Micah Clarke Part 19

Provisions ran low upon the third day of our stay in Bridgewater, which was due to our having exhausted that part of the country before, and also to the vigilance of the Royal Horse, who scoured the district round and cut off our supplies. Lord Grey determined, therefore, to send out two troops of horse under cover of night, to do what they could to refill the larder. The command of the small expedition was given over to Major Martin Hooker, an old Lifeguardsman of rough speech and curt manners, who had done good service in drilling the headstrong farmers and yeomen into some sort of order. Sir Gervas Jerome and I asked leave from Lord Grey to join the foray-a favour which was readily granted, since there was little stirring in the town.

It was about eleven o'clock on a moonless night that we sallied out of Bridgewater, intending to explore the country in the direction of Boroughbridge and Athelney. We had word that there was no large body of the enemy in that quarter, and it was a fertile district where good store of supplies might be hoped for. We took with us four empty waggons, to carry whatever we might have the luck to find. Our commander arranged that one troop should ride before these and one behind, while a small advance party, under the charge of Sir Gervas, kept some hundreds of paces in front. In this order we clattered out of the town just as the late bugles were blowing, and swept away down the quiet shadowy roads, bringing anxious peering faces to the cas.e.m.e.nts of the wayside cottages as we whirled past in the darkness.

That ride comes very clearly before me as I think of it. The dark loom of the club-headed willows flitting by us, the moaning of the breeze among the withies, the vague, blurred figures of the troopers, the dull thud of the hoofs, and the jingling of scabbard against stirrup-eye and ear can both conjure up those old-time memories. The Baronet and I rode in front, knee against knee, and his light-hearted chatter of life in town, with his little s.n.a.t.c.hes of verse or song from Cowley or Waller, were a very balm of Gilead to my sombre and somewhat heavy spirit.

'Life is indeed life on such a night as this,' quoth he, as we breathed in the fresh country air with the reeks of crops and of kine. 'Rabbit me! but you are to be envied, Clarke, for having been born and bred in the country! What pleasures has the town to offer compared to the free gifts of nature, provided always that there be a perruquier's and a snuff merchant's, and a scent vendor's, and one or two tolerable outfitters within reach? With these and a good coffee-house and a playhouse, I think I could make s.h.i.+ft to lead a simple pastoral life for some months.'

'In the country,' said I, laughing, 'we have ever the feeling that the true life of mankind, with the growth of knowledge and wisdom, are being wrought out in the towns.'

'Ventre Saint-Gris! It was little knowledge or wisdom that I acquired there,' he answered. 'Truth to tell, I have lived more and learned more during these few weeks that we have been sliding about in the rain with our ragged lads, than ever I did when I was page of the court, with the ball of fortune at my feet. It is a sorry thing for a man's mind to have nothing higher to dwell upon than the turning of a compliment or the dancing of a corranto. Zounds, lad! I have your friend the carpenter to thank for much. As he says in his letter, unless a man can get the good that is in him out, he is of loss value in the world than one of those fowls that we hear cackling, for they at least fulfill their mission, if it be only to lay eggs. Ged, it is a new creed for me to be preaching!'

'But,' said I, 'when you were a wealthy man you must have been of service to some one, for how could one spend so much money and yet none be the better?'

'You dear bucolic Micah!' he cried, with a gay laugh. 'You will ever speak of my poor fortune with bated breath and in an awestruck voice, as though it were the wealth of the Indies. You cannot think, lad, how easy it is for a money-bag to take unto itself wings and fly. It is true that the man who spends it doth not consume the money, but pa.s.ses it on to some one who profits thereby. Yet the fault lies in the fact that it was to the wrong folk that we pa.s.sed our money, thereby breeding a useless and debauched cla.s.s at the expense of honest callings. Od's fish, lad! when I think of the swarms of needy beggars, the lecherous pimps, the nose-slitting bullies, the toadies and the flatterers who were reared by us, I feel that in hatching such a poisonous brood our money hath done what no money can undo. Have I not seen them thirty deep of a morning when I have held my levee, cringing up to my bedside-'

'Your bedside!' I exclaimed.

