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diff --git a/40883-0.txt b/40883-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ae706d6 --- /dev/null +++ b/40883-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9201 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 40883 *** + +[Illustration: Front Cover.] + + +[Illustration: AT GAZE. Frontispiece] + + + +KATERFELTO + +A Story of Exmoor. + +BY + +G.J. WHYTE-MELVILLE, + +AUTHOR OF "DIGBY GRAND," "CERISE," "UNCLE JOHN," ETC. + +WITH ILLUSTRATIONS + +BY COL. H. HOPE CREALOCKE, C.B. + +LONDON: + +CHAPMAN AND HALL, 193, PICCADILLY. + +1875. + + [_All rights reserved._] + + + + +LONDON: + +BRADBURY, AGNEW, & CO., PRINTERS, WHITEFRIARS. + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. + + + "AT GAZE" (_Frontispiece_) PAGE + + "UNDER THE GUARD" 8 + + "WESTWARD HO!" 96 + + "WELL OUT OF IT" 152 + + "THE LESSON LEARNT" 165 + + "THE TALE TOLD" 183 + + "MOONLIGHT" 206 + + "MOVED!" 215 + + "BEAT" 228 + + "SET UP" 229 + + "NECK OR NOTHING" 280 + + "THE GIPSY'S BRIDE" 286 + + + + + + + + +KATERFELTO: + +A STORY OF EXMOOR. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +DEADMAN'S ALLEY. + + +On the last day of April, 1763, John Wilkes, refusing to enter into his +recognisances to appear before the Court of Queen's Bench, was committed +to the Tower by warrant of my Lords Egremont and Halifax, His Majesty's +two principal Secretaries of State. + +Defiance of constituted authority has never wanted sympathy from that +British public which entertains, nevertheless, a profound respect for +law. Mr. Wilkes became a hero in consequence; and while many a jug of +beer was thereafter emptied, and many a bottle of wine cracked to his +health, diverse street songs, more or less execrable, were composed in +honour of the so-called patriot, whose personal popularity was +incontestable, notwithstanding the unprepossessing exterior, that has +passed into a proverb. + +Of these, none were perhaps so absurd as the following ditty, chanted by +a chairman more than half drunk, under the windows of a tavern in Covent +Garden, notwithstanding the protestations of some half-dozen gentlemen, +who, seated at supper in an upper chamber, held that their tastes and +opinions were equally outraged by the persistency of the singer below. + +"King Nabuchodonosor," whined the chairman. + +"Hold that cursed noise!" exclaimed one of the gentlemen from the +window. + +"King Nabuchodonosor," repeated the chairman in all the aggravating +monotony of a minor key. + +"You knave!" roared a second voice--"I'll come down and beat you to a +jelly, if you speak another syllable!" + +A volley of oaths succeeded this threat, but their object stood fire +manfully under the discharge, and fixing his eyes on vacancy, proceeded +with his song-- + + "'King Nabuchodonosor + Lived in a golden palace; + He fed from a golden dish, and drank + His swipes from a golden chalice. + _But_ John Wilkes he was for Middlesex, + And they chose him for knight of the shire; + For he made a fool of Alderman Bull, + And called Parson Tooke a liar!' + +"Hurrah!" continued the vocalist, who had lost his hat, waving a scratch +wig round his bare scalp with an abortive attempt to cheer. "King +Nabu--Nabu--cho--donosor was a mighty man"--shaking his head with +unimpaired solemnity--"a mighty man, no doubt, + + '_But_ John Wilkes he was for Middlesex, + And they chose him for knight of the shire.' + +Hip, hip--Hurrah!" + +A burst of laughter rang from the party in the tavern, and a gentleman +in a laced waistcoat shut down the window after throwing out a +crown-piece to the singer in the street. + +Night was falling, the air felt chilly, though it was summer, and the +party, who had drank several bottles of port, gathered round the fire +over a steaming bowl of punch. + +They were of all ages between twenty and fifty. One of them wore a wig, +another powder, a third had brushed his luxuriant hair to the poll of +his neck and tied it in a plain black bow. Their long-waisted coats were +cut to an ample width at skirt and sleeves; their waistcoats heavily +bound with lace. Knots of ribbon adorned the knees of their breeches, +their shoes were fastened with buckles, and each man carried sword and +snuff-box. To drink, to fence, to "lug out" as it was called, on slight +provocation, to sing a good song, tell a broad story, and spill a deal +of snuff in its recital, were, at this period, the necessary +accomplishments of a gentleman. + +The room in which these worthies had assembled seemed more comfortable +than luxurious. Its bare floor was sanded, and the chairs, long-legged, +high-backed and narrow-seated, were little suggestive of repose, but the +mahogany table had been rubbed till it shone like glass, the wood-fire +blazed and crackled, lighting up the crimson hangings that festooned the +windows, and though the candles were but tallow, there flared enough of +them to bring into relief a few pictures with which the unpapered walls +were hung. These works of art, being without exception of a sporting +tendency, were treated in a realistic style, and seemed indeed to have +been painted by the same master:--A fighting-cock, spurred, trimmed, and +prepared for battle, standing on the very tip-toe of defiance. A horse +with a preternaturally small head, and the shortest possible tail, +galloping over Newmarket Heath, to win, as set forth in large print +below, "a match or plate of the value of fifty guineas." The portrait of +a celebrated prize-fighter, armed with a broadsword, of a noted boxer in +position, stripped to the waist. Lastly, an ambitious composition, +consisting of scarlet frocks, jack-boots, cocked hats, tired horses and +baying hounds, grouped round a central figure brandishing a dead fox, +and labelled "The Victory of obtaining the Brush." + +One of the party had taken on himself to ladle out the punch. Its +effects soon became apparent in the heightened colour and increased +volubility of the company. Voices rose, two or three at once. A song was +demanded, a glass broken. In the natural course of events, somebody +called a toast. + +"Blue-Eyes!" shouted a handsome young fellow flushed with drink, waving +his glass above his head. + +"A fine!" objected the punch-ladler, judicially. "By the laws of our +society, no member has leave to pledge a female toast. It leads to +mischief. Gentlemen, we have decided to draw the line, and we draw it at +beauty. Call something else!" + +"Then here's John Wilkes!" laughed the first speaker. "He's ugly enough +in all conscience. John Wilkes! His good health and deliverance--with +three!" + +"Hold!" exclaimed a beetle-browed, square-shouldered man of forty or +more, turning down his glass; "I protest against the toast. John Wilkes +ought still to be fast by the heels in the Tower of London. If he had +his deserts John Wilkes would never have come out again, alive or dead, +and nobody but a d--d Jacobite, and traitor to His Majesty King George, +would venture to call such a toast in this worshipful company. I stand +to what I say, John Garnet. It's you to play next!" + +Each man looked at his neighbour. The punch-ladler half rose to +interfere, but shortly plumped into his seat again, finding himself, it +may be, not quite steady on his legs, while the young gentleman, thus +offensively addressed, clenched his glass, as if to hurl it in the last +speaker's face. Controlling himself, however, with obvious effort, he +broke into a forced laugh, glanced at his rapier, standing in a corner +of the room, and observed quietly, "If you desire to fasten a quarrel +on me, Mr. Gale, this is neither a fitting time nor place." + +"Quarrel!" exclaimed the man behind the punch-bowl; "no gentleman, drunk +or sober, would be fain to quarrel on John Wilkes' behalf. Sure, he can +take his own part with the best or worst of us, and Mr. Gale was only +playing the ball back to your service, John Garnet. You began the jest, +bad or good. Be reasonable, gentlemen. Fill your glasses, and let us +wash away all unkindness. Here's to you both!" + +Mr. Gale, though something of a bully, was not, in the main, an +ill-natured man. He squared his shoulders, filled his glass, and pledged +the person he had insulted with an indifference that almost amounted to +additional provocation. Confident in his personal strength and skill +with his weapon, Mr. Gale, to use his own phraseology, was accustomed to +consider himself Cock of the Walk in every society he frequented. Nine +men out of ten are willing to accept bluster for courage, and give the +wall readily enough to him who assumes it as a right. The tenth is made +of sterner stuff, resists the pretension, and exposes too often a white +feather lurking under the fowl's wing, that crowed so lustily and +strutted with so defiant a gait. + +All this passed through the mind of John Garnet, completely sobered by +his wrangle, while he sipped punch in silence, meditating reprisals +before the night was past. + +This young gentleman, whom nature and fortune seemed to have intended +for better things, was at present wasting health and energy in a life of +pleasure that failed egregiously to please, but that succeeded in +draining the resources of a slender purse to their lowest ebb. He came +of an old family, and indeed, but for the attainder that deprived his +father of lands and title, would have been the owner of large estates in +the North, and addressed by tenantry or neighbours as Sir John--that +father, devoted body and soul to the Stuarts, died at Rome, beggared +and broken-hearted, leaving his son little besides his blessing, and an +injunction never to abandon the good cause, but bequeathing to him the +personal beauty and well-knit frame that Acts of Parliament were +powerless to alienate. The young man's laughing eyes, rich colour, dark +hair, and handsome features were in keeping with a light muscular +figure, a stature slightly above the average, and an easy jaunty +bearing, set off by a rich dress, particularly pleasing to feminine +taste. Hence, while he repudiated the title of which he had been +deprived, it became a jest among his intimates to call him "plain John +Garnet," a jest of which the point was perhaps more appreciated by the +other sex, than by his own. + +Plain John Garnet looked somewhat preoccupied now, sitting moodily over +his punch, and the influence of his demeanour seemed to steal upon the +company in general. Mr. Gale, indeed, held forth loudly on horse-racing, +cock-fighting, and such congenial topics, but spent his breath for an +inattentive audience, not to be interested even by a dissertation on +West-country wrestling in all its branches--the Cornish hug, the +Devonshire shoulder-grip, and the West Somerset "rough-and-tumble catch +where you can." + +At an earlier hour than usual the reckoning was called, and the guests, +not very steady, assumed their swords and hats to pass downstairs into +the street. Mr. Gale by accident, John Garnet by design, were the last +to leave the room. + +The latter placed himself before the door, observing in a quiet tone, +that the other's reckoning was not yet wholly paid up. "How so?" asked +Gale, in his loud, authoritative voice. "The oldest member has taken my +half-guinea, and entered it in due course. Will you satisfy yourself, my +young friend, by calling the landlord to produce his club-books? Pooh, +pooh! young sir: the punch is strong, and you have drunk too much! +Stand aside, I say, and let me pass!" + +He did not like the set look of John Garnet's mouth; he liked less the +low firm tones in which that gentleman repeated his assertion. + +"You may or may not be in debt to the club--it is their affair. You owe +an apology to one of the members--that is mine." + +"Apology!" stormed the other. "Apology! what do you mean, sir? This is +insolence. Don't attempt to bully _me_, sir! Again I say, at your peril, +let me pass!" + +"Do you refuse it?" asked John Garnet, in a low voice, setting his lips +tighter while he spoke. + +"I do!" was the angry reply. "And what then?" + +"Nothing unusual," said the other, while he moved out of the way. + +"Drawer! Please to show us an empty room." + +A frightened waiter, with a face as white as his napkin, opened the door +of an adjoining chamber, set a candle on the chimney-piece, and motioned +the gentlemen in. + +Garnet bowed profoundly, making way for his senior to pass. The other +looked about him in uncertainty, and felt his heart sink, while he heard +the voices of their departing companions, already in the street. + +He had little inclination to his task. For one moment the burly, +square-shouldered man wished himself safe at home; the next, that +intermittent courage which comes to most of us, in proportion as it is +wanted, braced his nerves for the inevitable encounter and its result. +He grasped his rapier, ready to draw at a moment's notice, while the +other coolly locked the door. + +The waiter, fresh on the town, and unused to such brawls, ran down to +summon his master, who was busy over the house accounts in a small +parlour below. Till the landlord had added up one column and carried +its balance to the next, he paid no attention, though his astonished +servant stood pale and trembling before him, with a corkscrew in his +mouth and a bottle under his arm. Then both rushed upstairs in a +prodigious hurry, just too late to prevent mischief. + +While yet in the passage they could hear a scuffle of feet, a clink of +steel, a smothered oath, and a groan; but as they reached the door it +was opened from inside, and John Garnet stood before them, panting, +excited, his waistcoat torn, his dress awry, with the candle in his +hand. + +"There is a gentleman badly hurt in that room," said he. "Better send +for a surgeon at once, and get a coach to take him home." Then he blew +out the candle, slipped downstairs in the dark, and so into the street. + +The gentleman was indeed so badly hurt that all the energies of the +household were concentrated on the sufferer. Nobody had a thought to +spare for the assailant till long after pursuit would have been too +late. Mr. Gale was wounded in the fore-arm, and had received a +sword-thrust through the lungs. With the landlord's assistance he made +shift to walk into a bedchamber, where they undressed and laid him +carefully down; but before a surgeon could arrive there was obviously no +hope, and he only lived long enough to assure the doctor, in the +presence of two witnesses, that the quarrel had been of his own making, +and was fought out according to the usual rules of fair-play. + +"I was a fool not to close with him," murmured the dying man, reflecting +ruefully on the personal strength he had misapplied. "But the rogue is a +pretty swordsman; quick, well-taught, supple as an eel, and--I forgive +him!" + +Then he turned on his side, as the landlord subsequently stated, and +thereafter spoke never a word more, good or bad. + +[Illustration: UNDER THE GUARD.] + +John Garnet, meanwhile, made the best of his way into +the street, with the intention of proceeding straight to his lodgings, +and riding out of London next morning at break of day. Duels, though of +no rare occurrence, were serious matters even in a time when every man +carried a small-sword by his breeches-pocket; and to be taken +red-handed, as it were, from the slaughter of an adversary, would have +entailed unpleasant consequences to liberty, if not to life. While it +had been established that a gentleman was bound to defend his honour +with cold steel, it seemed also understood that in such encounters even +victory might be purchased at too dear a price. Nevertheless, so riotous +were the habits of the day, encouraging to the utmost card-playing and +the free use of wine, so lax was the administration of the law, and so +stringent the code of public opinion, that scarcely a week passed +without an encounter, more or less bloody, between men of education and +intellect, who would have considered themselves dishonoured had they not +been ready at any moment to support a jest, an argument, or an insult, +with naked steel. John Garnet, therefore, observing an ancient watchman +pacing his sluggish rounds, turned aside into a bye-street rather than +confront this guardian of the peace; and hastening on as he became less +certain of the locality, was aware that his strength began to fail, and +felt his shirt clinging to his body, wet and clammy with something that +must be blood. + +For an instant he thought of turning back into the more frequented +thoroughfare; but the hum of voices, and increasing tread of feet, +seemed too suggestive of discovery, and he stumbled onwards, in faint +hope of reaching the dwelling of some obscure barber-surgeon who might +staunch his wounds, and send for a coach to take him home. + +Twice he reeled against the wall of a certain dark passage, called +Deadman's Alley, down which he staggered with uneven steps, and had +almost decided that he must sink into the gutter, and lie where he fell +till a passer-by should pick him up, when he descried a red lamp in a +window ahead, and summoned all his strength to make for it as his last +hope. Half blind, half stupefied, he groped and blundered on, with a +dull, strange fancy that he was on the deck of a ship, labouring in a +heavy sea while she made for a harbour-light, that seemed continually to +dip and disappear behind the waves. The illusion, though not so vivid, +was similar to a dream, and the languor that accompanied it something +akin to sleep; till in a moment, while through his brain there came a +whirr as in the works of a watch when it runs down, the light widened, +broke into a hundred shafts of fire, went out and all was dark. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +PORLOCK BAY. + + +High-water in Porlock Bay. The tide upon the turn--sand-pipers, great +and small, dipping, nodding, stalking to and fro, or flitting along its +margin waiting for the ebb; a gull riding smoothly outside on an +untroubled surface, calm as the soft sky overhead, that smiled lovingly +down on the Severn Sea. Landward, a strip of green and level meadows, +fringed by luxuriant woodlands, fair with the gorgeous hues of summer; +stalwart oak, towering elm, spreading walnut, stately Spanish chestnut, +hardy mountain ash, and scattered high on the steep, above dotted thorns +and spreading hazels, outposts, as it were, of delicate feathering +birches, to guard the borders of the forest and the waste; fairyland +brought here to upper earth, with all its changing phases, and variety +of splendour. The wild-bird from her nest in Horner Woods needed but a +dozen strokes of her wing to reach the open moorland that stretched and +widened ridge by ridge, and shoulder by shoulder, till its rich carpet +of heather was lost in the warm haze that came down on Dunkerry Beacon, +like a veil from the sky. + +Far away towards Devon lay a land of freedom and solitude, haunt of the +bittern and the red deer, intersected by many a silent coombe and +brawling river, to expand at last on the purple slopes of Brendon, or +the wet grassy plains of Exmoor. Travelling over that interminable +distance, the sense of sight could not but weary for very gladness, and +turned well pleased to rest itself on the white cliffs of the Welsh +coast opposite, and the faint blue of the intervening waters, calm and +still, like the eyes of a girl, whose being has never yet been stirred +into passion by the storm. + +Above, below, around, Porlock Bay was decked in her fairest garb. Earth, +air, and water seemed holding jubilee; but the loveliest object in +earth, air, or water was a maiden seated on a point of rock, washed by +the drowsy lap and murmur of the tide, who seemed pondering deeply yet +in simple happy thought--a maiden of comely features and gracious +presence, the sweetest lass from Bossington Point to Bideford Bay, +nimble with needle, tongue and finger, courteous, quick-witted, brave, +tender-hearted, the light of a household, the darling of a hamlet, the +toast of three counties,--and her name was Nelly Carew. + +She had sat the best part of an hour without moving from her place, +therefore she could not be waiting for an expected arrival. She swung +her straw hat backwards and forwards by its broad blue ribbon, with the +regularity of a pendulum; therefore her meditations could have been of +no agitating kind, and she looked straight into the horizon, neither +upward like those who live in the future, nor downwards like those who +ponder on the past. Nevertheless, her reflections must have been of an +engrossing nature, for she started at a man's footstep on the shingle, +and the healthy colour mantled in her cheek, while she rose and put out +her hand to be grasped in that of a square-shouldered, rough-looking +personage, whose greeting, though perfectly respectful, seemed more +cordial than polite. + +"Good even, Mistress Nelly," said the new comer, in a deep sonorous +voice; "and a penny for your thoughts, if I may be so bold; for thinking +you were, my pretty lass, I'll wager a bodkin, of something very nigh +your heart." + +She turned her blue eyes--and Nelly Carew's blue eyes made fools of the +opposite sex at short notice--full in the speaker's face. + +"Indeed, Parson," she answered, "you never spoke a truer word in the +pulpit, nor out of it. I've turned it over in my mind till I'm dazed +with thinking, and I can't get her to sit, do what I will." + +"Sit!" exclaimed the other. "Where and how?" + +"Why, the speckled hen to be sure!" answered Nelly, rather impatiently. +"If she addles all these as she addled the last hatch, I'll forswear +keeping fowls, that I will--it puts me past my patience. How do you +contrive with yours, Mr. Gale? though to be sure, if I was a parson, +like you, I wouldn't keep game-cocks. I couldn't have the heart to see +the poor things fight!" + +Parson Gale made no attempt to justify this secular amusement. He was +one of those ecclesiastics, too common a hundred years ago, who looked +upon his preferment and his parish as a layman of the present day looks +on a sporting manor and a hunting-box. Burly, middle-aged, and athletic, +there were few men between Bodmin and Barnstaple who could vie with the +parson in tying a fly, setting a trimmer, tailing an otter, handling a +game-cock, using fists and cudgel, wrestling a fall, and on occasion +emptying a gallon of cider or a jack of double ale. Nay, he knew how to +harbour a stag, and ride the moor after him when the pack were laid on, +with the keenest sportsman of the West, and if to these accomplishments +are added no little skill in cattle doctoring, and some practical +knowledge of natural history, it is not to be supposed that the Reverend +Abner Gale found much leisure for those classical and theological +studies, to which he had never shown the slightest inclination. + +"It is but their nature," said the Parson, reverting to the game-cocks, +of which he owned a choice and undefeated breed. "It comes as natural +for them to fight, as for me to drink when I'm dry, or for your old +grandfather to sit and nod over the fire. Or for yourself, Mistress +Nelly,"--here the parson hesitated and tapped his heavy riding boots +with his heavier whip,--"to bloom here in the fresh air of the Channel, +like a rose in a bow-pot. There's a many would fain gather the rose, +only they dursn't ask for fear of being denied." + +The latter part of the sentence was spoken low enough for Nelly, even if +she heard it, to ignore. + +"And what brought you here this afternoon?" she inquired in her frankest +tones. "It's a long ride across the moor, Parson, even for _you_, and +not much of a place when you get to it. If it had been Bridgewater now, +or Barnstaple, sure you would have seen a score of neighbours, men and +women, to tell you the news, and wind up the night with a junket or may +be a dance. But here," and Nelly burst into a merry laugh, "our only +news is that the speckled hen seems as obstinate as a mule, and Farmer +Veal brought a roan nag horse home this morning from Exeter. I daresay +you've seen it already. As to dancing, if you must needs dance, Parson +Gale, it will have to be with grandfather or me!" + +"And I'd dance all night with both," he answered, "to be sure of a kind +word from one of them in the morning. Do you really care to know what +brought me here to-day, Mistress Nelly, and will you promise not to be +hard on me if I tell you the truth?" + +There was something ludicrous in the contrast of his rough exterior and +timid manner while he spoke. He was a thick, square-made man, built for +strength rather than activity, with a coarse though comely face, bearing +the traces of a hard out-of-door life, not without occasional excesses +in feasting and conviviality. His short grizzled hair made him look more +than his age, but in spite of his clumsy figure, there was a lightness +in his step, an activity in his gestures, such as seldom outlasts the +turning point of forty. He was dressed in a full-skirted riding coat, an +ample waistcoat that had once been black, soiled leather breeches, and +rusty boots, garnished with a pair of well-cleaned spurs. Even on foot +and up to his ankles in shingle, the man looked like a good rider, and a +daring resolute fellow in all matters of bodily effort or peril, not +without a certain reckless good humour that often accompanies laxity of +principle and habits of self-indulgence. Many women would have seen +something attractive even now in his burly strength and manly bearing; +would have thought it worth while, perhaps, to wean him from his +game-cocks and his boon companions, to tempt him back into the paths of +sobriety, good government, and moderation. Among such reformers he would +fain have counted Nelly Carew. + +"You must tell it me in the house then," said she, rising hastily, and +looking up at the sky, as if in dread of a coming shower. "It's time I +was back with grandfather to give him his posset--I left it simmering on +the hob more than an hour ago. Poor grandfather! He never complains, but +I fear he frets if I keep away from him long. It must be dull for him +sure, after the life he led once, dukes and princes and counts of the +empire and what not--why, his very snuff-box belonged to Prince Eugene; +and now he has nobody to speak to but me! Come in, Mr. Gale, and +welcome; it will freshen him up a bit to see a new face, for I think he +seems poorly this morning; you may walk straight into the parlour; you +know your way well enough--while I go and look after supper. You'll eat +a morsel with us, won't you, before your ride across the moor?" + +Thus staving off any further explanation of the parson's hints, Nelly +Carew led the way to the pretty and commodious cottage she called her +home, stopping at the door to prune a broken twig from the myrtle that +flourished by the porch as luxuriously as though North Devon were the +South of France. Parson Gale, noting the trim garden, the well-ordered +flower-beds, the newly-thatched roof, and general air of cleanliness and +decency that pervaded the establishment, could not repress a strong +desire to own the treasure thus comfortably bestowed. There was the +casket. Would he ever succeed in carrying off its jewel to make the +light of his own hearth the ornament on his own breast? + +It seemed but yesterday she came here a smiling little lass of nine or +ten, the darling of that worn-out soldier, whose life had commenced so +eventfully, to dribble out its remaining sands in so quiet and obscure a +retreat. Of old Carew's history he only knew thus much, that the veteran +had passed a wild unbridled youth, a stormy and reckless manhood; that +he had been tried for rebellion in '15, and risked his head, already +grey, once more in '45, escaping imprisonment and even death on both +occasions by the interposition of powerful friends and in consideration +of his services on the Continent during the war. Even John, Duke of +Marlborough, spoke out for the man he had seen at Malplaquet, holding +his own with a pike against three of the Black Musketeers, and who +carried his weapon in a cool salute to his commander the instant he had +beaten them off. But Carew never prospered, despite his dauntless +courage and undoubted military skill. Now some fatal duel, now some wild +outrage on discipline and propriety brought him into disgrace with the +authorities, and men who were unborn when he first smelt powder, +commanded regiments and brigades, while he remained a simple lieutenant, +with a slender income, a handsome person, and a reputation for daring +alone. + +Such characters marry hastily and improvidently. Carew's wife died when +her first child was born, a handsome little rogue, who grew to man's +estate the very counterpart in person and disposition of his graceless +sire. He, too, married early and in defiance of prudential +considerations, gambled, drank, quarrelled with his father, and lost his +life in a duel before they had made friends. Old Carew's hair turned +grey, and his proud form began to stoop soon after his son's death, for +he loved the boy dearly, none the less perhaps because of those very +qualities he thought it right to reprove. Then he took the widow and her +little girl to live with him at a small freehold he inherited near +Porlock; but young Mistress Carew did not long survive her husband, and +the old man found himself at threescore years and ten the sole companion +of a demure little damsel not yet in her teens, whose every look, word, +and gesture reminded him cruelly of the son he had loved and lost. + +These two became inseparable. The child's mother had imparted to her a +few simple accomplishments--needlework, house-keeping, a little singing, +a little music, the French language--as she had herself acquired it in a +convent abroad; above all, those womanly ways that not one woman in ten +really possesses, and that make the charm of what is called society no +less than the happiness of home. + +Little Nelly was still in her black frock when, taking a Sunday walk +hand-in-hand with her grandfather, she looked up in his face, and thus +accosted him:-- + +"When I'm big," said she, "I'll have a little girl of my own. I shall +take her out-a-walking, and be kind to her, as you are to me. You won't +like her better than me, grandfather, will you?" + +"You may be sure of that, Nelly," was his answer, while he marvelled how +this blue-eyed mite had come to be dearer to him than all his loves and +memories of the past; wishing he could have shaped his whole life +differently for her sake. + +"I shall always be your little girl, grandfather," continued Nelly; "I +couldn't do without _you_, and you couldn't do without _me_, so you need +not be afraid of my ever going away to leave you--I promise--there!" + +"But, if you marry, Nelly?" said he, laughing, for to his little maid +this affirmation was the most solemn form of oath. + +"I shall _never_ marry," answered Nelly, with exceeding decision, "no +more shall my little girl." + +And now it seemed the old warrior's turn to be dependent on the grown +woman he had loved and cherished in her childhood. It was true enough +that he fretted and pined for her if she stayed many hours out of his +sight. It was pitiable to mark how, day by day, the intellect failed in +proportion as the goodly form dwindled to decay. The old oak that had +reared its branches so sturdily was bowed and sapless now. The soldier +of Oudenarde and Malplaquet, who had sat at table with Marlborough and +Prince Eugene, was fit for little more than to doze in an easy-chair, +longing for his grandchild's home-coming, and nodding, as Parson Gale +said, feebly over the fire. + +Even that worthy felt struck with something of awe and apprehension +while he looked on the wasted limbs that he had heard quoted by old +neighbours for their strength, and reflected that the time was coming +when he too would no longer be able to sit a horse or wrestle a fall. +What had he to look forward to? What resources against that day of +debility and stagnation, unless, indeed, he could prevail in his suit +with Nelly Carew? Therefore did Parson Gale exert all his powers of +conversation, hoping to render himself agreeable to the girl as she +passed in and out, furthering the preparations for their simple meal. He +drew on his memory, his mother-wit, and his invention for subjects that +might be interesting to both his companions. For old Carew he detailed +at great length the particulars of a wrestling-match, and subsequent +drinking bout, at both of which he had lately assisted in his own +parish; while to Nelly he expatiated on the convenience of his kitchen, +the coolness of his larder, the luxuries of his best parlour in the +parsonage at home; but, in spite of all his efforts, he experienced a +dim sense of failure and depression. Notwithstanding his calling, the +man was superstitious rather than religious; and when he rose to take +leave, could not forbear expressing a conviction that some great +misfortune must be impending on him or his. + +"I've heard tell of men feeling just like me," said he, holding Nelly's +hand rather longer than good breeding required, "and being found next +morning stark dead on the moor. There was a woman up at my place only +last Martinmas, and she says, 'Parson,' says she, 'there's something +coming to me that's past praying for; I know as well as if I saw it. I'm +that down-hearted I don't seem to fill my bodice, and there's a din in +both my ears like the waves of a flood-tide, so as I can't scarce hear +myself speak.' It wasn't a month before her only brother got drowned off +the Lizard, and will you tell me now, Mistress Nelly, as you did once +before, that such warnings are but idle fancies and old women's fables? +I'm down-hearted too; I'm not ashamed to say so. And when it's fallen on +me, whatever it is, I should like to know who will care a pinch of snuff +what's gone with wild Abner Gale?" + +"I wouldn't speak so, if I were you," answered the girl, who, having +disengaged her hand, was now standing at the cottage door to see him +mount for his homeward ride across the moor. "There are plenty of all +sorts to welcome you when you come, and wish you 'good-speed' when you +go away--you that have so many friends." + +"Friends!" repeated the Parson, turning his mare's head homewards, with +a bitter smile. "The church wouldn't hold my acquaintance, but the +pulpit is large enough for my _friends_!" + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +WAIF. + + +Deadman's Alley was at all times a secluded thoroughfare; after dark, +indeed, its echoes rarely woke to the sound of a footstep; and the watch +reflecting, perhaps, that such loneliness saved them a deal of trouble, +abstained from disturbing its repose. An empty cask, a bale of goods, or +a human body thrown aside in Deadman's Alley, might have remained there +many hours without attracting the notice or obstructing the transit of a +passenger. + +John Garnet, however, was unusually fortunate, for he had wallowed in +the gutter but a few minutes, when a girl's step came dancing along the +alley, and the lightest foot in London tripped over him as he lay at +length upon the stones, not quite unconscious, yet altogether powerless +to move. The girl, who had nearly fallen, recovered her footing with the +activity of a cat; and smothering an exclamation in some outlandish +tongue, peered down through the darkness to discover the nature of her +stumbling-block. Then she felt that her naked ankles, for she wore no +stockings, were wet with blood. In an instant she flew to the little red +lamp, for which John Garnet had been making when he fell, tapped hard at +the latticed window whence it shone; and after a hurried whisper with +some one inside, returned in equal haste, accompanied by an old man +wearing a skull-cap and black velvet gown. Together they lifted their +burden in a deliberate business-like manner, as though they traded +habitually in such goods, and carried it into their dwelling, carefully +securing the shutters of the lattice, and closing the door. + +When John Garnet recovered his senses he thought he must be dreaming, so +like a trick of Fancy was the scene to which he awoke. Above him hung +heavy bed-curtains of a rich brocade, under his head was a laced pillow, +and he lay on a scarlet coverlet bound with a border of blue. His eyes, +travelling lazily round the room, rested on a silver lamp, fed by some +aromatic oil; and when he closed them again, wearied by the exertion, +gentle hands pressed a cordial to his lips, and a consoling voice +whispered in his ear: + +"Courage, my young friend. Do not attempt to raise your head. Another +sip, Waif. Good. In five minutes he will come-to." + +In five minutes he _did_ come to, and found strength to ask what had +happened and where he was? + +"The first question you must answer for yourself," said the grave old +man who sat by his bedside, with a finger on his pulse. "To the second I +reply, make your mind easy, you are in the house and under the care of +the celebrated Doctor Katerfelto, who has won more games of skill +against death than any practitioner now alive. Waif, bring me the roll +of lint that stands on the top shelf in the surgery. Look in the middle +drawer for some red salve, and put that flask out of my patient's +reach." + +The girl had left the room, and was back again quicker than John +Garnet's languid senses could follow her movements. When she returned +with these simple remedies, he did not fail to mark the softness of her +dark eyes, the subdued grace of her bearing, the sweet and loving pity +that seemed to pervade her whole being while she hovered about his +couch, and administered skilfully to the wants of a wounded man. Nor was +this tenderness, this sympathy, this almost maternal solicitude, in +accordance with her general habits, in keeping with her type of form and +feature. She looked more like a panther of the wilderness than the nurse +in a sick room. The lithe and supple frame, the light and noiseless +gait, the quick stealthy turn of ear and eye and limb, ready on the +instant for attack, defence, or flight, all this partook of the fierce, +feline nature, and all this she inherited from that mysterious race to +which she belonged, whose origin history has failed to discover, whose +destiny conjecture is at a loss to guess. From her gipsy ancestors she +derived her tameless glances, her nimble strength, her shapely limbs +with their delicate extremities, her swarthy savage beauty and light +untiring step. From them, too, came the wild blood that boiled under +restraint or contradiction, the unbridled passions that knew no curb of +custom nor of conscience, the cunning that could conceal them till +occasion offered, the recklessness that would then indulge them freely +without pity or remorse. + +John Garnet had never yet seen anything so beautiful as this tawny girl +bending over his couch, with gold coins studding her jetty hair, with +collar and bracelets of gold round her neck and wrists, with a shawled +robe of scarlet and orange reaching to her naked ankles, and broad +buckles of gold in her red-heeled shoes. + +He thought of Cleopatra, young whole-hearted, and untainted by the kiss +of an emperor; of the Queen of Sheba, before she fathomed the wisdom of +Solomon. Then he thought the dark eyes looked at him more than kindly, +and fell to wondering how she came here, and what relation she bore to +this old man in the velvet gown who sat by his pillow with a grave +attentive face. But the cordial was doing its work. Ere his wounds had +been dressed, the salve spread, and the lint bandages deftly swathed +round his body, John Garnet's senses lost themselves once more in +oblivion; the last words he heard were in the doctor's voice. Listening +for the girl's answer he fell sound asleep. + +"There is no fear now," said Katerfelto reflectively. "Shall I say there +is no hope? He would have made a beautiful subject, and I wanted just +such an one, to bring my new discovery to perfection. Look at his chest, +Waif. Did you ever see a finer specimen? Some men in my place would be +incapable of this self-denial." + +Waif, as he called her, turned pale under her tawny skin, but there was +a fierce glitter in her eyes while she answered, "I thought he was dead +you may be sure, that was why I brought you out to him. He'll get well +now. So much the better! Patron! you dare not do it." + +The old man smiled, stroking his velvet gown with a white well-cared-for +hand. + +"Dare not, or will not, or shall not," he replied. "It little matters +which. No. It is an interesting case as it stands, and to cure him will +be almost as instructive as to cut him up. Science, Waif, exacts from us +great sacrifices, but she has also her rewards. The man will live, I +think. Live probably to be ungrateful. Meanwhile, let us see who and +what he is." + +Thus speaking, and with a marvellous dexterity the result of long +practice, he turned every one of the sleeper's pockets inside out, felt +in his cravat, his bosom, his waistband, leaving no part of his dress +unsearched, yet without in the slightest degree disturbing his repose. +The girl, holding the lamp to assist, looked down on the prostrate +figure, with a new sensation growing up in her heart, a vague wild +longing that seemed to covet no less than to pity and admire. + +"The outcome is unequal to the pains bestowed," said Katerfelto, holding +up a light purse, a tavern bill, and a valueless snuff-box, as the +fruit of his exertions. "Yet the man is well-born, Waif, and well-to-do, +or I am mistaken. In due time we shall know more about him; there is no +hurry. He cannot leave that bed for a week, nor this house, I should +say, for a month. It's a beautiful case. Beautiful! the other +gentleman's sword must have gone through to the very hilt!" + +"Patron! will he die?" asked Waif with a tremble of the lip she tried +hard to conceal. + +"Most assuredly!" was the answer. "So will you, and so shall I. But not +of such a scratch as _this_, while under _my_ care! No! No! We will set +him on his legs, Waif, in less than a fortnight. Then he will pay his +doctor's bill, walk off with a huge appetite, and we shall see him no +more." + +Her face, over which every shade of hope and fear had passed while she +listened, looked very grave and earnest now. + +"Am I to nurse him, Patron?" said she; "we can keep him safe and quiet +in here, and I can see after his wants while you attend to the people +that come to consult you, patients and----" + +"Fools--" added the old man. "Fools, who are yet so wise in their folly +as to purchase ease of mind at a price they would grudge for health of +body. It's a worse trade, Waif, to set a broken leg than to heal a +broken heart. We want skill, learning, splints, bandages, and anatomy +for the one, but a little cunning and a bold guess will answer all +purposes for the other. There are many men and more women who would +laugh in my face if I told them their head was a workshop and their +heart a pump; yet they can believe the whole of their future life is +contained in a pack of cards. You and I, Waif, have thriven well in a +world of fools--and the fools thrive too--why, I know not. The wisest +people on earth are _your_ people, but they have never prospered. Is it +best to be true, simple, honest? I cannot answer--I have never tried." + +"I will do everything you tell me," persisted Waif, taking for granted +the permission she was so eager to obtain. "I can creep about the +chamber like a mouse; I never want to sleep, nor eat, nor drink, nor go +out into the filthy muddy streets. I know every phial in the surgery as +well as yourself. Hand him over to me, Patron, and I will promise to +bring him through." + +He eyed her narrowly, and she seemed conscious of his scrutiny, for she +turned her head away and busied herself in adjustment of the +bed-clothes. Then he laughed a little mocking laugh, and proceeded to +give directions for the treatment of their patient. + +"You must watch him," he insisted, and though she muttered, "you needn't +tell me that!" finished his say without noticing the interruption. "You +must watch him narrowly; if he wakes, give him one more spoonful of the +cordial; if he is restless after that, come to me. If he wanders in his +sleep mark every word he utters, and remember it. Such drivellings are +not of the slightest importance, but interesting, very interesting, in a +medical point of view. Good-night, Waif. Do exactly as I bid you, and if +all goes well, do not wake me till sunrise." + +Then he trimmed the lamp, listened at the lattice, and retired, leaving +the girl alone with her patient. + +How quiet she sat! moving not so much as a finger, with her large dark +eyes fixed on the floor, and her thoughts like restless sea-birds flying +here, there, everywhere; now skimming the Past, now soaring into the +Future, finally gathering out of all quarters to settle themselves on +the Present. From the moment when Katerfelto, or the Patron, as she +called him, left the room, she seemed to have entered on a new life, to +have risen in her own esteem, to have accepted responsibilities of which +she was proud, to have become a gentler, fairer, softer being, more +susceptible to pleasure and to pain. She only knew there was a great +change; she did not know that she was passing into Fairy Land by the +gate through which there is no return. + +Behind her lay rugged mountain and dreary moor, paths that soil and +blister weary feet, barren uplands yielding scanty harvest in return for +daily toil, a scorching sun, a drenching rain, mocking winds that whirl, +and buffet, and moan. Before her opened the dazzling vistas of a magic +region: gleaming rivers, golden skies, velvet lawns fretted with gems, +bending flowers laden with perfume; glade and thicket, field and forest +bathed in glows of unearthly beauty, rich in tints of unearthly +splendour, teeming with fruits of unearthly hues. Would she not enter in +and rest? Would she not reach forth her hand to gather, and smell, and +taste? Had she not wild longings, vague curiosity, unreasonable daring? +Was she not a woman to the core? How could she tell that the Fairy Land +was a glamour, the lustre a delusion, the beauty a snare? that serpents +were coiling in the grass, that poison lurked in the flowers, that the +fruits turned to dust and ashes on the lip? How could she foresee the +time when she would yearn and strive and pray to get back to the outer +world? In vain! Those who have once passed its gate and tasted the +fruits in that fairy garden have to do with middle earth no more. Their +phantoms may indeed remain among us, but themselves are far away in the +enchanted country, pacing their weary round without a respite, +fulfilling their endless penance in the listless apathy of despair. + +Once the sleeping man turned with a low, deep sigh of comfort, as in +relief from pain. Waifs dark eyes gleamed on him with glances of +unspeakable tenderness and admiration. How noble he looked lying there +in his wounds, like a dead prince. How graceful was the recumbent form; +how luxuriant the dark brown hair escaped from its black riband to +wander over the pillow; how white and shapely the strong hand opened +loosely on the coverlet. This, then, was what they called a gentleman. +She had seen gentlemen in the streets, or when they came to consult the +Patron, but never under such favourable conditions for examination as +now. What was _she_ in comparison? She, the drudge of a charlatan, +half-quack, half-conjuror? How could there be anything in common between +them? She stirred uneasily in her chair, rose, crept to the bedside, and +laid her slim, dusky hand by the side of his. + +Waif's hands, in spite of hard work and hard weather, were beautiful +with the beauty of her race; long, lithe, and delicate; the slender +fingers and filbert-shaped nails concealed a vigour of grasp and +tenacity denied to the broad coarse fist of many a powerful man. She +smiled as she compared them with those of the sleeping patient; and her +smile grew brighter while she reflected that she was herself the +superior in those advantages of birth she so esteemed in him. Yes, the +oldest blood in England seemed a mere puddle compared with hers. Where +was the English gentleman who could trace his pedigree back for a +hundred generations without break or blemish, to ancestors who had +served the Pharaohs and set taskwork for the Jews, who even in that +remote time boasted themselves lineal descendants of an illustrious line +that was only lost with every other record of history in the dim +obscurity of the Past. + +All this Waif had learned beneath the stars, on Bagshot Heath or Barnes +Common, sitting over the camp-fires in the steam of the camp-kettles, +filled with spoils from neighbouring hen-roosts, stolen by the high-born +patriarchs and princes of her tribe. + +But she was a good nurse, notwithstanding her royal descent and +barbarian bringing-up. Twenty times during the night she smoothed her +patient's pillows and straightened his bed-clothes, watching with +experienced eye and ear for symptoms of weakness or relapse. Never once +did she relax her vigilance, nor so much as relieve her slender, supple +form by leaning back in her chair. Unlike most watchers, for _her_ the +minutes seemed to fly on golden wings, and when the grey light of dawn +began to steal through the shutter, dulling the lamp still burning in +that sick chamber, she could have reproached the summer morning for +coming so soon. + +Yet it had been a long night to Waif in fact, if not in appearance. +Those watchful hours had brought for her the great change that comes +once in a lifetime. An ancient philosopher compared our terrestrial +career to the letter Y. He has been quoted till we are tired of him, but +none the less must we acknowledge the force of his illustration. As we +travel along the road we must needs arrive, some in the morning, some in +the middle of the day, some (and these last are much to be pitied) not +till the afternoon, at a point where two paths branch out in different +directions. There is a guide-post indeed, but it stands so high above +our heads that we seldom look at it, choosing rather to trust our +passions and inclinations for directions on the way. So we turn to right +or left as nature, habit, or convenience prompts us, and on the turn +thus taken depends our future journey, and the hope of ever reaching +home. + +It was broad day when John Garnet woke and tried to sit up in bed. +"Where am I?" was his first exclamation, rubbing his eyes with the hand +his bandages left free. "And why am I trussed up like a fowl that's been +skewered? Ah! I remember now. I _have_ been skewered, and you've been +nursing me, my pretty maid. I fear I have given you a vast deal of +trouble and shall give you more before I can stand up." + +She bent over him like a mother over her child. It was such happiness to +protect and soothe him, to feel that he might even owe his life to her. + +"Do not try to move yet," said she; "you are safe and in good hands. The +longer you stay with us the better we shall be pleased." + +"Will _you_ nurse me?" he asked gaily, unconscious of the tremble that +ran through her frame, while she bowed her head in answer. + +"Then I don't care how long it is!" he laughed. "With such a pretty +nurse I should like never to get well!" + +The blood flew to her face, reddening brow and temples, with a blush of +pride and exquisite pleasure, rather than of resentment or shame. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +THE OLD STORY. + + +Katerfelto's business seemed to bring him in contact with persons of +every class and character. Men and women were coming to the surgery at +all hours of the day and night; the former generally armed, the latter +sometimes masked, all muffled in cloaks or riding-hoods, as if their +purpose necessitated secrecy and disguise. It did not escape John +Garnet's observation, lying idle on his sick bed, that the conversations +he overheard were carried on in a subdued voice, and that everything +connected with the doctor's house in Deadman's Alley seemed tainted with +a breath of mystery, suspicion, and intrigue. + +To this effect he unburthened his mind while watching Waifs stealthy +movements as she arranged the room some few mornings after his arrival, +and insisted by word and gesture on the necessity of his lying perfectly +still if he wanted to get well. + +"Waif," said he, in that pleasant, careless voice, which had already +taught the girl's eye to brighten and her heart to leap, "is the Patron +a wizard, a Jacobite agent, a second Guy Fawkes, or only a great prince +in disguise? Why is everything in this house, even to laying the plates +for dinner, done with secrecy and caution? Why does nobody speak but in +whispers, and why is each succeeding visitor kept waiting in the +passage till his predecessor has been dismissed? Why do the ladies come +here on foot, my pretty lass, and what does it all mean?" + +"Don't call me that!" she exclaimed impatiently. "I'm _not_ a pretty +lass! It's the way you would speak to a milkmaid. Call me Waif." + +"Waif," he repeated. "There's another mystery. Who ever heard of a girl +like you being called Waif? Who gave you that name? Not that you ever +had godfathers or godmothers, I suppose. But where did you get it and +how?" + +"The Patron has called me Waif ever since I was a little child," said +she simply. "I was known as Thyra with our own people, but of course, +when he bought me, he was bound to change my name." + +"Bought you!" John Garnet gasped for breath and gave such a bounce among +the bed-clothes as to loosen his bandages. Her clever fingers readjusted +them without delay. + +"Bought me," she repeated, "and took me away with him the same day. I +cried to leave Fin and old Broomstick, but to be sure I was very little +and it was very cold." + +"Oh! you cried to leave Fin and old Broomstick," said he in undisguised +astonishment. "May I ask who _they_ were?" + +"Fin was one of our own lads," she answered; "they said I was to be his +wife when we grew up. I don't think I minded leaving Fin so much, but +Broomstick had carried me ever since I was born, and my heart was sore +to wish the poor old donkey good-bye." + +"But how could all this be done against your will?" continued John +Garnet. + +"I had no will one way nor the other," she answered. "Of course when I +was paid for he might do as he chose. I felt the change at first, but I +liked it well enough after a time. I am very glad of it now." + +This last with her face turned away, and in a whisper that escaped his +notice. + +"Was he good to you?" asked the other, feeling his free British +instincts sadly outraged by the girl's disclosures. "If he wasn't, he +ought to have his neck wrung!" + +"Oh, yes!" she replied, eagerly, but with a shrinking look in her bright +black eyes. "I have nothing to complain of from the Patron. Nothing! I +hated my shoes at first, and eating with a knife and fork; but the +Patron gave me beautiful clothes, and ornaments of gold, real gold. I +soon learned to like being well-dressed, and after a time I didn't so +much mind sleeping under a roof. But oh! how I missed the lights in the +sky! I used to wake up in the night crying, because I thought they had +gone out for ever, and I should see them shining no more." + +"But what on earth did he want you for?" was the natural inquiry. "What +did he do with you after he bought and carried you away?" + +"We didn't always live here," she answered. "We do not always live here +now. At first, the Patron took me about all over the country. I daresay +I know a good many more places than you do. We went to every fair and +merry-making, down in the West, as far as the Land's End. It must be a +very dark night for me to lose my way on Dartmoor, or anywhere in the +Valley of the Exe, or among the coombes between Badgeworthy water and +Taunton town. That was the first place I danced at to please the people +in the fair. The Patron gave me this gold collar next morning, and I've +worn it ever since. Would you like me to dance for you now, or sing? Or +shall I tell you your fortune? I'll do anything to please you. Only say +what it shall be." + +The shy and pleading glance that accompanied this accommodating avowal +would have melted a harder heart than John Garnet's. + +"Tell me of yourself," was his answer; "that pleases me more than +anything else you can talk about." + +Her bright smile revealed a dazzling row of teeth. "There is not much to +tell," said she. "We made money, and we spent money. Sometimes we went +to the races, and the Patron used to come in to supper with his pockets +full of gold. Sometimes the people laughed at us, and then we never +stayed till nightfall. Once--it was at Devizes--they hooted us out of +the town; a man threw a stone at me which struck me in the shoulder. It +bled a good deal. Look, there's the mark!" + +She pulled her dress down and revealed a cicatrice on a shape that would +have made a model for a sculptor. "I flew at him!" she continued, with a +fierce glitter in her eyes, "and drew my knife. I would have stabbed +him, but the Patron pulled me away. I should like to see that man again. +I should know his face among ten thousand, and I would kill him wherever +we met. Then we came here and the Patron left off travelling so much. He +says he began at the wrong end, and went to seek the fools, instead of +letting the fools come and seek him. I used to think I liked moving +about better than always sticking in the same place, but I don't think +so now." + +"And the fools that come so readily to seek the Patron," asked John +Garnet--"what sort of fools are these?" + +"The wisest sort," answered the girl. "Many a time I have heard him say +that those who come for information, begin by telling him all they want +to know. The Patron never seems to listen, but his ears are very sharp. +Besides, he can always find out things in a hundred ways, watching the +fire and the stars, or reading the cards. The last is the easiest, only +they sometimes come up wrong, but the stars _never_ deceive." + +She spoke with implicit faith. For this girl, there was an inscrutable +power that ruled supreme over all earthly fortunes, and dominated all +mortal efforts. She called it Fate, and believed that its decrees were +revealed in the cracklings of a wood fire, the combinations on a table +of numerals, the presence of the knave of spades in a hand of diamonds, +no less than in those tablets of fire that her ancestors had studied, +when the Pyramids were as yet unfinished, when the Chaldæan was still +learning the alphabet of that wondrous language he discovered in the +stars of heaven. + +"Then the Patron is a fortune-teller," continued John Garnet, looking +with undisguised admiration in his companion's face. "I thought he was a +doctor--I am sure he has doctored _me_ to some purpose. I feel as if I +should be out of bed to-morrow, and in the saddle next day. Perhaps it's +your nursing, pretty Waif; but I seem to get stronger every hour." + +It was a tell-tale face, and changed colour often under the clear, +swarthy skin. John Garnet, however (and perhaps this was why women liked +him well), detected but slowly the interest he created in the opposite +sex; and Waif might have blushed till she was scarlet before he found +out the truth, had she not pressed both hands to her bosom with a +gesture of pain, and exclaimed, in a choking voice: + +"Then you will go away, and I shall never see you again!" + +He glanced sharply in her face. The black eyes were fixed and tearless, +but there was a world of patient, hopeless sorrow in their gaze; and +through John Garnet's heart ran a thrill of something sweeter and keener +than pity--something not far removed from love. + +"Waif," said he, in the kind, mellow tones she knew so well, "Waif, my +pretty maid, shall you be sorry when I have to go away?" + +She looked straight in his eyes while he could have counted ten. Then +over her dark, delicate face came, as it were, a ripple, that told how +deeply she was moved. One instant her slender figure waved like a willow +in the wind, the next she had fallen forward on her knees, clasping his +hand to her lips and forehead, while she wept convulsively; but, before +he had recovered his astonishment sufficiently to soothe her with word +or caress, she leaped to her feet, and glided like a phantom from the +room. + +"Here's a coil!" said John Garnet to himself, making an abortive effort +to rise, that sufficiently convinced him he had over-rated his strength. + +"Why the devil couldn't I let her go on, and keep my own foolish tongue +between my teeth? It's always the way with _me_. I speak, and then I'm +sorry for it. Am I sorry for it now? I doubt if I am. She's the +prettiest lass, for all her tawny skin, I've seen since I came out of +the North; and there's no harm done after all. I wonder how long I shall +be kept lying here? A week more, at least. Say a week. The time will +pass all the quicker with this gipsy beauty to talk to; and if she _do_ +care for me a little more than is good for her, why I suppose she can't +help it. No more can I. What eyes she has, and what hair! I could find +it in my heart to wish she was not quite so handsome; but that's not my +fault. Thyra's a pretty name, though outlandish--much better than Waif. +I shall call her Thyra when she comes back. It won't be long first, I'll +wager a guinea!" + +But he would have lost his guinea. Noon passed, and afternoon, and day +drew to an end, but brought no Waif with its lengthening shadows. When +his usual supper-time arrived, he began to grow fretful and impatient, +as much perhaps from cravings of the stomach as the heart. A step in the +passage, the bump of a tray against his door, restored him to good +humour; but it was with a feeling of disappointment, keen enough to dull +the vigorous appetite of convalescence, that he saw the skull-cap and +velvet gown of his host, instead of Waif with her scarlet draperies and +jetty gold-studded hair. When a girl has told a man she likes him, he +always wants to hear the avowal again. + +"My young friend," said Katerfelto, in the low grave voice to which he +owed so much of his influence, "I have brought you to eat and drink: +food plain and nourishing, drink that shall restore, and not inflame. +The tongue is clean, the eye clear, the pulse full, if a little +irregular. My coming into the room suddenly flurried you, no doubt. If +you go on well through the night, to-morrow I shall pronounce you +convalescent. I never speak without being sure. When Constantine +Katerfelto uses the word 'convalescent,' a patient may order his boots +to be blacked and his spurs cleaned." + +"You've brought me through right well, Doctor," replied John Garnet, +glancing at the door, "you and Waif together. You must give the nurse +some of the credit! She's been very careful and attentive. I think she +has hardly left me for an hour at a time, till--till to-day." + +How differently thirty and sixty look upon the absence of eighteen! + +"Waif's a good girl," answered the Doctor, coolly; "and for a mere +child, shows a fair amount of intelligence. I am glad you are satisfied +with her." + +"She--she's not ill to-day, I hope," hazarded the patient, eating, +however, heartily enough, notwithstanding the anxiety to be inferred +from his inquiry. + +"Ah!" was the answer; "you know very little of Waif, or you would +scarcely ask such a question. None of her race are ever _ill_, any more +than the beasts of prey. They die, indeed, but it is like the wolf and +the jackal, in some forest-den. Skill, science, experience, are of no +avail. It's in the blood--nothing can cure them when they have once lain +down. I've tried it a score of times, and failed." + +"Is she a thorough-bred gipsy?" he asked, for it was pleasant to talk of +her, even to this unsympathising old man. + +"As the Queen of Sheba," assented the other. "Some day, perhaps, when we +are better acquainted, I may tell you more of her history; but I give +not my friendship lightly," he added, with a scrutinising glance from +his shining grey eyes; "it is offered only to those who owe me, or to +whom I owe, a heavy debt of gratitude." + +"I am sure I ought to be grateful to you," said John Garnet, "and so I +_am_; but I can do nothing to prove it till you get me off this bed, and +out of this room. Then, Doctor, speak up boldly. Say what you want, and +I am your man!" + +The other laughed a noiseless laugh, peculiar to himself. "You owe me +but little as yet," said he; "perhaps you may live to be deeper in my +debt than for the healing of a scratch. Not that I mean to say the +scratch was a trifling one. I tell you honestly, many a surgeon would +have given your case up as hopeless; and you ought to be thankful, if +you young men ever _are_ thankful, that you fell into my hands. No; for +a bold, enterprising fellow, in the prime of life and strength, whose +fingers, as I guess, close round his hilt pretty readily, I might do +something better than stop a hole in the side. There are paths to +fortune, plenty of them, for men who look upward and onward, steep it +may be, and leading through miry places, not seldom slippery with blood. +To a bold spirit this is half the charm! You are lying here, unable to +leave your bed to-day; but do you not long for the time when you shall +be riding wild horses, pledging lawless healths, drinking, dicing, and +brawling once more? When the frost is bitter, and the earth white with +snow, and the robin hops to your window for crumbs, do you not look +forward to the opening spring, the soft south wind, the coming of the +blackbird at last?" + +A look of intelligence passed between them, and the sick man's eye +brightened. It was the pass-word of a losing, nay, of a ruined cause. +The handful of Jacobites remaining in England had not yet relinquished +all hope of his return, who had proved indeed a bird of ill-omen, +blacker than night, to those whose loyalty waged life and lands on his +behalf. + +"Nay, Doctor," said the other, with a flush of pride on his face, "the +blackbird's whistle has cost us simply all we had, but not one of us +ever complained; we bought defeat too dear." + +"I know you, John Garnet," answered Katerfelto. "You come of a trusty +race." + +"Know me!" repeated the other, "How did you find me out? I would have +told you without hesitation, but you never asked my name--no more did +Waif." + +"I know a great many things," replied the charlatan. "In many ways you +could not understand, unless you had studied, as I have, the hidden +mysteries of Heaven and Earth, and of places under the Earth. I know +that the Garnets lost titles and lands for the--for the Black-bird--we +will say. I know that the last of them would leap from that bed, +bandages and all, to burn powder and draw steel if the yellow beak did +but so much as whistle from its garden in the South." + +"You learned all that in the 'Annual Register' or the 'North Britain,'" +said John Garnet, proudly, "but how did you guess I belonged to the +family who have been so loyal, so constant, and proved themselves +such--fools?" + +Katerfelto smiled. "Fools," he replied, "are my special study. As the +worm feeds the blackbird, so the fool feeds the philosopher. You are no +fool notwithstanding, and yet I know all about you. There was a +supper-party t'other night--a jest--an altercation--a duel--without +witnesses--without witnesses, mark you. When a man is killed under those +circumstances, the law sometimes brings it in--murder!" + +John Garnet turned pale. The truth of his host's surmises affected him +no less than the consideration of the danger he had incurred. It did not +strike him that Katerfelto's guesses, however shrewd, were the mere +offspring of analogy and observation. A wounded man at midnight inferred +an after-supper brawl, while the fact of his staggering into Deadman's +Alley faint from loss of blood, alone and unassisted, argued the absence +of seconds, one of whom would doubtless have conveyed his principal to a +place of safety, while the identity of that principal must long since +have become the talk of this town. + +"You know everything," he murmured. "Everything--I wish you could tell +me whether the poor fellow I ran through the brisket is alive." + +For reasons of his own the charlatan was anxious to impress his patient +with a conviction of his powerful character and superior intelligence. + +"Not so," said he, with an air of extreme frankness. "I have no +knowledge, for I have taken no trouble to learn. If I can spare the time +to-night, when the moon goes down, I will set those to work who shall +bring me all the information I require in less than forty-eight hours." + +John Garnet, though scarcely a model Christian, was a good Catholic. He +crossed himself and faltered a feeble protest against the employment of +evil spirits or unorthodox powers of the air. + +"I had rather not get well at all," said he, "than be cured by magic or +witchcraft! I would leave the house this minute if I believed you were +more than a doctor! I'll wager a fair stake and risk my life any day, +but I won't sit down to play for my soul!" + +"Your soul!" echoed Katerfelto, with his characteristic laugh. "My young +friend, what should I do with your soul if I won it? My concern is with +men's bodies, their energies, their courage, and their intellect. I +shall set you on your legs in a week, and you can carry your soul about +with you, if you have one, wherever you like. In the meantime keep +quiet, take your medicine, drugs of the veriest earth--earthy; eat your +food and drink your posset, prepared by no fairy hands, but those of a +woman, real flesh and blood, with a human temper, worse, I daresay, than +that of many average fiends, and so get well. In a few days I will talk +to you again on matters of business to our mutual advantage. Meantime I +relegate you once more to the care of Waif." + +His spirits rose at once, and he bade the charlatan good-night with an +excess of cordiality not lost on that shrewd observer, who was as good +as his word, for his voice could be heard in the passage bidding Waif +hasten her house-work and watch by the patient till he slept, a mandate +the gipsy-girl obeyed to the letter, returning without delay to her +former post, but taking up a station in the obscurity where John Garnet +could not see her face. Neither did she vouchsafe a syllable of greeting +or explanation, so that the patient felt uncomfortably hurt and +perplexed. + +"Have I offended you?" he asked at length, in an humble tone, +contrasting piteously with the coldness of that in which she replied. + +"Who am I, to be offended? My only business is to obey. The Patron bids +me watch here till you sleep." + +So he shut his eyes, yet not too tight, and scanned her the while +covertly beneath their lids, thus detecting on her face, when she turned +it towards him, a look of tender wistful longing, that told only too +plainly the secret of her love. + +Then he drew a deep breath of relief and contentment, satisfied he would +rise a winner from the unequal game and so fell sound asleep. