CHAPTER XVII.

Produced by Charles Aldarondo, Charles Franks

and the Distributed Proofreading Team

ST. GEORGE AND ST. MICHAEL

BY GEORGE MACDONALD

IN THREE VOLUMES

VOL. II.

LONDON

1876

CONTENTS OF VOL. II.

CHAPTER XVII. THE FIRE-ENGINE.

CHAPTER XVIII. MOONLIGHT AND APPLE-BLOSSOMS.

CHAPTER XIX. THE ENCHANTED CHAIR.

CHAPTER XX. MOLLY AND THE WHITE HORSE.

CHAPTER XXI. THE DAMSEL WHICH FELL SICK.

CHAPTER XXII. THE CATARACT.

CHAPTER XXIII. AMANDA--DOROTHY--LORD HERBERT.

CHAPTER XXIV. THE GREAT MOGUL.

CHAPTER XXV. RICHARD HEYWOOD.

CHAPTER XXVI. THE WITCH'S COTTAGE.

CHAPTER XXVII. THE MOAT OF THE KEEP.

CHAPTER XXVIII. RAGLAN STABLES.

CHAPTER XXIX. THE APPARITION.

CHAPTER XXX. RICHARD ANDTHE MARQUIS.

CHAPTER XXXI. THE SLEEPLESS.

CHAPTER XXXII. THE TURRET CHAMBER.

CHAPTER XXXIII. JUDGE GOUT.

CHAPTER XXXIV. AN EVIL TIME.

CHAPTER XXXV. THE DELIVERER.

CHAPTER XXXVI. THE DISCOVERY.

CHAPTER XXXVII. THE HOROSCOPE.

CHAPTER XXXVIII. THE EXORCISM.

CHAPTER XVII.

THE FIRE-ENGINE.

As soon as supper was over in the housekeeper's room, Dorothy sped

to the keep, where she found Caspar at work.

'My lord is not yet from supper, mistress,' he said. 'Will it please

you wait while he comes?'

Had it been till midnight, so long as there was a chance of his

appearing, Dorothy would have waited. Caspar did his best to amuse

her, and succeeded,--showing her one curious thing after

another,--amongst the rest a watch that seemed to want no winding

after being once set agoing, but was in fact wound up a little by

every opening of the case to see the dial. All the while the

fire-engine was at work on its mysterious task, with but now and

then a moment's attention from Caspar, a billet of wood or a

shovelful of sea-coal on the fire, a pull at a cord, or a hint from

the hooked rod. The time went rapidly.

Twilight was over, Caspar had lighted his lamp, and the moon had

risen, before lord Herbert came.

'I am glad to find you have patience as well as punctuality in the

catalogue of your virtues, mistress Dorothy,' he said as he entered.

'I too am punctual, and am therefore sorry to have failed now, but

it is not my fault: I had to attend my father. For his sake pardon

me.'

'It were but a small matter, my lord, even had it been uncompelled,

to keep an idle girl waiting.'

'I think not so,' returned lord Herbert. 'But come now, I will

explain to you my wonderful fire-engine.'

As he spoke, he took her by the hand, and led her towards it. The

creature blazed, groaned, and puffed, but there was no motion to be

seen about it save that of the flames through the cracks in the door

of the furnace, neither was there any clanking noise of metal. A

great rushing sound somewhere in the distance, that seemed to belong

to it, yet appeared too far off to have any connection with it.

'It is a noisy thing,' he said, as they stood before it, 'but when I

make another, it shall do its work that thou wouldst not hear it

outside the door. Now listen to me for a moment, cousin. Should it

come to a siege and I not at Raglan--the wise man will always

provide for the worst--Caspar will be wanted everywhere. Now this

engine is essential to the health and comfort, if not to the

absolute life of the castle, and there is no one at present capable

of managing it save us two. A very little instruction, however,

would enable any one to do so: will you undertake it, cousin, in

case of need?'

'Make me assured that I can, and I will, my lord,' answered Dorothy.