'Aye! it was the mode to receive in bed, attired in laced cambric s.h.i.+rt and periwig, though afterwards it was permitted to sit up in your chamber, but dressed a la negligence, in gown and slippers. The mode is a terrible tyrant, Clarke, though its arm may not extend as far as Havant. The idle man of the town must have some rule of life, so he becomes a slave to the law of the fas.h.i.+ons. No man in London was more subject to it than myself. I was regular in my irregularities, and orderly in my disorders. At eleven o'clock to the stroke, up came my valet with the morning cup of hippocras, an excellent thing for the qualms, and some slight refection, as the breast of an ortolan or wing of a widgeon. Then came the levee, twenty, thirty, or forty of the cla.s.s I have spoken of, though now and then perhaps there might be some honest case of want among them, some needy man-of-letters in quest of a guinea, or pupil-less pedant with much ancient learning in his head and very little modern coinage in his pocket. It was not only that I had some power of mine own, but I was known to have the ear of my Lord Halifax, Sidney G.o.dolphin, Lawrence Hyde, and others whose will might make or mar a man. Mark you those lights upon the left! Would it not be well to see if there is not something to be had there?'

'Hooker hath orders to proceed to a certain farm,' I answered. 'This we could take upon our return should we still have s.p.a.ce. We shall be back here before morning.'

'We must get supplies, if I have to ride back to Surrey for them,' said he. 'Rat me, if I dare look my musqueteers in the face again unless I bring them something to toast upon the end of their ramrods! They had little more savoury than their own bullets to put in their mouths when I left them. But I was speaking of old days in London. Our time was well filled. Should a man of quality incline to sport there was ever something to attract him. He might see sword-playing at Hockley, or c.o.c.king at Shoe Lane, or baiting at Southwark, or shooting at Tothill Fields. Again, he might walk in the physic gardens of St. James's, or go down the river with the ebb tide to the cherry orchards at Rotherhithe, or drive to Islington to drink the cream, or, above all, walk in the Park, which is most modish for a gentleman who dresses in the fas.h.i.+on. You see, Clarke, that we were active in our idleness, and that there was no lack of employment. Then as evening came on there were the playhouses to draw us, Dorset Gardens, Lincoln's Inn, Drury Lane, and the Queen's-among the four there was ever some amus.e.m.e.nt to be found.'

'There, at least, your time was well employed,' said I; 'you could not hearken to the grand thoughts or lofty words of Shakespeare or of Ma.s.singer without feeling some image of them in your own soul.'

Sir Gervas chuckled quietly. 'You are as fresh to me, Micah, as this sweet country air,' said he. 'Know, thou dear babe, that it was not to see the play that we frequented the playhouse.'

'Then why, in Heaven's name?' I asked.

'To see each other,' he answered. 'It was the mode, I a.s.sure you, for a man of fas.h.i.+on to stand with his back turned to the stage from the rise of the curtain to the fall of it. There were the orange wenches to quiz-plaguey sharp of tongue the hussies are, too-and there were the vizards of the pit, whose little black masks did invite inquiry, and there were the beauties of the town and the toasts of the Court, all fair mark for our quizzing-gla.s.ses. Play, indeed! S'bud, we had something better to do than to listen to alexandrines or weigh the merits of hexameters! 'Tis true that if La Jeune were dancing, or if Mrs. Bracegirdle or Mrs. Oldfield came upon the boards, we would hum and clap, but it was the fine woman that we applauded rather than the actress.'

'And when the play was over you went doubtless to supper and so to bed?'

'To supper, certainly. Sometimes to the Rhenish House, sometimes to Pontack's in Abchurch Lane. Every one had his own taste in that matter. Then there were dice and cards at the Groom Porter's or under the arches at Covent Garden, piquet, pa.s.sage, hazard, primero-what you choose. After that you could find all the world at the coffee-houses, where an arriere supper was often served with devilled bones and prunes, to drive the fumes of wine from the head. Zounds, Micah! If the Jews should relax their pressure, or if this war brings us any luck, you shall come to town with me and shall see all these things for yourself.'

'Truth to tell, it doth not tempt me much,' I answered. 'Slow and solemn I am by nature, and in such scenes as you have described I should feel a very death's head at a banquet.'

Sir Gervas was about to reply, when of a sudden out of the silence of the night there rose a long-drawn piercing scream, which thrilled through every nerve of our bodies. I have never heard such a wail of despair. We pulled up our horses, as did the troopers behind us, and strained our ears for some sign as to whence the sound proceeded, for some were of opinion that it came from our right and some from our left. The main body with the waggons had come up, and we all listened intently for any return of the terrible cry. Presently it broke upon us again, wild, shrill, and agonised: the scream of a woman in mortal distress.

