POLLY AT HOME.
Lest any one should be surprised that Sir Philip Bampfylde could have
paid two visits to this delightful neighbourhood, without calling on our
leading gentleman, and his own fellow-officer, Colonel Lougher--in which
case the questions concerning Delushy would have been sifted long ago--I
had better say at once what it was that stopped him. When the General
thought it just worth while, though his hopes were faint about it, to
inquire into the twisted story of the wreck on our coast, as given by
the celebrated Felix Farley; the first authority he applied to was
Coroner Bowles, who had held the inquest. Coroner Bowles told him all he
knew (half of which was wrong, of course, by means of Hezekiah) and gave
him a letter to Anthony Stew, as the most active and penetrating
magistrate of the neighbourhood. Nothing could have been more unlucky.
Not only did Stew baffle my desire to be more candid than the day
itself, by his official brow-beating, and the antipathy between us--not
only did Stew, like an over-sharp fellow, trust one of the biggest
rogues unhung--in his unregenerate dissenting days, and before we gave
him six dozen, which certainly proved his salvation--(I am sorry to say
such things of my present good neighbour, 'Kiah; but here he is now, and
subscribes to it) Hezekiah Perkins, whose view of the shipwreck, and
learned disquisition on sand, misled the poor Coroner and all of the
Jury, except myself, so blindly, that we drowned the five young men, and
smothered the baby--not only did Stew, I say, get thus far in
bewilderment of the subject, but he utterly ruined all chance of
clearing it, by keeping Sir Philip from Candleston Court!
If you ask me how, I can only say, in common fairness to Anthony Stew
(who is lately gone, poor fellow, to be cross-examined by somebody
sharper even than himself--one to whom I would never afford material for
unpleasant questions, by speaking amiss of a man in his
power--especially when so needless), in a word, to treat Stew as I hope
myself to be treated by survivors, I admit that he may not have wished
to keep Sir Philip away from the Colonel. But the former having once
accepted Stew's keen hospitality, and tried to eat fish (which I might
have bettered, had I known of his being there), felt, with his usual
delicacy, that he ought not to visit a man at feud with the host whose
salt--and very little else--he was then enjoying. For Mrs Stew was more
bitter of course than even her husband against Colonel Lougher, and
roundly abused him the very first evening of Sir Philip's stay with
them. So that the worthy General passed the gates of the excellent
Colonel, half-a-dozen times perhaps, without once passing through them.
Enough about that; and I need only say, before returning to my own
important and perhaps sagacious inquiries in Devonshire, that the news,
so hastily blurted out by Captain Rodney Bluett, caused many glad hearts
in our parish and neighbourhood; but nevertheless two sad ones. Of these
one belonged to Roger Berkrolles, and the other to Moxy Thomas. The
child had so won upon both these, not only by her misfortunes and the
way in which she bore them, but by her loving disposition, bright
manner, and docility, that it seemed very hard to lose her so, even
though it were for her own good. Upon this latter point Master
Berkrolles, when I came to see him, held an opinion, the folly of which
surprised me, from a man of such reading and history. In real earnest he
laid down that it might be a very bad thing for the maid, and make
against her happiness, to come of a sudden into high position,
importance, and even money. Such sentiments are to be found, I believe,
in the weaker parts of the Bible, such as are called the New Testament,
which nobody can compare to the works of my ancestor, King David; and
which, if you put aside Saint Paul, and Saint Peter (who cut the man's
ear off, and rejected quite rightly the table-cloth), exhibit to my mind
nobody of a patriotic spirit.
As for Moxy, she would not have been a woman if she had doubted about
the value of high position, coin of the realm, and rich raiment.
Nevertheless she cried bitterly that this child, as good as her own to
her, and given her to make up for them, and now so clever to see to
things, and to light the fire, and show her the way Lady Bluett put her
dress on, should be taken away in a heap as it were, just as if the
great folk had minded her. She blamed our poor Bunny for stealing the
heart of young Watkin, who might have had the maid (according to his
mother's fancy) with money enough to restock the farm, now things had
proved so handsome. As if everybody did not know that Bardie would never
think twice of Watkin; while his mother, hearing of the ships I had
taken (as all over the parish reported), had put poor Watkin on bread
and water, until he fell in love with Bunny! However, now she cried very
severely, and in a great measure she meant it.
