THE CORONER AND THE CORONET.
An officer of high repute had lately been set over us, to hold account
of the mischief, and to follow evidence, and make the best he could of
it when anybody chose to die without giving proper notice. He called
himself "Coroner of the King;" and all the doctors, such as they were,
made it a point that he must come, whenever there was a dead man or
woman who had died without their help.
Now all about the storm of sand, and all about the shipwreck, was known
in every part of the parish, before the church clock had contrived, in
gratitude to Hezekiah, to strike the noon of Monday. Every child that
went to the well knew the truth of everything; and every woman of Newton
and Nottage had formed from the men her own opinion, and was ready to
stand thereby, and defy all the other women.
Nevertheless some busy doctor (who had better been in the stocks) took
it for a public duty to send notice and demand for the Coroner to sit
upon us. The wrath of the parish (now just beginning to find some wreck,
that would pay for the ropes) was so honest and so grave, that the
little doctor was compelled to run and leave his furniture. And so it
always ought to be with people who are meddlesome.
It came to my knowledge that this must happen, and that I was bound to
help in it, somewhere about middle-day of Tuesday; at a time when I was
not quite as well as I find myself when I have no money. For, being
pleased with my luck perhaps, and not content quite to smoke in the
dark, and a little dry after the glow-worms, it happened (I will not
pretend to say how) that I dropped into the "Jolly Sailors," to know
what the people could be about, making such a great noise as they were,
and keeping a quiet man out of his bed.
There I smelled a new tobacco, directly I was in the room; and somebody
(pleased with my perception) gave me several pipes of it, with a
thimbleful--as I became more and more agreeable--of a sort of
rum-and-water. And, confining myself, as my principle is, to what the
public treat me to, it is not quite out of the question that I may have
been too generous. And truly full I was of grief, upon the following
morning, that somebody had made me promise, in a bubbling moment, to be
there again, and bring my fiddle, on the Tuesday night.
Now, since the death of my dear wife, who never put up with my fiddle
(except when I was courting her), it had seemed to my feelings to be
almost a levity to go fiddling. Also I knew what everybody would begin
to say of me; but the landlord, foreseeing a large attendance after the
Coroner's inquest, would not for a moment hear of any breach of my
fiddle pledge.
Half of Newton, and perhaps all Nottage, went to Sker the following day
to see the Coroner, and to give him the benefit of their opinions. And
another piece of luck there was to tempt them in that direction. For the
ship which had been wrecked and had disappeared for a certain time, in a
most atrocious manner, was rolled about so by the tide and a shift of
the wind on Monday, that a precious large piece of her stern was in
sight from the shore on Tuesday morning. It lay not more than a cable's
length from low-water mark, and was heaved up so that we could see as
far as the starboard mizzen-chains. Part of the taffrail was carried
away, and the carving gone entirely, but the transom and transom-knees
stood firm; and of the ship's name done in gold I could make out in
large letters TA LUCIA; and underneath, in a curve, and in smaller
letters, ADOR.
Of course no one except myself could make head or tail of this; but
after thinking a little while, I was pretty sure of the meaning of
it--namely, that the craft was Portuguese, called the Santa Lucia, and
trading from San Salvador, the capital of Brazils. And in this opinion I
was confirmed by observing through my spy-glass, copper bolt-heads of a
pattern such as I had seen at Lisbon, but never in any British ship.
However, I resolved, for the present, to keep my opinion to myself,
unless it were demanded upon good authority. For it made me feel
confused in mind, and perhaps a little uneasy, when, being struck by
some resemblance, I pulled from the lining of my hat a leaf of a book,
upon which I copied all that could be made out of the letters, each side
of the tiller of my new boat; and now I found them to be these,--UC from
the starboard side, just where they would have stood in Lucia--and DOR
from the further end of the line, just as in San Salvador.
