HOW WE WENT UP TO LONDON, AND FOUND NO FRIENDS THERE.
I hoped little from the first plan on which Althea relied for obtaining
Andrew's release. Her trust was in Mr. Dacre, since he was a great
courtier, and she thought his influence might avail to get one poor
Quaker set free.
'I shall not get his help for nothing,' said she; 'that were an idle
hope. But I know his expenses to be very great, out of proportion to his
means; so if I bring a heavy purse in my hand to interpret between him
and me, I am sure of a kind and favourable hearing.' She was almost gay
while she dwelt on this plan, and it furnished the most of our talk on
the first day or two of our journey.
It was very hot summer weather, a little sultry; yet travelling would
have been pleasant enough had our minds been easy, which they could not
be. It was hard to go fast enough for Althea, Will having to make her
understand it was small wisdom to hurry our horses beyond their
strength; then she went sighing out,--
'Oh for a horse with wings! or could one only ride on the speed of fire!
It will be a week, I dare swear, before we see St. Paul's,' and she
grudged herself time to eat and sleep.
There was nothing very noticeable on the way, but the vast amazement
expressed by all who found that we were going up to London. And as we
got nearer our journey's end, we began to find that the inn-keepers
distrusted us not a little, suspecting us of escaping out of the town,
and making only a false pretence of journeying up to it. Will, however,
was so plainly a blunt, simple fellow, that his word was taken where
ours was doubted.
Now and then we heard news of the war: first there was talk of a great
victory at sea over the Dutch, won the third day of June, at which the
Court and City were rejoicing mightily, half forgetting their home
perils; then came contrary news, how this victory was no victory, but
rather a disgrace to us, and that our ships were shamefully commanded,
which I believe was the truer tale; so my thoughts flew at once to my
Harry and his father. I had writ to Mr. Truelocke about our journey, but
there had been no time for an answer; and I fell to musing what those
two would think of our wild adventure, and wondering if Harry had been
seized for the king's service, like many others; but all was vain
conjecture, and I had to resign them and myself up to God's guidance;
the safest and most blessed way, as I was fast learning; for since Aunt
Golding's death I think a change had come over me; I had learned a true
hate of mine own sins, and had found One in whose sufficiency I could
trust to save me from them, and to guide me in all things. I will not
enlarge on this now, however.
So with hopes and fears, despairing and trusting, the days of travel
wore away; and late in a sultry summer evening we came into London. We
put up for the night at a decent inn, kept by some people named Bell,
which our father had sometimes used when we were with him; the people
remembered him, and were civil to us. My poor sister could scarce sleep
all that night; and the landlady coming herself to wait on us at
breakfast, Althea took occasion to ask her, did she know Mr. John Dacre?
and finding she did, she got from her particular information about his
house, and the way to it, and the hours when he was to be found there;
all which the good woman imparted cheerfully, but could not help pitying
our rashness in coming up to town.
'I live a dying life,' she said, 'for terror of the contagion; I would
never have run into it;' which words we passed over at that time, but
had to call them to mind after.
According to her information, Mr. Dacre rarely stirred from home before
noon; so we set off betimes to find him. Will, walking behind us, looked
about in amaze at the half empty streets, the many closed shops, and
houses uninhabited, and at last, fetching a great sigh, he said,--
'Methinks, mistresses, this whole town looks like a gaol, and the folk
go about like condemned prisoners.'
'Ay,' says Althea; 'but there are worse gaols within this gaol, Will.
Here, the sun shines and the wind blows on us; not so where your master
lies;' and she hastened her steps, which were swift before.
Mr. Dacre's house proved to be a very stately and fair one, towards the
west end of the town; it stood in a broad, very quiet street; too quiet,
I thought. Althea bade Will knock boldly at the door; 'We will not be
too humble,' says she; and he knocked loudly enough, once, twice,
thrice; but no one came to open to us, and our knocking seemed to echo
and re-echo strangely through the house.
'Sure,' says Althea, 'all the folks cannot be asleep; 'tis past ten
o'clock,' and she knocked once more.
There was a gentleman come out of a neighbouring house, who had looked
curiously at us; he now drew near, and, standing a little way off,
called out, 'It is little use to knock at that door, ladies--the master
is dead a week since, and the house stands empty;' at which Althea
turned a deadly pale face to him, saying,--
'Do not mock us--sure, it cannot be so.'
