THE CAMP IN THE COMB.
Our camping-place, when I awoke in the morning, I found to be near
the head of a most beautiful comb or valley among the Black Down
Hills. I knew it not at the time, but it was not far from that
old Roman stronghold which we had passed on our way to Taunton,
called Castle Ratch. The hills on the Somerset side are of a gentle
or gradual slope, and the valley was not deep, but yet, where we
lay, so grown over with trees as to afford a complete shelter and
hiding-place, while at our feet the brook took its rise in a green
quagmire and began to make its way downwards among ferns and bushes,
and through a wild, uncultivated country, beyond which the farms
and fields began. The birds were singing, the sun was already high,
and the air was warm, though there was a fresh breeze blowing. The
warmth and sweetness filled my soul when I awoke, and I sat up with
joy, until suddenly I remembered why we were here, and who were
here with me. Then my heart sank like a lump of lead in water. I
looked around. My father lay just as he had been lying all the day
before, motionless, white of cheek, and as one dead, save for the
slight motion of his chest and the twitching of his nostril. As I
looked at him in the clear morning light, it was borne in upon me
very strongly that he was indeed dead, inasmuch as his soul seemed
to have fled. He saw nothing, he felt nothing. If the flies crawled
over his eyelids he made no sign of disturbance; yet he breathed,
and from time to time he murmured--but as one that dreameth. Beside
him lay my mother sleeping, worn out by the fatigues of the night.
Barnaby had spread his coat to cover her so that she should not take
cold, and he had piled a little heap of dead leaves to make her a
pillow. He was lying at her feet, head on arm, sleeping heavily.
What should be done, I wondered, when next he woke?
First I went down the comb a little way till the stream was deep
enough, and there I bathed my feet, which were swollen and bruised
by the long walk up the comb. Though it was in the midst of so
much misery there was a pleasure of dabbling my feet in the cool
water and afterwards of walking about barefoot in the grass. I
disturbed an adder which was sleeping on a flat stone in the sun,
and it lifted its venomous head and hissed, but did not spring upon
me. Then I washed my face and hands and made my hair as smooth as
without a comb it was possible. When I had done this I remembered
that perhaps my father might be thirsty or at least able to drink,
though he seemed no more to feel hunger or thirst. So I filled
the tin pannikin--it was Barnaby's--with water and tried to pour
a little into his mouth. He seemed to swallow it, and I gave him
a little more until he would swallow no more. Observe that he
took no other nourishment than a little water, wine, or milk, or
a few drops of broth until the end. So I covered his face with a
handkerchief to keep off the flies, and left him. Then I looked into
the basket. All that there was in it would not be more than enough
for Barnaby's breakfast, unless his appetite should fail him by
reason of fear; though, in truth, he had no fear being captured, or
of anything else. There was in it a piece of bacon, a large loaf of
bread, a lump of cheese, a bottle of cider; nothing more. When these
provisions were gone, what next? Could we venture into the nearest
village and buy food, or to the first farm-house? Then we might fall
straight into the jaws of the enemy, who were probably running over
the whole country in search of the fugitives. Could we buy without
money? Could we beg without arousing suspicions? If the people were
well-inclined to the Protestant cause we might trust them. But how
could we tell that? So in my mind I turned over everything except
the one thing which might have proved our salvation, and that you
shall hear directly. Also, which was a very strange thing, I quite
forgot that I had upon me, tied by a string round my waist and well
concealed, Barnaby's bag of gold--two hundred and fifty pieces.
Thus there was money enough and to spare. I discovered, next, that
our pony had run away in the night. The cart was there, but no pony
to drag it. Well, it was not much; but it seemed an additional
burden to bear. I ventured a little way up the valley, following a
sheep-track which mounted higher and higher. I saw no sign anywhere
of man's presence; that, I take it, is marked in woods by circles of
burnt cinders, by trees felled, by bundles of broom or fern tied up,
or by shepherds' huts. Here there was nothing at all; you would have
said that the place had never been visited by man. Presently I came
to a place where the woods ceased, the last of the trees being much
stunted and blown over from the west; and then the top of the hill
began, not a sharp pico or point, but a great open plain, flat, or
swelling out here and there with many of the little hillocks which
people say are ancient tombs. And no trees at all, but only bare
turf, so that one could see a great way off. But there was no sign
of man anywhere: no smoke in the comb at my feet; no shepherd on
the hill. At this juncture of our fortunes any stranger might be an
enemy; therefore I returned, but so far well pleased.
