The Crow and Archer presented a busy scene on the evening of the day
referred to in the last chapter. A report had been lately spread
through the country that the brig Olive Branch,--an occasional trader
between the province and the coasts of Holland and England--had arrived
at St. Mary's. In consequence of this report there had been, during the
last two days, a considerable accession to the usual guests of the inn,
consisting of travellers both by land and water. Several small sloops
and other craft had come into the harbour, and a half score inland
proprietors had journeyed from their farms on horse-back, and taken up
their quarters under the snug roof of Garret Weasel. The swarthy and
gaunt watermen, arrayed in the close jackets and wide kilt-like
breeches and in the parti-coloured, woollen caps peculiar to their
vocation, were seen mingling in the tap-room with the more substantial
cultivators of the soil. A few of the burghers of St. Mary's were found
in the same groups, drawn thither by the love of company, the
occasions, perchance, of business, or the mere attraction of an evening
pot and pipe. The greater portion of this assemblage were loitering
between the latticed bar of the common room, and the quay in front of
the house, which had somewhat of the occupation and bustle of a little
exchange. On a bench, in one corner of the tap-room, sat, in a ragged,
patched coat resembling a pea-jacket, a saucy, vagrant-looking fiddler,
conspicuous for a red face and a playful light blue eye; he wore a
dingy, pliant white hat, fretted at the rim, set daintily on one side
of his head, from beneath which his yellow locks depended over either
cheek, completely covering his ears; and all the while scraped his
begrimed and greasy instrument to a brisk tune, beating time upon the
floor with a huge hob-nailed shoe. This personage had a vagabond
popularity in the province under the name of Will of the Flats--a
designation no less suited to his musical commodity than to the
locality of his ostensible habitation, which was seated on the flats of
Patuxent, not above fifteen miles from St. Mary's, where he was tenant
of a few acres of barren marsh and a lodge or cabin not much larger
than a good dog kennel.
Will's chief compeer and brother in taste and inclination, though of
more affluent fortune, was Dick Pagan, or Driving Dick, according to
his more familiar appellation, the courier who had lately brought the
missives from James Town; a hard-favoured, weather-beaten, sturdy,
little bow-legged fellow, in russet boots and long spurs, and wrapt in
a coarse drab doublet secured by a leathern belt, with an immense brass
buckle in front. Old Pamesack, likewise, formed a part of the group,
and might have been observed seated on a settle at the door, quietly
smoking his pipe, as unmoved by the current of idlers which ebbed and
flowed past him, as the old barnacled pier of the quay by the daily
flux and reflux of the river.
Such were the guests who now patronised the thriving establishment of
Master Weasel. These good people were not only under the care, but also
under the command of our hostess the dame Dorothy, who was a woman by
no means apt to overlook her prerogative. The dame having been on a
visit to a neighbour did not show herself in the tap-room until near
the close of the day; in the mean time leaving her customers to the
unchidden enjoyment of their entertainment which was administered by
Matty Scamper,--a broad-chested, red-haired and indefatigable damsel,
who in her capacity of adjutant to the hostess, had attained to great
favour with the patrons of the tavern by her imperturbable good nature
and ready answer to all calls of business. As for Master Weasel, never
did pleasure-loving monarch more cheerfully surrender his kingdom to
the rule of his minister than he to whatever power for the time was
uppermost,--whether the dame herself, or her occasional vicegerent
Matty of the Saucepan.