The sands were all alive with people, and the rocks, and every place
where anything good might have drifted. For Evan Thomas could scarcely
come at a time of such affliction to assert his claims of wreck, and to
belabour right and left. Therefore, for a mile or more, from where the
land begins to dip, and the old stone wall, like a jagged cord, divides
our parish from Kenfig, hundreds of figures might be seen, running along
the grey wet sands, and reflected by their brightness. The day was going
for two of the clock, and the tide growing near to the turn of ebb; and
the landsprings oozing down from the beach, spread the whole of the flat
sands so, with a silver overlaying, that without keen sight it was hard
to tell where the shore ended and sea began. And a great part of this
space was sprinkled with naked feet going pattering--boys and girls, and
young women and men, who had left their shoes up high on the rocks to
have better chance in the racing.
Now it is not for me to say that all or half of these good people were
so brisk because they expected any fine thing for themselves. I would
not even describe them as waiting in readiness for the force of fortune
by the sea administered. I believe that all were most desirous of doing
good, if possible. In the first case, to the poor people drowned; but if
too late, then to console any disconsolate relations: failing of which,
it would be hard if anybody should blame them for picking up something
for themselves.
"What! you here, mother Probyn?" I cried, coming upon a most pious old
woman, who led the groaning at Zoar Chapel, and being for the moment
struck out of all my manners by sight of her.
"Indeed, and so I am, old Davy," she answered, without abashment, and
almost too busy to notice me; "the Lord may bless my poor endeavours to
rescue them poor Injuns. But I can't get on without a rake. If I had
only had the sense to bring my garden-rake. There are so many little
things, scarcely as big as cockleshells; and the waves do drag them away
from me. Oh, there, and there goes another! Gwenny, if I don't smack
you!"
All these people, and all their doings, I left with a sort of contempt,
perhaps, such as breaks out on me now and then at any very great
littleness. And I knew that nothing worth wet of the knees could be
found with the ebb-tide running, and ere the hold of the ship broke up.
So I went toward the great house, whose sorrows and whose desolation
they took little heed of. And nothing made me feel more sad--strange as
it may seem, and was--than to think of poor black Evan, thus unable to
stand up and fight for his unrighteous rights.
In the great hall were six bodies, five of strong young men laid quiet,
each in his several coffin; and the other of a little child in a simple
dress of white, stretched upon a piece of board. Death I have seen in
all his manners, since I was a cabin-boy, and I took my hat off to the
bodies, as I had seen them do abroad; but when I saw the small dead
child, a thrill and pang of cold went through me. I made sure of nothing
else, except that it was dear Bardie. That little darling whom I loved,
for her gifts direct from God, and her ways, so out of the way to all
other children--it struck my heart with a power of death, that here this
lively soul was dead.
When a man makes a fool of himself, anybody may laugh at him; and this
does him good, perhaps, and hardens him against more trouble. But bad as
I am, and sharp as I am, in other people's opinion (and proud sometimes
to think of it), I could not help a good gulp of a tear, over what I
believed to be the body of poor little Bardie. For that child had such
nice ways, and took such upper hand of me; that, expecting to find a
Captain always, especially among women----
"Old Davy, I 'ants 'a. Old Davy, 'hen is 'a coming?"
By the union-jack, it was as good as a dozen kegs of rum to me. There
was no mistaking the sweetest and clearest voice ever heard outside of a
flute. And presently began pit-pat of the prettiest feet ever put in a
shoe, down the great oak staircase. She held on by the rails, and showed
no fear at all about it, though the least slip might have killed her.
Then she saw the sad black sight after she turned the corner, and
wondered at the meaning of it, and her little heart stood still. As she
turned to me in awe, and held out both hands quivering, I caught her
up, and spread my grey beard over her young frightened eyes, and took
her out of sight of all those cold and very dreadful things.
I had never been up the stairs before in that dark and ancient house;
and the length, and the width, and the dreariness, and the creaking
noises, frightened me; not so much for my own sake (being never required
to sleep there), but for the tender little creature, full already of
timid fancies, who must spend the dark nights there. And now the house,
left empty of its noise, and strength, and boastfulness, had only five
more ghosts to wander silent through the silent places. And this they
began the very night after their bodies were in the churchyard.
