Frank Trevelyan's statement proved tolerably correct as to distance, for
little more than two miles brought our travellers clear of the rugged
moorlands; when, after ascending the brow of a steep hill, a sight broke
suddenly upon them, which, though unlike the scenery they had previously
passed over, presented if possible a more dreary picture. As far as the
eye could reach, nothing could be discerned but one vast wilderness of
undulating sandy hillocks, totally devoid of vegetation, except a kind
of coarse rush, which, in spite of the shifting nature of the soil, had
here and there contrived to spring up and take root; and now to add to
this cheerless aspect, the sky, which hitherto had been bright and
clear, began to lower with those dark threatening clouds which form the
sure forerunner of a heavy squall of wind and rain--no pleasant thing
for two lightly-clad pedestrians to be overtaken with in a bleak open
country on a chill November day. Even Frank, who, with his merry chat,
had latterly kept his companion's spirits alive, the latter of whom had
begun to complain both of hunger and fatigue--even Frank felt
disconcerted at the desolate prospect before him, as well as
disappointed at not discovering the mining village, containing the snug
little public-house, which he had been informed he should fall in with
at the termination of the stony moorlands. Resolved however to put the
best face he could upon the matter, our little hero assured his tall
comrade that another half hour would be sure to bring them to the
desired spot, where he was certain they would obtain both rest and
refreshment--two things they much needed--having walked on unceasingly
for several hours since their early morning's meal without having eaten
or drunk any thing, and the sun by this time had begun to sink low in
the horizon. Scarcely, however, had they crossed the narrow valley that
divided these two barren wastes from each other, and had commenced
ascending the steep beaten path that passed through the sandy desert,
than the storm, which had been previously brewing, burst forth with
relentless fury, the rain descending in torrents, accompanied by fierce
gusts of wind, that, whirling aloft the loose drifting sands, swept them
onwards in dense clouds before the gale, forming an overpowering and
blinding deluge that perplexed our tourists exceedingly.
"This is all for the best, I suppose," suggested Vernon Wycherley, who,
uncomfortable as he was, couldn't help enjoying the luxury of having a
hit at his fellow-traveller, and thus proving himself for once at any
rate to have been on the right side of the argument.
"All for the best, did you say?" replied Frank. "All for the best?--ay,
to be sure it is--though we ourselves may perhaps be too short-sighted
to see the drift of it."
"See the drift!" interposed Vernon--"See the drift! Why, we not only see
it, but feel it. The benefit to be derived from it is what I want you to
convince me of, Master Frank."
The truth of Vernon's observation was too palpable to be denied; for
both he and his companion were half-choked and nearly blinded by the
clouds of sand that, in the course they were pursuing, blew directly in
their faces, and which even the rain seemed to have no effect in
allaying; till as last the peppering became so severe, that our
travellers were actually compelled to turn their backs upon the enemy.
Hardly, however, had they done this, ere Frank joyfully exclaimed--"It
_is_ all for the best after all, and that I'll soon convince you of,
Master Vernon. Cast your piercing peepers through the thick of it, and
you'll see the very place we want to find, which, if the storm hadn't
compelled us to face to the right about, we should have passed by
without discovering, concealed as it is in the narrow gorge we have just
crossed. So cheer up, I say, old fellow, and let us both put our best
foot foremost, and see how soon we can get there."
Vernon required no further persuasion, and the desired house of
entertainment was soon reached. Here our wet and weary travellers had
the good fortune to meet with that comfort of all comforts to persons so
situated--a blazing kitchen-fire, which afforded them an opportunity of
drying their wet clothes, and at the same time to enjoy the sight of the
cookery of some tempting rashers and eggs, which, with the unequalled
accompaniment of fried potatoes, was soon after duly set out for them in
the sole parlour the house afforded, where they found a good fire had
been prepared for their reception.
"Would you like a bottle of Guinness's porter with your dinners,
gen'lmen?" asked a very pretty and tidily dressed young woman, who
waited upon them.
