The assailants returned to Nansclowan, where the Sheriff opened his mind
to Sir John in a bitter harangue and rode homeward in dudgeon.
The soldiers were marched back to Pendennis. And so, to the scandal of
the law, for four months the quarrel rested.
It sounds incredible. Sir James reached his house and spent a week in
drawing up a report alleging that he and his twenty soldiers had been met
by a crowd of over a thousand people, all partisans of Stephen; and that
on attempting a forcible entry of Steens he had been murderously fired
upon, with the loss of two killed and one wounded. There was not an
incorrect statement in the report; and no one could read it without
gathering that the whole of West Cornwall was up in arms and in open
rebellion against the Crown.
Walpole read it in due course, and sent for Sir John Piers, who had
returned to London for a short visit on parliamentary business.
The two men (you will remember) were deadly political foes, and Sir John's
first thought on receiving the message was, "Walpole is weakening, but he
must be hard put to it when he sends for _me_, to bribe me!" However, he
waited on the Minister.
Walpole greeted him with a pleasant bow: he had always a soft spot in his
heart for the chubby-faced little Cornish baronet who always fought fair.
"Let us be friends for ten minutes and talk like men of sense," said he.
"Cast your eye over this paper and tell me, for the love of Heaven, what
it means."
Sir John read it through and burst out laughing.
"The poor man has lost his head, hey? I guessed so," said Walpole.
"A reed shaken by the wind. As such he advertised an exhibition and the
folks came out to see--that is all. To be sure, they feel for this
Stephen as an ill-used man; and so for that matter do I."
"You were present. Tell me the whole story, if you will."
So Sir John told it and put it back into its true colours. "As for open
rebellion, I'll engage to set down what I've told you in a report which
shall be signed by every Justice between Truro and the Land's End."
"I don't need it," said Walpole. "But, when all's said, the fellow has
defied the law and slaughtered two men. We must make an example of him.
You agree, of course?"
"In due time I shall plead for mercy. But of course I agree."
"Well, then, what do you advise?"
"Wait."
"Hey?"
"He won't run. I--well, in fact, I could have shipped him off before this
happened, and tried to persuade him to go."
"The deuce you did!"
"Yes, but he refused. And he won't budge now. My advice is--wait, and
pick a strong sheriff for next year. There's a neighbour of Tillie's--
William Symons, of Hatt--you had best choose someone who doesn't belong to
our neighbourhood, for many reasons."
The minister nodded.
"Symons won't drop the business until he has pushed it through."
"I will make a note of his name."
So for four months Roger Stephen remained unmolested, Sir James Tillie
having received an answer from London requesting him to hold his hand.
And Sir John's counsel to the minister began to bear fruit even before the
new Sheriff took up the case. Until the day of the attack Roger's forces
had obeyed him cheerfully. They had volunteered to serve him, and put
themselves in jeopardy for his sake. His sense of gratitude had kept him
unusually amiable, and when a sullen fit took him his lieutenant
Trevarthen had served for an admirable buffer. Trevarthen was always
cheerful. But since Roger had tasted blood Trevarthen and Malachi agreed
that his temper had entirely changed. He was, in fact, mad; and daily
growing madder with confinement and brooding. What they saw was that his
temper could no longer be trusted. And while he grew daily more morose,
his supporters--left in idleness with the thought of what had been done--
began to wish themselves out of the mess. Without excitement to keep
their blood warm they had leisure to note Roger's ill humours and discuss
them, and to tell each other that he showed very little of the gratitude
he certainly owed them. Also, since it was certain that no further attack
could be delivered at less than a few hours warning, and since their own
affairs called them, the garrison divided itself into "shifts," one
mounting guard while the rest visited their homes. And when the men were
at home their wives talked to them.
Roger himself never put his nose beyond the defences. In all the years at
Helleston a sedentary life had not told on him; but it told on him now,
and rapidly. The true cause no doubt lay in his own sullen heart.
It is a fact, however, that by this time the state of Steens was
insanitary to a high degree and the well water polluted. At little cost
of labour the garrison could have tapped and led down one of the many
fresh springs on the hillside, but to this no thought was given. The man
grew gaunt and livid in colour, and his flesh began to sag inwards at the
back of the neck. By the middle of December he was far gone in what is
now called Bright's disease, and with this disease the madness in his
brain kept pace.
The crisis came with the New Year. Rumours had already reached Steens
that the new Sheriff meant business, and was collecting a regiment at
Plymouth to march westward as soon as he took up office; also that Mrs.
Stephen had travelled down ahead of him and taken lodgings at a farmhouse
on the near side of Truro in readiness to witness her triumph.
Confident now that no danger threatened before the New Year, all but ten
of the garrison--but these ten included the faithful (and unmarried)
Trevarthen--had dispersed to their homes to keep Christmas.