The Coroner came on an old white pony, nearly four hours after the time
for which his clerk had ordered us. Being used, for my part, to royal
discipline, and everything done to the minute fixed, with the captain's
voice like the crack of a gun, I was vexed and surprised; but expected
him to give us some reason, good or bad. Instead of that he roared out
to us, with his feet still in both stirrups, "Is there none of you
Taffies with manners enough to come and hold a gentleman's horse? Here
you, Davy Jones, you are long enough, and lazy enough; put your hand to
the bridle, will you?"
This was to me, who was standing by, in the very height of innocence,
having never yet seen any man appointed to sit upon dead bodies, and
desiring to know how he could help them. I did for his Honour all I
could, although his manner of speech was not in any way to my liking.
But my rule has always been that of the royal navy, than which there is
no wiser. If my equal insults me, I knock him down; if my officer does
it, I knock under.
Meanwhile our people were muttering "Sassenach, Sassenach!" And from
their faces it was plain that they did not like an Englishman to sit
upon Cymric bodies. However, it was the old, old thing. The Welsh must
do all the real work; and the English be paid for sitting upon them
after they are dead.
"I never sate on a black man yet, and I won't sit on a black man now,"
the Coroner said, when he was sure about oats enough for his pony; "I'll
not disgrace his Majesty's writ by sitting upon damned niggers."
"Glory be to God, your Honour!" Stradling Williams cried, who had come
as head of the jury: clerk he was of Newton Church, and could get no
fees unless upon a Christian burial: "we thought your Honour would
hardly put so great a disgrace upon us; but we knew not how the law
lay."
"The law requires no Christian man," pronounced the Crowner, that all
might hear, "to touch pitch, and defile himself. Both in body and soul,
Master Clerk, to lower and defile himself!"
Hereupon a high hard screech, which is all we have in Wales for the
brave hurrah of Englishmen, showed that all the jury were of one accord
with the Coroner: and I was told by somebody that all had shaken hands,
and sworn to strike work, rather than put up with misery of conscience.
"But, your Honour," said Mr Lewis, bailiff to Colonel Lougher, "if we
hold no quest on the black men, how shall we certify anything about this
terrible shipwreck?"
"The wreck is no concern of mine," answered the Crowner, crustily: "it
is not my place to sit upon planks, but upon Christian bodies. Do you
attend to your own business, and leave mine to me, sir."
The bailiff, being a nice quiet man, thought it best to say no more. But
some of the people who were thronging from every direction to see his
Honour, told him about the little white baby found among the
bladder-weed. He listened to this, and then he said,--
"Show me this little white infant discovered among the black men. My
business here is not with infants, but with five young smothered men.
However, if there be an infant of another accident, and of Christian
colour, I will take it as a separate case, and damn the county in the
fees."
We assured his lordship, as every one now began to call him (in virtue
of his swearing so, which no doubt was right in a man empowered to make
other people swear), we did our best at any rate to convince the
Crowner, that over and above all black men, there verily was a little
child, and, for all one could tell, a Christian child, entitled to the
churchyard, and good enough for him to sit on. And so he entered the
house to see it.
But if he had sworn a little before (and more than I durst set down for
him), he certainly swore a great deal now, and poured upon us a bitter
heat of English indignation. All of the jury were taken aback; and I as
a witness felt most uneasy; until we came to understand that his
Honour's wrath was justly kindled on account of some marks on the baby's
clothes.
"A coronet!" he cried, stamping about; "a coronet on my young lord's
pinafore, and you stupid oafs never told me!"
Nobody knew except myself (who had sailed with an earl for a captain)
what the meaning of this thing was; and when the clerk of the church was
asked, rather than own his ignorance, he said it was part of the arms of
the crown; and the Crowner was bound like a seal by it.
This explanation satisfied all the people of the parish, except a few
far-going Baptists, with whom it was a point of faith always to cavil
and sneer at every "wind of doctrine" as they always called it--the
scent of which could be traced, anyhow, to either the parson or the
clerk, or even the gravedigger. But I was content to look on and say
nothing, having fish to sell, at least twice a-week, and finding all
customers orthodox, until they utter bad shillings.