"To be sure we would, my pretty Mary," replied Mr Vernon Wycherley, "and
thank you for the hint into the bargain; I'm sure I should never have
dreamt of meeting with Dublin stout amidst the wilds of Cornwall."
"Us do always kip it," observed Mary.
"Then a bottle of it, if you please, my pretty girl," resumed the poet.
"Ay, that's right, out with the cork--never mind the froth, Mary--never
mind the froth."
"It is indeed prime stuff!" he added, replacing his empty glass upon the
table; "and upon my life, Frank, this is a perfect feast; and never did
I enjoy one more. Things really have turned out a great deal better than
I expected."
"Or, in other words, have turned out all for the best," observed Frank,
looking up for a moment from his plate, the contents of which had
previously absorbed his whole attention; and elevating his glass as a
signal for Mary to fill it with the tempting beverage, which she, well
understanding, instantly obeyed; and having drained every drop of it, he
resumed--"So you see, Master Vernon, you stand convicted by your own
confession, that your former doubts and misgivings were without
foundation; added to which, you can't help agreeing with me, that our
present gratification is still further enhanced by the few trivial
difficulties we just before met with."
Vernon was not inclined to concede to all his companion had just said,
and, in fact, was mentally arranging the proper language in which to
express his dissent, when a fresh arrival of piping-hot rashers turned
the current of his thoughts towards the eggs and bacon, about which,
instead of saying any thing, he quietly helped himself to, and then
handed over the dish to his friend.
"I feel rather tired with my walk to-day," observed Mr Vernon Wycherley,
who, having at last eaten to his heart's content, had pressed an extra
chair into his service, for the purpose of resting his long and wearied
legs thereupon. "Every thing here," he continued, glancing his eye
around the tidily furnished little room--"every thing here looks clean
and comfortable. I wonder if we could get accommodated with beds,
instead of having to tramp it three miles further over the sandbanks in
this uncertain weather, in order to reach our original destination at
the next village?"
"I wish we could, with all my heart," answered Frank; "and here comes
Mary with some more stout, who can tell us all about it." And so the
handmaiden was questioned accordingly, who replied, in a tone of evident
disappointment, "Lar bless ee, sir, there b'aint a bed to be had in the
whole place; fay there b'aint, I can assure ee not, if ye'd offer pounds
o' gold for 'un; for ever since Wheal Costly, just handy by here, has
turned out so rich, there's no quarters to be had for the sight of folks
that be employed about her. There's only seven beds in all this here
housen; and, besides the family, there be no less than sex-and-thirty
miners a quartering here; they takes sex out o' the seven beds, and
mistus and I and all the childer do fill the t'othern all night, and
when us do turn out, then maister and his comarade do turn in--and 'tis
the same all through town[38]--an' by ma fath an' troth, I zem there
b'aint, at this very moment, a bed without a pair in 'un for miles
round."
"But how do the folks here contrive to pig it away together six in a
bed?" inquired Mr Vernon Wycherley. "Your beds must be very large,
otherwise I should fancy such close stowage to be hardly possible."
"O na, sir, you don't onderstand," replied the maid, hardly able to
restrain herself from laughing outright at the stranger's gross
ignorance of mining habits; "not pair[39] o' six all to bed together to
one time; you da see miners do work to bal[40] eight hours to a spell,
and has sexteen to stay 'bove ground; so one and his comarade sleeps
their first eight hours 'bove ground, and then turns out for the next
pair; and so they goes on, one pair in and t'other pair out, so that
between sex on 'um, the bed's never to say quite empty."
"And can never, of course, require a warming-pan," remarked Frank.
"Lar! tha b'est a queer little chap," thought Mary; but being too polite
to say as much, she merely smiled pleasantly at the remark, as she
tripped out of the room.
"Well, as we must toddle further, it's of little use to put so grave a
face upon it, old fellow," observed Frank to his poetical friend, who
was indulging in a reverie, with his eyes fixed in vacancy towards the
burning embers in the grate.