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +A CHARLATAN. + + +In the surgery Katerfelto began to prepare for the reception of his +visitors. Standing at a bright little mirror, he was soon immersed in +the task. A spot of carmine on the cheek-bones, a line or two of paint +round the mouth, about the eyes, and across the forehead added a score +of years to his appearance and made him look a man of eighty. A flowing +white beard, in which his own grey tresses mingled freely, and a black +cloak bordered with crimson, drawn over the velvet gown, completed his +equipment. Surveying the whole in his glass, he drew himself up, with +something of the confidence a knight must have felt when armed from head +to heel. "Come one, come all," he seemed to say, "I am a match for the +best of you, and profitable as is the victory, I am not sure but the +real pleasure consists in the strife!--" + +The plot thickened with nightfall. He was hardly ready before a cautious +tap made itself heard at the street door. Waif, watching her patient's +slumbers, flew to admit the visitor, and was at her post again ere he +had time to pay a single compliment on her good looks. + +In his own opinion, this gentleman was a consummate judge of such +matters. On the points of a horse, or a woman, he held no man so well +qualified to give an opinion, and indeed had spent the greater part of +his fortune in researches after speed and beauty. His accomplishments +were those of his time and class. A better and bolder card-player than +Lord Bellinger never held a trump. He cracked his bottle like an honest +fellow without flinching, played tennis, danced a minuet to admiration, +bowed and took snuff with inimitable grace, fenced beautifully, swore +fearfully, and corrupted his mother tongue into a jargon only +intelligible at Ranelagh or the Cocoa Tree. + +When the cloak was thrown open in which this paragon was enveloped, +Katerfelto did not fail to recognise in that worn, handsome face and +attenuated form the most frequent and productive of his customers. + +"Your lordship is welcome," said the Charlatan, with gracious dignity. +"How liable is our poor glimmering of human science to error; the +mistake of a decimal caused me to expect you nearly an hour ago." + +"What? You knew it!" replied the other, not without an oath. "Why, +Katerfelto, you know everything! Yes, here I am. It's not very difficult +to guess why. Have you found out anything more? Who is she? And what is +she? How much longer am I to go on toasting her without so much as +knowing her name, haunted by those clear, cold eyes, that proud, +delicate face, that queenly shape and air? Tell me all about her, now at +once! Here! I've brought you the stuff in a bag. Look at it, man. Does +it make your eyes shine and your mouth water? It cost me six hours' work +to get that little purse together last night at the Cocoa Tree. Never +_were_ such cards! Never _was_ such luck!" + +"Fortune is a woman," answered the other. "Like all women, coy to be +wooed, but grateful to be won." + +"She hath played me more slippery tricks than I choose to count," +laughed his lordship. "It may be that I solicit her too often, and trust +her too fondly. Last night she did me a rare jade's turn! Look ye here, +man; I had won a cool four thousand at picquet, and St. Leger wanted to +leave off. I was always too strong for him at picquet. Well, sir, four +thousand was no use to me, but eight would have taken my lady's diamonds +out of pawn, and I offered him one more chance, double or quits." + +"I know you did," observed Katerfelto with the utmost effrontery, "and +left off quits; I wish I had been at your lordship's elbow." + +"I wish you had!" replied the other; "for I believe you are the devil +himself, or in close league with him. However, I did not come here to +prate about my luck, and I have little time to waste; my lady thinks I +am at Ranelagh. She's to meet me there later. Now business is business, +my good friend; what have you done for me?" + +"Little and yet enough," answered the other. "You will meet somebody at +Ranelagh to-night; you are to be wary and cautious. Do not seem to +recognise her till you find her unattended. You may then speak three +words, no more. It is her express stipulation. They will be answered in +due time. She goes to Ranelagh early and remains only an hour." + +"Then I had better be off!" exclaimed his lordship, pressing a purse +into Katerfelto's hand. "What? are you so ceremonious? Must you needs +come to the door yourself? Where's the pretty gipsy lass? I saw her not +ten minutes ago. I say, Katerfelto, if ever you sell her back into +bondage, let me have the refusal. By Jupiter! if I was to put that girl +into velvet and brocade I could take the town by storm." + +"Your lordship does her too much honour," answered Katerfelto, bowing +profoundly while he opened the door, but there was a malicious twinkle +in his eye, and a curl of scorn about the corners of his mouth, to belie +the outward show of deference with which he dismissed his visitor. + +The latter had been gone but a few minutes ere a sedan-chair was set +down at the end of Deadman's Alley, and a lady closely veiled, carrying +a riding mask, not over her face, but in her hand, alighted with some +trepidation, peering up and down the passage, as if fearful of being +observed, while she made for the red lamp in Katerfelto's window. This +visitor was also admitted after a little cautious tap, but, unlike her +predecessor, looked with scorn rather than admiration on Waif's dark +locks and flashing glances. "Tell the Doctor, child," said she, "that I +am not to be disturbed while I consult him, and beware of +eaves-dropping. I do not choose to share my secrets with a waiting-maid, +for all her saucy looks and sallow skin!" + +Waif scarcely heard and certainly did not heed, for her heart was in the +sick-chamber with John Garnet, whither her agile body lost no time in +following it. + +"Your ladyship is early," said Katerfelto, with an obeisance courtly, +but not subservient. "Ranelagh need wait the less impatiently for its +fairest ornament." + +"La, Doctor!" was the answer, "who could have told you I was going to +Ranelagh? I protest you know everything. My lord thinks I am there now." + +"My lord will be there as surely as my lady," answered the other. "But +it was not to learn his lordship's movements that your ladyship came +here!" + +"Fie, Doctor!" she replied; "what woman of fashion cares to know the +doings of a husband? I have a crow to pluck with you. Do you remember +what you promised me the last time I was here?" + +"Triumphs by the hundred," said he; "compliments by the thousand; +conquests and flatteries innumerable. Better than these, a run of luck +with the cards that should last a week." + +"And I wore it out in a night," she complained. "Whist, ombre, picquet, +and three-card loo, I have never risen a winner but once since I came +here last. You dare not deceive me, Doctor; nay, you would not deceive a +woman, I am sure. Can you--_couldn't_ you put me in the way of winning a +game or two? I protest I shall have to pawn my diamonds else." + +No one knew better than the doctor that this expedient had been resorted +to long ago, and her ladyship was at present wearing paste; but he did +not say so. + +"Are you willing to learn?" he asked, with his quiet sarcastic smile. +"An hour's practice every day for ten days would make your ladyship +independent of chance and all its fluctuations. Chance, forsooth! +there's no such thing. Do you think I trust to chance when I direct your +actions and forecaste your future? Fate is the ruling power of the +universe; but science and skill, the quick brain and the ready +hand--these may control Fate." + +On a weak mind so high-sounding a sentence, meaning nothing, took no +small effect. She blushed, she simpered, she bit her lips, she +hesitated. + +"I should like it prodigiously," she said, with a nervous laugh, "if--if +it wasn't dishonest, you know; and--and if it couldn't be found out!" + +He took a pack of cards from a drawer. "Observe my fingers," he began, +but she interrupted him with a faint scream. + +"Not now!" she exclaimed; "some other time, Doctor. I'm so frightened! +I'm sure I heard somebody at the door. It _is_ cheating, you know. +Besides, I must be at Ranelagh in an hour, and I have to dress, all but +my head, that was done this morning. I wish I hadn't come. La! I know I +could never find courage. Let me out, please. This is between ourselves, +of course. Shall I find you to-morrow night at the same time?" + +Assuring her that he never left his post, Katerfelto ushered her +ladyship with much ceremony to the door, which was opened by Waif, on +whom the departing visitor found nothing better to bestow than a look of +supreme indifference and scorn. + +Not so the next comer. Hardly had the chairmen, who winked at each other +as they took up their precious burden, moved a dozen paces, when a heavy +step was heard in Deadman's Alley, and a burly figure, that seemed to +ignore all considerations of secrecy and disguise, stopped at +Katerfelto's door to thump till it shook again. + +Undoing the fastening, hastily as she might, Waif found herself +confronted by a stout middle-aged person, in a rusty black riding suit, +who looked as if he had been taking hasty refreshment, washed down by +strong potations, as indeed was the case. + +Parson Gale--for it was none other--had ridden post from Exmoor to +London on receiving the news of his brother's death in a midnight brawl. +Arrived in the metropolis, he lost no time in communicating with the +officers of justice; and from the particulars thus furnished, satisfied +himself that the affray took place without witnesses, and that the +survivor had escaped. The Parson swore a great oath that he would avenge +the crime, and if the perpetrator was above ground, hunt him down to +death. His difficulty was to find out where John Garnet lay concealed. +Every day, and all day long, he pursued his inquiries, without success. +Tired and hungry, while sitting at his tavern supper he chanced to hear +Katerfelto spoken of as a cunning man, for whom there were no secrets in +this world or the next; and having ascertained the locality of Deadman's +Alley, finished his bottle, and started without delay on his search. + +The apparition of Waif, in answer to his summons, may have surprised him +a little; but when a pretty lass was in question, Parson Gale was never +at a loss; he recovered his astonishment in time to chuck her under the +chin, and bestow on her a most unwelcome caress. The girl's eyes +glittered, and her lithe fingers stole to the knife at her girdle. He +caught her by the wrist, and kissed her again. She disengaged herself, +with one dexterous twirl, and pushed rather than ushered this unwelcome +admirer into the presence of Katerfelto; muttering, in her own +outlandish tongue, something that sounded less like a blessing than a +curse. + +When roused to wrath, it was her nature to resent an insult or an injury +on the spot; but if immediate retaliation seemed impossible, to wait for +an opportunity with untiring patience, not to be diverted from its +purpose by any considerations of clemency or forgiveness. + +"If I can learn something about _you_," she thought, "I shall know when +and where to strike. Before our reckoning is over, you will wish your +lips had been seared with a red-hot iron, rather than laid to mine +against my will!" Then, casting one loving look towards the chamber in +which John Garnet was sleeping, she took up her post at the door of the +surgery, and listened eagerly to the conversation within. + +"I'm a plain man, Doctor," began Parson Gale, in his rough, frank tones. +"I speak the truth mostly myself, and expect others will speak it to me. +Now I am told that you know more, good and bad, than ever another person +in this great wicked town. That's what brought me here." + +Katerfelto nodded gravely. "Good and bad," said he, "are relative terms. +Knowledge cannot of itself be evil, whether it be gleaned from the +crowded footway or the solitary moor. Wisdom crieth aloud, could we but +hear her, from the dome of St. Paul's, no less than from the purple +outline of the Quantock Hills and the brown ridge under Dunkerry +Beacon." + +The mention of these familiar places startled his listener; and +Katerfelto, who had already detected the kindly West-country accent, did +not fail to notice his surprise. + +"I believe you _are_ a conjuror," said the Parson, "as sure as I am not! +Well--if you can tell me where I came _from_, perhaps you will tell me +what I came _for_." + +The charlatan smiled. "You wish to learn something very near your +heart," said he, watching the other's countenance. + +"Not quite the nearest and dearest of all! yet a matter of great +importance. A matter of life and death." + +For a bow drawn at a venture, it was a good shot, and the arrow reached +its mark. + +"That's enough!" exclaimed the Parson. "You're the man to tell me what I +want. Name your price. 'Tis blood-money, and I'm not going to stand for +a guinea one way or the other!" + +"Justice must be done first!" said Katerfelto with exceeding gravity. +"Let me hear your own tale in your own words, and rely on my help." + +Thus encouraged, the Parson embarked on a narrative of his brother's +duel, but little exaggerated, nor indeed very different from the facts +set forth above, interspersing his account with dire threats of +vengeance and solemn oaths, whereat Waif's blood ran cold, that he would +take no rest till he had discovered and hunted down the perpetrator of +this _murder_, as he persisted in calling it, to the death! + +Listening at the keyhole, she lost not a syllable of their conversation, +and the gipsy-girl vowed in her heart to come between the avenger and +his victim, aye, even though she must steep her hands in blood, and +swing for it on Tyburn-tree. + +Little by little Katerfelto gathered enough from Parson Gale's +repetitions, threats, and assertions, to feel sure that his patient in +the next room was the individual whom the visitor wished to identify and +bring to justice. In his plotting brain such a complication was simply +a problem to be solved, a sum to be worked out, a plot to be elaborated +for his own advantage. With a gravity not lost on the West-country +parson, who, for all his mother wit, felt overawed by the other's +assumption of superior intelligence, he promised to furnish the +information required, as soon as he should himself have consulted those +spiritual intelligences he held at command. + +"You shall come again when the moon is full," said he, accepting the +broad pieces which his visitor thrust on him clumsily enough. "Ere then +I shall discover his hiding-place, though he have taken refuge forty +fathoms deep, below the sea. But, mark you--I am not a man of blood, and +I make no promise to deliver him into your hand." + +Again Waif's fingers stole to her knife, while the Parson's savage laugh +grated on her ear. + +"Show me where the deer is harboured," said he, passing into the street. +"I can do all the rest myself. The Lord have mercy on him, for I will +not, when once I set him up to bay!" + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +MY LORD AND MY LADY. + + +They occupied separate apartments now. There had been a time indeed when +Lord and Lady Bellinger might have competed for the flitch of bacon at +Dunmow, so well satisfied was each with the other, for weeks, nay +months, after a marriage of vanity, with some little inclination. Was +not my lord the best-dressed man at court? Had not my lady the finest +hand, the tightest waist, the loftiest head-gear in London? Did not both +exist only in the atmosphere of the great world, sacrificing to the airs +and graces time, health, money, and reputation? Many tastes had they in +common, some vices, not a few follies, prejudices, and frivolities; yet +they soon began to differ, and after passing through the customary +phases of disappointment, pique, resentment, and disgust, subsided into +a sullen, stony indifference that was perhaps the most hopeless +condition of all. Rarely meeting, except at meals, or in the presence of +others, they had few opportunities for quarrelling; when they did fall +out, it is only fair to say that her ladyship usually took the +initiative. Let us give her precedence, therefore, now. + +She is seldom stirring before noon. The sun is already at mid-heaven +when she rings for her chocolate, sighs, yawns, thrusts on her small +feet her smaller slippers, wriggles into a much-embroidered morning +gown, and totters across the room to look at herself in the glass. The +face she sees therein reflected affords, alas! a history and a moral. + +Its features are delicate, and the smile that has now become rigid from +force of habit was once very flexible and sweet, but late hours and +false excitement have scored premature wrinkles round the eyes, and the +free use of paint has served to deaden, and, as it were, rough-cast the +surface of the skin. Lady Bellinger was never _quite_ a pretty woman, +though with the advantages of dress, manner, and candle-light she could +hold her own in general society against many a professed beauty, and +counted her ball-room conquests in numbers that, if they did not satisfy +her rapacity, were quite enough for her reputation. This border-land +between good looks and an ordinary exterior is, perhaps, the most +dangerous ground of all. Vanity is excited, but not gratified. Wit, +vivacity, freedom of gesture and conversation are called in to +supplement the charms that nature has left imperfect. The player grows +more reckless as the game goes on, and at last no stake is thought too +high to risk on a winning card. + +The face she is studying wears a mournful expression to-day. Weary, +perhaps, rather than dissatisfied, for she won twenty guineas last night +at _ombre_, and overheard Sir Hector Bellairs ask who she was; that +refined young gentleman, a rising light at Newmarket and the Cocoa Tree, +adding with an oath, "She has a game look about her, like a wild, +thoroughbred mare!" + +And yet, was it worth while, she pondered lazily, to tremble half an +hour over the cards for twenty guineas? Were the pains lavished on dress +and toilet to yield no higher triumph than Sir Hector's silly +comparison, or the sneer with which it was received by the man he +addressed? Harry St. Leger used to admire her once, at least he told her +so, and now--he only smiled at Sir Hector's idle talk, and turned away +to a little bread-and-butter miss, whose round blue eyes were becoming +the rage of the town. What could men see to rave about in such chits as +these? Why, the little creature was not even well-dressed, and had +hardly so much as learned to ogle and handle a fan! Was it possible that +innocence, simplicity, natural red and white, could presume to contend +with such a position, such millinery, and such experiences as hers? Lady +Bellinger sighed to think how she was thrown away. What depths there +were in her loving heart that had never been fathomed; what passions in +her mature womanhood that had never been aroused. Alas! those depths +could have been baled out with a thimble; those passions, affections, +caprices, call them what you will, were three parts simulated, and the +fourth only skin-deep. Nevertheless, she esteemed herself a lovable +woman, wasted and misunderstood. She had a headache, she had the spleen, +the vapours. Ranelagh was very tiresome last night. The lights still +danced before her eyes, the hum of conversation still vibrated in her +ears. Resting her heavy head on the dressing-table, she seemed to live +the whole scene over again. + +What a medley and confusion it was! Women with enormous head-dresses, +wide hoops and high-heeled shoes, patched, powdered, painted, +courtesying, smirking, and grimacing. "Your ladyship is vastly kind. +Shall wait on you with pleasure. Not _real_ di'monds, ma'am? I protest. +I have it from the best authority. Fie! my lord, I thought you were more +gallant. The Earl, as I live. Come back from the grand tour with a wife! +Whose wife? La! Sir Marmaduke, I vow you make me blush. The king hath +had another interview with the favourite. Angry words, and post-horses +ordered on the north road. Too good news to be true. Mrs. Betty, you +look charmingly. What conquests you must have made at the Bath. Here's +the bishop! Madam, your humble servant;" and so on till the stream of +nothings swelled into an unintelligible babble. And out of this +concourse of so-called friends, this turmoil of so-called conversation, +was there one form amongst the throng that could call the blood to her +cheek, the light to her eye? One voice that fell sweetly on her ear, +that woke an echo responsive in her heart? Yes, on reflection there was +one--nay, there were two or three--half-a-dozen--a score--but it seemed +that, of late, her charms had ceased to work, her glances to fascinate. +Ten compliments--she counted them on her fingers--made the sum total of +her triumphs last night. Harry St. Leger devoted himself to the +bread-and-butter hoyden. The handsome colonel had drunk too freely of +claret to be available. The marquis was wholly taken up with Mistress +Masters (who, and what, she was nobody knew!) Two or three snuff-taking +admirers simpered, but did not commit themselves. The duke passed her +with a bow, and it was a weary world! + +As she came to this conclusion, a tap at the door announced the arrival +of her waiting-maid with the daily dish of chocolate. Contrary to +custom, that demure person did not depart after she set it down. + +"What is it, child?" asked Lady Bellinger, not very good-humouredly, +because of her reflections. "Speak up, and don't stand staring there as +if you'd seen a ghost!" + +"It's my lord," answered the waiting-maid, tossing her head, in +imitation of her mistress. "My lord bade me ask your ladyship if you +were up, and if you could see him now directly, before he gets into his +coach." + +"My lord!" repeated his wife, in a tone of surprise, that sufficiently +attested the infrequency of such visits, "what _can_ my lord want with +me at this early hour? How am I looking, child? Quick! Give me those +drops off the chimney-piece--a clean cap, the one trimmed with pink, +you fool!--Put a touch of colour in my cheeks; I declare my face is like +death! Draw that window-curtain. Now you may tell him he can come in." + +Lord Bellinger entered accordingly, dressed in great splendour, with +cane, hat, and snuff-box in hand. Thus encumbered, he made shift, +nevertheless, to take the tips of his wife's fingers and carry them to +his lips, inquiring at the same time how her ladyship did, and whether +she had slept well. + +Her ladyship had not closed an eye, of course. She was feverish, poorly, +and far from strong! Thus establishing a position of defence from the +first. + +"Zounds! madam," exclaimed he, "so much the better--you will the more +readily hear what I have to say." + +My lord, to do him justice, was a good-tempered man enough, but this +morning found him, for many reasons, in the worst of humours. Last +night's gathering to him, no less than to his lady, had been replete +with disappointment and vexation. Like many others, he attended Ranelagh +with a variety of motives, among which, pleasure, even in his own sense +of the term, was perhaps the least engrossing. In the first place, he +desired to show himself before the world accompanied by her ladyship, +scandal having been busy with both their names of late, and "the town" +telling each other significantly that "there must soon be a break-up in +_that_ establishment. My lady's goings on, madam, I protest, are +inexcusable, and my lord's extravagance, I have it from the best +authority, really beyond belief!" Therefore he thought well to appear in +this public place prosperous, smiling, debonair, and on the best of +terms with his wife. + +Their exit, however, like their entrance, had been badly timed. They +neither came nor went away together; and his own staunch ally, Harry St. +Leger, who was also a professed admirer of Lady Bellinger, thought well +to whisper in his ear, "Look ye, Fred, I never turn my back on a friend. +If it _must_ come to a smash, or a split, remember I stand fast by your +lordship, sink or swim!" This was failure the first. + +Then a great man, one of his Majesty's ministers, had informed him +pretty roundly that the appointment he held at Court was not wholly a +sinecure, and the time had come at which he must prove his loyalty by +activity in the service of his king. That he was expected, in short, to +proceed without delay to his own western county, of which he held the +lieutenancy, there to carry out certain instructions which he would +receive next day at the minister's private residence, in time to +commence his journey the same afternoon. To a man for whom the pleasures +of London were as the air he breathed, such a notification was like a +sentence of death. Yet he dared not and could not refuse. This was +trouble the second. + +Many minor matters helped to swell the list of his annoyances. Bellairs +gave him the latest news from Newmarket, to the effect that his own +horse had been beaten in the great race by a head. Sir Horace had it +from the best authority that his nominee would lose his election. One +neighbouring landowner in the West took him by the button-hole, to +impart grievous suspicions of his lordship's steward, and another +announced threatenings of disease amongst the sheep. Altogether, had it +not been for the interview with his unknown charmer, promised by +Katerfelto, he would have passed a sadly uncomfortable evening. This +anticipation, however, was the drop that sweetened the whole cup, and +when amongst the crowd he caught a glimpse of her graceful head and +white shoulders, the world's malice, the minister's injunctions, the +lost race, the dishonest steward, and the foot-rot in West Somerset, +were alike obliterated and forgotten. + +He waited for some time, as directed, to accost her when alone. At last, +her cavalier crossed the room on some errand of his own, and he found +his opportunity. "Madam," he whispered, "this is the moment for which I +have languished ever since I had the privilege of beholding your face. +Do not deny me now the happiness of hearing your voice." + +She looked at him over her fan, with large eyes of astonishment, in +which, nevertheless, his experience detected a gleam of gratified vanity +and amusement. + +The fan was not withdrawn; the gloved-hand that held it was taper and +well-shaped--the rounded arm, white and beautiful. For the hundredth +time Lord Bellinger believed that for the _first_ time he was in love. +Still she spoke not, and the moments were precious. Her cavalier would +surely return without delay. + +"Only tell me, I implore you," continued his lordship, "when we shall +meet again--where can I see you? Where can I write to you? In what way +can I prove how ardently I long to cast myself at your feet--to serve +you as the humblest of your slaves?" + +He spoke in an agitated whisper; not without its effect--a softer +expression shone in her eyes, and she lowered her fan to reply. Alas, +for the disillusion! instantaneous as it was complete! + +The beautiful face might only be beautiful while the lips were closed; +when they parted for speech they discovered black and unsightly teeth, +separated by gaps and cavities neither few nor far between. + +Quick as Lord Bellinger had been to fall in love, he was yet quicker to +fall out. Ere a word could escape the lady, his cure had been effected, +and with a dexterity that nothing but long practice could have ensured, +he effected his retreat after a profound bow, a devoted glance, and a +deep sigh. + +"You are watched," he whispered, "so I will take my leave. Do not forget +me. Soon we shall meet again." + +Nevertheless he went home from Ranelagh feeling strongly at variance +with the world in general, and himself in particular. + +Therefore his mood, notwithstanding his courteous entrance, was none of +the most amiable when he paid this morning visit to her ladyship; +therefore the tone in which he couched it was little calculated to +sweeten the unpalatable communication he had to make. + +"Zounds! madam," said his lordship, "you will the more readily hear what +I have to say." + +"Sure you need not swear," she replied, with frigid dignity. "No +gentleman swears so early in the day." + +He laughed, and continued more good-humouredly, "Your ladyship is very +happy in town, are you not?" + +"Your lordship must be a fool to ask such a question," she returned +sharply. "If you neglected me less, you would know that in my position, +and with my health, it is ridiculous to talk of being happy anywhere!" + +"And yet you look charmingly," continued her husband, scanning his own +handsome person in the glass. + +"Compared to faces which your lordship is in the habit of studying, mine +is perhaps tolerably well-favoured," said she; "but nothing is so +deceptive as one's appearance, and the air of this town is simply +killing me by inches." + +"Then it shall do murder no longer," he answered kindly; "I must leave +for the West this very afternoon. My coach is waiting at the door to +take me to the minister's. There is not a moment to be lost. It is the +king's business; I suppose I ought to say, God bless him!" + +"Well?" she asked coldly, "what concern is that of mine?" + +"Will you not come with me?" was his reply. "We have been living +separate lives too long. Perhaps each of us is better than the other +thinks. Let us give it a trial and see if we cannot be happy together +for a few weeks. We have been very uncomfortable apart for a good many +years." + +The tears were rising to her eyes. A kind word or a caress might have +turned the balance even now; but it was his lordship's habit to assume +carelessness of manner at the moment he was most interested, and instead +of putting his arm round her waist, he busied himself adjusting cravat +and ruffles in the glass. She felt and showed she was annoyed. + +"I cannot leave town," she objected, "at a moment's notice. I wonder you +can ask such a thing." + +He looked in her face disappointed, and perhaps a little hurt. + +"My lady," said he, "you're a puzzle!" + +"My lord," said she, "you're a brute!" + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +READY AND WILLING. + + +They left town together notwithstanding; and although my lady altered +her mind with every mile, now extolling her own sense of wifely duty, +now bewailing her want of firmness and consistency, yet by the time she +arrived at Hounslow, where they were to sleep, she had become reconciled +to the society of her husband and her enforced journey to the West. + +Such impressionable natures, from which emotion so easily passes away, +enjoy at least this advantage--that one swallow makes for them an +immediate summer, one glimpse of sunshine absorbs the memory of a month +of storms. + +Lord Bellinger, too, seemed in the highest spirits. Though his back must +be turned on London and all its pleasures, his inconstant nature could +nevertheless find enjoyment in the mere act of change. Moreover, an hour +before departure, he had effected a loan of ready-money from the +accommodating Katerfelto, who waited on him at his residence in +Leicester Square, so completely disguised that Waif herself could hardly +have recognised the respectable-looking citizen, in a brown suit and +tie-wig, with ample cambric neckerchief concealing his long beard, who +was ushered into his lordship's own apartment the moment he entered the +house. + +Lord Bellinger prided himself on the rapidity with which he transacted +affairs of moment. No doubt his method was peculiar to himself. + +"Katerfelto," said he, surveying the brown suit and tie-wig with grave +curiosity, "I must have five hundred guineas in gold--now, in half an +hour." + +"Impossible, my lord," answered his visitor. "The time is too short; but +you can have it in three-quarters." + +"I like doing business with _you_," rejoined his lordship. "I never knew +you _make_ difficulties, nor found you unable to overcome them. I want +the money directly, because I leave for the West this afternoon; but I +consent to give you another quarter of an hour." + +"Your lordship is vastly obliging," replied Katerfelto, with his +peculiar smile. "I must trouble you to sign this little acknowledgment +of the debt." + +He drew a sheet of paper from his pocket, filled in certain blank spaces +at the writing-table, and spread it before his lordship, with an air of +excusing himself for the liberty he was obliged to take. + +It was Lord Bellinger's boast that he never refused to draw his sword, +drink his bottle, stake his money, or sign his name; yet he made a wry +face, and threw his pen into the inkstand with a curse, after it had +performed its office. + +"I'm in a corner," said he, "or you would never have had me on such +exorbitant terms. The king's business must not stand to cool. Hang it, +man! if it had been my own, not a usurer in the town should have bit me +like this!" + +"Your lordship is in haste," answered Katerfelto; "and his Majesty's +commands cannot be too speedily obeyed. I trust," he added, carelessly, +"there is no fear of disaffection in the West." + +"State secrets!" answered Bellinger, with a laugh. "How can I tell? I +have not yet seen the minister. I go to him in an hour for final +instructions." + +Though Katerfelto was pondering deeply, his tone seemed lighter than +usual, while he asked how the other had been amused the night before at +Ranelagh; observing, "It is not your lordship's custom to leave an +adventure half accomplished." + +"No more of that!" exclaimed Lord Bellinger. "These are but the pastimes +of a man who has little serious business on hand. Ambition, you know, is +a specific for love. If I play my part well, Katerfelto, I have reason +to believe that the next time I borrow your money it will be for an +earl!" + +"Good luck attend your lordship," answered the other, turning to depart. +"As you are strong, be merciful." + +My lord laughed, and snapped his fingers. "In half an hour," said he, "I +shall have the lives and estates of some half-dozen gentlemen in my +pocket. Intrigue, my good friend, is all very well; but for real sport, +give me the great game. If your spiritual informants can travel so far, +they will shortly bring you stirring news from the West." + +"The vicissitudes of this material world affect me but little," answered +Katerfelto, "save in so far as they aid my researches among the +boundless regions of science and futurity. I am but a man of thought, +while your lordship is a man of action. If, in my humble capacity, I can +serve you, command me; and so I take my leave." + +"He's an honest fellow enough, I protest," thought his lordship, as the +door closed, "though his terms are confoundedly high! Money seems like +everything else; if you want it, you must pay for it--through the nose +too! But he's an honest fellow, no doubt." + +The "honest fellow," meantime, plodding thoughtfully home to Deadman's +Alley, busied himself in elaborate calculations of time, distance, +expense, and other matters tending to subvert the minister's intention, +and render nugatory Lord Bellinger's mission to the West. + +He lost not a moment in visiting John Garnet, whom he found sitting up +in an easy-chair, half-dressed, but so swathed in bandages that he could +hardly move. + +Dismissing Waif, who was in attendance as usual, he laid a finger on his +patient's wrist, and marked the strong full beat of the pulse in grave +approval. + +"How much longer are you going to keep me here?" exclaimed John Garnet, +with some impatience. "I've been telling Waif, for the last three days, +I am as strong as I ever was in my life." + +"Get up," replied the doctor, "and lift that chair from the floor. So. +Do you feel as if a dog were licking a raw place in your side?" + +"I feel that I ought to be in the saddle," replied the other, "a hundred +miles from your close, smoky town. If it wasn't for these cursed +bandages, I should never know that I had a side at all." + +"Off with them, then!" said Katerfelto, suiting the action to the word +by unwinding their folds. "See now the fruits of a little knowledge and +a little patience. These wounds have healed, as we call it, at the first +intention. Do not be so ready with bare steel again; or, if you must +needs brawl, keep your sword-arm bent, and your point moving in a +narrower circle." + +John Garnet's eyes brightened with pleasure, but his face fell a moment +afterwards. + +"You have restored me to life," said he, "and I cannot even pay you a +surgeon's fee. I tell you plainly, I have not ten guineas in the world." + +"We are comrades in the same service," answered the Doctor, quietly. +"There is no question of guineas between you and me. Will you ride a +hundred miles on an errand, in which we are equally interested, and cry +quits?" + +"To the end of the world!" answered John Garnet; "only I have not a +horse to my name." + +There was a simple earnestness in his tone that sufficiently vouched for +his fidelity. Katerfelto, scanning narrowly the resolute countenance and +strong active frame, smiled to think that here was a tool shaped +expressly for his purpose. + +"I might find horseflesh," said he, "if you can find spurs. Will you be +ready to mount to-night on my errand, if it should be necessary? My +errand," he repeated, in a low, impressive whisper, "and the king's!" + +"God bless him!" answered Garnet, while each looked meaningly in the +other's face. "I have those in my interest," continued the Charlatan, +"aye, at the very council table, who keep me well informed from hour to +hour. You will dine as usual. You will crack a bottle of our best, to +the king's health. Before sunset, I will tell you when to pull on your +boots." + +While he spoke a knock was heard at the door, and Waif, glancing softly +at John Garnet, brought the Patron a letter left by a man who looked +like the light-porter of some city warehouse. It contained these lines: + +"The invoices are already forwarded. Prices ruling high; hemp likely to +rise. Realise at once, not a moment to be lost." + +Twice Katerfelto perused it with an anxious brow, then he turned to John +Garnet, and observed, carelessly: + +"A stroll before dinner will do you no harm. Come with me to the next +street, I want your opinion of a horse I keep there." + +So congenial a request met with an eager affirmative. In the flush of +returning health, John Garnet longed keenly for the fresh outward air. +And to see a horse again, even in another man's stable, was a return to +life and all that made life enjoyable once more. + +The Doctor wrapped himself, though it was summer, in a long black cloak +and drew a square cap down to his very eyebrows, before he crossed the +threshold, precautions which seemed scarcely necessary for purposes of +concealment, inasmuch as he led his visitor along two or three +unfrequented bye-lanes, to an old tumble-down building, that looked more +like a dilapidated pigeon-house, than the dwelling of so noble an animal +as the horse. + +"Enter," said he, unlocking the door. "The husk looks of the roughest, +but there is a kernel within." + +John Garnet was surprised to find the stable roomy, commodious, well +ventilated, and amply supplied with all necessaries for the comfort of +its inmate. "If the casket is mean," said he, "at least it seems well +lined, and water-tight. Let us open that shutter, Doctor, for a glimpse +at the jewel it contains." + +It was a jewel! An exclamation of wonder and admiration escaped the +visitor's lips, as daylight, thus admitted, revealed to him the beauty +and symmetry of the animal he came to inspect. From boyhood he had spent +much of his time in the saddle, found a store of pleasure and legitimate +excitement in the companionship of his horse, and here seemed the very +flower and perfection of the whole equine race. + +It was not that the sloping shoulders, the deep girth, the flat legs, +the round firm feet, the full, well-turned back, and lengthy quarters +denoted strength and speed unequalled, but there was also that +proportion and harmony of all the parts, which Nature is careful to +preserve when she means to turn out some masterpiece of her craft. John +Garnet said as much; and Katerfelto, man of science though he was, could +not conceal a certain prim satisfaction, which every man alive betrays +when congratulated on the superiority of his steed. + +"I am a poor judge," observed the Charlatan, whom no earthly +consideration would have induced to bestride the paragon before them; +"but I imagine the creature is as good as it looks." + +"That I'll swear he is!" replied John Garnet, fairly putting his arm +round the taper muzzle, that nestled kindly to his embrace. "If I had +seen nothing but this beautiful little head, with its full bright eyes, +and fine transparent ears, I would have backed him against any horse in +England for all I am worth in the world. Not much to be sure," he added, +with a laugh, "but you should have carried it for me, old man; and I +don't think the additional weight would have caused you to falter at the +post." + +He patted the hard, smooth neck, and strong, firm crest while he spoke; +and the animal, though an entire horse, in the full vigour of good food +and high condition, responded lovingly and gently to his caress. + +"He knows you already," said Katerfelto; "he will know you better before +you have done with him. Listen, John Garnet: what would you give me for +that grey horse as he stands?" + +"Five hundred guineas!" answered John Garnet, laughing, "if I had them. +Ten years of my life, as I haven't five hundred pence in the world!" + +"He is yours!" replied the other. "You shall ride him out of London +to-night." + +John Garnet's eyes brightened. "I do not know who and what you are even +now," said he, "but you seem the best friend I ever had. Frankly, +Doctor, I already owe you more than I can hope to pay. In my opinion, +you have bought me, body and bones, at a high price; and I am ready to +do your bidding, be it what it will." + +"You speak like a man of sense," answered Katerfelto. "Come back to the +house, Waif shall find us some dinner, with a bottle of good old +Burgundy, and I will give you instructions at once." + +They returned, therefore, to Deadman's Alley, threading the bye-streets +with the same secrecy as before. Katerfelto informed his companion, as +they walked, how he became the owner of so matchless an animal--the last +possession, it must be admitted, with which John Garnet would have +credited his physician. "I obtained him," said the latter, "even as I +obtained Waif, and from the same people. Only, I paid hard gold for the +child; whereas, they let me have the horse for nothing." + +"And yet, they may have stolen both," observed his listener. + +The other shook his head. "Waif is a gipsy," said he, "pure bred, or I +should never have encumbered myself with her. No; they are a strange +people. Their honesty is not like our honesty, neither, indeed, is their +fraud; but they have their notions of fair dealing too. They brought me +the horse to pay a debt of honour." + +John Garnet opened his eyes. "A debt of honour!" repeated the Charlatan. + +"The rogues had robbed me of some valuable jewels while I was sojourning +in their tents during the illness of an old reprobate, whom they called +their duke, and whom I attended without demanding a fee. Repenting of +such ingratitude too late, for the jewels were beyond recovery, they +sent me the highest-priced article they could lay hands on, and it +proved to be the very horse you are to ride out of London to-night. How +they came by him, it was useless to inquire; but they assured me--and I +have no reason to doubt their word--that the owner would never cause +inconvenience by appearing to assert his claim." + +"Do you think, then, they _murdered_ him?" exclaimed John Garnet, in an +accent of dismay. + +"Very probably!" replied the other. "But I had little curiosity on the +subject; it was no affair of mine." + +The silence that ensued, lasted to the door of the surgery, and, indeed, +with small interruption during the progress of dinner. When that meal +was taken away, and Waif, with many a backward glance, had departed and +shut the door, Katerfelto filled the glasses, smacked his lips over the +Burgundy, and thus delivered himself: + +"They would hang you, my good sir, if they could catch you; and this I +consider a sufficient reason for your leaving London to-night." + +John Garnet gasped, and set his wine down untasted. For some time he had +entertained uncomfortable misgivings to this effect. It was not +reassuring to hear them corroborated by so sagacious a person as his +host. "Chance-medley is not a hanging matter," said he, in a shaking +voice. + +"But _murder_ is," answered Katerfelto; "and murder I fear they would +bring it in. Why, in the name of all that is hasty, my young friend, did +you not take a couple of gentlemen into that dark room, and exchange a +pass or two in the presence of witnesses? See how the matter stands as +it would be submitted to a jury. An altercation, brooded over for more +than an hour; a quarrel, not in hot blood, but on reflection; and the +company gone. The lights out; the younger man escapes, and the elder is +found stabbed to death on the floor! It looks ugly, you must confess." + +"I have thought so more than once," replied John Garnet, much disturbed. +"Do you mean they will try me for--for--my life?" He got the question +out with difficulty, and swallowing a mouthful of wine fancied it tasted +like blood. + +"I mean nothing of the kind," said the other. "I mean you never to be +placed in such a position. I mean you to be a score of miles away +to-night. I mean to rescue your name, to save your life, and to make +your fortune." + +"How so?" asked John Garnet, taking comfort while he emptied his glass. + +For answer, Katerfelto made an almost imperceptible sign with one of his +fingers, to which the other responded by a word, whispered so low that +its import was to be gathered less by the sound than the movement of his +lips. + +"I was sure of it!" exclaimed the Charlatan. "I could have sworn from +the first you were one of _us_. I may speak freely now. John Garnet, I +call upon you this day to ride for the king!" + +"To the gates of hell!" was the reckless answer. "And as much farther as +your good horse will carry me. I am ready to start this minute." + +"Softly," said the other. "I neither require so prompt a departure, nor +so long a journey. You need not mount for another hour. You need not +ride so far as the Land's End. The business I shall entrust you with +demands courage, secrecy, and some little ingenuity. I believe you +possess all. To win, opens a path to rank, fortune, and the choicest +honours royal gratitude can bestow. To lose, leaves you no worse than +you are now, for at least you will have a fair chance of escape." + +"I ask for nothing better," replied the young man. "Only tell me what to +do, and how to do it." + +Katerfelto pushed the bottle to his guest. "You will need a good horse," +said he, "and good pistols. These I can supply. You have a good sword +and a good mother-wit of your own. It may be you will want them all to +carry out our plans. Success is a peerage at least. Failure means high +treason, so you know what you undertake." + +"I never shrank from a large stake," replied John Garnet, excitedly. +"Deal out the cards, and leave me to play the hand!" + +"This then is the game," continued his host. "Lord Bellinger took coach +to-day for his lieutenancy in the West, carrying with him certain +warrants from the Secretary of State, which must never reach their +destination. You understand. His lordship travels with his own horses, +and can scarce perform the journey in less than a week. Her ladyship +accompanies her husband, and they sleep to-night at Hounslow, fourteen +miles from here at the farthest. Such, my young friend, is the alacrity +with which his servants obey the commands of King George. Without a +boast, I think our side could give them a lesson in promptitude. I +myself knew all about those warrants before the ink was dry. I could +tell you now every word that passed between Lord Bellinger and the +minister, far more accurately than my lord himself, who, to do him +justice, has a retentive memory for trifles, but entertains the +profoundest aversion to every kind of business. Briefly, these warrants +must be destroyed before the end of the week, and I look to you for a +speedy completion of the job." + +John Garnet pondered. Pledged as he had been from boyhood, to the losing +cause, compromised, by the fatal termination of his late brawl, with the +laws of his country, and indebted for life, no less than the means of +living, to this strange practitioner of many mysterious arts, the +thought of shrinking from the task, thus thrust upon him, never entered +his mind; but he could not conceal from himself that the undertaking was +one of life and death, to be accepted resolutely indeed, but not without +every precaution to ensure success. + +"My lord travels in his own coach, you say," he observed, thoughtfully. +"How many servants does he take, and are they well armed?" + +"Three or four at most," replied Katerfelto, "without counting her +ladyship's waiting-maid, and one of these rides on ahead to prepare for +his reception, stage by stage, during the journey. They carry a +blunderbuss and two brace of pistols among them, no more." + +"How far will he proceed in a day?" asked the other. "The roads are at +their best just now and the nights at their shortest." + +"From twenty to thirty miles," answered Katerfelto. "His lordship +travels in a light coach with six good horses. You had better not +overtake him till to-morrow night. But these details I confide to your +own wisdom and discernment. In this purse are a hundred guineas. In that +cupboard a saddle, bridle, and brace of pistols. Spend the money, +founder the horse, use the weapons at your discretion, but the warrants +must be in the fire before his lordship crosses the borders of Somerset, +and the gentlemen named in them must be warned, at all risks of life and +death." + +"I understand," said John Garnet, "though I do not yet see how to set +about the job." + +"It can be done in three ways," observed Katerfelto. "The warrants will +be carefully looked after. To put them in your own pocket, you must +corrupt the servants, make love to my lady, or rob my lord." + +John Garnet considered a moment before he answered. "I think the best +plan will be to rob my lord." + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +A HEAVY STAKE. + + +The travellers spent their first night agreeably enough. The weather was +fine, the inn at Hounslow roomy and luxurious. My lady seemed pleased +with the fresh eggs, the country cream. My lord found amusement in the +airs and graces of his hostess, who was more than flattered by the +notice of so fine a gentleman. Even the servants were good enough to +express approval of the ale, the lodging, and the change. Our whole +party started next morning in good humour, and the very waiting-maid, +who had been in tears for the first six miles out of London, protested +that under certain conditions the country might be almost tolerable. + +My lord's first footman, a stout high-coloured personage in charge of +the blunderbuss, was unremitting in his attentions, and Mistress Rachel, +as she was called, in the absence of higher game, condescended to +receive his homage with the favour five-and-forty shows to +five-and-twenty. At a subsequent period indeed she declared "he hadn't +the heart of a hen!" but for the present seemed satisfied to accept him +as he was. + +Such a favourable state of things could not be expected to last +four-and-twenty hours. At noon of the second day it began to rain, a +trace broke, a horse cast a shoe, the man with the blunderbuss proved +useless in a difficulty, Mistress Rachel grew despondent, my lady +sulked, my lord swore, the unwieldy vehicle creaked, groaned, swung, and +finally stopped in the middle of a hill. + +"Let me out!" screamed Lady Bellinger, whose nervous system was of the +weakest, and on whose temper fear had an exasperating effect. "I'd +rather walk. I _will_ get out, I'll go back,--Richard!