Barnaby was now awake, and was inspecting the basket of provisions.
'Sister,' he said, 'we must go upon half rations for breakfast; but
I hope, unless my skill fails, to bring you something better for
supper. The bread you shall have, and mother. The bacon may keep
till to-morrow. The cider you had better keep against such times
as you feel worn out and want a cordial, though a glass of Nantz
were better, if Nantz grew in the woods.' He looked around as if to
see whether a miracle would not provide him with a flask of strong
drink, but, seeing none, shook his head.
'As for me,' he went on, 'I am a sailor, and I understand how to
forage. Therefore, yesterday, foreseeing that the provisions might
give out, I dropped the shank of the ham into my pocket. Now you
shall see.'
He produced this delicate morsel, and, sitting down, began to gnaw
and to bite into the bone with his strong teeth, exactly like a dog.
This he continued, with every sign of satisfaction, for a quarter of
an hour or so, when he desisted, and replaced the bone in his pocket.
'We throw away the bones,' he said. 'The dogs gnaw them and devour
them. Think you that it is for their amusement? Not so; but for the
juices and the nourishment that are in and around the bone; for the
marrow and for the meat that still will stick in odd corners.' He
went down to the stream with the pannikin and drank a cup or two of
water to finish what they called a horse's meal--namely, the food
first and the water afterwards.
'And now,' he added, 'I have breakfasted. It is true that I am still
hungry, but I have eaten enough to carry me on for a while. Many a
poor lad cast away on a desert shore would find a shank of a ham a
meal fit for a king; aye, and a meal or two after that. I shall make
a dinner presently off this bone; and I shall still keep it against
a time when there may be no provision left.'
Then he looked about him, shading his eyes with his hand. 'Let us
consider,' he said. 'The troopers, I take it, are riding along the
roads. Whether they will ride over these hills, I know not; but I
think they will not, because their horses cannot well get up these
combs. Certainly, if they do, it will not be by the way we came. We
are here, therefore, hidden away snug. Why should we budge? Nowhere
is there a more deserted part of the country than Black Down, on
whose side we are. And I do not think, further, that we should
find anywhere a safer place to hide ourselves in than this comb,
where, I dare to say, no one comes, unless it be the gipsies or the
broom-squires, all the year round. And now they are all laden with
the spoil of the army--for, after a battle, this gentry swoop down
upon the field like the great birds which I have seen abroad upon
the carcases of drowned beasts, and plunder the dead. Next they must
go into town in order to sell their booty; then they will be fain to
drink about till all is spent; so they will leave us undisturbed.
Therefore, we will stay here, Sister. First, I will go and try the
old tricks by which I did often in the old time improve the fare
at home. Next, I will devise some way of making a more comfortable
resting-place. Thank the Lord for fine weather, so far.'
He was gone a couple of hours. During that time my mother awoke. Her
mind was broken by the suddenness of this trouble, and she cared
no more to speak, sitting still by the side of her husband, and
watching for any change in him. But I persuaded her to take a little
bread and a cup of cider.
When Barnaby came back, he brought with him a blackbird, a thrush,
and two wood-pigeons. He had not forgotten the tricks of his
boyhood, when he would often bring home a rabbit, a hare, or a
basket of trout. So that my chief terror, that we might be forced
to abandon our hiding-place through sheer hunger, was removed. But
Barnaby was full of all kinds of devices.
