THE WITCH'S COTTAGE.
Richard was met on the threshold by mistress Rees, in the same
old-fashioned dress, all but the hat, which I have already described. On
her head she wore a widow's cap, with large crown, thick frill, and
black ribbon encircling it between them. She welcomed him with the
kindness almost of an old nurse, and led the way to the one chair in the
room--beside the hearth, where a fire of peat was smouldering rather
than burning beneath the griddle, on which she was cooking oat-cake. The
cottage was clean and tidy. From the smoky rafters hung many bunches of
dried herbs, which she used partly for medicines, partly for charms.
To herself, the line dividing these uses was not very clearly
discernible.
'I am in trouble, mistress Rees,' said Richard, as he seated himself.
'Most men do be in trouble most times, master Heywood,' returned the old
woman. 'Dost find thou hast taken the wrong part, eh?--There be no need
to tell what aileth thee. 'Tis a bit easier to cast off a maiden than to
forget her--eh?'
'No, mistress Rees. I came not to trouble thee concerning what is past
and gone,' said Richard with a sigh. 'It is a taste of thy knowledge I
want rather than of thy skill.'
'What skill I have is honest,' said the old woman.
'Far be it from thee to say otherwise, mother Rees. But I need it not
now. Tell me, hast thou not been once and again within the great gates
of Raglan castle?'
'Yes, my son--oftener than I can tell thee,' answered the old woman. 'It
is but a se'night agone that I sat a talking with my son Thomas Rees in
the chimney corner of Raglan kitchen, after the supper was served and
the cook at rest. It was there my lad was turnspit once upon a time, for
as great a man as he is now with my lord and all the household. Those
were hard times after my good man left me, master Heywood. But the cream
will to the top, and there is my son now--who but he in kitchen and
hall? Well, of all places in the mortal world, that Raglan passes!'
'They tell strange things of the stables there, mistress Rees: know you
aught of them?'
'Strange things, master? They tell nought but good of the stables that
tell the truth. As to the armoury, now--well it is not for such as
mother Rees to tell tales out of school.'
'What I heard, and wanted to ask thee about, mother, was that they are
under ground. Thinkest thou horses can fare well under ground? Thou
knowest a horse as well as a dog, mother.'
Ere she replied, the old woman took her cake from the griddle, and laid
it on a wooden platter, then caught up a three-legged stool, set it down
by Richard, seated herself at his knee, and assumed the look of mystery
wherewith she was in the habit of garnishing every bit of knowledge,
real or fancied, which it pleased her to communicate.
'Hear me, and hold thy peace, master Richard Heywood,' she said. 'As
good horses as ever stamped in Redware stables go down into Raglan
vaults; but yet they eat their oats and their barley, and when they lift
their heads they look out to the ends of the world. Whether it be by the
skill of the mason or of such as the hidden art of my lord Herbert knows
best how to compel, let them say that list to make foes where it were
safer to have friends. But this I am free to tell thee--that in the
pitched court, betwixt the antechamber to my lord's parlour that hath
its windows to the moat, and the great bay window of the hall that looks
into that court, there goeth a descent, as it seemeth of stairs only;
but to him that knoweth how to pull a certain tricker, as of an
harquebus or musquetoon, the whole thing turneth around, and straightway
from a stair passeth into an easy matter of a sloping way by the which
horses go up and down. And Thomas he telleth me also that at the further
end of the vaults to which it leads, the which vaults pass under the
marquis's oak parlour, and under all the breadth of the fountain court,
as they do call the other court of the castle, thou wilt come to a great
iron door in the foundations of one of the towers, in which my lord hath
contrived stabling for a hundred and more horses, and that, mark my
words, my son, not in any vault or underground dungeon, but in the
uppermost chamber of all.'
'And how do they get up there, mother?' asked Richard, who listened with
all his ears.