--Robin! open the +door." + +"Don't be a fool!" exclaimed my lord, as the carriage got into motion +once more. "How can you go back, Ellen? You're forty miles from London +if you're a yard." + +My lady's head-dress vibrated with anger. "I am a fool indeed," she +replied, "or I shouldn't be here! And this is the reward of my devotion +as a wife. This is your return for my accompanying you into exile. Lord +Bellinger, I _will_ speak. Indifference I am accustomed to. Unkindness I +have put up with for many a long day, patient, and forbearing, while my +heart was broke, but I have a spirit ("you have indeed," muttered his +lordship), though you try your best to crush it, and ill-usage I will +submit to no longer." + +It is possible her husband might have entered a more energetic protest +than the "d--d nonsense" he whispered under his breath, but that his +attention was diverted at this juncture to the beauty and action of a +horse passing at a gallop, ridden by a young man whose seat and bearing +did justice to the animal he bestrode. When Lord Bellinger, who thrust +himself half out of the carriage to follow the pair with his eyes, +subsided into his seat, he had forgotten all about their dispute in this +new excitement; my lady, however, with her face buried in a +handkerchief, continued to sob at intervals, till they reached their +destination for the night. + +This was a comfortable hostelry enough, yet lacking many of the luxuries +that rendered the inn at Hounslow so agreeable a resting-place. Mistress +Rachel, alighting with a hand on the shoulder of her admirer, expressed +alarm lest it might be tenanted by ghosts; whereat the latter's comely +cheek turned pale, while he resolved incontinently to fortify his +courage with beer. The new arrivals had no reason to complain of their +reception. The servants were amply regaled in the kitchen, a good supper +was served for my lord and my lady in the parlour. The choicer meal +vanished in profound silence, which Lord Bellinger tried more than once +to break; but, finding his efforts ineffectual, and knowing by +experience the obstinacy of his wife's reserve when she was "out of +spirits," he gave up the attempt, and applied himself to the Burgundy +his host brought in person. He finished the bottle as her ladyship, in +dignified silence, retired to bed; and ringing the bell for another, +felt creeping over him the accustomed longing for cards, dice, +company--some excitement in which to spend the evening. + +"Landlord," said he, as that stout and stolid personage entered the room +with a cobwebbed bottle and a corkscrew, "can you play picquet?" + +The landlord smiled foolishly. He did not know what his lordship was +driving at. + +"Fetch a pack of cards," continued my lord, "and I will teach you." + +The landlord excused himself in considerable alarm. "It was too much +honour," he said; "he doubted he was too old to learn. Would his +lordship like a toast of bread and an olive with his wine?" + +"I had rather deal than drink," answered Lord Bellinger, "though I'm in +the humour for both. If there's nobody in the house to play a game at +whist or ombre, send round to the stable, and tell the ostler I will try +my luck with him at all-fours." + +The landlord stared; but a bright thought struck him, and he observed: +"There's a gentleman in the Sunflower who arrived this afternoon. He +looks like a gentleman who wouldn't object to a game of cards, or +anything in that way." + +"Bravo, Boniface," was the answer. "Carry him my respects--Lord +Bellinger's respects--with a bottle of your best, and say, if he is at +leisure I shall be happy to wait on him at once." + +The landlord delivered his message with alacrity, and in less than five +minutes John Garnet answered it in person at his lordship's door. He had +come to this hostelry for the very purpose of obtaining the introduction +he now found so easy; and rather regretted the amount of thought he had +wasted after supper in considering how he should make Lord Bellinger's +acquaintance, and gain his confidence sufficiently to betray it. With +his best bow and pleasantest smile, "plain John Garnet" stood on the +threshold, and assured the other that no consideration would have +induced him to permit his lordship to ascend to the Sunflower till he +had himself come down to conduct him upstairs, if he would so far honour +his humble apartment, where he would at once direct preparations to be +made for the reception of his noble visitor. + +"Zounds, man!" answered the other, who at this period of the evening was +seldom disposed to stand on ceremony, "we want nothing but a bottle of +Burgundy and a pack of cards. They are both on that table. Let us sit +down at once and make the most of our time." + +"Agreed," replied his guest; "and your lordship shall choose the game +and the stakes." + +"What say you to picquet?" asked the nobleman, opening the Burgundy, +"Ten guineas a game. Twenty--fifty, if you like?" + +John Garnet, reflecting that he knew nothing of his adversary's force, +and was himself no great performer, modestly chose the lowest stake, and +proceeded to play his hand with as much care as his own preoccupation +and the strange position in which he found himself permitted. Picquet is +a game requiring, no less than skill and practice, undivided attention. +John Garnet could not forbear glancing about the room for some symptoms +of the documents he desired to make his own; wondering if they were kept +in his lordship's pockets, in her ladyship's baggage, under charge of +the servants. It is not surprising that at the end of the first game he +found himself the better by two glasses of moderate Burgundy, and the +worse by ten golden pieces stamped with the image of King George. He +ventured a second game, and with the same result. + +To do Lord Bellinger justice, he was not a rapacious gambler. He loved +winning well enough, but would rather lose heavily than not play at all. +"I am too strong for you," said he; "I ought to have told you picquet is +my especial game." + +But when did a loser ever admit the superiority of an adversary's skill? + +"Your lordship held good cards," answered John Garnet; "my luck is the +likelier to turn. I call for a fresh pack." + +So the waiter was summoned, and more cards, with another bottle of wine, +were brought in. Lord Bellinger began to feel the old wild impulses +rising in his heart; and John Garnet, a desperate man, bound on a +desperate errand, had no disinclination to venture Katerfelto's money in +an undertaking that compromised his own head. + +After two more games, Lord Bellinger had won a hundred guineas; and John +Garnet was at the end of his resources. + +"My lord," said he, "a man does not journey a-horseback with the Bank of +England in his pocket. I have lost to your lordship as much as I can +afford to pay." + +He spoke with some ill-humour, and rose from the table as though to take +his leave. + +"One more game," pleaded Lord Bellinger, who would have paid his last +guinea rather than go to bed before midnight. "Sit down again, my good +sir; if we cannot play for money, we can play for money's worth." + +John Garnet obeyed, with a forced smile. To be a good loser was +considered one of the essentials in the character of a gentleman; and he +would have sunk in his own, no less than in his companion's esteem, had +he declined the unequal contest for so paltry an excuse as want of +means. + +"That is a fine horse you rode here," continued his lordship, shuffling +the cards. "If you like to put a price on him, I will stake the sum +named against the animal." + +"Five hundred!" answered John Garnet. + +"Agreed," said the other, though the five hundred guineas he had +borrowed from Katerfelto constituted all the funds he possessed in the +world. + +So they played one more game, and again Fortune smiled on Lord +Bellinger, who emptied his glass with a smack, having despoiled his +adversary of the grey horse and one hundred guineas in gold. + +It seemed an unpromising beginning, but John Garnet's courage rose with +the exigencies of his position. He pulled a purse from his pocket, and +counted down on the table one hundred guineas, piece by piece, with a +good-humoured smile. + +"No doubt," said he, "your lordship will give me my revenge at some +future time. I shall leave the horse in charge of your lordship's +servants to-morrow morning. I can pledge you my word he is as good as he +looks." + +"What do you call him?" asked the other, carelessly. + +"Katerfelto," answered John Garnet, taken by surprise, and blurting out +the word that first occurred to him, because it would have seemed so +strange to hesitate at the name of his own horse. + +Lord Bellinger started. "Do _you_ know Katerfelto?" said he. "I have +always believed that man must be the devil in person!" + +"I got the horse with that name," answered John Garnet, "and his new +owner can alter it at pleasure; but as I must be a-foot, literally +a-foot, early to-morrow morning, I will now take my leave, and wish your +lordship good-night." + +So, with many profound bows, the pair separated, and the loser, to his +extreme disgust, heard Lord Bellinger's door carefully locked on the +inside. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +STRONG AS DEATH. + + +To have lost a hundred guineas after supper was bad enough, but to yield +possession of the best horse he ever owned, and pursue Lord Bellinger +into the West on foot, or by the tardy progress of a stage-waggon, was +not to be thought of. + +He never intended permanently to part with either, or John Garnet would +have been more loth to risk his horse and to pay up his gold. The money +must be recovered, and Katerfelto, as he now determined to call the +animal, must be retained at all hazards. Pondering these matters deeply, +the unlucky card-player only waited till the lights were out and the +hotel became quiet, to put his plans in execution. An hour after +midnight he had drawn off his boots, and satisfied himself that his +lordship's door was securely fastened. He must find another opportunity +of taking by violence that which he now despaired of gaining by +artifice; and he stole out to the stable, there to saddle his horse and +effect his escape. Though by no means satisfied with his night's work, +he did not consider he had entirely wasted time or money. In the course +of conversation, he had made himself acquainted with Lord Bellinger's +intended movements, and could prepare for a bold stroke. "If I had been +more fortunate with the cards," he thought, "I might have improved my +acquaintance sufficiently to join them as a travelling-companion, +perhaps accompanying my lord and my lady in their coach. It would have +been easier then to effect my purpose, though I do _not_ think I could +have found it in me to make love to her ladyship any more than to her +waiting-maid. But I never held a card! That hundred guineas I paid down +on the table I must have back again, as surely as I do not mean to part +with my good grey horse. There is only one way. I must seize the +warrants, and recover my money with the strong hand. Some unknown +highwayman may bear the blame, and if I can get off, I will lose no time +in gaining the West Country, and warning the honest squires of Devon and +Somerset that they are in danger. Nothing venture, nothing have! I'm in +it now, over shoes, over boots! Let me think. Highway robbery. It's an +ugly word, and a hanging matter, but so is high treason; and if every +neck that risks the noose must be stretched, why, as I heard those +player fellows sing last winter-- + + "I wonder there ain't better companie + Under Tyburn tree!" + +Thus meditating, John Garnet, who had made himself acquainted with the +geography of the hotel and its surroundings, proceeded noiselessly to +the stable, not without anxious glances toward the East, where that +forerunner of morning, the false dawn, was already visible. + +A true horseman, he had identified himself so completely with his steed, +and busied himself so earnestly about its wants, that Katerfelto neighed +with pleasure to acknowledge the friendly presence as he approached its +stall thus stealthily and in the dark. While he hurried to the horse's +head, that he might silence this untoward greeting, a slim figure rose +from below the manger and glided like a phantom to the door. John Garnet +was no less prompt than resolute. In an instant he had seized this +shadowy intruder by the throat. Outcry and escape were alike +impossible; but his hand opened as if it grasped a red-hot iron, when a +half-stifled voice, that he remembered only too well, murmured, "Hold! +do not hurt me. I am here to serve you. I will follow you to the end of +the world." + +"Waif!" he exclaimed, in an accent that, smothered as it was, denoted +the very extremity of surprise; but even while he spoke, the figure slid +through the dark stable out into the night. + +For a few seconds John Garnet was persuaded that he must be +dreaming--the meeting had been so sudden, so unexpected, and so soon +over. When he realised the fact, his surprise amounted to dismay. That +this impracticable gipsy-girl should have followed him, watched him, and +made herself acquainted with his movements, seemed a fatal climax to the +disasters of the night. For one disheartening minute he thought of +riding back to London, returning Katerfelto to his former owner, and +abandoning the whole project. Then he reflected, that under any +circumstances he must make his escape before daylight, and so saddled +his horse with what alacrity he might. Dawn was breaking as he led the +animal out of the court-yard softly and at a walk, though its tramp was +smothered in the snores of a stalwart ostler who slept in a loft above, +for protection of the stables, and a red streak of sunrise bound the +eastern horizon, to which he looked back on emerging from a belt of +coppice that skirted the high-road a mile from the inn. Bold as he was, +Katerfelto shied at an object moving in the brushwood, while a slim +boyish figure sprang out, laid its hand on the horse's shoulder, and +looked wistfully up in the rider's face. + +Waif--for it was none other--attired as a country lad, and only the more +beautiful for her disguise, seemed to anticipate no less affectionate a +greeting than she was prepared to offer. But already she knew every +change of the face she had studied so fatally, and her own fell, while +she marked the displeasure that settled on the brows and about the lips +she loved. + +"Speak to me," she murmured, "for pity's sake. I tracked you so +patiently, and followed you so far!" + +"Waif, why are you here?" he asked, while his heart smote him to think +of the distance travelled by that slender form, those shapely delicate +limbs. + +"I could not bear you to go away," replied the girl, laying his hand to +her heart and pressing her cheek against Katerfelto's warm shoulder. "I +could not live without you; and for the matter of that, you could not +live without _me_. If I had let you go by yourself, every mile you rode +was a mile towards your grave." + +They were pacing on together, Waif walking at his stirrup with a free +untiring step, that the good horse must have fairly broken into a trot +to leave behind. John Garnet looked at her with an astonishment in which +there was no little interest and admiration. + +"What mean you?" said he, "and how came the Doctor to let you go?" + +"I never asked the Patron's leave," was her answer, "because, if he had +forbidden me, I should have lain down to die. No; when you rode out of +London, I was scarcely half an hour behind. The Patron must have been +very angry when he found me gone. What do I care? I care for nobody but +_you_. I knew where to get these clothes well enough. Do you like me in +them? I might have had a horse from our people before I had done a day's +journey, but I thought I could be nearer you on foot, and I've walked +all the way. I'm not tired. I'd walk as far again only to hear your +voice." + +John Garnet was in utter perplexity. Such a phase in his affairs he had +never contemplated, yet there seemed something so ridiculous in his +position, bound on a political adventure thus attended, that he could +not forbear a laugh. + +"Nonsense, my lass!" said he kindly enough. "You must go back; indeed +you must. I won't have you come a step farther. You ought never to have +followed me at all." + +The tears were in Waif's dark eyes, and she raised them to his face with +the pleading, reproachful look of a dog that you chide when he knows he +is doing right. + +"Not follow you!" she repeated. "How am I not to follow you, when you +are going into danger? I can share it even if I cannot keep it off; and +you tell me I must go back to London! You cannot mean it. I don't think +you quite understand." + +"That's the truest word you have said yet," was his answer; "but I do +understand that, for your own sake, you ought not to be here now. Still, +if you persist in accompanying 'a beggar on horseback,' you ought to +have your share of the saddle, till we get down." + +With these words, he took her by the hand, and braced his foot in the +stirrup to afford a purchase for her ascent. In one bound she stood on +his instep, light and buoyant as a bird; in another, she was seated +before him with her arm round his neck, and her comely smiling face very +near his own. It might have been the exertion, or the novelty of the +position, or something he whispered, with his lips close to hers, that +turned Waif crimson, and then deadly pale. She seemed more out of breath +now, clinging to the rider, than she had been awhile ago walking beside +his horse. Katerfelto, in obedience to his master's hand, broke into a +canter; before she spoke another word, they were nearing a hamlet, of +which the smoke was visible above the trees, when she made shift to ask +in a trembling voice if she might not be set down, and taken up again +when they had passed through? For answer, John Garnet laughed, and +increasing his pace, dashed along the street at a gallop. When he +relapsed once more into a walk, the startled villagers had been left +two miles behind. + +Waif's nerves were of the firmest, and she had now recovered some of her +self-possession, no easy matter for a woman who finds herself seated on +the same horse with the man she loves. Her heart beat fast indeed, and +the colour came and went in her cheek; but she could review the +situation calmly, and resolved that now was the time to explain all she +had done, all she intended to do in John Garnet's behalf. Even those +women, whose station renders them slaves of custom, like other slaves, +assume the wildest freedom when they have elected to throw off the yoke; +but this gipsy-girl, an unsophisticated child of nature, had no scruples +to vanquish, no social laws to break, found nothing to restrain the +ardent expression of her feelings, save the innate delicacy of a proud +and loving heart. + +It was not, therefore, without such a blush and downward glance, as few +men could have withstood, and none, perhaps, less firmly than John +Garnet, that she announced her resolution. + +"I shall hold by you to the last. I shall never desert you till you have +performed your task in safety. It is right you should know it. +But--but--I cannot expect to accompany you like this. Only promise that +you will not try to leave me behind, and never fear, but I can find my +way from place to place, and be at hand when I am wanted, without +shaming you by my presence. The gipsy-girl is proud to give her life for +_you_, though you may blush to acknowledge one of my people as your +friend!" + +"Blush!" repeated John Garnet, and perhaps because their faces were so +near together, the blushing seemed all on the other side. "I would never +blush to own a true friend; and Waif, my pretty lass, you have proved +yourself more than a friend to-day. You say that I am in danger; I know +well enough that I soon shall be; but my head is out of the halter as +yet, and I see not how you could help if it were in!" + +"Out of the halter!" said Waif. "How little you fear and how little you +seem to care! Do you think I was not listening at the door when Abner +Gale came to the Patron thirsting for the man's blood who took his +brother's life? You know not our people, John Garnet, nor the gifts that +nature bestows on us, instead of hearth and home, bed and board, gold +and silver, houses and land. Do you believe the gipsy can forget a path +once trod, a voice once heard, a face once seen? I was dancing in +Taunton Fair, when Abner Gale, one of your priests, as you call them, +tossed me a bit of silver, with a coarse laugh and a brutal jest. The +gipsy has no feelings to wound, no character to sustain, no honour to +defend, but she has the instincts and the memory of a dog for friend or +foe! Parson Gale had better have bitten his tongue through and kept his +silver in his pocket. I know his home, his habits, his haunts, his +vices, as I know my own ten fingers. I listened because I hated _him_. +But when I heard more, I listened on, because--because I loved _you_!" + +It was wrong, no doubt, scandalous, shocking, if not entirely without +excuse; but something in the proximity of those two young faces again +made the girl blush deeper than before. + +"There are no secrets too close for the Patron," continued Waif, "and as +you have seen, people come from far and near to consult his art. This +man's errand was to discover your hiding-place and hunt you down to +death. He gave the Patron money--golden guineas--I heard them jingle. He +was in earnest--bitter earnest, and so am I!" + +"But what said the Patron?" asked her listener. "I thought he was my +friend." + +"The Patron is every man's friend," answered Waif, "who is willing to do +him service, or to pay him gold. He promised to betray you when the moon +was full, but that very night he sent you out of London on his own +affairs, and I followed close, lest evil should befall, for I knew you +were journeying to the West." + +Laughing lightly, he asked if that was a dangerous quarter, and whether +the Wise Men, who came there from the East, were ancestors of her own? + +But Waif scorned to enter on the subject of genealogy with one who could +neither believe nor understand her claims to a descent co-eval with the +earliest history of man. Her tone was grave and almost stern, while she +looked him steadfastly in the face, and proceeded with her warning. + +"When a stag goes down to the water, where an enemy waits to take away +his life, the voice of a child, or the wave of a woman's hand, is enough +to turn him back into the moor. Abner Gale lives in the very country to +which you are bound. I know the man, John Garnet, and I will save you +from his vengeance, though I swing for it--there! Now will you let me +come with you and help you as best I can?" + +John Garnet did not hesitate long. True, he was unable to stifle certain +scruples, while he reflected on the dangers into which this wilful girl +was running of her own accord, on her loss of character, if indeed she +had any character to lose, and the inconvenience he would himself +experience in accounting for such a travelling companion, however well +disguised; above all, on the advantage he was taking of a professed +devotion, that exchanged, as he could not but admit, the pure gold of +sincere affection for a baser metal, compounded of gratitude, vanity, +and self-indulgence. But men have seldom far to seek for an excuse when +they would do that which is pleasant and convenient rather than right; +so John Garnet persuaded himself that to make this beautiful girl an +assistant of his schemes, and comrade in his dangers, was an act of +self-denial and loyalty vouching for his fealty to the exile whom he +called his lawful king. + +"Agreed!" said he; "and, now, Waif, if you are really to help me, I must +tell you my plans." + +He never forgot this ride through the summer's afternoon. The yellow +light that glimmered in copse and dingle. The glare on the white road +they travelled. The distant lake that gleamed like a sheet of +silver--the brook at his feet, that brawled and gurgled and broke into +bubbles of gold. The bloom of wild flowers, the song of birds, the +murmur of the breeze, the lowing of kine, the deep rich meadows, the +stretching uplands, and, over all, that sunny haze which veiled without +hiding the distance, and added its crowning grace to the beauties of a +landscape that became fairer and fairer, the further he journeyed +towards the West. + +Katerfelto paced proudly on, while John Garnet poured in a willing ear +the details of his journey, and the manner in which he proposed to turn +the tables on an adversary who had despoiled him of his money, and could +lay claim to his horse. It was difficult to make her understand how the +stake could have been lost. + +"For," said Waif, "the Patron bids the cards come out just as he likes. +It seems so easy, if a man has only the use of eyes and hands! This lord +must be very clever with his fingers, cleverer even than _you_!" + +"It's not all cleverness," he answered, impatiently. "There's such a +thing as luck, and I never held a card all night." + +Waif stared and made a motion with her slender fingers, the import of +which it was impossible to misunderstand. + +"But that would have been dishonourable," protested John Garnet. + +"Dishonourable!" repeated Waif. "Why? When you sit down, you do not mean +to be beat. It is only a trial of skill, like a race or a +wrestling-match. Let the best man win. Why is it dishonourable?" + +Despairing to explain to this untutored mind the code of fair-play as +practised amongst so-called men of honour, John Garnet proceeded to +discuss the means by which, in a few hours, he hoped to equalise the +chances of Fortune, and reimburse himself for his previous losses. Of +his scheme Waif greatly approved, holding, nevertheless, to her first +opinion, that it would have been wiser to win by fraud than to lose by +ill-luck, but promising her hearty assistance in all parts of the plan +he proposed to carry out. + +Thus conversing, they arrived at the outskirts of a country town; and +here, before John Garnet could suggest that he should alight and lead +the horse on foot, thus to avoid the remarks that might be provoked by +its double burden, Waif glided like water from the saddle, slipped +through a tangled hedge by the way-side, and disappeared. In vain, +standing high in his stirrups, he peeped and peered over the obstacle; +in vain he galloped to the gate, and searched and traversed the whole +meadow, calling her loudly by name. The girl had vanished; and riding +thoughtfully into the town, her late companion, for the second time +since daybreak, wondered whether he was under the spell of some unholy +witchcraft, or was really awake and in his right mind. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +MARLBOROUGH DOWNS. + + +"Ah! them was good times for we! I often wish as we'd Galloping Jack +back again." + +The speaker, a lame old ostler, clattering about his stable-yard in +wooden clogs, with a bucket in each hand, addressed himself to an unseen +individual at the taproom window, who blew out large clouds of +tobacco-smoke in reply. + +"He was free, he was!" continued the ostler, "as free with a guinea as +you and me with a shilling. I'll wager a quart as he was a gentleman +born, right or wrong. Such gold lace as he wore! and such horses as he +rode, to be sure!" + +The old man seemed lost in admiration of the memories called up by +Galloping Jack. + +"What's gone with him?" asked the unseen smoker in the taproom. + +"What's gone with 'em all?" said the other, angrily. "A nightcap and a +nosegay, I doubt, like the rest. But he loved his perfession, did +Galloping Jack; an' many's the pleasant ride he took across the Down, +and what not, afore he mounted his wooden horse on Tyburn Hill." + +"We'll hope it never came to that," replied the other, with something of +amusement in his tone. + +"Ah! I'm afeared it's past hoping and praying for too," said the ostler. +"But it's a gentleman's trade," he added, reverting to his own +professional view of the highwayman's calling; "a gentleman's +trade--I've always said so. Look what cattle they can afford to keep!" + +"You're a judge of such matters, I suppose," observed the smoker in the +taproom. + +"Man and boy," answered the other, "I've been about horses nigh fifty +year. If I don't know a good nag when I see 'un, master, well, I'd +better give out, an' take on with some likelier trade." + +"That's the right sort you dressed over awhile ago," continued the +smoker, leaning out of window, and showing a tall, active frame, +surmounted by a swarthy face, with the eager expression of a hawk. + +The ostler set his bucket down, and winked. + +"You're a judge," said he, "_you_ are, and so you ought. There's a many +passes through your hands, Master Cooper, but I never see you with such +a nag as this here. He's a cut above _you_, everyway--he is." + +"That's a good one!" answered the dark man, with a boastful laugh. "Why, +Ike, you old fool! I tell you I owned that very horse myself, and I +_gave_ him--gave him away as a present to a friend of mine." + +"But how came Galloping Jack to part with him?" asked the ostler, much +interested. "I knowed the horse, bless ye, as well as the horse knowed +me, when he came into the yard not two hours back; but he's in the hands +of a real gentleman now, and as pretty a rider as ever drew a rein +through his fingers. There was something about his seat as put me in +mind of Jack, too, and something in the way he carried his hands; but I +can't call to mind seeing Jack without a mask on. Speak up, Master +Cooper: it couldn't be the man himself, could it now? I never heerd as +he'd swung for sure." + +"Who knows!" answered the other, with a harsh laugh. "_You_ water your +horses, and mind your own business, Ike, and I'll tell the drawer to +give you a pot of ale when you come into the house." + +Now John Garnet, sitting after dinner at an open window above the +stable-yard, overheard the foregoing conversation, and resolved +straightway to take advantage of his own likeness to the missing hero, +whose horse he had so strangely appropriated. Katerfelto seemed well +known in these parts as the property of Galloping Jack, and, indeed, an +animal of such remarkable beauty was sure to be recognised by anyone +concerned with horses who had ever seen it before. If the rider's +figure, too, resembled the highwayman, who had been in the habit of +concealing his features in a mask, it was quite possible that he, John +Garnet, riding the best horse in England, might, so long as it suited +his purpose, be mistaken for the enterprising person known on the Great +Western Road as Galloping Jack. + +At a glance he perceived how such a confusion of characters would +facilitate a project he had been maturing all day--a project that, after +a few hours' rest and refreshment at the wayside inn, it seemed quite +practicable to carry out before nightfall. To rob a coach single-handed, +that contained four well-armed men, of whom he had reason to suppose one +at least would fight to the death, seemed a bold stroke; but while he +looked to the loading of his pistols, the fitting of his saddle, the +feeding and bridling of his horse, and all the details on which his very +life depended, he entertained but little fear for the result. His plan, +though desperate in its nature, was not without discretion. He had +ridden for two days ahead of Lord Bellinger's carriage, and had now +turned back on his track. By sunset he calculated that the travellers +would arrive at a solitary clump of trees he had marked in the lonely +plain, on Marlborough Downs. Here he might conceal himself, shoot one of +the horses, as it passed, and leaping out, stun my lord with the +butt-end of his pistol. The servants, he hoped, would be so +panic-stricken, that in the confusion he might possess himself of the +papers he required, and rely on Katerfelto's speed to make his escape. +All this he had confided to Waif, and now Waif was not forthcoming, +though she had promised him assistance, of some mysterious nature she +seemed unwilling to explain. Well, he must do it single-handed, that was +all, and let Galloping Jack bear the blame. + +The landlord looked after him with approval as he rode out of the inn +yard an hour before sunset. His wife and her maids lavished admiring +glances on the handsome coat and graceful seat of this comely horseman; +while old Ike, drawing his hand down Katerfelto's firm smooth quarters, +blessed him as he went. Golden opinions had the stranger won from each +and all; yet each and all, if examined on oath, would have sworn they +believed him to be a man who earned his daily bread by crimes that the +law punished with death. Who but a highwayman would order so costly a +dinner, such choice wine, and leave both almost untouched? Who but a +highwayman would bow to the very kitchen scullion like a courtier, while +he scattered a handful of silver in her dirty apron, or fling a guinea +(his last guinea) at old Ike's head, whilst the ostler held the stirrup +for him to get on. They looked meaningly in each other's faces as he +disappeared, riding steadily towards the endless down, and old Ike, with +the tears standing in his eyes, clattered back to his brooms and +stable-pails, muttering, "He always wur free-handed, an' now he's gone +his ways again for good, an' I sha'n't never see him no more!" + +John Garnet rode slowly on at a pace that should husband Katerfelto's +powers. The sun was already set when he arrived at the clump of trees +where he meant to lie in ambush; but he passed it, unwillingly enough, +and affected to proceed on his journey; for lonely as seemed the wide +expanse of down, its solitude was broken by a motionless figure, to all +appearance intently on the watch. + +His business admitted of no observers. After a moment's hesitation he +turned on his track, and rode straight to the figure, as if to ask his +way. + +In the twilight, he made out a tall dark man, who might have been a +shepherd but for want of sheep and sheep-dog, and who never moved a limb +while he approached. + +"My friend," said the horseman, "I have forgotten something at the inn I +left an hour ago. If you will take a message back you shall have a +crown-piece for your pains." + +The other pointed to the London road. "I can earn a crown-piece without +walking three miles for it," said he, "and so can _you_, Master Garnet, +if you'll stay where you are." + +John Garnet fairly started at the sound of his own name. + +"Who the devil are _you_?" he exclaimed, "and what are you doing here?" + +"I am here on _your_ business," was the unexpected answer. "You're about +a tough job, sir, and you'll do it, never fear, but not single-handed." + +"I don't know what you mean," replied the other; adding, after a +moment's consideration, "did I not see you this afternoon smoking in the +taproom of the inn?" + +"Very like," said the man, composedly. "I've seen _you_ many more times +than ever you've seen _me_. Why, now, you look quite astonished that a +gentleman can be put down by a plain man! Well, it's no use beating +about the bush, I'm here to look after you because Thyra bade me come." + +"Thyra!" repeated John Garnet, with an air of sudden enlightenment: +"what, Waif do you mean? Why you must be Fin Cooper." + +"That's my name in your patter," said the gipsy; "now I'll tell you my +business. Stay, all that will keep: I hear the roll of wheels. In ten +minutes the coach we are both looking for will be plodding up the hill. +Go in with a will! Do it your own way, there'll be plenty to help when +the time comes. Take what you want, and leave us, Romanies, the +pickings. There's half a score here that go share and share alike." + +John Garnet had little time to demand an explanation, or indeed to make +up his mind. Already he could distinguish Lord Bellinger's coach +labouring slowly up a slight ascent, crowned by the clump of trees +before mentioned. He withdrew himself into their shelter, and scanned, +as well as the failing light permitted, the strength of the party he had +determined to attack. It happened that the servant whose duty it was to +ride ahead from stage to stage had fallen to the rear; and this +accounted for his missing that fore-runner, on whom he had calculated to +warn him that his prey was drawing near. This increased the defending +force to five; including my lord, a coachman, and two footmen; of whom +one carried a blunderbuss, and was impeded moreover by the charge of +Mistress Rachel. + +Of his own auxiliaries he knew nothing. Wherever the half-score +mentioned by Fin Cooper were concealed, not a man but the tall gipsy had +yet shown himself, and _he_ seemed unarmed by so much as a stick. +Nevertheless, the coach was close upon them now. Lady Bellinger's +peevish tones might already be heard from the inside. + +Unseen in the black shadow of the trees, he took a pistol from his +holsters--Katerfelto standing like a rock--and sighted the near wheeler. +Simultaneously with the report of the weapon and two female shrieks, the +animal fell dead, shot through the brain, bringing down its coach-fellow +across its body, in a confused turmoil of snortings, plungings, and +broken harness. + +In an instant my lord had whipped out of the carriage, sword in hand, +with his coat torn up the back from the vigour with which my lady pulled +at it in her fright. Determined, nevertheless, to sell his life dearly, +and ready, to do him justice, for a fight at any odds, right or wrong. + +The mounted servant, crying "Thieves!" and "Murder!" turned his horse, +and rode away at a gallop; while the footman who carried the +blunderbuss, shaking himself clear of Mistress Rachel, dropped on his +knees, and begged pitifully for life. + +His fellow, however, being of a bolder nature, snatched the weapon out +of his hand to point it full in John Garnet's face, and pulled the +trigger like a hero. + +It only flashed in the pan; somebody had been tampering with the +firearms at the last stopping-place. The assailant was in no real danger +but from Lord Bellinger's naked steel. That nobleman made at him +fiercely enough; and though Katerfelto answered rein and spur, as if +well-trained in such hand-to-hand conflicts, John Garnet might have been +obliged to use fatal means in self-defence, but that half-a-dozen +figures sprang like magic from amongst the trees; a cloak was thrown +over my lord's head, while he was dragged to the earth; the servants +were securely gagged and bound; my lady and Mistress Rachel compelled +with hideous threats to keep silence; and the original aggressor found +himself at liberty to rifle the carriage unmolested, and take what he +required. + +There was no difficulty in finding the warrants. With these, and the +hundred guineas he had lost, safe in his pocket, John Garnet turned +Katerfelto's head towards the down, pausing one moment to thank the +gipsies for their timely aid, and impress on them the necessity of mercy +towards their captives. In that moment Waif's hand clasped his own, and +Waif's voice murmured in his ear: + +[Illustration: WESTWARD-HO!] + +"My tribe have done you good service, leave the rest to me. I do not say +farewell, for it would break my heart to think we should not meet +again!" + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +A PECULIAR PEOPLE. + + +It is only fair to state that Lord Bellinger writhed and struggled with +a vigour not to have been expected from his attenuated frame, much to +the delight of his captors, who were inclined to treat him more +leniently than if he had submitted, like his footman, without show of +resistance. This champion they kicked and belaboured to some purpose, +while they pinioned his fellow-servant, from whose readier hands they +had wrested the harmless blunderbuss, and threatened him in frightful +language if he ventured to stir a finger. To my lady, though insisting +that she should retain her seat in the carriage, they behaved with +extreme politeness. She was afterwards heard, indeed, to protest that +the robber-chief, as she called Fin Cooper, seemed a perfect gentleman; +that he had a distinguished air, and for a black man--though, in a +general way, she could not abide black men (Lord Bellinger being as +black as a crow)--was by no means ill-looking. + +Mistress Rachel, too, while frightened and hysterical, as behoved her +station, clung persistently to the arm of a stout gipsy, who mounted +guard over her person, entreating him, in piteous terms, to respect her +youth, and, above all, to protect her from the insults of his comrades; +lavishing on him tender glances, and contrasting his assured demeanour +with the cowardice of her late admirer, whose very teeth chattered for +dismay. My lord, in the meantime, with a swarthy fellow at each limb, +lay helpless on his back, cursing volubly, but losing neither presence +of mind nor temper. Indeed, when he had sufficiently relieved his +feelings by such ebullitions, and perceived that no violence was offered +to Lady Bellinger or her maid, the situation seemed to strike him as +ludicrous, and, bursting into a laugh, he called on the gipsies to +release him, promising, on his honour, that no further resistance should +be offered by himself, or his servants, to the continuation of their +frolic. + +Fin Cooper took him at his word. Exchanging a few short sentences with +Waif in his own Romany language, unintelligible to the captives, he +raised Lord Bellinger to his feet and restored the rapier which had been +wrested from that struggling nobleman. + +"You are a _Gorgio Raia_," said he, "and I but a _Romany Chal_. +Nevertheless, there is honour among thieves, and I'll trust yours if +you'll trust mine." "I cannot speak your language," answered his +lordship; "but your manners are those of a perfect gentleman. Pray +select from my coach whatever articles you fancy, except her ladyship, +my wife, whose health does not admit of her taking exercise on foot, and +I would venture to suggest that, in rifling the sword case, no violence +be used. It contains three bottles of excellent Chambertin, which it +would be a pity to break. I can only regret that I am not better +prepared to entertain so large a party." + +"You're made of the right stuff," answered Fin Cooper; "and another time +you'll know that a _Romany Chal_ means a gipsy lad, and a _Gorgio Raia_ +a nobleman of the Gentiles. We'll drink your health, my lord, never +fear, and give yourself and your lady a share, if you'll condescend to +wet your lips on the same cup with us. Now, pals," he added, turning to +the gang, "take what you want and let us be off. High Toby's a good game +for the winner, but it's best to play it out before the moon gets up." + +The gipsies then proceeded to appropriate the contents of the coach, +exchanging grins and smiles and whispered congratulations in their own +language on the value of their prize. + +Only Waif stood aloof, gazing into the darkness, where the grey horse +and his rider had long ago disappeared. + +Presently a scream from my lady announced that some tawny hand was laid +on her jewel-case. "My diamonds!" she exclaimed; and tears of real +distress rose in her eyes, as she raised them to Fin Cooper's face. "Oh! +sir! I beseech you, let me keep my diamonds. For pity's sake, do not +send me back into the great world naked and ashamed, without so much as +a clasp of brilliants to fasten round my neck!" + +"I do believe as her ladyship would rather lose her maid than her +jewels," whispered Rachel, with a glance at her swarthy guardian, that +intimated no great disinclination to be retained as a pledge instead. + +My lord laughed. "I would play you for the set, and welcome," said he. +"But though you will find a pack of cards in every pocket of the coach, +the devil a guinea have I left to stake. It's a pity," he added, "for +just now I'm in a vein of luck. Only last night I won five games running +of our friend on the grey horse, though it seems to be his turn now!" + +"Galloping Jack is hard to beat at any game he chooses to play," +answered the gipsy, in whose ear Waif had whispered a few hurried words. +"Nevertheless, win or lose, he's far enough by this time. It takes a +bird of the air to catch Jack when he gets his spurs into the grey." + +"Confound him!" said his lordship heartily, reflecting that, by all the +rules of fair-play, this enterprising highwayman was now riding into +safety with _his_ money on _his_ horse. "Drink up your liquor, my good +friends, and let us make some arrangements for the future. I presume +you do not wish us to remain unsheltered on the downs all night?" + +"Not an inch will I stir without my diamonds!" exclaimed his wife. "Mind +that, my lord. If they go into captivity, I go too!" + +"And I humbly hope, as is my bounden duty, to attend your ladyship," +added Mistress Rachel, trying hard to blush, while she stole another +look in her guardian's gipsy face. + +Fin Cooper scratched his handsome black head in some perplexity. Of all +incumbrances, the last he would have chosen was a lady of quality, with +her waiting gentlewoman. How was he to get them to the tents? What was +he to do with them when there? If retained as hostages they would give +more trouble than they were worth; and such a speculation promised no +great profit, for Lord Bellinger's easy indifference seemed to infer +neither high ransom nor prompt payment. Fin would rather have foregone +jewels, lady, and lady's-maid, than be hampered with all three. + +Again he consulted Waif, and, after the interchange of a few brief +sentences in their own language, of which my lord, listening intently +for all his assumed carelessness, could only catch the words "fakement" +(a piece of work), "fashono" (fictitious), and "balanser" (a pound +sterling), cleared his brows, and made a profound bow to her ladyship, +with all the politeness of a dancing-master. + +"The Romany in his tent," said he, "can be courteous as the Gorgio in +his castle. If the Rawnie (lady) sets such store by her gew-gaws, let +her keep them and welcome! When she walks in her jewels among the great +ones of the earth, she will think not unkindly of the Romany raklo (the +gipsy lad) who wished her good luck and good speed on Marlborough +Downs." + +He had learned from Waif, whose experience while in the Patron's service +taught her many a strange secret, that the diamonds were but paste, +and, with characteristic promptitude, seized the opportunity of +affecting a princely magnificence at trifling cost. + +Her ladyship, who must have known, while she obstinately ignored, the +truth, was disappointed beyond measure. In her own circle many romantic +stories were told of the courtesy shown by highwaymen to ladies of +gentle birth. She expected no less than to redeem her jewels by some +such harmless gallantries as those practised in a game of forfeits, and +would have felt little disinclination to dance a rigadoon by moonlight +on the level turf with this well-made gipsy for a partner. It seemed a +bad compliment that he should give her up the best share of his booty, +and never so much as ask to kiss her hand in return. + +My lord burst out laughing, and offered his snuff-box. "By St. George," +said he, "you must be the king of the gipsies himself. A man who +presents a lady with a set of diamonds, and makes no more to-do than I +would about a bunch of flowers, ought to sit on a throne; and, excuse my +freedom, in an unpatched pair of breeches. May I ask the gentleman's +name to whom her ladyship is so deeply indebted, and whose generosity is +only equalled by the simplicity of his dress?" + +The gipsy's black eyes shot a cunning glance in his lordship's face. Its +expression was so good-humoured and mirthful, that it was obvious no +insult could be intended; and the slender hand that had stolen like +lightning to a knife in his girdle was as quickly withdrawn. + +"They call me Fin Cooper," said he, frankly, "in the patter of the +Gorgios; but if your lordship ever condescends to visit our +camping-ground, ask for Kaulo Vardo-mescro (Black Cooper), and you shall +receive a brother's welcome in the tents. Prala (brother), there is my +hand upon it!" + +With a gravity that was in itself ridiculous, the pair shook hands; +while my lady, in tones of extreme impatience, demanded "how much longer +they were to remain on the open down, and what was to be done next?" + +Again there was a whispered consultation among the gipsies, and again +Waif was called into council. Fin Cooper then addressed his prisoners +with a calm dignity, such as Lord Bellinger had many times seen +attempted unsuccessfully in the legislative chamber to which he +belonged. + +"My lord," said he, "and especially my lady, it gives me great +uneasiness that I should be obliged to cause you inconvenience. My +brothers, however, will not hear of your being released till they have +gained two hours' start. By that time," he added, looking up at the +stars, "it will be nearly eleven o'clock. You will find a good inn, not +three miles from this spot, where I will take care that beds and supper +are prepared. You will, I hope, be comfortably lodged before midnight. +In the meantime, it will be necessary to secure your acquiescence by +binding you hand and foot. Excuse the liberty, my lord and my lady, it +is but for a couple of hours." + +"And who is to unbind us when eleven o'clock strikes?" asked her +ladyship, in tones of exceeding disquiet. + +"Unless you leave somebody on purpose!" added Mistress Rachel, with a +titter. + +"I don't see the necessity," observed my lord, tapping his snuff-box; +"you have trusted my honour once to-night, why not put me on my _parole_ +again?" + +Fin Cooper pondered. It seemed a good jest enough to leave the party he +had captured huddled together on the open down, tied hand and foot, as +it were, in imaginary fetters by Lord Bellinger's word of honour alone; +but how if his lordship, treating the whole affair also as a jest, +should turn the tables, and proceed to raise the country in pursuit +directly his captors had withdrawn? On whose side would the laugh be +then? + +It speaks well, both for gipsy and nobleman, that Fin's hesitation was +of no long continuance. + +"I think the Gorgio means fair," he whispered to Waif, "for all he wears +a clean shirt on his back. Am I a fool to trust him, my sister, or is he +fool enough to respect my trust? We could hardly, without hurting them, +tie them up so tight but that they might release one another in the +space of two hours; and this job will look quite black enough as it +stands, without cruelty. It's highway robbery, Thyra, and, I fear, +something like what the Gorgios call high treason to boot! You are wise, +my sister, and know these Gentiles well; counsel me what to do." + +Waif reflected for a moment ere she answered, gipsy-like, by a parable. + +"Do you remember, brother," said she, "how one night in the apple-water +country, on the banks of the Wye, we took a rooster off his perch, and +brought the poor dazed chiriclo (bird) into our empty barn by the light +of a single lanthorn? How Mother Stanley bade us lay the fowl's bill +against the bare boards, and draw from it a line of white chalk to the +far edge of the threshing-floor? and how the helpless creature never so +much as lifted its beak from the spot to which it believed itself tied? +Brother, you speak the truth when you say I know the Gorgios. They are +like that foolish barn-door fowl. This Raya here is a game-cock of their +choicest breed. At his own time, in his own way, he will strut, and +fight, and crow as lustily as the best chanticleer of them all; but tie +him up in his word of honour, and he will no more stir an inch out of +that imaginary circle than Aunt Stanley's fowl moved from the line of +chalk on our barn floor. I have spoken brother, let us go hence." + +The gipsy turned to his prisoner. "My lord," said he, "I will trust +your lordship's word. You shall promise, as a gentleman, not to stir in +your own person, nor to permit one of your people to leave this spot, +till two hours of the night are fairly past. On this understanding your +whole party shall at once be set free, and the Romanies will take their +leave, humbly wishing your lordship good-night." + +"You'll give me back my watch," said Lord Bellinger, feeling in his +empty fob, with a shrug of his shoulders, "or how shall I know when the +time is expired, and we may put the horses to?" + +Fin Cooper laughed. He liked a man who never threw a chance away, while +at the same time he knew the value of a heavy gold watch set in +diamonds. + +"Look well at that fir-tree, my lord," said he, pointing upwards; "when +the moon, now rising, has cleared the second branch from the top two +hours will have elapsed, and you can depart." + +"If you know the time so exactly without a watch," replied his lordship, +"you can have no use for mine. However, it's a pretty keepsake enough, +and you're welcome to it. But harky'e, my friend, one word before you +go. Is there no chance of our being beset by other gentlemen of your +profession? You've left nothing for them to take, 'tis true, except the +clothes on our backs; but the disappointment might make them harder to +deal with than you have been yourselves. You couldn't afford us a guard, +could you? That pretty boy, for instance," glancing at Waif, who shrank +hastily behind the others, "and a couple of stout fellows, in case there +should be a fight." + +Nobody but Mistress Rachel seemed disappointed at the gipsy's answer. + +"It is needless," he said; "our patrin will hold you unharmed, as if +your coach was surrounded by an escort of Light Horse." + +"Your patrin? What is that?" asked my lord. + +"The sign that none of our people will pass unnoticed," said the gipsy; +"that not one of the profession dare disregard, from the best galloping +gentleman on the road to the poor cly-faker who pulls an old woman's +petticoat off a hedge. I will set it for you at once." + +Thus speaking, he drew his knife from the sheath, and cut three crosses, +side by side, in the turf, north, south, east, and west of the party. +This done, the word was given to march; and in less than a minute these +strange assailants, who seemed to have the facility of deer and other +wild animals in availing themselves of any irregularity in the ground, +had disappeared from the surface of the downs, though a moon already +nearly full was shining brightly above the horizon. + +My lord looked after them in silence as they vanished. Then, turning to +his wife, observed, with a meaning smile, "They have left you your +diamonds, my dear. I wonder where they learned to know brilliants from +paste?" + +Her ladyship, an image of outraged dignity, was sitting bolt upright in +the back of the coach. + +"Their leader is a perfect gentleman," she replied, "and would no more +rob a lady of her trinkets than he would allude to her misfortunes. +There are noblemen of position who might take example by the gracious +manners and high bearing of this mysterious gipsy." + +The taunt, if meant for such, was lost on her husband. "Two hours," he +yawned; "two hours all but five minutes at the best. How shall we get +through two mortal hours? There is moonlight--that's a comfort; and our +friends have left us the cards. I will sit in the coach, and play your +ladyship a game at picquet." + +"What shall we play for?" said my lady. + +"For love!" said my lord, and began to deal. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +MARY LEE. + + +Threading like a herd of red deer the slight undulations of the down, it +took the gipsies but a few minutes to withdraw from the scene of their +late outrage. In less than an hour they had approached their own +camping-ground, where the tents were already pitched by wives and +comrades, the kettles already singing over the twinkling fires of their +bivouac. They travelled fast, at a long swinging trot, shifting their +bundles from one to another as they went. Fin Cooper and Waif remained +in rear of the party, the former arguing that it was the post of danger, +and, on this consideration, though she seemed unwilling to lag behind +the others, insisting that the girl should bear him company. + +Waif was anxious and preoccupied, strangely unlike herself. The black +Vardo-mescro had not failed to notice the change, nor was it in his +nature to keep silence when aroused. Looking suspiciously in his +companion's face, he sang a scrap of an old Romany ditty, that may be +thus rendered:-- + + "In the month of flowers, between the showers, the cuckoo sings + all day. + But the maiden weeps, while the Romany sleeps, and the Gorgio + gallops away. + Too soon, too soon, they are fading in June, and the cuckoo has + changed his say. + And the maiden is dead, and the spring-time fled, when the Gorgio + galloped away." + +His voice was rich and mellow, yet something of harshness in its tones +betrayed the discord within. + +"What do you mean by that?" asked Waif, her black eyebrows coming down +in an angry scowl over her black eyes. + +"You can interpret it for yourself," was his answer. "Thyra, do you +remember the red Quantock hills, and the deep leafy coombes in the +'broom-pickers' country' long ago?" + +He spoke in Romany, and she replied in the same language. It stung him +to observe that she could not express herself so readily in their own +gipsy tongue as in that of the Gentiles, with whom she had passed so +many years. + +"I remember," said Waif, carelessly. "What of that?" + +He looked hurt, and a fierce gleam shot from his dark eyes. + +"There was a little gipsy-girl on those red hills," he answered, "who +came to her gipsy-boy for every earthly thing she wanted, from a bunch +of violets in the ditch to a bit of mistletoe on the topmost branch of +the old oak-tree, who stretched her little arms for him to carry her on +the tramp when she was tired, who stroked his face every morning at +sunrise, and kissed him every night when he lay down to sleep. + +"For that little lass the gipsy-boy would have shed all the blood in his +young body, and he was but ten years old and five--not yet a man, nor +grown to man's stature, but a man in heart, and a giant in his love for +the comely, delicate gipsy-girl. So he begged hard of father and mother, +uncles and aunts, and he went into her tent with a gift, and prayed of +her people that they would give him Thyra to be his wife. They promised, +Thyra, do you remember? They promised. They were of the old black race, +and the promise of a Lovel is like the oath of a Stanley or a Lee." + +"It was so long ago!" pleaded Waif, in rather a trembling voice. "You +were always very good to me, Fin. I won't deny it; but it was so long +ago!" + +His face softened; his voice was very sad and tender, while he repeated +her words. + +"So long ago! and yet I see it as clear as if it had been but +yesterday--the fire smouldering at the tent-door--the moonshine, +silver-white on the Severn Sea--the old grandfather sitting within, +shaping a wooden peg with his knife--and my little wife crouching in the +corner with her black eyes wide open, like the red hind's calf I had +noosed a week before in Cloutsham Ball. Long ago! Yes, Thyra, it _is_ +long ago; and every day that has gone by, every night that I have seen +it all again in my dreams, scores and brands it deeper and deeper in my +true gipsy heart. There is no 'long ago' for you and me, Thyra. We have +been one ever since that night when you were promised me by the comely +Lovels over the camp-fire. Nothing but death can part us now. My sweet +lass, I will be kind and true, for mine you surely are, and always will +be." + +To a woman whose heart was still in her own keeping, there would have +been something inexpressibly touching in the tender glance of those +eyes, naturally so fierce and keen; in the gentle tones of that voice, +usually so hard, imperious, and clear. She could not but contrast the +gipsy's absorbing devotion with John Garnet's joyous, good-humoured +carelessness, and shuddered to think how she loved the first and how she +was beloved by the second! She temporised--she prevaricated--she said +one thing and meant another. Was she not a woman, though a gipsy? + +"There would be time enough," she protested, "to consider all these +matters when the tribe moved farther West to take up their winter +quarters in the 'wrestlers' country,' amongst the Cornish tors and +valleys. There was much to be done first; tents to strike, a long +journey to be made, to-night's job to be effaced by a speedy change of +quarters; and you know as well as I do, Fin," she added, smiling sweetly +in his face, "that a storm is brewing down in the West where we are +bound, and the same wind that brings the Kaulo-chiriclo--the blackbird, +as the Gorgios call him--back to his own nest, will blow many a +'balanser' of good red gold into the pockets of the Romany lad who runs +his errands. For my part, I hope with all my heart he'll win!" + +"What matters it to us?" he replied. "Let the Gorgios fight it out among +themselves, and cut each other's throats for a name, like fools as they +are! King George, or King Charles, or King James, none of them will put +a fowl in the Romany's kettle, nor a broad piece in his palm, but for +service rendered and risk run. We must help ourselves, Thyra, take what +we want, and keep all we can. Our hand may well be against every man, +for is not every man's hand against us? For ages we have been a race +apart, and we must continue so for ever. No Romany lad may wed with the +noblest lady of the Gorgios; and for the Romany lass who listens to love +in another tongue, we do not shame her before our people, but we conceal +her, Thyra, we hide her away, where neither father nor mother, uncle nor +aunt, Romany nor Gorgio, shall ever find her again!" + +His voice had grown thick and hoarse, while drops of sweat stood on the +tawny face, now turned to ashen grey. Waif trembled like a leaf. + +"I know it," she said; "our people never forgive, Fin, and they never +forget." + +There was a ring of pride in the last sentence--tribute to the absent +lover, whom even now she could not bring herself to wish she might put +out of her mind. + +They walked on in silence. She had taken his bundle, and thus laden +carried it with a step as free and untiring as his own. They were half a +mile behind the other gipsies, pacing side by side in the moonshine over +the lonely down. A light twinkled from a solitary farm many a mile away, +and once only was the stillness broken by the honest bark of a +sheep-dog. The calm pure air, the sweet summer night, the quiet, the +expanse, were all suggestive of those dreams which have so large a +portion in life's reality. Her thoughts were far away beyond that +western horizon, with the grey horse and its rider. She absolutely +started when her companion's voice roused her from the abstraction in +which she was plunged. + +He had been watching her narrowly. Fin Cooper was as dexterous a gipsy +as ever stalked a red-deer, noosed a hare, or swung a kettle. Versed in +the lore, as in the malpractices of his people, he knew how to tell +fortunes by cards or palmistry; to interpret the _patrin_ of his +comrades, the signs of the zodiac, even the stars of heaven; but he +could not read a woman's heart. This was the last moment he should have +chosen to inculcate a lesson of fidelity and obedience on his promised +wife. + +"Thyra," said he, while she turned on him a pale and dreamy face, "did +your people never tell you the story of Mary Lee?" + +"I have heard something about her," she stammered, with a frightened +look. "She died, didn't she? or was lost? I--I forget the rights of it." + +"I will tell it you now," said he. "Take every word to heart, Thyra, and +forget rather the mother that bore you, than Mary Lee's fault and its +punishment. + +"She was a beautiful gipsy-girl, sister, such another as yourself, with +eyes like stars, and a voice to coax the bird off a tree. She lived with +her grandam, old Mother Lee, and her uncle, a stern, thick-set Romany, +who seldom spoke, and never smiled. They said he killed a squire's +keeper before their tribe came south out of the potato-country, and knew +Norwich gaol, inside and out, as well as I know the knife in my belt. +Many a time, when I was a little lad, I've seen Mary lifting the kettle +off its hook before their tent; and if it hadn't been for _you_, Thyra, +and the word of the Lovels, I should have thought her the likeliest lass +that ever put a bodkin in a knot of black hair; so did a good many +more--Stanleys, Hearnes, Coopers; she might have had the pick of them, +besides the best of her own tribe, and the comeliest of the comely +Lovels to boot. I've seen many a good round fought, aye, and knives +drawn, too, for a chance word from Mary Lee. + +"And she wouldn't so much as throw away a look on the best of us! When +Jack Marshall beat the Gorgio light-weight in fifty minutes, and brought +her the battle-money before he had scarce washed his face or pulled his +shirt on, she called him a fighting blackguard for his pains. We said in +the tents that, gipsy or gentile, the man wasn't born yet who could put +the charm on Mary Lee. + +"She did little work at home; and, except for lifting a kettle, or +setting a tent-peg, kept her hands as clean as a lady's; but she went +out by herself to fairs and races, _dukkering_ for the Gorgios and those +who tell fortunes to the gentlefolks, and came back with gold in both +hands. The old grandmother's kettle was never empty, and they gave her +plenty of liberty to do what she liked. Sometimes she would stay away a +month at a time. + +"One summer afternoon a little boy, who had been stealing nuts in a wood +a mile or two from the camp, came back with a gentleman's riding-glove +that he had picked up amongst the hazels. Mary laughed when she saw it, +and bought it of the child for a crooked sixpence and a whistle. A week +after, when they asked her what she had done with the glove, she said it +was lost. That set some of our people thinking. + +"Then she went off again about harvest; and after she'd been gone a +week, Barney Smith came into the camp, with a strange story that he had +seen a Gorgio lady, the living image of Mary Lee, sitting at an open +window in 'the book-fellows' town' at the time of Oxford Races. Barney +was doing a little business there with a pedlar's box on his own +account. Though it was a hundred miles off, he came back directly; but +when he talked of the pearls and satins she wore, and the black spots on +her face, with powder in her hair, we all said Barney must have been +drunk or dreaming. That night her uncle sat up to put new soles on his +shoes, and next morning he left the camp at daybreak. + +"I was but a lad, Thyra, and as busy as a squirrel. When a week passed, +then a month, and still no tidings came of Mary Lee, I went across the +Vinney Ridge to the tents of her people and watched. We were lingering +in the 'swine-herds' country,' among the deer in the New Forest, and +good times we had, I can tell you, with fat venison in the kettles, and +firewood for the cutting. I harboured a buck in Bolderwood once, and +watched him for seven hours on a stretch. I've watched longer than that +for _you_, Thyra. I watched nearly as long on behalf of Mary Lee. + +"The moon had gone down, and the false dawn was peeping between the +stems of the old oaks, when I caught sight of a square, thick figure +threading the track among the trees that led to the Lees' camp. I leaped +up, and took him by the hand. He was trembling all over. 