Ralph Clavering Part 4

Lilly's lips curled, but she saw that her cousin was not in a humour to bear any quizzing; so she merely said--

"Never mind then, Ralph; let Arnold take the oars and row us home as fast as he can, for I am afraid that Uncle and Aunt Clavering will be very anxious about us, if they hear the report John Hobby is likely to give."

"He'd better not have said anything--that's all," growled Ralph, looking as if he could annihilate the low-born Hobby, had he dared to commit such an atrocity.

Happily for that individual, now so unconscious of evil, nearly an hour elapsed after this ere the boat reached the landing-place near the Hall.

There stood Hobby.

"I am truly glad to see you--that I am!" he exclaimed, honest satisfaction lighting up his countenance. "I was terribly alarmed you would never get back of your own selves--indeed I was, let me tell you."

Ralph was going to make an angry reply to what he considered Hobby's impertinent remarks, but Lilly interrupted him--

"You are right, John Hobby," she said, kindly. "If it had not been for our friend Arnold here, we might never have got back at all; and had we followed your advice we should have saved ourselves a great deal of anxiety, and not have been exposed to the great danger from which we have been preserved."

"As to the danger, it's all well that ends well, Miss," remarked Hobby, bluntly. "But I do hope Master Ralph won't be taking you on the water again till he's learnt to row properly."

"Make the boat fast, and take the oars away with you!" exclaimed Ralph, walking off homewards.

"Stop, cousin! You have not thanked Arnold, or asked him to come up to the Hall, where I am sure Uncle and Aunt Clavering would wish to see him," cried Lilly; but Ralph was so angry with Hobby's remarks, that he would not return.

"Do not trouble him, young lady," said Arnold, casting a glance after the young heir of Clavering Hall, in which he did not conceal his contempt. "I do not require his thanks, nor any reward from him or his.

You show me by your looks that you thank me, and that pays me more than enough."

"Oh, but his father and mother will not be satisfied with that; they will wish to repay you," answered Lilly. "And besides, your wife and children are not well off; some money or some clothing will be of use to them, surely."

"I'll not deny it; but we value such things less than you fancy, young lady," said the gipsy. "We have enough for the present, and we do not trouble ourselves much as to what is to come. But I won't keep you talking. The young gentleman has just remembered that he ought to wait for you, and is sitting down on the bank there. He thinks himself very rich and very important, and that he can do everything, I daresay; but if he knew all about himself that I know about him, he would act more kindly towards others and think less of himself. You may tell him so whenever you like from me."

The meaning of this last remark did not strike Lilly at the moment. She still pressed Arnold to come to the Hall, but he declined, saying that he must of necessity go back to his family. Lilly again expressing her thanks, hurried after Ralph, who did not recover his self-complacency till they reached the Hall.

CHAPTER SIX.

When Mr and Mrs Clavering heard Lilly's version of the boating expedition, they were anxious to repay Arnold for the service he had rendered; but when they sent over a servant on horseback to the locality where he had said his tents were pitched, he was not to be found. Lilly was extremely sorry to hear this. She wished also to express her grat.i.tude more fully than she had before done, and although he had refused to receive any reward, she had hopes that his wife and children would be willing to accept any presents she might be able to give them.

Every effort, however, made by Mr Clavering to discover him proved unavailing. Perhaps his steward, whom he employed, did not take as much pains as he might have done. Ralph and Lilly went on much as they had been accustomed to do. Although Lilly often asked Ralph, when he was going to take her for another excursion on the water, he invariably offered some excuse. She observed also that he never went near the river if he could help it, and that he invariably seemed much annoyed whenever John Hobby's name was mentioned. It was evident that he had not forgotten the remarks made by honest John about his rowing.

Sometimes Lilly suspected that he had even some stronger reason for disliking the young peasant. She feared that it was from the meanest of all reasons, jealousy. Hobby was better looking and more active, and excelled him in all athletic exercises. Hobby also was very good-natured, and had a great deal of humour, so that he was a general favourite among all who knew him in the country round. Ralph felt annoyed that one so much his inferior in birth, wealth, and education should in all other respects be his superior.

Again Lilly felt almost in despair that Ralph would ever become what he ought to be. She was a sensible and wise girl, and had not formed too high a standard of perfection, but still there was a standard which she knew he could and ought to reach, and she did not feel disposed to be satisfied with any measure below it. She had flattered herself that she had got him out of many of his bad habits, but he had fallen back into most of them, and she found that the influence, which she fancied she had gained over him, was in no way secured. He mixed as before, whenever he had an opportunity, with low a.s.sociates, and he used to abuse and swear at all around him at the slightest provocation. As a young boy, this conduct had only met with contempt, but as he grew older it gained him every day fresh enemies, so that there was scarcely a person in the district round who was so much disliked.

