The MS. in a Red Box Part 6

"Are you in Lord Sheffield's counsels, Bess?" I asked.

"I know as much as if I was, and more," she replied. "Would that you could be persuaded for your good."

"How then?"

"To go away for two or three months, anywhere out of the Isle."

"And how would that advantage me?"

"If you stay, you will lose your inheritance, your freedom, and may be your life. If you go, you will save them all."

"You talk in riddles, Bess."

"I say all I dare. Most likely, I shall be beaten to-night for talking with you."

"Beaten?"

"Yes; for I have had the luck to keep you from harm. A man was hidden in the reeds to shoot you, and he couldn't be sure of getting away unseen, because I was with you. Besides, the horse has been between you and him."

"Bess!"

She leaped lightly to the ground. "There's nothing amiss with my ankle," she said. "But I knew I could get a hearing, if I cheated you into putting me on your horse. Now ride on as fast as you can, and do listen to advice. Go away soon, and until you leave the Isle, have pistol in holster, and sword at your side, and a trusty man behind you."

She slipped through an opening in the hedge, and sped across the fields in the direction of the encampment of her folk.

CHAPTER V

On arriving at Temple, I hastened to bed, and for two hours or more slept the heavy sleep of extreme weariness, but then awoke in pain and burning thirst. On getting out of bed, I found myself stiff and sore, and somewhat light-headed; so, after a draught of water, tumbled into bed again to watch for the morning in great uneasiness and impatience.

At length the dawn appeared, and not long afterwards Luke entered my chamber, and made much ado about my condition, and that of my clothing, rent in places, and stiffened with blood, which he naturally supposed to be my own. His uplifted voice aroused Mr. Butharwick, who came to my room, and I was compelled to submit to an examination, which revealed more bruises and slight wounds than I had been aware of. As I had some fever upon me, my tutor and my servant took a high and mighty tone, declaring that I must keep my bed, and drink febrifuges; and I only escaped blood-letting because Luke had got it into his noddle that I had already lost at least a gallon. When once Luke got anything into his head, no other man could get it out again. In rising to prove that their solicitude was needless, a touch of giddiness laid me on my back, after which they had their way with me--they and the housekeeper, who boasted great skill in the compounding of broths of bitter herbs and seldom had the chance to exercise her art in our healthy house.

So this day I spent in bed, having my tutor for company, my father being away on some business of his solicitorship, and having (for once) left no clerkly task for Mr. Butharwick. My old friend was in no way surprised by the things which I had heard from Mistress Goel.

"Your father knows what has been reported to the earl, and is beforehand informed of every step which his lordship takes. The 'Solicitor' has trusty spies in the earl's own household. For example, he knows that a troop of soldiers would have been ordered here ere now to search for arms, but that they could not reach Temple, either from Hull or Doncaster, without our being advertised by the marshmen."

For my part, I had no confidence in "spies," who might play a game of their own, but I held my tongue. Mr. Butharwick had infinite faith in my father's ability, and it was not for me to shake it.

Mr. Butharwick lay under great apprehension as to what might be the upshot of the skirmish at Thorne, fearing I might be summoned to appear before the President of Council on the charge of a.s.saulting those who were, in a manner, the officers of his Majesty, but took refuge in the certainty of our knowing the purposes of the earl in time for me to hide until my father should return, I thought his fears on that score groundless. A Vavasour could not be condemned without trial, and an open trial would be dangerous to Sheffield. As it was, the death of Will Staniforth might be laid to his charge.

Three days later, I received a letter from Staniforth's father, begging me to come to him. Though I dreaded to witness the grief of an old man, infirm, and now bereaved of his only child, I set about going.

The water had risen in the marsh since d.i.c.k and I crossed, and I meant to pole over in a punt from Belshaw to Messic Mere, whence a sailing boat would carry me to Staniforth in two, or at most, three hours. And Sandtoft lay in my way.

