IN WHICH MATTHEW PLAYS THE BEGGAR AND I THE FOOL.
My comrade had no sooner made promise that we should be afloat in four
hours than he started about carrying out his design.
There was in that swamp that bordered the river an amazing quantity of
great cane-reeds, some twenty feet in height and more, and of these he
began to cut down with his sword such as were most proper to his
purpose, bidding me do the like, and choose those of last year's growth,
which were dry, light, and of good girth. Nothing loath, I waded into
the morass (with a care that I trod on no water-serpent) until I was
pretty well up to my middle in water, and there I laid about me with a
will, until I had cut as many as I could carry, which I then took to a
point where the water was deep and free from this growth, and laid them
beside Matthew's store. In this way we proceeded until we had laid up a
good stock of these canes.
"Now," says Matthew, eyeing them, "I judge we have enough; so do you go,
master, and cut me one of those plaguey vines that gave us so much
trouble this morning, while I set these reeds shipshape."
Perceiving his object, I went up into the wood and cut ten or a dozen
fathoms of the lianes, which, as I say, are like any ship's tackle for
toughness and soundness. While I was about this, Matthew sets the canes
out, with the thick end of one overlapping about three parts of its
length the thick end of another in such a manner that (all being served
and tightly bound with the liana at both ends, and again in two or three
places towards the middle) they made a huge bundle about a yard through
at its largest girth, and four yards long, tapering off at each end like
a fishing-float. This being done, and the lianes bound securely to
Matthew's mind, he begs me to lend him a hand at cutting away certain of
the canes in the middle with my knife, which was tough work indeed (for
the canes were prodigious hard), and labor we might have spared
ourselves had we bethought us to dispose the canes differently before we
bound them up; but this did not occur to us till we were pretty nigh the
end of our job.
However, having cut out of the middle a space about four feet long by
two broad, and as much in depth, our business was done.
This was the boat which was to carry us up the river, and Matthew was
not a little proud of it; though I was still in a taking for fear it
should turn over when we set foot into it, and capsize us both into the
water; but this it did not, but carried us as steadily as we could wish,
and capital good we found it for such a boat as it was.
For our sweeps or paddles we bound two stout canes together, stretching
them asunder at one end and covering that part with a broad tough grass.
In this craft we made our way up that river three days and four nights,
only stopping to take such rest as was needful and to procure
refreshment. Many difficulties and perils we encountered by the way, but
of these I have no space to tell had I the inclination, for it seems as
I write that I have the same burning impatience which urged me on then
to come to my Lady Biddy. Every obstacle that delayed progress enraged
me. I could scarcely bring myself to let my comrade get his fair and
necessary amount of sleep, but would be twitching him to awake ere he
had got soundly asleep; for as to one sleeping in the boat while the
other rowed, that we found impossible, because there was no room to lie
down there, and necessary it was, for fear of cramps, at times to take
our feet out of the water, which we had no means to keep from coming in
betwixt the reeds.
But Matthew bore with me, seeing my great anxiety of mind, and that I
did not rest a quarter as much as he; and though he grumbled again (but
chiefly in pretense), he roused himself after the second or third
twitch, and did all man could to give me hope. Indeed, a fellow of
gentler temper, a more cheerful, kind friend, I never knew of his sex.
Soon after daybreak on the fourth day, having been at our sweeps a
couple of hours maybe, we spied some fishing-canoes moored by the shore,
and some little cot-houses hard by, by which we judged we had come to
the outskirts of Valetta. Whereupon we drew into the bank, and going up
through the woods to the top of a little hill, came upon tilled fields,
beyond which lay the town, very gray and quiet in the creeping light of
that early morning.
"Now, master," says Matthew, "the first thing is to learn if De Pino and
his train have yet arrived in the town; and we can't do that standing
here looking at it."
"Nay," says I, "I'm ready to go into the town at once if you are. But we
must be secret."
"Ay," says he; "and for that reason you will have to bide here."
"I can not do that," says I. "Think, Matthew--she may stand in need of
my help. I shall be mad if I stay here idle."
"Not so mad," says he, "as if you venture into that town. Look at your
state. Could any man clap eyes on you without pointing you out to his
neighbor?"
Truly I was in a sad pickle--my fine clothes that I had of Dom Sebastian
rent in a hundred places with the thorns through which we had torn our
way in escaping by the woods; no hat to my head; my silk stockings
stained with the blood from my scratched legs and the mud of the morass;
and my hands and face swollen with the bite of those flies that haunt
the river.
"You look," continues he, "as if you had broke loose from a prison, and
like nothing else; and if you be taken to task by the mayor, or other
busybody, to account for your condition, your answer or your silence
will at once betray you for a foreigner. So will you be clapped up in
jail, and the female be worse off than ever."
I was forced to admit that he was in the right, and to ask what he
designed.
"Why," says he, "I shall go into the town as a shipwrecked mariner, cast
ashore off Buenaventure, fallen sick of a leprosy, and begging my way to
my friends at Cartagena, and no one shall count this a lie by the
bravery of my dress."
Indeed he looked beggarly enough, having not a rag of shirt to his back,
nor any clothes but his shoes, breeches, and a jacket of skins, with an
old hat that no one would have picked off a dust-heap.
"In this guise," continues he, "may I go all through that town, asking
alms in good Portuguese, so that men will be more glad to get out of my
way than to stop me. And if, when I have been to all the inns and places
of rest, I find De Pino is not yet come, I will sit me down against a
church-door, the town gate, or elsewhere most convenient for spying who
enters by the road from Darien, and wait there till nightfall, when I
will come again to you. And, lest I get no broken victuals, do you have
a good supper ready by way of alms to give a hungry beggar."