The man, looking compassionately at her, now came up to us and said,
'Nay, my words are too true, madam. Have you any interest in this Mr.
Dacre?'
'I am his cousin,' said Althea, 'and I am come up from the North on
great occasion, to see my kinsman and claim his help.'
'Alas!' said the gentleman; 'he is past rendering help to any. It was
mightily suspected,' said he whisperingly, 'that he died of the Plague;
but your great rich folks can smother these matters up. This is certain,
that he had secret and hasty burial, and all his family are fled and
gone, without so much as locking the door behind them, as it is said;
but I think none have been so bold as to try that; men love their lives
too well to venture within; nor would I advise you to do it.'
'No, no,' said Althea a little wildly; 'I will not take the Plague and
die--not yet; I have work to do;' at which the man smiled pityingly, and
added,--
'You would not find Mr. Dacre here now, were he in life--he designed to
follow the Court, which is removed to Salisbury for safety; but he
lingered about some money matters, which have cost him very dear, as I
think;' and bowing to us he walked hastily away.
Well, we knew not what to do now, and so returned to our inn, where we
sat the rest of the day in the room we had hired, talking over our few
acquaintance in town, but unable to hit on one who would have will and
power to help us much. Our good hostess served us again at supper, and
asked how we sped in our search for Mr. Dacre; so unthinkingly we told
her the whole tale; at which her colour changed and she left the room
without saying a word in answer. That night we slept heavily for very
trouble; so we were not aware of a great stir there was in the night;
for Mrs. Bell, the poor landlady, was taken very ill about midnight, the
maids were called up, and a physician sent for; they had some trouble to
find one; but when he came he told them plainly that her disorder, which
they and she too had feared was the Plague, was nothing but pure terror;
our careless words about Mr. Dacre's death having struck such a fear in
her as to throw her into a kind of fever.
Will told us this news in the morning, and we were grieved at our
foolishness, and wondered at hers; but we had little time for lamenting,
as we were setting forth to visit a distant kinswoman of our father's,
who, being rich and well reputed, we thought might be able to help us.
But here we fared no better,--not that the lady was dead; but she had
gone out of town on the first alarm of the sickness, leaving her house
locked up and empty, as the neighbours told us. So we went back to our
inn yet more cast down; but there we stayed not long, for we were scarce
got to our room when the landlord came to us, very angry, and said, had
he known we had been visiting an infected house, we had never come into
his; and he bade us to pack up and be gone within the hour, that he
might have every place purified where we had come. Our horses, he said,
might stand in his stable; but we saying we would remove them, he spoke
more plainly, and said he should keep them as security for what we owed.
'I will take no money from you,' he said; 'you may have the Plague in
your purses for all I know;' and he left us, saying if we went not
quickly we should be put out by force.
This brutal usage dismayed me; but Althea said, 'Poor wretch! he is half
crazed with fear; that makes mean men cruel; care not for him;' and when
we were ready, giving our packages to Will, she led the way out with a
determined aspect, having, as I soon found, embraced a strange--nay, a
desperate resolution. For Will asking her, 'Which way will ye turn now,
mistress? In _this_ street no inn will open to us, for sure;' she
replied,--
'We will not seek any inn; we will betake ourselves to our cousin's
empty house.'
'You mean not Mr. Dacre's?' I cried.
'But I do,' said she. 'We have a right to shelter there; and the door
is open.'
I exclaimed against this as a tempting of Providence, persuading her
first to try some other house of entertainment; and at last she agreed.
Now, whether our great distraction of mind gave us a haggard and sickly
aspect, or whether 'twas merely the suspicion and hardness of heart bred
in all people by terror, I cannot tell; but no one would take us in,
some saying flatly they would receive no lodgers they did not know, and
know to be sound. The day wearing fast away in these vain applications,
Althea says to me,--
'You see we must try my plan at last. I bid you think scorn, my Lucy, of
yielding to such base fears as make folk turn us from their doors.'
'It is not that I fear infection as they do,' said I; 'but I shrink from
dwelling in a house not our own, and lying open to any thief.'
