The King's General Part 12

I felt as helpless as he did, and sick with anxiety, for here was I, having failed utterly in my trust, and the rebel troops not two miles away.

"Where is the boat now?" I asked.

"Lying off the Gribbin, waiting for a signal from me," said John, "with that useless tutor aboard with no other thought in his mind but getting to St. Mawes. But even if we find the boy, Honor, I fear it will be too late."

"Search the cliffs in all directions," I said, "and the grounds, and the park, and pasture. Was anything said to the lad upon the way?"

"I cannot say. I think not. I only heard Frank Penrose tell him that by nightfall he would be with his father."

So that was it, I thought. A moment's indiscretion but enough to turn d.i.c.k from his journey and play truant like a child from school. I could do nothing in the search but bade John set forth once more with Frank Penrose, saying no word to anyone of what had happened. And, calling to Matty, I bade her take me to the causeway.

15.

Once on the high ground I had as good a view of the surrounding country as I could wish, and I saw Frank Penrose and John Rashleigh strike out across the beef park to jhe beacon fields and then divide. All the while I had a fear in my heart that the boy had drowned himself and would be found with the rising tide floating face downwards 'n the wash below Polkerris cliffs. There was no sign of the boat, and I judged it to be to the westward beyond Polkerris and the Gribbin.

Back and forth we went along the causeway, with Matty pushing my chair, and still no sign of a living soul, nothing but the cattle grazing on the farther hills and the ripple of a breeze blowing the corn upon the sky line.

Presently I sent Matty withindoors for a cloak, for the breeze was freshening, and on her return she told me that stragglers were already pouring into the park from the roads, women and children and old men, all with makeshift bundles on their backs, begging for shelter, for the route was cut to Truro and the rebels everywhere. My sister Mary was at her wit's end to know what to say to them, and many of them were already kindling fires down in the warren and making rough shelter for the night.

"As I came out just now," said Matty, "there was a litter borne by four horses come to rest in the courtyard, and a lady within demanding harbourage for herself and her young daughters. I heard the servant say they had been nine hours upon the road."

I thanked G.o.d in my heart that we had remained at Menabilly and not lost our heads like these other poor unfortunates.

"Go back, Matty," I said, "and see what you can do to help my sister. None of the servants have any sense left in their heads."

She had not been gone more than ten minutes before I saw two figures coming across the fields towards me, and one of them, seeing me upon the causeway, waved his arm, while with the other he held fast to his companion.

It was John Rashleigh, and he had d.i.c.k with him.

When they reached me I saw the boy was dripping wet and scratched about the face and hands by brambles, but for once he was not bothered by the sight of blood but stared at me defiantly.

"I will not go," he said; "you cannot make me go."

John Rashleigh shook his head at me and shrugged his shoulders in resignation.

"It's no use, Honor," he said. "We shall have to keep him. There's a wash on the beaches now and I've signalled to the boat to make sail and take the tutor across the bay to Mevagissey or Gorran, where he must make shift for himself. As for this lad--I found him halfway up the cliff, a mile from Polkerris, having been waist-deep in water for the past three hours. G.o.d only knows what Sir Richard will say to the bungle we have made."

"Never mind Sir Richard, I will take care of him," I said, "when--and if--we ever clap eyes on him again. That boy must return to the house with me and be shifted into dry clothes before anything else be done with him."

Now the causeway at Menabilly is set high, as I have said, commanding a fine view both to east and west, and at this moment--I know not why--I turned my head towards the coast road that descended down to Pridmouth from Coombe and Fowey, and I saw, silhouetted on the sky line above the valley, a single horseman. In a moment he was joined by others who paused an instant on the hill and then, following their leader, plunged down the narrow roadway to the cove.

John saw them, too, for our eyes met and we looked at each other long and silently, while d.i.c.k stood between us, his eyes downcast, his teeth chattering.

Richard in the old days was wont to tease me for my southcoast blood, so sluggish, he averred to that which ran through his own north-coast veins, but I swear I thought, in the next few seconds, as rapidly as he had ever done or was likely yet to do.

"Have you your father's keys?" I said to John.

"Yes," he said.

"All of them?"

"All of them."

"On your person now?"

"Yes."

"Open, then, the door of the summerhouse."

He obeyed me without question--thank G.o.d his stern father had taught him discipline--and in an instant we stood at the threshold with the door flung open.

"Lift the mat from beneath the desk there," I said, "and raise the flagstone."

He looked at me then in wonder but went without a word to do as I had bidden him.

