ON DUTY.
There are many people who cannot enter into my meaning altogether. This
I have felt so often that now I may have given utterance to it once or
possibly twice before. If so, you will find me consistent wholly, and
quite prepared to abide by it. In all substantial things I am clearer
than the noon-day sun itself; and, to the very utmost farthing,
righteous and unimpeachable. Money I look at, now and then, when it
comes across me; and I like it well enough for the sake of the things it
goes for. But as for committing an action below the honour of my family
and ancestors (who never tuned their harps for less than a mark
a-night), also, and best of all, my own conscience--a power that thumps
all night like a ghost if I have not strictly humoured it,--for me to
talk of such things seems almost to degrade the whole of them.
Therefore, if any one dreams, in his folly, that I would play the spy
upon that great house over the river, I have no more to say, except that
he is not worthy to read my tale. I regard him with contempt, and loathe
him for his vile insinuations. Such a man is only fit to take the place
of a spy himself, and earn perhaps something worth talking of, if his
interest let him talk of it. For taking friendly observation of Narnton
Court, for its inmates' sake, I was to have just five shillings a-week!
It became my duty now to attend to the getting out of the limestone; and
I fetched it up with a swing that shook every leaf of the Rose of Devon.
Fuzzy attempted to govern me; but I let him know that I would not have
it, and never knocked under to any man. And if Parson Chowne had come
alongside, I would have said the same to him.
Nevertheless, as an honest man, I took good care to earn my money,
though less than the value of one good sewin, or at any rate of a fine
turbot, each week. No craft of any sort went up or down that blessed
river without my laying perspective on her, if there chanced to be light
enough; or if she slipped along after dark--which is not worth while to
do, on account of the shoals and windings--there was I, in our little
dingy, not so far off as they might imagine. And I could answer for it,
even with disdainful Chowne looking down through me, that nothing
larger than a row-boat could have made for Narnton Court. But I have not
said much of the river as yet; and who can understand me?
This river bends in graceful courtesies to the sweet land it is leaving,
and the hills that hold its birth. Also with a vein of terror at the
unknown sea before it, back it comes, when you grieve to think that it
must have said "good-bye" for ever. Such a lovely winding river, with so
many wilful ways, silvery shallows, and deep, rich shadows, where the
trees come down to drink; also, beautiful bright-green meadows, sloping
to have a taste of it, and the pleaches of bright sand offered to
satisfy the tide, and the dark points jutting out on purpose to protect
it! Many rivers have I seen, nobler, grander, more determined, yet among
them all not one that took and led my heart so.
Had I been born on its banks, or among the hills that gaze down over it,
what a song I would have made to it!--although the Bardic inspiration
seems to have dropped out of my generation, yet will it return with
fourfold vigour, probably in Bunny's children, if she ever has any, that
is to say, of the proper gender; for the thumb of a woman is weak on the
harp. And Bunny's only aspiration is for ribbons and lollipops, which
must be beaten out of her.
However, my principal business now was not to admire this river, but
watch it; and sometimes I found it uncommonly cold, and would gladly
have had quite an ugly river, if less attractive to white frosts. And
what with the clearing of our cargo, and the grumbling afterwards, and
the waiting for sailing-orders and never getting any, and the setting-in
of a sudden gale (which, but for me, must have capsized us when her hold
was empty), as well as some more delays which now I cannot stop to think
of--the middle of October found us still made fast, by stem and stern,
in Barnstaple river, at Deadman's Pill.
Parson Chowne (who never happened to neglect a single thing that did
concern his interests, any more than he ever happened to forget an
injury), twice or thrice a-week he came, mounted on his coal-black mare,
to know what was going on with us. I saw--for I am pretty sharp, though
not pretending to vie with him, as no man might who had not dealt in a
wholesale mode with the devil--I saw (though the clumsy under-strappers
meant me not to notice it) that Bethel Jose, our captain, was no more
than a slave of the Parson's. This made clear to me quite a lump of what
had seemed hopeless mysteries. Touching my poor self, to begin with,
Chowne knew all about me, of course, by means of this dirty Fuzzy. Also
Fuzzy's silence now, and the difficulty of working him (with any number
of sheets in the wind), which had puzzled both Newton and Nottage, and
the two public-houses at Porthcawl, and might have enabled him to marry
even a farmer's widow with a rabbit-warren, and £350 to dispose of, and
a reputation for sheep's-milk cheese, and herself not bad-looking, in
spite of a beard.