'A good and sufficing answer,' returned his lordship, with a smile

of satisfaction. 'First then,' he went on, 'I will show you wherein

lies its necessity to the good of the castle. Come with me, cousin

Dorothy.'

He led the way from the room, and began to ascend the stair which

rose just outside it. Dorothy followed, winding up through the

thickness of the wall. And now she could not hear the engine. As she

went up, however, certain sounds of it came again, and grew louder

till they seemed close to her ears, then gradually died away and

once more ceased. But ever, as they ascended, the rushing sound

which had seemed connected with it, although so distant, drew nearer

and nearer, until, having surmounted three of the five lofty stories

of the building, they could scarcely hear each other speak for the

roar of water, falling in intermittent jets. At last they came out

on the top of the wall, with nothing between them and the moat below

but the battlemented parapet, and behold! the mighty tower was

roofed with water: a little tarn filled all the space within the

surrounding walk. It undulated in the moonlight like a subsiding

storm, and beat the encircling banks. For into its depths shot

rather than poured a great volume of water from a huge orifice in

the wall, and the roar and the rush were tremendous. It was like the

birth of a river, bounding at once from its mountain rock, and the

sound of its fall indicated the great depth of the water into which

it plunged. Solid indeed must be the walls that sustained the

outpush of such a weight of water!

'You see now, cousin, what yon fire-souled slave below is labouring

at,' said his lordship. 'His task is to fill this cistern, and that

he can in a few hours; and yet, such a slave is he, a child who

understands his fetters and the joints of his bones can guide him at

will.'

'But, my lord,' questioned Dorothy, 'is there not water here to

supply the castle for months? And there is the draw-well in the

pitched court besides.'

'Enough, I grant you,' he replied, 'for the mere necessities of

life. But what would come of its pleasures? Would not the

beleaguered ladies miss the bounty of the marble horse? Whence comes

the water he gives so freely that he needeth not to drink himself?

He would thirst indeed but for my water-commanding fiend below. Or

how would the birds fare, were the fountains on the islands dry in

the hot summer? And what would the children say if he ceased to

spout? And how would my lord's tables fare, with the armed men

besetting every gate, the fish-ponds dry, and the fish rotting in

the sun? See you, mistress Dorothy? And for the draw-well, know you

not wherein lies the good of a tower stronger than all the rest? Is

it not built for final retreat, the rest of the castle being at

length in the hands of the enemy? Where then is your draw-well?'

'But this tower, large as it is, could not receive those now within

the walls of the castle,' said Dorothy.

'They will be fewer ere its shelter is needful.'

It was his tone quite as much as the words that drove a sudden

sickness to the heart of the girl: for one moment she knew what

siege and battle meant. But she recovered herself with a strong

effort, and escaped from the thought by another question.

'And whence comes all this water, my lord?' she said, for she was

one who would ask until she knew all that concerned her.

'Have you not chanced to observe a well in my workshop below, on the

left-hand side of the door, not far from the great chest?'

'I have observed it, my lord.'

'That is a very deep well, with a powerful spring. Large pipes lead

from all but the very bottom of that to my fire-engine. The fuller

the well, the more rapid the flow into the cistern, for the

shallower the water, the more labour falls to my giant. He is

finding it harder work now. But you see the cistern is nearly full.'

'Forgive me, my lord, if I am troubling you,' said Dorothy, about to

ask another question.

'I delight in the questions of the docile,' said his lordship. 'They

are the little children of wisdom. There! that might be out of the

book of Ecclesiasticus,' he added, with a merry laugh. 'I might pass

that off on Dr. Bayly for my father's: he hath already begun to

gather my father's sayings into a book, as I have discovered. But,

prithee, cousin, let not my father know of it.'

'Fear not me, my lord,' returned Dorothy. 'Having no secrets of my

own to house, it were evil indeed to turn my friends' out of doors.'

'Why, that also would do for Dr. Bayly! Well said, Dorothy! Now for

thy next question.'

'It is this, my lord: having such a well in your foundations, whence

the need of such a cistern on your roof? I mean now as regards the

provision of the keep itself in case of ultimate resort.'