'You are +welcome back, Uncle Ryley,' says I. 'You have made a long journey, +uncle; have you returned empty-handed, or did you find what you went to +seek?' + +"'The shoes are worn from my feet, brother,' was his answer. 'For three +days and three nights I have gone without food or rest; but I took what +I wanted, Fin, and I can hold up my head once more among my people.' + +"'Did you hear any news of Mary?' was my next question, and my heart +rose to my mouth while I asked it, for he was a strong, fierce man, who +would strike with fist or steel if he was angered, and never give you a +chance. I could scarce believe it was Ryley Lee who answered in that +weak, low voice, with a cheek that had turned grey, like the ashes of a +wood-fire in the dim morning light. + +"'It is well with her,' was all he said, 'but you will see Mary in our +tents no more.' + +"'She is dead!' burst from my lips, for there seemed a smell of blood in +my nostrils, and the pale streaks of dawn grew crimson between the +trees. + +"'It is well with her,' he repeated, turning from me into his tent. +'Mary Lee has left her people--dead or alive we shall see her no more.' + +"Then I knew she had paid the price it costs the Romany maiden who loves +a Gorgio too well!" + +Waif had changed colour more than once during the above recital; but +though she looked very pale now, there was a firm, hard expression in +her face that denoted some fixed purpose no consideration should set +aside. + +"'The hawk does not mate with the barn-door fowl,' said she, 'and the +Romany chal marries with the Romany chi, for surely we are one people; +but this affects neither you nor me, Fin. If gipsies cannot trust each +other, how shall we hold our own against the Gentiles? Mary Lee was a +good-for-nothing hussey; Uncle Ryley a cruel, blood-thirsty monster; and +here we are at the camp. Take your bundle, Fin, I've carried it till I'm +tired. Yes; I'll shake hands with you. Good-night.'" + +Extricating herself impatiently from the embrace of her affianced +husband, who succeeded, however, in pressing his lips against her brow, +she disappeared within one of the tents, leaving Fin Cooper outside, a +prey to contending feelings, among which jealousy and suspicion were in +the ascendant. He loved the girl: of that he was quite sure, and in such +a character, love is a fearful motive power for good or evil. It +possesses also a keen instinct of reciprocity, not to be deceived, and +few conditions are more pitiable than that of a strong wilful +temperament, persuading itself, against its own convictions, that it is +not exchanging gold for silver, that the ship which carries its whole +freight is not sinking hourly beneath its feet. + +The gipsy would have been angered, even to baring of steel, by any +comrade who had warned him of that which his heart began to tell him too +plainly, though he dared not admit it to himself, who had hinted that +Thyra loved another, and that other, one of the forbidden race--which, +for all his Romany pride and Romany prejudices, he could not but +acknowledge superior in every respect to his own. But he knew it, +nevertheless, and only waited an opportunity to avenge himself on the +rival, whom he had identified, almost to certainty, with John Garnet, +_alias_ Galloping Jack, the highwayman. Even now, he thought it might +not be too late to detach Waif from her unworthy and impossible +attachment. Far into the night Fin Cooper tossed and turned from side to +side, restless and sleepless, because of his wrongs, his memories, and +his feverish longing to have his hand on John Garnet's throat. + +Waif, too, was uneasy and wakeful. She had not listened to the tale of +Mary Lee, without accepting its moral for a warning to herself. Well she +knew that in the bloody code of her people, to love a Gorgio was an +offence punished by death. And she loved a Gorgio! Aye, loved him, as +she thought with a thrill of pride, essentially womanly in the exquisite +pleasure it evoked, the more deeply and dearly for the penalty. No +pale-faced girl could care for him like that! When the time came, she +would give him her life, as she had given him her love, without a murmur +or a reproach. + +Perhaps, at that moment, he was looking at the very star on which her +eyes were fixed, as it twinkled through the gaps in her brown +weather-worn tent. Perhaps, who knows, in another life, to be spent up +there amongst those stars, they might find themselves together? and so +Waif's dark eyes closed in that other life, on which we enter every +night, and the girl sank into a peaceful sleep, dreaming calmly of her +love. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +ON THE SCENT. + + +Wittingly or unwittingly, nobody ever offended Katerfelto without +regretting it. To do him justice, the Charlatan had every intention of +screening John Garnet from the avenger of blood, when he started his +patient on the Western Road, in pursuit of Lord Bellinger's ponderous +coach-and-six. The young man, he thought, would prove a useful tool +enough, and he had no objection to do him a kindness into the bargain, +provided it cost nothing, and would turn to his own advantage; but, when +he discovered Waif was missing too, before the good grey horse and its +rider had been six hours out of London, he at once connected the girl's +flight with _his_ absence, whom she had nursed so tenderly, and in a +quiet, remorseless way vowed vengeance upon both. + +John Garnet's mission, if fulfilled at all, must be carried out within +three days at farthest. When accomplished, it mattered little what +became of the messenger. Perhaps the sooner he was set aside the better. +What was the cost of a man and horse, valuable as might be the latter, +compared with the interest at stake, with the gains and losses of the +great game in which every player waged life and fortune on the result? + +Parson Gale, wearying sadly of London, and longing for his moorland +hills, found himself no longer put off with mysterious hints, and +unintelligible jargon; but, to use his own metaphor, was laid on the +line, like a bloodhound resolving to track it, inch for inch, till he +pinned his quarry by the throat. + +Many misgivings had the Parson during this, perhaps the most +unpleasant, week he ever spent in his life. Orthodox in his opinions, +however lax in his practice, it went cruelly against the grain to +believe that in seeking Katerfelto's assistance he was tampering with +the powers of darkness. Many a time, after his coarse pot-house +supper, was his sleep haunted by grotesque visions of the evil one, +carrying to eternal torment a figure in boots, bands, and cassock, +that he recognised for his own. His knees used to shake, and his short +grizzled hair to stand on end, when the Charlatan, leading him into a +dark room, bade him wait patiently, while inquiries were made of +certain intelligences that ought to have done with things of earth, +yet betrayed a marvellous interest in earthly trifles, earthly +follies, and earthly cares. The minutes seemed lengthened into hours +while he sat motionless, expecting every moment to behold the pale +violet gleam of a corpse-light, to feel the faint flutter of +spirit-fingers, catch the faint breath of spirit-whispers--worst of +all, to be threatened with the personal manifestation of some +obtrusive spirit itself. + +Katerfelto, who possessed a strong sense of humour, and enjoyed a joke +for its own sake, even though he had none with whom to share it, used to +describe at length the discipline, the gradations, the daily life, +scenery, and vegetable productions of the spirit-world; counting its +spheres, explaining its mysteries, and insisting strongly on the +somewhat thick-witted good-nature of its inhabitants. + +The Parson's nerves were of no sensitive fibre. He possessed his share +of English bull-dog courage. Give him a beef-steak, a tankard of ale, +and, + + "Had a Paynim host before him stood, + He had charged them through and through;" + +but he was not proof against dangers of which he had no experience, and +could form no conception. The crowning dread of his life at this period +was the apparition of some luminous figure, clad in misty robes of +white, prepared to answer his questions evasively in a hollow whisper, +lift him bodily into space for pure fun, and lay in his hand a flower of +no terrestrial growth, fresh and fragrant, but wet with the dews of +another world. It never _did_ appear to him, and very thankful he felt +that it did not! + +It was, therefore, with no slight feelings of relief, that on his last +visit to Deadman's Alley, he found the Charlatan dressed to go abroad, +and was invited by that unaccountable person to partake of a bottle by +daylight, rather than await a manifestation, fasting, in the dark. + +"Your servant, sir," said the Parson, flinging his shovel hat in the +corner, while he filled his glass without a second bidding. "This looks +like business, Doctor, at last. Indeed, I am sick to death of the town +life, and the town ways. But for your message, I should have been on the +good bay nag horse, half a day's journey towards Exeter by this time." + +"Do they use you so badly, then?" asked Katerfelto with a smile, while +he scanned him keenly from under his bushy eyebrows. "Do they not treat +Abner Gale with proper respect as a West-country gentleman, a noted +sportsman, and a pillar of the Church? In sad truth, it is a perverse +and ignorant generation." + +"Now you're bamming me, Doctor," replied the other, good-humouredly. +"But a man is entitled to his jest who gives such wine as this. My +service to you. Yes, I'll take a second glass the more willingly, as I +shall not have another chance. I leave London to-morrow at sunrise, +weather permitting, and before high noon, as we say in the West, whether +or no!" + +"Is it purse or patience that you have worn out?" asked Katerfelto; +"there are means of replenishing the one and repairing the other." + +"Both!" answered the Parson. "A man had as well be in the Fleet prison, +as the coffee-room of a Covent-garden hotel! I seem to pay hard money +for every breath I draw, and not to breathe freely after all! I'm an +early stirrer, Doctor! man and boy, winter and summer I've been used to +see the sun rise. Ah! you can breathe in my country like a grampus, if +you choose. Well, I come down to break my fast at a reasonable hour, and +not a creature is afoot in the whole house but the cat and me. Presently +steals in a slipshod drawer, unbraced, uncombed, unwashed, and scarce +half-awake. The varlet fetches a toast and tankard, may be, with a +knotch from the musty end of a chine that the rats have gnawned in the +night. I fling it at his head; I cuff him soundly; I kick him round the +room in my stocking-feet, for the other knave will not have cleaned my +boots till noon. Presently I drink my beer, and forgive him; but to make +peace with the rogue costs me a crown. At last I get my coat and hat +brushed, band fitted, boots blacked, and sally forth into the streets. +They're full, Doctor, a man can scarce turn himself round; yet do I feel +so lonely, that if I was a woman or a child, I should sit down and cry. + +"I might ride through Exmoor half a summer's day and never set eyes on a +human face, but the curlew seems to know me as he flits by, with a quiet +call of greeting and a wave of his wide brown wing--the red hinds, +leading their calves along the ridges, look kindly over their shoulders, +and turn their handsome heads to gaze after me, till they disappear. +Why, the very breeze, whispering among the rushes, has been pilfering in +my own garden, not so many miles away. You know no more than a blind man +what morning means till you've seen the sun rise in North Devon! I wish +I was back there now. I _will_ be back there next week if I'm alive!" + +"But surely, Doctor," observed Katerfelto, with a covert smile, "a man +of your presence finds no difficulty in making acquaintances and even +friends. The Londoners are not an inhospitable people, and are said to +be exceedingly kind to a stranger if he has but money in his pockets." + +"Kind enough!" answered the other, "so long as it costs nothing. They'll +find fair words, I grant, and plenty of them, at the rate of a guinea +a-piece. It was but yesterday two ladies gave me good-morrow from their +coach so heartily, I made sure I must have met them on Taunton +race-course or may be in the Cathedral close at Exeter. 'Welcome to +London, Doctor,' says one, 'how did you leave your friends in the West?' +'You don't remember _me_, Doctor,' laughs the other, as comely a wench +as you'll see this side of Devizes 'but I haven't forgotten you, and I +wish I _could_.' So I off with my hat, and up into the coach without +another word, thinking for sure I had fallen among friends at last, and +would you believe it? the first was an old harridan that might have been +my mother, and the second hussy had scarce a tooth in her head, besides +being raddled with red paint, and smelling of brandy fit to knock you +down! Nay, I have done with your London once for all. If I make good +speed, I'll be home in time for Dulverton Feast. I'll have no need to +look about for friends there, and I can tell you, Doctor, I've been +parched with strong ale and heady port, till I long for a gallon of +cider, if it cost me five shillings a quart. Now we'll go to business, +by your leave. If you've any more to say in my matters, out with it! Any +way, bad or good, let us settle up and part friends!" + +"I have constrained those to do my bidding who can furnish the +intelligence you require," answered Katerfelto solemnly. "To-night, if +you have the courage." + +"Nay, nay!" interrupted the Parson, his jolly face blanching at the +suggestion, "your word is quite enough, Doctor. I neither doubt _you_ +nor _them_. Name your price, and let us have done with it!" + +"Go home, then," continued the Charlatan, "with what speed you can make. +Amongst your own West-country hills you will find your enemy and the +slayer of your kinsman, John Garnet by name; a proper youth, +able-bodied, and an expert swordsman. If I bade you spare him, would you +listen one moment to my plea?" + +He was not listening now. "John Garnet," he repeated, "John Garnet," +grinding the syllables between his teeth as he branded the name into his +memory. + +"Look out, John Garnet, and keep your hands up the first time you come +across Abner Gale!" + +Katerfelto had seen too much of mankind and their worst passions, to be +easily moved; but he felt his blood curdle while he marked the Parson's +rubicund cheek turn to a sallow white. If ever there was _murder_ in a +man's face, he read it now. Perhaps for one short moment he felt +compunction, but the weakness was soon over. "He is better out of the +way," thought Katerfelto, "and things must take their course." + +Thus it fell out that the West-country parson was riding steadily +homeward over Marlborough Downs the same evening Lord Bellinger's coach +was rifled by the gipsies, and its owner left a captive in the thraldom +of his own word of honour till the moon rose. + +Notwithstanding the nature of his errand, Abner Gale seemed in high +health and spirits. + +It was delightful to breathe a free, fresh air, untainted by the smells +of London--to see the sky come down to a wide horizon uninterrupted by +streets and houses--to feel beneath him the strong elastic action of his +good bay horse, and to taste at different halting-places a sound and +wholesome ale unadulterated by the tricks of metropolitan trade. To use +his own words, he was "as happy as a king," yet he never wavered for an +instant in his merciless purpose, never hesitated as to how he should +act when he came face to face with his foe! + +Riding along the down, the two subjects nearest his heart were his +supper and his revenge. + +The moon was sailing high and clear in an unclouded sky. Suddenly the +Parson drew rein, sitting for an instant motionless as a statue: then, +urging his horse with hand and heel, arrived at a gallop in the midst of +the unaccountable little party, of which he had caught sight. + +The scene was ridiculous, grotesque, strange enough for a dream. Two +strapping servants in bright liveries paced to and fro, looking +thoroughly frightened and ashamed, none the less, that both were armed +to the teeth. A middle-aged person in faded finery sat on the ground +apart, weeping feebly and wringing her hands. Five horses harnessed to a +coach stood patiently on the solitary down, while one lay dead at their +feet, and inside the coach were a gentleman and lady calmly playing +cards! Abner Gale pulling up suddenly amongst them, created no little +consternation. The footmen went down on their knees, the middle-aged +person screamed and fell on her back, the horses pricked their ears and +snorted, while a quiet voice inside the coach was heard to exclaim, +"_Re-pique_, my lady! What? Another gentleman of the road, and on a bay +horse this time! Perhaps, sir, before proceeding to business, you will +kindly allow us to finish our game!" + +Lord Bellinger played a winning card, and thrust his head out of the +window, laughing heartily at the discomfiture of his domestics. + +"Can I help you?" said the new arrival, in his rough blunt tones. "I am +an honest man enough as times go. A poor West-country parson, at your +service, and my name is Abner Gale." + +"Mr. Gale," replied his lordship, taking off his hat, "let me present +you to Lady Bellinger. If you are of the church militant, reverend sir, +you should have been here an hour or two ago; you might have seen some +fine sport, and taken a turn at it yourself, to the tune of 'Wigs on the +Green.' It's too late now, but I think we could have told a different +story could I have found something like a _man_ to back me up!" + +If levelled at his servants, the taunt fell harmless. Their wits were +still abroad, but they felt comforted and reassured to learn that the +second highwayman was but a parson after all! + +"Have you met with an accident, my lord?" asked Gale, with a clumsy bow, +"ill-usage, or misadventure of any kind? Command my services, I beg, on +behalf of yourself and her ladyship." + +"The moon! the moon!" exclaimed Lady Bellinger, much to the Parson's +disturbance, who thought she had gone mad. "It's over the tree! It's +eleven o'clock! Don't stop another minute! Let us drive to the inn at +once, and try to forget, only I never _shall_ forget this dreadful +night!" + +So my lord and the servants, with the powerful assistance of their new +auxiliary, got the heavy coach once more into motion, my lady so far +remembering the parson's existence, as to entreat that he would ride +close beside the wheel, and, if need be, defend them with his life! + +The procession soon reached its destination, the same inn at which John +Garnet had dined. Driving into the yard without its full complement of +horses, the servants in a high state of excitement, everybody talking at +once, it was obvious the coach had been attacked by a highwayman. The +old ostler smiled and winked, the landlord smiled and looked at his +wife, the wife smiled and shook her head, the cook smiled, the +scullions smiled, everybody seemed interested and well pleased, more +particularly when it transpired that the assailant, having taken what he +wanted, had made his escape uninjured by so much as a scratch. None +seemed astonished when his lordship, inquiring eagerly for particulars +as to the robber and his grey horse, mentioned that the only clue he had +obtained to his identity was the name of Galloping Jack. The landlord, +of course, knew nothing. A landlord never _does_ know anything. The +ostler, on cross-examination by the stupidest of Lord Bellinger's +footmen, had no recollection of any grey horse in particular. So many +grey horses were put up in their stables, coming and going to +Marlborough market and what-not? How was he to distinguish which was +which, while the maids, preparing my lady's chamber, and airing my +lady's bed, furnished Mistress Rachel with so marvellous an account of +Galloping Jack, his exploits and enormities, that the waiting +gentlewoman could not mention his name without a shudder, connecting +him, by some inexplicable process of reasoning, with all the myths and +terrible personages she had ever heard of, such as St. George and the +Dragon, Blue-beard, and Herod of Jewry, surnamed the Great. + +But Abner Gale, who accepted his lordship's invitation to supper, and +cracked a bottle with him afterwards, though he prudently excused +himself from playing cards, had a clear remembrance of the noted grey +horse, whose speed and endurance were once the topic of every +market-table and every drinking-bout in his own country. From Lord +Bellinger's description of the animal on which his assailant was +mounted; and which, by all the rules of gaming, my lord considered his +own property, the Parson gathered that it could be none other than the +famous grey, and that its rider must have been the celebrated +highwayman, whose features were always masked, but whose figure was so +well known at all fairs, races, cock-fights, and other sporting or +social gatherings in the West. Parson Gale, indeed, had only seen the +horse once, and then for an instant, dismounted, as it was led off to +the stable, but his admiring eye had taken its whole frame in at a +glance, and he could recall its make-and-shape, its points and action, +as vividly as those of his own good nag that he had ridden many scores +and hundreds of miles. + +"I always understood the man was hanged," murmured the Parson, as he +laid his head on his pillow, "but I should know the horse among ten +thousand!" + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +LESS THAN KIN. + + +Again is Nelly Carew sitting among the rocks in Porlock Bay, but the +tide is out now, and a broad sweep of wet sand stretches before her to a +low and level line of white that seems receding farther and farther +towards the chalk-bluffs of the distant Welsh coast. The faint moan of +the ebb is melancholy enough, and heavy clouds gathering down Channel, +against the wind, denote a coming storm, but gleams of sun are still +slanting athwart them in pale shafts of light, and there is a colour in +Nelly's cheek, a lustre in her eye, little in accordance with the dull +stagnation of slack water, the heavy atmosphere of a thunder-storm, +speaking rather of bright thoughts, tranquil happiness, the springtide +of health and youth and hope. + +Keen observers might indeed detect a shade more colour than usual in the +soft cheeks, a deeper blue in the speaking eyes; but, when young women +sit by the sea, in pleasant company, such tokens are neither unusual nor +out of place. + +And Nelly Carew is not alone. By the merest accident--for how could he +tell that this was her favourite haunt in the afternoon?--a gentleman, +with whom she had lately made acquaintance, happened to stroll in the +same direction as herself. Two lonely figures, breaking the solitude of +a wide level sea-board, if they have ever met before, cannot avoid each +other, without rudeness. A start--a stop--a bow--a little hesitation on +one side, a little blushing on the other, and John Garnet found himself +seated on a slab of rock at Nelly Carew's feet, looking dreamily out to +seaward, exceedingly well satisfied with his place. + +The exploit and accompanying outrage, of which Galloping Jack must +henceforth bear the blame, had been thoroughly carried out. The warrants +were burnt, the attainted persons warned in time to escape. Some had +fled the country--all had taken precautions for their own safety; and, +thanks to Katerfelto's speed and endurance, so quickly had this been +done, so suddenly had the assailant of Marlborough Downs shown himself +in the market-place at Taunton, that, like Dick Turpin of immortal +memory, he might have proved an _alibi_ in any court of law, thanks to +the extraordinary powers of his steed. Many an honest West-country +gentleman made it an excuse for an extra glass now, that, after the +king's health (not specified by name), he must devote a bumper to +Galloping Jack and the good grey horse! But John Garnet was acute enough +to leave on the shoulders of that mysterious highwayman the whole burden +of guilt he had incurred in the eyes of justice. From his neighbours +over the border, in his own North country, he had learnt the wisdom of +an excellent maxim, "Jouk an' let the jaw gae bye!" In other words, +"Duck your head, and keep under shelter till the storm be past." + +He might remain in hiding, he thought, among these western wilds till +the indignation of the Government had blown over, the hue and cry become +somewhat dulled. Then he hoped to get quietly on board a fishing-boat, +put out into the wide Atlantic, and so, working his way back again up +Channel, land in safety at some port on the coast of France. In the mean +time, all he had to do was to keep quiet, and leave the grey horse shut +up in the stable as much as possible. Casting about for a harbour of +refuge, he hit upon the little village of Porlock, a cluster of houses +embosomed in wooded hills, washed by silver waves, shut in from all the +world by moor and mountain, purple peak, and bare grey headland, clothed +in tropical vegetation, calm, beautiful, and secluded as the first +paradise of mankind. Here he thought he would be secure and tranquil. +Here he determined to take refuge for days and weeks, if only he could +endure the dull, cheerless monotony to which he must make up his mind. +That he should find a soul to speak to, he had never anticipated, much +less did he dream that here was his Fate, waiting for him with her soft +blue eyes, in this peaceful little hamlet, down by the Severn Sea. + +For exercise of the good horse, he would ride Katerfelto on the sands at +midnight, but a man of his habits could not remain indoors all day. Soon +gathering courage from impunity, he would leave his humble lodgings +betimes to wander about the neighbourhood, drinking in its beauty, +making himself familiar with every winding coombe, darkling forest, and +stretching moorland for half-a-score of miles around. + +Thus it fell out that, returning from one of these expeditions at +sunset, he overtook Nelly's grandfather, very infirm and feeble now, +toiling painfully down a steep incline towards his home. + +John Garnet was essentially good-natured, with that good-nature which +springs from a good heart. In an instant he had offered the old man his +arm, and Nelly, who went out to meet him, was not a little surprised to +see her grandfather leaning on a straight-made, handsome young fellow, +in an embroidered waistcoat and laced hat, talking volubly, and to all +appearance much pleased with his new acquaintance. + +If she thought the stranger good-looking (she declared afterwards she +never thought about it at all) be sure she did not admit so much, even +to herself, though conscious she was pleased--a feeling she attributed +to the improvement in her grandfather's spirits, and his obvious delight +in his new friend's society. + +Old Carew, shut out for so many years from the conversation of such men +as himself, men of action and adventure, men of the busy world, felt +like the blind restored to sight, when he heard once more the familiar +tones, the familiar terms, that took him back a score of years at least. +It was pleasant to recognise the well-remembered trick of phrase and +gesture, that is not to be caught by imitation, nor purchased +second-hand. "The man's a gentleman," thought old Carew, "a _real_ +gentleman; and how unlike Parson Gale!" + +He bade him stay to supper of course. He opened in his honour one of the +dozen bottles of choice Rhine wine that had lasted as many years. He +chatted, he chuckled, he coughed and wheezed, and told his stories, and +fought his battles, and enjoyed his evening thoroughly, while Nelly sat +silent at her needle-work, grateful to the visitor who made grandfather +so happy. + +John Garnet was a good listener, none the less perhaps that his +attention often wandered to the blue eyes in the corner of the room, +eyes that rarely met his own, and when they did were immediately cast +down; but he put in his exclamations of astonishment, admiration, and +approval at the right places, sympathising with the old man's memories, +gentle to his foibles, tolerant of his garrulity--and all honour to him +for it, say I. + +You do not know what it is to live in the past, you young men who still +possess the illimitable inheritance of the future, an account that it +seems impossible to overdraw. Even the present is hardly good enough to +satisfy you, and you cheat yourselves out of no little happiness by +anticipating to-morrow, when you should be content with the enjoyment of +to-day. But wait a few years, wait till the to-morrows begin to look +scantier and scantier, while the yesterdays are counted by +thousands--wait till all that made the pride, the excitement, the +happiness of life, is an experience, and not a hope--till the good horse +has been forgotten by all but yourself--the true love has been cold in +her grave for years--the very laurels you have won are become withered +garlands, put away in some neglected hiding-place, only to be brought +out again when the mourners hang them round your tomb! Then you will +know the happiness of living once more, if only for an hour, if only +till the glass is empty, or the tobacco burnt to ashes, in the glowing, +thrilling memories of an imperishable past. Imperishable, for is it not, +in truth, the only reality? Imperishable, for it cleaves to us during +life. Imperishable, for we are taught to believe that it goes with us +into eternity. + +You may make an old man happy at trifling cost, if you will only yield a +few minutes of patient attention, while he wanders back through its +well-remembered maze, and loses himself dreamily in the labyrinth we +call life. + +Nelly never knew her grandfather so communicative. He talked till he was +thoroughly tired out. Marlborough, Prince Eugene, the vineyards of +France, the swamps of the low countries, London coffee-houses, foreign +theatres, dice, duelling, midnight revels, and the fierce joys of the +old roaring Mohock days--he had something to recall of each, and seemed +nothing loth to embark on his adventurous godless career once again. + +But his voice grew weaker, his chin sank on his breast, the light in his +eye, that had flickered up in transient gleams, dimmed visibly, and the +guest resisting his host's quavering entreaties to remain, discreetly +took leave, thereby earning golden opinions of Nelly Carew. She opened +the door for him herself. She even condescended to shake hands, and +wished him good-night, with a grateful smile. Walking home to his +lodgings, through the balmy summer air, with slow and lingering steps, +John Garnet began to think that his term of retirement would be no such +dreary penance after all, that, under certain conditions, a man might do +worse than settle down to vegetate at Porlock for the rest of his life. + +Had he forgotten Waif? No! he told himself. A thousand times, No! He was +grateful to her; he was interested in her; he pitied the girl from his +heart; but hers was not the whisper that seemed floating on the night +breeze in his ear, and it was a pair of blue eyes that peered at him out +of the twilight gloom whichever way he turned. Blue eyes, calm, deep, +and beautiful as the summer sky and the summer sea. + +We ought to be ashamed of ourselves, but, alas! there is too much truth +in the adage, "We always believe our first love is our last, and our +last love our first!" + +John Garnet was like the rest of mankind. Still, it had not come to that +yet. + +So pleasant an introduction, and under such conditions, soon ripened +into something more than acquaintance. It was not long before John +Garnet and Nelly Carew became fast friends. They were surprised to find +how many tastes they had, how many sympathies and ideas, in common. +Sitting together on that bare ledge of rock amongst the sand, though a +week ago they had been utter strangers, each seemed to have known the +other for years. + +When a man and his wife are silent while together, they have generally +quarrelled and are not going to make up; but when two young people of +opposite sexes, who have never broached the subject of matrimony, sit +together out-of-doors without opening their lips, there is strong +likelihood that they are progressing insensibly towards that holy state +in which they will have a legal right to hate each other as much as they +please! + +It may be that she was the one who felt their silence most irksome, but +the girl broke it at last with the following feminine piece of +injustice: + +"How dull you _must_ find it here, after the life you've been accustomed +to! I'm sure I wonder you don't have a fit of the spleen. I've heard +grandfather say he felt it dreadfully at first." + +"Mistress Carew," he answered--while the blue eyes shot a reproachful +glance, that almost said, why don't you call me Nelly?--"Mistress Carew, +I am _not_ your grandfather!" + +"You've been grave enough," she replied, with a little nervous laugh, +"this while past, to be anybody's grandfather. I've been wondering what +you could see down Channel yonder that seemed to take up all your +attention!" + +This ought to have been encouraging. She was watching him, then, +following the direction of his eyes, trying to make out his thoughts. +Strange to say, John Garnet, usually so debonair and ready of speech, +seemed at a loss for a reply. + +"I was wondering"--he hesitated and looked down, while Nelly, whose work +had been idly folded in her lap, began plying her needle very fast--"I +was wondering whether it could really be less than a week since I first +came to Porlock?" + +She had been pondering the same marvel herself, but took care not to +express her astonishment. + +"It's not--not at all the kind of place you expected, is it?" + +Nelly thought it strange that her heart should beat, and her breath come +quick, in asking so simple a question. + +He tried to catch her eye, but she steadily refused to look at him, +while he answered, "I thought it would be a prison and a purgatory. I +never dreamed it was to prove a Para--" + +He stopped short without finishing the word, for she had grown deadly +pale, and her blue eyes, looking over his head at something beyond and +behind him, were dilated with actual fear. Turning in the same +direction, he could detect no more alarming object than a stout +square-built man, in a black riding suit, walking leisurely towards them +through the soft sand. + +"Good-morrow, Mistress Carew," said Abner Gale's harsh voice, while the +scowl that accompanied his greeting gave it more the character of a ban +than a blessing. "They told me in the village I should find you here or +hereabouts, but I didn't think to see you so well attended. My service +to _you_, sir," scanning John Garnet from head to foot. "A warm day +this, but pleasant enough to be taking a young woman a walk by the +sea-shore." + +There was something offensive in the man's tone and manner. At any other +time John Garnet would probably have resented his intrusion on the spot, +but his attention was now so entirely taken up with Nelly's +discomposure, that he failed to notice those indications of a wish to +brawl, which he was generally only too ready to indulge. + +Parson Gale was indeed in the worst of humours. Only the night before he +had reached his home, and yet no sooner had he broken his morning fast, +than, after a visit to his Spanish pointer, a cursory glance at his +Irish pigs, but taking no thought whatever for his Devonshire parish, he +was in the saddle again to get a glimpse of Nelly Carew. Following the +devious tracks of Exmoor, with the instinct of the wild sheep, the wild +ponies, or the wilder red-deer, he threaded the coombe into Badgeworthy, +crossed its foaming waters at his accustomed ford, climbed and clattered +amongst the rocks, cantered freely over the heather, and paced down the +hill into Porlock like a man in a dream--for his whole mind was filled +with the fair face and the blue eyes that he had hungered to look on for +weeks. Though familiar with every acre of the forest and the moor, he +would never have reached his destination, but that his horse knew the +way as well as his master, having travelled it many a time of late. + +It was characteristic of the man that he should not have ridden straight +to old Carew's cottage, and gone frankly in to see his friends. He +stabled his horse instead at a little farm on the outskirts of the +village, and hovered stealthily about its vicinity, hoping to meet some +one who would tell him how matters had been going on in his absence. + +He did not remain long in suspense. Ere half an hour elapsed, a +shambling, ill-looking youth, wearing "poacher" written in every line of +his face as plain as print, slouched up and touched his hat, waiting +however to be questioned, with an awkward grin that denoted how his +natural insolence was kept in check by the Parson's quick temper and +reputation for physical prowess. "He be soon up, be wor Pa'yson," was +the verdict of his parishioners, "and main ready with his hands, right +or w'hrong." + +"What, Ike!" said Mr. Gale, assuming a cordiality he did not feel, for +to do him justice he hated a poacher, especially in the vicinity of +deer; "not hanged yet, nor even sent to Botany Bay? What hast been doing +then these so many weeks? Has it been slack time with thee while I've +been away?" + +"Much as usual, Pay'son," answered Ike, in the broadest dialect of West +Somerset, which it is needless to reproduce here. "It's you gentlefolk +that knows what change means. Frolics, too. There's not much of that for +poor chaps like us!" + +"What, is there no news in the place, then?" asked the Parson. "Never a +fresh nag in Farmer Veal's stable? Never a strange face stopped to take +a drink of cider at the Wheat Sheaf or the Crown?" + +Small as it was, Porlock boasted two beershops, and Ike was familiar +with both. + +"There be one strange face," answered the latter, with a cunning leer; +"but it's little cider that gets inside of _he_--beer neither. The best +of wine in his glass, and the best of nags in his stable, gold lace on +his coat, fine linen on his back, a sword in his belt, and a warm +welcome from the likeliest lass in the West Country--that's what _he_ +has. Folks like me must put up with a drink of cider, when they can get +it. I'm main thirsty now, Pa'yson." + +"What do you mean?" asked Gale, in no little disquietude, but putting +silver, nevertheless, in the other's dirty hand. + +"They say he do be a kinsman of Mistress Nelly, for sure," answered Ike. +"And it's like enough. They can't let him be, neither her nor the old +man, by day or night. I do know well he do be in and out of the house at +all hours, like a dog in a fair." + +Roused beyond endurance, the Parson clenched his heavy riding-whip; and, +but that he bit his lip till the blood came, in an effort to control +himself, would have given his informant the full benefit of its weight. + +Ike never knew how near he was having his head broke then and there. + +"Do you mean that old Master Carew has a kinsman paying him a visit?" he +asked; and while he spoke Abner Gale wondered at the resolution with +which he kept down his wrath. "When did he come, lad? can ye tell, now? +And how soon is he going away?" + +But Ike, whose fingers were itching to spend in drink the money he had +earned so easily, did not care to sustain farther cross-examination. + +"Them sort comes and goes like the shadows on Brendon Moor," said he. +"It's you and me, Master Gale, no offence, as stands to it, blow high +blow low, like Dunkerry Beacon. I don't want to breed no mischief, and I +don't want to tell no lies. There's others can say more than me. My +service to you, Pa'yson, and thanking you kindly. If you've an odd job +for a poor chap, I'm to be heard of mostly at the Wheat Sheaf; and I'll +not forget to drink your honour's good health." + +Thus speaking, Ike slunk off; and the Parson, with scowling brows, +proceeded to Nelly's favourite haunt by the sea-shore. + +What a bright fresh morning it had been, when he heard the lark singing +on Exmoor a few short hours ago? Was it the gathering thunder-storm that +made the sky so dark, the air so stifling, now? + +A woman's tact seldom fails her at need. Mistress Nelly's greeting was +just sufficiently cordial to soothe the Parson into decent behaviour, +without exceeding the limits of such kindly reception as seemed due to +her grandfather's friend. Ere John Garnet had ceased wondering what +there was in this new comer to move her so much, she had cleared her +brows, steadied her voice, and extended her hand with a pleasant smile. +At that moment, perhaps, the Parson knew for the first time, by the +jealousy she was capable of arousing, how fiercely he loved her. And it +may have been at the same moment that John Garnet discovered something +he had never realised before. + +An ass between two bundles of hay has always been accepted as the +illustration of a false position. Surely a young lady with an admirer on +each hand, one of whom she knows she hates, while the other she dreads +to acknowledge she is beginning to like, must be equally at a loss on +which side to incline. What is she to say or leave unsaid? What is she +to do or leave undone? Nelly Carew wished John Garnet had never come, +wished he would go away; wished a spring-tide would flow in that moment, +and float the Parson bodily up to Bossington Point, down to Barnstaple +Bay, out into the wide Atlantic, where she might never set eyes on him +again! Succour came when most she wanted it. A few heavy drops, a gust +of wind, a flash, and a thunder-roll. In five minutes it was obvious +that unless they hastened back to the village, all three would be +drenched to the skin. With an imploring look at John Garnet, she made +him understand he was to leave her without asking why. How delightful +it was to feel that he caught her meaning at once, and obeyed! Then she +hurried the Parson to her grandfather's cottage, at a pace that admitted +of no explanation; and once over the threshold disappeared in her own +chamber, with that plea of headache (thunder always gave her a headache) +which must have been Eve's excuse when she did not want to work in the +garden with Adam. + +Finding he was not likely to see her again, Abner Gale made but a short +visit. As he rode home across Exmoor, the sky was clear, the birds were +singing, the long rank grass sprang fresh and green from its recent +wetting, flags and rushes were dressed out with rain-drops glistening +like jewels in the afternoon sun. But the Parson rode slowly and +heavily, looking steadfastly between his horse's ears. Now and again he +shook his head, or bit his lip, or glared round him with a troubled +scowl, suggestive of annoyance and apprehension, as if he doubted there +was still thunder in the air. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +MORE THAN KIND. + + +"He understood me at once," thought Nelly, whose headache left her the +moment she entered her own room. "How gentle he always seems, and how +nice. I wonder who and what he is? Grandfather says there can be no +mistake about his being well-born, and a man of fashion. Parson Gale +often boasts _he_ is not a man of fashion; but I know I like a man of +fashion best. I wonder when I shall see him again. Not that I want to +see him one bit; only he must have thought me so rude to leave like +that, and I ought to explain. How angry Mr. Gale looked, and how cross +he seemed all the way home. What does it matter to me? What need I care +how cross he is? Only--only I wish I was never going to set eyes on him +again!" + +Now this was hardly justice--perhaps I should rather say it was woman's +justice. In the absence of other society, the time had been when Nelly +was well pleased to accept, in a dignified distant kind of way, the +Parson's homage, and felt flattered, if not gratified, by his obvious +devotion to herself; now she seemed instinctively to shrink from him as +from an enemy. And why? Because John Garnet had merry eyes and a ruddy +cheek? Because he was the first specimen of his class she had ever met? +Or because they were thrown together, two comely young people, in this +pretty little village by the sea? She could not have given a reason--no +more can I. + +Twenty-four hours did not elapse, of course, before they met again. She +looked timidly in his face, and put out her hand. He might be offended, +she thought, and felt rather disappointed to have no opportunity of +begging pardon; but his frank and pleasant manner was so reassuring, +that she wondered how she could have dreaded their meeting so much, and +why she spent all the morning thinking of it. Nelly was always wondering +now, and for the first time in her life had forgotten to take +grandfather's posset off the hob last night before it was smoked. + +It is no doubt provoking not to be able to irritate a man if you wish; +but Nelly had hardly yet arrived at that stage in the malady which +desires a quarrel for the pleasure of making up. + +"You--you didn't get wet," she said, timidly, "when we were all obliged +to hurry home yesterday. The showers here are very heavy, and apt +to--to----" + +"Wet a man to the skin," he said, laughing; "so they are everywhere +else. I was sorry to lose your pleasant society, Mistress Carew; but, +thinking the strange gentleman might be an old friend of your +grandfather, I did not wish to intrude, and walked home as fast as I +could." + +She shot a grateful glance at him. "Yes," she observed, in rather a +marked tone, "he _is_ a friend of grandfather's rather than of mine, +though I have known him ever since I was a little girl." + +"Is that so very long, Mistress Carew?" he asked, with another of his +pleasant smiles. + +They were walking through the orchard behind her home, along a path that +led to the shore. She stopped and plucked some wild flowers from the +hedge, perhaps to hide a blush. + +"I have a favour to ask you," she said, in a low voice, and stooping +her head over the posy. "Do not say Mistress Carew--I don't like it. I +had rather _you_ would call me Nelly." + +There was the least possible inflection of voice on the pronoun, just +enough to make John Garnet's heart beat as it had never beat before. + +"Nelly," he repeated, "will you give me one of those flowers?" + +"You may take the whole bunch," she answered, "I only gathered them for +you." But she walked on so fast after this gratifying avowal, that it +was impossible to tell her one word of the old tale that was rising to +his lips. + +All that day she took care not to be alone with him another minute. From +the orchard she took him to the beach, where the villagers were +collecting sea-weed; thence to a field where harvest was already nearly +done; home by the cow-house, with its attendant milkmaid; and so back to +grandfather's parlour, where she poured out his evening draught of cider +with her own hands. + +Why Nelly should have cried like a naughty child when she laid her head +on the pillow; why she should have woke before daybreak, and risen at +sunrise to put new ribbons in her dress of a colour she had lately heard +somebody say he liked, is more than I can take upon me to explain. I can +understand, however, why John Garnet lay a-bed longer than usual that +same morning, and turned on the other side, hoping to go to sleep again, +that he might dream another dream like the last about Nelly Carew. + +Abner Gale's dreams, if he had any, would seem to have been of no such +pleasant nature, for he was stirring with the dawn, breakfasting +fiercely before sunrise, on Devonshire mutton and strong ale, cursing, +notwithstanding his profession, each of his servants in turn for imputed +shortcomings, from his cherry-cheeked parlour-maid to the man who fed +the pigs. In and out the house, and through the precincts of the +farm-yard, or "barton," as he called it, the master's eye was only less +dreaded than his tongue, his tongue than his hand. Yet was he well +served too, with the scrupulous obedience of fear. + +He would fain have mounted his horse and ridden across the moor in the +direction of Porlock again to-day, but even Abner Gale was compelled to +pay some respect to the decencies of life, and even such a parish as his +exacted a few hours' attention after an absence of weeks. + +There were conditions to be written out for a wrestling-match between +two rival champions; arrangements to be made for supplying the ringers +with unlimited cider at their approaching feast; a badger recently drawn +to visit; and some terrier-puppies just opening their eyes on this +wicked world, to inspect. + +Also, there was a child to be baptised, a matter that would keep, and a +wench to be married, a matter that would _not_. + +"For to-day," thought the Parson, "I have got my hands full; to-morrow I +shall be free again, and it's strange if I fail to find out something +more of your goings on, Mistress Nelly, and put a spoke in the wheel of +that young spark down by the water-side, who seems to make himself so +much at home!" + +Though he never saw him before, though he had not the vaguest notion +that John Garnet was the man he had sworn to hunt to death, some +antagonistic instinct caused him to hate this man with a deadly hatred, +scarcely to be accounted for, even by that jealousy which is +proverbially cruel as the grave. + +In no appropriate frame of mind, the Parson was about to don his frayed +and dirty canonicals for administration of that matrimonial rite it +would be unwise to delay, when his quick eye caught sight of a man +riding on the moor, whose appearance caused him to cast aside his +sacred vestments with an oath, and rush to the door, carrying a brimming +jug of cider in his hand. + +Mr. Gale swore when he was pleased, and when he was angry, when he rode +and when he walked, when he worked and when he rested. Altogether he +swore a good deal between morning and night. + +"It's the harbourer!" he exclaimed, steadying the vessel not to spill a +drop; "the harbourer, as I'm a living sinner, Red Rube!" he shouted, +while the new arrival drew the rein at the mounting-block, "stop and wet +your whistle--you're always welcome, and you're always dry." + +Red Rube, whose real name was Reuben Rudd, needed no second bidding. +Raising the jug to his weather-tanned face, he took a hearty pull, a +pull that nearly emptied its contents. + +The Parson scanned him approvingly. Rube wiped his mouth on his sleeve, +and sat motionless in the saddle without a word. + +He was a man of seventy at least, short, shrunken, withered, and tough +as shoe-leather, with a keen grey eye, set in countless wrinkles, that +seemed traced in the red-brown skin with the point of a needle. He rode +a broken-kneed Exmoor pony, low in condition, but as hard as nails. +Sportsman was written in every line of his face, every turn of his +limbs, yet his steed, saddle, bridle, and the clothes on his back would +have been dear at five pounds. + +Like a ghost, it was Rube's custom not to speak till he was spoken to. +His answers too were ghostly and mysterious, and he loved to vanish like +a ghost when he had delivered his pithy say. + +Presently, in such a whisper as denotes respectful confidence, the +Parson broke silence. + +"Three inches?" he asked, with the utmost concern. + +"And a quarter," was the reply. "Twenty-two score and may-be a pound +over. The slot was less than an hour old at sunrise." + +"Rights?" asked the Parson. + +"A warrantable deer," answered Rube, and each mused in silence for more +than a minute. + +"It's a pity," observed the Parson, after a pause, "there's no knowing +where he may get to by next week. These heavy deer travel a long way +when they're not hurried. It's hard to say where he may be when we want +him. There ought to be no Sundays in the hunting season." + +So self-evident a proposition seemed not to require assent; Red Rube +held his peace, and looked at the empty cider-jug. Taking the hint, Gale +entered the house, and returned with it refilled. The old man's eye +glittered, and he indulged in another pull. It seemed to loosen his +tongue. "That be main good zider," said he, shortening his reins and +applying his one spur to the pony's ribs, as though to depart, but +turning in his saddle, with an after-thought for a few last words. + +"I wur down Lapford way yesterday," said he, with a chuckle, "and hoam +by Rose Ash. I larned reading, Pa'yson, three-score years ago and more, +afore I took to the deer. There's money to be made by reading, I +tell'ee, and money means drink." + +"What do _you_ mean?" asked Gale. + +"I mean there's hand-bills up at both places, offering a hundred guineas +reward; that's what I mean," replied the old man, kindling to +excitement. "Him as rode the grey stallion has been about again. +Galloping Jack they always called 'un that spoke of 'un to _me_--and if +a man could steal a view of 'un, or get the wind of 'un, or so much as +slot 'un where he harbours, 'tis a hundred golden guineas paid down in +hand. I've moved many a right stag in my time, Master Gale, but never +such a noble head as that." + +Then, as fearing his loquacity must have compromised him in the eyes of +so good a sportsman, Red Rube departed at a gallop, and was seen no +more. + +Abner Gale looked after him, with a smile. Lord Bellinger then had taken +his advice, and adopted the most likely means of bringing to justice the +perpetrator of an outrage that was both highway robbery and high +treason. It interested the Parson but little save in so far as the grey +horse was concerned. If its rider should come to the gallows he would do +all he knew to put that noble beast in his own stable. In imagination, +he was already galloping it over Exmoor, to go and see Nelly Carew. + +Then the Parson sighed and swore, and sighed again, and put on his dingy +cassock to marry the tardy couple who had waited so long. + +He tied them up, however, fast and sure, before the stroke of noon, +pocketing his fees with considerable satisfaction, for Mr. Gale took no +delight in the gratuitous administrations of the Church, little thinking +that, even while he pronounced the blessing, which it did not strike him +seemed a mockery from such lips as his, John Garnet was turning out into +the sunshine, fresh and fair, like a bridegroom himself, to wait upon +Mistress Carew. + +That gentleman lay long in bed without dreaming the pleasant dream +again, so bethought him at last that it would be more to the purpose to +rise and pursue the reality, than lose his time in sighing after the +shadow. He was very far gone now. The posy she had given him stood in +water at his bedside, every hour of the day seemed wasted that was not +spent with this blue-eyed girl, and he never gave Waif a thought for +more than a moment at a time. + +Bold, blithe, and buoyant, he whistled a merry air as he strode up the +village street, thinking of his first, last love, like a cock-bird in +full plumage going to look for its mate He seemed to moult a feather or +two though, as he passed the village stocks, on the posts of which, for +want of a more prominent elevation, were posted two conspicuous +hand-bills, beginning with a gigantic "Whereas," and continuing through +a long and minute description of his own person, to the offer of one +hundred guineas for his capture, dead or alive; the whole concluding +with a flourish, in capital letters, to the glory of "Our Sovereign Lord +the King." + +He went on to see Nelly all the same, but resolved that he would put off +to a more convenient season something he meant to have told her to-day. