"Laws, Jack! fear us be takin' back bad news to Sir Richard. An worse
for the poor young lady at Glo'ster. Rob's tolt me her wor well-nigh
deestract when her heerd he wor took pris'ner. What'll it be as her get
to hear o' his bein' bad wounded too? Her knows nothin' o' that."
"Maybe 'tant so much o' a wownd after all, nothin' for he to go dead on.
Folks allays zagerates sich things. An' if he live it through, like
'nough 'twon't be very long fores they git un free o' his 'prisonment.
I ha' an idea, Winny dear, the letter us ha' got be relatin' to that
same. Else-wise why shid the Colonel Kyrle, who wor onct on the
Parlamenteery side, an's now on t'other why shid him be writin' to Sir
Richard, or Sir Richard to he? Beside, all this queery business us be a
doin'. It seem to mean somethin' 'bout gittin' the young gen'lemen out
o' gaol; maybe by changin' he for another. Don't ee think so?"
"Like it do."
She knew it meant that, and more. For Rob Wilde had given her a hint of
why they had been sent to Monmouth market--ostensibly cadging on their
own account, but in reality as messengers in the pay and employ of Sir
Richard Walwyn. Though Jack was personally the bearer of the secret
despatches, Winny was the one entrusted with the diplomacy, and knew
more than she thought necessary to confide to him.
They were on return from the market--for it was afternoon--and once more
climbing a steep hill; this time not the _Cat's_ but the _Kymin_--the
old Roman Road (Camen), which, crossing the Wye at Monmouth (Blestium),
led up to the Forest table-land by Staunton. The ascent commences at
the bridge, winding for miles through romantic woods and scenery
unsurpassed in England. The bridge as then was a quaint, massive
structure, having a towered gate on its _tete de pont_, with portcullis,
draw-arch, and guard-house. A guard of Royalist soldiers were stationed
on it; for ever since the breaking out of the war Monmouth had been kept
for the King. But the cadgers had found no difficulty in passing this
guard, either at going in, or coming out. It was market day, and Jinkum
was laden with marketable commodities--a motley collection of farmyard
fowls--hens, ducks, and geese--making a very pandemonium in the
panniers. Had the soldiers upon the bridge but known what the little
limping man carried inside his wooden leg, like enough they would have
pitched him over the parapet. It was after getting clear of them, and
well uphill, that the brother and sister were unburthening themselves to
one another, as above described. The dialogue had commenced by Jack
chuckling over the way they had outwitted the bridge guards, and
referring back to how they had done the same, some fifteen months
before, with the "Cavalieres," encountered on the Bristol road by
Berkeley. He was in high glee, jesting about and praising his
artificial leg--which had proved worth more to him than the real one--
again in pleasant anticipation of a like remunerative result. The
sister, however, was not joyous as he; her thoughts just then dwelling
on that poor young lady described by Rob Wilde as having been "well-nigh
deestract." That was it which had turned their conversation into the
channel it had taken.
There was a short interregnum of silence after Winny's assenting
rejoinder. Broken by Jack with an observation bearing on the same topic
of discourse, but about a different place and time.
"'Twor a pity the Captain goed back to Hollymead wi' so few o' his
sodgers along. I cud a tolt he that wan't safe, seein' the Colonel
Lingen ha' his quarters so near by, in Goodrich Castle. Him be a
dangerous neighbour, an' master o' all round about theer now."
"Ye be right, Jack; 'twor a pity," she answered, echoing his first
reflection. "But theer wor a good reason for 't, Rob's gied me. Seems
Master Powell had somethin' at Hollymead--him wanted gettin' to
Glo'ster, so's to be safer theer. 'Twor a thing o' great value him had
hid away, fores leavin' for Bristol that time, an' the Captain
volunteered like to go for it. How could him know o' the danger frae
Goodrich? That wor brought about by treezun; one o' his men, who
stepped away in the night an' warned the Colonel Lingen. So him got
tooked by surprise."
"Well, they didn't take he, 'ithout gettin' a taste of his steel; a
sharp taste, too; beside more frae his sodgers, few as they wor. Jim
Davis, who wor up to the house, mornin' after, seed blood all 'bout the
place; more'n could a' comed o' them as lay killed. The Cavalieres had
carried away the wounded a' both sides, wi' theer own dead; as Jim think
a good dozen."
"That be true enough; more nor a dozen, I ha' myself heerd. But what do
it signify how many o' Lingen's wolves be gone dead, if that handsome
young gentlemen ha' to die, too? Sure as we be on Kymin hill, 'twill
break Mistress Vaga's heart."
"Stuff an' nonsense! Hearts beant so eezy broke."
"Ah! that's all _you_ know about it."
She could make the remark with confidence in its truth. There was no
record of Jerky ever having had sweetheart, or feeling the soft
sentiment of love. And for herself, some pangs of jealousy which Rob
Wilde had occasioned her, though unconsciously, made her a believer that
hearts _could_ be broken. For this great Forest woman loved like a
lioness, and could be jealous as a tigress.
"Oh, well!" rejoined the amiable brother, without taking notice of the
slur on his lack of his amatory experience, "it mout be as ye say,
sister Winny; supposin' the young gen'leman's wounds to prove mortyal.
But that an't like, from all us ha' heerd the day. So let's we live in
hope. An' I wudn't wonner," he added, in a more cheerful tone; "wudn't
a bit wonner, if, inside this timmer leg o' mine, theer be somethin' to
tell Sir Richard the Captain an't in any great danger. Maybe to say him
will soon be out o' prison, an' bade in his saddle, to cut down another
Cavaliere or two."
"Hope that's the news us be takin' to High Meadow. Whativer 'tis, let
we get theer quick's us can. Whack on the creetur."
The final admonition referred to Jinkum; and his master, in obedience to
it, gave out the customary "yee-up!" accompanied by the less usual
application of cudgel.
A good deal of this last the donkey now needed. The morning had been
hot, with the panniers full and heavy, toward the market. Now, on
return, it was still sultry, and the wicker weighted as ever, Sir
Richard Walwyn was not the strategist to let his scheme have a chance of
miscarrying; and Jinkum was bearing back into the Forest country a large
consignment of grocery goods; for which the consignee would care little,
save as to the time of delivery. But about this he would be particular
to an instant, as the cadgers knew; and so, on up the Kymin, Jinkum
caught stick, in showers thick as had ever rained upon his hips, even
when climbing the sharper and more familiar pitches of Cat's Hill.