Early in the morning of New Year's Day Trevarthen suggested riding into
Helleston to purchase fresh meat, their stock of which had run low with
the Christmas feasting. He had made many such expeditions--always,
however, with an escort of four or five; for although the Justices held
their hands, and made no attempt to arrest the dispersed conspirators in
their own homes but suffered them there to go about their private
occupations, the purchase of victuals for the besieged house was another
matter, and rumour had more than once come to Steens that the Helleston
constables meant to challenge it by force. So to-day, with Roger's leave,
Trevarthen withdrew five of the garrison and rode off, leaving but four
men on guard--Roger himself, Malachi, a labourer named Pascoe, and one
Hickory Rodda--a schoolmaster from Wendron, whose elder brother,
Nathaniel, a small farmer from the same parish, went with the expedition.
The short day passed quietly enough, if tediously. Roger spent the
morning in melting down lead for bullets and running it into moulds.
Long strips from the roof and even some of the casement lattices had gone
to provide his arsenal against the next assault; and at the worst he fully
meant to turn to his father's stacks of silver coin in the locked cellar.
That afternoon he shut himself up with his Bible, and read until the print
hurt his eyes. Then in the waning light he took his hat and started for a
stroll around the back defences and out-buildings.
His way led through the kitchen, where Jane, the cook--the only woman left
at Steens--was peeling potatoes for the night's supper; and there beside
the open hearth sat Hickory Rodda writing by the glow of it, huddled on a
stool with a sheet of paper on his knee.
At Roger's entrance the young man--he was scarce twenty, long-legged,
overgrown, and in bearing somewhat furtive--slipped a hand over the
writing and affected to stare into the fire.
"Hey? What's that you're doing?"
"Nun--nothing, Mr. Stephen; nothing particular--that is, I was writing a
letter."
"Hand it over."
Hickory rose, upsetting his stool, and began to back away.
"'Tis a private letter I was writing to a friend."
Roger gripped him by the collar, plucked the paper from him, and took it
to the door for better light. As he read the dark blood surged up in his
neck and face. It was addressed to Lady Piers--a foul letter, full of
obscene abuse and threats. Roger cast back one look at its author, and
from the doorway shouted into the yard--
"Malachi! Pascoe!"
His voice was terrible. The two men heard it at their posts, and came
running.
"Fetch a wain-rope!" He caught Hickory by the collar again, and forced his
face up to the window against the red rays of the level sun. "Look on
that, you dirt! And look your last on it! Nay, you shall see it once
more, as you swing yonder."
He pointed across the courtlage to the boughs of an ash tree in the
corner, naked against the sky, and with that began to drag the youth
through the passage to the front door. Pascoe, not staying to comprehend,
had run for a rope. But Malachi and Jane the cook broke into cries of
horror.
"Nay, master, nay--you'll do no such thing--you cannot! Let the poor boy
go: he's half dead already."
"'Cannot'? I'll see if I cannot!" grunted Roger, and panted with rage.
"Open the door, you! He'll hang, I tell you, afore this sun goes down."
"Surely, surely, master--'tis a sin unheard of! The good Lord deliver us;
'tis mad you be to think of it!"
"Mad, am I? P'raps so, but 'twill be an ill madness for this coward."
He spurned the dragging body with his foot. "Ah, here's Pascoe! Quick,
you: swarm up the tree here, and take a hitch round that branch. See the
one I mean?--the third up. Take your hitch by the knot yonder, but climb
out first and see if it bears."
"What for?" demanded Pascoe stolidly.
"Oh, stifle you and your questions! Can't you see what for?"
"Iss," Pascoe answered, "I reckon I see, and I ben't goin' to do it."
"Look here,"--Roger drew a pistol from his pocket, "who's master here--you
or I?"
Malachi had run to the gate, and was dragging at the baulks of timber,
shouting vain calls for help into the road. Jane had fled screaming
through the house and out into the backyard. Pascoe alone kept his head.
It seemed to him that he heard the distant tramp of horses.
He looked up towards the bough.
"'Tis a cruel thing to order," said he, "and my limbs be old; but seemin'
to me I might manage it."
He began to climb laboriously, rope in hand. As his eyes drew level with
the wall's coping he saw to his joy Trevarthen's troop returning along the
road, though not from the direction he had expected. Better still, the
next moment they saw him on the bough, dark against the red sky.
One rider waved his whip.
He dropped the rope as if by accident, crying out at his clumsiness.
"Curse your bungling!" yelled Roger, and stooped to pick it up.
Pascoe descended again, full of apologies. He had used the instant well.
The riders had seen the one frantic wave of his hand, and were galloping
down the lane towards the rear of the house.
Had Roger, as the sound of hoofs reached him, supposed it to be
Trevarthen's troop returning, he might yet have persisted. But Trevarthen
had ridden towards Helleston, and these horsemen came apparently out of
the north. His thoughts flew at once to a surprise, and he shouted to
Pascoe and Malachi to get their guns and hurry to their posts. The youth
at his feet lay in a swoon of terror. He kicked the body savagely and
ran, too, for his gun.
Half a minute later Jane came screaming back through the house.
"Oh, master--they've caught her! They've caught her!"
"Caught whom?"
"Why, Jezebel herself! They've got her in the yard at this moment, and
Master Trevarthen's a-bringing her indoors!"