In a moment the mat was lifted and the flagstone, too, and the flight of steps betrayed to view.

"Don't ask me any questions, John," I said; "there is no time. A pa.s.sage runs underground from those steps to the house. Take d.i.c.k with you now, first replacing the flagstone above your heads, and crawl with him along the pa.s.sage to the farther end. You will come then to a small room like a cell, and another flight of steps. At the top of the steps is a door which opens, I believe, from the pa.s.sage end. But do not try to open it until I give you warning from the house."

I could read the sense of what I had said go slowly to his mind and a dawn of comprehension come into his eyes.

"The chamber next to yours?" he said. "My uncle John--"

"Yes," I said. "Give me the keys. Go quickly."

There was no trouble now with d.i.c.k. He had gathered from my manner that danger was deadly near and the time for truancy was over. He bolted down into the hole like a frightened rabbit .I watched John settle the mat over the flagstone and, descending after d.i.c.k, he lowered the stone above his head and disappeared.

The summerhouse was as it had been, empty and untouched. I leant over in my chair and turned the key in the lock and then put the keys inside my gown. I looked out to the eastward and saw that the sky line was empty. The troopers would have reached the cove by now and after watering their horses at the mill would climb up the farther side and be at Menabilly within ten minutes.

The sweat was running down my forehead clammy cold, and as I waited for Matty to fetch me--and G.o.d only knew how much longer she would be--I thought how I would give all I possessed in the world at that moment for but one good swig of brandy.

Far out on the beacon hills I could see Frank Penrose still searching hopelessly for d.i.c.k, while in the meadows to the west one of the women from the farm went calling to the cows, all oblivious of the troopers who were riding up the lane.

And at that moment my G.o.dchild Joan came hurrying along the causeway to fetch me, her pretty face all strained and anxious, her soft dark hair blowing in the wind.

"They are coming," she said. "We have seen them from the windows. Scores of them, on horseback, riding now across the park."

Her breath caught in a sob, and she began running with me along the causeway, so that I, too, was suddenly caught in panic and could think of nothing but the wide door of Menabilly still open to enfold me. "I have searched everywhere for John," she faltered, "but I cannot find him. One of the servants said they saw him walking out towards the Gribbin. Oh, Honor--the children--what will become of us? What is going to happen?"

I could hear shouting from the park, and out on the hard ground beyond the gates came the steady rhythmic beat of horses trotting; not the light clatter of a company, but line upon line of them, the relentless measure of a regiment, the jingle of harness, the thin alien sound of a bugle.

They were waiting for us by the windows of the gallery, Alice and Mary, the Sawles, the Sparkes, a little tremulous gathering of frightened people, united now in danger, and two other faces that I did not know, the peeky, startled faces of strange children with lace caps upon their heads and wide lace collars. I remembered then the unknown lady who had flung herself upon my sister's mercy, and as we turned into the hall, slamming the door behind us, I saw the horses that had drawn the litter still standing untended in the courtyard, save that the grooms had thrown blankets upon them, coloured white and crimson, and the corners of the blankets were stamped with a dragon's head.... A dragon's head... But even as my memory swung back into the past I heard her voice, cold and clear, rising above the others in the gallery: "If only it can be Lord Robartes I can a.s.sure you all no harm will come to us. I have known him well these many years and am quite prepared to speak on your behalf."

"I forgot to tell you," whispered Joan, "she came with her two daughters scarce an hour ago. The road was held; they could not pa.s.s St. Blazey. It is Mrs. Denysof Orley Court."

Her eyes swung round to me. Those same eyes, narrow, heavy-lidded, that I had seen often in my more troubled dreams, and her gold hair, golder than it had been in the past, for art had taken council with nature and outstripped it. She stared at sight of me, and for one second only I caught a flash of odd discomfiture run in a flicker through her eyes, and then she smiled her slow, false, well-remembered smile, and, stretching out her hands, she said, "Why, Honor, this is indeed a pleasure. Mary did not tell me that you, too, were here at Menabilly."

I ignored the proffered hand, for a cripple in a chair can be as ill mannered as she pleases, and as I stared back at her in my own fashion, with suspicion and foreboding in my heart, we heard the horses ride into the courtyard and the bugles blow. Poor Temperance Sawle went down upon her knees, the children whimpered, and my sister Mary, with her arm about Joan and Alice, stood very white and still. Only Gartred watched with cool eyes, her hands playing gently with her girdle.

"Pray hard and pray fast, Mrs. Sawle," I said; "the vultures are gathering...."