"Eh! what?" demanded Vernon, with the usual start of an absent literary
man, whose attention is suddenly awakened. Frank repeated his previous
remark.
"My thoughts were far, far away from hence," said Mr Vernon Wycherley;
"the subject of them was my comedy, which, as you know, I intend to
offer for the prize at the Haymarket."
"Your comedy be hanged!" interrupted Frank.
"I fear that even a direr fate than that awaits it," resumed its author.
"Oh! if I had but seen _her_ before I arranged my female
characters--have carried her beauteous image in my mind, as now I
mentally behold her"--
"What! Molly Potts?" interposed Mr Frank Trevelyan, with a look of arch
innocence--such a funny look it was, as no man living but Frank himself
could possibly have given.
"Pshaw," said Vernon impatiently, "how can you find the heart to mention
her name, if such indeed it be, in that disagreeable tone and manner? It
is enough to drive away every poetic idea connected with her. If you can
only mention her name in that cold tone of contempt, I'd thank you to
hold your tongue about her altogether."
With this remark, the poet took a manuscript book from a pocket in his
blouse, and with contracted brow, he made an entry there in pencil of
some happy thought the moment had just then suggested, which occupying
some minutes, his companion in the interval walked to the window to
examine into the appearance of the weather, and perceiving that the rain
had ceased, and one bright star already twinkled in the sky, he
suggested the propriety of preparing for their immediate departure, in
order that they might get over as much of their ground as they possibly
could before dark.
Having been directed to the path they were to pursue, which was a
different one from that they had gone over when overtaken by the storm,
though apparently leading in the same direction, our travellers again
resumed their route. There was still good light when they started, and
as long as it continued--but which was a very short time--the novelty
of the surrounding desert of sand imparted some degree of interest to
the scene; but, in proportion as the darkness closed in, the spirits of
the pedestrians began to flag. Still, however, Frank strove to cheer up
his companion, who was by far the most weary and dispirited of the two,
and, as a never-failing remedy, began to talk to him about his intended
comedy--its plot, and some of the most striking scenes and characters.
The result was just as he had anticipated, and its author, who just
before had dragged himself along in moody silence, or only replied in
listless monosyllables, began to chat away upon the much-loved topic in
the most animated manner possible; and so much were both engrossed with
the subject, as not to perceive that, whilst traversing one of those
level pieces of turf that few and far between formed a kind of tiny
oasis in this desert, they had altogether missed the footpath.
Just at this unfortunate crisis it had become exceedingly dark, and the
heavy clouds fast gathering overhead promised another shower; which
promise was fulfilled even more speedily than they anticipated, and down
came the rain pouring away in hissing torrents upon our pedestrians,
who, unable to regain the lost footpath, strolled on for some time
without the remotest notion of the direction they ought to take. They
were not, however, very long in finding that they had again gotten
amongst the loose sandbanks, which, being dispersed around in steep
undulating hillocks, were exceedingly fatiguing to traverse even by
daylight; it is needless, then, to say how much this difficulty was
increased when the traveller was involved in darkness, and at the same
time ignorant of the direction he ought to pursue. Nor was this the
worst evil to which our two wanderers were exposed. A considerable
number of mines had been opened in these wastes, and though the working
of them had been abandoned for several years, yet the shafts were still
open, many of them wholly unprotected either by rail or embankment, and
the aperture being even with the surface, and not wider than the mouth
of an ordinary-sized well, no one could possibly discern his danger in a
night so dark as it then was. A more fatal snare for entrapping a
benighted traveller could scarcely have been devised. But neither Vernon
nor Frank had the remotest suspicion of this danger; or, in fact, any
fears beyond the dread of spending the night in this howling wilderness.
At last, to their great relief, the rain subsided, and the clouds
breaking away disclosed the great bear and polar star, which afforded
them an unerring point to steer by, and raised strong hopes that if the
sky remained clear, and their legs would only hold out long enough
against the excessive fatigue of scrambling over the steep hillocks,
they might, by pursuing a perfectly straight course, at last get clear
of this desert spot, and reach a better kind of country, where they
might meet with some habitation or other that would at least afford them
rest and shelter until daybreak.
