INLAND OPINION
Whatever may be said, it does seem hard, from a wholly disinterested
point of view, that so many mighty men, with swift ships, armed with
villainous saltpetre and sharp steel, should have set their keen faces
all together and at once to nip, defeat, and destroy as with a blow,
liberal and well-conceived proceedings, which they had long regarded
with a larger mind. Every one who had been led to embark soundly and
kindly in this branch of trade felt it as an outrage and a special
instance of his own peculiar bad luck that suddenly the officers should
become so active. For long success had encouraged enterprise; men who
had made a noble profit nobly yearned to treble it; and commerce, having
shaken off her shackles, flapped her wings and began to crow; so at
least she had been declared to do at a public banquet given by the Mayor
of Malton, and attended by a large grain factor, who was known as a
wholesale purveyor of illicit goods.
This man, Thomas Rideout, long had been the head-master of the smuggling
school. The poor sea-faring men could not find money to buy, or even
hire, the craft (with heavy deposit against forfeiture) which the
breadth and turbulence of the North Sea made needful for such ventures.
Across the narrow English Channel an open lobster boat might run, in
common summer weather, without much risk of life or goods. Smooth water,
sandy coves, and shelfy landings tempted comfortable jobs; and any man
owning a boat that would carry a sail as big as a shawl might smuggle,
with heed of the weather, and audacity. It is said that once upon the
Sussex coast a band of haymakers, when the rick was done, and their
wages in hand on a Saturday night, laid hold of a stout boat on the
beach, pushed off to sea in tipsy faith of luck, and hit upon Dieppe
with a set-fair breeze, having only a fisherman's boy for guide. There
on the Sunday they heartily enjoyed the hospitality of the natives; and
the dawn of Tuesday beheld them rapt in domestic bliss and breakfast,
with their money invested in old Cognac; and glad would they have been
to make such hay every season. But in Yorkshire a good solid capital
was needed to carry on free importation. Without broad bottoms and deep
sides, the long and turbulent and often foggy voyage, and the rocky
landing, could scarcely be attempted by sane folk; well-to-do people
found the money, and jeopardized neither their own bodies, consciences,
nor good repute. And perhaps this fact had more to do with the
comparative mildness of the men than difference of race, superior
culture, or a loftier mould of mind; for what man will fight for his
employer's goods with the ferocity inspired by his own? A thorough
good ducking, or a tow behind a boat, was the utmost penalty generally
exacted by the victors from the vanquished.
Now, however, it seemed too likely that harder measures must be meted.
The long success of that daring Lyth, and the large scale of his
operations, had compelled the authorities to stir at last. They began by
setting a high price upon him, and severely reprimanding Carroway, who
had long been doing his best in vain, and becoming flurried, did it
more vainly still; and now they had sent the sharp Nettlebones down, who
boasted largely, but as yet without result. The smugglers, however, were
aware of added peril, and raised their wages accordingly.
When the pending great venture was resolved upon, as a noble finish to
the season, Thomas Rideout would intrust it to no one but Robin Lyth
himself; and the bold young mariner stipulated that after succeeding
he should be free, and started in some more lawful business. For Dr.
Upround, possessing as he did great influence with Robin, and shocked
as he was by what Carroway had said, refused to have anything more to
do with his most distinguished parishioner until he should forsake his
ways. And for this he must not be thought narrow-minded, strait-laced,
or unduly dignified. His wife quite agreed with him, and indeed had
urged it as the only proper course; for her motherly mind was uneasy
about the impulsive nature of Janetta; and chess-men to her were dolls,
without even the merit of encouraging the needle. Therefore, with a deep
sigh, the worthy magistrate put away his board--which came out again
next day--and did his best to endure for a night the arithmetical
torture of cribbage; while he found himself supported by a sense of
duty, and capable of preaching hard at Carroway if he would only come
for it on Sunday.