'Why, they go round and round, and ever the rounder the higher, as a fly
might crawl up a corkscrew. And there is a stair also in the same screw,
as it were, my Thomas do tell me, by which the people of the house do go
up and down, and know nothing of the way for the horses within, neither
of the stalls at the top of the tower, where they stand and see the
country. Yet do they often marvel at the sounds of their hoofs, and
their harness, and their cries, and their chumping of their corn. And
that is how Raglan can send forth so many horseman for the use of the
king. But alack, master Heywood! is it for a wise woman like myself to
forget that thou art of the other part, and that these are secrets of
state which scarce another in the castle but my son Thomas knoweth aught
concerning! What will become of me that I have told them to a Heywood,
being, as is well known, myself no more of a royalist than another?'
And she regarded him a little anxiously.
'What should it signify, mother,'' said Richard, 'so long as neither you
nor I believe a word of it? Horses go up a tower to bed forsooth! Yet
for the matter of that, I will engage to ride my mare up any corkscrew
wide enough to turn her forelock and tail in--ay, and down again too,
which is another business with most horses. But come now, mother Rees,
confess this all a fable of thine own contriving to make a mock of a
farm-bred lad like me.'
'In good sooth, master Heywood,' answered the old woman, 'I tell the
tale as 'twas told to me. I avouch it not for certain, knowing that my
son Thomas hath a seething brain and loveth a joke passing well, nor
heedeth greatly upon whom he putteth it, whether his master or his
mother; but for the stair by the great hall window, that stair have I
seen with mine own eyes, though for the horses to come and go thereby,
that truly have I not seen. And for the rest I only say it may well be,
for there is nothing of it all which the wise man, my lord Herbert,
could not with a word--and that a light one for him to speak, though
truly another might be torn to pieces in saying it.'
'I would I might see the place!' murmured Richard.
'An' it were not thou art such a--! But it boots not talking, master
Heywood. Thou art too well known for a puritan--roundhead they call
thee; and thou hast given them and theirs too many hard knocks, my son,
to look they should be willing to let thee gaze on the wonders of their
great house. Else, being that I am a friend to thee and thine, I would
gladly--. But, as I say, it boots nothing--although I have a son, who
being more of the king's part than I am--.'
'Hast thou not then art enough, mother, to set me within Raglan walls
for an hour or two after midnight? I ask no more,' said Richard, who,
although he was but leading the way to quite another proposal, nor
desired aid of art black or white, yet could not help a little tremor at
making the bare suggestion of the unhallowed idea.
'An' I had, I dared not use it,' answered the old woman; 'for is not my
lord Herbert there? Were it not for him--well--. But I dare not, as I
say, for his art is stronger than mine, and from his knowledge I could
hide nothing. And I dare not for thy sake either, my young master. Once
inside those walls of stone, those gates of oak, and those portcullises
of iron, and thou comes not out alive again, I warrant thee.'
'I should like to try once, though,' said Richard. 'Couldst thou not
disguise me, mother Rees, and send me with a message to thy son?'
'I tell thee, young master, I dare not,' answered the old woman, with
utmost solemnity. 'And if I did, thy speech would presently bewray
thee.'
'I would then I knew that part of the wall a man might scramble over in
the dark,' said Richard.
'Thinks thou my lord marquis hath been fortifying his castle for two
years that a young Heywood, even if he be one of the godly, and have
long legs to boot, should make a vaulting horse of it? I know but one
knows the way over Raglan walls, and thou wilt hardly persuade him to
tell thee,' said mother Rees, with a grim chuckle.
As she spoke she rose, and went towards her sleeping chamber. Then first
Richard became aware that for some time he had been hearing a scratching
and whining. She opened the door, and out ran a wretched-looking dog,
huge and gaunt, with the red marks of recent wounds all over his body,
and his neck swathed in a discoloured bandage. He went straight to
Richard, and began fawning upon him and licking his hands. Miserable and
most disreputable as he looked, he recognised in him Dorothy's mastiff.
'My poor Marquis!' he said, 'what evil hath then befallen thee? What
would thy mistress say to see thee thus?'
Marquis whined and wagged his tail as if he understood every word he
said, and Richard was stung to the heart at the sight of his apparently
forlorn condition.
'Hath thy mistress then forsaken thee too, Marquis?' he said, and from
fellow-feeling could have taken the dog in his arms.