He then set to work with his great knife, cutting down a quantity of
green branches, which he laid out side by side, with their leaves
on, and then bound them together, cleverly interlacing the smaller
shoots and branches with each other, so that he made a long kind of
hurdle, about six feet high. This, which by reason of the leaves
was almost impervious to the wind, he disposed round the trunks of
three young trees growing near each other. Thus he made a small
three-cornered inclosure. Again, he cut other and thicker branches,
and laid them over and across this hurdle, and cut turf which he
placed upon the branches, so that here was now a hut with a roof and
walls complete. Said I not that Barnaby was full of devices?
'There,' he said, when all was ready, 'is a house for you. It will
have to rain hard and long before the water begins to drop through
the branches which make the roof and the slabs of turf. Well, 'tis a
shelter. Not so comfortable as the old cottage, perhaps, but nearly
as commodious. If it is not a palace, it will serve us to keep off
the sun by day and the dew by night.'
Next he gathered a great quantity of dry fern, dead leaves, and
heather, and these he disposed within the hut, so that they made a
thick and warm carpet or covering. Nay, at night they even formed
a covering for the feet and prevented one from feeling cold. When
all was done, he lifted my father gently and laid him with great
tenderness upon this carpet within the rude shelter.
'This shall be a warmer night for thee than the last, Dad,' he said.
'There shall be no jolting of thy poor bones. What, mother? We can
live here till the cold weather comes. The wind will perhaps blow
a bit through the leaves to-night, but not much, and to-morrow I
will see to that. Be easy in your mind about the provisions'--Alas!
my poor mother was thinking of anything in the world except the
provisions--'There are rabbits and birds in plenty; we can catch
them and eat them; bread we must do without when what we have is
gone, and as for strong drink and tobacco'--he sighed heavily--'they
will come again when better times are served out.'
In these labours I helped as much as I was able, and particularly
in twisting the branches together. And thus the whole day passed,
not tediously, and without any alarms, the labour being cheered by
the hopefulness of Barnaby's honest face. No one, to look at that
face, could believe that he was flying for his life, and would be
hanged if he was caught. After sunset we lit a fire, but a small one
only, and well hidden by the woods, so that its light might not be
seen from below. Then Barnaby dexterously plucked and trussed the
birds and roasted them in the embers, so that had my heart been at
rest I should have had a most delicious supper. And I confess that
I did begin to pluck up a little courage, and to hope that we might
yet escape, and that Robin might be living. After supper my mother
prayed, and I could join with more of resignation and something of
faith. Alas! in times of trial how easily doth the Christian fall
from faith! The day before, prayer seemed to me a mockery; it was as
if all prayer were addressed to a deaf God, or to one who will not
hear; for our prayers had all been for safety and victory, and we
were suddenly answered with disaster and defeat.
After supper, Barnaby sat beside the embers and began to talk in a
low voice.
''Twill be a sorrowful barley-mow song this year,' he said; 'a dozen
brave lads from Bradford alone will be dead.'
'Not all dead, Barnaby! Oh! not all!'
'I know not. Some are prisoners, some are dead, some are running
away.' Then he began to sing in a low voice,
'Here's a health to the barley-mow--
I remember, Sister, when I would run a mile to hear that song,
though my father flogged me for it in the morning. 'Tis the best
song ever written.' He went on singing in a kind of whisper--
'We'll drink it out of the nipperkin, boys--
Robin--poor Robin! he is dead!--was a famous hand at singing it; but
Humphrey found the words too rustical. Humphrey--who is now dead,
too!--was ever for fine words, like Mr. Boscorel.
'We'll drink it out of the jolly brown bowl--
'I think I see him now--poor Robin! Well; he is no more. He used to
laugh in all our faces while he sang it:--
'We'll drink it out o' the river, my boys.
Here's a health to the barley-mow!
The river, the well, the pipe, the hogshead, the half-
Hogshead, the anker, the half-anker, the gallon, the
Pottle, the quart, the pint, the half-pint, the quarter-
Pint, the nipperkin, the jolly brown bowl, my boys,
Here's a health to the barley-mow!'
He trolled out the song in a melodious whisper. Oh! Barnaby, how
didst thou love good companionship with singing and drinking!
