My liberation did not come to pass so quickly as Mr. Ulceby had hoped,
for the justices and the sheriff and the commander of the castle, and I
know not how many authorities besides, all had something to say in the
matter. After my friend's testimony that I was not his son had been
accepted, I supposed I should be set free at once, but no such thing!
"If I was not Jim Ulceby, who was I?" "Where was Jim Ulceby?" "How
came I to resemble him?" So the authorities demanded, and seemed to
think these questions must be answered before they gave me my liberty.
One magistrate, whose gravity and dulness were of equal magnitude, took
it into his head that a plot of some kind was on foot. If he could
have had his way, I believe he would have put me to bodily torture; to
torture of mind he often put me, coming to "examine the prisoner," by
asking the most absurd questions, looking as solemn as an owl the
while. I never understood his drift, nor I believe did he. Mr. Ulceby
warned me of this man's first visit, and implored me to endure it with
all the patience I could muster; so I contrived to keep my temper, and
in the end the ass was good enough to express the judgment "that I was
a blind instrument of the conspirators." That there was a conspiracy
he was well assured.
Acton gave us some trouble at first, holding that I was in fact his
one-time crony, and that Mr. Ulceby had taken the course of denying me,
as the one means of saving me from transportation to America. He
declared that no man would be at the pains and cost which Mr. Ulceby
took on my behalf for a stranger, and claimed "hush-money." When he
could not extort that, he did his worst against me secretly. Even when
the surgeon had restored me to something more like my former looks,
Acton would not be convinced. The surgeon did me good service by
giving evidence as to the recent date of the distortion of my face,
which was corroborated by the sergeant who brought me to Hull. He
testified that he had been perplexed when he arrested me by the
freshness of the tattooing and of the scars. But eight days passed
before my good friend, who had been unceasing in his exertions in my
cause, came with the order for my release. Every comfort which money
could procure during those weary days I enjoyed, and Mr. Ulceby gave me
as much of his time as might be spared from the business of expediting
my deliverance. After the second day of durance I kept to my own room.
On that day I had the curiosity to look over the prison. It consisted
of two houses which had been thrown into one, and of buildings which
occupied two sides of a quadrangle behind them. These buildings would
not have been used as stabling by a man who valued his horses. Here
the wretches were confined who could not, or would not, pay for
accommodation within the house; some of them kept safely by being laid
on the floor with iron bars across their legs; others having liberty to
stand upright, but chained to staples in the wall. Some were free to
roam the yard, variously ironed and fettered. The most part were half
starved and in rags, the most miserable creatures I had ever seen.
The inmates of the house were such as had means to pay the exorbitant
charges which the jailer made for food and lodging and fees for this,
that, and the other. Many of these had money to waste in gambling and
drunkenness, but few had any compassion for their poverty-stricken
fellow-prisoners. In this den were prisoners awaiting trial, prisoners
under sentence, and prisoners who had been acquitted, now detained for
payment of the jailer's charges; prisoners of both sexes and of all
ages, from childhood to decrepitude. While I was making the round of
the yard, a greasy fellow came to one of the windows, and calling to
the crowd, threw out the orts and scraps of his breakfast, for which
the hungry wretches scrambled. In the struggle two women fell out and
began to fight, tearing, scratching, and biting with the fury of
tigresses, while men stood round them laughing and betting as to which
would be the victrix. Turning away from this, I came upon a ragged,
miserable creature, who lay moaning and whimpering in a corner. He had
tried to climb the wall with the aid of a rope which a friend had
managed to convey to him, but had been caught in the effort; so the
jailer and his men had beaten the soles of his feet to a horrible
condition. A few of the prisoners lay about dead drunk, the objects of
the envy of others, who had not the luck to have friends able and
willing to give them liquor. Much that I saw and heard is not to be
described. I took refuge from the little hell in the solitude of my
own room, right thankful I had not been compelled to herd with the vile
and wretched crew. In a sense it was lucky for me that Acton held to
the belief that I was Jim Ulceby, for he made it loudly known, and so
saved me from being molested by the bullies in the house, who feared to
meddle with one who had the repute of never failing to pay back in full
any ill turn that might be done him.
Not until the fourth day of my incarceration did I receive a letter
from Anna, for Mr. Ulceby's messenger had been delayed by one mishap
after another, howbeit they need not be set down here. All the day I
read and re-read that precious letter, wondering how a pen, which in my
hand is an unwieldy tool, came to be such a wand of magic in hers, that
I could, in a manner, hear her clear voice, and almost see her
sprightly smile and the sudden coming of her tears. I will copy parts
of the letter here, for they tell the story far better than it could be
told in words of mine.
