,) +are translated from a series in the second volume of the Welsh +Archæology, p. 57. The series bear the following +title. “These are Triads of the Island of +Britain—that is to say, Triads of memorial and record, and +the information of remarkable men or things which have been in +the Island of Britain; and of the events which befell the Race of +the Cymry, from the age of ages.”</p> +<p>To the copy, from which the transcript was made for the London +edition, the following note is annexed.</p> +<p>(Translation.) “These Triads were taken from the book of +Caradoc of Nantcarvan, and from the book of Jevan Brechva, by me, +Thomas Jones, of Tregaron—and those are all I could get of +<i>the three hundred</i>—1601.”</p> +<p>I. The three pillars of the Race of the Island of +Britain.</p> +<p>The first <i>Hu Gudarn</i>, who first brought the Race of the +Cymry into the Island of Britain; and they came from the land of +<i>Hav</i> called <i>Defrobani</i>, [where Constantinople +stands,] and they passed over Mor Tawch (the German ocean) to the +Island of Britain, and to Llydaw where they remained.</p> +<p>The second, <i>Prydain</i>, the son of <i>Aedd-Mawr</i>, who +first established regal government in the Island of +Britain. [Before this, there was no equity but what was +done by gentleness, nor any law but that of force.]</p> +<p>The third, <i>Dyfnwal Moelmud</i>, who first discriminated the +laws and ordinances, customs and privileges of the <a +name="page304"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 304</span>land and +nation. [And for these reasons they were called the three +pillars of the nation of Cymry.]</p> +<p>II. The three benevolent tribes of the Island of +Britain.</p> +<p>The first was the stock of the <i>Cymry</i>, who came with Hu +Gadarn, into the Island of Britain; for <i>He</i> would not have +lands by fighting and contention, but of equity, and in +peace.</p> +<p>The second was the race of the Lloegrwys, who came from the +land of Gwas-gwyn, and were sprung from the primitive stock of +the Cymry.</p> +<p>The third were the Britons. They came from the land of +Llydaw, and were also sprung from the primordial line of the +Cymry.</p> +<p>[And they are called the three peaceful tribes because they +came by mutual consent and permission, in peace and +tranquillity. The three tribes descended from the primitive +race of the Cymry, and the three were of one language and one +speech.</p> +<p>III. Three tribes came, under protection, into the +Island of Britain, and by the consent and permission of the +nation of Cymry, without weapon, without assault.</p> +<p>The first was the tribe of the Caledonians, in the North.</p> +<p>The second was the Gwyddelian Race, which are now in Alban +(Scotland.)</p> +<p>The third were the men of the Galedin, who came in their naked +ships (canoes) into the Isle of Wight, when their country was +drowned, and had lands assigned them by the Race of the +Cymry.</p> +<p>And they had neither privilege nor claim in the Island of +Britain, but the land and protection that they granted, under +specified limits. And it was decreed, that they should not +enjoy the immunities of the native Cymry, before the ninth +generation.</p> +<p>IV. Three usurping tribes came into the Island of +Britain, and never departed out of it.</p> +<p><a name="page305"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 305</span>The +first was the <i>Coranied</i>, who came from the land of +Pwyl.</p> +<p>The second were the Gwyddelian Fichti, who came into Alban, +over the sea of <i>Llychlyn</i> (Denmark).</p> +<p>The third were the Saxons.</p> +<p>[The Corained are <i>about</i> the Humber, and on the shore of +Mor Tawch, and the Gwyddelian Finchti are in Alban, on the shore +of the sea of Llychlyn. The Coranied united with the +Saxons, and being partly incorporated with them, deprived the +Lloegrwys of their government, by wrong and oppression; and +afterwards, they deprived the Race of the Cymry of their crown +and sovereignty. All the Lloegrwys became Saxons, except +those who are found in Cornwall, and in the Commot of +<i>Carnobun</i>, in <i>Deria</i> and <i>Bernicia</i>.</p> +<p>The primitive Race of the Cymry have kept their land and their +language; but they lost their sovereignty of the Island of +Britain, through the treachery of the protected tribes, and the +violence of the three usurping tribes.]</p> +<p>V. The three awful events of the Island of Britain.</p> +<p>First, the bursting of the lake of waters, and the +overwhelming of the face of all lands; so that all mankind were +drowned excepting Dwyvan and Dwyvach, who escaped in a naked +vessel, (without sails), and of them the Island of Britain was +re-peopled.</p> +<p>The second was the consternation of the tempestuous fire, when +the earth split asunder, to Annwn, (lower region,) and the +greatest part of all living was consumed.