'Tis over there, Major Hooker,' cried Sir Gervas, standing up in his stirrups and peering through the darkness. 'There is a house about two fields off. I can see some glimmer, as from a window with the blind drawn.'

'Shall we not make for it at once?' I asked impatiently, for our commander sat stolidly upon his horse as though by no means sure what course he should pursue.

'I am here, Captain Clarke,' said he, 'to convey supplies to the army, and I am by no means justified in turning from my course to pursue other adventures.'

'Death, man! there is a woman in distress,' cried Sir Gervas. 'Why, Major, you would not ride past and let her call in vain for help? Hark, there she is again!' As he spoke the wild scream rang out once more from the lonely house.

'Nay, I can abide this no longer,' I cried, my blood boiling in my veins; 'do you go on your errand, Major Hooker, and my friend and I shall leave you here. We shall know how to justify our action to the King. Come, Sir Gervas!'

'Mark ye, this is flat mutiny, Captain Clarke,' said Hooker; 'you are under my orders, and should you desert me you do so at your peril.'

'In such a case I care not a groat for thy orders,' I answered hotly. Turning Covenant I spurred down a narrow, deeply-rutted lane which led towards the house, followed by Sir Gervas and two or three of the troopers. At the same moment I heard a sharp word of command from Hooker and the creaking of wheels, showing that he had indeed abandoned us and proceeded on his mission.

'He is right,' quoth the Baronet, as we rode down the lane; 'Saxon or any other old soldier would commend his discipline.'

'There are things which are higher than discipline,' I muttered. 'I could not pa.s.s on and leave this poor soul in her distress. But see-what have we here?'

A dark ma.s.s loomed in front of us, which proved as we approached to be four horses fastened by their bridles to the hedge.

'Cavalry horses, Captain Clarke!' cried one of the troopers who had sprung down to examine them. 'They have the Government saddle and holsters. Here is a wooden gate which opens on a pathway leading to the house.'

'We had best dismount, then,' said Sir Gervas, jumping down and tying his horse beside the others. 'Do you, lads, stay by the horses, and if we call for ye come to our aid. Sergeant Holloway, you can come with us. Bring your pistols with you!'

Chapter x.x.x. Of the Swordsman with the Brown Jacket

The sergeant, who was a great raw-boned west-countryman, pushed the gate open, and we were advancing up the winding pathway, when a stream of yellow light flooded out from a suddenly opened door, and we saw a dark squat figure dart through it into the inside of the house. At the same moment there rose up a babel of sounds, followed by two pistol shots, and a roaring, gasping hubbub, with clash of swords and storm of oaths. At this sudden uproar we all three ran at our topmost speed up the pathway and peered in through the open door, where we saw a scene such as I shall never forget while this old memory of mine can conjure up any picture of the past.

The room was large and lofty, with long rows of hams and salted meats dangling from the smoke-browned rafters, as is usual in Somersets.h.i.+re farmhouses. A high black clock ticked in a corner, and a rude table, with plates and dishes laid out as for a meal, stood in the centre. Right in front of the door a great fire of wood f.a.ggots was blazing, and before this, to our unutterable horror, there hung a man head downwards, suspended by a rope which was knotted round his ankles, and which, pa.s.sing over a hook in a beam, had been made fast to a ring in the floor. The struggles of this unhappy man had caused the rope to whirl round, so that he was spinning in front of the blaze like a joint of meat. Across the threshold lay a woman, the one whose cries had attracted us, but her rigid face and twisted body showed that our aid had come too late to save her from the fate which she had seen impending. Close by her two swarthy dragoons in the glaring red coats of the Royal army lay stretched across each other upon the floor, dark and scowling even in death. In the centre of the room two other dragoons were cutting and stabbing with their broad-swords at a thick, short, heavy-shouldered man, clad in coa.r.s.e brown kersey stuff, who sprang about among the chairs and round the table with a long basket-hilted rapier in his hand, parrying or dodging their blows with wonderful adroitness, and every now and then putting in a thrust in return. Hard pressed as he was, his set resolute face, firm mouth, and bright well-opened eyes spoke of a bold spirit within, while the blood which dripped from the sleeve of one of his opponents proved that the contest was not so unequal as it might appear. Even as we gazed he sprang back to avoid a fierce rush of the furious soldiers, and by a quick sharp side stroke he severed the rope by which the victim was hung. The body fell with a heavy thud upon the brick floor, while the little swordsman danced off in a moment into another quarter of the room, still stopping or avoiding with the utmost ease and skill the shower of blows which rained upon him.