Leaving all Newton, and Nottage, and Sker, and even Bridgend to consider
these matters, with a pleasing divergence of facts and conclusions, I
find it my duty, however repugnant, to speak once more of my humble
self. In adversity, my native dignity and the true grandeur of Cambria
have always united, against my own feelings, to make me almost
self-confident, or at any rate able to maintain my position, and knock
under to nobody. But in prosperity, all this drops; extreme affability,
and my native longing to give pleasure, mark my deportment towards all
the world; and I almost never commit an assault.
In this fine and desirable frame of mind I arrived at Narnton Court once
more, sooner perhaps than Captain Bluett, having so much further to go,
burst in on his friends at Candleston; although I have given his story
precedence, not only on account of his higher rank, but because of the
hurry he was in. On the other hand, my part seemed to be of a nice and
delicate character--to find out all that I could without making any
noise in the neighbourhood, to risk no chance, if it might be helped, of
exciting Sir Philip Bampfylde, and, above all things, no possibility of
arousing Chowne, till the proper time. For his craft was so great that
he might destroy every link of evidence, if he once knew that we were in
chase of him; even as he could out-fox a fox.
When things of importance take their hinge, a good deal, upon feminine
evidence, the first thing a wise man always does is to seek female
instinct, if he sees his way to guide it. And to have the helm of a
woman, nothing is so certain as a sort of a promise of marriage. A man
need not go too very far, and must be awake about pen and ink, and
witnesses, and so on; but if he knows how to do it, and has lost an arm
in battle, but preserved an unusually fine white beard, and has had
another wife before, who was known to make too little of him, the fault
is his own if he cannot manage half-a-dozen spinsters.
My reputation had outrun me--as it used to do, sometimes too often--for
in the despatches my name came after scarcely more than fifty, though it
should have been one of the foremost five; however, my wound was
handsomely chronicled, and with a touch of my own description, such as
is really heartfelt. Of course it was not quite cured yet, and I felt
very shy about it; and the very last thing I desired was for the women
to come bothering. Tush! I have no patience with them; they make such a
fuss of a trifle.
But being bound upon such an errand, and anxious to conciliate them so
far as self-respect allowed, and knowing that if I denied myself to
them, the movement would be much greater, I let them have peeps, and
perceive at the same time that I really did want a new set of shirts.
Half-a-dozen of damsels began at once to take my measure: and the result
will last my lifetime.
But, amid all this glorification, whenever I thought of settling, there
was one pretty face that I longed to see, and to my mind it beat the
whole of them. What was become of my pretty Polly, the lover of my
truthful tales, and did she still remember a brave, though not young
officer in the Navy, who had saved her from the jaws of death, by
catching small-pox from her? These questions were answered just in time,
and in the right manner also, by the appearance of Polly herself,
outblushing the rose at sight of me, and without a spot on her face,
except from the very smart veil she was wearing. For she was no longer a
servant now, but free and independent, and therefore entitled to take
the veil, and she showed her high spirit by doing this, to the deep
indignation of all our maid-servants. And still more indignant were
these young women, when Polly demeaned herself, as they declared, with a
perfectly shameless and brazen-faced manner of carrying on towards the
noble old tar. They did not allow for the poor thing's gratitude to the
only one who came nigh her in her despairing hour and saved her life
thereby, nor yet for her sorrow and tender feeling at the dire
consequence to him; and it was not in their power, perhaps, to
sympathise with the shock she felt at my maimed and war-beaten
appearance. However, I carried the whole of it off in a bantering
manner, as usual.
Still there was one resolution I came to, after long puzzling in what
way to cope with the almost fatal difficulty of having to trust a
woman. So I said to myself, that if this must be done, I might make it
serve two purposes--first for discovery of what I sought, and then for a
test of the value of a female, about whom I had serious feelings. These
were in no way affected by some news I picked up from Nanette, or, as
she now called herself, "The widow Heaviside." Not that my old friend
had left this world, but that he gave a wide berth to the part
containing his beloved partner. She, with a Frenchwoman's wit and
sagacity, saw the advantage of remaining in the neighbourhood of her
wrongs; and here with the pity now felt for her, and the help she
received from Sir Philip himself, and her own skill in getting up
women's fal lals, she maintained her seven children cleverly.