'I think not so,' said mistress Rees. 'He hath been with her in the
castle ever since she went there.'
'Poor fellow, how thou art torn!' said Richard. 'What animal of thine
own size could have brought thee into such a plight? Or can it be that
thou hast found a bigger? But that thou hast beaten him I am well
assured.'
Marquis wagged an affirmative.
'Fangs of biggest dog in Gwent never tore him like that, master Heywood.
Heark'ee now. He cannot tell his tale, so I must tell thee all I know of
the matter. I was over to Raglan village three nights agone, to get me a
bottle of strong waters from mine host of the White Horse, for the
distilling of certain of my herbs good for inward disorders, when he
told me that about an hour before there had come from the way of the
castle all of a sudden the most terrible noise that ever human ears were
pierced withal, as if every devil in hell of dog or cat kind had broken
loose, and fierce battle was waging between them in the Yellow Tower. I
said little, but had my own fears for my lord Herbert, and came home sad
and slow and went to bed. Now what should wake me the next morning, just
as daylight broke the neck of the darkness, but a pitiful whining and
obstinate scratching at my door! And who should it be but that same
lovely little lapdog of my young mistress now standing by thy knee! But
had thou seen him then, master Richard! It was the devil's hackles he
had been through! Such a torn dishclout of a dog thou never did see! I
understood it all in a moment. He had made one in the fight, and whether
he had had the better or the worse of it, like a wise dog as he always
was, he knew where to find what would serve his turn, and so when the
house was quiet, off he came to old mother Rees to be plaistered and
physicked. But what perplexes my old brain is, how, at that hour of the
night, for to reach my door when he did, and him hardly able to stand
when I let him in, it must have been dead night when he left--it do
perplex me, I say, to think how at that time of the night he got out of
that prison, watched as it is both night and day by them that sleep
not.'
'He couldn't have come over the wall?' suggested Richard.
'Had thou seen him--thou would not make that the question.'
'Then he must have come through or under it; there are but three ways,'
said Richard to himself. 'He's a big dog,' he added aloud, regarding him
thoughtfully as he patted his sullen affectionate head. 'He's a big
dog,' he repeated.
'I think a'most he be the biggest dog _I_ ever saw,' assented mistress
Rees.
'I would I were less about the shoulders,' said Richard.
'Who ever heard a man worth his mess of pottage wish him such a wish as
that, master Heywood! What would mistress Dorothy say to hear thee? I
warrant me she findeth no fault with the breadth of thy shoulders.'
'I am less in the compass than I was before the last fight,' he went on,
without heeding his hostess, and as if he talked to the dog, who stood
with his chin on his knee, looking up in his face. 'Where thou, Marquis,
canst walk, I doubt not to creep; but if thou must creep, what then is
left for me? Yet how couldst thou creep with such wounds in thy throat
and belly, my poor Marquis?'
The dog whined, and moved all his feet, one after the other, but without
taking his chin off Richard's knee.
'Hast seen thy mistress, little Dick, Marquis?' asked Richard.
Again the dog whined, moved his feet, and turned his head towards the
door. But whether it was that he understood the question, or only that
he recognised the name of his friend, who could tell?
'Will thou take me to Dick, Marquis?'
The dog turned and walked to the door, then stood and looked back, as if
waiting for Richard to open it and follow him.
'No, Marquis, we must not go before night,' said Richard.
The dog returned slowly to his knee, and again laid his chin upon it.
'What will the dog do next, thinkest thou, mother--when he finds himself
well again, I mean? Will he run from thee?' said Richard.
'He would be like neither dog nor man I ever knew, did he not,' returned
the old woman. 'He will for sure go back where he got his hurts--to
revenge them if he may, for that is the custom also with both dogs and
men.'
'Couldst thou make sure of him that he run not away till I come again at
night, mother?'
'Certain I can, my son. I will shut him up whence he will not break so
long as he hears me nigh him.'
'Do so then an' thou lovest me, mother Rees, and I will be here with the
first of the darkness.'
'An' I love thee, master Richard? Nay, but I do love thy good face and
thy true words, be thou puritan or roundhead, or fanatic, or what evil
name soever the wicked fashion of the times granteth to men to call
thee.'