</p> +<p>The third was the scorching summer, when the woods and plants +were set on fire, by the intense heat of the sun, and multitudes +of men and beasts, and all kinds of birds, and reptiles and trees +and plants irrecoverably lost.</p> +<p><a name="page306"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +306</span>VI. The three chief master works of the island of +Britain.</p> +<p>The ship of <i>Nevydd Nav Neivion</i>, who carried in it a +male and a female of all living, when the lake of waters burst +forth.</p> +<p>The drawing of the <i>avanc</i> to land out of the lake, by +the branching oxen of <i>Hu Gadarn</i>, so that the lake burst no +more;</p> +<p>And the stones of Gwyddon Ganhebon, on which were read the +arts and sciences of the world.</p> +<p>VII. The three great Regulators of the Island of +Britain.</p> +<p>Hu Gadarn, bringing the Race of the Cymry out of the land of +Hav, which is called Defrobahi into the Island of Britain.</p> +<p>Prydain, the son of Aedd-Mawr, establishing government and law +over the Island of Britain.</p> +<p>And Rhitta Gawr, who made himself a robe of the beards of +kings, whom he caused to be shaved (reduced to vassalage) for +their oppressions and contempt of justice.</p> +<p>VIII. The three happy controllers of the Island of +Britain.</p> +<p>Prydain, the son of Aedd-Mawr, suppressing the Dragon +tyranny. [This was a tyranny of pillage and contempt of +Equity, that sprung up in the Island.]</p> +<p>Caradog, the son of Bran, the son of Llyr, checking the +oppression of the Cæsars;</p> +<p>And Rhitta Gawr, controlling the tyranny and pillage of the +tumultary kings.</p> +<p>IX. The three benefactors of the Race of Cymry.</p> +<p>The first, Hu Gadarn, who first showed the Race of the Cymry +the method of cultivating the ground, when they were in the land +of Hav [namely, where Constantinople now stands] before they came +into the Island of Britain.</p> +<p>Coll, the son of Coll-Frewi, who first brought wheat <a +name="page307"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 307</span>and barley +into the island of Britain, where, before, there had only been +oats and rye;</p> +<p>And Elldyd the knight, [a holy man of Cor Dewdws,] who +improved the manner of cultivating the ground, taught the Cymry a +better method than had been known before, and showed the art of +ploughing which now prevails. [For before the time of +Elldyd, land was cultivated only with a mattock and a spade, +after the manner of the Gyddelians.]</p> +<p>X. The three primary Sages of the Race of the Cymry.</p> +<p>Hu Gadarn, who first collected the Race of the Cymry, and +disposed them into tribes.</p> +<p>Dyvnwal-Molemud, who first regulated the laws, privileges, and +institutions of the country and the nation.</p> +<p>And Tydain tad Awen, who first introduced order and method +into the memorials and preservation of the Oral art (poetry) and +its properties.</p> +<p>And from that order, the privileges and methodical usages of +the Bards and Bardism (Druidism) of the Island of Britain, were +first devised.</p> +<p>XI. The three primary Bards of the Island of +Britain.</p> +<p>Plennydd, Alwan, and Gwron.</p> +<p>These were they who devised the privileges and usages which +belong to Bards and Bardism.</p> +<p>[Yet there had been Bards and Bardism before; but they were +not completely methodized, and they enjoyed neither privileges +nor established customs, but they were obtained through +gentleness and civility, and the protection of the country and +the nation, before the time of these three.</p> +<p>Some say they were in the time of Prydain, the son of Aedd +Mawr, others, that they were in the time of his son, +Dyvnwal-Molemud, whom some of the old books call Dyvnvarth, the +son of Prydain.</p> +<p><a name="page308"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +308</span>XII. The three elementary masters of Poetry and +Memorial, of the Race of the Cymry.</p> +<p>Gwyddon Ganhebon, the first man in the world who composed +poetry;</p> +<p>Hu Gadarn, who first adapted poetry to the preservation of +records and memorials;</p> +<p>And Tydain Tad Awen, who first developed the art and structure +of poetry, and the due disposition of thought.</p> +<p>And, from the labours of these three personages, sprang Bards +and Bardism, and the regulation of their privileges and +established discipline, by the three primary Bards, Plenvydd, +Alwan, and Gwron.</p> +<p>XIII. The three primary baptized (or christian) +Bards.</p> +<p>Merddyn Emrys; Taliesin, the chief of the Bards, and Merddin, +the son of Madawc Morvyn.</p> +<p>XIV. The three mighty Labours of the Isle of +Britain.</p> +<p>Erecting the stone of Ketti. Constructing the work of +Emrys. And heaping the pile of <i>Cyvrangon</i>.