From that perhaps an officer of revenue may abstain, through the
pressure of his duty and his purity of conscience; but a man of less
correctness must behave more strictly. Therefore, when a gentleman of
vigorous aspect, resolute step, and successful-looking forehead marched
into church the next Sunday morning, showed himself into a prominent
position, and hung his hat against a leading pillar, after putting his
mouth into it, as if for prayer, but scarcely long enough to say “Amen,”
behind other hats low whispers passed that here was the great financier
of free trade, the Chancellor of the Exchequer of smuggling, the
celebrated Master Rideout.
That conclusion was shared by the rector, whose heart immediately burned
within him to have at this man, whom he had met before and suspiciously
glanced at in Weighing Lane, as an interloper in his parish. Probably
this was the very man whom Robin Lyth served too faithfully; and the
chances were that the great operations now known to be pending had
brought him hither, spying out all Flamborough. The corruption of
fish-folk, the beguiling of women with foreign silks and laces, and of
men with brandy, the seduction of Robin from lawful commerce, and even
the loss of his own pet pastime, were to be laid at this man's door.
While donning his surplice, Dr. Upround revolved these things with
gentle indignation, quickened, as soon as he found himself in white, by
clerical and theological zeal. These feelings impelled him to produce a
creaking of the heavy vestry door, a well-known signal for his daughter
to slip out of the chancel pew and come to him.
“Now, papa, what is it?” cried that quick young lady; “that miserable
Methodist that ruined your boots, has he got the impudence to come
again? Oh, please do say so, and show me where he is; after church
nobody shall stop me--”
“Janetta, you quite forget where you are, as well as my present
condition. Be off like a good girl, as quick as you can, and bring No.
27 of my own handwriting--'Render unto Caesar'--and put my hat upon it.
My desire is that Billyjack should not know that a change has been made
in my subject of discourse.”
“Papa, I see; it shall be done to perfection, while Billyjack is at his
very loudest roar in the chorus of the anthem. But do tell me who it is;
or how can I enjoy it? And lemon drops--lemon drops--”
“Janetta, I must have some very serious talk with you. Now don't be
vexed, darling; you are a thoroughly good girl, only thoughtless and
careless; and remember, dear, church is not a place for high spirits.”
The rector, as behooved him, kissed his child behind the vestry door, to
soothe all sting, and then he strode forth toward the reading-desk; and
the tuning of fiddles sank to deferential scrape.
It was not at all a common thing, as one might know, for Widow Precious
to be able to escape from casks and taps, and the frying pan of eggs
demanded by some half-drowned fisherman, also the reckoning of notches
on the bench for the pints of the week unpaid for, and then to put
herself into her two best gowns (which she wore in the winter, one over
the other--a plan to be highly commended to ladies who never can have
dress enough), and so to enjoy, without losing a penny, the warmth of
the neighborhood of a congregation. In the afternoon she could hardly
ever do it, even if she had so wished, with knowledge that this was
common people's time; so if she went at all, it must--in spite of the
difference of length--be managed in the morning. And this very morning
here she was, earnest, humble, and devout, with both the tap keys in her
pocket, and turning the leaves with a smack of her thumb, not only to
show her learning, but to get the sweet approval of the rector's pew.
Now if the good rector had sent for this lady, instead of his daughter
Janetta, the sermon which he brought would have been the one to preach,
and that about Caesar might have stopped at home; for no sooner did the
widow begin to look about, taking in the congregation with a dignified
eye, and nodding to her solvent customers, than the wrath of perplexity
began to gather on her goodly countenance. To see that distinguished
stranger was to know him ever afterward; his power of eating, and of
paying, had endeared his memory; and for him to put up at any other
house were foul shame to the “Cod Fish.”
“Hath a' put up his beastie?” she whispered to her eldest daughter, who
came in late.
“Naa, naa, no beastie,” the child replied, and the widow's relish of
her thumb was gone; for, sooth to say, no Master Rideout, nor any other
patron of free trade was here, but Geoffrey Mordacks, of York city,
general factor, and universal agent.