Matty's rule, however, was now terminated by the arrival of Mistress
Weasel herself. It is fit I should give my reader some perception of
the exterior of the hostess, as a woman of undoubted impression and
consideration with the towns-people. Being now in her best attire which
was evidently put on with a careful eye to effect, I may take occasion
to say that one might suspect her of a consciousness of some deficiency
of height, as well as of an undue breadth of figure, both which
imperfections she had studied to conceal. She wore a high conical hat
of green silk garnished with a band of pink ribbon which was set on by
indentation or teethwise, and gathered in front into a spirited cluster
of knots. Her jacket, with long tight sleeves, was also of green silk,
adapted closely to her shape, now brought into its smallest compass by
the aid of stays, and was trimmed in the same manner as the hat. A full
scarlet petticoat reached within a span of her ankles and disclosed a
buxom, well-formed leg in brown stocking with flashy clocks of thickly
embossed crimson, and a foot, of which the owner had reason to be
proud, neatly pinched into a green shoe with a tottering high heel. Her
black hair hung in plaits down her back; and her countenance,--distinguished
by a dark waggish eye, a clear complexion, and a turned-up nose, to
which might be added a neck both fat and fair, half concealed by a
loose kerchief,--radiated with an expression partly wicked and partly
charitable, but in every lineament denoting determination and constancy
of purpose. This air of careless boldness was not a little heightened
by the absence of all defence to her brow from the narrow rim of the
hat and the height at which it was elevated above her features.
The din of the tap-room was hushed into momentary silence as soon as
this notable figure appeared on the threshold.
"Heaven help these thirsty, roystering men!" she exclaimed, as she
paused an instant at the door and surveyed the group within--"On my
conscience, they are still at it as greedily as if they had just come
out of a dry lent! From sunrise till noon, and from noon till night it
is all the same--drink, drink, drink. Have ye news of Master
Cocklescraft?--I would that the Olive Branch were come and gone, that I
might sit under a quiet roof again!--there is nothing but riot and
reeling from the time the skipper is expected in the port until he
leaves it."
"True enough, jolly queen!" said Ralph Haywood, a young inland planter,
taking the hand of the merry landlady as she struggled by him on her
way to the bar--"what the devil, in good earnest, has become of
Cocklescraft? This is the second day we have waited for him. I half
suspect you, mistress, of a trick to gather good fellows about you, by
setting up a false report of the Olive Branch."
"Thou art a lying varlet, Ralph," quickly responded the dame: "you
yourself came jogging hither with the story that Cocklescraft was seen
two days ago, beating off the Rappahannock.--I play a trick on you,
truly! You must think I have need of custom, to bring in a troop of
swilling bumpkins from the country who would eat and drink out the
character of any reputable house in the hundred, without so much as one
doit of profit. You have my free leave to tramp it back again to
Providence, Ralph Haywood, whenever you have a mind."
"Nay, now you quarrel with an old friend, Mistress Dorothy."
"Take thy hand off my shoulder, Ralph, thou coaxing villain!--Ha, ha, I
warrant you get naught but vinegar from me, for your treacle.--But
come--thou art a good child, and shalt have of the best in this
house:--I would only warn you to call for it mannerly, Master Ralph."
"Our dame is a woman of mettle," said another of the company, as the
landlady escaped from the planter and took her station behind the bar.
"What has become of that man Weasel?" she inquired somewhat petulantly.
"The man I am sure has been abroad ever since I left the house! He is
of no more value than a cracked pot;--he would see me work myself as
thin as a broom handle before he would think of turning himself round."
"Garret is now upon the quay," replied one of the customers;--"I saw
him but a moment since with Arnold the Ranger."
"With some idle stroller,--you may be sure of that!" interrupted the
hostess:--"never at his place, if the whole house should go dry as
Cuthbert's spring at midsummer. Call him to me, if you please, Master
Shortgrass.--Michael Curtis, that wench Matty Scamper has something to
do besides listen to your claverings! Matty, begone to the kitchen;
these country cattle will want their suppers presently.--Oh, Willy,
Willy o' the Flats!--for the sake of one's ears, in mercy, stop that
everlasting twangling of your old crowd!--It would disgrace the
patience of any Christian woman in the world to abide in the midst of
all this uproar!--Nay then, come forward, old crony--I would not offend
thee," she said in a milder tone to the fiddler. "Here is a cup of ale
for thee, and Matty will give you your supper to-night. I have danced
too often to thy music to deny thee a comfort;--so, drink as you will!
but pray you rest your elbow for a while."
"And there is a shilling down on the nail," said Driving Dick, as he
and the crowder came together to the bar at the summons of the
landlady: "when that is drunk out, dame, give me a space of warning,
that I may resolve whether we shall go another shot."