'Hark in thine ear then, mother: I will call no names; but they of
Raglan have, as I truly believe, stolen from me my Lady.'
'Nay, nay, master Richard,' interrupted mistress Rees; 'did I not tell
thee with my own mouth that she went of her own free will, and in the
company of the reverend sir Matthew Herbert?'
'Alas! thou goest not with me, mother Rees. I meant not mistress
Dorothy. She is lost to me indeed; but so also is my poor mare, which
was stolen last night from Redware stables as the watchers slept.'
'Alack-a-day!' cried goody Rees, holding up her hands in sore trouble
for her friend. 'But what then dreams thou of doing? Not surely, before
all the saints in heaven, will thou adventure thy body within Raglan
walls? But I speak like a fool. Thou canst not.'
'This good dog,' said Richard, stroking Marquis, 'must, as thou thyself
plainly seest, have found some way of leaving Raglan without the
knowledge or will of its warders. Where he gat him forth, will he not
get him in again? And where dog can go, man may at least endeavour to
follow.--Mayhap he hath for himself scratched a way, as many dogs will.'
'But, for the love of God, master Heywood, what would thou do inside
that stone cage? Thy mare, be she, as thou hast often vaunted her to me,
the first for courage and wisdom and strength and fleetness of all mares
created--be her fore feet like a man's hands and her heart like a
woman's heart, as thou sayest, yet cannot she overleap Raglan walls; and
thinks thou they will raise portcullis and open gate and drop drawbridge
to let thee and her ride forth in peace? It were a fool's errand, my
young master, and nowise befitting thy young wisdom.'
'What I shall do, when I am length within the walls, I cannot tell thee,
mother. Nor have I ever yet known much good in forecasting. To have to
think, when the hour is come, of what thou didst before resolve, instead
of setting thyself to understand what is around thee, and perchance the
whole matter different from what thou had imagined, is to stand like
Lazarus bound hand and foot in thine own graveclothes. It will be given
me to meet what comes; or if not, who will bar me from meeting what
follows?'
'Master Heywood,' cried goody Rees, drawing herself with rebuke, 'for a
man that is born of a woman to talk so wisely and so foolishly both in a
breath!--But,' she added, with a change of tone, 'I know better than bar
the path to a Heywood. An' he will, he will. And thou hast been vilely
used, my young master. I will do what I can to help thee to thine
own--and no more--no more than thine own. Hark in thine ear now. But
first swear to me by the holy cross, puritan as thou art, that thou wilt
make no other use of what I tell thee but to free thy stolen mare. I
know thou may be trusted even with the secret that would slay thine
enemy. But I must have thy oath notwithstanding thereto.'
'I will not swear by the cross, which was never holy, for thereby was
the Holy slain. I will not swear at all, mother Rees. I will pledge thee
the word of a man who fears God, that I will in no way dishonourable
make use of that which thou tellest me. An' that suffice not, I will go
without thy help, trusting in God, who never made that mare to carry the
enemy of the truth into the battle.'
'But what an' thou should take the staff of strife to measure thy doings
withal? That may then seem honourable, done to an enemy, which thou
would scorn to do to one of thine own part, even if he wronged thee.'
'Nay, mother; but I will do nothing THOU wouldst think
dishonourable--that I promise thee. I will use what thou tellest me for
no manner of hurt to my lord of Worcester or aught that is his. But Lady
is not his, and her will I carry, if I may, from Raglan stables back to
Redware.'
'I am content. Hearken then, my son. Raglan watchword for the rest of
the month is--ST. GEORGE AND ST. PATRICK! May it stand thee in good
stead.'
'I thank thee, mother, with all my heart,' said Richard, rising
jubilant. 'Now shut up the dog, and let me go. One day it may lie in my
power to requite thee.'
'Thou hast requited me beforehand, master Heywood. Old mother Rees never
forgets. I would have done well by thee with the maiden, an' thou would
but have hearkened to my words. But the day may yet come. Go now, and
return with the last of the twilight. Come hither, Marquis.'
The dog obeyed, and she shut him again in her chamber.