This strange scene held us spell-bound for a few seconds, but there was no time for delay, for a slip or trip would prove fatal to the gallant stranger. Rus.h.i.+ng into the chamber, sword in hand, we fell upon the dragoons, who, outnumbered as they were, backed into a corner and struck out fiercely, knowing that they need expect no mercy after the devil's work in which they had been engaged. Holloway, our sergeant of horse, springing furiously in, laid himself open to a thrust which stretched him dead upon the ground. Before the dragoon could disengage his weapon, Sir Gervas cut him down, while at the same moment the stranger got past the guard of his antagonist, and wounded him mortally in the throat. Of the four red-coats not one escaped alive, while the bodies of our sergeant and of the old couple who had been the first victims increased the horror of the scene.

'Poor Holloway is gone,' said I, placing my hand over his heart. 'Who ever saw such a shambles? I feel sick and ill.'

'Here is eau-de-vie, if I mistake not,' cried the stranger, clambering up on a chair and reaching a bottle from the shelf. 'Good, too, by the smell. Take a sup, for you are as white as a new-bleached sheet.'

'Honest warfare I can abide, but scenes like this make my blood run cold,' I answered, taking a gulp from the flask. I was a very young soldier then, my dears, but I confess that to the end of my campaigns any form of cruelty had the same effect upon me. I give you my word that when I went to London last fall the sight of an overworked, raw-backed cart-horse straining with its load, and flogged for not doing that which it could not do, gave me greater qualms than did the field of Sedgemoor, or that greater day when ten thousand of the flower of France lay stretched before the earthworks of Landen.

'The woman is dead,' said Sir Gervas, 'and the man is also, I fear, past recovery. He is not burned, but suffers, I should judge, poor devil! from the rush of blood to the head.'

'If that be all it may well be cured, 'remarked the stranger; and taking a small knife from his pocket, he rolled up the old man's sleeve and opened one of his veins. At first only a few sluggish black drops oozed from the wound, but presently the blood began to flow more freely, and the injured man showed signs of returning sense.

'He will live,' said the little swordsman, putting his lancet back in his pocket. 'And now, who may you be to whom I owe this interference which shortened the affair, though mayhap the result would have been the same had you left us to settle it amongst ourselves?'

'We are from Monmouth's army,' I answered. 'He lies at Bridgewater, and we are scouting and seeking supplies.'

'And who are you?' asked Sir Gervas. 'And how came you into this ruffle? S'bud, you are a game little rooster to fight four such great c.o.c.kerels!'

'My name is Hector Marot,' the man answered, cleaning out his empty pistols and very carefully reloading them. 'As to who I am, it is a matter of small moment. Suffice it that I have helped to lessen Kirk's horse by four of his rogues. Mark their faces, so dusky and sun-dried even in death. These men have learned warfare fighting against the heathen in Africa, and now they practise on poor harmless English folk the devil's tricks which they have picked up amongst the savages. The Lord help Monmouth's men should they be beaten! These vermin are more to be feared than hangman's cord or headsman's axe.'

'But how did you chance upon the spot at the very nick of time?' I asked.

'Why, marry, I was jogging down the road on my mare when I heard the clatter of hoofs behind me, and concealing myself in a field, as a prudent man would while the country is in its present state, I saw these four rogues gallop past. They made their way up to the farmhouse here, and presently from cries and other tokens I knew what manner of h.e.l.l-fire business they had on hand. On that I left my mare in the field and ran up, when I saw them through the cas.e.m.e.nt, tricing the good man up in front of his fire to make him confess where his wealth lay hidden, though indeed it is my own belief that neither he nor any other farmer in these parts hath any wealth left to hide, after two armies have been quartered in turn upon them. Finding that his mouth remained closed, they ran him up, as you saw, and would a.s.suredly have toasted him like a snipe, had I not stepped in and winged two of them with my barkers. The others set upon me, but I pinked one through the forearm, and should doubtless have given a good account of both of them but for your incoming.'

'Right gallantly done!' I exclaimed. 'But where have I heard your name before, Mr. Hector Marot?'

'Nay,' he answered, with a sharp, sidelong look, 'I cannot tell that.'

'It is familiar to mine ear,' said I.