I could see, and could carry home the truth, having thoroughly got to
the bottom of it; and might have a chance myself to settle, if I dealt
my secret well, with some of the women who had sworn to be single, until
that Fuzzy provoked them so. This consideration added, more than can be
now described, to my desire to get home before any one got in front of
me. But Fuzzy, from day to day, pretended that the ketch was not
victualled to sail, any more than she was even ballasted. She must load
with hay, or with bricks, or pottery, or with something to fill her hold
and pay freight, or what was to fill our bellies all the way back? And
so on, and so on; until I was sure that he had some dark reason for
lingering there.
Of course I had not been such a pure fool--in spite of short seasons for
going from home--as to forget my desire and need to come home, after
proper interval. The whole of the parish would yearn for me, and so
would Ewenny and Llaleston, long ere the Christmas cod comes in; and I
made a point in my promises to be back before Gunpowder Treason and
Plot. As a thoroughly ancient hand at the cannon, I always led the
fireworks; and the Pope having done something violent lately, they were
to be very grand this year. What is a man when outside his own
country--a prophet, a magistrate, even a sailor, who has kept well in
with his relations? All his old friends are there, longing to praise
him, when they hear of good affairs; and as to his enemies--a man of my
breadth of nature has none.
This made it dreadfully grievous for me not to be getting home again;
and my heart was like a sprouted onion when I thought of Bardie. Bunny
would fight on, I knew, and get converted to the Church in the house of
our churchwarden, and perhaps be baptised after all, which my wife never
would have done to her. However, I did not care for that, because no
great harm could come of it; and if the Primitives gave her ribbons, the
Church would be bound to grant Honiton lace.
Thinking of all my engagements, and compacts, and serious trusteeships,
and the many yearnings after me, I told Bethel Jose, in so many words,
that I was not a black man, but a white man, unable to be trampled on,
and prepared (unless they could show me better) to place my matter in
the hands of his worship, no less than the Mayor of Barnstaple. Fuzzy
grinned, and so did Ike; and finding the mayor sitting handsomely upon
the very next market-day, I laid my case before him. His worship (as
keeping a grocer's shop, at which I had bought three pounds of onions,
and a quarter of a pound of speckled cheese, and half an ounce of
tobacco) was much inclined to do me justice; and, indeed, began to do so
in a loud and powerful voice, and eager for people to hearken him. But
somebody whispered something to him, containing, no doubt, the great
Parson's name, and he shrank back into his hole, and discharged my
summons, like a worm with lime laid on his tail.
Such things are painful; yet no man must insist upon them hardly,
because our ancestors got on among far greater hardships. And it would
prove us a bad low age if we turned sour about them. We are the finest
fellows to fight that were ever according to Providence; we ought to be
thankful for this great privilege (as I mean to show by-and-by), and I
would not shake hands with any man, who, for trumpery stuff, would dare
to make such a terrible force internal.
This grand soundness of my nature led me to go under orders, though
acquit of legal contract, only seeking to do the right while receiving
the money beforehand. Now this created a position of trust, for it
involved a strong confidence in one's honour. Any man paying me
beforehand places me at a disadvantage, which is hardly fair of him. I
do not like to refuse him, because it would seem so ungraceful; and yet
I can never be sure but that I ought to take consideration.
Not to dwell too much upon scruples which scarcely any one else might
feel, and no other man can enter into, be it enough that my honour now
was bound to do what was expected. But what a hardship it was, to be
sure, to find myself debarred entirely from forming acquaintance, or
asking questions, or going into the matter in my own style! especially
now that my anxiety was quickened beyond bearing to get to the bottom of
all these wonders about Sir Philip Bampfylde. What had led him to visit
me? What was he seeking on Braunton Burrows--for now I knew that it must
be he? Why did Parson Chowne desire to keep such watch on the visitors
to Narnton Court by water, while all the world might pass into or out of
the house by land? Or did the Parson keep other people watching the
other side of the house, and prevent me from going near them, lest we
should league together to cheat him? This last thing seemed to be very
likely, and it proved to be more than that.
Revolving all this much at leisure in the quiet churn of mind, I pushed
off with my little dingy from the side of the Rose of Devon, when the
evening dusk was falling, somewhere at October's end. This little boat
now seemed to be placed at my disposal always, although there used to be
such a fuss, and turn for turn, in taking her. Now the glance of light
on water, and the flowing shadows, keeping humour with the quiet play of
evening breezes, here a hill and there a tree or rock to be regarded,
while the strong influx of sea with white wisps traced the middle
channel, and the little nooks withdrawn under gentle promontories took
no heed of anything; when the moon came over these, dissipating clouds
and moving sullen mists aside her track, I found it uncommonly difficult
to be sure what I was up to. The full moon, lately risen, gazed directly
down the river; but memory of daylight still was coming from the
westward, feeble, and inclined to yield. What business was all this of
mine? God makes all things to have turn; and I doubt if He ever meant
mankind to be always spying into it. Ever so much better go these things
without our bother; and our parson said, being a noble preacher, and fit
any day for the navy, that the people who conquered the world, according
to the prophet Joel--20th after Trinity--never noticed nature, never did
consult the Lord of Hosts, and yet must have contented Him.
