ON CONDITIONS.
This servitude endured for a week, during which we were driven forth
daily with the negroes to the hardest and most intolerable toil, the
master's intention being so to disgust us with the life as to make
us write the most urgent letters to our friends at home; since, as
we told him two hundred guineas had been already paid on our account
(though none of the money was used for the purpose), he supposed
that another two hundred could easily be raised. Wherefore, while
those of the new servants who were common country lads were placed
in the Ingenio, or the curing-house, where the work is sheltered
from the scorching sun, we were made to endure every hardship that
the place permitted. In the event, however, the man's greed was
disappointed and his cruelty made of none avail.
In fact, the thing I had foreseen quickly came to pass. When a man
lies in a lethargy of despair, his body, no longer fortified by a
cheerful mind, presently falls into any disease which is lurking
in the air. Diseases of all kinds may be likened unto wild beasts:
invisible, always on the prowl, seeking whom they may devour. The
young fall victims to some, the weak to others; the drunkards and
gluttons to others; the old to others; and the lethargic, again, to
others. It was not surprising to me, therefore, when Robin, coming
home one evening, fell to shivering and shaking, chattering with his
teeth, and showing every external sign of cold, though the evening
was still warm, and the sun had that day been more than commonly
hot. Also, he turned away from his food, and would eat nothing.
Therefore, as there was nothing we could give him, we covered him
with our rugs; and he presently fell asleep. But in the morning,
when we awoke, behold! Robin was in a high fever: his hands and
head burning hot, his cheek flushed red, his eyes rolling, and his
brain wandering. I went forth and called the overseer to come and
look at him. At first he cursed and swore, saying that the man was
malingering (that is to say, pretending to be sick, in order to
avoid work); that, if he was a negro instead of a gentleman, a few
cuts with his lash should shortly bring him to his senses; that, for
his part, he liked not this mixing of gentlemen with negroes; and
that, finally, I must go and bring forth my sick man or take it upon
myself to face the master, who would probably drive him afield with
the stick.
'Sir,' I said, 'what the master may do I know not. Murder may be
done by any who are wicked enough. For my part, I am a physician,
and I tell you that to make this man go forth to work will be
murder. But indeed he is light-headed, and with a thousand lashes
you could not make him understand or obey.'
Well, he grumbled, but he followed me into the hut.
'The man hath had a sunstroke,' he said. 'I wonder that any of you
have escaped. Well, we can carry him to the sick-house, where he
will die. When a new hand is taken this way he always dies.'
'Perhaps he will not die,' I said, 'if he is properly treated. If
he is given nothing but this diet of loblollie and salt beef, and
nothing to drink but the foul water of the pond, and no other doctor
than an ignorant old negress, he will surely die.'
'Good Lord, man!' said the fellow. 'What do you expect in this
country? It is the master's loss, not mine. Carry him between you to
the sick-house.'
So we carried Robin to the sick-house.
At home we should account it a barn, being a great place with a
thatched roof, the windows open, without shutter or lattice, the
door breaking away from its hinges. Within there was a black lying
on a pallet, groaning most piteously. The poor wretch, for something
that he had done, I know not what, had his flesh cut to pieces with
the whip. With him was an old negress mumbling and mouthing.
We laid Robin on another pallet, and covered him with a rug.
'Now, man,' said the overseer, 'leave him there, and come forth to
your work.'
'Nay,' I said, 'he must not be left. I am a physician, and I must
stay beside him.'
'If he were your son I would not suffer you to stay with him.'
'Man!' I cried. 'Hast thou no pity?'
'Pity!' The fellow grinned. 'Pity! quotha. Pity! Is this a place
for pity? Why, if I showed any pity I should be working beside you
in the fields. It is because I have no pity that I am overseer.
Look here'--he showed me his left hand, which had been branded
with a red-hot iron. 'This was done in Newgate seven years ago and
more. Three years more I have to serve. That done, I may begin
to show some pity. Not before. Pity is scarce among the drivers
of Barbadoes. As well ask the beadle for pity when he flogs a
'prentice.'