During the last few years a great and happy change has taken place among the peasantry of England, and except a limited number of Chartists and other ill-instructed persons mostly confined to the towns, it may truly be said that the whole of the population is contented and orderly and patient under inevitable suffering and poverty. It was not so formerly, and directly they began to suffer from a scarcity of provisions or low wages, their only idea of remedying the evil, was to burn or destroy the property of their more wealthy and prosperous neighbours. Bad times, as they were called, were now occurring, and the whole rural population, especially in the neighbourhood of Clavering Hall, were in a state of great discontent. Incendiary fires were of nightly occurrence throughout the country. Not only haystacks, but wheat-stacks and barns and farm buildings were set on fire. This way which the country people took of showing their suffering was both very wicked and exceedingly foolish, but it proved indubitably that something or other required amendment. The magistrates took very naturally a somewhat one-sided view of the case, and regarding the people as evil-disposed and rebellious, employed the most stringent measures to repress these outrages. Whenever any supposed incendiaries were caught they seldom escaped conviction and were always punished with the utmost severity.

Mr Clavering especially was conspicuous for the zeal with which he hunted down offenders and the unrelenting sternness with which he brought them to punishment. He, in consequence, brought upon himself a large amount of odium, and coupled with his conduct generally towards the peasantry, it made him probably the most unpopular man in the county. While the proud owner of Clavering Hall was the most unpopular, the poor tenant of one of his humble cottages was one of the most popular. This was no other than John Hobby. Hobby's popularity arose from several causes. A good deal of it was owing to the estimation in which his son was held, while he himself was looked upon as a hearty, good-natured fellow, ever ready with his tongue or his single stick to stand up for a friend or to defend the right; but, above all this, he had been falsely accused and tried on the charge of an act of incendiarism or of instigating others to commit it, and likewise of afterwards heading a number of persons who had committed various lawless acts. After a long imprisonment John Hobby had proved his innocence, and not being of either a humble or forgiving temper, he was not backward in speaking on all occasions of the way in which he had been treated. The summer pa.s.sed away, the autumn came round, and matters grew worse. Lilly Vernon, however, rode out as usual, fearless of evil.

Sometimes her uncle accompanied her, at others Ralph condescended to do so; but more usually of late she was followed by a groom, one of the most respectable and honest of the household. She had one day gone a considerable distance from home, when as she was walking her horse up a hill, with a copse wood on either side, she saw among the trees a small fire with a tent and carts near it, and the other usual features of a gipsy encampment. "Perhaps that is Arnold's camp," she said to herself, and just then she caught sight of the gipsy himself coming along the road. As soon as he perceived who it was he hurried towards her.

"I was coming this very day to watch for you near the Hall, young lady,"

he said, putting his hand on her horse's neck. "You wished, I know, to do me a service, and you have it now in your power to help me. My eldest boy has been taken up by the constables on a charge of setting fire to Farmer Low's haystacks. He is innocent of the crime, for crime I hold it; but he is a gipsy, he was taken near the spot, and it will go hard with him. Your uncle has an affection for you, and will listen to the truth from your lips. If you put the matter before him, and tell him whose son the lad is, may be he will exert himself in his favour.

Though he is a hard man, he is not one to let the innocent suffer."

Lilly willingly promised to do all that the gipsy asked. Having paid a visit to his wife and children, who warmly welcomed her, she hurried homeward. On her return she met considerable bodies of men proceeding along the road, all armed with scythes, or hooks, or sticks. On enquiring of the groom what they were about his only reply was, "They are up to some mischief, Miss, but it's as much as my life's worth to ask them. I did not like their looks as they pa.s.sed, and cast their eyes on the Clavering livery."

On reaching the Hall Lilly hastened to find her uncle, who was at home, and without saying anything of what she had just seen, laid the young gipsy's case before him and placed the evidence of his innocence in so clear a light that he at once promised he would befriend him. She had promised the gipsy's wife to ride out the next day to tell her of the success of her pet.i.tion.

To a.s.sist in keeping down the disturbances which have been mentioned, the yeomanry were called out. The magistrates announced that the next time a mob a.s.sembled for mischief they should be fired on, and ridden down without mercy. No one was louder than Ralph Clavering in a.s.serting that this was the only way to treat them.

"I cannot help thinking, cousin, that milder measures would answer better," observed Lilly; "I would rather go unarmed among them, and show them the folly and wickedness of their proceedings."

"You are very wise, Lilly, but you know nothing of the management of men," answered Ralph, contemptuously.

A body of cavalry had been quartered near Clavering Hall for some time, but information being brought that an outbreak was expected in a town in the other end of the county they were immediately ordered off in that direction.

A number of guests were a.s.sembled that day at the Hall at dinner. The cloth had just been removed, when the butler hurried in, and with a pale face and a trembling voice, announced the startling fact that one of the grooms had met a large body of armed men marching up through the park.