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +THE HARBOURER. + + +Nature is always beautiful in her morning, evening, and noon-day +dresses, her fits of rage, her languor of repose, her storms, her calms, +her shadows, sunshine, tears, and smiles; but never perhaps are we so +conscious of her charms, as when abroad before daybreak, in a +mountainous country, we see her growing, line by line, out of darkness +into day. + +First, through the hush of night, there steals a cool, soft breath, like +the sigh of some spirit of morning, longing for the dawn. Soon, swelling +to a breeze, it stirs the cloud on the moor, the leaf in the copse. A +bird awakes and twitters in its nest. Anon, in joyful chorus, answering +notes pipe shrill and clear, through all the woodland, while a pale +streak of light, low and level on the eastern ridges, peeps above the +sky line. Great black masses stand out from the gloom, in deeper shadows +and broader touches, soon to resolve themselves, as the eye masters +their shapes, into rock and coombe, hill, valley, and hanging wood. But +now the pale streak has changed to crimson, underlined with a yellow +seam, the mountain puts on his crown of fire, and the highest tree-tops, +in glade and valley, are tinged with flame, while, far and near, pointed +peaks, rugged tors, purple heather, dusky moorland, all are tipped with +gold. Then, in his blazing chariot, the lord of light comes up to run +his course, and night is past and man goes forth to his labour until +the evening, and the harbourer's day's work is done. + +"Red Rube," if he worshipped the sun at all, worshipped him less in love +than fear, dreading, above all things, that his beams should cause the +dews to evaporate from the sward, and harden into an unimpressionable +surface the yielding clay beneath each sheltering bank, or round each +bubbling spring. Rube believed that, for beauty and majesty, no object +in the world could vie with the beam, and branches, the "Brow Bay and +Tray" of a warrantable deer, yet he had not been a nurse-child of +Nature, in all her seasons and all her moods, without learning her +lessons, and imbibing for his foster-mother an instinctive love, only +the deeper that it was unconscious, unsuspected, and in spite of +himself. + +Is not this the secret of our attachment to field sports, and do not +those which bring us face to face with Nature retain their fascination +when every other pastime or excitement has palled on the satiated +senses, the weary world-worn heart? + +That noblest beast of chase, the wild stag, in the West of England, has +a lordly habit of feasting during night, and seeking repose in the small +hours towards dawn of day. Gliding, like a ghost, through cornfield and +orchard, he travels many a league after sundown, feeding on the best +that moorland soil and scanty harvests can afford, nibbling the +half-ripened ears on one hill-farm at midnight, flinging the turnips +overhead in wasteful profusion on another ten miles off, within an hour; +seeking, before dawn, the shelter of some wooded coombe, in which he +means to harbour, at an equal distance from both. Restless, wary, +vigilant, he is always on the move, and habitually suspicious of an +enemy. It is to master, by man's intellect, man's powers of observation, +the superior speed, finer instinct, and craftier nature of the brute, +that "Red Rube" has been "after the deer" from boyhood, acquiring in the +experience of many seasons so intimate a knowledge of their haunts and +habits, that, in spite of age, infirmity, and a confirmed tendency to +drink, he has earned an unchallenged right to call himself the most +skilful "Harbourer" in the West. + +The ground must indeed be hard, and the "slot," or print of the animal's +feet, many hours old to baffle Red Rube, who, stooping to the line like +a blood-hound, reads off, as from a book, the size, sex, weight, and age +of the passing deer, the pace at which it was travelling, its distance +ahead, and the probability of its affording a run. Therefore it was his +custom to be abroad long before daybreak, guiding his Exmoor pony, only +less wise and wary than himself, through broken paths and winding +tracks, by bog, boulder, and precipice, with an instinct, unerring as +that of the wild animal he went to seek. In the first twilight of +morning he would hobble the pony at the head of some remote coombe that +bordered on the moor; and prowling stealthily down its windings, would +begin his quest in the different haunts that he knew were frequented by +deer. He seldom made a cast in vain. Ere the light was strong enough to +distinguish it, he usually came upon the footprint of his game. Then he +stopped, examined it carefully, pondered, and made up his mind. If the +slot were three inches wide at the heel, after due allowance for nature +of ground and rate of speed, it would be that of a six-year-old hart at +least, carrying nine or ten branches on his two antlers, having, in +forester's language, "his rights," and to be described therefore as "a +warrantable deer." Such considerations would cause "Rube" to grin--he +never laughed--and to take a pull at his flask. + +Following up the track to some deep impervious woodland, in which it was +again lost, he would make a circuit of many miles round its verge, with +or without the pony, in order to make sure that his quarry had not gone +on, and here an intimate acquaintance with its habits, and the passes +through which it would be likely to emerge, saved him many an hour of +fruitless search. Ere the sun was high he had so contracted the circle, +by ascertaining where the stag was _not_, that he could point out the +very copse, almost the very thicket, in which it lay ensconced. Again to +use woodsman's language, he had fairly "harboured his deer." + +Then Rube's responsibility was over, and his day's work done. + +Thus, it fell out, that on a cool grey morning, late in harvest, our +harbourer, stooping and prying over a level glade of turf by the +water-side, in the deep shadows of Horner Wood, came to a stop; and, +kneeling down, began to examine very closely a track that seemed to have +crossed the stream, and broken into a gallop towards the hill. It was no +cloven foot; and, consequently, neither deer nor devil, as Rube observed +to himself, with a grim smile; but the hoof-mark of a horse, shod with +iron, and going at speed, nor was this in any way remarkable, but that +the shoes were forged by no West-country blacksmith, and Rube was far +too practised a woodsman to pass such a slot without inquiry or remark. + +"A horse," he muttered, "and a good one. Here's a stride of nigh six +yards, and every foot down at once in a ring I could cover with my hat! +And, here again, when the rider's hand turned him from that boggy bit, +see how he cut the moss out of the bank, and sprang back to the turf as +light as a brocket. But them shoes was never welded this side Taunton +town. That's what beats _me_! Parson Gale? Well, the Parson it might be, +only this is an up-country horse for sure. Up-country rider, too, or he +would have turned into the wood 'stead of keeping the track. No. He's +not heading for Exmoor, isn't this one. May be he'll double back before +sunup, and I'll fresh find him here in the coombe, if I only keep quiet +and lie close!" + +So Rube put his ear to the ground, listened, grinned, took a suck at his +flask, and coiled himself down, like some beast of prey, on the watch. + +He did not wait long. His lair was hardly warm ere he started to his +feet, at a crashing of branches within a hundred yards, a bounce, a +splash, an oath in a man's voice, and the snorting of a horse, plunging +and struggling through a bog. + +In the solitudes of the West, as in the Arabian desert, every man you +meet must be a friend or enemy; but in Somerset and Devon, till you have +proved him the latter, you believe him to be the former. Rube ran to +help, and saw the best nag he had ever set eyes on, up to its girths in +a swamp, sinking deeper and deeper with every plunge. + +The rider, already clear of his saddle, and imbedded over his boots in +the green yielding slime, did his best to aid and encourage his horse by +word and gesture, but the bog became only deeper and softer with every +struggle, while to turn back seemed as difficult, and almost as +hazardous as to charge through. + +But that aid was near, a fossil man and horse, in perfect preservation, +might have been found centuries hence in a stratum below the surface, +puzzling the geologists of the future as to how they got there. + +"Right hand, I tell'ee! push 'un to the right, man!" exclaimed Rube, +springing eagerly from his lurking-place. "This patch o' flag be the +only sound spot fur a landyard's round--Steady, lad! Let 'un catch wind +theer a bit, and he'll come through." + +Presence of mind, that essential quality of a horseman, was never +wanting to John Garnet. Guiding Katerfelto to the little knot of rushes +indicated, which, true to their nature, afforded foothold where they +grew, he paused for a breathing-space, ere, patting his horse's neck +with a word of endearment, he roused him to another effort, that, after +a plunge or two, placed him in safety, with a bank of sound heather +beneath his feet. + +The grey trembled all over, his eye rolled, his nostril dilated; but, +with a prolonged snort and a shake, he recovered his composure, rubbing +his handsome head against his master, as though to congratulate him on +their joint escape. "We'll never go there again, my boy!" said the +rider, whom this treacherous surface had so deceived, adding, as though +he did well to be angry, "why it looks like the best bit of gallopin' +ground in the whole coombe!" + +Red Rube grinned. To one born and bred on Exmoor, this was a jest that +palled with no amount of repetition. These tempting islands of green +sward, smooth and level as a lake, while affording, indeed, but little +firmer support, seem designed by nature to lure a horseman from another +country to his downfall. But was this a horseman from another country? +The harbourer's keen grey eye had taken him in at a glance, just as it +would have mastered the points, size, and weight of a warrantable deer +in the brief second during which the creature bounded across a ride. +From the lace on his hat to the spur on his soiled boot, Red Rube had +reckoned up John Garnet, as it were, to the very counting of the buttons +on his coat. From Katerfelto's taper muzzle, to the last hair in his +tail, he had, in the same instant, so impressed the whole animal on his +mind, that he could have sworn to its identity under any circumstances, +at any future time. It struck him, even while man and horse were +struggling in the bog, that they answered the description of that +highwayman for whose capture so large a reward was offered in the +hand-bills; and it was from no considerations of humanity or fair-play +that the old man refrained from knocking the stranger on the head, when +he had him at disadvantage, un-horsed and knee-deep in a slough. + +His reasons were extremely practical. In the first place, he had no +weapon with which he could hope to contend successfully against a +younger and stronger man; in the second, he could not bring himself to +believe that so experienced a West-country rider as Galloping Jack would +have fallen into a trap like this. "A bog," as he said, "so black and +ugly, that even Varmer Viall's cows, poor things, do have the sense to +keep out!" + +[Illustration: WELL OUT OF IT.] + +"Well, it might have been worse!" replied John Garnet, good-humouredly, +while he swung himself into the saddle, and put a crown-piece in Red +Rube's hand. "You halloaed in time, my friend, or I should have missed +the rushes, and never got out at all. I am beholden to you, and I won't +forget it. This is the best horse in England, and I wouldn't have done +him a mischief for more money than you could count." + +The old man's fingers closed readily on the silver. "You be making for +Porlock!" said he. "You do seem strange hereabouts. My day's work is +done, and I don't mind if I show you the way." + +John Garnet laughed--"I know the way well enough," he answered. "But why +should you have done work when most men are just going to begin?" + +Red Rube's grey eye twinkled. He laid his horny hand on Katerfelto's +mane and looked in the rider's face, with a cunning leer. "Every man to +his trade," said he. "My business lies betwixt the dark and the +daylight. Yours, may-be, takes you out of a warm bed when the moon's up. +I've been backwards and forwards on the moor, fifty years or more, and +no harm come of it yet. It's safer riding, may-be, than the road." + +"Not with such cursed bogs as these about," replied the other, +carelessly. "Bogs that would swallow a coach-and-six: only I don't +suppose you ever saw a coach-and-six in this wild outlandish country!" + +"You're a stranger may-be?" asked Rube, sorely perplexed, for how could +this horseman so resemble Galloping Jack, yet betray such practical +ignorance of the moor and its peculiarities? "A stranger from up the +country, no doubt, though you do handle your horse prettily enough, and +sit in your saddle like a rock. May-be you never heard of 'slotting' a +stag, twenty score weight, with a back like a bullock, and all his +rights fairly counted, into a lone quiet coombe, where you harboured him +so close you could touch him with the top joint of a trout-rod? May-be +you never saw an old black-and-tan twenty-six inch tufter, with long +flapping ears and hanging jowl, as steady as a clock, and as wise as a +bishop, snuffle and quest and traverse, till he owned the scent with a +roar, deeper, louder, fuller of music than the organ I heard in Exeter +fifty years ago, when I was a boy. May-be, I'm only wasting my breath. +You up-country gentlemen know nothing of our sport on the moor." + +The spark had caught. That strange enthusiasm common to all votaries of +the chase brightened John Garnet's eye, while he continued the other's +narrative of an imaginary stag hunt. + +"Then, with a crash of broken twigs and leafy branches, up he starts +from a brake of deep green hazels,--stares about him for half a minute, +time enough to count his points, and look him over--turns his head from +side to side, displaying his mighty neck and noble width of beam, lays +his antlers back, and leaves the wood at a springing trot, too proud to +hurry himself, and deliberating calmly where he shall go next. Presently +we lose sight of him, to emerge a mile off on the open moor. When he +treads heather he breaks into a gallop, and speeds away like an arrow +from a bow. You have moved him fairly now. Take up your tufters and let +us lay on the pack." + +"Right you are!" exclaimed Rube, holding his breath in sheer excitement. +"You've been there before, I'll wager a gallon!" + +"Talk of music and the organ in Exeter Cathedral!" proceeded John +Garnet, "thirty couple of such voices as these would silence a battery +of cannon. They spread like a lady's fan; they swarm like a hive of +bees. Soon they settle into their places and stream across the moor, +like horses in stride and speed, like lions in strength and energy, and +fierce desire for blood. Now's your time, old man. You sit down in your +saddle and say to yourself, there is nothing on earth worth living for +compared to such moments as these." + +"_My_ work is over when you come to that," said Rube, adding +respectfully, "You're a true sportsman, sir. If I do know how to harbour +a stag, you do know how to hunt him, I'll warrant. Yet I never saw you +out with us on the moor here, as I can call to mind." + +"Do you think there is no hunting but in the West?" replied John Garnet. +"We have red deer in my country, and hounds that can set them up to bay. +Horses, too, and men who dare ride them as straight as a bird of the air +can fly. There's many a horn wound, and many a pair of spurs going from +morning till night, all the season through, in the canny North." + +"Like enough!" answered Rube. "But I'll always maintain that the moor is +the moor. When your honour has once forded Badgeworthy water, you'll +never want to follow hounds in any other country again." + +"And that shall be before I am many days older," replied John Garnet, +reflecting what an agreeable addition to the amusements of his +retirement would be this favourite pursuit; and remembering also, no +doubt, that Mistress Carew, on the wonderful white pony that fed in the +orchard, was a keen votary of the chase. "Do _you_ find a good stag, +and, unless we get into a bog again, my grey horse and I will try to see +him killed." + +"I'll do my best," said Rube; and with a clumsy obeisance, turned back +towards the moor, looking after John Garnet's figure as it disappeared +amongst the giant stems of Horner Wood, with a puzzled expression on his +quaint old face. This frank, well-spoken stranger was a riddle he could +not read; "a slot," as he would have expressed it, that left him "at +fault." The man might be a robber and an outlaw; but at any rate he rode +to admiration, was cordial, open-handed, and a sportsman to the +back-bone. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +"LISTEN AND LEARN IT." + + +"And you never told me your life was in danger, never said that a +careless word might ruin both of us at a blow. Dear heart, surely you +might have trusted _me_." + +It was Nelly Carew's voice, and her brow was pressed to John Garnet's +shoulder, while she spoke. The red-cheeked apples hanging overhead in +her grandfather's orchard had ripened less quickly under a hot harvest +sun, than the love that a few short days brought to maturity in the +maiden's heart. She could not believe that a month ago she had never so +much as heard of the man whose presence now seemed a condition of +existence, like the very air she breathed. Could she be the same Nelly +Carew, whose whole being was once engrossed in grandfather's posset and +the incubations of the speckled hen. Or was it all a dream. If a dream, +she only prayed she might never wake again. + +"Why should I have told you?" he asked. "It could but make you anxious +and unhappy, dearest; we have surely enough of difficulty and vexation +as it is. Besides," he added, in a higher tone, "how was I to know, +Nelly, that you liked me well enough to care?" + +There came a very kind look in the blue eyes--"Didn't you guess?" she +whispered, softly. "Didn't you think it very strange of me, that day, +when I gave you the posy out of the hedge?" + +There is a pleasant fiction amongst lovers, that the tender passages to +which they constantly refer, must have taken place in the remote past. +Nelly spoke of _that_ day as if the time since elapsed was to be counted +by years, instead of hours. + +"I thought you the dearest, and the best, and the loveliest girl on +earth!" was the appropriate reply; "and now I could almost find it in my +heart to wish we had never met. For _your_ sake, Nelly, not for +mine--not for mine." + +They were the old conventional words which have probably been the +prelude to every rupture of attachments since men grew weary and women +false; yet it was impossible to look in John Garnet's face, or listen to +the tone of his voice, and doubt that this was the outcry of an +unselfish heart, so loving, that it longed for the happiness of another, +rather than its own. + +Nelly's eyes filled with tears. "I care for you," she said--"I care for +you; that's enough! If you were to go to prison, I should go with you. +If you were to die, dear heart, I should die too." + +The girl spoke truth. Who shall account for these sudden overmastering +passions, that take possession of humanity to defy all considerations of +self-esteem, self-preservation, probability, fitness, and, especially, +common sense? A man passes a shape in the street, catches the glance of +an eye at a window, the turn of an ear in a playhouse, and straightway, +as in the taking of an epidemic, his whole system becomes impregnated +with a strange and subtle poison, for which there is no antidote, and +but one remedy. The disease must run its course. In a few days the fever +is at its height, the delirium paramount, liver deranged, appetite +impaired, brain seriously affected, and the patient, to all intents and +purposes, raving mad. He is haunted by delusions; an inevitable figure +is always dancing before his eyes; he forgets his business and friends, +his nearest and dearest; neglects his mother, sisters, aunts, cousins, +and in some aggravated cases, even his wife. His sleep is broken, his +eye wild, his speech incoherent. His fellows shun him like a leper, and +he rejoices in this enforced isolation. He meets with no encouragement +and little sympathy. Fresh constitutions, as yet unimpaired, and old +battered patients who have recovered from the disease, shrug their +shoulders and say, "Poor devil! he's in love;" but these observers +entertain for him less of pity than contempt. The calamity is accepted +as a dispensation, and nobody thinks it worth while to offer a syllable +of comfort or advice, because experience has shown that the illness must +at last be cured by indulgence, or die a lingering death in +disappointment. + +A woman, too, is liable to the same disorder, contracted even more +unreasonably, and with less apparent cause. Her symptoms, if not so +obtrusive, or troublesome to others, are none the less dangerous to +herself. In some cases, happily but rare, they prove incurable. It is of +_men_ that the poet says: "They have died and worms have eaten them, but +not for love." + +Nelly Carew, whose life had hitherto flowed on in a calm unruffled +stream, little thought the gentle, scarce perceptible pleasure she +experienced in a stranger's society, on the memorable evening when she +addressed him for the first time, to thank him for his courtesy, while +he helped her grandfather home, must soon grow into a hunger of the +heart, that nothing but absolute reciprocity could appease. The second +time she saw him, she feared the third time, she admitted the fourth, +she gloried in her enslavement. They had known each other barely a week, +when Nelly discovered and confessed that henceforth, if life was to be +passed apart from John Garnet, she would rather elect to die. He, too, +surrendered at discretion, or rather without discretion, so soon as the +blue eyes opened fire. Wilfully blind to his ruined prospects and his +false position, he abandoned himself to the happiness of the hour, +forgetting the past, ignoring the future--Waif, Katerfelto, Lord +Bellinger, robbery, high treason, and Tyburn-hill, while he held Nelly +Carew's hand, and looked lovingly in her delicate face under the +apple-trees by Porlock Bay. + +"I need not go to prison, and I need not die," he answered, lightly. +"This is a secure hiding-place enough. I should like to stay here for +the rest of my life." + +"It must be very dull!" observed Nelly, plaiting the hem of her apron. +"I wonder how long it would take for you to weary of us all?" + +There could be but one answer to such an accusation, and he was ready +with it before she could explain. + +"Weary!" he repeated, "weary of Porlock! weary of _you_, Nelly, from +whom I never mean to part! How can you say such things. You know you did +not mean it!" And again Nelly's disclaimer was stifled on her lips. + +"Besides," he added, gaily, "What can a man want to make him happy more +than I have here? The sweetest girl in the world to walk with, and the +best horse in England to ride. I gave him a ten-mile stretch on the moor +this morning, while you were fast asleep and dreaming. _Were_ you +dreaming, Nelly?" + +"Never mind my dreams," she answered, blushing. "If I _did_ dream of +somebody, I'm not going to say so. Tell me about your ride." + +"I met a strange old man," he continued, "so weird-looking, that in the +North we should have thought him something uncanny, a Brownie, at least, +or a wandering spirit of the moor. Not that he was a jack-o'-lanthorn +nor will-o'-the-wisp, for he showed me the way out, instead of luring me +_into_ a bog, or I should have been there now." + +"You must never try to cross our moors without _me_," said Nelly, +gravely, "or somebody who knows them well, to take care of you." + +"Will you take care of me?" and "never mind, that is not the question +now," were two necessary interpolations before John Garnet could +proceed. + +"The man knew his ground, every inch of it," he continued, "and offered +to put me in the right way for home. His pony, he said, was hobbled at +the head of the coombe, but he seemed to think very little of walking +ten miles out of his road, and he looked between seventy and eighty." + +"It must have been Red Rube!" exclaimed Nelly, joyfully. "Did he say +there were deer in Horner Woods? Oh! how I long for a gallop over the +moor after a stag, and--with you!" + +John Garnet pondered. There would be little risk, he thought, in joining +these West-country gentlemen in the hunting-field. Most of them were of +his own way of thinking in politics, and for many, his ready audacity +had preserved, at least temporarily, both life and lands. Even if +recognised, it was unlikely he would be denounced; and then, the +temptation! To ride Katerfelto far ahead of meaner steeds from ridge to +ridge and coombe to coombe, sweeping over mountain and moor as though on +the wings of an eagle, to hover at last alone in his glory above the +dying deer, while a burst of music from the good hounds pealing louder +than its roar, announced in a crash of triumph that here, under the +deafening waterfall, they had set him up to bay! + +Yes, he would have a ride, he resolved, in pursuit of the red deer, at +any risk and at any cost! + +"Who talked about dreaming?" she said, "and who is dreaming now? Where +have your thoughts flown to all in a minute? They are miles and miles +from Porlock. I can see it in your face." + +She had already arrived at the stage of jealousy--jealousy, that was +fain to be mistress of his thoughts, no less than of his words, deeds, +looks, and actions. Truly, for Nelly, the pleasantest part of the whole +delusion was even now at an end. To be on the brink is delightful, but +to fall in love is more than uncomfortable; it is a process akin to +pain. The fire looks bright and cheerful enough, but wisdom warms its +hands thereat, while folly burns its fingers to the bone. + +"I was thinking how comely you must look on the white pony with your +hair blown about by the Exmoor breezes," said he; and Nelly seemed so +pleased with his answer, that the rest of their conversation was carried +on in whispers, too low to be overheard even by the "little bird on the +green tree," but of which the purport may be gathered from a final +sentence delivered by John Garnet in a louder tone, as of a man who +resolves to carry his point in defiance of all obstacles. + +"Then I may come up and speak to your grandfather this afternoon?" + +She acquiesced with a timid little nod and a bright blush, that she +stooped her head to hide, retiring with swift and noiseless steps +towards her home. + +But whatever passages of folly between these young people may have +escaped notice from the "little bird on the green tree," whose own +love-songs must seem to it so much more rational than "what he is +saying, what answereth she," there crouched behind the hedge of the +orchard one whose dark eye and tawny ear missed not the lowest whisper, +the lightest gesture--whose tameless heart quivered and throbbed with +every syllable, every caress, as at the stroke of a knife. If women are +all jealous, even in the silks and satins and conventional fetters of +civilized life, what must be the jealousy of a savage nature +unreclaimed by education, untamed by principle, untaught by the +selfishness that is so essential a constituent of respectability and +good sense? It is possessed by a devil, who tears and rends it, refusing +to be cast out. + +Waif, or Thyra, as she was called by her own people, had journeyed with +them into the West-country nothing loth, for she knew they were +following in the track of the man she loved. Restored to her tribe after +an absence of many years, her familiarity with the habits of the Gorgios +rendered her an exceedingly valuable acquisition. She had the knack of +_dukkering_, or telling fortunes, with a tact that brought in handfuls +of silver, and many a "_balanser_" in red gold; therefore she came and +went unquestioned in the tents; could be absent at all hours, and for as +long as she pleased. Nor, so soon as she found herself within reach of +John Garnet's retreat, was she slow to take advantage of her liberty. + +A dozen miles afoot, across the moorland heather and along the +sweet-scented Somersetshire lanes, was an easy journey to Waif's supple +frame and light untiring tread. The honest carriers, leading their +string of pack-horses, looked after her in open-mouthed admiration, with +blessings, homely but sincere, on her strange swarthy beauty, so well +set off by the short scarlet cloak and the gold in her raven hair. A +house-wife possessing the old faith would cross herself perhaps, or her +gossip, a Primitive Methodist, would mutter a charm against witchcraft +as the dark girl passed; but the country-folk generally, though +regarding her people with little favour, were not proof against Waif's +flashing eyes and flattering tongue, while she returned their +"good-morrow" and promised them good luck. One stout farmer, riding a +half-broken colt, insisted on stopping to have his fortune told, +crossing his broad palm with a silver shilling, and demanding in return +a shilling's worth of her craft. "Three groats, uncle," said Waif, +looking up in his jolly face with a roguish leer, while the colt +fidgetted, and the rider, half pleased, half ashamed, hid his confusion +in a "Woa! drat ye, stan' still!" and a sheepish laugh. + +"Three is a lucky number, good gentleman. + + "'Three silver groats, + Three women's lives, + Three cows, three calves, + Three scolding wives. + The first to lie at your side, + The second to lie at your feet, + The third a widow, a witch, and a bride, + To sew your winding-sheet.'" + +The man, who had been twice married, and was not indisposed for another +venture, rode on in no slight perplexity, pondering this mysterious +doggrel, and more convinced than ever that the gipsy-folk, as he called +them, possessed some dark and dreadful knowledge, unlimited in scope and +embracing the future as the past. + +With a beating heart, that yet danced in her bosom under a sense of her +own happiness, Waif drew near the village of Porlock. She had decided to +exercise the utmost caution in approaching John Garnet's refuge, lest +her presence should in any way compromise his safety, or afford a clue +to his hiding-place. For one of her race, this was no difficult task. +Her gipsy experiences had taught her long ago to take advantage of every +irregularity of surface, even in so open a plain as Marlborough Downs; +and in such a country as West Somerset, with its narrow lanes, high +tangled hedges, scattered brakes, impervious copses, valleys, coombes, +and forests, rugged mountains, and broken moor, Waif could glide from +point to point as secretly and almost as swiftly as the very wild deer, +to which she bore some vague and fanciful resemblance. Since she told +the farmer his fortune three leagues off, no mortal eye had rested on +her form till she caught sight of the man she loved, within three hundred +feet. + +[Illustration: THE LESSON LEARNT.] + +Why did her colour fade, her breath come quick, her blood run icy cold? +There was a white dress by John Garnet's side, and that unaccountable +intuition, swift and subtle as the electric spark--that instinct of the +heart, which never hesitates and is never mistaken, told her the truth. +This was the meeting for which she had so longed, to compass which she +had cajoled Fin Cooper, deceived her people, and travelled afoot across +the heather all these weary miles! Waif trembled and her knees shook; +for the first time in her life she turned sick and faint. + +That cruel pain of hers though was not of the kind to gain relief from +insensibility. On the contrary, all her faculties seemed preternaturally +sharpened, while she writhed her slim body like a snake through tufted +grass and broad dock leaves, and all the luxuriant vegetation of the +adjoining meadow, to a hedge that fenced the orchard, where, parting the +tangled branches in her noiseless hands, she peered through, with the +eager, hopeless gaze of an outcast spirit looking on the paradise it has +lost. Not a smile, not a glance, not an unwise gesture of that fond, +foolish pair escaped the watcher. When John Garnet stooped to kiss +Nelly's brow, it seemed as if molten lead had dropped on her own and +seared it to the brain. Then it was that the white teeth clenched to +keep back a little piteous cry, and the nimble fingers stole to her +knife, as though she must needs bury it in his breast, whom she loved, +or hers, the rival's, whom she hated, or, better still, deep and +quivering to the very haft, in her own! + +But strong as is the passion of jealousy, it is not, especially in the +female breast, without an element of curiosity that is stronger still. + +To scream, to stab, to make any overt disturbance, would be to declare +her presence and debar her from hearing more. Waif bit her lip till the +blood came, and nerved herself to listen. Thus, as the lovers paced to +and fro, taking short turns, after the manner of their kind, and +stopping altogether in often-repeated pauses, for the interchange of +superfluous endearments, she made herself mistress of their secret and +overheard all their conversation. She learned, not without a bitter +pang, how short was John Garnet's sojourn in this fatal vicinity, where +she had been so soon and so easily forgotten. She learned the penalty +that would be exacted for his late exploit, in which she had herself +taken part, should his identity with the reputed highwayman be +discovered by those who were already on his track. She learned in a +brief period of eaves-dropping, that seemed an eternity of misery, more +of his daring courage and good-humoured recklessness--of those very +qualities she most admired and loved in him--than she ever knew before. +And, lastly, she learned that the whole scaffolding on which she so +unconsciously built the edifice of her future had crumbled into ruins +and crushed her own heart in its collapse. + +Waif had no God to whom she could pray in this agony of sorrow; but +looking round in wild appeal to sea and sky and mountain as though they +were sentient beings, her large dark eyes seemed to plead with Nature, +the only mother she knew, and to demand, in mute upbraiding, why her +punishment was greater than she could bear? + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +DUKE MICHAEL OF EGYPT. + + +A thorough gipsy bred and born, Waif so far resembled a wild animal of +the woods, that, when sore stricken, she instinctively sought her home. +Scarce knowing how, she sped back to the encampment of her people, swift +and straight as the red hind, that neither fails nor falters, though she +carries a bullet in her breast. It was not because she expected to find +comfort there, nor relief, nor even a moment's respite from pain, but +she felt constrained to keep moving, always moving, at the utmost speed +she could command, though as she flitted lightly from moor to moor, it +seemed to her benumbed and dizzy brain that she herself stood still, +while the acres of heather she traversed passed like running water +beneath her feet. + +Yet the sun was already down when she turned the head of a deep and +lonely coombe, which her tribe had chosen for their resting-place, and +caught sight of the little points of fire that dotted its heathery +ridge, toned down to dusky purple under the crimson flushes of the +evening sky. Kettles were already simmering before the brown, +weather-worn tents, and that happy hour of food and rest had arrived +which seems to recompense the gipsy for all the hardships of his +wandering lot, to make amends for toil and risk, rough usage, and coarse +fare, the frown of justice, the ban of society, an outlaw's life, and, +too often, a felon's grave. + +To-night, however, more than its usual tendency to revelry and rejoicing +seemed to pervade the camp. In the first place, this particular tribe +were honoured by the presence of their chief, a crafty old gentleman, +who chose to call himself "Duke Michael of Egypt," doubtless in memory +of that celebrated vagabond, who, early in the fifteenth century, led +his ragged troop through Saxony and Switzerland, leaving behind him, if +we may believe the old chroniclers, a better character than might have +been expected for good behaviour and honesty--nay, paying in hard money +for such articles as he required from the peasantry in the countries +through which he passed; an example, it is hardly necessary to observe, +scrupulously avoided by the Duke Michael with whom we have to do. This +worthy made it a rule, no doubt, to deny himself nothing he wanted that +might be had for the taking; and few matters, he often boasted, were too +hot or too heavy for his conveyance, but he could not have been induced +to give anything in exchange. + +It was as natural for his Grace to steal as to shape a tent-peg, mend a +kettle, or tell a lie. Yet in bearing and costume he varied probably but +little from his predecessor of the Middle Ages, as that nobleman's +likeness has been handed down in the rude woodcuts of the period. There +was the battered hat with a coarse and dirty kerchief rolled round its +brim, the pair of patched, ill-mended shoes, slashed at the toes and +slippered at the heel, of leggings worn and stained with mud from every +soil, the gaudy blanket rent and frayed to hide the greasy coat and +fouler skin beneath, with many another token of dirt, vermin, and +dishonesty to pervade the man from head to foot, and proclaim him an +outcast from his kind. The lapse of more than three centuries had done +but little to civilize or improve a Duke Michael of Egypt. + +Yet the battered hat perched on those abundant locks, now white as snow, +once black as the raven's wing, covered a brain that might have served +a statesman, for its keen perception, cool audacity, quiet +cunning--above all, for its administrative powers. That is no mean +intellect which can reign with dignity and rule with force, though the +palace be but a dingy tent, the subjects a gipsy tribe. Duke Michael +possessed the secret of government; and to-night, being more drunk than +usual, was better than ever assured of his authority and the loyalty of +his people. So loud were the bursts of hilarity in and about the great +man's tent, that Waif paused to listen on a ridge of moor overlooking +the camp, and forgot in her surprise, for perhaps the space of a second, +the pain gnawing at her heart. It was recalled ere she could be +conscious of relief. + +Fin Cooper's tall form, growing on her, as it were, in the twilight, was +already at her side, his voice whispering in her ear--"I've watched for +you, Thyra," said he, "since long before noon. The camp seems lonely and +empty when you leave it for a day; and I often wonder now how we could +do without you so many years! But what has been our sister's good luck? +Has she returned with pockets full of gold? Has she deceived and fleeced +the Gorgio, and stolen the very heart out of his breast?" + +Waif smiled a bitter smile. "The Gorgio turns the tables sometimes, +Fin," she answered. "When you deal out the cards to play, how can you +tell who is to rise up winner?" + +He looked sharply in her face. "You're tired," said he; "you that never +used to be tired, no more than the wild deer in the forest, the wild +bird in the air. Thyra! Thyra!" he added, and his voice came low and +husky, as if an enemy's hand gripped his throat, "there's something dark +come between you and me! Something that dims the light in your eye, and +takes the colour out of your face. What is it? Speak, girl, and tell the +truth. There's times when I could put my knife into you, and make an +end of it once for all. I'll do it some day, I know; I feel like it +now!" + +In her exceeding misery, but for the last sentence she might have told +him her secret then and there; but to threaten Waif was to throw stones +into the air that would fall back perpendicularly on a man's head. The +gipsy girl recovered her strength and courage in the drawing of a +breath. "That's a game for two players!" she answered fiercely. "I've +worn a knife, too, Fin, as long as I can remember, and I keep it sharper +than yours, I daresay. But what's the use of you and me wrangling? I'm +not bound to tell _you_ where I've been--when I go out--and when I come +in. You're not my master, brother; not _yet_!" + +She was sufficiently a woman to put just such an emphasis on the last +word as changed his mood like magic. In a moment he was her slave again, +ready to do her bidding, obey her lightest wish, no less eagerly than +when he went bird's-nesting for her in his boyhood, long years ago. + +"But you'll tell me some day," he pleaded, bending his tall form to look +in the girl's face. "You'll keep nothing from Fin, when we hang the +kettle at our own tent-door in the camp of the _Vardo-mescros_, and my +brothers troop in by scores to have a look at Fin Cooper's beautiful +wife; you'll tell me all your secrets then, Thyra, won't you? + +"Perhaps!" answered Waif. "In the meantime, will you tell _me_ what +makes this stir and noise amongst our people? They are swarming down +yonder like bees about a hive." + +"Duke Michael came in at noon," answered Fin, "and the kettles have been +singing in the smoke ever since. He brought the cart and the donkey and +both his wives from the cudgel-players' country" (Cornwall), "and never +halted but once to do a bit of tinkering on a moorland farm, till he +turned the head of the coombe here in our very midst. The women were so +tired, that Lura would have fallen flat to the ground if I hadn't caught +her in my arms, and lifted her out of the cart. Old Maggie was little +better, though she boasts that the Bosvilles of the Border want neither +food nor rest if they can get enough to drink; but the Duke tossed off a +_coro_ of brandy, pitched his tent, lit his fire, swung his kettle, and +went into business at once, as if he were thirty years old, instead of +getting on for ninety! There's been eating and drinking in plenty ever +since. Not a Romany will lie down sober to-night, Thyra, but _me_, and +I've you to thank for it!" He spoke in the plaintive tone of one who has +sustained injury from a beloved hand, but relents and forgives. + +A fresh burst of laughter, with the chorus of a song, led by stentorian +lungs, reached them where they stood. On Waif's strung nerves and weary +frame it jarred acutely; but Fin turned his head to listen with obvious +approval. "That's the Gorgio!" he exclaimed; "the mellowest voice and +the best man of his weight, this side Barnstaple, be the other who he +may! If we'd known more about him, we'd never played him such a trick to +bring him here!" + +"What Gorgio?" asked the girl, for whom there was but one in the world, +her foolish heart beating fast, with a wild hope that in some impossible +manner John Garnet might even now be a visitor to the gipsies' camp. + +"Why, the Parson, as they call him," answered Fin; "the jolly Exmoor +parson, who can tail an otter, harbour a stag, ride a colt, sing a song, +wrestle a fall, aye, and empty a pitcher, with the cleverest Romany lad +of us all. I wouldn't undertake him myself, Thyra, single-handed, not if +he was sober. We laid a trap for him, howsoever, and into it he fell; +so, here he is! Thyra, what makes you tremble? Do you know anything of +this roystering parson? I've heard strange stories of his doings on the +country side. Girl! you'll make me kill you now before you've done!" +His jealousy needed but a breath to fan it into flame, yet was to be +appeased no less quickly than aroused. + +"You're a fool, Fin!" she said with a laugh, which, though forced, +seemed reassuring to her lover. "It's neither you nor this parson of +yours that would make _me_ tremble. Keep your hands off and behave +yourself, or I'll go home this minute! I know the man you speak of, but +I never heard any good of him. How did our people bring him into the +camp, and why?" + +Fin's brow cleared, while he answered her question with a laugh. "The +Parson," he explained, "rears the best breed of fighting-cocks in the +West of England. There was one in his pen this morning, good enough to +take the crow out of the gamest _chiriclo_ that ever wore spurs. He's +safe in my tent now, with his head in a stocking to keep him quiet. This +day week, at Devizes, he'll be worth ten, aye, twenty guineas in red +gold. But the money would never have come my way, if little Ryley and me +hadn't 'ticed the Parson here!" + +"How so?" asked Waif listlessly, for her thoughts were travelling far +away. + +"When he means winning," said Fin, "he trains the birds himself; and +it's a job, as I've been told, to get him away from them for an hour. It +would take a better Romany than me, Thyra, or little Ryley either, to +_chore_ so much as a clout off a clothes-line if the Parson was within a +mile of the place. So how do you think we worked it? Why, we got up a +wrestling-match on the cross, you know, between Humpy Hearne and black +James Lee, in honour of our old man's visit, and we 'ticed the Parson +into the camp to see fair. He knows the rules of the ring and keeps them +all in his head as plain as print. He's the sort that would sooner ride +fifty miles to a fight than five to a prayer-meeting. So he up and puts +the saddle on, and down the coombe he swings at a gallop, as if he'd a +spare neck in each pocket, and leaps off before old Michael, with his +shovel hat in his hand. 'It's not every day,' says he, 'in our West +country, that a parson comes to visit a duke. Let's have a drink,' says +he, 'deep enough to do credit to both!' and with that he empties a +half-pint horn of brandy, and throws it over his left shoulder for luck. +There was a cheer you might have heard at Taunton. Our old Duke wasn't +to be bragged at such a game as that. He answered fair and honest, gill +for gill; so down they sat on a blanket by the tent-door, and they've +been at it ever since. In the meantime, little Ryley he slips round over +the moor and brings the _chiriclo_ back with him, coop and all. It's a +beautiful bird, Thyra. I'll show it you to-morrow as soon as it's light; +but if I'd known the Parson could sing so good a song, he should never +have lost a feather out of its wing, for Ryley and me!" + +Waif seemed thoughtful and preoccupied. Presently she looked up and said +quietly, "I must go and show myself to our old Duke, Fin, before he's +too far gone to see me. Will you come down to the tents? and, Fin, don't +you speak unkindly, that's a good lad, and don't you take much notice of +what I say and do. I've had a long walk in the hot harvest sun, and I'm +not quite myself to-day, that's the truth!" + +So she put her hand in his, and threading some half-score of tents, +every one of which was deserted for the great attraction of the Duke's +presence, soon reached an open space, where some thirty or forty +gipsies, men, women, and children, crouched round a scanty fire, +laughing, drinking, smoking, and all talking at once. + +It was a wild scene. Every now and then a gipsy would throw on another +faggot, and the pale flickering streaks of flame brought into shifting, +shadowy relief the grotesque figures of which the circle was composed. +In the background stood a common tinker's cart, though it seemed +wonderful that anything on wheels could have arrived in safety at this +remote and solitary nook, surrounded by leagues of moor; while the +donkey that drew it, calmly browsed and meditated in the enjoyment of +well-earned repose. Propping his back against the shaft, and raised some +inches from the ground by his own and his wives' blankets doubled +beneath him, Duke Michael of Egypt sat in state, with a short black pipe +in his hand and a pewter measure containing gin and cider at his knee. +Even Waif, accustomed as she was to many a strange sight amongst her +strange people, marvelled as she gazed. + +His dress, though ragged and filthy in the extreme, was made of costly +materials and the brightest colours, his coat being of fine blue cloth +dotted by spade-guineas instead of buttons; his waistcoat, faded +scarlet, bound with tawdry gold-lace; the very link that fastened his +stained flannel shirt at the throat was a gold seven-shilling piece! It +was thus that he loved to display the riches, of which he was as proud +as if they were the fruits of an honest calling. At one extremity of +this magnificence, stockingless feet peeped through a pair of rent and +clouted shoes; while, at the other, a woollen nightcap under a battered +hat, crowned the snow-white poll that contrasted ludicrously with his +swarthy face, tanned nearly black, and seamed with so many wrinkles that +it looked more like morocco leather than a human skin. + +Yet, even now, the dark eyes beneath their shaggy brows sparkled with +intelligence and fire; the deep voice, in which he passed his jest or +trolled his chorus, spoke of health and strength and vital energies +unimpaired by age. He had removed the pipe from his mouth, and was +pledging Parson Gale for the twentieth time, when Waif stepped into the +firelight, bowed her head in a graceful obeisance, and stood silent +before him with her arms crossed on her breast. + +The old man stared at this beautiful apparition for some seconds without +a word, obviously congratulating himself, the tribe, and the Romany +people in general, on the possession of so favourable a specimen of +their race. Presently he chuckled, took a pull at his flagon, and spoke +out: + +"Aye, aye," said he, "it's _you_, is it, my pretty lass? No need to tell +me who you are, my _rinkeny tawny_, my delicate brown beauty! There's +not such another face as that in the tribe, nor there hasn't been since +Lura there tripped over the Border out of Cumberland to be an old man's +wife, who had one too many already. And that's a score of years ago, and +more. Parson Gale! Parson Gale, I say, can your Reverence show us such a +pair of eyes in North Devon? I dare you to do it; or such a walk, such a +shape, such a foot and ankle as that. We have but one Thyra in the +tribe, Parson, and there she stands. Don't be shame-faced, man! look at +her well." + +But for an impatient tap of the little foot, Waif might have been a +statue, so immovably did she retain a posture of humility that the +etiquette of Duke Michael's court prescribed on a first presentation. +Even among the gipsies there rose a murmur of admiration, called forth +by her unusual beauty and assured bearing, suggestive of modesty and +self-respect. The Parson, a veteran toper, was still sober enough, +notwithstanding his potations, to recognise the girl he had seen and +insulted at Katerfelto's door. He was also wise enough to reflect that +here, amongst her friends and kinsmen, any allusion to that meeting +would be injudicious and unsafe. The gipsies were ready with their +knives, their blood was heated with drinking, the coombe was lonely and +secluded; his horse stood tethered two hundred yards off, and he was a +long way from home. He glanced respectfully, almost imploringly, in +Waif's face, while he replied with a discretion for which he deserved +some credit: + +"There's many a likely lass in North Devon, my lord duke, though I won't +say they come up to the beauty and wisdom of the Egyptians, but I'm no +great judge of such matters myself. They don't belong to my cloth and my +calling. I know a good dog when I see him, or a game-cock; I can tell +the points of a pacing nag, or the slot of a warrantable deer; but when +you talk of black eyes and blue, chestnut hair and brown, I'm at +fault--that's where _I_ am. No, no; I'm a far better judge of your +strong ale." + +"Well said, Parson!" exclaimed the duke, "you're one of my sort, I see; +and a right good fellow, too. Ah! if your Reverence and I could make the +world again, wouldn't we put fewer women in it, and more drink? Go your +ways, my lass," he added, nodding to Waif; "you're black enough, and +comely enough, to turn an older head than mine, and I guess I'm not very +far from a hundred. My service to you, Parson, we'll trouble no more +about the petticoats. The night is young, and that cask not half empty +yet." + +But Waif, while she retired, bestowed on Abner Gale a glance of such +deep meaning as to puzzle him exceedingly. While he passed the cup and +the jest with his entertainers, discussed the past wrestling-bout, of +which he was good enough to express approval, and even condescended to +sing a song in praise of that manly exercise, his thoughts persistently +reverted to the tawny delicate face with its mournful beauty, the large +dark eyes that looked into his own so sad and wistful, yet with fierce +impatient longing, like those of some wild animal from whom men have +taken away its young. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + +TEMPTED SORE. + + +There were few better horses in the West of England than Parson Gale's +black nag Cassock, a beast on which he had performed many surprising +feats of speed and endurance for trifling wagers amongst his friends. It +speaks well for the favourable impression made by their clerical guest +on his entertainers that the gipsies allowed him to retain possession of +so valuable a steed, when nothing would have been easier than to slip +its halter, and convey it secretly out of the camp while its master was +engaged in his debauch. These strange people, however, respected their +own peculiar principles of justice and fair-dealing, even in a life of +robbery and fraud. Holding somewhat stringent notions on the laws of +hospitality, they were, moreover, much fascinated by the Parson's +freedom of manners and great absorbent powers. Cassock, therefore, was +liberally supplied with the best forage they had to give; and when at +last, in spite of the duke's protestations and the entreaties of his +court, Abner Gale declared his intention of departing at once to travel +home by moonlight, a score of tawny hands were ready to adjust saddle +and bridle, to hold the stirrup while he mounted, and to wave a +good-speed after him as he rode away. + +Only Fin Cooper, a born horse-dealer and horse-stealer, regretted the +scruples of his tribe. "What was the use of plying the Gorgio with ale +and brandy," he murmured, as he lay down to sleep in his tattered +blanket, "if he is to leave the Romanies no poorer than he came to these +tents? I could have _chored_ that _gry_, that good black nag, aye, +stolen it twenty times over, while they emptied their cask by the fire, +and sold it back again, as likely as not, to the Parson himself fresh +and sober at Barnstaple Fair before harvest was done. And now I should +like to know how any one of us is the better for this visit? though he +sings a good song, I'll not deny, and takes his drink as free as old +Michael himself." Then, hearing the game-cock he had stolen stirring in +its coop, Fin thought better of his grievances and dropped asleep, +soothed by the reflection that the hospitality of his people had not +been without some return, nor his own ingenuity wholly thrown away. + +In the meantime Parson Gale, sitting rather loose in the saddle, was +rounding the head of the coombe in which he had been so hospitably +treated, with a wandering eye, flushed cheek, and brain dizzy, from the +strength of his potations. A harvest moon, high in heaven, flooded the +moor with light, so that the good horse picked his way through the +heather, avoiding the level patches of bog as easily as at noon-day. +Cassock had learned from a foal to mind his own footsteps, to look out +for himself in the scanty pastures he shared with the mountain sheep or +wild red-deer on the hills where he was bred, and could skim the +rush-grown swamps around the Black Pits of Exmoor, safe and swift as the +very bittern that flitted across those lonely haunts. Going freely from +his shoulders, but collected and prepared for effort behind the saddle, +with head low, ears pointed, and the froth flying lightly from his bit, +as he swayed at every stride to the turn of his rider's hand, he could +sweep along at a gallop over ground where an unaccustomed horse would +have stuck fast up to its girths before it had gone fifty yards. That +sense, too, which we call instinct in the brute, because of its +superiority to the power we call reason in the man, forbade him to +venture on any surface wholly incapable of affording foothold; and it +would have required all the persuasions of consummate horsemanship from +his rider to beguile Cassock into a real, unmitigated, fathomless +Devonshire bog. The horse was bred on the moor, and on the moor had +never yet met his match. To-night he seemed more careful than usual, +edging from side to side under his burden, as though conscious that on +him, the drinker of water, must devolve the duty of balancing his +master, the drinker of ale! He knew his way home, too, and could have +found it like a dog; nor would he have objected to increase the pace +considerably had he received the slightest indication that his lord was +inclined for a gallop. + +The Parson, however, had fallen into a meditative mood; such a mood as +might possess a rough imaginative nature amongst the fairest scenes in +England on a mellow autumn night. He paced along the sheep-track Cassock +had selected at a walk, now stroking his horse's neck with maudlin +kindness, now looking about him over the moonlit heather in affable +approval; anon sighing deeply, and raising his eyes to heaven, with a +meaningless smile. + +Yet was his brain busy too, busy with stirring memories, morbid fancies, +wild speculations--all the grotesque ideas that crowd into a man's mind +when imagination is stimulated and judgment warped by the influence of +strong drink. He seemed lifted, as it were, out of himself, and +incorporated with that external nature of which he was perhaps a more +faithful worshipper than he knew. He felt as if he could ride the +moonbeam with the fairies, join in its moan with the spirit of the +waterfall, shout aloud with the spirit of the air, or chase over its +mountain ridges the spirit of the moor. Speaking words of encouragement +to Cassock, he started at the sound of his own voice. The brushing of +his horse's legs, knee-deep in heather, made his blood run cold, for it +seemed to him that some phantom rider was at his heels. What if the +devil in person, on a coal-black steed, were to come alongside and +accost him, daring him to some break-neck gallop over rocks and +precipices, that his own dead body and his horse's might be found, +crushed and mangled in their fall, when the sun rose? He had heard of +such things, and said to himself he would scorn to refuse the challenge, +and would defy the devil then and there, less in the confidence of a +good conscience than in the evil courage of despair. He wished, though, +that he had filled his flask down yonder before he left the gipsy-tents. +A nip of brandy would do him a world of good just now, and keep out the +night air. Then, with the inconsistency of his condition, he threw open +his waistcoat and loosened the kerchief round his throat. + +Presently the man within the man, the working partner in the firm, who +never sleeps, never gets drunk, never loses his consciousness nor his +identity, even when contusions or alcohol have numbed to insensibility +his associate's weaker brain; the man who reproves us when we are +wicked, who laughs at us when we are fools; to whom we make apologies +for weakness, and excuses for crime, began to separate himself, as it +were, from the _corporeal_ Parson Gale, and take him to task with +half-indulgent cynicism, for the shortcomings of which both inner and +outer man were fully conscious. Said the one to the other, "See now, I +knew how it would be! You are at your old tricks again, Abner Gale, +though you promised me yourself, only last week after Mounsey Revel, it +should be the last time till Martinmas! You're not ashamed of it--not a +bit! You're a good fellow, you say, and cannot refuse a cup when it's +offered in good fellowship. All very well, my friend, but _respice +finem_! There's Latin for you. Ah! you knew a bit of Latin once; I +don't think it ever did you much good; but _keep your eye forward_! You +can do that still when you ride to hounds across the moor. Look to the +result. Already your hand has begun to shake; you can scarce button the +knees of your breeches till you've had your morning draught, and you +couldn't tie a fly to save your life. Already you know what it is to +hear a buzzing in your ears, and feel a shooting pain in your joints. +The last time you wrestled a fall with little Tremaine, he threw you +easily with a cross-buttock, and he is but a ten-stone man. It won't do, +Abner Gale--it can't go on! You'll be losing your nerve next, and what +is to become of you then? Cassock, my boy, you'll hardly know your +master when he's afraid to ride! but it hasn't come to that yet. Take a +pull, my lad, before it's too late. You've seen many a man as sober as a +judge, who is as happy as a king! It wouldn't be such a bad life, after +all, to shoot, and hunt, and fish, where you know every hazel in the +copse, every tuft on the heather, every pebble in the stream; to look +after your parish, speak a kind word to your poor, and come back at +night, hungry and happy, to meet a loving welcome in your own home. Pull +yourself together, Abner Gale; for all your reddened face and grizzled +hair, there's many an older man than _you_ goes wooing still. What more +should a girl want than bone and muscle, a good heart, and an easy +temper,--your temper is easy enough when you're not put out,--a joint at +the kitchen fire, and a slate roof over her head? So why should the +likeliest lass in all the West Country say nay? Abner Gale! Abner Gale! +there was one chance left, and may-be you lost it to-day, getting drunk +with a parcel of tinkers and gipsies on the open moor." + +Then the outer man reined in his horse; and while Cassock cropped the +luxuriant heather under his nose, looked long and wistfully over a waste +of uplands to where the moonlight broke in glints of gold upon the +Severn Sea. Below him yonder lay the sweep of Porlock Bay, and not a +stone's-throw from its edge, lulled by the lap and ripple of the tide, +slept the only woman on earth he wished to call his wife. + +But was it too late? Each by each, he recapitulated, with a certain grim +humour (for the night-air had not yet thoroughly sobered him), the +advances he had hazarded, the rebuffs he had received. Were these not +sufficiently explicit? Were those but the resources of maidenly reserve +and shame?