It was beautiful to see how Dr. Upround, firmly delivering his text, and
stoutly determined to spare nobody, even insisted in the present
case upon looking at the man he meant to hit, because he was not his
parishioner. The sermon was eloquent, and even trenchant. The necessity
of duties was urged most sternly; if not of directly Divine institution
(though learned parallels were adduced which almost proved them to be
so), yet to every decent Christian citizen they were synonymous with
duty. To defy or elude them, for the sake of paltry gain, was a dark
crime recoiling on the criminal; and the preacher drew a contrast
between such guilty ways and the innocent path of the fisherman. Neither
did he even relent and comfort, according to his custom, toward the end;
that part was there, but he left it out; and the only consolation for
any poor smuggler in all the discourse was the final Amen.
But to the rector's great amazement, and inward indignation, the object
of his sermon seemed to take it as a personal compliment. Mr. Mordacks
not only failed to wince, but finding himself particularly fixed by the
gaze of the eloquent divine, concluded that it was from his superior
intelligence, and visible gifts of appreciation. Delighted with
this--for he was not free from vanity--what did he do but return the
compliment, not indecorously, but nodding very gently, as much as
to say, “That was very good indeed, you were quite right, sir, in
addressing that to me; you perceive that it is far above these common
people. I never heard a better sermon.”
“What a hardened rogue you are!” thought Dr. Upround; “how feebly and
incapably I must have put it! If you ever come again, you shall have my
Ahab sermon.”
But the clergyman was still more astonished a very few minutes
afterward. For, as he passed out of the church-yard gate, receiving,
with his wife and daughter, the kindly salute of the parish, the same
tall stranger stood before him, with a face as hard as a statue's, and,
making a short, quick flourish with his hat, begged for the honor of
shaking his hand.
“Sir, it is to thank you for the very finest sermon I ever had the
privilege of hearing. My name is Mordacks, and I flatter nobody--except
myself--that I know a good thing when I get it.”
“Sir, I am obliged to you,” said Dr. Upround, stiffly, and not without
suspicion of being bantered, so dry was the stranger's countenance, and
his manner so peculiar; “and if I have been enabled to say a good word
in season, and its season lasts, it will be a source of satisfaction to
me.”
“Yes, I fear there are many smugglers here. But I am no revenue
officer, as your congregation seemed to think. May I call upon business
to-morrow, sir? Thank you; then may I say ten o'clock--your time of
beginning, as I hear? Mordacks is my name, sir, of York city, not
unfavorably known there. Ladies, my duty to you!”
“What an extraordinary man, my dear!” Mrs. Upround exclaimed, with some
ingratitude, after the beautiful bow she had received. “He may talk as
he likes, but he must be a smuggler. He said that he was not an officer;
that shows it, for they always run into the opposite extreme. You
have converted him, my dear; and I am sure that we ought to be so much
obliged to him. If he comes to-morrow morning to give up all his lace,
do try to remember how my little all has been ruined in the wash, and I
am sick of working at it.”
“My dear, he is no smuggler. I begin to recollect. He was down here in
the summer, and I made a great mistake. I took him for Rideout; and I
did the same to-day. When I see him to-morrow, I shall beg his pardon.
One gets so hurried in the vestry always; they are so impatient with
their fiddles! A great deal of it was Janetta's fault.”
“It always is my fault, papa, somehow or other,” the young lady
answered, with a faultless smile: and so they went home to the early
Sunday dinner.
“Papa, I am in such a state of excitement; I am quite unfit to go to
church this afternoon,” Miss Upround exclaimed, as they set forth again.
“You may put me in stocks made out of hassocks--you may rope me to the
Flodden Field man's monument, of the ominous name of 'Constable;' but
whatever you do, I shall never attend; and I feel that it is so sinful.”
“Janetta, your mamma has that feeling sometimes; for instance, she has
it this afternoon; and there is a good deal to be said for it. But I
fear that it would grow with indulgence.”
“I can firmly fancy that it never would; though one can not be sure
without trying. Suppose that I were to try it just once, and let you
know how it feels at tea-time?”
“My dear, we are quite round the corner of the lane. The example would
be too shocking.”
“Now don't you make any excuses, papa. Only one woman can have seen
us yet; and she is so blind she will think it was her fault. May I go?
Quick, before any one else comes.”
