The Fishguard Invasion by the French in 1797 Part 4

As Nancy and I puffed and panted in as noiseless a manner as possible up the steep hill from Brestgarn, we saw, or, more strictly speaking, we heard all around us, foraging parties of the enemy, who were making off with everything they could lay their hands upon. The screeching of poultry, the quacking of ducks, the cackling of geese, the grunting and squealing of pigs (I might go on as long as some foreign Delectus, but that I fear to weary the reader) together with the oaths and laughter of the Frenchmen, formed a medley of sound that might have been pleasing to the ears of a musician composing a symphony on rural sounds, but that to a more ordinary listener formed a hubbub of noise that was bewildering and extremely distasteful; while poor Nancy's vexation at the fate of the dwellers in the farm-yard equalled her indignation at the use made of her well-scrubbed pans.

Not a single inhabitant of this district seemed to be left, every cottage was deserted; all had fled for the present, in order to turn again with greater force and rend the intruder-as one may draw back for a s.p.a.ce so as to gain the necessary impetus for a spring.

We had reached the village of Llanunda, when we heard a considerable body of the enemy marching along the road near us, on their way to take possession of our rocky nest on the top of Carnunda. This very strong position formed the enemy's outpost, and it ought to have been a matter of no small difficulty to oust them therefrom, had they but planted themselves firmly in it.

To our great dismay we now heard voices approaching us from the other side; these proved to be some of the foraging parties making themselves acquainted with the larders and cellars of all the neighbouring houses.

We crouched down lower among the gorse bushes, and I at least knew precisely the sensations experienced by a hunted and hiding hare. When this danger, too, was happily overpast, at all events for the moment, Nancy whispered to me-

"Dan, they are a deal too near us here, and there's more coming. I know a better hiding-place than this. Let's make for the church."

I a.s.sented willingly; and we made as fast as we could for the church. It was a small but ancient building, full of queer holes and corners, with the which Nancy was better acquainted than I was, it being her parish church. The door was happily unfastened, but no Frenchmen had as yet invaded the sacred building, for we took the precaution of looking through the "leper's hole" as soon as we had entered the porch. The leper's hole is a little square window, the sides of which are so sloped as to command a view of the interior of the church, more especially of the chancel; so that in the old times even these miserable wretches-set apart in the porch-might still behold the high altar.

We then looked with eagerness through this orifice, and perceived gladly that the building was dark and empty. So pushing open the door, we entered our sanctuary as though it had been a veritable city of refuge.

Our first care was to secure the door as well as we could on the inside; then Nancy sat down in order to fetch her breath, while I reviewed the place and the situation. Neither were to my mind when I came to think of it.

"What have you come here for, Nan?" I inquired. "I don't like it-we'll be caught here like rats in a trap. We can't hide in the pulpit. I'd rather a gorse-bush in the open, now."

"Wait a bit, Dan, till I fetch my breath-and don't talk; they may hear you," said Nancy, not considering that she was talking herself.

"Oh do make haste with your breath," said I, "and tell me where it is."

I was full of curiosity to know where her hiding-place could be: the church was pitch dark, a few minutes of silence there seemed an age.

"It's not in a vault, is it?" I continued.

"A vault-bless the boy-no! I'm not going into a vault before I can help it. Well, if you won't be quiet, I suppose I'd better show you the place. It is at the other side of the church. Come across quietly, now."

We did go across as quietly as we could, considering the pitch darkness of the place, all blocked up with high pews according to the fashion of the time. In my after-career I had often occasion to reprove the occupiers of like boxes, who, trusting to their wooden walls to screen them, slumbered happily within a few yards of me, utterly forgetful of the treachery of their own noses.

After having injured her shins several times over unexpected obstacles, Nancy sighed forth, "Oh for a light!"

"Oh for something to eat!" I responded. "I've got a flint and steel in my pocket; but I can't eat that. You can have it if you like."

"I daren't strike a light," said Nancy; "but I've got a bit of cheese in my pocket along with the silver spoons. Here, stretch out your hand."

"Don't you want it?" I felt impelled by manners to say this, though I felt wolfish.

"Not I. I had my dinner as usual. I put it in my pocket in case of meeting-a friend."