''Twill be lonely for thee, Sister, at Bradford when thou dost
return; Sir Christopher, I take it, will not long hold up his head,
and Madam will pine away for the loss of Robin, and mother looks as
if she would follow after, so white and wan is she. If she would
speak or complain or cry it would comfort her, poor soul! 'Twas a
sad day for her when she married the poor old Dad. Poverty and hard
work, and now a cruel end--poor mother!'
'Barnaby, you tear my heart!'
'Nay, Child, 'tis better to talk than to keep silence. Better have
your heart torn than be choked with your pain. Thou art like unto a
man who hath a wounded leg, and if he doth not consent to have it
cut off, though the anguish be sharp, he will presently bleed to
death. Say to thyself therefore, plain and clear, "Robin is dead; I
have lost my sweetheart."'
'No--no--Barnaby--I cannot say those cruel words! Oh! I cannot say
them; I cannot feel that Robin is truly dead!'
'Put the case that he is living. Then he is either a prisoner or
he is in hiding. If a prisoner, he is as good as dead; because the
Duke's officers and the gentlemen who joined him, they will never
forgive--that is quite certain. If I were a prisoner I should feel
my neck already tightened. If he is not a prisoner, where is he to
hide?--whither betake himself? I can get sailors' duds and go abroad
before the mast; and ten to one nobody will find me out, because,
d'ye see, I can talk the sailors' language, and I know their manners
and customs. But Robin--what is Robin to do, if he is alive? And
this, I say, is doubtful. Best say to thyself, "I have lost my
sweetheart." So wilt thou all the sooner recover thy cheerfulness.'
'Barnaby, you know not what you say! Alas! if my Robin is dead--if
my boy is truly dead--then I ask for nothing more than swift
death--speedy death--to join him and be with him!'
'If he escape he will make for Bradford Orcas and hide in the Corton
woods. That is quite certain. They always make for home. I would
that we were in that friendly place, so that you could go live in
the cottage and bring provisions, with tobacco and drink, to us
unsuspected and unseen. When we have rested here a while we will
push across the hills and try to get there by night; but it is
a weary way to drag that wounded man. However'--he broke off and
said earnestly--'make up thy mind, Child, to the worst. 'Tis as if
a shipwrecked man should hope that enough of the ship would float
to carry him home withal. Make up thy mind. We are all ruined and
lost--all--all--all. Thy father is dying--thy lover is dead--thou
art thyself in great danger by reason of that affair at Taunton.
Everything being gone, turn round therefore and make thyself as
comfortable as possible. What will happen we know not. Therefore
count every day of safety for gain, and every meal for a respite.'
He was silent for a while, leaving me to think over what he had
said. Here, indeed, was a philosopher. Things being all lost, and
our affairs in a desperate condition, we were to turn round and
make ourselves as comfortable as we could! This, I suppose, is what
sailors are wont to do; certainly they are a folk more exposed to
misfortune than others, and therefore, perhaps, more ready to make
the best of whatever happens.
'Barnaby,' I said presently, 'how can I turn round and make myself
comfortable?'
'The evening is still,' he said, without replying. 'See, there is a
bat, and there another. If it were not for the trouble in there'--he
pointed to the hut--'I should be easy in my mind and contented. I
could willingly live here a twelvemonth. Why, compared with the lot
of the poor devils who must now be in prison, what is ours? They
get the foul and stinking clink, with bad food, in the midst of
wounded men whose hurts are putrefying, with jail fever, and with
the whipping-post or the gallows to come. We breathe sweet air, we
find sufficient food--to-morrow, if I know any of the signs, thou
shalt taste a roasted hedgehog, dish fit for a king! I found at
the bottom of the comb a pot left by some gipsies: thou shalt have
boiled sorrel and mushrooms to thy supper. If we stay here long
enough there will be nuts and blackberries and whortleberries. Pity,
a thousand pities, there is not a drop of drink! I dream of punch
and hipsy. Think upon what remains, even if thou canst not bear to
think of what is lost. Hast ever seen a tall ship founder in the
waves? They close over her as she sinks, and, in an instant, it is
as if that tall ship with all her crew had never been in existence
at all. The army of Monmouth is scattered and ruined. Well; it is,
with us, amidst these woods, just as if there had been no army. It
has been a dream perhaps. Who can tell? Sometimes all the past seems
to have been a dream. It is all a dream--past and future. There is
no past and there is no future; all is a dream. But the present we
have. Let us be content therewith.'