“If you are quite sure, Janetta, of being in a frame of mind which
unfits you for the worship of your Maker--”
“As sure as a pike-staff, dear papa.”
“Then, by all means, go before anybody sees you, for whom it might
be undesirable; and correct your thoughts, and endeavor to get into a
befitting state of mind by tea-time.”
“Certainly, papa. I will go down on the stones, and look at the
sea. That always makes me better; because it is so large and so
uncomfortable.”
The rector went on to do his duty, by himself. A narrow-minded man might
have shaken solemn head, even if he had allowed such dereliction. But
Dr. Upround knew that the girl was good, and he never put strain upon
her honesty. So away she sped by a lonely little foot-path, where nobody
could take from her contagion of bad morals; and avoiding the incline
of boats, she made off nicely for the quiet outer bay, and there, upon a
shelfy rock, she sat and breathed the sea.
Flamborough, excellent place as it is, and delightful, and full of
interest for people who do not live there, is apt to grow dull perhaps
for spirited youth, in the scanty and foggy winter light. There is not
so very much of that choice product generally called “society” by a man
who has a house to let in an eligible neighborhood, and by ladies who do
not heed their own. Moreover, it is vexatious not to have more rogues to
talk about.
That scarcity may be less lamentable now, being one that takes care
to redress itself, and perhaps any amateur purchaser of fish may find
rogues enough now for his interest. But the rector's daughter pined for
neither society nor scandal: she had plenty of interest in her life,
and in pleasing other people, whenever she could do it with pleasure
to herself, and that was nearly always. Her present ailment was not
languor, weariness, or dullness, but rather the want of such things;
which we long for when they happen to be scarce, and declare them to be
our first need, under the sweet name of repose.
Her mind was a little disturbed by rumors, wonders, and uncertainty. She
was not at all in love with Robin Lyth, and laughed at his vanity quite
as much as she admired his gallantry. She looked upon him also as of
lower rank, kindly patronized by her father, but not to be treated as
upon an equal footing. He might be of any rank, for all that was known;
but he must be taken to belong to those who had brought him up and fed
him. Janetta was a lively girl, of quick perception and some discretion,
though she often talked much nonsense. She was rather proud of her
position, and somewhat disdainful of uneducated folk; though (thanks to
her father) Lyth was not one of these. Possibly love (if she had felt
it) would have swept away such barriers; but Robin was grateful to his
patron, and, knowing his own place in life, would rightly have thought
it a mean return to attempt to inveigle the daughter. So they liked one
another--but nothing more. It was not, therefore, for his sake only,
but for her father's, and that of the place, that Miss Upround now
was anxious. For days and days she had watched the sea with unusual
forebodings, knowing that a great importation was toward, and pretty
sure to lead to blows, after so much preparation. With feminine zeal,
she detested poor Carroway, whom she regarded as a tyrant and a spy;
and she would have clapped her hands at beholding the three cruisers
run upon a shoal, and there stick fast. And as for King George, she had
never believed that he was the proper King of England. There were many
stanch Jacobites still in Yorkshire, and especially the bright young
ladies.
To-night, at least, the coast was likely to be uninvaded. Smugglers,
even if their own forces would make breach upon the day of rest, durst
not outrage the piety of the land, which would only deal with kegs
in-doors. The coast-guard, being for the most part southerns, splashed
about as usual--a far more heinous sin against the Word of God than
smuggling. It is the manner of Yorkshiremen to think for themselves,
with boldness, in the way they are brought up to: and they made it a
point of serious doubt whether the orders of the king himself could set
aside the Fourth Commandment, though his arms were over it.
Dr. Upround's daughter, as she watched the sea, felt sure that, even if
the goods were ready, no attempt at landing would be made that night,
though something might be done in the morning. But even that was not
very likely, because (as seemed to be widely known) the venture was a
very large one, and the landers would require a whole night's work to
get entirely through with it.
“I wish it was over, one way or the other,” she kept on saying to
herself, as she gazed at the dark, weary lifting of the sea; “it keeps
one unsettled as the waves themselves. Sunday always makes me feel
restless, because there is so little to do. It is wicked, I suppose; but
how can I help it? Why, there is a boat, I do declare! Well, even a boat
is welcome, just to break this gray monotony. What boat can it be? None
of ours, of course. And what can they want with our Church Cave? I hope
they understand its dangers.”