After shedding some natural tears for the admired but fugitive
Heaviside, she came round, of course, to her neighbours' affairs; and
though she had not been at Narnton Court at the time when the children
were stolen, she helped me no little by telling me where to find one who
knew all that was known of it. This was a farmer's wife now at
Burrington (as I found out afterwards), a village some few leagues up
the Tawe, and her name was Mrs Shapland.
"From her my friend the Captain shall decouver the everything of this
horrible affair," said Nanette, who now spoke fine English. "She was
the--what you call--the bonne, the guard of the leetle infants. I know
not where she leeves, some barbarous name. I do forget--but she have one
cousin, a jolly girl, of the leetle name--pray how can you make such
thing of 'Mary?'"
"What! do you mean Polly?" I asked; "that is what we make of Mary. And
what Polly is it then, Madame?"
"Yes, Paullee, the Paullee which have that horrible pest that makes
holes in the faces. 'Verole' we call it. The Paullee that was in the
great mansion, until she have the money left, the niece of the proud
woman of manage. You shall with great facility find that Paullee." Of
course I could, for she had told me where I might call upon her, which I
did that very same afternoon.
And a pretty and very snug cottage it was, just a furlong, or so, above
the fine old village of Braunton, with four or five beautiful meadows
around it, and a bright pebbly brook at the turn of the lane. The
cottage itself, even now in November, was hung all over with China
roses, and honeysuckle in its second bloom, which it often shows in
Devonshire. And up at the window, that shook off the thatch, and looked
wide-awake as a dog's house, a face, more bright than the roses, came,
and went away, and came again, to put a good face upon being caught.
Hereupon I dismissed the boys, who, with several rounds of cheers, had
escorted me through Braunton; and with genuine thankfulness I gazed at
the quiet and pleasing prospect. So charming now in the fall of the
leaf, what would it be in the spring-time, with the meadows all breaking
anew into green, and the trees all ready for their leaves again? Also
these bright red Devonshire cows, all belonging to Polly, and even now
streaming milkily--a firkin apiece was the least to expect of them, in
the merry May month. A very deep feeling of real peace, and the pleasure
of small things fell on me; for a man of so many years, and one arm,
might almost plead to himself some right to shed his experience over the
earth, when his blood had been curdling on so many seas.
The very same thought was in Polly's eyes when she ran down and opened
the door for me. The whole of this property was her own; or would be, at
least, when her old grandmother would allow herself to be buried. That
old woman now was ninety-five, if the parsons had minded the register;
and a woman more fully resolved to live on I never had the luck to meet
with. And the worst of it was, that her consent to Polly's marriage was
needful, under the ancient cow-keeper's will, with all of the meadows so
described, that nobody could get out of them. Hereupon, somehow, I
managed to see that a very bold stroke was needed. And I took it, and
won the old lady over, by downright defiance. I told her that she was a
great deal too young to have any right to an opinion; and when she
should come to my time of life, she would find me ready to hearken her.
She said that no doubt it was bred from the wars for sailors to talk so
bravely; but that I ought to know better--with a fie, and a sigh, and a
fie again. To none of this would I give ear, but began to rebuke all the
young generations, holding to ridicule those very points upon which they
especially plume themselves, until this most excellent woman began to
count all her cows on her fingers.
"Her can't have them. No, her shan't have they," she cried, with a power
which proved that she saw them dropping into my jaws almost; "her han't
a got 'em yet; and why should her have 'em?"
Into this very fine feeling and sense of possession I entered so
amiably, that amid much laughter and many blushes on the part of Polly
(who pretended to treat the whole thing as a joke), the old lady put on
her silver goggles, and set down her name to a memorandum, prepared on
the spur of the moment by me. Whereupon I quite made my mind up to go
bravely in for it, and recompense Polly for all her faith, and
gratitude, and frugality, if she should prove herself capable of keeping
counsel also.