</p> +<p>The three happy astronomers. (<i>Serenyddion</i>, +<i>Suronides</i>) of the <i>Island</i> of <i>Britain</i>. +<i>Idris Gawr</i>. <i>Gwyddion</i> the son of the +<i>Don</i>. And <i>Gwyn</i> the son of <i>Nudd</i>.</p> +<p>So great was their knowledge of the stars, and of their nature +and situations, that they could foretell whatever might be +desired to be known to the day of doom.</p> +<p>XVI. The three masters of mysterious and secret science, +of the <i>Island</i> of <i>Britain</i>.</p> +<p><i>Math</i>, the son of <i>Mothanwy</i>, and he disclosed his +secret to <i>Gwyndion</i> the son of <i>Don</i>.</p> +<p><i>Mengw</i>, the son of <i>Teiagmaedd</i>, who taught his +secret to <i>Uthyr Bendragon</i>.</p> +<p>And <i>Rhuddlwm Gawr</i>, and he learned his mystery of +<i>Eddic Gor</i> and <i>Coll</i>, the son of <i>Coll +Frewi</i>.</p> +<p><a name="page309"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +309</span>XVII. The three great modellers of the +<i>Island</i> of <i>Britain</i>.</p> +<p><i>Corvinwr</i>, the Bard of <i>Ceri Hir</i> of +<i>Llyngwyn</i>, who first made a ship, with a sail and a helm, +for the race of the <i>Cymry</i>.</p> +<p><i>Mozdial Gwr Gweilgi</i>, the architect of <i>Ceraint</i>, +the son of <i>Greidial</i>, who first taught the race of the +<i>Cymry</i>, the work of stone and lime, [at the time +<i>Alexander the Great</i> was subduing the world.]</p> +<p>And <i>Coll</i>, the son of <i>Cylin</i>, [the son of +<i>Caradawr</i>, the son of <i>Bran</i>,] who first made a mill +with a wheel, for the race of <i>Cymry</i>.</p> +<div class="gapshortline"> </div> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="GutSmall">W. NICHOLSON +AND SONS, LIMITED, PRINTERS, WAKEFIELD.</span></p> +<h2>Footnotes</h2> +<p><a name="footnote9a"></a><a href="#citation9a" +class="footnote">[9a]</a> The truth against the world.</p> +<p><a name="footnote9b"></a><a href="#citation9b" +class="footnote">[9b]</a> The English pronunciation of Twm +Shon Catty, is Toom Shone Cutty; instead of which the Londoners +call it <span class="smcap">Twim John Katty</span>, which seemed +doubly ludicrous as the name of a tragedy hero.</p> +<p><a name="footnote10"></a><a href="#citation10" +class="footnote">[10]</a> A small cup, so called from its +contents being able merely to damp the clay of a genuine +toper.</p> +<p><a name="footnote31"></a><a href="#citation31" +class="footnote">[31]</a> In the farce of the Spirit +Child.</p> +<p><a name="footnote50a"></a><a href="#citation50a" +class="footnote">[50a]</a> The good ale of old Wales.</p> +<p><a name="footnote50b"></a><a href="#citation50b" +class="footnote">[50b]</a> Wheat that may have been left +out too long unharvested from the prevalence of rain, when found +to sprout, is sometimes used in Wales instead of malt in brewing +beer.</p> +<p><a name="footnote55"></a><a href="#citation55" +class="footnote">[55]</a> In addition to the +<i>Gwahoddwr’s</i> address, there is another mode prevalent +in the present day, of inviting to the Bidding, by a printed +circular, which in some parts of the principality supersedes that +merry personage altogether, a thing to be regretted, as it +deprives the rural Welsh wedding of one of its most pleasing +features, and cuts off its alliance with romance, and the manners +of <i>oulden tyme</i>. The following is a specimen of a +Bidding circular.</p> +<blockquote><p style="text-align: right"><i>October</i> +183–.</p> +<p>As we intend to enter the matrimonial state, on Saturday, the +10th November next, we are encouraged by our friends to make a +Bidding on the occasion, the same day, at the young woman’s +house, called Tynant, at which place, the favour of your +agreeable company is most respectfully solicited; and whatever +donation you may be pleased to bestow upon us then will be +thankfully received, and cheerfully repaid whenever called for on +the like occasion.</p> +<p style="text-align: right">Your obedient Servants, A. B.<br /> +C. D.</p> +<p><sup>*</sup><sub>*</sub><sup>*</sup> The parents of the young +man, and his brothers and sisters, desire that all gifts of the +above nature due to them, be returned to the young man on the +above day, and will be thankful for all favours granted. +Also, the young woman’s parents and her brothers and +sisters, desire that all gifts of the above nature due to them, +be returned to the young woman on the above day, and will be +thankful for all favours granted.</p> +</blockquote> +<p><a name="footnote58"></a><a href="#citation58" +class="footnote">[58]</a> A large three-legged iron pot +used for cooking.