--Or was there somebody she liked better? + +Bright and clear as the colouring of a picture came back the scene he +had witnessed when he found the stranger, sitting on the rocks by her +side. She had been more silent than common, he remembered, after the new +visitor took his leave; but he never thought her so beautiful, never +noted so deep a lustre in her eye, so rich a colour in her cheek. Was it +possible? Such things had happened before. Could it be that she already +loved this come-by-chance, and that he, Parson Gale, must be worsted in +the one object of his life; must run second in the race he would barter +his very soul to win? + +And now, had the devil been, indeed, following on his track, had he +ridden alongside, stirrup to stirrup, and offered him his fiendish +assistance, the evil spirit could not have more fully possessed the man +than while he ground a savage curse between his teeth, on himself, his +horse, his fellows, the brute creation, all nature, animate and +inanimate, to think that he should have lost Nelly Carew, the girl he +had coveted from her childhood, to an unknown stranger, the acquaintance +of a day. Somebody must pay for it. There should be no mistake about +that! Perhaps it was less Nelly's fault than her new friend's, this +young springald, who came into the West forsooth, with his town-bred +manners and his town-made clothes, to rob honest men of their own. But +town or country, the best of them should not poach on Parson Gale's moor +without hearing of it. He only wished he could find out something more +about him, that was all. If the devil himself offered to back him up +now, he would drive no hard bargain, but pay fair market price for his +help! + +[Illustration: THE TALE TOLD.] + +Cassock started violently, with a loud and prolonged snort. A more sober +rider might have been both alarmed and unseated, so suddenly did the +animal swerve aside from a dusky figure that rose against the sky out of +its very path; but a good horseman's balance seems little influenced by +unsteadiness of brain, and the Parson felt a thrill of triumph rather +than fear, in the wild fancy that his awful wish had been granted, and +the powers of evil had consented to afford him the assistance he +required. + +"Speak up!" he exclaimed, in a fierce and threatening voice, the more +angrily, perhaps, that he felt his flesh creep with superstitious dread. +"If you come straight from hell, I'll have a word with you before you go +back. Steady, Cassock, my lad. What, you know her, do ye? and it's only +the little gipsy-lass, after all!" + +The figure, dim and phantom-like as it stood there beneath the moon, +threw back its scarlet hood, and revealed to the Parson's excited +senses, no spirit from below, but Waif's tangible beauty, pale indeed, +and careworn, yet strangely attractive still, with its wild, sad eyes, +and wealth of raven hair. + +She laid her hand on Cassock's neck, and the horse tolerated her caress, +though his restless backward-moving ear showed he was only half +reassured. + +"I know you!" said Waif. "I've seen you before. I watched you from our +tents, and waited here to make sure Parson Gale, I can tell you +something you would give ten years of your life to know." + +She had waylaid him purposely at the bend of the coombe, that he could +not but pass to reach the level moor, arriving by a path only accessible +to an active hill-climber on foot, so that even had he come round at a +gallop, she must have been here before him. + +"Can you tell me my fortune, pretty lass?" returned Gale, with a forced +attempt at gallantry. "Give me hold of that slender little hand, and +I'll put a silver groat in it, if I have one left in the world." + +He leaned over his horse's shoulder while he spoke, preserving his +balance with some difficulty. Waif, keeping well out of reach, gave no +encouragement to his assumed familiarity. + +"Forget," she said, "for the time, that I am a gipsy, and that you are a +priest. Parson Gale, I know the wish that is nearest your heart this +very moment. You look for health, ease, happiness, and a good name like +your neighbours, but you would give the soul out of your body for +revenge!" + +He started; the certainty with which she had fathomed his desire, and +named its price, recalled the speculations of a few minutes back. Again +some nameless fear of the supernatural crept over him, and he shuddered +to think that for the compassing of his own eternal destruction, the +gipsy-girl's shape and semblance might have been assumed by the Prince +of Darkness, who thus accosted him face to face. He had seen a Romish +priest cross himself under a similar terror. He would have liked now to +make the holy sign, and wondered would it be any use? + +Waif, if she understood, only despised his hesitation. "I can give you +what you want," she said, "and I ask nothing of you in return." Though +spoken in a low voice, almost a whisper, every syllable passed through +her firm-set lips, hard, cruel, and distinct. + +With returning confidence rose the coarse overbearing manner that had +already lost this man so many friends. "Nothing for nothing," said he +with a brutal laugh. "Come, lass, exchange is no robbery; speak what you +have to say, and take a kiss from an honest fellow in return." + +Her delicate face expressed a loathing that the vainest of men must have +observed: but Waif had a task to perform, and she went through with it +systematically, to the bitter end. + +"The man you seek," she said, "is in your reach. The man who slew your +brother sleeps to-night within three leagues of you, in the hamlet by +Porlock Bay. When you stand face to face with John Garnet, tell him that +the gipsy-girl he betrayed delivered him into your hand." + +The words were hardly spoken before she disappeared behind the abrupt +ridge of moor that overhung the coombe, with a rapidity that seemed, +indeed, like the vanishing of a ghost. Ere the Parson could realise the +startling fact, that this stranger, whom he already hated with an +instinctive hatred, was the man he had sought in vain for weeks, +swearing to hunt him down to death in atonement for a brother's +blood--she was gone; and he rubbed his eyes in sheer amazement, almost +doubting, even now, whether this had been a vision of fancy, or a +creature of real flesh and blood. + +None the less did he resolve to take advantage of her communication, and +riding homeward across the moor, completely sobered by this mysterious +interview, determined to lose no time in setting about the destruction +of his enemy. + +But Waif, traversing aimlessly up and down, wandered through the woods +till the moon set, regardless of cold, discomfort, or fatigue, callous +even to the weight of misery that benumbed her brain, causing her to +move unconsciously, here and there, with smooth mechanical gait, like +one who walks abroad, having mind and senses fettered in the thraldom of +a dream. + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + +THE COLD SHOULDER. + + +Lady Bellinger at least was pleased. When her lord, reflecting that the +robbery he had sustained would render abortive his journey to the West, +ordered the horses' heads to be turned for London, his wife accepted +this alteration in their plans with a fervour of gratitude that +sufficiently indicated her dread of a prolonged _tête-à -tête_ with her +husband. Nor was his lordship unwilling to resume the dissipations of +the town, though entertaining shrewd misgivings as to the reception he +was likely to meet with from the sovereign and his ministers. In war, in +politics, or in love--in public affairs, as in private, there is no +excuse for failure! Success does not necessarily imply merit; but merit, +in the eyes of mankind, is a less valuable quality than success. There +have been shrewd and prosperous managers of the world's most important +matters, who have gone so far as to lay down this practical rule: "Never +employ an unlucky man!" + +Lady Bellinger was not obliged to have recourse to her drops more than +half-a-dozen times between Hounslow and London on the return journey. +She contradicted my lord hardly twice as often, and was good enough to +express a qualified approval of the scenery, the weather, even the +roads, which last were execrable. Mistress Rachel, too, seemed pleased +to think she was on her way back to civilized life, fresh from an +adventure that made her a heroine in her own eyes. The champion with the +blunderbuss was already reinstated in her favour; the other servants, by +dint of frequent excuses for their poltroonery, and by talking the +matter over till they had multiplied a hundred-fold the number and +weapons of their assailants, were persuaded they had shown a fair amount +of courage; and the whole party, with the exception of its chief, drove +back in the highest spirits through the leafy glades of Kensington, to +their town residence in Leicester Square. But Lord Bellinger's heart +sank as he approached his home. Even for a man of pleasure there is +something exceedingly fascinating in a political career, and here had he +failed the very first time he was put to trial! It is hard to fall and +break one's neck from the very lowest round of the ladder! Had he +managed his business discreetly and well, no doubt his name would have +been entered on that mysterious roll which prime ministers are supposed +to keep, for the advancement of their friends and supporters, +apportioning rewards for service, as an animal's food is regulated by +its work. To support in many divisions, a baronetcy; to expenditure in a +few elections, a peerage; for one timely change of opinion, an earldom; +and so on. But it seemed to Lord Bellinger that he had played his stake +in the great game--and lost! + +No sooner did he arrive at home, than, sending for a modish barber to +powder and arrange his hair, he dressed with exceeding splendour--a +ceremony his lordship never neglected, and to which he owed much of his +social success, assumed cane, sword, and snuff-box, called a chair, and +caused himself to be carried straightway to the Cocoa Tree Club and +Coffee-house. It was early in the afternoon, and several gentlemen were +absent at their country-seats, yet this resort of loungers and idlers +seemed sufficiently full. With the self-consciousness of human nature, +an instinct, that years of worldly training cannot wholly eradicate, +Lord Bellinger believed that his recent failure had made him a marked +man; and observing a knot of members congregated in the room, one of +whom held the scanty sheet of the _North Briton_ in his hand, felt +persuaded they must be engaged in discussing his politics, his +shortcomings, his inefficiency as a lord-lieutenant, and even his +character as a gentleman. There was something of disappointment mingled +with a sense of relief to observe that his arrival caused no break in +their conversation, created no more sensation than if one of the waiters +had entered and withdrawn. It is unpleasant, no doubt, to occupy public +attention only to be abused; but it is more unpleasant still to be +ignored entirely, and to find that when we thought the world was talking +about us, our name has never been mentioned at all. + +"I'll be judged by Bellinger!" exclaimed the gentleman who held the +paper, looking at the new-comer over the others' heads. "Bellinger +knows; Bellinger shall decide; Bellinger never leaves town even for a +day. Five guineas, Bellinger gives it in my favour!" + +"Done!" said a little man in a plum-coloured suit, with enormous ruffles +at his wrists, offering his snuff-box to the referee, who looked from +one to the other in vague surprise. + +"The fact is this," said the little man; "our friend Sir Alexander, +there, has been reading an account in the _North Briton_ of a fellow who +lives somewhere near Covent Garden, and keeps a kind of prophesy shop, +where half the ladies in town go to learn each other's secrets, and tell +their own. The newspaper affirms that he has been driving this trade for +years; and though all the while the prophet, or whatever he calls +himself, is a spy from over the water, that our ministry never found it +out! Sir Alexander vows it's impossible, and appeals to you, my lord, as +knowing more of the town and its wicked ways than any man in this room. +What say you, Bellinger? I have only five guineas on it; but if I had +five hundred, I would abide by your award!" + +Lord Bellinger's presence of mind rarely deserted him; and although with +the topic thus broached, the possibility of Katerfelto's treachery +flashed across his brain, he answered quietly: "You do me too much +honour, my lord; I cannot give an opinion. I have been in the country +more than a week." + +"The country!" repeated half-a-dozen voices, in tones of surprise and +incredulity. "Bellinger in the country! What, in the name of all that is +innocent, should take you to the country? You who have never slept a +night out of town since you came of age. Think of the risks! You might +have caught milk-fever or chicken-pox! We must believe it, my lord, +because your lordship says so." + +"It only shows how little a fellow is missed!" replied Lord Bellinger, +not too well pleased to find his absence had been unnoticed by those +among whom he considered himself a man of mark. "Did you never hear of +my coach being robbed; money and papers carried off; myself, my lady, +and my servants made prisoners on _parole_ by a band of gipsies, and a +highwayman riding a grey horse? On my honour, gentlemen, I believe not +one of you cares a brass farthing for any earthly thing that takes place +beyond ten miles from London or two from Newmarket!" + +He spoke bitterly, and with an energy so unlike his usual careless +manner, that the man in the plum-coloured coat gazed at him in +undisguised astonishment. + +"A grey horse!" repeated this nobleman, tapping his snuff-box. "The +best-actioned horse I ever saw in my life was a grey, and belonged to a +highwayman--a fellow they called Galloping Jack. It must have been the +very man!" + +"Two to one against him!" interrupted a bystander. "Ten guineas to five, +my lord, that no gentleman of the road would show such bad taste as to +rob Bellinger, or such deplorable ignorance as to suppose his purse was +worth taking." + +"I'll go you halves," said a tall youth. "I remember the grey horse, and +the man in the mask who rode him; what became of the horse I never +heard, but the man was hanged at Tyburn last November!" + +In the confusion of tongues created by this statement, offering, as it +did, a wide field for speculation, and originating many wagers on the +personal identity of the robber in the mask, Bellinger felt an arm +thrust under his own to withdraw him from the noisy circle into the +recess of a bay-window fronting the street, while a friendly voice +whispered in his ear: "Welcome back, my lord. I knew you had left the +town, if no one else did. I wish from my soul these gipsies and robbers, +and other scoundrels had turned you back before you reached Kensington!" + +It was Harry St. Leger who spoke, his comrade and associate in many a +scene of pleasure and dissipation little removed from vice, yet a +staunch friend nevertheless--not to be detached by misfortune, nor +daunted by disgrace. Such cases are less rare than those who hold by the +laws of ethics might suppose. The growth of the bog-myrtle is fresh and +fair, its fibres are tough and clinging, though it takes root in the +blackest and miriest of swamps. Harry St. Leger would have offered him +his last guinea ungrudgingly, and with no less flippant a jest, than he +would have shed his last drop of blood in a duel, to share his friend's +quarrel, as principal or second, or anything he pleased. + +"Why so, Harry?" asked Lord Bellinger. "Have you seen the minister? What +have you heard?" + +"They're in a devil of a stew down there," answered the other, +intimating with a jerk of his head the locality in which his Majesty's +Council conducted their deliberations. "They've had an enemy in the +camp, it seems, ever since the late king's death. Our Gracious himself +has been sitting on a powder-barrel, only he does not believe it; and +would care very little if he did. They've plenty of courage, _that_ +family, I must admit; we can't say as much for the others. Well, the +Scotchman is in a fearful state! The only thief-taker in the town who +knows a thief when he sees one, or how to take him, or can be persuaded +to try, was with the minister more than two hours yesterday. The other +side will put up somebody to ask a question directly Parliament meets. +The House is very ticklish about treachery. There's no saying how things +might go; and he dare not--no, he _dare_ not risk a general election. +The 'man in the street' says it's all _your_ doing. Fred, mind I know +nothing for certain." + +Lord Bellinger pondered. "Has anybody confessed anything?" he asked, +after some consideration. + +"Nobody who _had_ anything to confess!" answered his friend with a +smile. "The only man who could have told them what they wanted to know +wisely took himself out of the way. That idiotic newspaper which Sir +Alexander has been flourishing over his empty head made a better shot +than usual. There _has_ been a spy among us, no doubt, and rumour +mentions one or two names, I dare _not_. The fortune-teller, I can well +believe, had a finger in the pie; and people go so far as to say that +meetings were held in his house between staunch Hanoverian friends of +yours and mine, and other friends of ours who are supposed to be over +the water and unable to come back. Also, that arms were found in his +cellar, and gunpowder under his bed! All this goes in at one ear and out +at the other; but there's an ugly story about some royal warrants that +were never served; and I can tell you for certain, a very great man +holds your lordship to blame." + +"Because my cowardly servants wouldn't back me up, and I couldn't fight +a score of men single-handed!" exclaimed Lord Bellinger indignantly. +"Those were the very warrants that gaol-bird took out of my coach. I see +the whole thing now, and how cleverly it was done! I'm in a false +position, Harry, to say the least of it. The treason I don't so much +mind; but I cannot bear to think I should have been so 'bit.' Harry! +Harry! I shall be the laugh of the town!" + +"'Faith, when the town comes to learn it, I think you will!" replied his +friend. "But, in the meantime, 'tis as much a secret as anything _can_ +be that is known to half-a-dozen people. I'm the only man in this room +who has heard a word of it, you may see that for yourself. The conjuror, +or whatever he is, has departed without beat of drum. I need hardly +observe, that when they sent to arrest him he had eight-and-forty hours' +start. The house was shut up, and they were forced to break in the door. +I am told, when they did search it, they found an empty bottle on the +table, an empty chair at the fire-place, and an empty skull on the +chimney-piece. There were no directions left where the owner was to be +found; but I understand many very respectable people want him sadly now +he's gone!" + +"That's another difficulty," mused Lord Bellinger. "We shall never get +money at such short notice from anybody else. If you paid enough for it, +you could take it away with you then and there. He was a most useful +person, and I shall miss him prodigiously for one. However, that is not +the question. Harry, you have a head on your shoulders; what would you +do in my place?" + +"Get into my chair, and wait on the minister at once," answered his +friend. "When a man knows he is in the wrong, he should always take the +bull by the horns. The Scotchman believes you have been tampering with +the other side, and thinking it more formidable than it is, will scarce +venture to break with your lordship, once for all. It is but a game of +brag, Fred, and the boldest player wins. We will sup here together at +nine o'-the-clock, and you shall tell me how you came off." + +So Lord Bellinger, taking his friend's advice, mounted gravely into his +chair, and caused himself to be set down without delay at the minister's +official residence, where he found the great man holding a levee, +composed of the many who came to ask for something, and the few who +returned to give thanks. + +It chafed his lordship in no slight degree to be kept waiting in the +ante-room, while meaner men, not half so well-dressed, were admitted to +the presence of the minister. His own equals in rank and position nodded +to him as they passed in and out, but their greetings at such a time +were necessarily short and formal, so that he was unable to gather from +their manner how widely his failure had become known, or how deeply he +was supposed to be disgraced. It was not till the mayor of a country +town, a doctor of divinity, and a poor author who had helped to line +many a trunk, were admitted before him, that his patience utterly +failed. He was in the act of desiring his chair to be called, when a +grave man, addressing him in broad Scotch, held open the door of the +inner chamber, with an austere bow. + +There were some half-score persons present, bearing the proudest names, +holding the highest offices in the country. Lord Bellinger's quick eye +did not fail to mark how each looked eagerly from the new-comer to the +minister, as though to observe the nature of his reception. + +More erect than usual, for his blood was up, but with the graceful +bearing that never deserted him, his lordship stepped across the room +and made a low bow, almost defiant in the excess of courtesy which it +seemed to affect. The minister, who was engaged with a paper in his +hand, did not return the salutation for more than a minute. Lord +Bellinger ground his teeth, and the bystanders glanced in each other's +faces. + +Presently the great man raised his head, stared coldly at his visitor, +and returned his obeisance without a word. + +The bystanders breathed freely; there was no more doubt, then, of their +chief's displeasure, and they believed the interest of the scene was +past. But, as they told each other afterwards, "Bellinger was a very +awkward fellow to set down!" + +"My lord," said he, "I have waited on your lordship in self-defence." + +"My lord," was the answer, "your lordship's explanations must be made in +public, and reserved for another place." + +Then the minister turned on him a broad, ungainly back; and he knew that +in the Game of Brag, concerning which Harry St. Leger spoke so +hopefully, he had come off second best. + +But he did not fail to keep his appointment at the Cocoa Tree, arriving +there, indeed, somewhat earlier than the hour agreed on, and with an +appetite no whit impaired by the contrarieties he had experienced. "It's +the country air, I suppose," he observed lightly to his friend. "'Faith, +Harry, should I be forced to retire into the country altogether it won't +break my heart, if I'm always to be as hungry as now. Waiter! what can +we have for supper?" + +"Aitch-bone of beef, my lord," was the answer. "Beg pardon, my lord, his +grace has finished the aitch-bone; his grace never eats anything else. +Cold game-pie, cold chicken and tongue, cold partridges, wild duck or +teal, cold shoulder of mutton." + +"Anything but _that_, you knave!" replied his lordship, with a laugh. +"No, no, Harry; I've had enough cold shoulder to-day to last me the rest +of my life!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. + +DULVERTON REVEL. + + +"Thee be'est a drunken old twoad!" exclaimed a buxom countrywoman, +apple-faced and dark-haired, to her laughing mate, not the least in +tones of conjugal reproof, but rather as a delighted damsel of the +present time might say to her degenerate admirer; "how _can_ you be so +silly!" while the strapping fellow's sides shook, and his honest face +grinned from ear to ear at such homely jests and simple sights as both +had trudged half-a-score of miles into Dulverton to enjoy. It was an +hour or so after noon, and the Revel seemed at its height. Two or three +booths offered the indispensable refreshment of cheese, cold meat, and +cider. On the floor of a waggon, which formed his primitive stage, a +jack-pudding, as he was called, performed certain antics, affording +inexhaustible amusement to the spectators, who were never tired of +watching him inflate his cheeks, loll out his tongue, eat lighted +candle-ends, or feign to pull straws out of his eye. A fat lady, a +giant, and a dwarf were respectively portrayed on the sides of a van, in +which all three were supposed to be domiciled; while a drum, fiddle, and +brass instrument played appropriate airs without ceasing and cruelly out +of time. The rustics, many of them stout moorland men from the wilds of +Brendon and Dunkerry, or borderers of North Devon and West Somerset, +with here and there a swarthy, broad-shouldered visitor all the way from +Cornwall, strolled about, gaping, grinning, and drinking, in a high +state of contentment and delight, each with a ruddy-faced damsel at his +elbow, to whom, as occasion served, he offered his boisterous jest or +rude and hearty salute. These gallants were mostly fine specimens of +manhood, tall, straight, and well-limbed, with a frank, fearless air +about them, as though equally ready for a feast and a fray. The women, +while of lower stature in proportion, were exceedingly comely, some even +beautiful, dark-haired, dark-eyed, delicate of features, and with the +bloom of health mantling in their cheeks. One and all wore garments of +bright colours and daring contrasts. One and all drank freely of cider +and other liquors. One and all seemed resolved thoroughly to enjoy the +present, and make the most of Dulverton Revel, seeing that it came but +once a year. + +The band had just concluded a flourish of more than ordinary discord, +when a new arrival enhanced the excitement of the scene, causing a rush +from all quarters to encircle the strange vehicle, partly van, partly +cart, from which a pair of piebald horses, adorned with bells, were +unharnessed and turned loose to graze. With a dexterity that supplied +the want of screws, bolts, and such mechanical appliances, its occupant +quickly converted his carriage into a stage, on which articles of dress, +perfumery, and domestic use were exposed for sale; while he moved nimbly +about, flourishing over his head and displaying in turn laces, threads, +scissors, thimbles, a mousetrap, a gridiron, and a warming-pan, to the +intense delight of the bystanders. He was a meagre, active-looking man, +who might have been any age above fifty, wearing large green spectacles +to adorn a pale face and red nose, dressed in a blue coat bedizened with +gold lace, a red waistcoat, bright yellow breeches, silk stockings, and +an outrageously large cocked hat. Though his gestures were ludicrous, +and his jokes received with peals of laughter, his voice was grave, even +sad, and he never smiled; yet he had not occupied his post ten minutes +before every other attraction of the Revel was deserted in his favour. +The jack-pudding ceased his contortions, and embraced the opportunity to +swallow a mouthful of real brandy instead of artificial fire. The giant, +dwarf, and stout lady remained unsolicited in the retirement from which +they had not yet emerged; and even the strains of the band died away +into empty air without eliciting a single protest of disapproval or +regret. Dulverton Revel congregated itself round the stranger, and the +stranger seemed in all respects equal to the position. + +"Haste thee, wench!" said every Jack to his Gill, accompanying the hint +with a dig in his lady's ribs; "Thic' be the vun o' the vair, I tell +'ee! Do 'ee lose never a morsel. Gie I a buss, that's a good wench, and +I'll warrant I'll vind thee a fairing!" After which elegant address, and +a struggle for the salute thus purchased in advance, the rustic pair +elbowed their way into the circle round the cart in a high state of glee +and delight. + +The proprietor addressed his audience with the utmost volubility, +offering them, one after another, the different wares exposed for sale, +and making appropriate remarks on each. An ointment for sore eyes, that +would enable the purchaser to see through a brick wall; a salve for sore +lips, that would cause the opposite sex to imprint kisses whenever they +came within reach; a pocket mirror that, looked into by sunrise on +May-day, would reflect the future sweetheart's face; a mousetrap that +rid the house of vermin from the moment it was set on the kitchen floor; +a warming-pan, that retained conjugal love and discovered conjugal +infidelity; lastly, a pair of female garters, the only pair left in +stock, manufactured expressly for the Queen of Egypt, and possessing the +miraculous power of rendering their wearer invisible in the dark! + +After brisk competition these desirable appendages were knocked down to +a demure and blushing damsel, who was forthwith requested, in a +stentorian voice, to "try them on at once, and see how they fit." + +Ere the laugh, elicited by this audacious suggestion, could die out, the +vendor's eye, travelling round that circle of grinning faces, had +recognised two acquaintances in the crowd. Also, and this seemed of +greater moment, he suspected they recognised him in return. Of these the +first was a square, thick-set man, in clerical attire, being indeed none +other than Parson Gale. The second, tall, slender, swarthy, supple of +limb, and graceful of gesture, was Fin Cooper, the gipsy. Each attended +Dulverton Revel less for pleasure than business. The Parson, sore of +heart, and brooding over his wrongs, was yet so far hampered by the +necessities of domestic life that he had been obliged to ride down from +the moor to this festivity for the purpose of engaging a kitchen wench, +and his establishment bearing no high character for regularity and +decorum, there appeared some difficulty in filling the situation. + +In those convivial times, no affair, even of the most private nature, +could be conducted without a great deal to drink, and the Parson, +pledging one honest farmer after another in hard cider, dashed with +villainous brandy, had arrived at a very morose and uncomfortable state, +sober enough in head, but fierce, bitter, and sullenly despondent at +heart. + +Not so Fin Cooper. That worthy, who was indeed a temperate fellow by +preference, whose frame had been toughened from childhood by continuous +exercise, and who never slept under a roof in his life, possessed a +constitution on which no stimulant less powerful than raw spirit seemed +to produce the slightest effect. On the present occasion he had reasons +of his own for keeping his wits at their brightest. Dulverton Revels, +like all other gatherings of the Gorgios, afforded to every true Romany +many opportunities for gain and peculation. There was jewellery to be +exchanged with ardent suitors and the objects of their admiration. There +were games to be played at cards with yokels patient of loss. There were +horses to be sold, swapped, or even stolen, when occasion offered. There +were a thousand ways and means, all more or less profitable, by which +the gipsy could take advantage of his natural prey. + +But Fin Cooper had yet another object, causing the dark eye to glance +from face to face in restless search, the tawny hand to steal +unconsciously under the wide sash that swathed his waist towards the +handle of his knife. His suspicions that the girl he loved had set her +heart on a ruffling Gorgio, confirmed themselves day by day. Dulverton +feast would be a convenient place of meeting, and he had told Thyra that +he himself meant to be twenty miles off. If she held an assignation here +with her Gentile lover, he might be a witness to their interview, might +verify her bitterest fears, and satisfy himself of the worst! Fin +Cooper's face was evil to contemplate while he revolved this +contingency, and the salesman, delivering the garters to his blushing +customer, did not fail to draw his own conclusions from its scowl. + +As for Parson Gale, he stood before the cart for several minutes in mute +astonishment. Then he rubbed his eyes, stared, and exclaimed, +"Katerfelto! as I'm a living sinner!" while he brought his broad hands +together with a vigorous smack. + +His exclamation was not lost on its object. The latter glanced +stealthily round, bowed profoundly to his auditors, made them a little +speech, in which, with many jocose allusions, he informed them he was +about to shut up shop that he might eat his "bit of dinner," with a +promise to re-open again at three o'clock, and in a very few minutes the +cart had resumed its usual appearance and the proprietor had +disappeared. + +Half-an-hour later, behind a canvas screen, on the outskirts of the +Fair, a priest and a gipsy might have been seen in earnest conversation, +pacing to and fro, while they glanced about them as if loth to be +overheard, though a donkey rolling on its back, and a horse tugging at a +truss of hay, were the only eaves-droppers they had to fear. The gipsy's +air was respectful, even deferential, while he listened to his +companion. The latter seemed annoyed and distrustful. In his cunning, +clever face might be read an expression of disappointment and something +amounting to self-reproach. + +"How long is it since I dwelt with your people in their tents and did my +best to withhold the old Petulengro from the journey that grows easier +at every step; it must be more than seven years?" asked the priest. + +"Seven years and seven months, oh' my father!" replied Fin Cooper, "and +you promised to teach me how to read the stars aright the night before +you went away." + +"Yet you knew me to-day, Fin! knew me dressed up like a jack-pudding who +tumbles to amuse a score of clowns in a fair?" + +"I would know you, father, if you were buried and dug up again. I would +know you in another life, if there _is_ another life. Some things the +gipsy never forgets. Father, I am your servant; all I have is yours. It +is not much. Only a quick eye, a ready hand, and a sharp knife. Do you +not _wish_ to be known?" + +There was no mistaking his meaning. Katerfelto, notwithstanding his +perturbation, felt a thrill of triumph thus to have imposed on the +credulity of this rude yet keen-sighted nature. There is professional +vanity in every calling, even in that of the professional impostor. + +"My life is in danger, Fin," answered the Charlatan gravely, "so far as +it may be threatened by any casualty of this lower world. Worse than +that, I might lose my liberty, if I could be identified here, for the +sage and philosopher, who always made it his boast that he is the +gipsy's friend. Therefore I came to the West in the disguise you saw me +wear an hour ago. Therefore I speak to you now, dressed as one of those +Jesuit priests whom your people have so often sheltered at their need; +therefore will I appeal to them for a refuge till I can steal down to +the coast and put the blue sea between the gipsy's friend and those who +would do him harm. _Shoon tu_, dost thou listen, my son? Said I well?" + +"_Tatchipen si, Meero Dado!_ You speak truth, oh! my father," answered +the other. "And you will lodge with us to-night on the moor. The fullest +platter shall smoke, and the softest blanket be spread, for the gipsy's +friend!" + +Katerfelto shook his head. "If I came to your tent and claimed my own, +Fin," he asked, "would your welcome be so hearty and free?" + +The gipsy's face fell. "I love her," he said. "She was given to me long +before you bought her from our people. You told me I should have her +back at some future time, father, the morning you took her away. I +reminded her of it only yesterday." + +The other glanced sharply at him from under his bushy eyebrows. This was +scarcely as he expected. Judging from all he knew, he calculated that +Waif must have accompanied John Garnet into the West, and had vowed from +the moment he discovered her flight, that he would be revenged on both, +while he supposed they were in hiding together. He now saw that she must +either have required the assistance of her tribe or found it impossible +to elude their observation. He knew quite enough of the girl to be sure +that even while with her own people she would find opportunities to meet +her lover, and from that lover, lately his own emissary, he was still +inclined to exact the penalty, that all paid, sooner or later, who ran +counter to the designs of Katerfelto. + +"Keep her in your tents, Fin," said he with a smile, "and fear no +hindrance from me. But remember, though she is of a wandering nature, +and comes of a wandering race, a Romany lass may wander too free and too +far." + +Fin's dark face turned black as night. "I understand you, father," he +muttered. "You mean, you mean, that she has a Gorgio lover!" + +The veins in his handsome throat swelled while he spoke, and his voice +came so thick it was hardly intelligible. "I mean," answered Katerfelto +coolly, "that he whom the Gorgios call John Garnet is better out of the +way, both for you and for me and for Waif. He knows too much, and he +dares too much. Your eyes are as keen as a hawk's, Fin. Can you not see +that as he cozened me out of my horse, he would cozen you out of your +bride?" + +The gipsy's low, smothered laugh seemed the very reverse of mirth. + +"There is no better sheath for a Romany's blade," he answered, "than the +bowels of a pampered Gorgio." + +"My son," replied the other, "wisdom is the child of experience. Let +King George take the trouble off your hands, and pay you besides a purse +of gold for your forbearance. John Garnet's is a hanging matter, and a +reward of one hundred guineas is offered for his apprehension. Set the +bloodhounds on him at once, and the thing is done. Better by far keep +that long knife of yours for cutting your bread and cheese!" + +"I helped him," said Fin thoughtfully, "helped him, because Thyra bade +me, as frankly as if he had really been poor Galloping Jack come down +from Tyburn-tree. The bloodhounds might turn round and lay hold of the +informer. Counsel me, father. I can right myself so easily with three +inches of steel!" + +The other shook his head. No man alive had fewer scruples of mercy or +forbearance, but it was Katerfelto's nature to plot rather than execute. +While he would have felt no qualms in concocting or administering a +subtle poison, he shrank from the very idea of personal contest and +shedding of blood. "A hundred guineas of red gold," he answered; "think +of that, Fin, and then talk about a hand's breadth of bare steel! You +cannot compare them. Be advised by me, my son, and you will rid yourself +of a rival, win a bride, and gain a wedding-portion all in one sentence. +That Exmoor Parson. I saw him here to-day. I would venture a wager he is +drinking in one of the booths now. Watch for him riding home. He is a +magistrate; never fear him for that. Lay your hand on his horse's mane +and say to him in the king's name, 'I can show you the man you +want--follow me!'" + +"But would he not ask for the hundred guineas and get them himself?" +argued the gipsy, who, with all his strong passions, had a keen eye to +the main chance. "There is no justice nor fair dealing on either side +between the Romany and the Gorgio." + +For the first time during their interview Katerfelto laughed outright. + +"My son," he said, "I think I can trust you to look after your own +interests without assistance from me. When you have delivered John +Garnet into the hands of Abner Gale you will have accomplished your +object and mine. For my own part I will not return into the Fair. I need +hardly ask, Fin, if you are here alone?" + +"We are like the hooded crows, my father," answered Fin. "When you see +one of us you may be sure there are others not far off. We must needs +hang together, or the Romany would soon be swept from the face of the +earth." + +"Then let one of your people drive my cart to Exeter," continued +Katerfelto. "He will know where to leave it with no questions asked. As +for me, my son, I must make my way to your tents without losing an hour. +I have changed my disguise once to-day. I can change it a score of +times, if necessary; yet I would not that roystering Parson had +recognised me but now in the Fair." + +"I shall be alone with him on the moor presently," said Fin Cooper, in a +tone of meaning. "My father, do you desire that he should tell no tales? +Shall I silence him once for all?" + +Katerfelto pondered. "Not at present, Fin," he answered, after a pause. +"It will be better to make use of him when we want him, and put him on +the right scent. If a hound runs counter, the farther he goes the +farther he is left behind!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXII. + +A WARRANTABLE DEER. + + +Meantime John Garnet, enjoying the golden hours at Porlock with the +carelessness of his nature, thought no more of the toils that surrounded +him than the wild deer of the forest thought of the many preparations +made for its capture; of the good horses stabled, the staunch hounds +fed, the distances travelled by lords and ladies, the laced coats +tarnished, the bright spurs reddened, the jingling of bit and bridle, +the gathering of horsemen and varlets, the energy expended in a chase +that must be followed with so much pomp and circumstance for its +especial downfall. Large and stately, gliding from field to field, it +passed through the twilight, like some majestic ghost, to crop the yet +unharvested grain, or tear the juicy turnips from the earth, with +appetite unimpaired by misgivings of to-morrow, rejoicing in its pride +of strength, trusting implicitly in those fleet, shapely limbs that bore +it lightly over its native moor, as the wild-bird's pinions waft her +through the air. + +How many centuries have elapsed since the fatal morning that saw the Red +King mount for his last ride through the stately stems of Bolderwood! +How many since that woful hunting in Chevy Chase which began in joyous +notes of hound and horn, to end in the battle-cry of the Percy, the +sword strokes of the Douglas, and the pouring out like water of the +bravest, noblest, gentlest blood two countries could afford! Yet has the +pursuit of the wild animal by the instinct of the tame continued to be +the favourite sport of Englishmen from those rude times to our own, +while now, as then, many a bold, adventurous nature, panting for an +outlet to its energies, finds engrossing occupation in the pleasures of +the chase. + +Taken in good sense and moderation, as each man's discretion teaches him +to judge, the draught thus offered by a bountiful providence, which +provides for our mental health the sweet no less freely than the bitter, +is exhilarating in the extreme. It rouses our manly qualities of mind +and body, excites our intellectual faculties and our muscular powers, +braces the nervous system, stimulates to healthy effort the vital force +of arm and heart and brain. Many of the most distinguished men in every +time have been "fond of hunting." Few men "fond of hunting" but are +frank of nature, kindly, generous, unselfish, and good fellows, to say +the least! + +If such a position be granted, it follows that all hunting, conducted in +a spirit of humanity and fair play, is more or less to be esteemed. The +stout sexagenarian who halts his steady cob on a hill, and from that +point of vantage watches in the valley below his ten couple of beagles +unwinding and puzzling out the line of a hare that has just crossed +under his pony's nose, without assisting them by so much as a whisper, +is a sportsman to the back-bone. No music on this lower earth can ravish +his ears like the tuneful cry of his little darlings, who are indeed +nothing loth to hear their own voices, and refuse to hunt a yard without +assuring each other that it is all right. No triumph can afford him +greater pleasure than his ride home to dinner with a hare dangling +across his saddle, honestly killed by the patience and perseverance of +that tedious pursuit which has fairly wearied her to death! and when he +lays his head on his pillow, before his closing eyes passes a vision of +Challenger opening in the turnips, of Rock-wood and Reveller feathering +with scarce a whimper up the stony lane. + +Surely his enjoyment is undeniable as that of his converse, the +scarlet-coated hero in vigorous manhood, who bestrides three hundred +guineas' worth of blood and symmetry, while he watches a gorse covert +shaking under the researches of twenty couple of high-bred fox hounds, +wild with eagerness to push up their game and dash after him over the +sea of grass that lies spread around, like falcons on the wing. A +physiologist might study to advantage the countenance of the rider; an +artist would long to portray on canvas the attitude of the horse. + +These two friends, loving each other dearly, are moved by a common +sympathy. Simultaneously the eyes of each brighten, and their hearts +beat fast. A crash of music from two score merry voices proclaims that a +fox has been found, a hat held up against the sky-line, and, after a +discreet interval, one long, ringing holloa announce that he is away! +That joyous excitement for which some men are content to live, and even +in a few sad cases to die, has begun in good earnest now, and trifling, +puerile as it may seem, I doubt whether any pursuit in life affords for +the moment such intense gratification as "a quick thing over a grass +country, strongly enclosed, in a good place, and only half-a-dozen men +with the hounds!" + +Rider and horse, I say, are moved by a common sympathy, science and +conduct being furnished by the man, strength, speed, and courage by +the brute. From field to field they speed rejoicing, facing and +surmounting each obstacle as it presents itself, with a varied +dexterity of hand and eye that amounts to artistic skill, and even +should unforeseen difficulty or treacherous foothold entail a downfall, +rising together, parted, but not at variance, each perfectly satisfied w +ith the efforts of his friend. Then, when the rattling burst is over, +and the hounds are baying round a good fox who has never turned his +head from the distant covert that killing pace alone forbade him to +reach, how fond the caress laid by stained glove on reeking neck, how +proudly affectionate the muttered words of praise, a generous animal +interprets by their tone. "You're the best horse in England. I never +was so well carried in my life!" + +[Illustration: MOONLIGHT.] + +But of all forest creatures hunted by our forefathers and ourselves, the +stag has been considered from time immemorial the noblest beast of +chase. His nature has been the study of princes, his pursuit the sport +of kings. The education of royalty itself would once have been thought +incomplete without a thorough knowledge of his haunts and habits, while +books were written, and authorities quoted, on the formalities with +which his courteous persecutors deemed it becoming that he should be +hunted to death. To this day the royal and gallant sport flourishes in +West Somerset and North Devon with its former vigour. When George the +Third was king, that wild, romantic western county was already famous +for staunch hounds, untiring horses, and daring riders, no less than for +the strength, size, and lasting qualities of its red deer. + +An animal that can fly twenty miles on end for life, and die with its +back to a rock, undaunted in defeat, a true gentleman to the last, is +surely no unworthy object of pursuit. + +But what are these shadows that cross the Barle by moonlight, with the +water dripping like molten silver off their sides as they emerge one by +one from the glistening stream to disappear again in the black night of +its overhanging woods? And is not that their king who lags behind, with +beam and branches of those wide-spread horns flashing in points of white +as he stoops his crowned head to drink, and passes on? No shadow this, +but a stately beast in all the strength and beauty of its prime. A stag +of size and substance, with goodly fat on his ribs and many tines on his +antlers. Thickening, too, somewhat in the neck, for already the clear +air of an autumn night tells of early frosts, and soon the peaceful +majesty of his repose will change to turmoil of love and war. In the +meantime he feeds lazily on, turning without apparent object in a +different direction from the herd. + +Thus he wanders over a broad surface of country--now cropping the rank +grasses that border the Exe, ere he dashes through its swift and shallow +stream as though disdaining a bath that only reaches to his knees. Anon +dallying with the standing oats, that pine thin and scanty on a bare +hill farm, by the verge of the forest; then crossing the swampy skirts +of Exmoor at his long jerking trot, to rouse the bittern and the curlew +from their rest, he makes his way by many a broken path and devious +sheep-track to the impervious coppices and steep wooded declivities of +Cloutsham Ball. It is an hour or two before dawn when he reaches this +well-known haunt, and the lordly beast, penetrating to its inmost +thicket, lays himself down with the intention of sleeping undisturbed +till late in the day. + +With an indolent hoist of his haunches, that hardly seemed an effort, he +has cleared the hazel-grown bank round his resting-place in a spring +that covered some five or six yards, but left imbedded in the yielding +clay a distinct impression of his cloven feet. Therefore Red Rube, +stooping over the slot at daybreak, chuckles inwardly, and observes to +his flask, "a warrantable deer!" kneeling down to examine the footprint +more closely, and measure its width by the fingers of his own brown +hand. Then he takes a wide circuit, embracing several favourite passes +for deer, and satisfies himself that, save one light hart or "brocket," +as he calls it, not another animal of the species is this morning +harboured in Cloutsham Ball. + +The stag-hounds are to meet some two miles off to the eastward. It must +be travelling that distance with the sun in his eyes that causes Red +Rube to blink and grin and occasionally hiccough all the way to their +accustomed trysting-place. + +He is there betimes with his broken-kneed pony, yet two riders have +arrived before him. Rube chuckles and sidles up to them. + +"Your servant, Mistress Carew--your servant, your honour," says he, in a +deferential tone. "The spurs had need be sharp to-day, master. I'll +warrant there'll be wicked riding, with the likeliest lass in Devon +looking on!" + +Nelly Carew deserved the epithet. The close-fitting blue habit so well +set off her trim figure, the saucy little hat was so becoming to her +fresh delicate face, that it seemed no wonder John Garnet's eyes should +be fixed on his beautiful companion rather than on the opposite ridge of +moor, over which hounds and horsemen were expected every moment to +appear. + +And Nelly, too, was more than proud of her cavalier. How handsome she +thought him, and how princely, with his dark eyes, his ruddy cheeks, his +pleasant, careless smile, and clustering hair. Never another rider in +the West, thought Nelly, could sit his horse so fairly, and where in the +bounds of England was the steed to compare with Katerfelto? "I used to +think Cowslip the most beautiful creature in the world," said she, +patting her favourite's neck; "but your horse has quite put me out of +conceit with mine." + +"I know _who_ is the most beautiful creature in the world," answered +John Garnet, not unconscious that he had arrived at the idiotic stage of +his malady. "I have never seen her equal, and never shall; but we'll +argue that point going home," he added, while his bright eye grew +brighter. "There's no time to wrangle now, sweet Mistress Nelly, for +here come the hounds!" + +Cowslip and Katerfelto raised their heads at the same moment, with +pointed ears and eager, solemn eyes; the grey indulging in a snort of +approval and delight. + +The cavalcade, consisting of huntsman, hounds, a whipper-in, and half a +score of sportsmen, were to be seen filing across the moor in slanting +line down the opposite hill. + +John Garnet tightened his girths. "It won't be long before the fun +begins," observed this impatient young man. + +Nelly laughed. "When you know our country better," said she, "you will +find out that a mile in distance with a coombe to cross, sometimes means +a good half hour's-ride. Let us go and meet them," she added, putting +Cowslip into a canter. "Here comes my aversion, Master Gale." + +The Parson, mounted on his staunch black nag, was within a bow-shot, +trotting softly through the heather, husbanding strength for the +exertions of the day. Even to John Garnet's eyes, prejudiced as he was +by Nelly's dislike, there seemed much to admire in the bearing of man +and horse. The free, stealing action, the close and easy seat, the light +hand, the well-bitted mouth, the confidence of the one, the docility of +the other, and the good understanding prevailing between them, argued a +partnership that prided itself on encountering difficulties and setting +danger at defiance in concert. + +"He looks like _business_, that parson of yours," said John Garnet to +his companion, as they bounded away together; "if he's half as good in +the pulpit as he seems in the saddle they ought to make him a bishop!" + +Nelly's only answer was a little grimace of disgust, followed by a +loving smile. + +Meeting the assemblage of stag-hunting sportsmen, already increased by +fresh arrivals, who turned up from every quarter as if they were the +natural growth of the moor, John Garnet could not but observe that many +a practised eye travelled approvingly over the symmetrical shape of +Katerfelto ere it rested on the better known beauty of Mistress Carew. +The honest squires whispered each other with nods, winks, and looks of +intelligence. + +"'Tis a rare bit of horseflesh!" said one in a faded scarlet +hunting-frock with tarnished lace. "Strong as a yoke of bullocks, and +light as a January brocket. Seems to me, neighbour, I've seen that nag +before." + +"Like enough," was the answer. "Thof I never thought to clap eyes on's +rider again. That's the lad robbed Sir Humphrey and his three varlets +single-handed a twelvemonth gone last Whitsuntide, by Upcot Sheepwash, +and showed six hours afterwards in the market at Taunton town. It's +fifty miles, squire, if it's a furlong. Aye, aye, a good horse, +neighbour, and a bad trade." + +"I heard tell he was hanged!" said the listener, opening round eyes of +astonishment. + +"He did ought to have been," replied the other. "But Galloping Jack had +good friends in the West, and a good friend he's been himself, not so +long ago neither, to one or two honest fellows you and me would be main +vexed to see called to account. Live and let live, says I, but if we +find a right stag in yonder hazels who knows his way to the sea, why, +that grey horse and his rider are bound to be at one end of the hunt, +and I leave it to you, neighbour, to say which!" + +With these words he dismounted heavily to adjust girths and bridle, for +Red Rube was already in close confabulation with the huntsman, and +business seemed about to begin. + +The harbourer looked more than half-drunk, yet not for an instant was +that sagacity of his at fault which partook rather of animal instinct +than human experience. + +"The old stag will move the brocket," said he, with a laborious wink, +"and it's _your_ business to drive him to the moor, Abel. I'll warrant I +bring you within a land-yard of 'un, and all as _you've_ got to do is to +catch 'un if you can!" + +"Tancred and Tarquin will do that much," replied Abel, a man of few +words, and in less than a minute those venerable "tufters" were +uncoupled and at his horse's heels, forcing their way through the +tangled underwood. + +To control twenty couple of hounds hunting different lines is no easy +matter. One or two are held in command without difficulty, so that their +staunch pursuit may be transferred from scent to scent till they have +forced the right deer into the open, when they can be stopped, while the +body of the pack are brought up and laid on. Then for the crash, the +chorus the jubilee! Hark together! Hark! and Forrard away!! + +The brocket's heart beats fast at the first note of the "tufters," and +well it may. Tancred and Tarquin are two majestic black and tan hounds, +six and twenty inches high, with sweeping ears, pendant jowls, and large +lengthy frames, nearly as heavy as himself. For one palpitating moment +the wild deer's instinct prompts him to leap from his lair, and scouring +at speed across the moor to seek the distant fastnesses of Swincombe, +the gorge of Badgeworthy, or wheeling down-wind, like a bird on the +wing, by Culbone slopes, to take refuge in the hanging woods of +Glenthorne where they fringe the Severn Sea. But the next, a deep, loud, +and melodious roar, seems to paralyse his very heart, and he crouches to +the earth, scarce daring to move an ear. Suddenly the branches crash +behind him, an antlered head looms wide and stately between him and the +sky, while he leaps to his nimble feet in a bound that is hastened by +the sharp thrust of a horn against his haunch. In less than a minute the +old stag couches in the young one's lair, and the brocket, scared with +fear, is darting across the moor like an arrow from a bow. + +[Illustration: MOVED!] + +"Hark back, Tancred! Tarquin! TARQUIN! hark back!" Morose and solemn, +conscientiously, yet sore against the grain, these veterans desist from +their pursuit, soon to be rewarded for this disciplined sagacity by a +nobler quarry, a higher and stronger scent. But for a leap that covers +twenty feet of distance, and lifts his antlers twice his own height in +air, the old stag's flank would be torn by Tancred's reeking muzzle, his +haunches crushed under Tarquin's weighty paws. But no! with half-a-dozen +bounds he crashes through the hazels, speeds up a narrow glade, and +emerges stately and triumphant on the open moor. + +Standing erect upon an eminence against the sky, he pauses one instant, +as if to afford his pursuers an opportunity of noting his grand +proportions and noble width of head. All eyes are turned towards him in +admiration and delight. + +"Beautiful!" exclaims Parson Gale, forgetting the existence of John +Garnet and the terms of his own wicked oath. + +"Beautiful!" whisper the lovers, exchanging a lover's glance, while +Katerfelto's rider feels a thrill of delight creep through his whole +frame with the consciousness of his horse's speed and endurance; nor can +Nelly herself spare him more than half her attention, so taken up is she +with the gallant appearance of the deer. + +"Beautiful!" echo the honest squires and yeomen, already speculating on +the line, and anticipating the severity of the chase, while Red Rube, +with his hand pressing Abel's knee, who is laying on his hounds with a +cheer, thus delivers himself:-- + +"Brow, Bay, and Tray, I tell'ee, with four on the top! All his rights, +as I am a living sinner, a warrantable deer, if ever there was one, or +I'll eat'un, horns and all!