'Let me go to the master, then.'
'Best not; best not. Let this man die and keep yourself alive. The
morning is the worst time for him, because last night's drink is
still in his head. Likely as not you will but make the sick man's
case and your own worse. Leave him in the sick-house, and go back to
him in the evening.'
The man spoke with some compassion in his eyes. Just then, however,
a negro boy came running from the house and spoke to the overseer.
'Why,' he said, 'nothing could be more pat. You can speak to the
master, if you please. He is in pain, and Madam sends for Dr.
Humphrey Challis. Go, Doctor. If you cure him, you will be a lucky
man. If you cannot cure him, the Lord have mercy upon you! Whereas,
if you suffer him to die,' he added with a grin and a whisper,
'every man on the estate will fall down and worship you. Let him
die! Let him die!'
I followed the boy, who took me to that part of the house which
fronts the west and north. It was a mean house of wood, low and
small, considering how wealthy a man was the master of it; on three
sides, however, there was built out a kind of _loggia_, as the
Italians call it, of wood instead of marble, forming a cloister or
open chamber, outside the house. They call it a verandah, and part
of it they hang with mats made of grass, so as to keep it shaded
in the afternoon and evening, when the sun is in the west. The boy
brought me to this place, pointed to a chair where the master sat,
and then ran away as quickly as he could.
It was easy to understand why he ran away, because the master at
this moment sprang out of his chair and began to stamp up and down
the verandah, roaring and cursing. He was clad in a white linen
dressing-gown and linen nightcap. On a small table beside him stood
a bottle of beer, newly opened, and a silver tankard.
When he saw me he began to swear at me for my delay in coming,
though I had not lost a moment.
'Sir,' I said, 'if you will cease railing and blaspheming I will
examine into your malady. Otherwise I will do nothing for you.'
'What?' he cried. 'You dare to make conditions with me, you dog,
you!'
'Fair words,' I said. 'Fair words. I am your servant to work on
your plantation as you may command. I am not your physician; and I
promise you, Sir, upon the honour of a gentleman, and without using
the sacred name which is so often on your lips, that if you continue
to rail at me I will suffer you to die rather than stir a little
finger in your help.'
'Suffer the physician to examine the place,' said a woman's voice.
'What good is it to curse and to swear?'
The voice came from a hammock swinging at the end of the verandah.
It was made, I observed, of a land of coarse grass loosely woven.
The man sat down and sulkily bade me find a remedy for the pain
which he was enduring. So I consented and examined his upper jaw,
where I soon found out the cause of his pain in a good-sized tumour
formed over the fangs of a grinder. Such a thing causes agony even
to a person of cool blood, but to a man whose veins are inflamed
with strong drink the pain of it is maddening.
'You have got a tumour,' I told him. 'It has been forming for some
days. It has now nearly, or quite, reached its head. It began about
the time when you were cursing and insulting certain unfortunate
gentlemen, who are for a time under your power. Take it, therefore,
as a Divine judgment upon you for your cruelty and insolence.'
He glared at me, but said nothing, the hope of relief causing him to
receive this admonition with patience, if not in good part. Besides,
my finger was still upon the spot, and if I so much as pressed
gently I could cause him agony unspeakable. Truly, the power of the
physician is great.
'The pain,' I told him, 'is already grown almost intolerable. But
it will be much greater in a few hours unless something is done. It
is now like unto a little ball of red-hot fire in your jaw; in an
hour or two it will seem as if the whole of your face was a burning
fiery furnace; your cheek will swell out until your left eye is
closed; your tortures, which now make you bawl, will then make you
scream; you now walk about and stamp; you will then lie down on your
back and kick. No negro slave ever suffered half so much under your
accursed lash as you will suffer under this tumour--unless something
is done.'
'Doctor,' it was again the woman's voice from the hammock, 'you have
frightened him enough.'
'Strong drink,' I went on, pointing to the tankard, 'will only make
you worse. It inflames your blood and adds fuel to the raging fire.
Unless something is done the pain will be followed by delirium; that
by fever, and the fever by death. Sir, are you prepared for death?'
