CAEN WOOD AND HAMPSTEAD IN THE OLD TIMES.
In such discourse as this, the precious pair beguiled the way to
Highgate, from which they proposed crossing to Hampstead.
Notwithstanding the liberal potations that they had taken at the
Alderman's house; and notwithstanding the brandy that had since been
discussed, they neither of them felt any the worse for the imbibition.
Probably, the active exercise they took carried off all bad effects.
But, certainly, when they reached Highgate, both Todd and Lupin were
hungry.
"Let us turn into the Old Gate-House Tavern," said Lupin.
"Don't you think a more obscure place," suggested Todd, "would be better
for us, as we do not by any means court popularity?"
"No; there is more safety in a large place like the Gate House, where
plenty of guests are coming and going continually, than in a little bit
of a public-house where we should be looked at, and scrutinised from top
to toe, from the moment we went in to the moment we came out."
"Very good," said Todd. "I think you reason well enough upon the point,
and I give in to your better judgment completely. Ah! my good friend, I
really don't know what I should have done at all without you."
"Been hanged!" said Lupin.
Todd gave a shudder, which was a tolerably convincing proof of how fully
he agreed in what Mr. Lupin said; and then they went into the Old
Gate-House Tavern, at Highgate, where they had a very plentiful
breakfast; and by getting into a corner of the room, in which they sat,
they did not attract any observation beyond the mere casual regards of
the visitors to the house.
Before they left though, Todd had the horror of hearing a great
confusion of voices in the passage, and in a few moments one of the
waiters came into the room, quite bursting with his news.
"Gentlemen," he said, "the notorious Todd, and a man named Lupin, who
was a murderer likewise, have escaped from Newgate!"
"Escaped?" said Lupin. "You don't say so?"
"Dear me, when?" said Todd.
"Last night, gentlemen, last night; and--coming--coming!"
The waiter was compelled to leave the room, as a bell rung violently.
"Let us go," said Todd.
"Yes, I think, now that the news has reached here, it will be wise to do
so."
"Come along, then."
Todd rose in a moment; but Lupin in a whisper strictly cautioned him not
to show any symptoms of hurry or alarm; and he was so far master of
himself to see the necessity of such a caution, so that they both got
safely out of the Gate-House Tavern, and took the route to Hampstead by
Swains Lane, without having anything said to them.
"This is an escape indeed," said Todd.
"Yes," said Lupin, "you may depend that in a very little time there will
be some officers at the Gate-House; but if we can get to the wood within
the next half hour, I think we are safe enough. What do you think?"
"I think that if our safety depends upon getting into Caen Wood in
half-an-hour, we ought to be there in half the time."
"Do you? Then come on for a run."
"Oh, dear," said Todd. "I am all aches and pains, and not at all fit for
running; but I suppose I must. Don't go very fast, Mr. Lupin, or I shall
never be able to keep up with you."
"Then you go first and run as fast as you can without greatly
distressing yourself, and I will adopt my speed to yours."
"That will be better," said Todd.
Off they both set down Swains Lane, and as the first part of that
well-known thoroughfare from Highgate to Hampstead goes down hill, they
got on speedily with very little exertion; but when the foot of the
little slope was reached it was quite another thing, and Todd was fast
subsiding into a walk, when Lupin cried to him--
"We are pursued!"
At these words, Todd fell flat in the roadway.
"Up--up!" said Lupin, "there is a turn in the lane just ahead of us, and
when we reach that we must get over the hedge and hide. I don't know
that they are actually after us, but there are horsemen in the lane
coming from Highgate."
Todd got up as far as his hands and knees, and then, as his ears were
close to the ground, he said--
"We are lost, for I can hear horsemen coming from the other direction
too."
"The deuce you can!"
Mr. Lupin stooped to listen, and in a moment he was assured of the fact.
He seized Mr. Todd by the collar, saying--
"Now, Todd, if you want to escape, rouse yourself and follow me; but if
you don't care about it, say so at once, and I will look after my own
safety."
"Care about it?" cried Todd, "what else do you suppose I care about in
all the world?"
"Come on, then."
"Here I am. Oh, yes I'm coming on--as quick as you like now, Lupin. The
dread of capture banishes all fatigue. I can now run like a hunted
hare."
"There is no occasion," said Lupin. "This way. We must hide now; speed
would do us but little good against horsemen.--This way."
Lupin ran on until he got to the turn of the lane, which hid the
horsemen from Highgate effectually from their view; and as the mounted
party coming from the direction of Hampstead had not got so far as to
appear, he thought it was just the place to halt at.
"Now, Todd," he said, "we must get over the hedge here, and our only
chance of safety, if these men are really on the look-out for us, is to
hide in the meadow."
Without waiting for Todd to make any remark upon the very doubtful means
of escape presented, Lupin scrambled through the hedge. Todd then
followed him, and the first care of Lupin's was to arrange the twigs
that had been displaced in the hedge by their passage through it, so
that there should not appear to be any gap at all there.
Immediately upon the other side of the hedge which they had thus crossed
there was a ditch, and a large heap of manure. Mr. Lupin, without the
slightest ceremony, laid himself down, and pulling a lot of the manure
heap over him, he nearly covered himself quite up.
"This is very shocking," said Todd.
"It's quite a luxury compared to a cell in Newgate," replied Lupin. "You
had better be quick."