"Master Shortgrass told me you had need of me," said Garret Weasel, as
he now entered the door;--"what wouldst with me, wife Dorothy?"
"Get you gone!" replied the wife--"thou art ever in the way. I warrant
your head is always thrust in place when it is not wanted! If you had
been at your duty an hour ago, your service might have been useful."
"I can but return to the quay," said Garret, at the same time beginning
to retrace his steps.
"Bide thee!" exclaimed the dame in a shrill voice--"I have occasion for
you. Go to the cellar and bring up another stoop of hollands; these
salt water fish have no relish for ale--they must deal in the
strong:--nothing but hollands or brandy for them."
The obedient husband took the key of the cellar and went on the duty
assigned him.
At this moment a door communicating with an adjoining apartment was
thrown ajar and the head of Captain Dauntrees protruded into the
tap-room.
"Mistress Dorothy," he said--"at your leisure, pray step this way."
The dame tarried no longer than was necessary to complete a measure she
was filling for a customer, and then went into the room to which she
had been summoned. This was a little parlour, where the Captain of
musqueteers had been regaling himself for the last hour over a jorum of
ale, in solitary rumination. An open window gave to his view the full
expanse of the river, now glowing with the rich reflexions of sunset;
and a balmy October breeze played through the apartment and refreshed
without chilling the frame of the comfortable Captain. He was seated
near the window in a large easy chair when the hostess entered.
"Welcome dame," he said, without rising from his seat, at the same time
offering his hand, which was readily accepted by the landlady.--"By St.
Gregory and St. Michael both, a more buxom and tidy piece of flesh and
blood hath never sailed between the two headlands of Potomac, than thou
art! You are for a junketing, Mistress Dorothy; you are tricked out
like a queen this evening! I have never seen thee in thy new suit
before. Thou art as gay as a marygold: and I wear thy colours, thou
laughing mother of mischief! Green is the livery of thy true knight.
Has your goodman, honest Garret, come home yet, dame?"
"What would you with my husband, Master Baldpate? There is no good in
the wind when you throw yourself into the big chair of this parlour."
"In truth, dame, I only came to make a short night of it with you and
your worthy spouse. Do not show your white teeth at me, hussy,--you are
too old to bite. Tell Matty to spread supper for me in this parlour.
Arnold and Pamesack will partake with me; and if the veritable and most
authentic head of this house--I mean yourself, mistress--have no need
of Garret, I would entreat to have him in company. By the hand of thy
soldier, Mistress Dorothy! I am glad to see you thrive so in your
calling. You will spare me Garret, dame? Come, I know you have not
learnt how to refuse me a boon."
"You are a saucy Jack, Master Captain," replied the dame. "I know you
of old: you would have a rouse with that thriftless babe my husband.
You sent him reeling home only last night. How can you look me in the
face, knowing him, as you do, for a most shallow vessel, Captain
Dauntrees?"
"Fie on thee, dame! You disgrace your own flesh and blood by such
speech. Did you not choose him for his qualities?--ay, and with all
circumspection, as a woman of experience. You had two husbands before
Garret, and when you took him for a third, it was not in ignorance of
the sex. Look thee in the face! I dare,--yea, and at thy whole
configuration. Faith, you wear most bravely, Mistress Weasel! Stand
apart, and let me survey: turn thy shoulders round," he added, as by a
sleight he twirled the dame upon her heel so as to bring her back to
his view--"thou art a woman of ten thousand, and I envy Garret such
store of womanly wealth."
"If Garret were the man I took him for, Master Captain," said the dame
with a saucy smile, "you would have borne a broken head long since. But
he has his virtues, such as they are,--though they may lie in an
egg-shell: and Garret has his frailties too, like other men: alack,
there is no denying it!"
"Frailties, forsooth! Which of us has not, dame? Garret is an honest
man;--somewhat old--a shade or so: yet it is but a shade. For my sake,
pretty hostess, you will allow him to sup with us? Speak it kindly,
sweetheart--good, old Garret's jolly, young wife!"