I took Luke with me, or, as I should rather say, Luke went with me, for he gave me to understand that in future he did not intend me to go about alone, in which he was strongly upheld by Mr. Butharwick. Not that I opposed his going, for the words of the gipsy girl had an influence with me, and I even carried gun and pistol, albeit there was small likelihood we should meet with an enemy on our voyage.

Here I am put in mind by a critic (the kindest in the world) that Axholme is greatly changed from what it was at the time of which I write, and that I ought, for the better understanding of my readers, to give a more particular account than I have hitherto done of the nature of the country in my youth. The fault is plain, but not the remedy, since I am unskilled in description. The best I can do is to prefix a map, one glance at which will show more than pages of my writing could.

As to the journey to Staniforth, I may say that the s.p.a.ce between Belshaw and Messic Mere was sometimes land, sometimes water, and more often a mixture of both. In dry seasons, swine could pick up some feed there, and, now and then, a venturesome cottager turned out a cow, keeping watch lest it should be bogged. In winter, eels were to be caught and ducks shot there. Clumps of birch, small oak, poplar, and alder grew here and there on "holmes" of gravel or sand. Long rows of reeds marked channels always filled with water; ling and gorse, in spots, flourished on the drier mounds and ridges.

On this day, as I have said, there was abundant water (though the month was June, and the summer had been almost rainless), which we supposed to be due to heavy showers further south, swelling the rivers Trent and Idle.

Luke took the pole, and pushed quickly across to the mere, where we changed into a sailing boat, and went gaily to Sandtoft, then an oblong island about four furlongs by two, or, roughly, some eighty acres in extent, surrounded by the Idle. Leaving Luke in the boat, I scrambled up the bank, which sloped steeply, and was palisaded at top to the height of six feet. I pulled myself up and looked over, and had scarcely done so when a bullet whizzed over my head, and I saw the man who had fired it reloading as he came nearer to the fence, and others swarming out of a shed like angry bees out of a hive. Thinking it might be as dangerous to retreat as to advance, I drew myself up and tumbled, rather than jumped, down inside the palisade, and walked toward the sentinel, calling out, "A friend," which did not hinder his shooting a second time. Happily, he was no marksman. Being quite ignorant of Dutch, I continued to announce myself as a friend in English, German, and French. When we came within arm's length, two of the men collared me, and one asked in a sort of French what my business was. My answer so far satisfied them that they let go their hold, and conducted me to Doctor Goel's abode.

On the way I admired the diligence and skill which had reared a Dutch town in so short a time. A wide street of substantial houses, mainly built of wood, it is true, ran from west to east, and at either end of the street there were workshops, storehouses, and what I took to be an a.r.s.enal. As I afterwards learned, a good deal of the material had been brought over ready shaped, needing only to be put together on the spot.

Some acres of ground were covered with pumps, wind-mills, sluice-gates, carts, in sections or complete, and machines and parts of machines of which I could not guess the use or purpose. One thing I saw certainly.

The men who had embarked in this enterprise would not lightly abandon it. They had precise and definite plans, and they had expended vast sums of money. The settlement was fortified as for a siege, and there were several pieces of artillery. In an open s.p.a.ce stood the gallows, and near by a pole from which flew the Dutch flag, surmounted by the royal standard of England. To drive these people out of the Isle would require an army, and a general. As for judicial sentences, I remembered that it was a legal maxim that possession was nine points of the law. Looking round on the evidences of the king's authority, and of the wealth at the disposal of Vermuijden, and of the determination of the settlers, it came home to me that my father was losing his labour and spending money in vain. And yet I rejoiced to think that Mistress Goel was likely to remain in the Isle. It did not occur to me that I might be banished from it.