'Baby fears, Lucy,' she said, smiling. 'We will do our cousins a better
turn than they merit; we will keep their doors fast against thieves, and
their household stuff from moth and mould and rust. For the infection,
we run as little risk in that house as out of it.' So she bore me down
with her will, the more easily since we had no choice but either to
lodge in that house or in the open street.
But Will said sturdily, 'Mistresses, you may do as you will; I will
neither eat nor sleep in that evil house. There is a scent of death and
sin breathing from it; I perceived it as we stood at the door.'
'And will you desert us then, Will?' said Althea. 'Have you come so far,
to forsake us now?'
'Who spoke of forsaking?' growled Will. 'I can find some balk, some
cobbler's stall, without the house, to sleep on, if you will lodge
within. The watch-dog lies not in the house, I trow? But if you must
lodge there, enter not openly, nor let it be known you are within; you
may be suspected for thieves or worse.'
'Yours is no fool's advice,' said Althea shortly.
So we lingered out the time till nightfall in buying some needful
things,--bread and meat and candles,--having to walk far before we found
shops open; then, as night thickened, we stole into the desolate house,
and groped our way to a room at the back, where we lit our candles and
looked about us. 'Twas a richly furnished withdrawing-room, with windows
open on a garden.
'There will I sleep,' said Will. 'I had rather have the free sky over
me than this roof; so give me but a hunch of bread to sup on, and let me
go.'
There was little use in crossing him, so we gave him some meat and
bread; but we prayed his help first to make all the doors fast, which he
willingly did; then he showed us how to secure the window after him, and
so slipt out into the night.
Now we looked at one another, and felt desolate and dismayed for a
moment. Then I said, 'Let us commend our cause to God, sister; He will
hear us;' and we knelt down together and implored the Divine protection;
after which we felt at peace, and so took courage to sup on the food we
had brought. Then we made fast our door on the inside, and lay down to
sleep on the floor, with our mantles for coverlets and our bundles for
pillows. I never slept in such rude fashion, nor ever more sweetly and
soundly.
Early in the morning there came a tapping at the window that wakened me;
so I rose and drew back the curtain, and saw that Will was moving about
in the garden. We let him in shortly, and gave him some food, which he
carried with him out of doors; then, coming back, he excused his
incivility of the night before. 'But I cannot eat nor sleep here,' said
he. 'In all other matters I am your servant.'
He had lodged for the night in an empty dog-kennel, which he showed us,
close against a side-door that led out to the street.
'There,' said he, 'I can do you better watchman's service than if I lay
within; and by that door you may come and go unespied of any gossips.'
Althea smiled, and commended his thoughtfulness. Then she said,--
'You will come with us now, Will? We must examine this house;' so he
stepped in, shuddering, and looking round almost with horror.
However rich the room, it was in great disorder; and when we went
up-stairs we found matters no better--beds half stript, chests and
cabinets left open, floors strewed with things pulled forth in haste and
left there. We pitched on one sleeping-room to the back, to use
ourselves; and, having satisfied ourselves that no evil-disposed person
lay hid in any room, we shut them all up (the keys being left in the
locks) except that sleeping-room, the parlour we had first entered, the
kitchen, and one great room looking to the front, agreeing to use no
other apartments; and to this rule we kept, except when, as I have told,
I went a-hunting for means to write this history.
That work of examining the house was terrible to me, especially when we
looked into Mr. Dacre's own chamber. There we found a mighty rich bed,
with hangings of silk and silver, and all the toilet furniture in silver
also; with couches and cushions richly wrought, and certain splendid
garments, with a jewelled sword, left flung upon them, as if the owner
had just put them off; but all was disordered wildly, as if by the dying
struggles of a madman, and the gorgeousness seemed to add to the horror
of it. I trembled as I looked at the glimmering mirror and thought of
what it might have reflected; our cousin's image seemed to rise up in
all his pride and bravery as I last saw him, but with the ghastly face
of death; so I hurried out and flung the door to behind us, and Althea
turned the key in the lock. After which we avoided passing that way; for
the place was not less dreadful to her than to me; she acknowledged it
made her remember what we had heard of the great burying-pit in Aldgate,
and the dishonoured corpses that were flung into it, heaps upon heaps.
'He may have gone to that grave from this splendid chamber--it's a
hideous mockery,' she said.