The word Newgate acted upon the imagination of Todd as a very powerful
spell, and he at once lay down and began to follow the example of his
friend, Lupin; and indeed so very anxious was he while he was about it
to hide himself completely, that he nearly smothered himself outright in
the manure.
"I hope this will do," he moaned.
"Silence!" said Lupin.
Todd was as still as death in a moment.
As they now lay close to the earth, all sounds upon it were much more
clearly brought to their senses than when they were walking, so that
there was no sort of difficulty in distinguishing the tread of the
horses that were coming from Highgate from those that proceeded from the
other direction, and which latter ones were not quite so near as the
others.
Faintly, too, they could hear the hum of commotion, which showed that
the party consisted of three or four persons.
And now the mounted men from Highgate got right down into the hollow,
close to the bend in the lane, and they paused, while one said, in a
clear voice--
"We ought not to go any further. Those from Hampstead should meet us
now, I think."
"They are coming," said another.
"Ah! so they are. I wonder if they have seen anything of the rascals. I
do hope they will soon be nabbed, for this patrolling business is very
tiresome."
These words were quite sufficient, if any doubt had been upon the minds
of Lupin and Todd, to convince them that the mounted men were after
them, and of the great peril they would have been in if they had staid
in the lane.
To be sure there was nothing in what had been said to add to the
supposition that the horsemen had any knowledge of the fact that the
persons they sought were in that neighbourhood, and that might be
considered to decrease the danger a little; but yet it was sufficiently
great, under all circumstances.
In the course of the next two minutes the Hampstead party came up and
joined the others.
"Any luck?" said one.
"No, we came right on across the heath, but we neither saw nor heard
anything of them, and it is quite impossible to say, as yet, that they
have come in this direction at all. I don't myself think it at all
likely."
"Why not?"
"Because of all neighbourhoods close to London, it is the most high and
exposed, while at the same time it is not thickly peopled."
"Well, there may be something in that. We have heard nothing of them in
Highgate up to now, so I suppose we may go back again the way we came,
and you will do the same."
"Have you been in any of the meadows?"
"No. But it's easy to get over the gate yonder, and take a look all
round. The enclosures are not very numerous about here, and they would
find it difficult to hide. Hold my horse, George, and I'll get into the
meadows and take a look."
When Todd heard these words, he looked upon himself as lost, and could
hardly suppress a groan.
The man who had last spoken got over a gate that was at some little
distance off, and stood upon an elevated spot of the meadows to look
about him.
"There's nothing moving," he said.
"Come along, then," cried another. "Let's get on."
"Here's a compost heap; they are perhaps in the middle of that. Is it
worth looking at?"
"Not exactly. Come on."
The man retired to the road again and mounted, and in the course of a
few moments the two parties rode back again upon the way that they had
come.
"Todd?" said Lupin, "Todd?"
"Oh!" groaned Todd.
"Todd, I say, get up. Are you out of your mind? The danger is past now.
They are gone."
"Gone!" said Todd, looking up. "You don't say so? Didn't I hear one of
them say that he would look in this very place?"
"Yes; but that was only a joke."
"A joke?" said Todd with a deep groan. "A joke was it? Oh, how very
careful people should be when they make jokes, when other people are
hiding from their enemies. It might be very funny to him, but it was
quite the reverse to me."
"That's true enough; but get up now, and in the name of everything
that's safe and comfortable, let us get to the wood. These fellows are
evidently patrolling the road, and they will be back again in a little
while, and still come across us if we don't manage to get out of their
way before that time.--Come along. We can get to the wood now quickly."
"Ah, dear me!" said Todd, as he shook himself to get rid of as much of
the unsavoury mess he had lain in as possible. "Ah dear me! truly I have
now hit upon evil times; and fortune, that I thought petted me, has
slipped from me like a shadow, leaving me glad of a manure heap in a
field as a place of shelter."
"All that is very true," said Lupin, "but it don't get us on a bit."
"I'm ready--I'm quite ready," groaned Todd.
They were upon the point of going into the lane again, but they were
compelled--or rather thought it prudent--to wait until a man had passed,
who, by the box that he carried on his back, was evidently a hawker of
goods about the country. He soon trudged out of their way, and then they
both got through the hedge again into the lane.
The place of their destination was now close at hand, upon their left;
and watching a favourable spot by which to do so, they crossed the hedge
upon that side and got into the fields; but although a sharp run across
two or three meadows would have taken them at once to Caen Wood, they
did not think it at all prudent so to expose themselves to observation.
"Skirt the hedge, Todd," said Lupin, "and stoop down so as to keep your
head as much below the top of the hedgerow as possible. You are
inconveniently tall, just now."
Upon this instruction, Todd bent himself almost double, and in that
attitude he managed to scramble close to the hedge, and up to his knees,
at times, in the ditches and drains that he came across in such a
situation.
In this way, then, they got on until they reached the outskirts of Caen
Wood. Not a creature was to be seen, and the most profound and solemn
stillness, reigned around them. Todd was not used to that intense quiet
of the country and he shook at it rather, but Lupin took no notice of
his emotion.
"Here we are, at last," he said, "and all you have to do, Todd, is to
point out the spot where you have hidden your money, and then we will
divide it, and wait until nightfall before we venture out of this snug
place."
"Come along," said Todd; "it's all right."
And then they both dived amongst the trees, which, in some places, quite
shut out the daylight.