'In coming to deal with a place of such strength as this,' replied

his lordship, '--I mean the keep whereon we now stand, not the

castle, which, alas! hath many weak points--the enemy would

assuredly change the siege into a blockade; that is, he would try to

starve instead of fire us out; and, procuring information

sufficiently to the point, would be like enough to dig deep and cut

the water-veins which supply that well; and thereafter all would

depend on the cistern. From the moment therefore when the first

signs of siege appear, it will be wisdom and duty on the part of the

person in charge to keep it constantly full--full as a cup to the

health of the king. I trust however that such will be the good

success of his majesty's arms that the worst will only have to be

provided against, not encountered.--But there is more in it yet.

Come hither, cousin. Look down through this battlement upon the

moat. You see the moon in it? No? That is because it is covered so

thick with weeds. When you go down, mark how low it is. There is

little defence in the moat that a boy might wade through. I have

allowed it to get shallow in order to try upon its sides a new

cement I have lately discovered; but weeks and weeks have passed,

and I have never found the leisure, and now I am sure I never shall

until this rebellion is crushed. It is time I filled it. Pray look

down upon it, cousin. In summer it will be full of the loveliest

white water-lilies, though now you can see nothing but green weeds.'

He had left her side and gone a few paces away, but kept on

speaking.

'One strange thing I can tell you about them, cousin--the roots of

that whitest of flowers make a fine black dye! What apophthegm

founded upon that, thinkest thou, my father would drop for Dr

Bayly?'

'You perplex me much, my lord,' said Dorothy. 'I cannot at all

perceive your lordship's drift.'

'Lay a hand on each side of the battlement where you now stand; lean

through it and look down. Hold fast and fear nothing.' Dorothy did

as she was desired, and thus supported gazed upon the moat below,

where it lay a mere ditch at the foot of the lofty wall.

'My lord, I see nothing,' she said, turning to him, as she thought;

but he had vanished.

Again she looked at the moat, and then her eyes wandered away over

the castle. The two courts and their many roofs, even those of all

the towers, except only the lofty watch-tower on the western side,

lay bare beneath her, in bright moonlight, flecked and blotted with

shadows, all wondrous in shape and black as Erebus.

Suddenly, she knew not whence, arose a frightful roaring, a hollow

bellowing, a pent-up rumbling. Seized by a vague terror, she clung

to the parapet and trembled. But even the great wall beneath her,

solid as the earth itself, seemed to tremble under her feet, as with

some inward commotion or dismay. The next moment the water in the

moat appeared to rush swiftly upwards, in wild uproar, fiercely

confused, and covered with foam and spray. To her bewildered eyes,

it seemed to heap itself up, wave upon furious wave, to reach the

spot where she stood, greedy to engulf her. For an instant she

fancied the storming billows pouring over the edge of the

battlement, and started back in such momentary agony as we suffer in

dreams. Then, by a sudden rectification of her vision, she perceived

that what she saw was in reality a multitude of fountain jets

rushing high towards their parent-cistern, but far-failing ere they

reached it. The roar of their onset was mingled with the despairing

tumult of their defeat, and both with the deep tumble and wallowing

splash of the water from the fire-engine, which grew louder and

louder as the surface of the water in the reservoir sank. The uproar

ceased as suddenly as it had commenced, but the moat mirrored a

thousand moons in the agitated waters which had overwhelmed its

mantle of weeds.

'You see now,' said lord Herbert, rejoining her while still she

gazed, 'how necessary the cistern is to the keep? Without it, the

few poor springs in the moat would but sustain it as you saw it.

From here I can fill it to the brim.'

'I see,' answered Dorothy. 'But would not a simple overflow serve,

carried from the well through the wall?'

'It would, were there no other advantages with which this mode

harmonised. I must mention one thing more--which I was almost

forgetting, and which I cannot well show you to-night--namely, that

I can use this water not only as a means of defence in the moat, but

as an engine of offence also against any one setting unlawful or

hostile foot upon the stone bridge over it. I can, when I please,

turn that bridge, the same by which you cross to come here, into a

rushing aqueduct, and with a torrent of water sweep from it a whole

company of invaders.'