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII. + +AT FAULT. + + +In the first ten minutes of a run with hounds everything else must needs +be forgotten, for in these minutes men cast to the winds all earthly +considerations but one, viz., how to get as close to the chase as +possible, and keep there! It is not too much to say that a league of +heather had been traversed at speed ere Parson Gale found he could spare +a thought for anything but the holding together of Cassock, and the +making the most of that good horse's powers. + +His skilful riding, however, and intimate knowledge of the country, soon +enabled him to draw rein on a slope of rising ground, while the line of +chase, bending towards him where he stood, afforded a general survey of +the whole pageant as it swept on. + +The hounds, stringing in file through its tall luxuriant heather, +threaded the deep, dim coombe he had skirted so judiciously, in a +sinuous line, like some spotted serpent of gigantic length. Seen from +the vantage ground above, they seemed to be running at no great pace, +though with much energy and determination; but John Garnet, who had +plunged into the valley at their sterns, could have told a different +tale. It taxed even Katerfelto's powers to keep on terms with them as +they rose the opposite hill, Tarquin and Tancred swinging along at head +with a steady persistency that implied endurance till the close of day. +Except the stranger on the grey horse, not another rider was within a +mile of the pack. Abel had adopted the same line, though not quite so +skilfully, thought the Parson, as himself, and was leading his active, +cat-like little horse up a precipitous ascent to regain the ground he +had lost. Mistress Nelly could be seen on the white pony, a speck in the +distance, making for some rocks on the moor, where her experience taught +her the deer was likely to pass, and was followed by no inconsiderable +cavalcade. Other sportsmen rode at speed for other points, some in bold +relief against the sky-line, some mere spots of red on the brown expanse +of moor, all with their horses' heads in different directions, yet each +persuaded that his own line was the best and would eventually land him +alone with the hounds! + +Alas for the fallacies of experience itself when pitted against chance! +Alas for the caution of age and the cunning of wood-craft! Alas for the +heavy-weight rider and the horse that knew not how to gallop! After this +one turn, of which the Parson so readily took advantage, the stag never +paused nor wavered, but sped across the open straight as an arrow, six +miles on end, without halt or hindrance, and the hounds ran him without +a check. + +"Curse him! curse him! how he rides!" muttered the Parson, watching that +grey horse sail over the moor, in smooth and easy stride, like the +stroke of a bird's wing, while John Garnet sat home in the saddle, and +chose his ground with the judgment of one born and bred in the West. +Katerfelto carried his master without difficulty alongside of the +hounds; Parson Gale, half-a-mile off, with no immediate prospect of +getting nearer, admired and envied the daring rider, even while he swore +to have his blood. + +Half-a-mile astern, in an enclosed country, is bad enough but to be +half-a-mile behind a good horse crossing Exmoor at speed with a pack of +hounds in front, is virtually to be in another kingdom! To save his +life, the Parson could not come within hailing distance of his foe, do +what he would. + +Yet he tried his wickedest! Cassock's sides were scored with the +unaccustomed spur. Cassock's speed was taxed unfairly up steep incline +and over level marsh. The black nag was as good a beast as ever looked +through a bridle, but he carried a stone and a half more weight, and had +neither the blood, nor the size, nor the speed and scope of Katerfelto. +"He's a heavy deer," muttered the Parson, with an unclerical oath and a +strong pull at his horse. "He'll hang in Badgeworthy woods, or 'soil' in +Badgeworthy water. It's the only chance in the game now, for at such a +pace as this, the farther I ride the farther I am left behind!" + +Not once in a season, not once in ten seasons, had the Parson been so +out in his reckoning. The wild red deer while he is the noblest and most +courageous of those forest creatures that trust for safety to their +speed, is also the most eccentric and unaccountable in his flight. Let +us borrow the grey-speckled wings of the moor-buzzard hunting leisurely +overhead, and accompany our stag through the rush-grown swamps of +Exmoor, as he crosses its undulating surface at that free pitching +gallop which he seems so rarely to hasten in alarm, or to modify from +fatigue. + +His taper head and noble antlers are thrown slightly back, his dark and +gentle eye seems fuller than in repose, but brightened by a +consciousness of intelligence rather than by the tension of anxiety or +distress. His nostrils are spread to catch the taint of an enemy in the +breeze, and his mouth is open, while he is yet fresh and full of +strength. When he closes it, there will be many a reeking flank besides +his own, for wind and limb will have failed at last, and the only force +left him then will be the courage to die. In the meantime he is all +energy, vitality, and speed. To be hunted is but a generous rivalry that +tests the powers in which his spirit takes pride, that wages his own +endurance and sagacity against the hostile instinct of his natural enemy +the hound. Speeding over the moor, it seems that he can mock at the +untiring hate of Tarquin, Tancred, and their comrades, yelling on his +track, fierce, busy, and persevering, but many a furlong in the rear. + +Badgeworthy woods and copses frown darkling before him. Badgeworthy +water brawls in foaming jets and rippling eddies at his feet. The covert +would seem to offer safety and concealment, the river to afford at least +refreshment and temporary respite from pursuit. With a strange and +wilful pertinacity, for which Parson Gale, labouring hopelessly behind, +is at a loss to account, he shoots away from this tempting refuge of +wood and water, coasting a precipitous hill that overhangs the stream, +to speed along its dangerous incline at a pace that seems but to +increase with the prospect of fresh exertions in an open country, +unbroken by coombe, covert, or ravine for miles. + +Even John Garnet, standing in his stirrups and easing Katerfelto, who +has not yet demanded any such indulgence, begins to ask himself how long +this kind of thing can last. + +The sun is already high in a blue, cloudless heaven--blunt, grey +boulders studding the steep hill-side stand out in high relief, shilt +and shingle glitter on the bare tops above, and bushy tufts of heather +fade to a dusky purple below; but here and there green moss lies dank +and soft round many a bubbling spring, while a breeze from the north +fills lungs and nostrils with its cool, clear air, so that the deer, +taking the wind sideways as it takes the hill, bounds on with +ever-increasing speed, refreshed, invigorated, full of strength, and +running still! The dark, impervious glades, the deep precipitous ravines +of Widdecombe are frowning yonder in the distance, though many a mile of +moorland intervenes; they seem to offer a secure retreat, and even if he +should be driven through that stronghold, and forced into the open once +more, shall he not make his point in the cliffs beyond Combe Martin, +steering for yonder thread of blue on the horizon, that promises death +or freedom in the Severn Sea! + +Who shall say that all this calculation, this strategy, this reflection, +is so far below reason, as to be called instinct? Even Red Rube, many a +mile behind on his pony, taxing his resources of intellect and cunning, +backed by the observation of fifty years, that he may arrive somehow at +the finish in time to hear the "bay," confesses he is but a fool when +his wits are pitted against those of a deer driven to its last shifts. + +He is riding slowly and doggedly, due west, without a soul in sight. He +could not explain why he should have chosen this direction, but some +mysterious instinct of the hunter tells him that thus only has he the +slightest chance of seeing any more of the chase. + +In the meantime vexation, confusion, and distress prevail for many a +weary mile of rocky steep, tangled heather, and holding swamp. Here a +good horse, floundering to the girths, emerges from the mire with a +throbbing flank and staring eye that tell too plainly their own sad +tale. His master, pretty well exhausted also in the struggle, standing +hopelessly on foot, while friends and neighbours, in but little better +plight, come labouring past, each man riding faster than his horse, and +pointing eagerly forward to that distance he must never hope to reach. + +The last of the string, whose powers are dying out like the flame of a +candle, sinks from a false and labouring trot to a reeling walk, which +soon collapses in a dead stop. + +"I've shot my bolt too, neighbour!" says the defeated sportsman to his +comrade in distress. "It's many a long day since we've seen such a brush +as this over Exmoor, and I'd try to finish the run now in my boots, only +I've grown so plaguy lusty for climbing these hills!" + +So they lead their horses homeward despondently enough, with many a +longing, lingering look at those lessening forms that are yet far in +rear of the actual chase, and many a speculation as to when it will end, +what direction it will take, and who are the lucky ones with the hounds. + +There can be no run so good in reality as that which we lose in +imagination when beaten off by exigencies of country or pace. + +Tancred and Tarquin are leading no longer. The grandson of the former, +nearly an inch higher than himself, has come to the front, and for the +first time since his puppyhood vindicates the purity of his lineage, and +proves the staunch, determined qualities of his race. He has never +hitherto run at head, but now, when the pace is best, he takes the scent +from his grandsire by sheer force of nose and wind and speed. Not +another hound in the pack can wrest from him his post of honour in the +front; and it is a pity that John Garnet, who knows nothing about him, +and cares as little, should be the only man near enough to mark the +excellence of his performance. Were they but there to see it, the young +hound's dash and style, tempered by undeviating steadiness in pursuit, +would fill Abel's eyes with tears, and call forth a blessing from Parson +Gale's lips! + +That keen sportsman is cursing volubly instead, though none the less +does he take every advantage of ground, cut off every angle, and avoid +every swamp in the line; therefore Cassock gallops steadily on at a +fair, regulated pace, which neither increases nor decreases the +disheartening interval between his rider and the hounds. + +"I would give five years of my life," mutters the Parson, "to be lifted +up by some supernatural power and set down half-a-mile, just half-a-mile +farther on!--ten to be riding that grey horse instead of the man who +owns him! But the reckoning must come at last, and may my right hand +wither at the wrist if I make it not the fuller and deadlier for every +hour it is delayed!" + +John Garnet, speeding away in front, on excellent terms with the hounds, +and as happy as a king, little thought of the malice and hatred +following in his track, little thought, indeed, of anything--unless it +were Nelly Carew's blue eyes--but the keen enjoyment of his favourite +pursuit. He was far too practised a horseman, however, to forget in his +enthusiasm the normal rules of his art, and reflected more than once +that although he had never ridden an animal to be compared with him, yet +Katerfelto was but a horse after all, and so far like other horses that +at last his long powerful gallop must come to an end. Therefore he +spared him as much as was compatible with his resolution not to leave +the hounds, and kept his eye forward with considerable judgment and +sagacity, so that when opportunity offered he might never throw a chance +away. + +Thus, while the pack, guided by Tancred's grandson, who bore the +imposing name of Thunderer, dived into a precipitous ravine, he rode +judiciously along its edge, and pulled his horse into a trot, while he +watched them swarming and bustling through the gigantic growth of +heather that fringed several hundred feet of an almost perpendicular +incline. From thence he scanned the ground in front to find a more +practicable descent, and down it he plunged without hesitation so soon +as the hounds, giving tongue freely, dashed into the water below. It was +a shallow, darkling stream, breaking and brawling over ledges of granite +between high, steep banks, clothed in tangled underwood, and John Garnet +could not but hope that now the deer had taken soil, and soon would +burst on his ear that loud and welcome chorus called the "bay." It +disappointed him a little to observe the pack cross the stream, borne +downward by its current, wading, swimming, shaking their ears and +sides, while Thunderer informed them loudly that he was in possession of +the scent. + +It disappointed him still more when the grey horse had splashed and +struggled through from bank to bank, that the hounds, whose noses had +never yet been off the line for an instant, should be looking about them +on the further side with heads up and wistful faces gazing in his own as +though half ashamed of failure, half pleading for assistance. There was +no doubt they had come to a check, and appealed to the horseman for help +he was unable to afford. The ground rose steep and high, the darkling +copse that clothed these abrupt hill-sides shut out the light of day. +John Garnet was at a loss. Had the deer lain down? or was it forward +still, and in which direction? He naturally looked for Tancred to inform +him, but Tancred was nowhere to be seen. + +The Parson, meanwhile, labouring doggedly on, had caught a distant +glimpse of the hounds even as they disappeared over the brink of this +precipitous coombe, in time to play a bold stroke that merited success. +He determined not to cross the valley at all, but to steer for that side +of it on which the line of chase now seemed to lie, and so hoped to come +in on the deer, refreshed by the bath he never doubted it had indulged +in, as it rose the hill once more and made for the open moor. Urging +Cassock to further effort, he increased the pace for a stretch of +another mile, but when he halted his good horse--who stopped willingly +enough at the wished-for station--not a living object was to be seen +dotting the brown expanse, not a sound to be heard but the wail of the +curlew flitting softly over the waste. Deer and hounds and John Garnet +must have sunk into the earth! The solitude seemed unbroken, the chase +had come to a standstill, and the Parson was at fault! + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV. + +AT BAY. + + +Tancred, a marvel of canine sagacity, had good reason for deserting his +comrades, to engage in some quiet researches of his own. It is +unnecessary to inform those who love stag-hunting--and those who do not +will hardly care to learn--that scent often hangs over running water, +and travels downwards with the moving stream; therefore the deer, wading +craftily towards the river's source, emerged on its farther bank, +refreshed and strengthened by the bath, at some considerable distance +above the place where it plunged in. Such tactics were only in +accordance with the calculation and reflection we call _instinct_; but +Tancred was possessed of _instinct_ too, and remembered, no doubt, many +a cast he had made on similar occasions with successful result. The old +hound, therefore, assuming an expression of ludicrous solemnity, dashed +through the water, to enter without delay, on a close scrutiny of his +own, along the opposite bank, in the reverse direction from that +mistaken line on which his grandson was insisting with unbecoming +clamour, and snuffled at every pebble, poked his black nose into every +tuft of brushwood, grass, or heather he came across. Soon, with a flap +of his pendant ears, a lash of his stern against his mighty ribs, up +went the wise and handsome head in a roar of triumph--a roar that, for +the first, struck terror to the red-deer's heart, some furlongs on in +front--a roar that brought the old hound's comrades to his side, with an +alacrity sufficiently denoting how, by the best of all judges, this lord +of the kennel was trusted and revered. + +"He's forward!" exclaimed John Garnet, plunging through briar and +brushwood, with the rein on Katerfelto's neck. "Hold up, old man! we +shall soon be in the open again; and, by George, this is the best run +you or I ever saw in our lives." + +These words of encouragement were addressed by the rider to his horse, +as the latter scrambled sideways up a bank that would have taxed the +agility of a goat. Gaining the top they were rewarded by a spectacle +that seemed equally to the taste of each. Through an open wood of grand +old oaks, standing wide apart, ran twenty couple of powerful +stag-hounds, majestic in shape, gigantic in stature, deep and rich in +colour, stringing somewhat, it may be, as they passed in and out the +gnarled substantial stems, but shaking the very acorns from the autumn +boughs above, as that leafy canopy trembled to the music of their full +sonorous cry. Katerfelto's neck swelled with delight, while he reached +at his bridle for liberty to go faster still. The sunbeams broke and +sparkled overhead amongst the flickering green, the waving ferns lowered +their banners in graceful homage as they bent and yielded underfoot, the +dark moor, visible here and there through the trees, stretched to the +horizon in front. The whole pageant seemed too beautiful for reality, +and John Garnet felt as if he were hunting in a dream. + +Emerging once more on the open, he found he was no longer alone with the +hounds. "That must be a good black horse," he said to himself, and +thought no more about it; for although, as a stranger in the county, he +believed the run to have been perfectly straight, he was no ungenerous +rival, and felt rather gratified that his pleasure should be shared by +one who could appreciate its charm. He might want assistance too, he +reflected, at the finish; for to kill a stag at bay, and rescue his +carcase from the fangs of a pack of hounds, however tired, that had "set +him up," was no pleasant job to undertake single-handed in the wilds of +Devon. Therefore he greeted the appearance of Parson Gale, galloping +steadily towards him, with an encouraging wave of the arm, and a jolly +cheer. + +The Parson's knowledge of wood-craft had served him at last. Of the few +turns the deer made out of its direct line, this at least had been in +his favour. It was in a strange tumult of mingled exultation and +malignity, that he now found himself almost within speaking distance of +his rival, well within hearing of the hounds. "It must soon be over," +thought the Parson, "and he shall not boast he rode clean away from +Abner Gale after all! Anyhow, Master Garnet, the deer cannot surely +travel much farther, and then comes the reckoning between you and me." + +But one notable peculiarity of this wild stag-hunting in the West, is +the impossibility of calculating on the endurance of a red-deer. A light +young hart, four or five years old, unencumbered by flesh, and with the +elasticity of youth in every limb, can naturally skim the surface of his +native wastes like a creature with wings; but it is strange, that on +occasion, though rarely, a stag should be found with branching antlers +to prove his maturity, and broad well-furnished back to denote his +weight, that can yet stand before a pack of hounds, toiling after him at +steady three-quarter speed, over every kind of ground, for twenty, and +even thirty miles on end. We can gauge to a nicety the lasting qualities +of our horse--we have a shrewd guess at about what stage of the +proceedings even such staunch hounds as Tancred and Tarquin must begin +to flag; but the powers of a hunted stag defy speculation, or as old +Rube observed, in his more sober and reflective moments, "'Tis a creatur +three parts con-trairiness and only a quarter venison. Why, even I can't +always tell ye where to vind 'un, nor which road he'll think well to +travel, nor how fur he'll go. Them as made 'un knows, I'll warrant; but +there's many a deer lies in the forest, as is one too many for Red +Rube!" + +It may be that the breeze was from the north, bringing with it the keen +salt savour of the sea; it may be that the deer, reckoning up its +remaining strength, felt unable to traverse all that width of broken +country which must intervene, ere it could reach the sheltering heights +of Seven Ash, or the dark gorge that shuts in Combe-Martin Cove, between +the cliffs; for turning short to the right, it set its head resolutely +upward, and the pace became more severe with every stride. The line too +was exceedingly trying to hounds and horses, from the undulating nature +of the ground, intersected at every mile with deep and narrow +coombes--unseen, till it was too late, by judicious coasting, to avoid +their laborious steeps. Up and down these the deer travelled obliquely, +using the broken sheep-tracks that afforded but little foothold to a +hound, and none whatever to a horse. Katerfelto began to lean on his +bridle, and Cassock, following at a respectful distance, relapsed into a +trot. Their riders also wished from their hearts that the thing would +come to an end. There is but little satisfaction in the finest run on +record if, spite of troubles, triumphs, pains, and perils, we never get +to the finish after all. + +But to one individual the turn thus taken at so critical a period of the +chase was welcomed with exceeding gratitude and delight. Red Rube, on +the broken-kneed pony, had hung perseveringly on the line instinct +rather than experience prompted him to adopt. Steadily adhering to his +western course, and keeping the high ground, he was fortunate enough to +hit on the chord of the arc, and travelled less than a mile for every +two covered by the chase. Therefore, halting above the green slopes of +Paracombe to listen, his ears tingled, and his heart thrilled while he +caught the dear familiar cry. "They do run ov 'un still!" exclaimed the +old man, his grey eye sparkling, and the colour rising in his wrinkled +cheek; "and they do come nigher momently, for sure. He do mean 'soilin' +in the Lynn, I'll warrant, but they'll set him up this side Waters-meet, +I'll wager a gallon!" Then he consulted that elaborate map of the +country he carried in his head, and admonished the broken-kneed pony +with a touch of his single spur. + +Now, Red Rube's proficiency in stag-hunting and Parson Gale's only +differed in degree, nor was the divine very far behind the harbourer in +knowledge of their favourite pursuit. He too, could make his guess at +the probable termination of the run, and husbanded Cassock's powers to +the utmost, with shrewd misgivings, lest his horse should prove unable +to outlast the deer. + +Yes, the good stag must falter and fail ere long. His russet hide is +blackened now with sweat and mire, his eye starts wild and blood-shot +from his reeking head; he stops more than once to take breath and +listen, but toiling on again labours heavily in his gait, and sways from +side to side. Facing a steep hill, he breasts it gallantly, and for the +first time since he left his harbour, scales the ascent in a direct line +for the top. Parson Gale, a mile behind, catches a glimpse of him in the +act, and plies his spurs freely, for he knows that now the game is +played out. + +[Illustration: BEAT!] + +[Illustration: SET UP!] + +John Garnet too, who obtains a nearer view, is not surprised to see the +stag come faintly back, ere he has mounted half-way up, and plunge +downward into a thickly-wooded valley, dark and silent, but for the +brawling of a distant torrent in its depths. Crashing through the leafy +underwood with a cry that grows louder, fiercer, and yet more musical, +as they come nearer and nearer their game, Thunderer, Tarquin, Tancred, +and the rest, dash eagerly forward, with flaming eyes, impatient of delay, +and heads flung up at frequent intervals, as each hound catches its +ravishing particles, and owns the transport afforded by the scent of a +sinking deer. Crossing and recrossing the stream downwards, always +downwards, they plunge and splash through the water, on the track of +their prey, rousing the echoes with a yell and chorus that announce +their certain triumph, and cruel thirst for blood. + +Nearer, clearer, deadlier, every moment, it rouses all the red deer's +instincts of courage and defiance. If fight he must, he will fight at +the best advantage and to the bitter end! His pitiless foes are not a +hundred paces off, not twenty, not ten. But for a bound those failing +limbs could only make in extremity of despair, they must have been upon +him now, and would have got him down, had he not leaped out of their +very jaws, to a ledge of water-worn granite, whence he slips deftly into +a pool that reaches his brisket, and takes up a position of defence, +with his back to an overhanging rock. + +Right well he knows the advantage of standing firm on his legs, while +his assailants must swim to the attack; and, lowering his head, delivers +the thrusts of those formidable antlers with deadly effect. Hound after +hound dashes in for the death-grapple, only to turn aside, worsted, if +not overcome. Tarquin and Tancred, swimming warily out of distance, are +watching their opportunity; and Thunderer, seamed from shoulder to +flank, dripping with blood and water, bays wrathfully from the shore. +Facing his death in the deep wild glades and rocky glens of beautiful +Waters-meet, the stag seems undaunted still and undefeated, as when +fresh from his leafy lair, bold and triumphant, he spurned the red +mountain heather on the moor by Cloutsham Ball. + +Admiration, dashed with pity, thrills John Garnet's heart, while he +contemplates the noble creature thus defending himself, like a true +knight, against overwhelming odds; but the hunter's instinct of +destruction rises paramount, and, leaping lightly from his horse, he +scrambles over the wet and slippery boulders, with some vague notion of +affording assistance to the hounds. + +It is not till he gains the rock beneath which the deer has taken +refuge, and comes near enough to touch the animal with his whip, that he +realises his own helplessness. He carries no hunting-knife, and his only +weapons, a brace of horse-pistols, are safe in Katerfelto's holsters, a +hundred yards above him in the wood. + +But Abner Gale is not thus to be caught at a disadvantage, and unarmed. +He too has dismounted; and, rather from instinct than reflection, runs +in behind the quarry, with eight inches of bare steel in his hand. The +Parson is an adept in all ceremonies of the chase, and no man knows +better how to administer its death-stroke to a hunted deer. + +The roar of the torrent, the continuous baying of the pack, drown all +other noises; and John Garnet, stooping over the stag, while considering +whether he shall noose the beast in his whip, and try to hold it till +assistance arrives, little thinks so fierce an enemy stands behind him, +with his arm up to strike! + +Now, it is but justice to say, that the Parson, running in upon the +red-deer thus "set-up," and holding its own against the hounds, was +wholly moved by the force of habit and the instincts of his craft. He, +too, had pressed forward when he heard "the bay," and, leaving Cassock +beside the grey horse, had rushed down with all the speed his heavy +riding-boots permitted, to cut the stag's throat from behind. + +It was only when he looked from that hated rival, unconscious of his +presence, and within arm's length, to the steel in his hand, that the +hideous temptation came upon him; and while the sky seemed turning +crimson, and the river running blood, through the stupefying roar of the +water and deafening clamour of the hounds, a whisper from hell, in the +Tempter's own voice, bade him "Slay! slay!--Smite and spare not!" + +Men undergo strange experiences at such moments, and live a long time in +the dealing of a thrust, or the drawing of a trigger! Parson Gale, +glancing wildly round, believed that no human eye was on his movements, +believed that, save for himself and his victim, the solitude was +unbroken by human presence, believed that the devil in person was at +hand to help him in his crime, and that this hellish tinge of crimson +colouring sky and wood and water was a reflection from his wings! + +His eye had already marked the spot where, between the shoulders of that +laced hunting-coat, he could plant a blow that should pierce the very +heart. He nerved himself, set his teeth, and raised his hand. + +One convulsive effort of the braced sinews, one flash of the descending +steel, a choking sob, a gasping cry, a hoarse rattle of the hard-drawn +parting breath, and all would have been over; but even while the knife +quivered in air, John Garnet turned his head, leaped to his feet, and +caught his enemy by the wrist. + +A yell of rage from the grey stallion, jealous of Cassock's approach, +and rearing on end for an unprovoked assault, attracted his attention +and saved his rider's life. + +The green leaves shining in the sun wove bowers of Fairyland overhead, +the torrent plunged, and roared, and tumbled in foaming eddies round +that translucent pool, shining like silver through the dark tangled +beauties of wooded Waters-meet. + +Above stood two strong men, rigid, motionless as statues for the space +of a full minute, locked in each other's grasp, and below, leaping, +swimming, dashing, retreating, traversing to and fro, the noblest pack +of hounds in Europe clamoured round the stag at bay! + + + + +CHAPTER XXV. + +A BROAD HINT. + + +"Hold on, Parson! you've been and dropped your knife!" said a rough +voice in Abner Gale's ear, while a dexterous snatch twitched the weapon +out of his fingers. "Shame! gentlemen, shame!" continued Red Rube--for +it was none other than the harbourer, who thus struggled up in the nick +of time--"that two such noble riders should dispute about the honour of +blooding a pack of hounds!" + +Then stooping nimbly down, and seizing its branching antlers with one +hand, while with the other he drew the Parson's hunting-knife across the +stag's throat, he observed that in the huntsman's absence it was a +harbourer's right to administer its death-stroke to the deer. Slowly, +proudly, the stately creature's head drooped to the level of those +eddying waters, already mantling in crimson circles with its blood. +Fiercely, savagely, maddened by the work of slaughter, leaping and +tumbling over each other in their eagerness to tear their prey, the +hounds threw themselves on the carcase, and it required the efforts of +all three men to preserve it from being foully mangled in their fangs. + +Side by side, in silence, yet assisting each other and Red Rube, with +all their skill in wood-craft, the foes who had but now been grappling +in a death struggle, drew ashore, dismembered, and disembowelled the +dead stag, as if their only consideration were the authorised +distribution of its venison, and proper recompense of the hounds with +blood. + +It was not till the prescribed obsequies were fulfilled, till lights and +liver had been set aside, the head sawn off, the "slot," or forefoot, +carefully severed for preservation, in memorial of so fine a run, the +paunch swallowed in eager gulps by the famished hounds, while Tancred +and Thunderer growled at the two ends of a yard of entrails, and Red +Rube, with bare, blood-stained arms, wiped the Parson's knife on a tuft +of grass, but forbore returning it to its owner, that John Garnet, +finding a moment's leisure, observed how three or four of the most +fortunate riders had arrived, as though dropped from the clouds, in time +to witness the finish before all was over. Amongst them he looked in +vain for the pretty white pony and Nelly Carew. + +In the congratulations exchanged, the ebullitions of excitement indulged +in by these triumphant sportsmen, the Parson's moody scowl escaped +remark, save by one, whose whole life was spent in noting these trifling +signs by which important results are indicated to the observing. Red +Rube drew his own conclusions from the attitude in which he found those +two foremost riders at the crowning catastrophe of the chase, and was +satisfied, while he marked his sullen glances and vindictive brow, that +the Parson entertained some deeper and deadlier grudge against the more +successful sportsman than could arise from a mere question of priority +in cutting the deer's throat. + +Now, Red Rube knew Abner Gale's character as well as he knew the surface +of Exmoor Forest, and wanted none to tell him that the Parson's hatred +meant persecution, by all means, fair and foul, even unto death! To John +Garnet the harbourer had taken one of those fancies so often entertained +by the old for those who might be their grandsons. He liked the young +man's pleasant face and frank kindly manners; his enthusiasm for the +chase; above all, his skill in the saddle and daring style of +horsemanship; nor thought him less deserving because of a shrewd +suspicion that he was the identical highwayman for whose capture a +reward of one hundred guineas had been offered by his Sovereign Lord the +King. Therefore--and it shows how high John Garnet must have stood in +his opinion--Rube refrained from giving information of his hiding-place, +and claiming that large sum of money for himself. Therefore, also, he +determined that, so far as he could prevent it, the Parson should do no +mischief to this promising young stag-hunter; whom, moreover, he highly +admired for his recklessness in thus appearing openly while so high a +price was on his head. In short, he loved his new acquaintance better +than his old friend and fellow-sportsman, better even--and it is saying +a great deal--than one hundred guineas in gold! + +It is needless to observe that of those who reached the finish at +Waters-meet before the "bay" was over, Abel the huntsman arrived first, +making his appearance, indeed, immediately after Rube had cut the stag's +throat. There seemed nothing more to be done therefore, when the hounds, +now thoroughly tired and footsore, had been satisfied, the jaded horses +remounted, and the riders' different versions of their own doings +exhausted for the present, than to jog slowly home, each in his own +direction, with a happy chance of meeting more than one defeated +sportsman, to whom he might repeat the oft-told tale, never weary of +recapitulating the pace, distance, severity, triumphant conclusion, and +whole chain of events that marked this memorable run. + +John Garnet, turning to remount his horse, was surprised to find the +animal in the custody of Red Rube, who handed his rein, and held his +stirrup with an officious alacrity foreign to his usual manner. The +rider's first thought, no doubt, was for the well-being of his steed, +after so exhausting a performance; yet did he not fail to remark a +peculiar expression on the harbourer's countenance, and the nervous +haste with which the old man helped him into the saddle, pocketing the +gratuity forced on him unconsciously, and by instinct as it seemed, +without a word of thanks. + +It was not till he had satisfied himself of Katerfelto's soundness, and +felt the horse break gaily into a trot, stepping free and true, that he +gave a thought to Rube's flurried gestures and strange anxiety to start +him on his homeward way, dismissing the subject from his mind without +further comment, in the natural conclusion that the harbourer was drunk. + +Then he abandoned himself to the exciting memories of the last few +hours, exulting, as well he might, in the extraordinary speed and +stamina of his favourite. + +Meantime Parson Gale, seeking in vain for his hunting-knife, with a +moody brow and many curses on his own carelessness in losing this +favourite weapon, returned to his trusty Cassock, with the intention, no +doubt, of following his rival, and calling on his brother-sportsmen to +seize him in the name of the king. He was no mean judge of such matters, +and in their late trial of strength found John Garnet fully his match. +Unarmed, therefore, he determined not to encounter his enemy hand to +hand, regretting his own folly in yielding to passion and endeavouring +to slay him at disadvantage, thus warning him of danger, and setting him +on his guard. How much better, thought the Parson, to track him as old +Tancred tracked a deer, never slackening in effort, never off the scent, +never turning aside for any consideration, till he had run him +ruthlessly down, delivered him into the hands of justice, and seen the +last of him on Tyburn Hill. + +It seemed to Abner Gale that his brother's blood cried out from the very +stones, not to be silenced nor appeased till his adversary stood in the +hangman's cart, with the nightcap over his face, and the fatal nosegay +in his hand. + +The poor black horse, however, instigated by no such thirst for +vengeance, and desiring only the warmth and rest of its distant stable, +was felt to be in a sorry plight so soon as it was burdened once more +with the weight it had carried so gallantly through the day. Sore, +stiff, and weary, it was hopeless to expect from it anything more than +the very slowest trot. It bore besides, on crest and shoulder, marks of +the grey stallion's unprovoked assault; nor were these calculated to +soothe the vindictive feelings of its master. Many a bitter curse he +ground between his teeth, reflecting that, for the present, he must +abandon all hope of following up his enemy, and, for his angry mood +forbade him to join in the talk of his excited brother-sportsmen, plod +his homeward way as best he might alone. + +How different were his feelings from those of the half-dozen friends and +neighbours, who had not half such good cause to be satisfied with their +own performances in the chase. These laughed and jested merrily, in +frank, hearty good-humour, praising the run, the country, each other's +riding, and by implication their own, the huntsman, the harbourer, the +stag, the horses, and the hounds. One or two trudged a-foot up and down +the steep inclines beside their weary steeds, all did their best to ease +and indulge the staunch animals that had carried them so well; and each, +while claiming for the rider a large share of credit due to the horse, +betrayed in his bearing the self-satisfaction of a man who has performed +a good action, rather than the sullen preoccupied air of one, like Abner +Gale, who meditates a crime! + +Though in the West of England, as in Ireland, distances from point to +point seem held of less account than in other parts of the kingdom, +those are a dozen or so of very long miles, that stretch from +Waters-meet to Porlock, after a good run with stag hounds, on a horse +that has been galloping all day. We should indeed be surprised could we +calculate the extent of country over which the powerful stride of a +hunter sweeps in such a chase as I have endeavoured to describe; and +should marvel yet more, were it possible to ascertain the exact distance +traversed by a hound. The endurance of either animal seems truly +wonderful when put to the test; but the real horseman is ever +considerate to his "gallant and honourable friend," holding stoutly by +the maxim-- + + "Up hill spare me, + Down hill bear me, + On the level never fear me;" + +and believing this triplet of doggrel to contain the first principles of +his art. + +John Garnet, therefore, although he had long since discovered Katerfelto +to be one of those rare horses that can begin again at the end of the +day, did by no means suffer him to go his own pace home, restraining his +generous impulses and riding him steadily along at very moderate speed. + +I do not affirm, however, that his thoughts were entirely monopolised by +this partner of his labours and his triumphs, or that he did not glance +anxiously about him, from time to time, in search of the well-known +figure on the white pony, that occupied the first place in his fancy, +and indeed the inmost citadel of his heart. + +He was beginning to find those hours very wearisome which were spent +apart from Nelly; and after its excitement had subsided, even so gallant +a chase as that which he had lately witnessed, was felt to be no +equivalent for absence from her side. + +There are moments when reflection seems to be forced on the most +thoughtless of men; when the dream vanishes the illusion is dispelled, +and they catch a glimpse of life as it is, not as they wish it to be. +John Garnet, riding softly through the heather, reviewed the events of +the last few weeks by the light of common-sense, and wondered how this +wild expedition of his, and wilder infatuation, was to end? That liberty +and life were endangered by his offences against the law he had long +been assured; but it was only to-day, and by the merest accident, he had +discovered that here, in the vicinity of his hiding-place, lurked an +enemy who thirsted for his blood. There was no mistaking the expression +of the Parson's face; and had he not caught and held the uplifted wrist +in a grasp more powerful than its own, he felt that his life-blood would +have mingled in the eddies of Waters-meet with that of the dying deer. +Now, when the excitement of the strife was past, he shuddered to think +of the hideous peril he had gone through, appreciating at the same time +the vindictive hatred of such an enemy, whose brother he had slain in a +midnight brawl, whose sweetheart he suspected he had won from him on the +sands of Porlock Bay. In his place, thought John Garnet, he would have +been as savage, no doubt; but, come what might--banishment, +imprisonment, hanging, or a stand-up encounter man to man--nothing +should ever force him to give up Nelly Carew! + +His nerves must surely have been shaken by the severe exertions and +strange experiences of the day; for a horse's head appearing suddenly at +his knee, while its footfall was unheard amongst the heather, caused him +to start violently, and lay his hand on the pistol in his holster. + +Red Rube grinned in his face while he brought the broken-kneed pony +alongside of Katerfelto. "Zeems as though a man couldn't forget the +tricks of his trade, Captain," said the harbourer, with a cunning leer. +"Here have I been slotting o'_you_ better nor two mile on end, as though +you'd been a right stag with three on the top--that's my calling. There +are _you_, out with the barkers, finger on trigger, stand and +deliver!--that's yours." + +In vain John Garnet denied and expostulated, protesting, indeed, that he +was wholly ignorant of the other's meaning, and did but make an +involuntary gesture towards his weapon from an instinct of self-defence. +Rube was not so to be put off, and continued his remonstrances in a tone +of confidential sympathy, with his hand on the grey horse's mane. + +"There's a time for a deer to move, and a time for a deer to couch," +said the harbourer, using the familiar metaphors of his calling. "A time +for 'un to stand at bay, and a time for 'un to break the bay. When a +deer vinds itself hard pressed, and never a stick of covert for miles, +the sensible creetur 'takes soil,'--do 'ee hearken to me, Captain, it +takes soil, I say, and vinds its safety many a time in the salt sea. +'Tis not so fur from Porlock to Ilfracombe, but that theer good grey +horse could cover the distance in half a day." + +He sidled farther off as he spoke, and seemed lost in contemplation of +Katerfelto's points and symmetry, as he trotted by his side. + +"What should I do at Ilfracombe when I got there?" asked John Garnet; +adding, impatiently, "Man alive! speak no longer in parables. If you've +anything to say, out with it, and tell me what you mean!" + +Rube looked behind, before, and on each side; then he drew nearer and +whispered-- + +"There be a price on thic' head o' yourn', Captain, a longish price, +too. May-be more than it be worth." + +"I know it," answered John Garnet; "I've seen the bills. It's an easy +way to get a hundred guineas, Rube. Why don't you earn the money +yourself?" + +The old man looked hurt. "It's not honest wood-craft," said he. "Every +beast of chase has a right to be hunted in season, and with a fair +start. The hounds are on your track, Captain, I give you fair warning; +but that's not all. There's one, a coarse black dog (Rube chuckled while +he enunciated this conceit), as will never be off the line so long as +the game is a-foot, nor leave the slot till he has the deer by the +throat. Do you think you deceived _me_ awhile ago, when you two stood in +a dead-lock together on yonder slab of stone? Double on him, Captain, I +do tell 'ee, double on him, that's what _you've_ got to do. I've friends +at Ilfracombe, free-traders they call 'em down there, they'd take any +young man aboard as was well known to Red Rube. This here wind will +serve, and I do know 'twill stay in the North for days together now, as +though 'twere nailed there. God speed ye, young man. You mind what I +tell 'ee. Keep your own counsel, and take a good hold of your horse's +head!" + +Then he shook the pony's bridle, turned briskly down a coombe, and +disappeared. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI. + +A HARD BARGAIN. + + +Plodding wearily on, in the shuffling, dogged, continuous jog-trot that +takes a tired hunter home, Cassock presently pricked his ears, and +increased the pace of his own accord, while his rider's heart beat fast, +for rising an acclivity not a bow-shot in front, fluttered the blue +riding-habit that enclosed her pretty shape, nodded the feather in the +saucy little hat, that could be worn so jauntily by none but Nelly +Carew. Cowslip had failed to make up its lost ground in time for her to +see the end of the run, and Nelly was riding soberly home, full of +pleasant thoughts and fancies that grouped themselves round a figure on +a grey horse, skimming the brown moorland, far ahead of all competitors, +and when last seen, alone with the hounds! + +"Good even, Mistress Nelly," said the Parson, ranging alongside, with an +awkward bow. "Nothing amiss, I hope, with Cowslip, nor its rider. 'Tis +not often the pair of you give in before the deer, but you must confess +that for this once Abner Gale and the old black nag had the better of +pretty Mistress Carew." His voice, hoarse and thick with conflicting +feelings, startled her from her day-dream. Nelly's colour rose, and the +consciousness that he observed it caused her to blush deeper in mingled +vexation and shame. + +"I made a fatal mistake at starting," said she, with a nervous little +laugh and a full stop. + +"A great many women do that!" grunted the Parson. + +"And all my calculations were wrong," continued Nelly, without noticing +the interruption. "If the deer had passed under Dunkerry Beacon, like +the big black stag last year, and taken soil in the Barle, down by +Landacre Bridge, for instance, or at Withy-pool, where would you all +have been then? Your turn to-day, Master Gale, mine to-morrow. That's +the rule of stag-hunting, and it seems the same for most things in +life." + +She spoke with a flurried manner and an affectation of gaiety he did not +fail to detect. The Parson's restless eye and moody brow frightened her, +and glancing round on the solitude of the moor, she wished herself back +with grandfather, safe at home. + +"I would it were the same thing in life," he answered sullenly. "A bold, +straightforward man who meant fair, and feared nothing, might have a +chance of holding his own, then, and wouldn't see his place taken by the +first new-comer with thicker lace on his coat and more brass on his +forehead. Your park-fed deer is well enough, Mistress Nelly, for them +that don't know better, but who in their senses would compare it with a +real wild Exmoor stag?" + +"I don't understand you!" said the girl, looking in vain for a +companion, and wondering what had become of all the defeated riders who +must be plodding steadily home. + +"Then I'll speak out!" replied the Parson, "and remember, what Abner +Gale says that he sticks to, for good and for evil, mind. _For good and +for evil!_ I'm a plain man, Mistress Carew." + +"Not so very plain, for your age, you know!" Nelly could not resist +saying, though dreadfully frightened. But he continued without noticing +the interruption-- + +"A plain man, and may-be I han't learned any of the monkey tricks your +town-bred gentlemen bring here into the West, thinking to carry all +before them, with a hoist of the eyebrows, a fool's grin, and a +dancing-master's bow. But at least I'm honest, if I'm nothing more, not +afraid to show my face by light of day, nor to speak my mind in any +company, from my Lord Bellinger down to Dick Boss the sheriff's officer, +who has got a job in hand that will take him all his time, judging by +what I saw to-day." + +"Dick Boss! Sheriff's officer!" repeated Nelly, pale and aghast, for +already she knew too well John Garnet's danger. "What have I to do with +these matters? Why do you say such things to me?" + +Though the Parson's voice softened while he answered, in Nelly's ear it +sounded harsher than before. + +"Why, Mistress Nelly?" he repeated. "I marvel that you can ask me so +simple a question. Why do I watch every look of your blue eyes, every +word from your sweet lips? Why do I feel a different man in your +presence, and hover about you like that moor-buzzard up there hovers +over the bare brow of the mountain, wheeling, poising, watching, waiting +patiently till he may stoop and carry off his prize?" + +"Waiting to tear it in pieces, you mean!" replied Nelly, angrily. +"You're talking nonsense, Master Gale. If buzzard you be, I at least am +not going to become your prey." + +The sun was sinking to the brown level of the moor at their backs. The +long shadows thrown before them, as they rode softly side by side, might +have belonged to a pair of plighted lovers, so woven together were they, +and intermingled on the broad expanse of heather, deepening to a browner +russet and a redder gold with every moment of departing day. + +Yet in one bosom rankled wild, unsatisfied longings, jealousy, +suspicion, rage of wounded pride; in the other, contempt, loathing, and +a passionate hatred, the more embittered that it was dashed with fear. + +"You carry it with a high hand, Mistress Carew," said the Parson, losing +the command he had tried to keep over a temper only too apt to rise +beyond control. "You might have learned before now 'tis a waste of time +to ride the great horse with me. I have the power, aye! and more than +half the mind, to bring you down from your saddle there, in that tuft of +heather, on your knees. You may smile--you look parlous handsome when +you smile--but I'm not one to speak out of my turn, I tell ye. I know +_everything_, and I've got his life in my hand!" + +Of all her fair and noble qualities, a woman's hypocrisy is sometimes +the fairest and the noblest. Unlike the rougher sex, it is when she is +most unselfish that she seems most artful to deceive. Had her power been +equal to her will, Nelly Carew's natural inclination, and indeed her +earnest desire, had been to strike this man down, and trample him under +Cowslip's hoofs, not perhaps to death, but to bodily injury and +degradation, yet she commanded herself with an effort beyond all praise, +and smiled sweetly in his face, while she observed-- + +"Something has put you out to-day, Master Gale. I suppose that is why +you want to quarrel with your best friends. You never spoke to _me_ so +sharp before. Is it Cassock's fault, or mine, or whose, that your good +nag could not keep up with that grey horse on the open moor? The +creature seemed to have the wings of a bird. If that's all, sure 'tis no +disgrace to be beaten when a man does his best." + +Though her tone seemed easy and unconstrained, she felt cruelly anxious, +and resolved at any cost to learn how far Abner Gale's enmity was to be +feared on her lover's behalf. + +"The grey horse is a good one, I'll not deny," said the Parson. "Too +good for his master and his master's trade, though the beast has saved +the man from hanging many a time and oft. I'm surprised at your +grandfather, Mistress Nelly. I'm more surprised at yourself, that you +can consort with such a jail-bird. He is a disgrace to us all, coming +here to Porlock as though he could find no better place to hide in from +the hue and cry." + +"Do you mean Master Garnet?" exclaimed Nelly, with flashing eyes, while +she stifled a sob of wrath and fear that rose from her heart. + +"I mean Galloping Jack, the highwayman," answered Gale, "a villain who +should have swung, by rights, at Tyburn, last autumn, whom I devoutly +hope to see hanged before the fifth of November next!" + +"You showed me his dying speech and confession yourself," answered the +girl, with tight-set lips that kept down some overmastering emotion by +sheer force of will. "Come, Master Gale, you know as well as I do that +John Garnet is no common thief with a black vizard and a speedy horse, +no mere moonlight robber to stop a coach for plunder on the king's +highway. He has done something worse than that. Out with it; you used to +have no secrets from your friends. Tell me what it is!" + +Parson Gale was in the habit of declaring that a man who told a lie +should possess a good memory. He wished he had stuck more consistently +to this maxim, and had not, by his forgetfulness, thus laid his own +statement open to denial. The wisest course, he thought, would be to +take the bull by the horns. + +"I only hoped to shame you out of your fancy, Mistress Nelly," said he, +with a transparent affectation of friendliness and sincerity. "I know +this man has assumed the title of a famous highwayman for disguise. He +is no more Galloping Jack than I am. He is Master John Garnet, _plain_ +John Garnet, as I have heard them call him, in ridicule, I fancy, of his +waiting-maid's face and mop of curling hair. Wanted for robbing his +Majesty's Government. Wanted for high treason. Wanted for murder done in +Covent Garden, brought home to him by evidence no court of justice can +gainsay, and as sure to swing, on one, and all of these counts, as I +hope I am to get home to supper this blessed night!" + +She had grown paler and paler with every accusation in the catalogue of +her lover's crimes. She looked as if she must have fallen fainting from +the saddle, yet never for an instant did she lose her presence of mind, +nor forego her resolution to save John Garnet how she could! + +"I can't bring myself to believe it is as bad as you say," she answered +carelessly. "But I thought there was something unusual about the +gentleman, I'll not deny. 'Tis grandfather who will miss him if he comes +to harm. Grandfather took to him, you know, as he never took to a +stranger before. You must have seen that yourself." + +"And _you_, Mistress Nelly," said the Parson, bringing his weary horse +nearer the white pony's side, "did not _you_ take to this stranger too, +and for the sake of a new face flout the old friends who had loved you +all your life?" + +"La! Master Gale," was the feminine reply, "you talk of loves and +likings as though we could put them on and off like our hose and +farthingales. Sure you never thought me one to forget an old friend for +the sake of a new face, comely though it be?" + +"And you do not really care for this bedizened Jack-a-napes?" he +exclaimed, while his voice shook with an emotion that betrayed how +deeply the admission touched his feelings. + +"I love him!" answered Nelly, watching her listener as the steersman +watches an angry sky. "Yes, I love him--for grandfather's sake!" + +Even in the anxiety and agitation of the moment, even through all the +scorn and loathing she felt for the attentions of her unwelcome +admirer, it could not but gratify her vanity to mark the changes that +passed over his rough, weather-worn face with every word she uttered, +every inflection of her voice. She had only suspected the Parson loved +her when she first discovered her own love for John Garnet. She was sure +of it now, and could almost have found it in her heart to pity him, for +the utter hopelessness of his suit; but this was no time to indulge in +such weakness. Abner Gale's affection was a powerful engine, and she +must use it to save John Garnet's life. + +Looking very beautiful, and trusting to her beauty as man trusts to his +intellect, the brute to its strength and speed, she glanced her blue +eyes shyly in his face, and added, after a becoming little pause of +hesitation, "Why--Why should all this interest _you_, Master Gale?" + +"Because I love you!" he exclaimed. "Love you, Nelly Carew, more than +anything and everything in earth or heaven! I'm old and rough, I +know--not fit to black the shoes on your pretty feet. I've been a +brawler and a sot, and--and--worse than that, drinking and roystering at +feasts and revels, while all the time my heart was sore for the sweetest +lass in Devon, to think I wasn't good enough, nor comely enough, so much +as to kiss the tips of her fingers, nor to sip with her on the same cup. +But I'd be a different man if you was only to hold up your hand. It +would be no trouble to leave liquor and wrestling-bouts, fairs, and +fiddlings, roaring lads and saucy wenches, at your bidding. Nay, more +than that, Mistress Nelly, I could go back from the great oath I swore, +if you did but hold up your finger, and forgive my bitterest enemy for +your sake!" + +"Why should you _have_ enemies, you that are so frank and hearty?" asked +Nelly, fairly alarmed at the strength of the feelings she had aroused, +while determined to profit by them at any cost. + +The Parson reined in his horse, and unconsciously she followed his +example. + +"The man John Garnet," said he, in a deep, hoarse voice, "took my +brother's life--stabbed him in the dark, Mistress Nelly, without friends +or witnesses, and that man I have sworn never to leave till with my own +eyes I see him laid in a murderer's grave. To-day an accursed chance +delivered him out of my hand, when my knife was almost at his throat. +The next time he shall not escape so well. Dick Boss and I, with a few +stout lads to help, mean having him safe in Taunton Gaol before the week +is out. And this is the gallant, pretty Mistress Nelly, I was fool +enough to think had made such way in your good graces as to supplant +your old friend Abner Gale!" + +How she hated him, sitting there, square and resolute, on his horse! The +unwelcome suitor, the implacable enemy, the avenger thirsting for the +blood of one whom she only loved more madly, more devotedly, because of +his danger and his need! Her blue eyes burned with unaccustomed fire, +her cheek glowed with a deep, angry crimson, and Parson Gale, marking +her emotion, believed it was called forth by affection for himself! + +He looked at her in speechless admiration for the space of a full +minute, then he burst out with a sob: + +"Have pity on me, Mistress Nelly, have pity on me! I love you so! I love +you so!" + +She had reviewed the whole position, taken in every detail of the +situation during this eventful pause, and made her crowning manoeuvre +with the skill of that subtlest of all tacticians--a woman at her wit's +end! + +"It's very easy to talk!" she observed, demurely, "but I was always one +that liked to see a man prove his words. If you--you _really_ cared for +me, you would do what I ask, wouldn't you, Master Gale? and never want +to know the reason why!" + +"Ask it!" exclaimed the Parson, "and if I say no, beautiful Mistress +Nelly, then say no to _me_, when I plead for something dearer and more +precious than the light of day and the very air I breathe!" + +She knew too well the compact implied by so enthusiastic an assent, but +hesitated not for a single instant. + +"You will spare Master Garnet," she said, in a steady, monotonous voice, +"and give him time to get clear out of the country, for my--my +grandfather's sake." + +"On one condition!" + +"On _any_ condition," she murmured, and the brown moors, the evening +sky, seemed to spin round so fast that she turned faint and giddy in the +whirl. + +There was no question of deception, no loop-hole for mental reservation +and eventual escape. In the balance hung her lover's safety against her +own utter destruction. Could there be a doubt into which scale would be +flung the deciding weight of a woman's self-sacrificing devotion, a +woman's uncalculating love? + +"You will be my wife, Mistress Nelly Carew, if I pledge myself to let +this man go free?" said the Parson, in slow, distinct syllables, while a +grin of triumph, none the less hateful for the affection it expressed, +rendered his face more hideous than ever in her eyes. + +"I will be your wife, Master Abner Gale, if you pledge yourself to let +this man go free!" she repeated, in clear, incisive tones that seemed +the echo of his own. + +"And you promise never to speak to him nor see him again?" + +"And I promise never to see him, nor speak to him again!" + +"It's a bargain." + +"It's a bargain." + +Then they shook hands, and although Abner Gale would fain have ratified +this strange betrothal with a kiss, there was something in Nelly's face +that absolutely cowed him, and he forbore. + +They soon separated where their respective paths diverged. The Parson +made his way over the moor, wondering that he did not feel more elated +with his triumph, while Nelly rode home alone, looking into vacancy with +a white face and fixed, tearless eyes, that seemed to express neither +sorrow nor impatience, nor fear, but only mute wonder, and an +uncomplaining, apathetic despair. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII. + +SELF-SACRIFICE. + + +"Weather-wise--fool otherwise," is a West-country proverb that by no +means applied to Red Rube. The harbourer, who had taken a judicious view +of John Garnet's position, and gave him sensible advice under the +circumstances, proved also a reliable prophet, even in so uncertain a +prediction as the quarter from which the wind would blow. It remained, +as he expected, in the north, and a keen frost setting in on the night +of the great chase from Cloutsham-Ball, gave promise of an earlier +winter than was either expected or desired in the fertile coombes of +West Somerset and North Devon. The honest yeomen-farmers looked grave +and shook their heads. There were apples yet ungathered in late +orchards, oats standing in sheaves on bare hill-farms; the cold weather +would bring the stags on, too, and put an end to their favourite sport. +Nobody wanted to begin winter in October, while old people dreaded the +effects of an unseasonably low temperature, or neighbours who were a few +years, or even a few months, older than themselves. + +More than one venerable inhabitant of Porlock, noting his shrunken form +and feeble gait, was heard to express a fear that, with the close of +autumn, it would "go hard with Master Carew," and the veteran himself, +though he kept his opinion from Nelly, little hoped to see the buds and +blossoms of another spring. He felt that Death was coming like a giant +on the mountains, casting his shadow before him as he advanced with +swift and noiseless strides, nor, but for the leaving of his grandchild, +did it seem so hard to follow the host of friends and comrades who had +preceded him to the unknown country beyond the deep, dark, narrow +stream. A brave man is seldom deceived in such matters. Old Carew, +taking to his bed, gaunt and weary, an hour before Nelly came home, knew +he would never leave it again alive. + +Guiding Cowslip deftly down the hill into Porlock, the girl believed her +cup of misery was full. She told herself it could not hold another drop. +Severed from the love of her life at a single blow, dealt by her own +hand--bound to the man she loathed and feared and hated, by her own +promise--pledged never to see nor speak to John Garnet again--forbidden +even to warn him that he must fly! No! Honour or dishonour, she would +_not_ hold to this part of the contract! He must learn the truth from +her own lips, and then, though he should heap curses on her perfidy, she +would bid him farewell for ever, and live out, as best she might, the +life of misery and desolation she had chosen for his sake! + +It formed no part of her calculations that he should be waiting for her +at her own door, that, lighting down from her pony in the dusk of +evening, she should leap into his arms, and find herself folded in a +close embrace against his heart. + +"Oh! you musn't! you musn't!" was all Nelly had strength to say, for one +happy moment, ere she released herself and stood apart, trembling in +every limb. Then, even in the failing light, she observed that his face +was very grave, and she missed the gay, careless ring in his tone, that +possessed so strange a charm for her loving ear. She had never heard him +speak so sadly before. + +"Sweetheart," he whispered, "my own Nelly, I looked for you all the way +home, and waited here till you came back, because I had something to +say that it was right you should hear to-night. I have not the heart to +say it now. I was going away to-morrow morning, only for a time, Nelly, +but I cannot leave you in your distress. I must stay and help you to +keep up your courage, dear heart, and to take care of grandfather. He is +ill--very ill, I fear, my pretty lass, and asked for you before he went +to lie down; but try not to be frightened, dear heart, if--if--he +doesn't seem to know you at first, when you go to his bedside!" + +With a little cry of pity and terror she bounded from him while he +spoke, and sped like a lapwing to her grandfather's chamber, leaving +John Garnet standing by the porch, with Cowslip's bridle on his arm, in +the last stage of perplexity and distress. + +Leading the pony to the stable, he felt utterly at a loss what to do. + +Courageous as he was, and too reckless of his own safety, he could not +but feel that his position here in the hiding-place he had chosen became +more dangerous every hour. Red Rube's warning did but corroborate his +own suspicions, and when he reflected on Parson Gale's unscrupulous +hatred, which would leave no stone unturned to deliver him into the +hangman's hands, his common sense told him there was but one chance of +escape left, while the plan advised by the harbourer, of taking boat at +Ilfracombe, seemed the only practicable means of flight. + +So soon, therefore, the next day, as Katerfelto was recovered from the +effects of his exertions, he had intended to make for that little +seaport, and embark forthwith, sending the grey horse back to Porlock by +a trusty hand, to remain in Mistress Carew's care till its owner's +return. He promised himself one more interview with Nelly, when, for the +fiftieth time, they might exchange vows of unalterable affection, and +so would go his way, despondent indeed and unhappy, yet not wholly +despairing of better days to come. + +And now old Carew's dangerous illness, of which he was advised the +moment he got off his horse, scattered all these projects to the winds. +While he waited for Nelly's return, that he might prepare her to expect +the worst, he resolved that no consideration of safety for himself +should part him from the woman he loved, so long as his presence could +cheer and console her grief. + +After a restless night, and an early visit to Katerfelto's stable, where +it was satisfactory to find the grey horse, fresh and lively, rested +from his hard day, John Garnet presented himself at Carew's door, and +was surprised to be received by Nelly herself, who had not been to bed, +yet looked none the less beautiful for the pale face and weary eyes, +that spoke of some trial even sorer and sadder than the watch in a sick +chamber, than the cruel suspense of hope and fear, when life seems to +hang on a thread, that wears itself slowly away. + +He would have caught her in his arms, but she motioned him to keep back +with a scared, wistful look, and a ghastly smile, that chilled him to +the heart. + +"He is conscious," she said. "I thought you would wish to know. There is +yet a hope, and God is merciful. Surely I am not to lose all in one day +at one blow!" + +"He will get well, sweetheart," answered John Garnet, hopefully, "and +live, I pray, for many a long year to come. In a few weeks he will be +strong enough to leave his bed, and, Nelly, he will be able to give me +the girl I love with his own hand." + +The last sentence he whispered in her ear, but she started away from +him, and her face, pale enough before, turned white to the very lips. + +"Silence!" she exclaimed, fiercely. "You must never speak to me like +that again!" + +But for the pity of it, his blank amazement would have seemed absolutely +ludicrous. It was as though some soft and gentle bird that he loved and +cherished had turned on him, with the gaping beak and battling wings of +an infuriated hawk! + +"What mean you?" he gasped. "What is it? Nelly! Sweetheart! What have I +done?" + +"To save him from death! To save him from death!" The words seemed +ringing in her brain, or she never could have nerved herself for the +task she had undertaken. + +"We have not gone too far to draw back, Master Garnet," she said. "There +is a time for all things. Let there be no more fooling between you and +me!" + +She spoke lightly, even flippantly, though she felt her heart breaking. +Surely there is no courage like that of a woman who makes up her mind to +lead a forlorn hope. + +"Fooling!" he repeated; "fooling! Do you mean to affirm that you have +been _fooling_ me all the time? Explain yourself, Mistress Carew. Have +you found a new sweetheart, or is this but a sorry jest to try the +temper of the old?" + +She bowed her head in assent. If she made him angry, she thought it +would be easier to effect a rupture. And yet, to part from him unkindly! +ah! if she could but fall down then and there, tell him the truth, and +die! + +He felt utterly perplexed, astounded, incredulous, yet wounded to the +very heart. It seemed so impossible she should have ceased to care for +him, even while the announcement was on her very lips. Stiffly, and with +an offended air, extremely unlike the frank and kindly bearing that was +one of John Garnet's characteristics, he made a low bow, and observed +quietly: + +"No lady need fear persecution from me. Forgive my repeating to you, +Mistress Carew, that I loved you dearly, and believed you cared for me +in return." + +"I know it," she said, and but for a choking sensation in her throat +would have added something more. + +"I have deceived myself strangely, it seems," he continued, trying to +meet her eyes, which she kept averted from his face. "Nevertheless, I +think I am entitled to demand the cause of this sudden dismissal. I +should not like to lose my _respect_ for you, Mistress Carew, even +though I must try to forget my own unreasonable love." + +Still that catching in the throat. She loosened the black velvet band +round her neck, before she could answer. + +"Master Garnet," she said, "it is not good for you to be here. You ought +never to have come. I blame myself you have not sooner gone away. +Believe me, the air of Porlock means death. If you--you ever cared for +me, as you say, depart at once, to-day, this very hour, and put the blue +sea between us, for _my_ sake!" + +"For _your_ sake?" This was surely a new experience of the sex, thought +John Garnet; was ever woman so incomprehensible? Was ever woman so +lovely, and so beloved? + +"For my sake," she repeated, and the blue eyes met his own without +flinching. "Master Garnet, I am going to be married, and your presence +here conduces neither to my happiness nor your own." + +"Married? Tell me at least the name of the man you have chosen." + +There was no bitterness in his tone. Only a deep sorrow and a kindly +interest that told of unselfish affection, wounded but not destroyed. + +"Parson Gale," she answered, speaking very fast and glancing wildly +about her. "Does it surprise you? Is it strange? Does it not seem like a +jest?" She burst into a painful laugh, shrill, harsh, and by no means +suggestive of mirth. He looked anxiously in her face, wondering more and +more. + +"Mistress Carew," he said, in a grave earnest voice, "I pray you may be +happy!" and offered his hand. + +She caught it in both her own, with a low, sobbing cry, pressed it to +her heart, her lips, her eyes now streaming with tears, flung it from +her in hysteric violence, and rushed out of his presence, leaving John +Garnet utterly bewildered and dismayed. + +Even now he could not bring himself to admit that all was over between +them, though wholly unable to account for his sweetheart's inexplicable +conduct, and completely at a loss what to think, and what to believe. + +Later in the day, wandering restlessly to and fro, unwilling to leave +its vicinity, he observed Parson Gale ride through the village of +Porlock, dismount at old Carew's door, tie his horse there by the +bridle, and enter the house without farther ceremony. Then, for the +first time in his life, he felt that keen pang of jealousy, which is at +once the test, and the punishment of love. + +The Parson, notwithstanding certain misgivings, smothered in his own +breast, that his wooing, although successful, was attended by many +hindrances and drawbacks, had attired himself, as became his new +character, with unusual care and splendour. The rusty old riding suit +was replaced by a glossy black coat and waistcoat. His boots were clean, +his spurs bright, and a new steel buckle shone in the band of his hat. +More than one acquaintance whom he met in his ride, grinned admiringly, +and asked himself, in his own vernacular, "Wot the dickens Payson wur up +to now?" + +But Abner Gale, like the rest of mankind, was doomed to learn, that, in +a love chase, as in a stag hunt, checks, disappointments, falls, and +other casualties must be encountered and endured. He had bought his +pearl at a great price, no less than the loss of his revenge, and it +seemed there should be nothing to do now, but to stretch out his hand +and place the jewel in his breast. He felt sore and angry, like a man +defrauded of his rights, or overreached in a bargain, to find himself +kept waiting nearly an hour in old Carew's parlour, and greeted at last +by Nelly, with a pale, serious face, and eyes full of tears. + +He was a brisk suitor enough, to do him justice, entertaining no very +exalted notions of women's coyness and delicacy, but holding rather to +certain old-fashioned maxims inculcating promptitude and decision, +protesting that "faint heart never won fair lady," and always impatient +to "strike while the iron was hot." Yet even Parson Gale felt abashed to +meet that serious, heart-broken gaze, and he could no more have offered +to kiss her cheek than if she had been a queen on the throne. + +Coldly, quietly, as though there were nothing more between them than the +intercourse of common acquaintance, she informed him of her +grandfather's illness, and her own fears for its result, adding that he +required constant attendance; and Master Gale must not think her uncivil +or inhospitable if she could spare him only a few minutes of her company +in this climax of sorrow and distress. + +Perhaps she never thought so well of him as when he released her hand +with that respect which real misery commands from the roughest of +natures, while he bade her, in a tone of unfeigned sympathy, "Keep her +heart up, and never say die; for while there's life there's hope!" + +"Not for _me_, Master Gale!" answered poor Nelly, now breaking down +completely. "Oh! grandfather, grandfather! I had but _you_ in the +world!" Then she hid her face in her hands, and he saw by the action of +her shoulders that she was sobbing as if her heart would break.--He +dashed a tear from his own rough cheek. + +"I'll take my leave now, Mistress Nelly," said he, "only wishing I could +be of service to you, or do you good. Is there _nothing_ you can think +of? I'd go fasting and bare-foot from here to--to Jerusalem!" declared +the Parson, who had not an idea where it was, "if I thought I could take +the weight of a feather off the burden you have to bear!" + +She only waved him away with one hand, keeping her tear-stained face +buried in the other. He had already reached the door, when a bright +thought suggested itself, and he turned back. + +"Mistress Nelly!" he exclaimed, "if there's a doctor in England can cure +good Master Carew, I know where he is to be found. I'll wager a gallon I +bring him to this house within four hours of the present time." The +familiar expression denoted that Parson Gale was thoroughly in earnest. + +Nelly looked up through her tears. "God bless you for your kindness, at +anyrate," she sobbed. "What is he? Who is he? Send for him at once!" + +He turned, with his hand on the door. "The man is in hiding," he +answered, "and may be afraid to come, for there is a price on his head. +But this is a case of life and death, and if he refuses, I'll tie him +hand and foot, by George, bundle him on to a horse, and carry him with +me at a gallop across the moor!" + +With this valorous promise, Abner Gale swung himself into the saddle, +and in a few seconds was clattering up the stony lane from Porlock at +his utmost speed. Regardless of his new clothes and the lustre of his +boots, he pursued his way at the same headlong pace, through deep +coombes and shallow streams, miry swamps, and tufted banks of heather, +till he gained the open moor, and only drew bridle when he reached that +lone and sequestered valley in which the gipsies had pitched their camp. +Through it he rode like a madman, scattering the swarthy little +half-naked children to right and left beneath his horse's feet. At the +door of a brown weather-stained tent, sat Fin Cooper mending a kettle, +and here the Parson halted with a jerk. + +"Where's the priest?" said he. "I want him this instant. 'Tis to save a +man's life!" + +"What priest?" asked Fin, looking lazily up from his work. + +"Katerfelto," explained Gale. + +"Katerfelto," repeated the gipsy. "He would not thank you for calling +him by his name!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII. + +SELF-DEFENCE. + + +He did _not_ thank him. The Charlatan, who had closely shaven his +venerable beard, and adopted, with their reserved demeanour, the precise +and sombre habit of the Jesuits, was sitting down to an excellent stew, +whereof the savour, notwithstanding his preoccupation, rose gratefully +to the Parson's nostrils. But his business admitted of no delay, even +for such temptation as a mess of game and venison cooked gipsy-fashion; +and, laying his heavy hand on the other's shoulder, he addressed him by +name, bidding him shortly "rise and get to the saddle, since a patient +was dying for want of him. And even to those who knew it best, 'twas a +sorry pastime riding the moor in the dark!" + +Katerfelto started, looking about uneasily, for Dick Boss and his +satellites. "Hush! good Master Gale," said he; "a man may have more +names than one, and I am known as Father Constant here. The person you +speak of fled the country a week ago. You owe him some gratitude, or I +am mistaken. 'Twould be a scurvy trick to lay the bloodhounds on his +track." + +"Never fear, man!" answered the Parson, heartily. "Safe and undisturbed +as a November stag shalt thou remain, so long as thou harbourest with +us? 'Tis but a cast of thy trade I am asking thee, as though I bade Fin +Cooper do me a bit of tinkering on a worn-out kettle. We must have thee +down at Porlock to stop a hole in a man's life. Fin is putting a saddle +on the sure-footed roan even now. I take no denial, Master Katerfelto. +If you come not of good will, I shall carry you thither by force." + +"Needs must, when the devil drives," answered the other; "and the +proverb seems to hold good with a West-country parson. But, I pray you, +let us ride softly and fairly. Lancets and scalpels are none the better +for shaking, and I had as lief be hanged by King George, as break my +neck in a Devonshire bog!" + +Nervous of temperament, loving his ease, and unaccustomed to the saddle, +there yet lurked in Katerfelto that professional instinct which seems to +pervade every disciple of the healing science. He left his dinner +unfinished for a scamper over the moor, regretful indeed, yet with +admirable promptitude in the hope of saving a fellow-creature's life. He +had practised medicine and surgery before he took to conspiracy and +imposition, entertained sufficient confidence in his own skill, +believing it greater than it was; and, but for the Parson's reckless +speed, and the rough nature of the ground they traversed, would have +experienced a doctor's gratification in the excitement of a new case, +and the exercise of his art. But that rushing, reckless, headlong ride +put to flight all thoughts save those of immediate self-preservation. +Fin Cooper's roan, no matter how he came by it, was a swift and +sure-footed galloway, with a hard mouth and a determined will of its +own. The Parson had no sooner mounted, than he urged his horse to a +gallop, and proceeded at that pace up and down the steepest hills, along +the most broken paths, over the roughest ground, and through the tallest +heather without pause or hesitation; while the galloway, not to be +outdone, followed close in its leader's track, now leaping a hidden +ditch, now swerving sharply aside to avoid a ravine, anon plunging +through a bog up to its girths, with snorts of emulation and defiance. +Finally, when the Parson came to an abrupt halt in the gloom of Horner +Woods, it bumped against his horse's quarters with a jerk, that fairly +shot Katerfelto out of the saddle on its neck and ears. + +"I pray you give me a moment's breathing space," urged the discomfited +rider as he shuffled back into his seat, "else I warn you, Master Gale, +you will bring the dead to heal the living when we arrive at our +patient's door!" + +"Where there's life, there's hope," answered the Parson, who, in his +abstraction, regarded his companion's distress no more than the +difficulties in their way. "We are close at hand now. I can hear the +tide whispering in the bay. Oh! Master Katerfelto, rescue me this one +man from the grasp of death, and ask Abner Gale what you will in return. +I am not so bad as you think, and--and--bad as I am, I never went back +from my word!" + +"I'll do my best," promised the other, observing, with exceeding +gratification, that their horses' hoofs now rang on a sound, hard road, +and that the scanty lights which marked the village of Porlock were +within a quarter of a mile. + +Dismounting at old Carew's door, the Parson ushered Katerfelto into +Nelly's presence, and while he felt reassured to learn that her +grandfather was still alive, could not but mark with deep concern the +ravages a few hours of distress and vexation had made on the sweet face +of his promised wife. He seemed, however, to recognise one consolation +in the midst of all his troubles and anxieties--John Garnet must be far +enough off by this time, and there was nothing more to fear from the +rival, whose absence he had purchased at the price of his own revenge. +In his self-satisfaction, the Parson almost fancied himself a benevolent +and forgiving man, with virtues only now coming to maturity, who +deserved to be happy because he was good. + +Establishing the Doctor in Carew's house, under his grand-daughter's +care, Abner Gale had the grace to take his own departure without delay, +and rode home through the dark, elated at the successful issue of his +enterprise, and the matrimonial prospects opening before him, but +unmoved by Nelly's wan looks and obvious misery, as by the north wind +that blew so keen at his back in angry gusts, powdering the sleeves of +his riding-coat with something whiter than sleet, something, that a +month later in the year he would have called snow. + +"She never could live a week in that old house," muttered the Parson, +turning his collar up to his ears, "unprotected and alone. She would +come home to Abner Gale's roof, for sure, as kind and willing as a bird +to the nest. It won't be long first, my beauty, for, if this is to be +winter in earnest, the cold will bring the old man down like an apple +off a tree!" + +And the Parson was right. Carew's life was indeed ebbing swiftly and +surely away; yet much had to come and go, even at this quiet village of +Porlock, before his shattered storm-worn bark could reach her peaceful +moorings in that Fair Haven--"where the wicked cease from troubling and +the weary are at rest." + +Katerfelto did his duty, and Nelly scarcely left the patient's bedside +for a minute at a time. If skill and attention could have saved him, old +Carew might have been kept alive for many a week to come; but the last +few grains in the hour-glass seem to dribble away the fastest, and it +was no more obvious to the doctor who watched, than to the girl who +prayed, that with sinking strength and failing vitality, the question +was no longer of days, but of hours. + +In this her sore distress, how could John Garnet find it in his heart to +leave the neighbourhood of the woman he loved? How could he bear to +think of her loneliness, protected only by the hateful attentions of +Parson Gale? He lingered on imprudently enough, visiting the house at +frequent intervals for news of the dying man, and pressing many a +crown-piece on the sorrowful servant, who was the only person visible to +answer his inquiries. + +Yet his pale and anxious looks had been marked by loving eyes, swimming +in tears because of his constancy, his danger, and the promise that +forbade further warning or expostulation. Herself unseen, Nelly caught a +glimpse of her lover more than once--and so did Katerfelto. + +His presence filled the Charlatan with indignation and alarm. They had +been concerned together in a conspiracy against the Government, and +either of them, so argued Katerfelto, could hang the other. If John +Garnet recognised him, it was more than probable that he would endeavour +to secure his own safety, or at least a commutation of capital +punishment, by informing against his confederate. + +The grey horse, the arms, the money, all would be traced back to the +master-spirit that originated the plot, and there would be no escape for +him then! John Garnet must be destroyed at once, without scruple and +without delay. The means were close at hand. The Parson made no secret +of his attachment to Nelly Carew, and Katerfelto seemed to know by +instinct that in such a character as Gale's, jealousy once aroused could +be lulled by nothing short of a deadly and final revenge. After all, he +did but act in self-defence! He owed John Garnet a grudge, perhaps, for +the abduction of Waif; but it was no question of petty injuries or +reprisals now. Simply a choice of evils. John Garnet or himself had to +pay the penalty of high-treason at Tyburn. Of course, it must be John +Garnet! + +So, when Parson Gale rode down to Porlock on his daily visit of inquiry, +the Charlatan motioned him into the little parlour, and closed the door +on their conference, with a mysterious face. + +"My business here," he began, in his dry, sarcastic tone, "lies with +symptoms rather than affections, and concerns the liver more than the +heart. Nevertheless, I can understand men's devices, though I cannot +sympathise with their follies, and I see well enough, Master Gale, there +is no price you would grudge to pay for a pair of blue eyes that are +sore with weeping and watching in the chamber overhead." + +"What of that?" asked the other abruptly; for Nelly's persistent +avoidance of him on the plea of her grandfather's danger vexed him to +the heart. + +"Not much, in my opinion," answered Katerfelto; "but it may be something +in yours. The same cause produces different effects. You carry a pebble +in your pocket without inconvenience, but put it in your shoe, and I +defy you to walk across the room. You love this girl, Master Gale, and I +know it. Do you want to lose her?" + +The Parson must have been very much in earnest, for he neither stormed +nor swore, but only turned a shade paler, and said, in a low, thick +voice, "Lose her!--I had rather lose my own soul!" + +"Then look a little closer after her," was the reply. "There's another +man within a stone's-throw who loves blue eyes, may be as well as you +do. He comes to the house daily. Aye, half-a-dozen times a day!" + +"What manner of man?" asked the Parson, still in the same low, +concentrated voice. + +"A straight, handsome young spark," answered Katerfelto, "with bright +eyes and dark clustering hair. Tush, Master Gale, you know him well +enough--'tis none other than my former patient, 'plain' John Garnet!" + +"When was he here last?" + +"To-day--not an hour ago--a few minutes before you arrived. Stay, +Master Gale--you seem in a prodigious hurry to be gone. See! you have +forgotten your riding-glove." + +"Give it Master Garnet when next he comes," said the Parson, in no +louder tones than before, but with a look in his eyes that made even +Katerfelto's blood run cold, "and tell him from me the harbourer shall +not claim his right next time I set my stag up to bay. He will know what +I mean. Oh! Nelly, Nelly!" he murmured, with a sob, while he unhitched +his bridle from the garden palings, "I would have kept to my bargain if +you had kept to yours!" + +The Charlatan, returning to his medical duties perfectly satisfied that +his object was in course of accomplishment, observed that Nelly was not +as usual in attendance on her grandfather. She entered the room, +however, within a minute or two, so pale and calm, that he had not the +least suspicion she could have overheard any part of his conversation +with the Parson. + +Nevertheless, that evening, John Garnet found on his supper-table a +letter, the first he had ever received from her, bearing no signature, +and consisting only of the following lines: + +"They have resolved on your destruction. Fly at once. Perhaps hereafter +I shall see you again. Think no more of what I said. I will never marry +him. I had rather die first." + +That was all, but it set John Garnet acting as well as thinking. His +preparations were soon made, a small valise was packed, his arms were +carefully examined and fresh primed, finally he visited his horse in the +stable, saw to his corn, his shoes, his saddle and bridle, all the +requirements indispensable for the morrow, when, with the first +appearance of day, he would have to ride for his life. + +Lastly, he passed once more under Nelly's windows, and watched, with a +strange, sad longing, the point of light that denoted her vigil by the +dying man's bed. Then he turned back to his lodging for a few hours' +rest, more depressed and sick at heart than he had ever felt before. The +north wind howled angrily, stripping their autumn leaves in scores from +the bending boughs of the orchard, while every now and then, an +ungathered apple came to the ground with a thud. It was a dreary night, +pain and sorrow within, cold and desolation without. A hopeless mourner +above, a weary watcher below, for something told John Garnet that old +Carew's life was ebbing away with every passing minute, and that death +was busy up yonder, while here the snow fell thick and fast. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX. + +REMORSE. + + +In the gipsies' camp a night of snow and storm was accepted without a +murmur, and provided against in a spirit of ingenuity and forethought +peculiar to such wayfarers, as love the shelter of no roof so well as +the canopy of heaven. Fin Cooper in his tent, at the door of which +crackled a liberal fire of roots and brushwood, filling the interior +with warmth, and indeed smoke, declared himself as happy as a king! He +had all his comforts about him, and most of his possessions within call, +nor wanted a sufficient share of such superfluities as made the luxuries +of his hard unsophisticated life. There was a dressed skin for his +couch, a good blanket for his coverlet, and a soft shawl doubled over an +anker of brandy for his pillow. In the kettle steamed a hare, a brace of +partridges, and a haunch from the fore-quarter of a red-deer. With food, +rest, and warmth, good liquor in his cup and good tobacco in his pipe, +Fin could not but admit that, so long as his tent held waterproof, he +was not much to be pitied, even on a Devonshire moor under an early fall +of snow. To-night, also, he considered himself more fortunate than +usual, as he shared these advantages with no less welcome a visitor than +Waif, accompanied, for reasons of propriety, by her grandmother, an old +Egyptian, reputed to have once been handsome, and of fascinating +demeanour, now, to say the least, a remarkable person in appearance, +grim, taciturn, given to drink, and seldom condescending to remove a +short black pipe from her mouth. + +His promised wife, on the contrary, seemed in high spirits, as she was +unquestionably in great beauty. Her black eyes, flushed and sparkled, +her tawny cheek glowed with a rich deep crimson, while her manner +betrayed no little self-assertion, her tone something, amounting almost +to defiance, when addressed by her future lord. Talkative she never had +been from childhood, but to-night she was less taciturn than usual, and +seemed strangely eager to break such occasional silence as gave scope +for her own thoughts. + +Fin, looking on her with admiring eyes, did not fail to notice that in +figure she had grown thin, to leanness, and that there shone a +brilliancy, unnatural even for a gipsy, in the uneasy glances that +watched his movements so narrowly, yet never rested for an instant on +his face. + +Thyra always seemed unlike other girls, thought Fin, and this +preoccupation, no doubt, was but the slyness of love. + +He took her hand, while the old beldame was busy refilling her pipe, and +raised the slender, shapely fingers to his lips, with a comely grace, +that a gipsy wears no less naturally than a prince of the blood. + +"To-morrow, Thyra," said he, "you will make Fin Cooper the happiest man +alive. To-morrow we shall be one in the sight of all our people, never +to part again. The parson of the Gorgios joins a couple by the hand, +like a brace of thieves chained together in the dock, but the Romipen of +the Romany, a true gipsy marriage, solders them heart to heart, as I +would weld tin and copper into brass! To-morrow, my lass, you will be +mine. To-night I am altogether yours. Ask me what you will, beautiful +Thyra, I can deny you nothing at such a time as this!" + +Her hand remained in his while he spoke: when he dropped it she shivered +from head to foot. + +"I am cold," she murmured, "so cold. There will be snow to-morrow, Fin, +deep snow, amongst these hills. The Gorgio bride wears white on her +marriage-day. A Romany lass might do worse than follow the example." + +Her fixed gaze, that seemed looking on some object miles and miles away, +her sorrowful tone, so quiet and so very weary, disturbed him. He caught +her hand once more, and would have drawn her into his arms, but for the +shake and snort of a horse at the tent-door, and Parson Gale's +well-known voice, bidding him rouse and show himself, with a tass of +brandy in his hand. + +A man who has little to offer is usually very hospitable. Fin sprang +forward to welcome the intruder, with cordial alacrity, and summoned a +bare-legged urchin from half-a-score within call, to lead the Parson's +horse into a sheltered nook behind the adjoining copse, where two or +three donkeys were pulling at a truss of hay. Abner Gale was then +hurried into the tent, and supplied with brandy; the inclemency of the +weather rendering that liquor unusually grateful to his burly frame. + +"All friends, here?" asked the Parson, holding the untasted cup in his +hand. + +"All friends," replied Fin Cooper. "The old woman is stone deaf, and +this time to-morrow Thyra will be my wife!" + +Gale was equal to the occasion. Ere Waif could turn her head, he +imprinted a kiss on her cheek, and tossed off the brandy to her health. + +"I claim my priest's dues," said he gallantly, "the first right to +salute a bride. And now to business, Fin. Not a moment is to be lost. I +want to borrow the sure-footed roan again to-night. I'll pay you +handsome this time." + +With the lofty politeness of men who deal in horses honestly or +otherwise, Fin ignored the question of money altogether. + +"Oh! that's nothing between me and you," said the gipsy; "but the last +journey you went our roan might as well have been stag-hunting. You must +have galloped him a dozen miles on end without drawing bridle. 'Tis a +good little beast as was ever bred on the moor, but I needn't tell you, +Parson, that horseflesh is not iron. What do you want with him, now?" + +"To mount Dick Boss," was the answer. + +Fin made a wry face, and Waif held her breath. A sheriff's officer +seemed the last person to whom it was natural for a gipsy to lend his +horse. + +Parson Gale put his head out at the tent-door, looked about him into the +dark night through which snow-flakes were falling thick; and, having +satisfied himself, he could not be overheard, proceeded to unfold his +plans, the more frankly that he had every reason to count on the +assistance of both his listeners. + +"There's money be to got by the job," said he, with an evil scowl on his +heavy brows. "Blood-money, but what of that? We will share and share +alike. This pretty lass of yours, Fin, she found out where the deer +harboured. You and Dick Boss, and another handy chap or two, shall help +me take him, and when King George comes down with the reward, God bless +him--there will be twenty guineas each to spend in drink! If that won't +make a blithe wedding, Fin Cooper, I'll engage to remain a bachelor till +my dying day!" + +The gipsy was a man of business. "And your share, Parson?" he asked, +calculating the sum to be divided with great exactitude. + +"I don't desire to be paid," replied the Parson. "I do it for the +sport!" + +Waif leaped from her seat, with flashing eyes, and her hand on the +knife she always wore, but sank back laughing wildly, and speaking in +short disjointed gasps. + +"Good!" she said. "Good! He's the right sort, Fin, this Gorgio. Bid him +tell us how he means to set about the job." + +Fin Cooper, turning to the Parson, thought he had never seen so wicked a +smile as that which gleamed in Gale's eyes, and curled round his mouth +while he repeated, "I do it for the sport, lad; he's a right deer, I +tell ye; and if I don't set him up to-morrow, I swear I'll never go +hunting again." + +"That's why you want the roan?" asked Fin, turning the matter over in +his mind, as a question of profit and loss. + +"Right," answered the Parson; "Dick Boss must be on a good nag, and so +must I. If John Garnet should get the wind of us, he'll show a clean +pair of heels, you may take your oath. But what of that? Let worst come +to worst, four mounted men spreading wide, and knowing every yard of the +ground, ought to ride him down, though the grey horse had a wing at each +foot instead of an iron shoe. But that's not my plan. Hark ye, Fin; +we'll be in the saddle before daybreak, and we'll take him while he's +asleep." + +Waif stirred uneasily, but only muttered again, "Good! good! Mind what +he says, Fin, for surely the Gorgio speaks fair." + +"'Tis as easy as drinking out of a glass," continued the Parson, scarce +noticing her interruption. "Dick Boss and the roan, his two men riding +their own nags, yourself, Fin, on something that can gallop a bit, I +never knew you without one--and game old Cassock to bring me along with +the best of ye. It would be a rare chase, lad--I could almost wish he +might slip through our fingers, and ride for it over the moor, but he'll +never have the chance, Fin; he'll never have the chance!" + +"Suppose he shows fight, Parson," suggested the gipsy, who was a bold +fellow enough on occasion, but regarded such matters with a keen eye to +business. "'Tis none of your dunghill fowls this, but a cock of the +game, with never a morsel of white in his wing, put him down where you +will. Suppose he lugs out on Dick Boss, and whistles a brace of balls +into you and me?" + +"I'm not afraid of him," answered Gale; "it makes no difference in the +reward, Fin, whether we take him dead or alive." + +"Come back, Thyra!" exclaimed the gipsy, with more of a husband's +authority than was yet permissible in his tone. "Where are you going, +lass? Come back, I tell ye." + +She was already through the tent-door, but returned at his bidding. +"It's stifling hot in here, Fin," she said; "I should have choked but +for that mouthful of fresh air." + +"And you were so cold a while ago," he replied, watching her narrowly. +"Parson Gale," he added, turning to his visitor, "take the roan and +welcome. The lad will show you where to find him. I'll meet you at the +head of the coombe an hour before daybreak. It's a job that won't work +well in the dark; but the less time we put off the better when once the +sun's up. Will you take another cup of brandy, Parson? You've a cold +ride before you, and we've not done with the snow yet." + +But Gale declined, and Waif, who suffered nothing to escape her notice, +argued from this unusual abstinence an intense longing to work out the +project of his revenge. + +So John Garnet was to be in the power of his enemies, bound hand and +foot, delivered over to a shameful death, with to-morrow's dawn, and it +wanted but three hours of daylight now. John Garnet, with his merry +eyes, his winning smile, and frank, kindly face. Was this to be the end +of all? The nightcap, and the nosegay, and the hangman's cart rumbling +over the stones on Tyburn-hill. John Garnet, the man she used to love so +dearly she would have followed him bare-footed through the world. And +it was _her_ doing--_her_ revenge. Yes! If she had driven a knife into +his throat she could not more surely have slain him, than when she +betrayed the secret of his hiding-place, and denounced him to Parson +Gale. The man she used to love, the man she loved so fondly, so madly +still. Now that it was too late, the whole tide of her feelings seemed +to turn, and she would have given her own life freely, then and there, +to save him, aye even for the blue-eyed girl, whom from the moment she +saw them whispering together in the orchard she hated, with the fierce, +pitiless hatred of her race. + +She gasped for breath, the tent and its occupants swam before her eyes; +a deadly faintness seemed to hang fetters of ice about her limbs, and +she turned sick, with a maddening fear, lest the strength and hardihood +she had so prized might fail her, in this, the extremity of her need. + +Fin Cooper watched her with shrewd suspicious glances. The gipsy, a man +of few words, but keen in perception, and ready of resource, drew his +own conclusions from the restlessness he could not fail to notice in his +promised wife, and resolved not to let her out of his sight till he +started on horseback to join Parson Gale and his satellites. Once in the +saddle, he had no fear that Waif could outstrip them, or give John +Garnet warning of his danger, till he was safe in their hands. + +So he sat and smoked in silence, stretching his legs across his own +tent-door, while Waif gnawed her lip in an agony of remorse within, and +the snow fell fast through the darkness without. But towards dawn the +air turned colder and the sky began to clear. Fin Cooper rose, shook +himself, drank a mouthful of brandy, and bestowing a sarcastic nod on +its inmates, left the tent to saddle his horse and depart. In a moment +the girl slipped out behind him, and, lightly clad as she was, sped +through the sleeping encampment, swift and noiseless as a deer. Her +grandmother, waking from a doze, never doubted but that Thyra had +returned to her own tent, and unwilling to face the night-air, composed +herself to sleep again with the pipe still in her mouth. Fin Cooper, +riding steadily up the coombe, chuckled to think how he had outwitted +his bride, and stifled the pangs of jealousy it seemed so unreasonable +to entertain, now that the lapse of an hour or two must deliver his +rival into his hand, while the swarm of gipsies he left behind him, +huddled up in their blankets under their canvas coverings, snored +healthily and loud, thinking little, and caring less, about the pearl of +their tribe, her anguish, her sorrows, her coming espousals, or, indeed, +anything but their own warmth, comfort, and repose. + +So Waif sped on, fast as her supple limbs could carry her, through the +copse, and up the coombe, and across the moor, wrapped in its cheerless +shroud, stretching, as it seemed in her impatience, to a limitless +expanse that mortal foot could never compass, mortal eye was powerless +to scan. Oh! for the wings of the curlew! Oh! for the speed of the +red-deer. She would give all the rest of her life, willingly, +thankfully, for two leagues, only two leagues, less to traverse, for two +hours, only two hours more to spare. Was it the snow that showed +everything so distinctly, or was this really the light of morning +stealing, cold and pitiless, over a world of white? Toiling, hurrying, +panting, all agape with pain and fear, she yet found breath to curse the +coming day. And still she hardly knew how or why she was straining nerve +and sinew in this desperate race. There could be nothing in common now, +between herself and the man whom she hated so bitterly, yet loved so +well. He had deceived her, aye, as he had deceived many another, before +it came to her turn (here Waif's small white teeth closed hard on her +dainty lip), and would deceive more, no doubt, hereafter, with the same +alluring smile, if through her agency he should escape the penalty of +his misdeeds, and survive for future treachery. How could he be so +false, so cruel, so heartless? Were all men like this, Fin Cooper and +the rest, or was John Garnet a vile exception to his kind? She knew not, +she cared not. Good or bad, she loved him! she loved him! how could she +ever have thought otherwise? and she would do all in her power to save +him, cost what it might. + +Oh, that endless stretch of moor--those weary dragging miles! Curse +them! Curse them! It was broad daylight already, and she had only now +caught sight of the Severn Sea, lowering a dark and sullen line beyond +the snowy waste. A band of iron seemed to enclose her head, a weight to +drag at each of her limbs, a cold hand to tighten round her heart. What +if her strength were to fail, and she should be too late after all. + +To see him once again!--once again! Only to look in his face and die! +She would be content then, and ask for nothing more. But the time +passed, ah! so quickly, and her lagging feet so laboured in the +snow-drifts, that he might be taken long before she could arrive at +Porlock, and even then the only mercy she asked of heaven might be +denied. + +Her lips were parched and dry, her knees trembled, she could hold out at +such exhausting speed no longer, and yet she had scarce accomplished +half the distance to her goal. She knew that deep, dark ravine well, +narrowing yonder in her front to some eight or nine yards from bank to +bank. It would save more than a mile could she cross it at that point +where the blighted fir-tree stood. Above and below it widened into a +deep precipitous coombe, tangled with brushwood, through which a silver +thread of running water laughed and whispered many a fathom down in its +slippery bed of stones. No. It was too far to leap, and she must go +round. She lost heart utterly; and the wind, rising once more in +mocking gusts, seemed to flout and buffet her, driving another +snow-storm in her face. + +But on its wings it carried a dull, smothered beat, faint and distant, +yet drawing nearer with each regular monotonous foot-fall. It was the +tramp of horses, galloping at speed over the snowy surface of the moor; +and Waif, eager, erect, motionless, listening with every nerve, as the +red hind listens to the tufters, made out distinctly that the nearest +rider was far ahead of two or three others in pursuit. + +As the blinding storm passed over, that death-chase came fairly into +view. Along the side of the opposite hill swept two horsemen at headlong +pace, the one a quarter of a mile before the other, and increasing his +distance with every stride. A third laboured hopelessly in the rear; and +two more, one of whom she recognised as her affianced husband, were +making for the head of the coombe, with the obvious intention of hemming +in and cutting off the object of their pursuit. + +Keener even than a gipsy's eye-sight, the instincts of love and hate +told Waif that the first rider was John Garnet, the second Abner Gale. + +"Have I found thee, oh, mine enemy!" muttered the Parson, plying Cassock +with his spurs, while he scanned the ravine before them, and reflected, +not without a grim humour, how impossible it seemed that any creature +unprovided with wings should reach the other side. He knew that deep and +yawning chasm, where the fir-tree stood, well as he knew his own +stable-door; but he did _not_ know the grey horse's dauntless courage, +nor the recklessness of a man like John Garnet riding for his life! + +Waif, however, could understand and rely on both. Tearing the 'kerchief +from her bosom while she ran, she hurried down to the deep precipitous +edge at its narrowest part, and waved for the man she loved her signal +to come on. + +How _like_ him, she thought, to spare a hand, even at such a crisis, and +raise his hat from his comely head ere he forced it firmly down and set +his horse going for the leap. + +"By George! you _are_ a flyer!" said John Garnet, as Katerfelto, +pricking his ears and shortening his stride while he increased his pace, +bounded freely from bank to bank, detaching, however, with his hind feet +a large portion of earth and shingle, that went rumbling and rattling +down many a perpendicular fathom into the abyss. So that, even while the +words were on the rider's lips, the horse stumbled and fell as he +landed, rolling forward on his side and shoulder in the snow. + +John Garnet, who never let go his reins, was up in an instant; whilst +the horse rose almost as nimbly, with wild eye and spreading nostril, +snorting in terror and defiance, scared alike by his exploit and his +fall. + +Plunging forward, the buckle of his throat-lash gave way, the bit +slipped out of his mouth, and Katerfelto scoured riderless into the +waste, leaving John Garnet standing on his feet, with the bridle in his +hand. A shout of triumph from the pursuers, who were already rounding +the head of the coombe, warned him that they had seen the catastrophe, +and were prepared to take advantage of it. Unarmed and dismounted they +could ride him down now, they thought, at their leisure, let the grey +horse go where he might. + +Among the many faults of his character, none could tax Abner Gale with +want of promptitude or decision in an emergency. No sooner was he +satisfied that his enemy meant to charge boldly the obstacle in front, +than he too, urged no less by vanity than hatred, made up his mind, +while he caught hold of the black horse's head, to ride at it, +neck-or-nothing, and take his chance! + +[Illustration: NECK-OR-NOTHING.] + +John Garnet was hardly down and up again, ere the Parson, sitting firmly +in the saddle, had forced his horse at the leap, even to the very brink. +But, wiser than his master, poor Cassock was fain to be excused. Alas! +the rider's strength of seat and hands and limbs, above all, his +indomitable _will_, would take no denial, and the gallant old horse +made his effort too late! Chesting the opposite bank, the concussion +shot the hapless pair, as if from a catapult, to the very bottom of the +chasm. + +Even in the turmoil of her feelings, Waif turned sick, while her +imagination, rather than her senses, told her the hideous truth; but +John Garnet, peering over the brink to where a dead man and horse, with +hardly a bone unbroken in either of their frames, lay rolled up in a +ghastly heap, could not help murmuring, "'Tis a pity sure, for vile as +he is, a scoundrel not worth hanging, no better rider, nor bolder, ever +buckled on a pair of spurs!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXX. + +REPARATION. + + +But there was no time for interchange of sentiments, regretful or +otherwise, at such a crisis. Fin Cooper and Dick Boss had already +coasted round the coombe, and were hastening down its side to the fatal +spot. Katerfelto, carrying his rider's saddle, valise, and pistols, +galloped across them masterless, into the waste. John Garnet, dismounted +and disarmed, for even the short sword he wore had been jerked out of +its belt in his desperate ride, felt that he must surrender at +discretion. What chance had he against two resolute men on horseback, +who knew the moor, were provided with fire-arms, and had legal authority +to use them if required. + +"The game's up, Waif," said he, "but you and I have played it out, my +lass, to the very last card! I was thinking of you only this morning at +daybreak when I stole away from Porlock, and my friends over yonder set +up a shout of rage to see my tracks not three minutes old in the snow! +If I had but known the country! Well, well! 'Twas a rare burst and a +noble leap! You showed me the only spot where it could be done, and I +understood with the first wave of your arm; but how came you to be here, +my pretty Waif, in the nick of time?" + +Oh! the kind cruel voice! the kind cruel words! It was snowing fast, +and the wet Waif dashed from her eyelashes might not have been tears +after all. + +"I knew they meant to kill you!" she sobbed. "I heard their vile, wicked +plot, and Fin kept me a prisoner in his tent lest I should warn you. Ah! +they little knew Waif, if they thought she could sit and count her +fingers when _you_ were in danger! I swore to save you, and I will! +Thank your God, if you Gorgios have one, for this snow-storm. No man +living can see twenty paces before him while it lasts. Take off your +boots!" + +He stared, wondering if she had gone mad, but Waif was already on her +knees dragging at one of his feet with all her might. + +She continued, in an eager, hurried whisper, without desisting for a +moment from her task: "Close by here, under the birch-tree, is a +sheep-track that will lead you safe to the bottom of the coombe. Keep in +the brushwood by the water-side, and follow the stream. A mile lower +down you will come to Red Rube's hut. They will never think of looking +for you there. Tell him Thyra Lovel sent you, and he will hide you for +my sake. Farewell, Master Garnet. I--I wish you good luck, and--do +not--do not quite forget Waif!" + +Ere she had done speaking, his heavy riding-boots were drawn on her own +shapely limbs. Then she turned away to plunge through the snow without +another word. + +He stretched his arms towards her. For one brief moment she stood +looking at him, less like a woman of real flesh and blood, than some +visionary phantom of the night. To his dying day, John Garnet never +forgot that figure of the gipsy-girl, her pale face, her raven hair, the +folds of her scarlet hood seen through the slanting downfall of the +storm. Those solemn eyes, with their yearning gaze, seemed still bent on +him, long after the slender shape had vanished in that grey and +thickening gloom; vanished for ever, to return no more but in his +dreams. + +Shouts at no great distance warned him that he must attend to his own +safety, and, slipping cautiously into the coombe, he obeyed Waif's +directions to the letter, keeping studiously under cover in the +brushwood, and making his way along the bed of the stream, as nimbly as +lacerated feet, protected only by hose, would allow. Ere he reached Red +Rube's hut, where he found the harbourer at home and willing to give him +shelter, he had plenty of time to reflect on his future plans, and to +appreciate the devotion and self-sacrifice of the girl whose heart he +had won so lightly and cared so little to retain. Pangs he felt, no +doubt, of pity, regret, even remorse, but through them all, he could not +but admit, that one glance from Nelly Carew's blue eyes would be enough +to make him forget his own thoughtless frivolity, and the gipsy's +unreasoning, incontrollable affection that was now risking dear life for +his sake. + +He could not but acknowledge the dangers she must incur toiling through +the snow in his heavy riding-boots, that she might draw his pursuers +from the path he actually followed. She might perish of cold and +exhaustion on the open moor. She might be buried in some snow-drift from +which she had not strength to extricate herself. Worse than all, when +overtaken and caught, what fatal penalty might not be exacted by the +vengeance of that half-savage husband whom she had deceived for the sake +of her Gentile love. + +If Waif herself entertained any such misgivings, they were swallowed up +in the single consideration of out-witting his pursuers, to save John +Garnet from death. + +So she plunged and laboured on, faint, breathless, weary, sustained only +by the one earnest aim of her brave and loving heart, listening eagerly +for the voices of those who were on her track, and exulting, with +fierce and bitter triumph, to lead them farther and farther from their +prey. + +One more mile. If her strength would last but for one more mile, he must +have reached his refuge then, and she would be content to lie down and +die. Shrouded in a snow-drift on her wedding-day. (She laughed to +herself at the conceit) and married, like a Gorgio bride, all in white! + +Fin Cooper and Dick Boss, galloping down to the spot at which the grey +horse fell, made sure of his rider at such a grievous disadvantage, and +laughed, while they pointed out to each other the heavy footmarks +printed off distinctly in the snow. + +"He'll not travel far in them boots, wading through the drifts!" +remarked Dick Boss, who was little given to conversation at the best of +times. + +"'Tis our hunted stag," answered Fin, showing his white teeth, with a +pitiless laugh; "he's beginning to weary already, I can tell, by the +slot!" + +So they followed, with renewed ardour, upward, always upward into the +hill, and pointing for the wildest part of the moor. + +But the horses were beginning to tire, toiling more than fetlock deep in +snow, and the blinding flakes that lashed the faces of their riders not +only shrouded everything from their view, but filled up and obliterated +the track on which they depended for guidance and success. "We are beat, +man!" said Dick, drawing rein, sulkily, and wringing the heavy snow from +his sleeves and holsters. "There's not a drop of blood left unfroze in +my body, and I shall give out!" turning his bridle at the same time +doggedly down hill, while the gipsy, trusting to his knowledge of the +country, declared his own intention of making a wide sweep forward, +hoping thus to catch a glimpse of the pedestrian, and ride him down, so +soon as the storm modified sufficiently to distinguish an object at ten +paces' distance. + +Once parted, the two men had no chance of coming together again. The +sheriff's officer, through sheer good luck did eventually find his way +back to Porlock, but Fin Cooper wandered aimlessly on many a mile +further into the wilderness. He, too, was at last obliged to confess +himself defeated. Not only baffled in his search, but lost, like an +overfed Gorgio, on the moor. + +The snow, falling and fallen, so completely effaced or altered every +familiar land-mark, that he rode blindly round and round, ashamed to +admit he was unable to find his way out of this weary, interminable, +undulating waste of white. + +After a hundred mistakes, a hundred disappointments, he came to a +standstill perforce. Floundering through a deep snow-drift, he was +compelled to halt and take a survey of the misty surface, over which +every passing moment made it more unsafe to travel. The storm, that had +raged and lulled at intervals, now lifted for a time, disclosing at a +hundred paces' distance something that caused Fin to start in his +saddle, and brought a blasphemy of malice and exultation to his lips. + +Yonder, almost within pistol-shot, lay a motionless heap half buried, +half revealed, and yes, his keen hawk's eye did not deceive him, a +horseman's heavy boot protruded from the snow! + +With a cry of triumph he spurred eagerly to the spot, and leaped from +the saddle in such fierce and hungry hate as impels the pounce of a wild +cat--the swoop of a bird of prey. + +[Illustration: THE GIPSY'S BRIDE.] + +She lay dead--stone dead. The girl he had loved all these years. The +woman that to-day, this very day was to have been his wife! And he +thought it was John Garnet, whose life he had thirsted to take for a +reward of twenty guineas. Twenty guineas to spend in rioting and +drunkenness at his wedding feast! He burst into so wild a shriek of +laughter as startled the very horse, from which he had dismounted, +and fell on his knees beside the rigid form, that he had last seen +warm and supple, clothed with living grace and beauty in his tent. + +It seemed impossible. She had not surely lain there many minutes, and +yet how stiff she had grown and cold! Against that fixed grey face he +laid his own, and tried hard in his agony to breathe life into those +pale parted lips, but it was hoping against hope, and while he swore +that it could not, should not be, his bursting heart told him the truth, +and he knew that Thyra Lovel's deep dark eyes would look on him again, +gladly or sadly, never more! Even in his utter misery he saw it all: the +ingenious shift, the false track, the artifice by which she had +outwitted him, and led him skilfully off the line of his pursuit, to +spend his wedding-day with her here, locked in each other's arms, the +only occupants of the frozen, desolate waste. + +The gipsy's mood was very pitiful and tender while he sat and watched by +her corpse in the falling snow, waiting till his horse should be +sufficiently rested to carry a double burthen, thinking, more in sorrow +than in anger, of their two blighted lives, and the love he had given so +lavishly without return, wondering in his heathen reasonings why these +things were so, wishing in his despair that the storm would fall thicker +and thicker to wrap them for ever on this their marriage-bed in its +shroud of eternal white. + +After a few days, however, all traces of winter again disappeared from +those smiling valleys and shaggy woodlands that border the Severn Sea. +Not a patch of white was left to spot the swarthy uplands where Dunkerry +Beacon lords it over the moor, and along the warm sheltered coast from +Watermouth to Watchet, summer seemed to have returned only softer and +kinder for her desertion. But the fairest flower in Devon languished and +faded in the genial sunshine, more obviously than she had drooped +beneath the storm. Nelly Carew, in deep mourning for her grandfather, +looking none the less beautiful in her sorrow, felt so lonely and +unprotected now, that in her moments of despondency she almost wished +she could die too, like the others, and be at rest. + +Katerfelto vainly endeavoured to persuade her that by accompanying him +in his flight to the Continent she might probably join John Garnet, who +must surely have preceded them to some of the usual refuges for such +political outlaws, believing, no doubt, that, accompanied by so +beautiful an associate, he could ply his old trade with every prospect +of success; but the girl's own sense of right forbade her to think for +an instant of such a scheme, and he, too, went his way, after Master +Carew's funeral, leaving Nelly entirely forsaken and alone. The +neighbours, though liberal in expressions of sympathy, and offers of +help which was not required, shook their heads and whispered to each +other that there was something unlucky about the lass--things went wrong +with all who took a fancy to her. The old grandfather, who couldn't keep +his eyes off her, and thought gold wasn't good enough for her to eat +off, he died--well--a man in years certainly, but still very little over +eighty after all! Then there was that godless parson who broke his neck +just above the Witches' Wash-pot, and indeed every bone of his body, so +that they could scarce straighten him decently for burial. Was he not a +lover of Mistress Nelly's? + +As to the young spark, a comely lad, forsooth, and a gallant, who came +and went with his grey horse like a flash of lightning, so that nobody +in Porlock ever knew what was gone with him, why it wasn't likely, was +it? that she would ever set eyes on _him_ again! Altogether, Nelly felt +very unhappy and despondent. It seemed hard, at her age, to be left so +friendless, so utterly alone in the world. + +But one afternoon, when the days were at their shortest, came a letter +by the weekly post from Taunton, stamped with a French mark, tied in a +bright new ribbon, and directed in a bold masculine hand to Mistress +Nelly Carew. + +From the date of its receipt the neighbours could not but observe how +the girl's eye grew brighter, and the colour returned to her cheek. The +hope that had nearly died out in her heart began to bloom once more, and +her trust came back in John Garnet, just as poor Waif's did, but with +better reason, and a happier result. + +She learned that powerful friends had made interest for this proscribed +young gentleman at court. The king was a thorough Englishman, placable, +courageous, extremely averse to severity when an enemy was conquered and +under foot. John Garnet counted on a free pardon, and even hinted at the +possibility of the northern estates reverting hereafter to their +rightful owner. Lord Bellinger had made a famous speech on the Cider +Bill, which brought him into notice, and gave him, for the time, +considerable influence. This influence he had exerted in Master Garnet's +favour, reasoning, with characteristic inconsequence, that but for the +exploit attributed to Galloping Jack, of which his penetration had +discovered the real originator, he would have been buried alive in the +West at the very time when he seized his opportunity to distinguish +himself in the House of Lords. Nelly must be patient and constant, as +the writer vowed to be himself. There was a good time coming, and she +must wait. + +That Nelly _did_ wait, I gather from a picture in the possession of the +Garnet family, representing a woman in the bloom of youth, with a pair +of outrageously beautiful blue eyes, smiling from under a mushroom hat, +on a child in a white frock and coral necklace at her feet. The whole +purporting, as set forth in gold letters on a corner of the canvas, to +be a portrait of Dame Elinor Garnet and her eldest son. If this be +indeed the Nelly Carew of his desperate expedition into Devon, I can +readily understand that sickness of heart which came over Waif, when +peering stealthily into the orchard at Porlock, she espied so comely a +damsel in affectionate converse with the man she loved. + +But what became of the good grey horse? Tradition, on the authority of +Red Rube, affirms that he was never retaken after his bridle broke, but +passed on rejoicing, to life-long freedom in the moor. The harbourer was +wont to declare that as soon as he had forwarded his rider, whom he kept +in close hiding for a week, to the little coast town whence an escape +was arranged by sea, he himself set out in pursuit of the incomparable +stallion, determined to tax all his science and ingenuity for the +capture of such a valuable prize. The very first day of his search, he +came upon the saddle and furniture from which the horse had kicked +himself clear. And many a time afterwards, he followed the iron-shod +hoof marks till the iron too had dropped off, leaving only the print of +a smooth oval foot, with the patience and persistency of his trade; but +shyer, and warier than any red-deer, the animal never allowed him to +come within hearing, and seldom within sight. Doubtless he joined those +herds of wild horses and ponies, which to this day roam through the +remote coombes and moorland wastes of West Somerset and North Devon, +free and unrestrained as the very breeze that sweeps across the scanty +herbage on which they feed. Here it is to be presumed that he fulfilled +his destiny, doing good in his generation, for even now, when some bold +and reckless rider has been carried more gallantly than usual, in one of +those wild, glorious, but exhausting runs that seem peculiar to the +West, he lays a loving hand on the reeking neck of his favourite, and +observes, triumphantly, "It always tells at the finish. You never get to +the end of them when they've a strain of blood that goes back to old +Katerfelto!" + + + THE END. + + + BRADBURY, AGNEW, & CO., PRINTERS, WHITEFRIARS + + + * * * * * + +Transcriber's Note: + +Punctuation has been standardised. Spelling and hyphenation have been +retained as they appear in the original publication. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Katerfelto, by G. J. Whyte-Melville + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 40883 *** |