While the worst passions of the worst men were thus working in the dark,
and the mantle of religion, assumed to cover the ugliest deformities,
threatened to become the shroud of all that was good and peaceful in
society, a circumstance occurred which once more altered the position of
two persons from whom this history has long been separated, and to whom
it must now return.
In a small English country town, the inhabitants of which supported
themselves by the labour of their hands in plaiting and preparing straw
for those who made bonnets and other articles of dress and ornament from
that material,--concealed under an assumed name, and living in a quiet
poverty which knew no change, no pleasures, and few cares but that
of struggling on from day to day in one great toil for bread,--dwelt
Barnaby and his mother. Their poor cottage had known no stranger’s foot
since they sought the shelter of its roof five years before; nor had
they in all that time held any commerce or communication with the old
world from which they had fled. To labour in peace, and devote her
labour and her life to her poor son, was all the widow sought. If
happiness can be said at any time to be the lot of one on whom a secret
sorrow preys, she was happy now. Tranquillity, resignation, and her
strong love of him who needed it so much, formed the small circle of her
quiet joys; and while that remained unbroken, she was contented.
For Barnaby himself, the time which had flown by, had passed him like
the wind. The daily suns of years had shed no brighter gleam of reason
on his mind; no dawn had broken on his long, dark night. He would sit
sometimes--often for days together on a low seat by the fire or by the
cottage door, busy at work (for he had learnt the art his mother plied),
and listening, God help him, to the tales she would repeat, as a lure
to keep him in her sight. He had no recollection of these little
narratives; the tale of yesterday was new to him upon the morrow; but
he liked them at the moment; and when the humour held him, would remain
patiently within doors, hearing her stories like a little child, and
working cheerfully from sunrise until it was too dark to see.
At other times,--and then their scanty earnings were barely sufficient
to furnish them with food, though of the coarsest sort,--he would wander
abroad from dawn of day until the twilight deepened into night. Few
in that place, even of the children, could be idle, and he had no
companions of his own kind. Indeed there were not many who could have
kept up with him in his rambles, had there been a legion. But there were
a score of vagabond dogs belonging to the neighbours, who served his
purpose quite as well. With two or three of these, or sometimes with a
full half-dozen barking at his heels, he would sally forth on some
long expedition that consumed the day; and though, on their return at
nightfall, the dogs would come home limping and sore-footed, and almost
spent with their fatigue, Barnaby was up and off again at sunrise with
some new attendants of the same class, with whom he would return in like
manner. On all these travels, Grip, in his little basket at his master’s
back, was a constant member of the party, and when they set off in fine
weather and in high spirits, no dog barked louder than the raven.
Their pleasures on these excursions were simple enough. A crust of bread
and scrap of meat, with water from the brook or spring, sufficed for
their repast. Barnaby’s enjoyments were, to walk, and run, and leap,
till he was tired; then to lie down in the long grass, or by the growing
corn, or in the shade of some tall tree, looking upward at the light
clouds as they floated over the blue surface of the sky, and
listening to the lark as she poured out her brilliant song. There were
wild-flowers to pluck--the bright red poppy, the gentle harebell, the
cowslip, and the rose. There were birds to watch; fish; ants; worms;
hares or rabbits, as they darted across the distant pathway in the wood
and so were gone: millions of living things to have an interest in, and
lie in wait for, and clap hands and shout in memory of, when they had
disappeared. In default of these, or when they wearied, there was the
merry sunlight to hunt out, as it crept in aslant through leaves and
boughs of trees, and hid far down--deep, deep, in hollow places--like
a silver pool, where nodding branches seemed to bathe and sport; sweet
scents of summer air breathing over fields of beans or clover; the
perfume of wet leaves or moss; the life of waving trees, and shadows
always changing. When these or any of them tired, or in excess of
pleasing tempted him to shut his eyes, there was slumber in the midst
of all these soft delights, with the gentle wind murmuring like music in
his ears, and everything around melting into one delicious dream.
Their hut--for it was little more--stood on the outskirts of the town,
at a short distance from the high road, but in a secluded place, where
few chance passengers strayed at any season of the year. It had a plot
of garden-ground attached, which Barnaby, in fits and starts of working,
trimmed, and kept in order. Within doors and without, his mother
laboured for their common good; and hail, rain, snow, or sunshine, found
no difference in her.
Though so far removed from the scenes of her past life, and with so
little thought or hope of ever visiting them again, she seemed to have
a strange desire to know what happened in the busy world. Any old
newspaper, or scrap of intelligence from London, she caught at with
avidity. The excitement it produced was not of a pleasurable kind, for
her manner at such times expressed the keenest anxiety and dread; but it
never faded in the least degree. Then, and in stormy winter nights, when
the wind blew loud and strong, the old expression came into her face,
and she would be seized with a fit of trembling, like one who had an
ague. But Barnaby noted little of this; and putting a great constraint
upon herself, she usually recovered her accustomed manner before the
change had caught his observation.