'But would they not have only to wait until the cistern was empty?'

'As soon and so long as the bridge is clear, the outflow ceases. One

sweep, and my water-broom would stop, and the rubbish lie sprawling

under the arch, or half-way over the court. And more still,' he

added with emphasis: 'I COULD make it boiling!'

'But your lordship would not?' faltered Dorothy.

'That might depend,' he answered with a smile. Then changing his

tone in absolute and impressive seriousness, 'But this is all

nothing but child's play,' he said, 'compared with what is involved

in the matter of this reservoir. The real origin of it was its

needfulness to the perfecting of my fire-engine.'

'Pardon me, my lord, but it seems to me that without the cistern

there would be no need for the engine. How should you want or how

could you use the unhandsome thing? Then how should the cistern be

necessary to the engine?'

'Handsome is that handsome does,' returned his lordship. 'Truly,

cousin Dorothy, you speak well, but you must learn to hear better. I

did not say that the cistern existed for the sake of the engine, but

for the sake of the perfecting of the engine. Cousin Dorothy, I will

give you the largest possible proof of my confidence in you, by not

only explaining to you the working of my fire-engine, but

acquainting you--only you must not betray me!'

'I, in my turn,' said Dorothy, 'will give your lordship, if not the

strongest, yet a very strong proof of my confidence: I promise to

keep your secret before knowing what it is.'

'Thanks, cousin. Listen then: That engine is a mingling of discovery

and invention such as hath never had its equal since first the

mechanical powers were brought to the light. For this shall be as a

soul to animate those, all and each--lever, screw, pulley, wheel,

and axle--what you will. No engine of mightiest force ever for

defence or assault invented, let it be by Archimedes himself, but

could by my fire-engine be rendered tenfold more mighty for safety

or for destruction, although as yet I have applied it only to the

blissful operation of lifting water, thus removing the curse of it

where it is a curse, and carrying it where the parched soil cries

for its help to unfold the treasures of its thirsty bosom. My

fire-engine shall yet uplift the nation of England above the heads

of all richest and most powerful nations on the face of the whole

earth. For when the troubles of this rebellion are over, which press

so heavily on his majesty and all loyal subjects, compelling even a

peaceful man like myself to forsake invention for war, and the

workman's frock which I love, for the armour which I love not, when

peace shall smile again on the country, and I shall have time to

perfect the work of my hands, I shall present it to my royal master,

a magical supremacy of power, which shall for ever raise him and his

royal progeny above all use or need of subsidies, ship-money,

benevolences, or taxes of whatever sort or name, to rule his kingdom

as independent of his subjects in reality as he is in right; for

this water-commanding engine, which God hath given me to make, shall

be the source of such wealth as no accountant can calculate. For

herewith may marsh-land be thoroughly drained, or dry land perfectly

watered; great cities kept sweet and wholesome; mines rid of the

water gathering from springs therein, so as he may enrich himself

withal; houses be served plentifully on every stage; and gardens in

the dryest summer beautified and comforted with fountains. Which

engine when I found that it was in the power of my hands to do, as

well as of my heart to conceive that it might be done, I did kneel

down and give humble thanks from the bottom of my heart to the

omnipotent God whose mercies are fathomless, for his vouchsafing me

an insight into so great a secret of nature and so beneficial to all

mankind as this my engine.'

With all her devotion to the king, and all her hatred and contempt

of the parliament and the puritans, Dorothy could not help a doubt

whether such independence might be altogether good either for the

king himself or the people thus subjected to his will. But the

farther doubt did not occur to her whether a pre-eminence gained

chiefly by wealth was one to be on any grounds desired for the

nation, or, setting that aside, was one which carried a single

element favourable to perpetuity.

All this time they had been standing on the top of the keep, with

the moonlight around them, and in their ears the noise of the water

flowing from the dungeon well into the sky-roofed cistern. But now

it came in diminished flow.