"Thou wheedling devil!" said the landlady; "Garret is no older than
thou art. But, truly, I may say he is of little account in the
tap-room; so, he shall come to you, Captain. But, look you, he is weak,
and must not be over-charged."
"He shall not, mistress--you have a soldier's word for that. I could
have sworn you would not deny me. Hark you, dame,--bring thine ear to
my lips;--a word in secret."
The hostess bent her head down, as the Captain desired, when he said in
a half whisper, "Send me a flask of the best,--you understand? And
there's for thy pains!" he added, as he saluted her cheek with a kiss.
"And there's for thy impudence, saucy Captain!" retorted the spirited
landlady as she bestowed the palm of her hand on the side of his head
and fled out of the apartment.
Dauntrees sprang from his chair and chased the retreating dame into the
midst of the crowd of the tap-room, by whose aid she was enabled to
make her escape. Here he encountered Garret Weasel, with whom he went
forth in quest of Arnold and the Indian, who were to be his guests at
supper.
In the course of the next half hour the Captain and his three comrades
were assembled in the little parlour around the table, discussing their
evening meal. When this was over, Matty was ordered to clear the board
and to place a bottle of wine and glasses before the party, and then to
leave the room.
"You must know, Garret," said Dauntrees when the serving-maid had
retired, "that we go to-night to visit the Wizard's Chapel by his
Lordship's order; and as I would have stout fellows with me, I have
come down here on purpose to take you along."
"Heaven bless us, Master Jasper Dauntrees!" exclaimed Garret, somewhat
confounded with this sudden appeal to his valour, which was not of that
prompt complexion to stand so instant a demand, and yet which the
publican was never willing to have doubted--"truly there be three of
you, and it might mar the matter to have too many on so secret an
outgoing"----
"Tush, man,--that has been considered. His Lordship especially looks to
your going: you cannot choose but go."
"But my wife, Captain Dauntrees"----
"Leave that to me," said the Captain; "I will manage it as handsomely
as the taking of Troy. Worthy Garret, say naught against it--you must
go, and take with you a few bottles of Canary and a good luncheon of
provender in the basket. You shall be our commissary. I came on set
purpose to procure the assistance of your experience, and store of
comfortable sustenance. Get the bottles, Garret,--his Lordship pays the
scot to-night."
"I should have my nag," said Garret, "and the dame keeps the key of the
stable, and will in no wise consent to let me have it. She would
suspect us for a rouse if I but asked the key."
"I will engage for that, good Weasel," said Dauntrees: "I will cozen
the dame with some special invention which shall put her to giving the
key of her own motion: she shall be coaxed with a device that shall
make all sure--only say you will obey his Lordship's earnest desire."
"It is a notable piece of service," said the innkeeper, meditating over
the subject, and tickled with the importance which was ascribed to his
cooperation--"and will win thanks from the whole province. His Lordship
did wisely to give it in charge to valiant men."
"In faith did he," replied the Captain; "and it will be the finishing
stroke of thy fortunes. You will be a man of mark for ever after."
"I am a man to be looked to in a strait, Captain," said Weasel, growing
valorous with the thought. "I saw by his Lordship's eye yesternight
that he was much moved by what I told him. I have had a wrestle with
devils before now."
Arnold smiled and cast his eye towards the Indian, who, immediately
after supper, had quitted the table and taken a seat in the window.
"There be hot devils and cold devils," said he, "and he that wrestles
with them must have a hand that will hold fire as well as ice: that is
true, Pamesack?"
"Pamesack has no dealing with the white man's devil," replied the
Indian; "he has enough to do with his own."
"Drink some wine, old blade," said Dauntrees as he presented a cup to
Pamesack; "the Knife must be sharp to-night--this will whet his edge.
We shall have need of your woodcraft."
The Indian merely sipped the wine, as he replied, "Pamesack knows the
broad path and the narrow both. He can lead you to the Black House day
or night."