Grip was by no means an idle or unprofitable member of the humble
household. Partly by dint of Barnaby’s tuition, and partly by pursuing a
species of self-instruction common to his tribe, and exerting his powers
of observation to the utmost, he had acquired a degree of sagacity
which rendered him famous for miles round. His conversational powers and
surprising performances were the universal theme: and as many
persons came to see the wonderful raven, and none left his exertions
unrewarded--when he condescended to exhibit, which was not always,
for genius is capricious--his earnings formed an important item in the
common stock. Indeed, the bird himself appeared to know his value well;
for though he was perfectly free and unrestrained in the presence of
Barnaby and his mother, he maintained in public an amazing gravity,
and never stooped to any other gratuitous performances than biting
the ankles of vagabond boys (an exercise in which he much delighted),
killing a fowl or two occasionally, and swallowing the dinners of
various neighbouring dogs, of whom the boldest held him in great awe and
dread.
Time had glided on in this way, and nothing had happened to disturb or
change their mode of life, when, one summer’s night in June, they were
in their little garden, resting from the labours of the day. The widow’s
work was yet upon her knee, and strewn upon the ground about her; and
Barnaby stood leaning on his spade, gazing at the brightness in the
west, and singing softly to himself.
‘A brave evening, mother! If we had, chinking in our pockets, but a few
specks of that gold which is piled up yonder in the sky, we should be
rich for life.’
‘We are better as we are,’ returned the widow with a quiet smile. ‘Let
us be contented, and we do not want and need not care to have it, though
it lay shining at our feet.’
‘Ay!’ said Barnaby, resting with crossed arms on his spade, and looking
wistfully at the sunset, ‘that’s well enough, mother; but gold’s a good
thing to have. I wish that I knew where to find it. Grip and I could do
much with gold, be sure of that.’
‘What would you do?’ she asked.
‘What! A world of things. We’d dress finely--you and I, I mean; not
Grip--keep horses, dogs, wear bright colours and feathers, do no more
work, live delicately and at our ease. Oh, we’d find uses for it,
mother, and uses that would do us good. I would I knew where gold was
buried. How hard I’d work to dig it up!’
‘You do not know,’ said his mother, rising from her seat and laying her
hand upon his shoulder, ‘what men have done to win it, and how they have
found, too late, that it glitters brightest at a distance, and turns
quite dim and dull when handled.’
‘Ay, ay; so you say; so you think,’ he answered, still looking eagerly
in the same direction. ‘For all that, mother, I should like to try.’
‘Do you not see,’ she said, ‘how red it is? Nothing bears so many stains
of blood, as gold. Avoid it. None have such cause to hate its name as
we have. Do not so much as think of it, dear love. It has brought such
misery and suffering on your head and mine as few have known, and God
grant few may have to undergo. I would rather we were dead and laid down
in our graves, than you should ever come to love it.’
For a moment Barnaby withdrew his eyes and looked at her with wonder.
Then, glancing from the redness in the sky to the mark upon his wrist
as if he would compare the two, he seemed about to question her with
earnestness, when a new object caught his wandering attention, and made
him quite forgetful of his purpose.
This was a man with dusty feet and garments, who stood, bare-headed,
behind the hedge that divided their patch of garden from the pathway,
and leant meekly forward as if he sought to mingle with their
conversation, and waited for his time to speak. His face was turned
towards the brightness, too, but the light that fell upon it showed that
he was blind, and saw it not.
‘A blessing on those voices!’ said the wayfarer. ‘I feel the beauty of
the night more keenly, when I hear them. They are like eyes to me. Will
they speak again, and cheer the heart of a poor traveller?’
‘Have you no guide?’ asked the widow, after a moment’s pause.
‘None but that,’ he answered, pointing with his staff towards the sun;
‘and sometimes a milder one at night, but she is idle now.’
‘Have you travelled far?’
‘A weary way and long,’ rejoined the traveller as he shook his head. ‘A
weary, weary, way. I struck my stick just now upon the bucket of your
well--be pleased to let me have a draught of water, lady.’
‘Why do you call me lady?’ she returned. ‘I am as poor as you.’
‘Your speech is soft and gentle, and I judge by that,’ replied the man.
‘The coarsest stuffs and finest silks, are--apart from the sense of
touch--alike to me. I cannot judge you by your dress.’
‘Come round this way,’ said Barnaby, who had passed out at the
garden-gate and now stood close beside him. ‘Put your hand in mine.
You’re blind and always in the dark, eh? Are you frightened in the dark?
Do you see great crowds of faces, now? Do they grin and chatter?’
‘Alas!’ returned the other, ‘I see nothing. Waking or sleeping,
nothing.’