'It is the earth that fails in giving, not my engine in taking,'

said lord Herbert as he turned to lead the way down the winding

stair. Ever as they went, the noise of the water grew fainter and

the noise of the engine grew louder, but just as they stepped from

the stair, it gave a failing stroke or two, and ceased. A dense

white cloud met them as they entered the vault.

'Stopped for the night, Caspar?' said his lordship.

'Yes, my lord; the well is nearly out.'

'Let it sleep,' returned his master; 'like a man's heart it will

fill in the night. Thank God for the night and darkness and sleep,

in which good things draw nigh like God's thieves, and steal

themselves in--water into wells, and peace and hope and courage into

the minds of men. Is it not so, my cousin?'

Dorothy did not answer in words, but she looked up in his face with

a reverence in her eyes that showed she understood him. And this was

one of the idolatrous catholics! It was neither the first nor the

last of many lessons she had to receive, in order to learn that a

man may be right although the creed for which he is and ought to be

ready to die, may contain much that is wrong. Alas! that so few,

even of such men, ever reflect, that it is the element common to all

the creeds which gives its central value to each.

'I cannot show you the working of the engine to-night,' said lord

Herbert. 'Caspar has decreed otherwise.'

'I can soon set her agoing again, my lord,' said Caspar.

'No, no. We must to the powder-mill, Caspar. Mistress Dorothy will

come again to-morrow, and you must yourself explain to her the

working and management of it, for I shall be away. And do not fear

to trust my cousin, Caspar, although she be a soft-handed lady. Let

her have the brute's halter in her own hold.'

Filled with gratitude for the trust he reposed in her, Dorothy took

her leave, and the two workmen immediately abandoned their shop for

the night, leaving the door wide open behind them to let out the

vapours of the fire-engine, in the confidence that no unlicensed

foot would dare to cross the threshold, and betook themselves to the

powder-mill, where they continued at work the greater part of the

night.

His lordship was unfavourable to the storing of powder because of

the danger, seeing they could, on his calculation, from the

materials lying ready for mixing, in one week prepare enough to keep

all the ordnance on the castle walls busy for two. But indeed he had

not such a high opinion of gunpowder but that he believed engines

for projection, more powerful as well as less expensive, could be

constructed, after the fashion of ballista or catapult, by the use

of a mode he had discovered of immeasurably increasing the strength

of springs, so that stones of a hundredweight might be thrown into a

city from a quarter of a mile's distance without any noise audible

to those within. It was this device he was brooding over when

Dorothy came upon him by the arblast. Nor did the conviction arise

from any prejudice against fire-arms, for he had, among many other

wonderful things of the sort, in cannons, sakers, harquebusses,

muskets, musquetoons, and all kinds, invented a pistol to discharge

a dozen times with one loading, and without so much as new priming

being once requisite, or the possessor having to change it out of

one hand into the other, or stop his horse.

One who had happened to see lord Herbert as he went about within his

father's walls, busy yet unhasting, earnest yet cheerful, rapid in

all his movements yet perfectly composed, would hardly have imagined

that a day at a time, or perhaps two, was all he was now able to

spend there, days which were to him as breathing-holes in the ice

to the wintered fishes. For not merely did he give himself to the

enlisting of large numbers of men, but commanded both horse and

foot, meeting all expenses from his own pocket, or with the

assistance of his father. A few months before the period at which my

story has arrived, he had in eight days raised six regiments,

fortified Monmouth and Chepstow, and garrisoned half-a-dozen smaller

but yet important places. About a hundred noblemen and gentlemen

whom he had enrolled as a troop of life-guards, he furnished with

the horses and arms which they were unable to provide with

sufficient haste for themselves. So prominenf indeed were his

services on behalf of the king, that his father was uneasy because

of the jealousy and hate it would certainly rouse in the minds of

some of his majesty's well-wishers--a just presentiment, as his son

had too good reason to acknowledge after he had spent a million of

money, besides the labour and thought and dangerous endeavour of

years, in the king's service.