He turned horribly pale and gasped.
'Do something for me!' he said. 'Do something for me, and that
without more words!'
'Nay; but I will first make a bargain with you. There is in the
sick-house a gentleman, my cousin--Robin Challis by name--one of the
newly-arrived rebels, and your servant. He is lying sick unto death
of a sunstroke and fever caused by your hellish cruelty in sending
him out to work on the fields with the negroes instead of putting
him to light labour in the Ingenio or elsewhere. I say, his sickness
is caused by your barbarity. Wherefore I will do nothing for you at
all--do you hear? Nothing! nothing!--unless I am set free to do all
I can for him. Yea; and I must have such cordials and generous diet
as the place can afford, otherwise I will not stir a finger to help
you. Otherwise--endure the torments of the damned; rave in madness
and in fever. Die and go to your own place. I will not help you. So;
that is my last word.'
Upon this I really thought the man had gone stark, staring mad. For,
at the impudence of a mere servant (though a gentleman of far better
family than his own) daring to make conditions with him, he became
purple in the cheeks, and, seizing his great stick which lay on the
table, he began belabouring me with all his might about the head and
shoulders. But I caught up a chair and used it for a shield, while
he capered about, striking wildly and swearing most horribly.
At this moment the lady who was in the hammock stepped out of it
and walked towards us slowly, like a Queen. She was without any
doubt the most beautiful woman I had ever seen. She was dressed in
a kind of dressing-gown of flowered silk, which covered her from
head to foot; her head was adorned with the most lovely glossy
black ringlets; a heavy gold chain lay round her neck, and a chain
of gold with pearls was twined in her hair, so that it looked like
a coronet; her fingers were covered with rings, and gold bracelets
hung upon her bare white arms. Her figure was tall and full; her
face inclined to the Spanish, being full and yet regular, with large
black eyes. Though I was fighting with a madman, I could not resist
the wish that I could paint her, and I plainly perceived that she
was one of that race which is called Quadroon, being most likely the
daughter of a mulatto woman and a white father. This was evident by
the character of her skin, which had in it what the Italians call
the _morbidezza_, and by a certain dark hue under the eyes.
'Why,' she said, speaking to the master as if he had been a petulant
school-boy, 'you only make yourself worse by all this fury. Sit
down, and lay aside your stick. And you. Sir'--she addressed herself
to me--'you may be a great physician, and at home a gentleman; but
here you are a servant, and therefore bound to help your master in
all you can without first making conditions.'
'I know too well,' I replied, 'he bought me as his servant, but not
as his physician. I will not heal him without my fee; and my fee is
that my sick cousin be attended to with humanity.'
'Take him away!' cried the master, beside himself with rage. 'Clap
him in the stocks! Let him sit there all day long in the sun! He
shall have nothing to eat or to drink! In the evening he shall be
flogged! If it was the Duke of Monmouth himself, he should be tied
up and flogged! Where the devil are the servants?'
A great hulking negro came running.
'You have now,' I told him quietly, 'permitted yourself to be
inflamed with violent rage. The pain will therefore more rapidly
increase. When it becomes intolerable, you will be glad to send for
me.'
The negro dragged me away (but I made no resistance), and led me
to the courtyard, where stood the stocks and a whipping-post. He
pointed to the latter with a horrid grin, and then laid me fast in
the former. Fortunately, he left me my hat, otherwise the hot sun
would have made an end of me. I was, however, quite easy in my mind.
I knew that this poor wretch, who already suffered so horribly,
would before long feel in that jaw of his, as it were, a ball of
fire. He would drink, in order to deaden the pain; but the wine
would only make the agony more horrible. Then he would be forced to
send for me.
This, in fact, was exactly what he did.
I sat in those abominable stocks for no more than an hour. Then
Madam herself came to me, followed by the negro fellow who had
locked my heels in those two holes.
'He is now much worse,' she said. 'He is now in pain that cannot be
endured. Canst thou truly relieve his suffering?'