Now, when matters have become very bad, any change for the better,
however slight it be, imparts some cheering influence; and the relief
our drenched pedestrians felt from the mere ceasing of the rain, and
exchanging the dull lowering sky for the clear dark-blue starlight,
proved enough to renovate their drooping hearts, and to excite them to
make the best use they could of their limbs; so that by persevering they
at last reached a part of the waste where the travelling became less
irksome, the drifting sand having, in this particular part, formed
itself into larger hills, which, in course of time, had become coated
with short grass, and thus afforded very pleasant ground to walk over.
But this relief from fatigue was attended with increased peril to the
erring wanderers, who were now in the very midst of abandoned mines,
whose shafts yawned around them in every direction, many of which they
passed almost within a hair's-breadth of, unaware of the dangers that
thus lay in their path, and only congratulating themselves on the
improved state of the ground they had to walk over.
Now Vernon Wycherley, who had been for some short time turning the
matter over in his mind, began to fancy he had found a poser for his
fellow-traveller, to whom he remarked, that however fortunate they might
consider themselves when they got out of their present difficulties,
there could be no possible advantage whatever in their having gotten
into them.
"I don't agree with you even there," said Frank; "one advantage there
will be on the score of experience, as it cannot fail to furnish us with
an accurate knowledge of what a person's sensations are when he loses
his way in a wilderness of sandbanks in a dark and stormy night in
November."
"And is that all the advantage you can point out?" interposed Mr Vernon
Wycherley.
"All? No, not one-half," resumed Frank. "Will it not supply both of us
with everlasting materials for spinning yarns to match other travellers'
tales, as well as furnish you with an endless topic for your poetic and
dramatic pen? And besides, I've no doubt there are lots of other
advantages we shall eventually derive benefit from, though they may for
ever remain hidden amongst the many mysteries that man is never designed
to know."
"You really are the most extraordinary fellow I ever met with," rejoined
Vernon, "striving, as you ever do, to cook up good of some kind or other
out of the most evil materials; and every misfortune, by some wonderful
philosophy hatched up by your ingenious brain, you pretend to convert
into a benefit. Why, old fellow, Mansel of Trinity actually told
me--mind I've only his word for it, perhaps not the best authority in
the world either--but he positively assured me, that you tried to
convince him that your being taken ill on the third day of your
examination, which was thus cut short in the middle, and which caused
you to rank far lower than you otherwise would have done amongst the
wranglers, was the most fortunate event that possibly could have
happened to you."
"And that is my firm conviction still," said Frank, with the utmost
coolness.
"What!" exclaimed Vernon in amazement, "you surely cannot be in earnest
in what you say?"
"Indeed I am," resumed Frank; "for, had I taken higher honours my dear
old governor would never have rested satisfied unless I had devoted
myself either to study of the law or politics, both of which I hate,
instead of permitting me, at some future time, to become a quiet country
parson.--But what extraordinary light is that?" he exclaimed, on
perceiving a narrow stream of fire, apparently at no great distance,
shoot up above the brow of a low hill just before them?"
"A singular kind of meteor, certainly," observed the poet. "I never saw
one like it before."
"Very like a sky-rocket; wasn't it?" observed Frank; "and a sky-rocket
I've no doubt it was; and as this happens to be the night of the 5th of
November, I dare say it proceeds from the very village to which we are
bound--an important place too, it should seem, from sporting
sky-rockets. Ah! there goes another. Huzza! we shall soon be amongst
them.--Oh! merciful Heaven!" he exclaimed, as his companion suddenly
vanished from his sight, having stepped inadvertently into the mouth of
one of those dangerous shafts we have before alluded to. A heavy sound
denoted the fearful depth to which he had been precipitated, which was
shortly followed by a loud, hollow crash, caused by a fall of some
fragments of detached earth, which, from the great depth it had to
descend, occupied several seconds ere it reached the bottom of this deep
abyss.