He shrugged his broad shoulders, and continued to look to the priming of his pistols, with a half-defiant and half-uneasy expression. He was a very st.u.r.dy, deep-chested man, with a stern, square-jawed face, and a white seam across his bronzed forehead as from a slash with a knife. He wore a gold-edged riding-cap, a jacket of brown sad-coloured stuff much stained by the weather, a pair of high rusty jack-boots, and a small bob-wig.

Sir Gervas, who had been staring very hard at the man, suddenly gave a start, and slapped his hand against his leg.

'Of course!' he cried. 'Sink me, if I could remember where I had seen your face, but now it comes back to me very clearly.'

The man glanced doggedly from under his bent brows at each of us in turn. 'It seems that I have fallen among acquaintances,' he said gruffly; 'yet I have no memory of ye. Methinks, young sirs, that your fancy doth play ye false.'

'Not a whit,' the Baronet answered quietly, and, bending forward, he whispered a few words into the man's ear, which caused him to spring from his seat and take a couple of quick strides forward, as though to escape from the house.

'Nay, nay!' cried Sir Gervas, springing between him and the door, 'you shall not run away from us. Pshaw, man! never lay your hand upon your sword. We have had b.l.o.o.d.y work enough for one night. Besides, we would not harm you.'

'What mean ye, then? What would ye have?' he asked, glancing about like some fierce wild beast in a trap.

'I have a most kindly feeling to you, man, after this night's work,' cried Sir Gervas. 'What is it to me how ye pick up a living, as long as you are a true man at heart? Let me perish if I ever forget a face which I have once seen, and your bonne mine, with the trade-mark upon your forehead, is especially hard to overlook.'

'Suppose I be the same? What then?' the man asked sullenly.

'There is no suppose in the matter. I could swear to you. But I would not, lad-not if I caught you red-handed. You must know, Clarke, since there is none to overhear us, that in the old days I was a Justice of the Peace in Surrey, and that our friend here was brought up before me on a charge of riding somewhat late o' night, and of being plaguey short with travellers. You will understand me. He was referred to a.s.sizes, but got away in the meanwhile, and so saved his neck. Right glad I am of it, for you will agree with me that he is too proper a man to give a tight-rope dance at Tyburn.'

'And I remember well now where I have heard your name,' said I. 'Were you not a captive in the Duke of Beaufort's prison at Badminton, and did you not succeed in escaping from the old Boteler dungeon?'

'Nay, gentlemen,' he replied, seating himself on the edge of the table, and carelessly swinging his legs, 'since ye know so much it would be folly for me to attempt to deceive ye. I am indeed the same Hector Marot who hath made his name a terror on the great Western road, and who hath seen the inside of more prisons than any man in the south. With truth, however, I can say that though I have been ten years upon the roads, I have never yet taken a groat from the poor, or injured any man who did not wish to injure me. On the contrary, I have often risked life and limb to save those who were in trouble.'

'We can bear you out in that,' I answered, 'for if these four red-coat devils have paid the price of their crimes, it is your doing rather than ours.'

'Nay, I can take little credit for that,' our new acquaintance answered. 'Indeed, I had other scores to settle with Colonel Kirke's horse, and was but too glad to have this breather with them.'

Whilst we were talking the men whom we had left with the horses had come up, together with some of the neighbouring farmers and cottagers, who were aghast at the scene of slaughter, and much troubled in their minds over the vengeance which might be exacted by the Royal troops next day.

'For Christ's zake, zur,' cried one of them, an old ruddy-faced countryman, 'move the bodies o' these soldier rogues into the road, and let it zeem as how they have perished in a chance fight wi' your own troopers loike. Should it be known as they have met their end within a varmhouse, there will not be a thatch left unlighted over t' whole country side; as it is, us can scarce keep these murthering Tangiers devils from oor throats.'

'His request is in reason,' said the highwayman bluntly. 'We have no right to have our fun, and then go our way leaving others to pay the score.'

'Well, hark ye,' said Sir Gervas, turning to the group of frightened rustics. 'I'll strike a bargain with ye over the matter. We have come out for supplies, and can scarce go back empty-handed. If ye will among ye provide us with a cart, filling it with such breadstuffs and greens as ye may, with a dozen bullocks as well, we shall not only screen ye in this matter, but I shall promise payment at fair market rates if ye will come to the Protestant camp for the money.'