He spoke slowly and with measured accents as one enchanted.
Sometimes Barnaby was but a rough and rude sailor. At other times,
as these, he betrayed signs of his early education and spoke as one
who thought.
'It is ten years and more since last I breathed the air of the
hills. I knew not that I loved so much the woods and valleys and the
streams. Some day, if I survive this adventure, I will build me a
hut and live here alone in the woods. Why, if I were alone I should
have an easy heart. If I were driven out of one place I could find
another. I am in no hurry to get down among men and towns. Let us
all stay here and be happy. But there is Dad--who lives not, yet is
not dead. Sister, be thankful for thy safety in the woods, and think
not too much upon the dead.'
We lived in this manner, the weather being for the most part
fine and warm, but with showers now and then, for a fortnight or
thereabouts, no one coming up the comb and there being still no sign
of man's presence in the hills. Our daily fare consisted of the
wild birds snared by Barnaby, such creatures as rabbits, hedgehogs,
and the like, which he caught by ingenious ways, and trout from the
brook which he caught with a twisted pin or by tickling them with
his hand. There were also mushrooms and edible leaves, such as the
nettle, wild sorrel, and the like of which he knew. These we boiled
and ate. He also plucked the half-ripe blackberries and boiled them
to make a sour drink, and one which, like the cider loved by our
people, would grip his throat because he could not endure plain
cold water. And he made out of the bones of the birds a kind of
thin broth for my father, of which he daily swallowed a teaspoonful
or so. So that we fared well, if not sumptuously. The bread, to be
sure, which Barnaby left for mother and me, was coming to the last
crust, and I know not how we should have got more without venturing
into the nearest village.
Now, as I talked every night with my brother, I found out what a
brave and simple soul it was--always cheerful and hopeful, talking
always as if we were the most fortunate people in the world, instead
of the most miserable, and yet by keeping the truth before me,
preventing me from getting into another Fool's Paradise as to our
safety and Robin's escape, such as that into which I had fallen
after the army marched out of Taunton. I understand now, that he
was always thinking how to smooth and soften things for us, so that
we might not go distracted with anxiety and grief; finding work for
me, talking about other things--in short, the most thoughtful and
affectionate brother in all the world. As for my mother, he could
do nothing to move her. She still sat beside her wounded husband,
watching all day long for any sign of consciousness or change.
Seeing that Barnaby was so good and gentle a creature, I could not
understand how it was that in the old days he used to get a flogging
most days for some offence or other, so that I had grown up to
believe him a very wicked boy indeed. I put this question to him one
night.
He put it aside for a while, replying in his own fashion.
'I remember Dad,' he said, 'before thou canst, Sister. He was always
thin and tall, and he always stooped as he walked. But his hair,
which now is white, was brown, and fell in curls which he could not
straighten. He was always mighty grave; no one, I am sure, ever saw
him laugh; I have never seen him so much as smile, except sometimes
when he dandled thee upon his knee, and thou wouldst amuse him with
innocent prattle. All his life he hath spent in finding out the way
to Heaven. He did find the way--I suppose he hath truly discovered
it--and a mighty thorny and difficult way it is, so that I know not
how any can succeed in reaching port by such navigation. The devil
of it is that he believes there is no other way; and he seemed never
so happy as when he had found another trap or pitfall to catch the
unwary, and send them straight to hell.
'For my part,' Barnaby went on slowly, 'I could never love such
a life. Let others, if they will, find out rough and craggy ways
that lead to heaven. For my part, I am content to jog along the
plain and smooth high road with the rest of mankind, though it
brings us in the end to a lower place, inhabited by the baser sort.