To this intent I expressed myself as elegantly as could be, having led
Polly out to the wooden bridge, that nobody else might hear me. For that
fine old woman became so deaf, all of a sudden, that I had no faith in
any more of her organs, and desired to be at safe distance from her, as
well as to learn something more of the cows. Nor did I miss the chance;
for all of them having been milked by Polly, came up to know what I had
to say to her, and their smell was beautiful. So I gave them a bit of
salt out of my pocket, such as I always carry when ashore, and offered
them some tobacco; and they put out their broad yellow lips for the one,
and snorted and sneezed at the other. When these valuable cows were gone
to have a little more grazing, I just made Polly aware of the chance
that appeared to be open before us. In short, I laid clearly before her
the whole of my recent grand discovery, proving distinctly that with
nothing more than a little proper management, I possessed therein at
least an equivalent for her snug meadow homestead, and all the
milch-cows, and the trout-stream. Only she must not forget one thing,
namely, that the whole of this value would vanish, if a single word of
this story were breathed any further off than our own two selves, until
the time was ripe for it. Of course I had not been quite such a fool as
to give Nanette the smallest inkling of any motive on my part beyond
that pure curiosity, with which she could so well sympathise. Also it
had been settled between Captain Bluett and myself, that a fortnight was
to be allowed me for hunting up all the evidence, before he should cross
the Channel; unless I took it on myself to fetch him.
Polly opened her blue eyes to such a size at all I told her, that I
became quite uneasy lest she should open her mouth in proportion. For if
my discovery once took wind before its entire completion, there would be
at least fifty jealous fellows thrusting their oars into my own
rowlocks, and robbing me of my own private enterprise. Also Miss Polly
gave way to a feeling of anger and indignation, which certainly might be
to some extent natural, but was, to say the least of it, in a far
greater measure indiscreet, and even perilous.
"Oh the villain! oh the cruel villain!" she exclaimed, in a voice that
quite alarmed me, considering how near the footpath was; "and a minister
of the Gospel too! Oh the poor little babes, one adrift on the sea, and
the other among them naked savages! What a mercy as they didn't eat him!
And to blame the whole of it on a nice, harmless, kind-spoken, handsome
gentleman, like our Captain! Oh, let me get hold of him!"
"That, my dear Polly, we never shall do, if you raise your voice in this
way. Now come away from these trees with the ivy, and let us speak very
quietly."
This dear creature did (as nearly as could be expected) what I told her;
so that I really need not repent of my noble faith in the female race.
This encouraged me; from its tendency to abolish prejudice, and to let
the weaker vessels show that there is such a thing as a cork to them.
Men are apt to judge too much by experience on this subject; when they
ought to know that experience never does apply to women, any more than
reason does.
Nevertheless my Polly saw the way in and out of a lot of things, which
to me were difficult. Especially as to the manner of handling her
cousin, Mrs Shapland, a very good woman in her way, but a ticklish one
to deal with. And all the credit for all the truth we get out of Mrs
Shapland belongs not to me (any more than herself), but goes down in a
lump to poor Polly.
To pass this lightly--as now behoves me--just let me tell what Susan
Shapland said, when I worked it out of her. Any man can get the truth
out of a woman, if he knows the way; I mean, of course, so far as she
has been able to receive it. To expect more than this is unreasonable;
and to get that much is wonderful. However, Polly and I, between us, did
get a good deal of it.
Of course, we did not let this good woman even guess what we wanted with
her; only we borrowed a farmer's cart from Bang, my old boy, who was now
set up in a farm on his grandmother's ashes; and his horse was not to be
found fault with, if a man did his duty in lashing him. This I was ready
to understand, when pointed out by Polly; and he never hoisted his tail
but what I raked him under his counter.
So after a long hill, commanding miles and miles of the course of the
river, we fetched up in the courtyard of Farmer Shapland, and found his
wife a brisk sharp woman, quite ready to tell her story. But what she
did first, and for us, at this moment, was to rouse up the fire with a
great dry fagot, crackling and sparkling merrily. For the mist of
November was now beginning to crawl up the wavering valley, and the
fading light from the west struck coldly on the winding river.
In such a case, and after a drive of many miles and much scenery, any
man loves to see pots and pans goaded briskly to bubbling and
sputtering, or even to help in the business himself, so far as the cook
will put up with it. And then if a foolish good woman allows him (as
pride sometimes induces her) to lift up a pot-lid when trembling with
flavour, or give a shake to the frying-pan in the ecstasy of crackling,
or even to blow on the iron spoon, and then draw in his breath with a
drop of it--what can he want with any scenery out of the window, or
outside his waistcoat?
Such was my case, I declare to you, in that hospitable house with these
good people of Burrington; nor could we fall to any other business,
until this was done with; then after dark we drew round the fire, with a
black-jack of grand old ale, and our pipes, to hear Mrs Shapland's
story.