'Certainly I can. But on conditions. My cousin will die if he is
neglected. Suffer me to minister to his needs. Give him what I want
for him and I will cure your'--I did not know whether I might say
'your husband,' so I changed the words into--'my master. After that
I will cheerfully endure again his accursed cruelty of the fields.'
She bade the negro unlock the bar.
'Come,' she said. 'Let us hear no more about any bargains. I will
see to it that you are able to attend to your cousin. Nay, there
is an unfortunate young gentlewoman here, a rebel, and a servant
like yourself--for the last week she doth nothing but weep for the
misfortunes of her friends--meaning you and your company. I will ask
her to nurse the sick man. She will desire nothing better, being a
most tender-hearted woman. And as for you, it will be easy for you
to look after your cousin and your master at the same time.'
'Then, Madam,' I replied, 'take me to him, and I will speedily do
all I can to relieve him.'
I found my patient in a condition of mind and body most dangerous. I
wondered that he had not already fallen into a fit, so great was his
wrath and so dreadful his pain. He rolled his eyes; his cheeks were
purple; he clenched his fists; he would have gnashed his teeth but
for the pain in his jaws.
'Make yourself easy,' said Madam. 'This learned physician will cause
your pain to cease. I have talked with him and put him into a better
mind.'
The master shook his head as much as to say that a better mind would
hardly be arrived at without the assistance of the whipping-post;
but the emergency of the case prevented that indulgence. Briefly,
therefore, I took out my lancet and pierced the place, which
instantly relieved the pain. Then I placed him in bed, bled him
copiously, and forbade his taking anything stronger than small-beer.
Freedom from pain and exhaustion presently caused him to fall into
a deep and tranquil sleep. After all this was done I was anxious to
see Robin.
'Madam,' I said, 'I have now done all I can. He will awake at
noon, I dare say. Give him a little broth, but not much. There is
danger of fever. You had better call me again when he awakes. Warn
him solemnly that rage, revenge, cursing, and beating must be all
postponed until such time as he is stronger. I go to visit my cousin
in the sick-house, where I await your commands.'
'Sir,' she said courteously, 'I cannot sufficiently thank your skill
and zeal. You will find the nurse of whom I spoke in the sick-house
with your cousin. She took with her some cordial, and will tell
me what else you order for your patient. I hope your cousin may
recover. But, indeed'----she stopped and sighed.
'You would say, Madam, that it would be better for him and for us
all to die. Perhaps so. But we must not choose to die, but rather
strive to live, as more in accordance with the Word of God.'
'The white servants have been hitherto the common rogues and thieves
and sweepings of your English streets,' she said. 'Sturdy rogues
are they all, who fear naught but the lash, and have nothing of
tenderness left but tender skins. They rob and steal; they will not
work, save by compulsion; they are far worse than the negroes for
laziness and drunkenness. I know not why they are sent out, or why
the planters buy them, when the blacks do so much better serve their
turn, and they can without reproach beat and flog the negroes, while
to flog and beat the whites is by some accounted cruel.'
'All this, Madam, is doubtless true: but my friends are not the
sweepings of the street.'
'No, but you are treated as if you were. It is a new thing having
gentlemen among the servants, and the planters are not yet
accustomed to them. They are a masterful and a wilful folk, the
planters of Barbadoes; from childhood upwards they have their own
way, and brook not opposition. You have seen into what a madness
of wrath you threw the master by your opposition. Believe me, Sir,
the place is not wholesome for you and for your friends. The master
looks to get a profit, not from your labour, but by your ransom.
Sir'--she looked me very earnestly in the face--'if you have friends
at home--if you have any friends at all--entreat them--command
them--immediately to send money for your ransom. It will not cost
them much. If you do not get the money you will most assuredly die,
with the life that you will have to live. All the white servants
die except the very strongest and lustiest. Whether they work in
the fields, or in the garden, or in the Ingenio, or in the stables,
they die. They cannot endure the hot sun and the hard fare. They
presently catch fever, or a calenture, or a cramp, and so they die.
This young gentlewoman who is now with your cousin will presently
fall into melancholy and die. There is no help for her, or for
you--believe me, Sir--there is no hope but to get your freedom.' She
broke off here, and never at any other time spoke to me again upon
this subject.