"When Luke brought me your letter, in which you promised to come on the
day following, he told me of the wickedness of Sebastian Vliet, and I
made him repeat the matter in my father's hearing. But when Luke went
on to say you had sent a challenge to your would-be murderer, I was
almost beside myself with anger that you should risk your life so
lightly in fighting with a wretch so infamous. For a brief moment I
thought you had slain my love by your folly, but I soon knew it still
lived by the sinking at my heart for fear of what might be devised
against you by so crafty a coward. When I learned that Vliet had gone
to meet you alone and armed only with a sword, you may be sure all his
doings were watched as closely as two women knew how to do. It filled
me with wonder. But my fears were redoubled by Vermuijden's report of
what had happened, which was that you had fled from Vliet in sudden
terror, and gone he knew not whither. A lie so gross and palpable made
me certain some foul deed had been done, but what I could not guess,
and for days I was as one bereft of reason.
"At last came the news of the finding of a body in a pond, said to be
yours: but I could not believe you were dead. My father and Martha and
Luke thought me distraught with grief, but my heart said you were still
alive. And as my wits returned, I questioned Luke particularly about
the dead man. That he was of your height and build, and dressed in
your clothes were no sufficient proofs to me. I doubted whether fishes
alone had disfigured the face beyond knowledge, and the condition of
the man's breast seemed unaccountable. I asked whether there was trace
of any deadly wound; and was answered 'None.' How, then, came the body
into the pond? If you, even in the dark, had stumbled into the water,
you were strong enough to get out again. No one could have thrown you
in, unless he had first stunned you with a blow from behind, and there
was no mark of such a blow. Luke told me what was found in the
pockets: your purse and the coins which it contained, a ring of keys,
your penknife, and your seal. But no word of the half of a ninepenny
bit. I felt assured my Frank had not thrown away or lost his
love-token. So my mind did in some degree confirm my heart's faith,
although every one thought my hope the veriest madness.
"And now to tell you a strange thing. The day after that body was
committed to the grave, I sat here, wearied out with thinking and
wondering, and I saw you stretched on a couch in what looked like a
church crypt. You were bound hand and foot, and by the light of a lamp
hanging from the wall behind you, I could see blood upon your face. A
man came out of the shadowed part of the room, and stood so that he hid
your face from me, and then all faded from my sight. I cried out to my
father, who sat near me reading, 'Frank is alive! I have seen him.' I
described the place and your state to my father, being perfectly sure
of the truth of what I had seen. He sought to convince me I had
dreamed it, but I knew I had not closed my eyes; and, besides, there
was I know not what of reality in the sight, which would not suffer me
to doubt. I sent for Luke, who was in the house at the time, and
inquired of him whether he knew of such a room as I had seen, but he
could not help me. My own mind ran on the dungeons of Castle Mulgrave,
and I gave my father no rest until he ventured with me, professing his
desire to consult a book in the earl's library as the reason of our
going. I pretended a whim to see the vaults of the castle, and the old
nobleman gave order to his seneschal to take me through them, who did
so willingly, he and I being great friends. (He it was who gave me my
lessons in riding on my first visit to the castle, so you see your
one-time jealousy was misplaced.) From him I heard that Lord Sheffield
had his abode at present at Normanby, where he led a life less
restrained than was possible under his father's roof, which set me
thinking that there might be underground rooms there; but my guide
assured me there was not so much as a wine-cellar. 'It was,' he said,
'a poor place, but honoured by my lord's residence when heavy drinking
and high play and other delights were desired. For the last ten days
the revelling had been perpetual.' Had your disappearance anything to
do with this merrymaking? I asked myself. I would set Luke to spy upon
the comings and goings of his lordship, I resolved, little as he was
fitted by nature for the part. But on our return, which was made in
safety, I found Martha in distress about the poor fellow, who had
struck his foot with an axe, while chopping wood, and he is even yet
hobbling on a crutch. Will it always be that we poor women must
depend, even in maddening anxiety, on the aid of men? If I had been
free, I should have donned the garb of manhood, and ridden the length
and breadth of the Isle to find you, for I had the feeling that your
prison was not very far away.
"But at length, three days before your messenger brought me this
letter--which I have wet with happy tears, and kissed a thousand times,
and held in my hand and looked at, even while I poured out my thanks to
God--at length came the beautiful gipsy girl, who had seen you, spoken
with you, touched you. I have much to say to you about the dark
beauty, and some questions to ask you. Our meeting was a strange one
(of that another time), but before long we were sobbing in each other's
arms. And we had arranged to follow and find you on the very day your
letter arrived."