"Brandy is more natural to his throat than this thin drink," said
Weasel, who forthwith left the room and returned with a measure of the
stronger liquor. When this was presented Pamesack swallowed it at a
draught, and with something approaching a laugh, he said, "It is the
white man's devil--but the Indian does not fear him."
"Now, Garret," said Dauntrees, "we have no time to lose. Make ready
your basket and bottles, and lay them at the foot of the cedar below
the bank, near the Town House steps; then hasten back to the parlour. I
will put the dame to sending you on an errand which may be done only on
horseback;--you will mount with the basket and make speedy way to the
Fort. Tell Nicholas Verbrack, the lieutenant, that I shall be there in
reasonable time. We must set forth by ten; it may take us three hours
to reach St. Jerome's."
"My heart is big enough," said Weasel, once more beginning to waver,
"for any venture; but, in truth, I fear the dame. It will be a livelong
night carouse, and she is mortal against that. What will she say in the
morning?"
"What can she say, when all is come and gone, but, perchance, that thou
wert rash and hot-headed? That will do you no harm: but an hour ago she
swore to me that you were getting old--and sighed too, as if she
believed her words."
"Old, did she say? Ho, mistress, I will show you my infirmities! A fig
for her scruples! the hey-day blood yerks yet, Master Captain. I will
go with thee, comrades: I will follow you to any goblin's chapel twixt
St. Mary's and Christina."
"Well said, brave vintner!" exclaimed the Captain; "now stir thee! And
when you come back to the parlour, Master Weasel, you shall find the
dame here. Watch my eye and take my hint, so that you play into my hand
when need shall be. I will get the nag out of the stable if he were
covered with bells. Away for the provender!"
The publican went about his preparations, and had no sooner left the
room than the Captain called the landlady, who at his invitation showed
herself at the door.
"Come in, sweetheart. Good Mistress Daffodil," he said, "I called you
that you may lend us your help to laugh: since your rufflers are
dispersed, your smokers obnubilated in their own clouds, your tipplers
strewed upon the benches, and nothing more left for you to do in the
tap-room, we would have your worshipful and witty company here in the
parlour. So, come in, my princess of pleasant thoughts, and make us
merry with thy fancies."
"There is nothing but clinking of cans and swaggering speeches where
you are, Captain Dauntrees," said the hostess. "An honest woman had
best be little seen in your company. It is a wonder you ever got out of
the Low Countries, where, what with drinking with boors and quarrelling
with belted bullies, your three years' service was enough to put an end
to a thousand fellows of your humour."
"There's destiny in it, dame. I was born to be the delight of your
eyes. It was found in my horoscope, when my nativity was cast, that a
certain jolly mistress of a most-especially-to-be-commended inn,
situate upon a delectable point of land in the New World, was to be
greatly indebted to me, first, for the good fame of her wines amongst
worshipful people; and, secondly, for the sufficient and decent praise
of her beauty. So was it read to my mother by the wise astrologer. And
then, dame, you slander the virtue of the Low Countries. Look at Arnold
there: is there a more temperate, orderly, well-behaved liegeman in the
world than the ranger? And did he not bring his sobriety with him from
the very bosom of the land you rail against?"
"If Arnold de la Grange is not all that you say of him," replied the
hostess, "it is because he has lost some share of his good quality by
consorting with you, Captain. Besides, Arnold has never been hackneyed
in the wars."
"A Dutch head," said Arnold, laughing, "is not easily made to spin. In
the Old World men can drink more than in the New: a Friesland fog is an
excellent shaving horn, mistress!"
"Heaven help the men of the Old World, if they drink more than they do
in our province!" exclaimed Mistress Weasel. "Look in the tap-room, and
you may see the end of a day's work in at least ten great loons. One
half are sound asleep, and the other of so dim sight that neither can
see his neighbour."