"Do your-friends like cheese?" I asked with my mouth full.

"You seem to, any way," retorted Nancy. "I hear them coming."

I bolted the cheese in a panic. I felt much more afraid of the French since I had seen them so near in Brestgarn kitchen, and since they had nabbed Llewelyn.

"Here's the hole-you go first. I'll close it up after us with a pew door."

Nancy dexterously lifted one off its hinges, while I, mounted on the back of a pew, groped my way into a pitch dark cavity in the wall, the entrance to which was situated at the height of some three or four feet above the floor-level.

"Take care, there are steps," said Nan, just as I had discovered the fact by the aid of my shin-bone. She was still wrestling with the pew door, and I smothered my agony chiefly, I must own, from fear of the French.

"Get on a bit higher up, Dan," whispered Ann, as she followed me, dragging the door after her as quietly as she could. Nancy was certainly a wonderful woman, with a head on her shoulders.

At this moment I felt that it was so, for I was propelled somewhat violently upward by the member in question. I can also add my testimony that she was a hard-headed woman. She was also perhaps a little hard-hearted, for in answer to my remonstrance, "Hold hard, Nancy, that hurts!" she merely said,

"Oh, do get on, Dan; I expect them here every minute."

I did get on, and found after mounting half-a-dozen steps of a twirling stair, that my head was opposite an opening just at the place where the roof of the church sprung; one of the oaken beams was, in fact, a little scooped out to make room for this slit, which being under the heavy shadow of the woodwork was almost completely screened from the glances of those below; while to the person placed behind this coign of 'vantage the whole of the interior of the church was visible-chancel as well as nave.

"What a queer place-what's it for, Nancy?" I asked.

"That is called the Priest's Peep-hole; I suppose in old times he got a friend to go up there and keep an eye on the congregation-see who went to sleep, and what they were at altogether," explained Nan; but at this moment her eloquence came to a sudden end. Our voices and our hearts died within us, for there came to our ears the dreaded but expected sound-the clamorous jabber of many tongues.

The sounds came from the churchyard, but I doubt if even a company of good Welsh ghosts would have frightened us as much as these earthly foreigners. Very, very earthly and carnal-minded did they seem to us at this moment.

"They won't come into a church-they won't rob a church!" I whispered to Ann, leaning my head down close to her's-a difficult feat, but I was as thin as a lath then.

"Won't they?" said Ann, scornfully. "You wait a minute-Hst!"

Nan's appreciation of character and computation of time proved equally correct. She had fixed the pew-door by this time, and she held it firmly in its place by the handle, which she had taken care to put on the inward side when she lifted up the barrier across the entrance to the stair.

"I hope they won't fire through that like they did through the clock at Brestgarn, on the chance of finding some one behind it," I whispered to my companion as this comfortable idea flashed through my mind, even the terror of the French failing to curb my natural love of suggesting a terror.

"Hst!" retorted Nan; "hold your tongue, can't you, and keep your head down; don't let them see you peeping, Dan!"

Nancy's caution to me came not a moment too soon, for crash! a rush of men and muskets at the door, whose rickety bolts we had drawn when we entered, chiefly in the hope that they might not be tried. But if we drew them as a sort of charm, the spell was not strong enough, nor were the locks.

C-r-a-ck-_crack_! the feeble bolts gave a groan, and open flew the door with a sharp, splitting sound. In rushed ten or a dozen Frenchmen, tumbling over one another in their haste. The church was lighted up with a sudden blaze from their torches; this was all I saw, for on the entrance of the enemy I had ducked my head speedily. Ann could see still less, as she was crouched on the bottom step, and was keeping the door in its place with her knees.

The noise in the church was terrific, but yet to my ears the beating of my heart was still louder. The more I tried to silence it, the more it ticked.

"Perhaps they'll think it's a clock," I reflected.

"Oh, dear! oh, dear!"