In three weeks' time, indeed, we were to regain our freedom, but not
in the way Madam imagined.
Before I go on to tell of the wonderful surprise which awaited me,
I must say that there was, after this day, no more any question
about the field-work for me. In this island, then, there was a great
scarcity of physicians; nay, there were none properly qualified to
call themselves physicians, though a few quacks; the sick servants
on the estates were attended by the negresses, some of whom have, I
confess, a wonderful knowledge of herbs--in which respect they may
be likened to our countrywomen, who, for fevers, agues, toothache,
and the like, are as good as any physicians in the world. It was,
therefore, speedily rumoured abroad that there was a physician upon
my master's estate, whereupon there was immediately a great demand
for his services; and henceforth I went daily, with the master's
consent, to visit the sick people on the neighbouring estates--nay,
I was even called upon by his Excellency the Lieutenant-Governor
himself, Mr. Steed, for a complaint from which he suffered. And
I not only gave advice and medicines, but I also received a fee
just as if I had been practising in London. But the fees went to
my master, who took them all, and offered me no better diet than
before. That, however, mattered little, because wherever I went I
asked for, and always received, food of a more generous kind, and
a glass or two of wine, so that I fared well and kept my health
during the short time that we remained upon the island. I had also
to thank Madam for many a glass of Madeira, dish of cocoa, plate of
fruit, and other things, not only for my patient Robin, but also for
myself, and for another, of whom I have now to speak.
When, therefore, the master was at length free from pain and in a
comfortable sleep, I left him, with Madam's permission, and sought
the sick-house in a most melancholy mood, because I believed that
Robin would surely die, whatever I should do. And I confess that,
having had but little experience of sunstroke and the kind of
fever which followeth upon it, and having no books to consult and
no medicine at hand, I knew not what I could do for him. And the
boasted skill of the physician, one must confess, availeth little
against a disease which hath once laid hold upon a man. 'Tis better
for him so to order the lives of his patients while they are well as
to prevent disease, just as those who dwell beside an unruly river
(as I have seen upon the great river Rhone) build up a high levée,
or bank, over which it cannot pass.
In the sick-house the floor was of earth, without boards; there was
no other furniture but two or three wooden beds, on each a coarse
mattress with a rug; and all was horribly filthy, unwashed, and
foul. Beside the pallet where Robin lay there knelt, praying, a
woman with her head in her hands. Heavens! there was, then, in this
dark and heathenish place one woman who still remembered her Maker!
Robin was awake. His restless eyes rolled about; his hands clutched
uneasily at his blanket; and he was talking. Alas! the poor brain,
disordered and wandering, carried him back to the old village. He
was at home again in imagination, though we were so far away. Yea;
he had crossed the broad Atlantic, and was in fair Somerset, among
the orchards and the hills. And, only to hear him talk, the tears
rolled down my cheeks.
'Alice,' he said. Alas! he thought that he was again with the sweet
companion of his youth. 'Alice; the nuts are ripe in the woods. We
will to-morrow take a basket and go gather them. Benjamin shall not
come to spoil sport. Besides, he would want to eat them all himself.
Humphrey shall come, and you, and I. That will be enough.'
Then his thoughts changed again. 'Oh! my dear,' he said--in a moment
he had passed over ten years, and was now with his mistress, a child
no longer. 'My dear, thou hast so sweet a face. Nowhere in the whole
world is there so sweet a face. I have always loved thy face; not a
day but it has been in my mind--always my love, my sweetheart, my
soul, my life. My dear, we will never leave the country; we want no
grandeur of rank, and state, and town; we will always continue here.
Old age shall find us lovers still. Death cannot part us, oh! my
dear, save for a little while--and then sweet Heaven will unite us
again to love each other for ever, and for ever'----
'Oh! Robin! Robin! Robin!'
I knew that voice. Oh! Heavens! was I dreaming? Was I, too,
wandering? Were we all back in Somerset?
For the voice was none other than the voice of Alice herself!