"The better reason then, Mistress Dorothy," replied Dauntrees, "why
you, a reputable woman, should leave such topers, and keep company with
sober, waking, discreet friends. That cap becomes thee, mistress. I
never saw you in so dainty a head-gear. I honour it as a covering
altogether worthy of thy comeliness. Faith, it has been a rich piece of
merchandise to me! Upon an outlay of fourteen shillings which I paid
for it, as a Michaelmas present to my excellent hostess, I have got in
return, by way of profit, full thirteen bottles of Garret's choicest
Canary, on my wager. Garret was obstinate, and would face me out with
it that you wore it to church last Sunday, when I knew that you went
only in your hood that day:--he has never an eye to look on thee, dame,
as he ought,--so he must needs put it to a wager. Well, as this is the
first day thou hast ever gone abroad in it, here I drink to thee and
thy cap, upon my knees--Success to its travels, and joy to the merry
eye that sparkles below it! Come, Arnold, drink to that, and get
Pamesack another glass of aqua vitae:--top off to the hostess,
comrades!"
The toast was drunk, and at this moment Garret Weasel returned to the
room. A sign from him informed the Captain that the preparation he had
been despatched to make was accomplished.
"How looks the night, Garret?" inquired Dauntrees; "when have we the
moon?"
"It is a clear starlight and calm," replied the publican; "the moon
will not show herself till near morning."
"Have you heard the news, mistress?" inquired the Captain, with an
expression of some eagerness; "there is pleasant matter current,
concerning the mercer's wife at the Blue Triangle. But you must have
heard it before this?"
"No, truly, not I," replied the hostess.
"Indeed!" said Dauntrees, "then there's a month's amusement for you.
You owe the sly jade a grudge, mistress."
"In faith I do," said the dame, smiling, "and would gladly pay it."
"You may pay it off with usury now," added the Captain, "with no more
trouble than telling the story. It is a rare jest, and will not die
quickly."
"I pray you tell it to me, good Captain--give me all of it," exclaimed
the dame, eagerly.
"Peregrine Cadger, the mercer, you know," said the Captain--"but it is
a long story, and will take time to rehearse it. Garret, how comes it
that you did not tell this matter to your wife, as I charged you to
do?" he inquired, with a wink at the publican.
"I resolved to tell it to her," said Weasel, "but, I know not how, it
ran out of my mind--the day being a busy one----"
"A busy day to thee!" exclaimed the spouse. "Thou, who hast no more to
do than a stray in the pound, what are you fit for, if it be not to do
as you are commanded? But go on, Captain; the story would only be
marred by Garret's telling--go on yourself--I am impatient to hear it."
"I pray you, what o'clock is it, mistress?" asked the Captain.
"It is only near nine. It matters not for the hour--go on."
"Nine!" exclaimed Dauntrees; "truly, dame, I must leave the story for
Master Garret. Nine, said you? By my sword, I have overstaid my time! I
have business with the Lord Proprietary before he goes to his bed.
There are papers at the Fort which should have been delivered to his
Lordship before this."
"Nay, Captain," said the hostess, "if it be but the delivery of a
pacquet, it may be done by some other hand. There is Driving Dick in
the tap-room: he shall do your bidding in the matter. Do not let so
light a business as that take you away."
"To-morrow, dame, and I will tell you the tale."
"To-night, Captain--to-night."
"Truly, I must go; the papers should be delivered by a trusty hand--I
may not leave it to an ordinary messenger. Now if Garret--but I will
ask no such service from the good man at this time of night; it is a
long way. No, no, I must do my own errand."
"There is no reason upon earth," said the landlady, "why Garret should
not do it: it is but a step to the Fort and back."
"I can take my nag and ride there in twenty minutes," said Garret. "I
warrant you his Lordship will think the message wisely entrusted to
me."
"Then get you gone, without parley," exclaimed the dame.
"The key of the stable, wife," said Garret.
"If you will go, Master Garret," said Dauntrees--"and it is very
obliging of you--do it quickly. Tell Nicholas Verbrack to look in my
scritoire; he will find the pacquet addressed to his Lordship. Take it,
and see it safely put into his Lordship's hands. Say to Nicholas,
moreover, that I will be at the Fort before ten to-night. You
comprehend?"
"I comprehend," replied Garret, as his wife gave him the key of the
stable, and he departed from the room.
"Now, Captain."