Yet after a while, as I grew more accustomed to the clamour, I became possessed by a desire to know what these men were doing. Very cautiously I raised my head. I feared my hair must be standing on end, which would make it more perceptible by an inch or two. Instinct had made me take off my hat as we entered the building; in crossing the dark aisle I had dropped it, and I hoped sincerely no one would find it, as it might lead to unpleasant investigations. Planted finally on my hands and knees, I raised myself till my eyes were on a level with the lowest part of the priest's peep-hole, and then, even veiling my eyes with half-closed lids as a precaution, I glanced furtively forth at the foreign marauders beneath me. They had not gone through the ceremony of removing their hats, and their object in entering the sacred edifice was evidently simply the hope of plunder. With the b.u.t.t ends of their muskets they knocked and thrust at everything, as if to ascertain of what it was made, and whether anything of value might not be concealed within it. One half-drunken fellow came and gave a mighty bang to the cushion belonging to the pulpit, which he s.n.a.t.c.hed from its proper position and dashed against the wall, immediately under my spy-hole. I imagine that the worthy inc.u.mbent must have been less given to pulpit thumping than most of his fellows, for out flew a cloud of dust, reaching even to my nostrils. A smothered sneeze was the result. Instantly I felt myself violently pulled by the leg from below; indeed, so provoked was Nancy that she could not resist giving me a shake, though I am sure the candid reader will allow I was not to blame in the matter.

Unluckily the Frenchman had heard the sneeze, and some animated conversation went on between him and his companions, who, however, seemed inclined to ridicule his a.s.sertions. Judging from the tone of their remarks (for Nancy held too tight a grip of me to allow of my seeing anything), I should say that their language to each other was not so polite as one might have expected from men of their nation. However, my particular enemy did not seem inclined to allow himself to be set down after this fashion; for, dropping his cushion, he proceeded to make an investigation with his clubbed musket. Walls, pews, and benches, he thumped them all indiscriminately, giving a sounding whack to the door which closed our retreat. But Nancy's knees did not flinch, though they must have received a most unpleasant jar. Luckily the entrance to the hidden stair was in a very dark and out-of-the way corner, and also at a very unusual height from the ground. Mercifully at this moment our tormentor's attention was distracted by a shout from his comrades, who had entered the little vestry, and had forced open the cupboard containing the sacramental vessels. These were very ancient, and were of silver, and the glee of the finders was easily understood even by those in our retired situation.

Others of the invaders broke open the chest containing the parish records, but, much disappointed by the nature of the contents, they tore forth the doc.u.ments and tossed them on the floor of the church. Human nature was no longer to be restrained, neither by fear nor by Ann, so I once more popped my head up and beheld a strange sight. One of the men had thrown a torch in among the parchments and papers, a bright flame lighted up the dark interior of the church, and shone on the fierce faces of the men around the fire, two of whom were struggling for the possession of the communion cup.

"Great Heaven, we shall be burnt like rats, Nan!" I whispered to my companion, but she answered by her favourite expression, "Hst!"

One soldier, I imagine by way of a joke, now threw the pulpit cushion on the flames, whereupon such dense clouds of smoke arose as speedily cleared the church of the invaders, but alas, nearly stifled us, the lawful inhabitants. Luckily the floor of the church was of slate, and the fire was not very near any woodwork.

Nancy insisted that we must bear our suffocation in silence and motionless, and though my eyes watered and my heart rebelled, not a cough nor a wheeze, nor even a word, did I suffer to escape me, but to my thoughts at least I gave free rein. After a while these too played the truant, wandering away from my enemies and dreamily fixing themselves on my master at St. David's, my school friends, my books, the moving waters that framed in every picture of my life, till, becoming more and more indistinct, I imagine that I must have fallen fast asleep, though this is a matter that none can speak of with any certainty till it comes to the sharp act of awakening, which act a.s.sures us, in the most matter-of-fact manner, that we have been asleep.

In this way, by a sharp fact, indeed, no other than Nancy's elbow, I made the discovery that, in spite of my uncomfortable position, I must have fallen sound asleep, tired out by my long walk and many subsequent runs, and fatigued also by the number of new ideas forced on my mind by the action of the extraordinary events of the day and the many bewildering things I had seen and heard since breakfast time that morning.

It seemed to me to have been but a few minutes from the time the French left us choking in the smoke till I felt that elbow of Nancy's, of which I took no notice. Indifferent to this silent scorn, she now pulled me vigorously by the leg.