And there being no brandy in the room, I poured myself some water from a jug and raised my gla.s.s to Gartred.

16.

It was will Sparke, I remember, who went to unbar the door, having been the first to bolt it earlier, and as he did so excused himself in his high-pitched shaking voice, saying, "It is useless to start by offending them. Our only hope lies in placating them."

We could see through the windows how the troopers dismounted, staring about them with confident hard faces beneath their close-fitting skull helmets, and it seemed to me that one and all they looked the same, with their cropped heads, their drab brown leather jerkins, and this ruthless similarity was both startling and grim. There were more of them on the eastward side now, in the gardens, the horses' hoofs trampling the green lawns and the little yew trees as a first symbol of destruction, and all the while the thin high note of the bugle, like a huntsman summoning his hounds to slaughter. In a moment we heard their heavy footsteps in the house, clamping through the dining chamber and up the stairs, and into the gallery returned Will Sparke, a nervous smile on his face which was drained of all colour, and behind him three officers, the first a big burly man with a long nose and heavy jaw, wearing a green sash about his waist. I recognised him at once as Lord Robartes, the owner of Lanhydrock, a big estate on the Bodmin road, and who in days gone by had gone riding and hawking with my brother Kit, but was not much known to the rest of us. He was now our enemy and could dispose of us as he wished.

"Where is the owner of the house?" he asked, and looked toward old Nick Sawle, who turned his back.

"My husband is from home," said Mary, coming forward, "and my stepson somewhere in the grounds."

"Is everyone living in the place a.s.sembled here?"

"All except the servants."

"You have no malignants in hiding?"

"None."

Lord Robartes turned to the staff officer at his side. "Make a thorough search of the house and grounds," he said. "Break down any door you find locked and test the panelling for places of concealment. Give orders to the farm people to round up all sheep and cattle and other livestock, and place men in charge of them and the granaries. We will take over this gallery and all other rooms on the ground floor for our personal use. Troops to bivouac in the park."

"Very good, sir." The officer stood to attention and then departed about his business.

Lord Robartes drew up a chair to the table, and the remaining officer gave him paper and a quill.

"Now, madam," he said to Mary, "give me your full name and the name and occupation of each member of your household."

One by one he had us doc.u.mented, looking at each victim keenly, as though the very admission of name and age betrayed some sign of guilt. Only when he came to Gartred did his manner relax something of its hard suspicion. "A foolish time to journey, Mrs. Denys," he said. "You would have done better to remain at Orley Court."

"There are so many soldiery abroad of little discipline and small respect," said Gartred languidly; "it is not very pleasant for a widow with young daughters to live alone, as I do. I hoped by travelling South to escape the fighting."

"You thought wrong," he answered, "and, I am afraid, must abide by the consequences of such an error. You will have to remain here in custody with Mrs.

Rashleigh and her household."

Gartred bowed and did not answer. Lord Robartes rose to his feet. "When the apartments above have been searched you may go to them," he said, addressing Mary and the rest of us, "and I must request you to remain in them until further orders.

Exercise once a day will be permitted in the garden here under close escort. You must prepare your food as, and how, you are able. We shall take command of the kitchens, and certain stores will be allotted to you. Your keys, madam."

I saw Mary falter and then, slowly and reluctantly, she unfastened the string from her girdle. "Can I not have entry there myself?" she asked.

"No, madam. The stores are no longer yours but the possession of the Parliament, likewise everything pertaining to this estate."

I thought of the jars of preserves upon Mary's shelves, the honeys and the jams and the salted pilchards in the larders and the smoked hams and the sides of salted mutton.

I thought of the bread in the bakeries, the flour in the bins, the grain in the granaries, the young fruit setting in the orchards. And all the while I thought of this the sound of heavy feet came tramping from above and out in the grounds came the bugle's cry.

"I thank you, madam. And I must warn you and the rest of the company that any attempt at escape, any contravention of my orders will be punished with extreme severity."

"What about milk for the children?" said Joan, her cheeks very flushed, her head high. "We must have milk and b.u.t.ter and eggs. My little son is delicate and inclined to croup."

"Certain stores will be given you daily, madam. I have already said so," said Lord Robartes. "If the children need more nourishment you must do without yourselves. I have some five hundred men to quarter here, and their needs come before yours or your children. Now you may go to your apartments."

This was the moment I had waited for and, catching Joan's eye, I summoned her to my side. "You must give up your apartment to Mrs. Denys," I murmured, "and come to me in the gatehouse. I shall move my bed into the adjoining chamber."