Difficult questions of this colour must be left to parsons (who beat all
lawyers, out and out, in the matter of pure cleverness; because the
latter never can anyhow, but the former, somehow, with the greatest
ease, reconcile all difficulties). The only business I have to deal with
is what I bodily see, feel, and hear, and have mind to go through with,
and work out to perfect satisfaction. And this night I found more than
ever broke upon my wits before, except when muzzle gapes at muzzle, and
to blow or be blown up depends upon a single spark.
Because now, in my quiet manner (growing to be customary, under Parson
Chowne's regard) dipping oars, I crossed the river, making slant for
running tide. That man, knowing everybody who might suit his purpose,
had employed me rather than old Ikey or even Fuzzy, partly because I
could row so well and make no sound in doing it; while either of them,
with muffled rowlocks, would splash and grunt, to be heard across river,
and half-way to Barnstaple Bridge almost. As silently as an owl I
skimmed across the silent river, not with the smallest desire to spy,
but because the poetry of my nature came out strongly. And having this
upon me still, I rowed my boat into a drooping tree, overhanging a quiet
nook. Here I commanded the river-front of all that great house, Narnton
Court, which stands on the north side of the water over against our
Deadman's Pill. After several voyages under sundry states of light and
weather, this was now approved to me as the very best point of
observation. For all the long and straggling house (quite big enough for
any three of the magistrates' houses on our side) could have been taken
and raked (as it were) like a great ship with her stern to me, from the
spot where I lay hidden. Such a length it stretched along, with little
except the west end to me, and a show of front-windows dark and void;
and all along the river-terrace, and the narrow spread of it,
overlooking the bright water, pagan gods, or wicked things just as bad,
all standing. However, that was not my business; if the gentry will
forego the whole of their Christianity, they must answer for themselves,
when the proper time appears. Only we would let them know that we hold
aloof from any breach of their commandments.
A flight of ten wild ducks had been seen coming up the river, every now
and then, as well as fourteen red-caps, and three or four good wisps of
teal. Having to see to my victualling now, as well as for the sport of
it, I loaded the Parson's two-foot pistol, which was as good as a gun
almost, with three tobacco pipes full of powder poured into each barrel,
and then a piece of an ancient hat (which Ikey had worn so long that no
man could distinguish it from wadding), and upon the top of the hat
three ounces of leaden pellets, and all kept tight with a good dollop of
oakum. It must kill a wild duck at forty yards, or a red-cap up to
fifty, if I hit the rogues in the head at all.
The tide must have been pretty nigh the flood, and the moon was rising
hazily, and all the river was pale and lonely, for the brown-sailed
lighters (which they call the "Tawton fleet") had long passed by, when I
heard that silvery sound of swiftness cleaving solitude--the flight of a
wedge of wild ducks. I knelt in the very smallest form that nature would
allow of, and with one hand held a branch to keep the boat from surging.
Plash they came down, after two short turns (as sudden as forked
lightning), heads down for a moment, then heads up, and wings flapping,
sousing, and subsiding. Quacks began, from the old drake first, and then
from the rest of the company, and a racing after one another, and a
rapid gambolling. Under and between them all, the river lost its
smoothness, beaten into ups and downs that sloped away in ridge and
furrow.
These fine fellows, as fat as butter after the barley-stubble time,
carried on such joy and glory within twenty yards of me that I could not
bring my gun to bear for quiet shot, so as to settle four. Like an
ancient gunner, I bided my time, being up to the tricks of most of them.
When their wild delight of water should begin to sate itself, what would
they do? Why, gather in round the father of the family, and bob their
heads together. This is the time to be sure of them, especially with two
barrels fired at once, as I could easily manage. I never felt surer of
birds in my life; I smelt them in the dripping-pan, and beheld myself
quite basting them, but all of a sudden, up they flew, when I had got
three in a line, and waited for two more to come into it, just as the
muzzle was true upon them--up and away, and left me nothing except to
rub my eyes and swear. I might have shot as they rose, but something
told me not to do so. Therefore I crept back in my little punt, and
waited. In another moment I heard the swing of stout oars pulled with
time and power, such as I had not heard for years, nor since myself was
stroke of it. Of course I knew that this must be a boat of the British
navy, probably the captain's gig, and choice young fellows rowing her;
and the tears sprang into my eyes at thought of all the times and things
between, and all the heavy falls of life, since thus I clove the waters.
All my heart went out towards her, and I held my breath with longing (as
I looked between the branches of the dark and fluttering tree), just to
let them know that here was one who understood them.