Barnaby looked curiously at his eyes, and touching them with his
fingers, as an inquisitive child might, led him towards the house.
‘You have come a long distance,’ said the widow, meeting him at the
door. ‘How have you found your way so far?’
‘Use and necessity are good teachers, as I have heard--the best of any,’
said the blind man, sitting down upon the chair to which Barnaby had
led him, and putting his hat and stick upon the red-tiled floor. ‘May
neither you nor your son ever learn under them. They are rough masters.’
‘You have wandered from the road, too,’ said the widow, in a tone of
pity.
‘Maybe, maybe,’ returned the blind man with a sigh, and yet with
something of a smile upon his face, ‘that’s likely. Handposts and
milestones are dumb, indeed, to me. Thank you the more for this rest,
and this refreshing drink!’
As he spoke, he raised the mug of water to his mouth. It was clear, and
cold, and sparkling, but not to his taste nevertheless, or his thirst
was not very great, for he only wetted his lips and put it down again.
He wore, hanging with a long strap round his neck, a kind of scrip or
wallet, in which to carry food. The widow set some bread and cheese
before him, but he thanked her, and said that through the kindness of
the charitable he had broken his fast once since morning, and was not
hungry. When he had made her this reply, he opened his wallet, and took
out a few pence, which was all it appeared to contain.
‘Might I make bold to ask,’ he said, turning towards where Barnaby stood
looking on, ‘that one who has the gift of sight, would lay this out for
me in bread to keep me on my way? Heaven’s blessing on the young feet
that will bestir themselves in aid of one so helpless as a sightless
man!’
Barnaby looked at his mother, who nodded assent; in another moment he
was gone upon his charitable errand. The blind man sat listening with an
attentive face, until long after the sound of his retreating footsteps
was inaudible to the widow, and then said, suddenly, and in a very
altered tone:
‘There are various degrees and kinds of blindness, widow. There is the
connubial blindness, ma’am, which perhaps you may have observed in
the course of your own experience, and which is a kind of wilful and
self-bandaging blindness. There is the blindness of party, ma’am, and
public men, which is the blindness of a mad bull in the midst of a
regiment of soldiers clothed in red. There is the blind confidence of
youth, which is the blindness of young kittens, whose eyes have not yet
opened on the world; and there is that physical blindness, ma’am, of
which I am, contrairy to my own desire, a most illustrious example.
Added to these, ma’am, is that blindness of the intellect, of which we
have a specimen in your interesting son, and which, having sometimes
glimmerings and dawnings of the light, is scarcely to be trusted as a
total darkness. Therefore, ma’am, I have taken the liberty to get him
out of the way for a short time, while you and I confer together, and
this precaution arising out of the delicacy of my sentiments towards
yourself, you will excuse me, ma’am, I know.’
Having delivered himself of this speech with many flourishes of manner,
he drew from beneath his coat a flat stone bottle, and holding the cork
between his teeth, qualified his mug of water with a plentiful infusion
of the liquor it contained. He politely drained the bumper to her
health, and the ladies, and setting it down empty, smacked his lips with
infinite relish.
‘I am a citizen of the world, ma’am,’ said the blind man, corking his
bottle, ‘and if I seem to conduct myself with freedom, it is therefore.
You wonder who I am, ma’am, and what has brought me here. Such
experience of human nature as I have, leads me to that conclusion,
without the aid of eyes by which to read the movements of your soul
as depicted in your feminine features. I will satisfy your curiosity
immediately, ma’am; immediately.’ With that he slapped his bottle on its
broad back, and having put it under his garment as before, crossed his
legs and folded his hands, and settled himself in his chair, previous to
proceeding any further.
The change in his manner was so unexpected, the craft and wickedness
of his deportment were so much aggravated by his condition--for we are
accustomed to see in those who have lost a human sense, something in its
place almost divine--and this alteration bred so many fears in her whom
he addressed, that she could not pronounce one word. After waiting, as
it seemed, for some remark or answer, and waiting in vain, the visitor
resumed:
‘Madam, my name is Stagg. A friend of mine who has desired the honour of
meeting with you any time these five years past, has commissioned me to
call upon you. I should be glad to whisper that gentleman’s name in your
ear.--Zounds, ma’am, are you deaf? Do you hear me say that I should be
glad to whisper my friend’s name in your ear?’
‘You need not repeat it,’ said the widow, with a stifled groan; ‘I see
too well from whom you come.’
‘But as a man of honour, ma’am,’ said the blind man, striking himself on
the breast, ‘whose credentials must not be disputed, I take leave to say
that I WILL mention that gentleman’s name. Ay, ay,’ he added, seeming
to catch with his quick ear the very motion of her hand, ‘but not aloud.
With your leave, ma’am, I desire the favour of a whisper.’