Her lips framed a question, but I shook my head. She had sense enough to accept it, tor all her agitation, and went at once to Mary with the proposition, who was so bewildered by the loss of her keys that her natural hospitality had deserted her.

"I beg of you, make no move because of me," said Gartred, smiling, her arms about her children. "May and Gertie and I can fit in anywhere. The house is something like a warren; I remember it of old."

I looked at her thoughtfully and remembered then how Kit had been at Oxford the same time as my brother-in-law, when old Mr. Rashleigh was still alive, and during the days of Jonathan's first marriage Kit had ridden over to Menabilly often from Lanrest.

"You have been here then before?" I said to Gartred, speaking to her for the first time since I had come into the gallery.

"Why, bless me, yes." She yawned. "Some five and twenty years ago Kit and I came for a harvest supper and lost ourselves about the pa.s.sages." But at this moment Lord Robartes, who had been conferring with his officer, turned from the door.

"You will now please," he said, "retire to your apartments."

We went out of the farther door where the servants were huddled like a flock of startled sheep, and Matty and two others seized the arms of my chair. Already the troopers were in the kitchens, in full command, and the round of beef that had been roasting for our dinner was being cut into great slices and served out amongst them while down the stairs came three more of them, two fellows and a noncommissioned officer, bearing loads of Mary ' s precious stores in their arms. Another had a great pile of blankets and a rich embroidered cover that had been put aside until winter in the linen room.

"Oh, but they cannot have that," said Mary. "Where is an officer? I must speak to someone of authority."

"I have authority," replied the sergeant, "to remove all linen, blankets, and covers that we find. So keep a cool temper, lady, for you'll find no redress." They stared us coolly in the face, and one of them favoured Alice with a bold familiar stare and then whispered something in the ear of his companion.

Oh G.o.d, how I hated them upon the instant. I, who had regarded the war with irony and cynicism hitherto and a bitter shrug of the shoulder, was now filled with burning anger when it touched me close. Their muddied boots had trampled the floors and, once above, wanton damage could at once be seen where they had thrust their pikes into the panelling and stripped the hangings from the walls. In Alice's apartment the presses had been overturned and the contents spilled upon the floor, and already a broken cas.e.m.e.nt hung upon its hinge with the gla.s.s shattered. Alice's nurse was standing in the centre of the room crying and wringing her hands, for the troopers had carried off some of the children's bedding, and one clumsy oaf had trodden his heel upon the children's favourite doll and smashed its head to pieces. At the sight of this, their precious toy, the little girls burst into torrents of crying, and I knew then the idiot rage that surges within a man in wartime and compels him to commit murder. In the gardens the troopers were trampling down the formal beds and with their horses had knocked down the growing flowers, whose strewn petals lay crumpled now and muddied by the horses' hoofs.

I took one glance and then bade Matty and her companions bear me to my room. It had suffered like disturbance, with the bed tumbled and the stuffing ripped from the chairs for no rhyme or reason, and they had saved me the trouble of unlocking the barred chamber, for the door was broken in and pieces of planking strewn about the floor. The arras was torn in places, but the arras that hung before the b.u.t.tress was still and undisturbed.

I thanked G.o.d in my heart for the cunning of old John Rashleigh and, desiring Matty to set me down beside the window, I looked out into the courtyard and saw the soldiers all gathered below, line upon line of them, with their horses tethered and the tents gleaming white already in process of erection in the park, with the campfires burning and the cattle lowing as they were driven by the soldiers to a pen, and all the while that d.a.m.ned bugle blowing, high-pitched and insistent in a single key. I turned from the window and told Matty that Joan and her children would now be coming to the gatehouse and I remain here in the chamber that had been barred.

"The troopers have made short work of mystery," said Matty, looking about her and at the broken door. "There was nothing put away here, after all, then."

I did not answer, and while she busied herself with moving my bed and my own belongings I wheeled myself to the cabinet and saw that Jonathan had taken the precaution of removing his papers before he went, leaving the cabinet bare.

When the two rooms were in order and the servants had helped Matty to repair the door, thus giving me my privacy from Joan, I sent them from me to give a.s.sistance to Joan'in making place for Gartred in the southern front. All was now quiet save for the constant tramping of soldiers in the court below and the comings and goings beneath me in the kitchens. Very cautiously I drew near the northeast corner of my new apartment and lifted the arras. I ran my hands over the stone wall as I had done that time before in the darkness when Jonathan had discovered me, and once again I could find no outlet, no division in the stone.