Well, I dare say I shall find mates there, and we will certainly
make ourselves as comfortable as the place allows. Let my father,
therefore, find out what awaits him in the other world; let me take
what comes in this. Some of it is sweet and some is bitter; some
of it makes us laugh and sing and dance; and some makes us curse
and swear and bellow out, as when one is lashed to the hatches
and the cat falls on his naked back. Sometimes, Sister, I think
the naked negroes of the Guiney Coast the happiest people in the
world. Do they trouble their heads about the way to heaven? Not
they. What comes they take, and they ask no more. Has it made Dad
the happier to find out how few are those who will sit beside him
when he hath his harp and crown? Not so. He would have been happier
if he had been a jolly ploughboy whistling to his team, or a jolly
sailor singing over his pannikin of drink of a Saturday night. He
tried to make me follow in his footsteps; he flogged me daily in
the hope of making me take, like himself, to the trade of proving
out of the Holy Bible that most people are surely damned. The more
he flogged, the less I yearned after that trade; till at last I
resolved that, come what would, I would never thump a pulpit like
him in conventicle or church. Then, if you will believe me, Sister,
I grew tired of flogging, which, when it comes every day, wearies a
boy at fourteen or fifteen more than you would think. Now, one day,
while I was dancing to the pipe and tabor with some of the village
girls, as bad luck would have it, Dad came by. "Child of Satan!"
he roared, seizing me by the ear, which I verily thought he would
have pulled off. Then to the girls, "Your laughter shall be turned
into mourning," and so lugged me home and sent me supperless to bed,
with the promise of such a flogging in the morning as should make
all previous floggings seem mere fleabites or joyous ticklings in
comparison. This decided me. So in the dead of night I crept softly
down the stairs, cut myself a great hunch of bread and cheese, and
ran away and went to sea.'
'Barnaby, was it well done--to run away?'
'Well, Sister, 'tis done; and if it was ill done, 'tis by this time,
no doubt, forgotten. Now, remember, I blame not my father. Before
all things he would save my soul alive. That was why he flogged
me. He knew but one way, and along that way he would drive me. So
he flogged me the harder. I blame him not. Yet had I remained he
would doubtless be flogging me still. Now, remember again, that ever
since I understood anything I have always been enraged to think upon
the monstrous oppression which silenced him and brought us all to
poverty, and made my mother, a gentlewoman born, work her fingers to
the bone, and caused me to choose between being a beggarly scholar,
driven to teach brats and endure flouts and poverty, or to put on an
apron and learn a trade. Wherefore when I found that Monmouth was
going to hoist his flag, I came with him in order to strike a blow,
and I hoped a good blow, too, at the oppressors.'
'You have struck that blow, Barnaby, and where are we?'
He laughed.
'We are in hiding. Some of the King's troopers did I make to bite
the dust. They may hang me for it, if they will. They will not bring
those troopers back to life. Well----Sister, I am sleepy. Good
night!'
We might have continued this kind of life I know not how much
longer. Certainly, till the cold nights came. The weather continued
fine and warm; the hut kept off dews at night; we lay warm among
the heather and the ferns; Barnaby found a sufficiency of food; my
father grew no worse, to outward seeming; and we seemed in safety.
Then an ill chance and my own foolishness marred all.
One day, in the afternoon, Barnaby being away looking after his
snares and gins, I heard, lower down the comb, voices as of
boys talking. This affrighted me terribly. The voices seemed to
be drawing nearer. Now if the children came up as high as our
encampment, they could not fail to see the signs of habitation.
There was the hut among the trees and the iron pot standing among
the grey embers of last night's fire. The cart stood on one side.
We could not possibly remain hidden. If they should come up so far
and find us, they would certainly carry the report of us down to the
village.
I considered, therefore, what to do, and then ran quickly down the
comb, keeping among the trees so as not to be seen.