My guards led me to the doctor's house, where we found him seated at a table on which were spread a handful of feathers, a piece of fish--smelling stale--bits of touchwood, and other rubbish. As we entered the room, he laid down a queer shaped lens, through which he had been gazing at some of these things, and greeted me cordially. He and the men held a short parley, and they turned to go, when I begged the doctor (in very bad French) to a.s.sure them of the harmlessness of my man Luke, lest they should take it into their heads to shoot the poor fellow. After further talk with them, the doctor informed me that one of the men had a little English, and had promised to certify Luke that all was well with me. The doctor and I talked in a heavy fashion, bad French on my side, broken English on his, for a few minutes, when Mistress Goel appeared. She had not tarried to don her finest clothing, as is the wont of so many damsels, but came in household garb, her round, white arms bare to the elbow, her head covered by some kind of hood, which, however, she threw back as she entered the room, her fair face flushed as by her work, but a smile of welcome in her eyes--more beautiful than ever in her homely neatness. In the course of our chat, she told me that the watchmen were on the alert, because last night some bold fellows had scaled the palisade, broken some costly machinery, and endeavoured to set fire to the buildings.

Vermuijden's lieutenant had given strict command to shoot every intruder who did not enter by the gates, of which it seemed there were two.

"Is it that you wear chain-mail under your clothing, or a scapulary blest by the Pope or witch's charm," she asked, "that you court danger as if you loved it?"

I was much too slow-witted to give the right answer, and blundered something about being preoccupied with the pleasure of seeing her. But _Ay di mi_! I forget that what I recall with delight will not interest the reader.

When I rose to take my leave, and Mistress Goel heard whither I was bound, she inquired whether we had food with us in the boat. On hearing that we had none, she insisted on supplying us, "For the poor father will be overcome with sorrow, and never think of your hunger,"

she said. As I would not stay to take a meal with them, she retired to the kitchen, and came back cloaked, with basket in hand, followed by her maid, who carried another. Declaring that she would show me the gate, so that I need not rush on bullets when next I came, she led the way to a point about a hundred yards further round the bend of the river. I hailed Luke, who came up and received the baskets with looks of wonder. Mistress Goel commended Martha's pastry to our attention, and with "Bon voyage!" she left us.

As we fell to our luncheon, I asked Luke what had pa.s.sed between him and the Dutchman who had engaged to a.s.sure him of my safety.

"'A leaned o'er fence, and 'a says, 'Icy Ingliss! Allride. Got-tam'

I stared at un like a stuck pig, and 'a says again, 'Allride, Got-tam,'

and grinned from ear to ear, so I knew he meant it friendly."

When we had ended our meal, Luke said, "Master Frank, I've heard cook say as foreigners can't make pastry."

"I dare say; what of that?"

"Why, it's a thundering lie; that's what it is, a thundering lie! I never ate such eel-pie in all my days. And ain't she spanking?"

"Who is spanking? Cook?"

"No, no; that Martha. 'Tis a nice, comfortable name. And what a pie it was!"

Luke's eyes were half closed, as if he were deep in meditation. At Staniforth, forgetful of his self-imposed duty of keeping guard over me, he would have remained dreaming in the boat if I had not reminded him of his duty.

The servant who admitted me whispered, "Master is very bad to-day, sir, but he will see you."

The old man sat bent forward over a turf fire, though the day was hot.

The room was almost unbearably close to me. I had seen him not more than twice or thrice before, for he shrank from exposing his decrepitude to general view. Some years ago he had been thrown over his horse's head, and, in our country phrase, his back had been broken, that is, he had sustained an injury to the spine, which had deprived him of the use of his lower limbs. He was a pitiable object, cowering, almost bent double, over the fire; his long, white hair hanging about his shoulders, his beard reaching nearly to his knees, his yellow face puckered with a thousand wrinkles. But there was a fierce light in the eyes as he turned toward me and said--

"Hast done right to come, young Vavasour. Look at his grave."

He pointed to the window, from which I saw a newly made mound in the middle of a field of gra.s.s. Then, as if he answered a question, he said--

"No, the parson didn't gabble lies over him. We put his body into the ground without parson's lies." Then the old man repeated scornfully, "'We give Thee hearty thanks, for that it hath pleased Thee to deliver this our brother out of the miseries of this sinful world.' It might be said for me, but not for him, my strong, handsome boy, who ought to have lived sixty years. But I prayed, young Vavasour--I prayed for death and d.a.m.nation on his murderer."

The strength and fire with which the feeble old man hurled out the last words were terrible. Then his tone changed.