I promised him he should not lack for food.
"Now, master," says he, "give me something as a token that I may slip
into the female's hand, when I go to beg of her, as she passes, whereby
she may know that you are at hand."
I was greatly pleased with his forethought, which showed a kind
consideration for Lady Biddy's happiness, and delighted to think I might
thus communicate with her. So, undoing my waistcoat, I cut a fair piece
from the breast of my shirt, which was of fine linen, and having pierced
my finger with a thorn I contrived to trace "B. P." on this rag with my
blood.
Meanwhile Matthew had gone about to find some purple berries which he
crushed in divers places upon the flesh of his legs and face, so that
when he came forth I scarcely knew him again, as he looked for all the
world, by reason of this disfigurement, like one who was sore of a
plague.
"I wager," says he, "no one will want to lay hands on me now; and as for
De Pino, he will turn away in disgust at the first glance, for these
Portugals pretend to have mighty nice stomachs. Howsomever, I must give
myself another touch or two to deceive his eye."
Therewith he takes his knife and saws away at his bushy beard until he
had brought it down to a point, after the Portugals' mode. Then he
begged me to crop the hair of his head, which I did forthwith; and to
see me a-trimming his head with my sword was a sight to set any barber's
teeth on edge. This done, he give me his sword to take charge of, and
hides his knife inside his jacket, with my token for Lady Biddy. Then
folding his arms on his chest, drawing up his shoulders to his ears, and
putting on a most woe-begone look, he asks me if I think he will pass
muster.
"Ay," says I, "you are horrid enough, in all conscience; but with those
loathsome-seeming sores upon you I doubt if my cousin will care to take
my token from your hand."
"Lord love you, master," says he with a laugh, "if you knew as much of
females as I do you would have no doubt on that head. There's no
disguise will deceive their eyes when they have a man in their thoughts;
and," adds he in a graver tone, "there's no form of distress will make
them shrink from a tender office."
He gave me his hand, bidding me farewell, and went his way with a
shuffling gait and a sly leer back at me to show me he understood his
business.
I watched him until he entered the fields, where the tall plants
presently hid him from my sight. Then I bethought me to set adrift our
boat, which might have excited curiosity and suspicion had it been seen
by any one passing on the river; and this I did, after cutting the
lianes that bound it, so that it might go to pieces as it went down with
the current. After that, with a sling I managed to kill half a dozen
birds, about the size of pigeons, and these I cooked in the midst of the
wood, where the smoke from my fire might not be seen. Also I gathered
some good fruit, and of this food I set by enough to serve for a meal
when Matthew returned. Then I sat me down at that point whence my
comrade had departed, watching for his return through the fields.
Hour after hour I sat there, turning my eyes neither to the right nor to
the left, for my eagerness to see him again, and my thoughts all the
while running on my dear lady; but no reflections worthy to be recorded.
The sun sank and the twilight faded away; but the stars were bright in
the sky before I heard any sign of Matthew; then I caught a snuffling,
whining voice, which I knew to be his, crying:
"Is there 'ere a kind friend will give a bit to a poor sick seafaring
man?" at the same time I perceived a figure coming towards me.
"What news, Matthew--what news?" I cried, running to meet him.
"Plenty," says he; "I've done a rare day's business."
"Lord be praised!" says I; "what have you learnt?"
"That a canting rogue may earn more in a day than an honest man in a
week."
"What else, what else?" says I impatiently.
"That for winning true respect there's naught like sham sores."
"For the love of Heaven do not torment me! What of my cousin?"
"Oh, she has not yet come into the town," says he; "nor will she
to-night for certain; the gates were being shut when I crawled out. I
told you, master, we should get here a day before De Pino."
On this I heaved a great sigh for disappointment.
"Lord love you, master," says he, "don't heave a sigh like that afore
you're married, or you'll have none left for a better occasion."
This pleasantry made me sadder that before, for it put me in mind that,
come what might, Lady Biddy could never be mine, nor I anything to her
but as a poor faithful servant.
"Cheer up, master," says Matthew. "You may wager that if I haven't
brought you one sort of comfort, I've brought you another. Feel the
weight of this."
I then perceived, for the first time, that Matthew had a load on his
back.
"What in the world have you got there, friend?" says I, feeling the
great distended skin bag he carried.
"Wine, master--wine of the best, and a couple of gallons of it."
"How did you come by it?"
"Honestly. I paid for it with good silver, and I've enough left against
times of need. For, you see, while wholesome beggars were taken into the
kitchen for a paltry mess of broken victuals, I no sooner showed my face
in a doorway but a silver piece was tossed into the road to get rid of
me. Bless every one with a nice stomach, say I; they give me the whole
street to myself when they catch sight of me, and go a roundabout way to
their goal. You wonder why I wasn't turned out of the town. Lord love
you, there was not a constable had the heart to lay his hand on me. A
sort of a kind of a beadle came and looked at me from a distance, and I
was half afeared he meditated getting me shot with a long gun; but when
I sat me down peaceably in the church-door, he saw I could do no one any
mischief there, and so went away to trounce some silly folks who were
trying to turn a penny or two with a dancing dog."
In this manner did he run on, telling me of his adventures during the
day, until all our birds were eaten and the wine-skin half empty, when
he laid himself down, chuckling over the prospect of a long night's
sleep, and warning me not to arouse him too soon, as he had been forced
to wait an hour at the gates.
"And," says he, "if I show myself an early riser, they may well doubt if
I be a true beggar."