After a little I discovered, a little way off, a couple of boys
about nine years of age. They were common village boys, rosy
faced and wholesome: they carried a basket, and they were slowly
making their way up the stream, stopping now to throw a stone at a
squirrel, and now to dam the running water, and now to find a nut or
filbert ripe enough to be eaten. By the basket which they carried
I knew that they were come in search of whortleberries, for which
purpose they would have to get quite to the end of the comb and the
top of the hill.
Therefore, I stepped out of the wood and asked them whence they came
and whither they were going.
They told me in plain Somersetshire (the language which I love,
and would willingly have written this book in it, but for the
unfortunate people who cannot understand it) that they were sent by
their parents to get whortleberries, and that they came from the
little village of Corfe, two miles down the valley. This was all
they had to say, and they stared at me as shyly as if they had never
before encountered a stranger. I clearly perceive now that I ought
to have engaged them in conversation and drawn them gently down the
valley in the direction of their village until we reached the first
appearance of a road, when I could have bidden them farewell or sent
them up the hill by another comb. But I was so anxious that they
should not come up any higher that I committed a great mistake, and
warned them against going on.
'Boys,' I said, 'beware! If you go higher up the comb you will
certainly meet wild men, who always rob and beat boys;' here they
trembled, though they had not a penny in the world. 'Ay, boys! and
sometimes have been known to murder them. Turn back--turn back--and
come no farther.'
The boys were very much frightened, partly at the apparition of a
stranger where they expected to find no one, and partly at the news
of wild and murderous men in a place where they had never met with
anyone at all, unless it might have been a gipsy camp. After gazing
at me stupidly for a little while they turned and ran away, as fast
as their legs could carry them, down the comb.
I watched them running, and when they were out of sight I went back
again, still disquieted, because they might return.
When I told Barnaby in the evening, he, too, was uneasy. For, he
said, the boys would spread abroad the report that there were people
in the valley. What people could there be but fugitives?
'Sister,' he said, 'to-morrow morning must we change our quarters.
On the other side of the hills looking south, or to the east
in Neroche Forest, we may make another camp, and be still more
secluded. For to-night I think we are in safety.'
What happened was exactly as Barnaby thought. For the lads ran home
and told everybody that up in the comb there were wild men who
robbed and murdered people: that a lady had come out of the wood
and warned them to go no farther, lest they should be robbed and
murdered. They were certain it was a lady, and not a country-woman;
nor was it a witch; nor a fairy or elf, of whom there are many on
Black Down. No; it was a lady.
This strange circumstance set the villagers a-talking; they talked
about it at the inn, whither they nightly repaired.
[Illustration: '_"Boys," I said, "beware; if you go up higher you
will certainly meet wild men."_']
In ordinary times they might have talked about it to their heart's
content, and no harm done; but in these times talk was dangerous.
In every little village there are one or two whose wits are sharper
than the rest, and, therefore, they do instigate whatever mischief
is done in that village. At Corfe, the cobbler it was who did
the mischief. For he sat thinking while the others talked, and he
presently began to understand that there was more in this than his
fellows imagined. He knew the hills; there were no wild men upon
them who would rob and murder two simple village boys. Gipsies there
were, and broom-squires sometimes, and hedge-tearers: but murderers
of boys--none. And who was this gentlewoman? Then he guessed the
whole truth: there were people lying hidden in the comb; if people
hidden, they were Monmouth's rebels. A reward would be given for
their capture. Fired with this thought he grasped his cudgel and
walked off to the village of Orchard Portman, where, as he had
heard, there was lying a company of Grenadiers sent out to scour
the country. He laid his information, and received the promise of
reward. He got that reward, in short; but nothing prospered with
him afterwards. His neighbours, who were all for Monmouth, learned
what he had done, and shunned him. He grew moody; he fell into
poverty, who had been a thriving tradesman; and he died in a ditch.
The judgments of the Lord are sometimes swift and sometimes slow,
yet they are always sure. Who can forget the dreadful end of Tom
Boilman, as he was called, the only wretch who could be found to
cut up the limbs of the hanged men and dip them in the cauldrons of
pitch? For he was struck dead by lightning--an awful instance of the
wrath of God!