Of Vliet, Anna had no more to tell than I already knew, that he had
been arrested, and that he had escaped and disappeared. She wrote of
her father as being wholly taken up with researches and experiments
regarding ague, and full of hope to find a preventive against that
sickness. Vermuijden had hired a number of the poorer sort of
Islonians to work with the Dutch, but their neighbours were so bitter
against them for this going over to the enemy as to render it necessary
to provide lodging for them within the settlement. Nevertheless, Anna
had confidence that the step would tend to amity and a good
understanding in due time.
On the third day after the receipt of this letter, Mr. Ulceby came to
me with the order for my release duly signed and countersigned, and as
soon as we had settled with Acton, I was once more a free man. My good
friend had reckoned on my impatience to be on the road to Sandtoft, and
had provided breakfast at the nearest inn, his house being on the other
side of the town.
When the meal was eaten, three horses were brought to the door, one for
me, one for my friend, and one for his manservant. Mr. Ulceby believed
he had been spied upon and followed several times during his visits to
my prison, and feared my enemies were on the alert; hence his purpose
to accompany me to the Isle.
"Three men, well mounted and well armed, might travel much more safely
than a single horseman," said he.
I may here say that there was no need, as we afterwards came to know,
of all this care for my protection, Boswell having never counted on my
being delivered from the prison.
We rode with no more serious mishap than the shying of my horse at the
flapping of a cloth, which a housewife came to her door to shake as we
were passing.
We crossed Trent at Burringham Ferry and went by Crowle Causey, it
being my intent to see my friend in quarters at the White Hart, and
leaving him there, to ride south to Belton, and thence to Sandtoft by
the embankment, but this was not his mind. He would have no nay but we
should dine together, procure fresh horses, and he and his man go with
me to the settlement. Impatient though I was to see my love, I was too
much bound to Mr. Ulceby to refuse to do as he would have me, seeing
how he, had set his heart on this thing. After we had eaten and drunk,
we went on our way, and Mr. Ulceby with great delicacy spoke of what I
was to do to earn a livelihood. He did not approve my plan of joining
myself to a company of adventurers, or of enlisting in the military
service of a foreign prince. He had another scheme for me, which was
that I should enter into his business, either as his agent and clerk,
or, if mercantile affairs were distasteful to me, as supercargo on one
of his ships, with a prospect of coming to the command of a vessel,
when I had gained a sufficient degree of seamanship. He spoke as if he
thought he ought to make excuse for offering occupation so humble to
one of my birth and breeding, but pointed out that a competency might
much more certainly and speedily be made by such means than by
exploring American forests or engaging as a soldier of fortune. And he
touched on the need he would have shortly for a partner, whose youthful
energy might supply the lack of his own declining strength. He ended
by saying--
"I am but a plain, blunt fellow, Mr. Vavasour, with no more learning
than I got at a dame's school, and unused to the ways of gentlefolks,
so I trust you will excuse me if I put it badly; but if your heart's
desire is to prepare a cage for your singing-bird, I think it will be
most quickly gratified by condescending to trade."
Had such an offer been made me only a month before, assuredly I should
have rejected it with scorn, but one may learn a good deal in a month,
especially if part of it be spent in prison. Even now I had no liking
for a seat on an office stool with a pen behind my ear, or going to and
fro as a chapman. The command of a ship would be more to my taste
truly, though its cargo might be hides or stockfish or whales' blubber.
But I was in no case to consider liking and misliking. I had not a
penny of my own, or any present likelihood of gaining one, but in the
manner Mr. Ulceby had indicated. The clothes I wore, the food I had
eaten these ten days, his money had bought; and it was by his kindness
and the mercy of God that I was not now groaning in the hold of a
slave-ship. So I made him a reply suitable to his generosity,
signifying my readiness to undertake such duties as I might prove to be
fit for, albeit I had the gravest doubt about the matter, because of my
ignorance and want of capacity. This vastly pleased him, and he went
on to tell me his mind had been set on coming to Sandtoft with me,
partly because he thought himself better able to lay the matter before
Doctor Goel, if I accepted the offer.
"I am older, and used to reason with old folk," he said; and then
lapsed into silence, smiling as if he had pleasant thoughts which he
kept to himself.
I also inclined to silence. Welcome though the chance was to earn my
bread, and maybe something more in time, I could not rid myself of the
feeling that it was a dreary destiny for the last of the Vavasours of
Temple Belwood to become a fish merchant, notwithstanding I knew so
well that a fish merchant might be as worthy and generous a man as any
squire in Axholme or in England. Little did I think that in a few
hours I should envy the safety and freedom of the poorest quill-driver
in the kingdom. Ah, me! if I had had the foreknowledge, it would only
have spoiled for me the bit of pure happiness which was soon to be mine.