She moved towards him, and stooped down. He muttered a word in her
ear; and, wringing her hands, she paced up and down the room like one
distracted. The blind man, with perfect composure, produced his bottle
again, mixed another glassful; put it up as before; and, drinking from
time to time, followed her with his face in silence.
‘You are slow in conversation, widow,’ he said after a time, pausing in
his draught. ‘We shall have to talk before your son.’
‘What would you have me do?’ she answered. ‘What do you want?’
‘We are poor, widow, we are poor,’ he retorted, stretching out his right
hand, and rubbing his thumb upon its palm.
‘Poor!’ she cried. ‘And what am I?’
‘Comparisons are odious,’ said the blind man. ‘I don’t know, I don’t
care. I say that we are poor. My friend’s circumstances are indifferent,
and so are mine. We must have our rights, widow, or we must be bought
off. But you know that, as well as I, so where is the use of talking?’
She still walked wildly to and fro. At length, stopping abruptly before
him, she said:
‘Is he near here?’
‘He is. Close at hand.’
‘Then I am lost!’
‘Not lost, widow,’ said the blind man, calmly; ‘only found. Shall I call
him?’
‘Not for the world,’ she answered, with a shudder.
‘Very good,’ he replied, crossing his legs again, for he had made as
though he would rise and walk to the door. ‘As you please, widow. His
presence is not necessary that I know of. But both he and I must live;
to live, we must eat and drink; to eat and drink, we must have money:--I
say no more.’
‘Do you know how pinched and destitute I am?’ she retorted. ‘I do not
think you do, or can. If you had eyes, and could look around you on this
poor place, you would have pity on me. Oh! let your heart be softened by
your own affliction, friend, and have some sympathy with mine.’
The blind man snapped his fingers as he answered:
‘--Beside the question, ma’am, beside the question. I have the softest
heart in the world, but I can’t live upon it. Many a gentleman lives
well upon a soft head, who would find a heart of the same quality a very
great drawback. Listen to me. This is a matter of business, with which
sympathies and sentiments have nothing to do. As a mutual friend, I wish
to arrange it in a satisfactory manner, if possible; and thus the
case stands.--If you are very poor now, it’s your own choice. You have
friends who, in case of need, are always ready to help you. My friend is
in a more destitute and desolate situation than most men, and, you and
he being linked together in a common cause, he naturally looks to you to
assist him. He has boarded and lodged with me a long time (for as I
said just now, I am very soft-hearted), and I quite approve of his
entertaining this opinion. You have always had a roof over your head; he
has always been an outcast. You have your son to comfort and assist you;
he has nobody at all. The advantages must not be all one side. You are
in the same boat, and we must divide the ballast a little more equally.’
She was about to speak, but he checked her, and went on.
‘The only way of doing this, is by making up a little purse now and then
for my friend; and that’s what I advise. He bears you no malice that I
know of, ma’am: so little, that although you have treated him harshly
more than once, and driven him, I may say, out of doors, he has that
regard for you that I believe even if you disappointed him now, he would
consent to take charge of your son, and to make a man of him.’
He laid a great stress on these latter words, and paused as if to find
out what effect they had produced. She only answered by her tears.
‘He is a likely lad,’ said the blind man, thoughtfully, ‘for many
purposes, and not ill-disposed to try his fortune in a little change
and bustle, if I may judge from what I heard of his talk with you
to-night.--Come. In a word, my friend has pressing necessity for twenty
pounds. You, who can give up an annuity, can get that sum for him. It’s
a pity you should be troubled. You seem very comfortable here, and
it’s worth that much to remain so. Twenty pounds, widow, is a
moderate demand. You know where to apply for it; a post will bring it
you.--Twenty pounds!’
She was about to answer him again, but again he stopped her.
‘Don’t say anything hastily; you might be sorry for it. Think of it a
little while. Twenty pounds--of other people’s money--how easy! Turn it
over in your mind. I’m in no hurry. Night’s coming on, and if I don’t
sleep here, I shall not go far. Twenty pounds! Consider of it, ma’am,
for twenty minutes; give each pound a minute; that’s a fair allowance.
I’ll enjoy the air the while, which is very mild and pleasant in these
parts.’
With these words he groped his way to the door, carrying his chair with
him. Then seating himself, under a spreading honeysuckle, and stretching
his legs across the threshold so that no person could pass in or out
without his knowledge, he took from his pocket a pipe, flint, steel and
tinder-box, and began to smoke. It was a lovely evening, of that gentle
kind, and at that time of year, when the twilight is most beautiful.
Pausing now and then to let his smoke curl slowly off, and to sniff the
grateful fragrance of the flowers, he sat there at his ease--as though
the cottage were his proper dwelling, and he had held undisputed
possession of it all his life--waiting for the widow’s answer and for
Barnaby’s return.