Early next morning, about five of the clock, I sat before the hut
in the shade. Barnaby was up and had gone to look at his snares.
Suddenly I heard steps below, and the sound as of weapons clashing
against each other. Then a man came into sight--a fellow he was with
a leathern apron, who stood gazing about him. There was no time for
me to hide, because he immediately saw me and shouted to them behind
to come on quickly. Then a dozen soldiers, all armed, ran out of the
wood and made for the hut.
'Gentlemen,' I cried, running to meet them, 'whom seek you?'
'Who are you?' asked one, who seemed to be a Sergeant over them.
'Why are you in hiding?'
Then a thought struck me. I know not if I was wise or foolish.
'Sir,' I replied, 'my father, it is true, was with the Duke of
Monmouth. But he was wounded, and now lies dead in this hut. You
will suffer us to bury our dead in peace.'
'Dead is he? That will we soon see.'
So saying, he entered the hut and looked at the prostrate form. He
lifted one hand and let it drop. It fell like the hand of one who
is recently dead. He bent over the body and laid his hand upon the
forehead. It was cold as death. The lips were pale as wax, and the
cheeks were white. He opened an eye: there was no expression of
light in it.
'Humph!' he said; 'he seems dead. How did he come here?'
'My mother and I drove him here for safety in yonder cart. The pony
hath run away.'
'That may be so; that may be so. He is dressed in a cassock: what is
his name?'
'He was Dr. Comfort Eykin, an ejected minister and preacher in the
Duke's army.'
'A prize, if he had been alive!' Then a sudden suspicion seized him.
He had in his hand a drawn sword. He pointed it at the breast of the
dead man. 'If he be truly dead,' he said, 'another wound will do him
no harm. Wherefore'--he made as if he would drive the sword through
my father's breast, and my mother shrieked and threw herself across
the body.
'So!' he said, with a horrid grin, 'I find that he is not dead, but
only wounded. My lads, here is one of Monmouth's preachers; but he
is sore wounded.'
'Oh!' I cried, 'for the love of God suffer him to die in peace!'
'Ay, ay, he shall die in peace, I promise you so much. Meanwhile,
Madam, we will take better care of him in Ilminster Jail than you
can do here. The air is raw upon these hills.' The fellow had a glib
tongue and a mocking manner. 'You have none of the comforts which a
wounded man requires. They are all to be found in Ilminster prison,
whither we shall carry him. There will he have nothing to think
about, with everything found for him. Madam, your father will be
well bestowed with us.'
At that moment I heard the footsteps of Barnaby crunching among the
brushwood.
'Fly! Barnaby, fly!' I shrieked. 'The enemy is upon us!'
He did not fly. He came running. He rushed upon the soldiers, and
hurled this man one way and that man another, swinging his long arms
like a pair of cudgels. Had he had a cudgel I believe he would have
sent them all flying. But he had nothing except his arms and his
fists; and in a minute or two the soldiers had surrounded him, each
with a bayonet pointed, and such a look in every man's eye as meant
murder had Barnaby moved.
'Surrender!' said the Sergeant.
Barnaby looked around leisurely.
'Well,' he said, 'I suppose I must. As for my name, it is Barnaby
Eykin; and, for my rank, I was Captain in the Green Regiment of the
Duke's valiant army.'
'Stop!' said the Sergeant, drawing a paper from his pocket.
'"Captain Eykin,"' he began to read, '"has been a sailor. Rolls in
his walk; height, about five foot five; very broad in the shoulders;
long in the arms; of great strength."'
'That is so,' said Barnaby, complacently.
'"Legs short and figure stumpy."'
'What?' cried Barnaby, 'stumpy?'
'"Legs short and figure stumpy,"' repeated the Sergeant reading.
'That is so set down is it? Then,' said Barnaby, looking down at his
limbs, ''twas a pity that, with such legs as these, I did not deny
my name. Call these short, brother?'