His report was so circ.u.mstantial that there was no doubt about the matter. Some of the ladies took the matter calmly enough, others gave utterance to various expressions of terror, while the gentlemen were unanimous in the opinion that the windows and doors should be instantly barricaded, and that the Hall should be defended to the last if attacked. Not a moment was to be lost. There was no time to take out the sashes, but the shutters of all the lower rooms were closed and barred, as also were the doors, and chests of drawers, and tables and chairs were piled against them.

Ralph seemed highly pleased with the proceedings. He had never been so energetic, and no one was more active in carrying about the furniture and placing it, so as to strengthen the fortifications. There were a number of fowling-pieces and pistols and other fire-arms in the house.

Those fit for use were at once loaded, and consigned to the different guests and men servants; others which had long been laid aside were hunted up, and while one part of the garrison set to work to clean them, others commenced casting bullets, and a third party went about to forage for lead for the purpose. A leaden cistern and some leaden pipes leading to it were quickly cut to pieces and the material carried below.

Lilly, though fully believing the report from what she had seen in the afternoon, and considerably alarmed in consequence, devoted herself to comforting her aunt, who was in a sad state of agitation, and kept declaring that the house would be burned down, and that they would all be murdered. Some of the ladies, however, volunteered to a.s.sist in casting bullets, and expressed their readiness to fight if the house were attacked.

Mr Clavering appeared at this juncture to considerable advantage. He showed that he felt as an Englishman, and that, as Englishmen may well glory in the privilege of doing, he looked upon his house as his castle.

He at once took the lead, and went about calmly from room to room, superintending all the arrangements.

While affairs were in this state, it occurred to one of the gentlemen to enquire how near the rioters had got to the house? No one could say; in fact, no one had seen them since Bill Snookes, the groom, had reported their approach. One old gentleman, who enjoyed a practical joke, suggested that they had perhaps been taking a great deal of trouble, and disarranging the house to no purpose, and that the rioters might not be coming at all, which, of course made the rest very angry; at the same time that it induced two or three others to volunteer to go out and ascertain the position and force of the enemy.

Bill's report had been somewhat vague, and he might possibly have exaggerated their numbers. The night was very dark, and from the upper windows no persons were visible in the park, and not a sound was heard-- even the dogs were silent, which they would not have been had people been moving about. Beyond the park, however, were seen in two or more places a bright glare in the sky, which, there could be little doubt, was caused by incendiary fires.

We at the present day can scarcely realise that such was possible. The inmates of the Hall watched anxiously; any moment the well-formed corn and haystacks on the estate might burst into a blaze, and so might even the extensive outhouses of the Hall itself.

Still the Hall was not attacked. Two volunteers offered to go out and ascertain the state of affairs. A strong party accompanied them to one of the side-doors to repel any attack of the enemy who might be in ambush near and attempt to surprise them. Ralph wanted to accompany the scouts, but they politely declined having his company.

The night was now drawing on; several of the party reiterated their belief that the rioters would not come near them. At length the probability of an attack being made on the Hall was set at rest by the return of the two scouts, who stated that they had encountered a large body of men marching towards it and loudly threatening its destruction.

They themselves were almost discovered, and had had no little difficulty in making their escape.

Everybody within the mansion was now in greater bustle than before.

Again Mr Clavering looked at all the doors and fastenings, and inspected all the points of possible approach, and men servants or maid servants were stationed at all the windows which could be reached by ladders, several of which it was recollected, when too late, were left exposed to view in the outhouses. Several of the gentlemen stood with fire-arms in their hands at some of the windows of the upper rooms commanding the approach to the house. The night was calm, not a sound was yet to be heard. At length the low, dull tramp of a body of men moving rapidly onward, broke the stillness. It grew more and more distinct; voices were heard mingling with it. They became louder and louder. Shouts and cries broke forth which soon evolved themselves into threats of vengeance against Clavering Hall and its proprietor. At last the open s.p.a.ce before the house became filled with men. The cries became more prolonged.

"Now, lads, destruction to the Hall and death to its owner. Hurrah!"

shouted some one from the crowd. The shout was repeated by a hundred voices.

It might well have made the defenders of the Hall tremble, for it was known that the cavalry had been sent off to a distance, and that there was no prospect of succour.

"We'll fight it out, and we must needs be ashamed of ourselves if we cannot drive the scoundrels away," exclaimed Mr Clavering.

"Light your torches, lads--fire is the thing for us," shouted one of the mob. "We'll soon smoke out these monsters."

Soon after this, a small light was seen. It seemed to spread from hand to hand; and now some hundred torches waved to and fro in front of the Hall. The female occupants had now good reason for trembling with alarm. Still Mr Clavering was unwilling to give the order to fire.

Not that he had much compunction about killing them, but it would only have exasperated the people, without driving them away.

"The doors are closed," cried the man who had before spoken. "We must burst them open. Bring forward the battering rams."