'I'll spare the bullocks,' quoth the old man whom we had rescued, who was now sufficiently recovered to sit up. 'Zince my poor dame is foully murthered it matters little to me what becomes o' the stock. I shall zee her laid in Durston graveyard, and shall then vollow you to t' camp, where I shall die happy if I can but rid the earth o' one more o' these incarnate devils.'

'You say well, gaffer!' cried Hector Marot; 'you show the true spirit. Methinks I see an old birding-piece on yonder hooks, which, with a brace of slugs in it and a bold man behind it, might bring down one of these fine birds for all their gay feathers.'

'Her's been a true mate to me for more'n thirty year,' said the old man, the tears coursing down his wrinkled cheeks. 'Thirty zeed-toimes and thirty harvests we've worked together. But this is a zeed-toime which shall have a harvest o' blood if my right hand can compa.s.s it.'

'If you go to t' wars, Gaffer Swain, we'll look to your homestead,' said the farmer who had spoken before. 'As to t' greenstuffs as this gentleman asks for he shall have not one wainload but three, if he will but gi' us half-an-hour to fill them up. If he does not tak them t' others will, so we had raither that they go to the good cause. Here, Miles, do you wak the labourers, and zee that they throw the potato store wi' the spinach and the dried meats into the waggons wi' all speed.'

'Then we had best set about our part of the contract,' said Hector Marot. With the aid of our troopers he carried out the four dragoons and our dead sergeant, and laid them on the ground some way down the lane, leading the horses all round and between their bodies, so as to trample the earth, and bear out the idea of a cavalry skirmish. While this was doing, some of the labourers had washed down the brick floor of the kitchen and removed all traces of the tragedy. The murdered woman had been carried up to her own chamber, so that nothing was left to recall what had occurred, save the unhappy farmer, who sat moodily in the same place, with his chin resting upon his stringy work-worn hands, staring out in front of him with a stony, empty gaze, unconscious apparently of all that was going on around him.

The loading of the waggons had been quickly accomplished, and the little drove of oxen gathered from a neighbouring field. We were just starting upon our return journey when a young countryman rode up, with the news that a troop of the Royal Horse were between the camp and ourselves. This was grave tidings, for we were but seven all told, and our pace was necessarily slow whilst we were hampered with the supplies.

'How about Hooker?' I suggested. 'Should we not send after him and give him warning?'

'I'll goo at once,' said the countryman. 'I'm bound to zee him if he be on the Athelney road.' So saying he set spurs to his horse and galloped off through the darkness.

'While we have such volunteer scouts as this,' I remarked, 'it is easy to see which side the country folk have in their hearts. Hooker hath still the better part of two troops with him, so surely he can hold his own. But how are we to make our way back?'

'Zounds, Clarke! let us extemporise a fortress,' suggested Sir Gervas. 'We could hold this farmhouse against all comers until Hooker returns, and then join our forces to his. Now would our redoubtable Colonel be in his glory, to have a chance of devising cross-fires, and flanking-fires, with all the other refinements of a well-conducted leaguer.'

'Nay,' I answered, 'after leaving Major Hooker in a somewhat cavalier fas.h.i.+on, it would be a bitter thing to have to ask his help now that there is danger.'

'Ho, ho!' cried the Baronet. 'It does not take a very deep lead-line to come to the bottom of your stoical philosophy, friend Micah. For all your cold-blooded stolidity you are keen enough where pride or honour is concerned. Shall we then ride onwards, and chance it? I'll lay an even crown that we never as much as see a red coat.'

'If you will take my advice, gentlemen,' said the highwayman, trotting up upon a beautiful bay mare, 'I should say that your best course is to allow me to act as guide to you as far as the camp. It will be strange if I cannot find roads which shall baffle these blundering soldiers.'

'A very wise and seasonable proposition,' cried Sir Gervas. 'Master Marot, a pinch from my snuff-box, which is ever a covenant of friends.h.i.+p with its owner. Adslidikins, man! though our acquaintance at present is limited to my having nearly hanged you on one occasion, yet I have a kindly feeling towards you, though I wish you had some more savoury trade.'

'So do many who ride o' night,' Marot answered, with a chuckle. 'But we had best start, for the east is whitening, and it will be daylight ere we come to Bridgewater.'