"Well, mistress: you must know that Peregrine Cadger, the mercer, who
in the main is a discreet man----"
"Yes."
"A discreet man--I mean, bating some follies which you wot of; for this
trading and trafficking naturally begets foresight. A man has so much
to do with the world in that vocation, and the world, Mistress Dorothy,
is inclined by temper to be somewhat knavish, so that they who have
much to do with it learn cautions which other folks do not. Now, in our
calling of soldiership, caution is a sneaking virtue which we soon send
to the devil; and thereby you may see how it is that we are more honest
than other people. Caution and honesty do not much consort together."
"But of the mercer's wife, Captain."
"Ay, the mercer's wife--I shall come to her presently. Well, Peregrine,
as you have often seen, is a shade or so jealous of that fussock, his
wife, who looks, when she is tricked out in her new russet grogram
cloak, more like a brown haycock in motion than a living woman."
"Yes," interrupted the dame, laughing, "and with a sunburnt top. Her
red hair on her shoulders is no better, I trow."
"Her husband, who at best is but a cotquean--one of those fellows who
has a dastardly fear of his wife, which, you know, Mistress Dorothy,
truly makes both man and wife to be laughed at. A husband should have
his own way, and follow his humour, no matter whether the dame rails or
not. You agree with me in this, Mistress Weasel?"
"In part, Captain. I am not for stinting a husband in his lawful walks;
but the wife should have an eye to his ways: she may counsel him."
"Oh, in reason, I grant; but she should not chide him, I mean, nor look
too narrowly into his hours, that's all. Now Peregrine's dame hath a
free foot, and the mercer himself somewhat of a sulky brow. Well,
Halfpenny, the chapman, who is a mad wag for mischief, and who is
withal a sure customer of the mercer's in small wares, comes
yesternight to Peregrine Cadger's house, bringing with him worshipful
Master Lawrence Hay, the Viewer."
At this moment the sound of horse's feet from the court-yard showed
that Garret Weasel had set forth on his ride.
"Arnold, I am keeping you waiting," said Dauntrees. "Fill up another
cup for yourself and Pamesack, and go your ways. Stay not for me,
friends; or if it pleases you, wait for me in the tap-room. I will be
ready in a brief space."
The ranger and the Indian, after swallowing another glass, withdrew.
"The Viewer," continued Dauntrees, "is a handsome man,--and a merry man
on occasion, too. I had heard it whispered before--but not liking to
raise a scandal upon a neighbour, I kept my thoughts to myself--that
the mercer's wife had rather a warm side for the Viewer. But be that as
it may: there was the most laughable prank played on the mercer by
Halfpenny and the Viewer together, last night, that ever was heard of.
It was thus: they had a game at Hoodman-blind, and when it fell to
Lawrence to be the seeker, somehow the fat termagant was caught in his
arms, and so the hood next came to her. Well, she was blindfolded; and
there was an agreement all round that no one should speak a word."
"Ay, I understand--I see it," said the hostess, eagerly drawing her
chair nearer to the Captain.
"No, you would never guess," replied Dauntrees, "if you cudgelled your
brains from now till Christmas. But I can show you, Mistress Dorothy,
better by the acting of the scene. Here, get down on your knees, and
let me put your kerchief over your eyes."
"What can that signify?" inquired the dame.
"Do it, mistress--you will laugh at the explosion. Give me the
handkerchief. Down, dame, upon your marrow bones:--it is an excellent
jest and worth the learning."
The landlady dropped upon her knees, and the Captain secured the
bandage round her eyes.
"How many fingers, dame?" he asked, holding his hand before her face.
"Never a finger can I see, Captain."
"It is well. Now stand up--forth and away! That was the word given by
the Viewer. Turn, Mistress Dorothy, and grope through the room. Oh, you
shall laugh at this roundly. Grope, grope, dame."
The obedient and marvelling landlady began to grope through the
apartment, and Dauntrees, quietly opening the door, stole off to the
tap-room, where being joined by his comrades, they hied with all speed
towards the Fort, leaving the credulous dame floundering after a jest,
at least until they got beyond the hail of her voice.