</p> +<p><a name="footnote72"></a><a href="#citation72" +class="footnote">[72]</a> Havod un-nôs, signifies +<i>one summer night</i>. A poor wandering family pitching +their tent on a common, building a hearth, and boiling their pot +thereon, in the course of one Summer’s day and night, +claimed from ancient usage their right to the spot. Thus a +hut so built, was gradually made into a decent cottage; the +surrounding ground, from a mere yard of scant dimensions, would +become a yard and a garden; and patch after patch being cribbed +and inclosed, in the course of a few years a little farm was +created, in the midst, or on the margin of a dreary common. +These practices were often <i>winked</i> at by the parish, in +favour of a poor industrious large family, who were thus provided +for, instead of becoming objects of parochial relief. If +the intrusion remained unnoticed for sixty years, it became a +freehold property!</p> +<p><a name="footnote140"></a><a href="#citation140" +class="footnote">[140]</a> Anglice, Bessy Blubberlip.</p> +<p><a name="footnote149"></a><a href="#citation149" +class="footnote">[149]</a> Translated from a very popular +Welsh ballad, by John Jones, of Glangors, author of many humorous +songs in the same language.</p> +<p><a name="footnote153"></a><a href="#citation153" +class="footnote">[153]</a> Hob y deri dando signifies +“away my herd to the oaken grove.” Mr. Parry, +for whose Welsh Melodies the modern words were written, remarks, +“There is something very quaint and characteristic in this +ancient air, and it is popular in Wales.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote165"></a><a href="#citation165" +class="footnote">[165]</a> The victim of the sons of +Maes-y-velin was Samuel, the son of Rhys Prichard, the celebrated +author of “Canwyll y Cymry,” (the Welshman’s +candle,) a volume of religious poems, the most popular, and said +to have done the most good, of any that ever was printed in the +Welsh language. To this favourite son the pious author +addressed many of his poems, exhorting and directing him, by +name, to the most minute acts in his devotion. On hearing +of his murder, the old man is said to have burst out in the +wildest strain of prophetic phrenzy, with the following <span +class="smcap">curse</span> on the murderers of Maes-y-velin.</p> +<blockquote><p>Melldith Duw a fyddo’n dilyn<br /> +Pob rhyw ach o’ Vaes y Felin,<br /> +Am daflu blodeu plwyf Llanddyvri<br /> +Ar ei ben i Deifi foddi.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>The translation of which runs thus—</p> +<blockquote><p>May God with heavy curses chase<br /> +All Maes-y-velin’s villain race,<br /> +Since they have drown’d in Teivy’s tide<br /> +Llandovery’s flower—Cymry’s pride!</p> +</blockquote> +<p><a name="footnote203"></a><a href="#citation203" +class="footnote">[203]</a> In the original—</p> +<blockquote><p>“Nid twyll twyllo twyllwr,<br /> +Nid brad bradychu bradwr;<br /> +Nid lladrad mi wn yn dda,<br /> +Lladrada or ladratwr.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p><a name="footnote210"></a><a href="#citation210" +class="footnote">[210]</a> Should it be asked why this +trick (a similar one being related of the Friar of Gil Blas) is +attributed to Twm Shon Catty, his Editor can attest that this is +not the only incident of the kind that he would willingly have +related if he had dared. But as this, and others, have long +been on record, both in the memories of the country people, and +in the Welsh Jest Books, any omission of incident or anecdote on +the score of being property claimable by others, would be +scouted, as a poor-spirited compromise of their rights: it being +utterly out of the pale of possibility that the said good things +could have belonged originally, to any other than their own +redoubted Twm Shon Catty! This explanation, once for all, +must answer every similar objection on the part of the English +reader.</p> +<p><a name="footnote264"></a><a href="#citation264" +class="footnote">[264]</a> Signifying “<i>The Poem of +Affliction</i>.” The original Welsh Poem, in +recitative measure, of which the above is rather a condensed +paraphrase of the late Mr. Jenkins, of Llwynygroes, +Cardiganshire.</p> +<p><a name="footnote269"></a><a href="#citation269" +class="footnote">[269]</a> Between these rivers, before +they unite, is an angular slip of lowland, being the last of +Cardiganshire; Dinas, and all the interesting height here +described, are in Carmarthenshire; while the boundary of +Breconshire is about half a mile off. The reader, who if a +Welshman, will hence recognize the etymology of Ystrad Fin, which +signifies, “The vale of the boundary.”</p> +<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE COMICAL ADVENTURES OF TWM SHON +CATTY***</p> +<pre> + + +***** This file should be named 40421-h.htm or 40421-h.zip****** + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/4/0/4/2/40421 + + + +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. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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