Leaving the ill-omened farmhouse behind us we set off with all military precautions, Marot riding with me some distance in front, while two of the troopers covered the rear. It was still very dark, though a thin grey line on the horizon showed that the dawn was not far off. In spite of the gloom, however, our new acquaintance guided us without a moment's halt or hesitation through a network of lanes and bypaths, across fields and over bogs, where the waggons were sometimes up to their axles in bog, and sometimes were groaning and straining over rocks and stones. So frequent were our turnings, and so often did we change the direction of our advance, that I feared more than once that our guide was at fault; yet, when at last the first rays of the sun brightened the landscape we saw the steeple of Bridgewater parish church shooting up right in front of us.

'Zounds, man! you must have something of the cat in you to pick your way so in the dark,' cried Sir Gervas, riding up to us. 'I am right glad to see the town, for my poor waggons have been creaking and straining until my ears are weary with listening for the snap of the axle-bar. Master Marot, we owe you something for this.'

'Is this your own particular district?' I asked, 'or have you a like knowledge of every part of the south?'

'My range,' said he, lighting his short, black pipe, 'is from Kent to Cornwall, though never north of the Thames or Bristol Channel. Through that district there is no road which is not familiar to me, nor as much as a break in the hedge which I could not find in blackest midnight. It is my calling. But the trade is not what it was. If I had a son I should not bring him up to it. It hath been spoiled by the armed guards to the mail-coaches, and by the accursed goldsmiths, who have opened their banks and so taken the hard money into their strong boxes, giving out instead slips of paper, which are as useless to us as an old newsletter. I give ye my word that only a week gone last Friday I stopped a grazier coming from Blandford fair, and I took seven hundred guineas off him in these paper cheques, as they call them-enough, had it been in gold, to have lasted me for a three month rouse. Truly the country is coming to a pretty pa.s.s when such trash as that is allowed to take the place of the King's coinage.'

'Why should you persevere in such a trade?' said I. 'Your own knowledge must tell you that it can only lead to ruin and the gallows. Have you ever known one who has thriven at it?'

'That have I,' he answered readily. 'There was Kingston Jones, who worked Hounslow for many a year. He took ten thousand yellow boys on one job, and, like a wise man, he vowed never to risk his neck again. He went into Ches.h.i.+re, with some tale of having newly arrived from the Indies, bought an estate, and is now a flouris.h.i.+ng country gentleman of good repute, and a Justice of the Peace into the bargain. Zounds, man! to see him on the bench, condemning some poor devil for stealing a dozen eggs, is as good as a comedy in the playhouse.'

'Nay! but,' I persisted, 'you are a man, judging from what we have seen of your courage and skill in the use of your weapons, who would gain speedy preferment in any army. Surely it were better to use your gifts to the gaining of honour and credit, than to make them a stepping-stone to disgrace and the gallows?'

'For the gallows I care not a clipped s.h.i.+lling,' the highwayman answered, sending up thick blue curls of smoke into the morning air. 'We have all to pay nature's debt, and whether I do it in my boots or on a feather bed, in one year or in ten, matters as little to me as to any soldier among you. As to disgrace, it is a matter of opinion. I see no shame myself in taking a toll upon the wealth of the rich, since I freely expose my own skin in the doing of it.'

'There is a right and there is a wrong,' I answered, 'which no words can do away with, and it is a dangerous and unprofitable trick to juggle with them.'

'Besides, even if what you have said were true as to property,' Sir Gervas remarked, 'it would not hold you excused for that recklessness of human life which your trade begets.'

'Nay! it is but hunting, save that your quarry may at any time turn round upon you, and become in turn the hunter. It is, as you say, a dangerous game, but two can play at it, and each has an equal chance. There is no loading of the dice, or throwing of fulhams. Now it was but a few days back that, riding down the high-road, I perceived three jolly farmers at full gallop across the fields with a leash of dogs yelping in front of them, and all in pursuit of one little harmless bunny. It was a bare and unpeopled countryside on the border of Exmoor, so I bethought me that I could not employ my leisure better than by chasing the chasers. Odd's wouns! it was a proper hunt. Away went my gentlemen, whooping like madmen, with their coat skirts flapping in the breeze, chivying on the dogs, and having a rare morning's sport. They never marked the quiet horseman who rode behind them, and who without a "yoick!" or "hark-a-way!" was relis.h.i.+ng his chase with the loudest of them. It needed but a posse of peace officers at my heels to make up a brave string of us, catch-who-catch-can, like the game the lads play on the village green.'

'And what came of it?' I asked, for our new acquaintance was laughing silently to himself.