Although the wind was not upon the shore, and no long rollers were
setting in, short, uncomfortable, clumsy waves were lolloping under the
steep gray cliffs, and casting up splashes of white here and there. To
enter that cave is a risky thing, except at very favorable times, and
even then some experience is needed, for the rocks around it are like
knives, and the boat must generally be backed in, with more use of
fender and hook than of oars. But the people in the boat seemed to
understand all that. There were two men rowing, and one steering with an
oar, and a fourth standing up, as if to give directions; though in truth
he knew nothing about it, but hated even to seem to play second fiddle.
“What a strange thing!” Janetta thought, as she drew behind a rock, that
they might not see her, “I could almost declare that the man standing
up is that most extraordinary gentleman papa preached quite the wrong
sermon at. Truly he deserves the Ahab one, for spying our caves out on a
Sunday. He must be a smuggler, after all, or a very crafty agent of the
Revenue. Well, I never! That old man steering, as sure as I live, is
Robin Cockscroft, by the scarlet handkerchief round his head. Oh, Robin!
Robin! could I ever have believed that you would break the Sabbath so?
But the boat is not Robin's. What boat can it be? I have not staid away
from church for nothing. One of the men rowing has got no legs, when the
boat goes up and down. It must be that villain of a tipsy Joe, who used
to keep the 'Monument.' I heard that he was come back again, to stump
for his beer as usual: and his son, that sings like the big church bell,
and has such a very fine face and one leg--why, he is the man that pulls
the other oar. Was there ever such a boat-load? But they know what they
are doing.”
Truly it was, as the young lady said, an extraordinary boat's crew. Old
Robin Cockscroft, with a fringe of silver hair escaping from the crimson
silk, which he valued so much more than it, and his face still grand (in
spite of wrinkles and some weakness of the eyes), keenly understanding
every wave, its character, temper, and complexity of influence, as only
a man can understand who has for his life stood over them. Then tugging
at the oars, or rather dipping them with a short well-practiced plunge,
and very little toil of body, two ancient sailors, one considerably
older than the other, inasmuch as he was his father, yet chips alike
from a sturdy block, and fitted up with jury-stumps. Old Joe pulled
rather the better oar, and called his son “a one-legged fiddler” when he
missed the dip of wave; while Mordacks stood with his legs apart, and
playing the easy part of critic, had his sneers at both of them. But
they let him gibe to his liking; because they knew their work, and he
did not. And, upon the whole, they went merrily.
The only one with any doubt concerning the issue of the job was the one
who knew most about it, and that was Robin Cockscroft. He doubted not
about want of strength, or skill, or discipline of his oars, but because
the boat was not Flamburian, but borrowed from a collier round the Head.
No Flamborough boat would ever think of putting to sea on a Sunday,
unless it were to save human life; and it seemed to him that no strange
boat could find her way into the native caves. He doubted also whether,
even with the pressure of strong motive put upon him, which was not of
money, it was a godly thing on his part to be steering in his Sunday
clothes; and he feared to hear of it thereafter. But being in for it, he
must do his utmost.
With genuine skill and solid patience, the entrance of the cave was
made, and the boat was lost to Janetta's view. She as well was lost in
the deeper cavern of great wonder, and waited long, and much desired
to wait even longer, to see them issue forth again, and learn what they
could have been after. But the mist out of which they had come, and
inside of which they would rather have remained perhaps, now thickened
over land and sea, and groping dreamily for something to lay hold of,
found a solid stay and rest-hold in the jagged headlands here. Here,
accordingly, the coilings of the wandering forms began to slide into
strait layers, and soft settlement of vapor. Loops of hanging moisture
marked the hollows of the land-front, or the alleys of the waning light;
and then the mass abandoned outline, fused its shades to pulp, and
melted into one great blur of rain. Janetta thought of her Sunday frock,
forgot the boat, and sped away for home.