_THE TAVERN OF THE "THREE-DECKER"_
Early in the morning after breakfast Cousin Rupert left us, giving
out, as he had promised, that he was on the way to see his father at
Lynn. And as he told me afterwards, he kept his horse on that road
till he had passed through the village, when he turned, and skirting
the river as far as Raynham ferry, crossed it there, and so rode into
Yarmouth.
All that day I went about with a strange lightness in my breast,
so that I could scarce keep from laughing out. And when my father
admonished me, pretty roughly, for not having mended the fence of the
fowl walk to his liking, I minded it no more than if it had been old
Sugden the rat-catcher. Once or twice during the dinner I caught my
mother looking at me with a certain apprehension, as if she observed
somewhat unusual in my behaviour. I fancy she thought I might be
sickening for the ague, which was very rife in those parts. My mother
was a great physician, and always kept ready a store of the Jesuits'
bark--the only good thing, my father was accustomed to say, that had
ever come out of Rome.
In the afternoon I walked into Blundell to bid a sort of farewell to
little Patience Thurstan. I found her set on a stool in the porch,
threading beads, for she was but a child; and to see her jump up when
I drew nigh, and run to meet me, was a pleasant sight to carry away in
my memory through the stormy days which were to follow.
Knowing her to be faithful, from her behaviour in many a childish
confidence we had had together, I made no scruple to tell her I was
leaving Brandon; though I forbore to say whither I was bound, lest
they should torment the girl with questions afterwards. And I knew
that Patience would not tell a lie, and deny the knowledge if she
possessed it. But I half repented what I had done when the poor little
thing fell a-crying, and besought me not to go away. I had nothing
else to bestow upon her, so I was forced to give her my cousin
Rupert's guinea for a keepsake, telling her to buy a doll or a ribbon
with it next time she went into Norwich fair.
With that I came away, beginning for the first time to feel how
serious was the step I contemplated. But I had given my word, and I
could not now draw back even if I had felt inclined.
The chapter my father read to us that night, I remember well, was out
of the book of Ezekiel, in which the prophet dealt with the city of
Tyrus, and denounced the judgments of the Lord on her pride and
luxury, on her ships of fir and cedar with sails of purple embroidery,
on her mariners and men of war, on her merchandise of silver and
brass, of horses and mules, of ebony and precious stones, and of honey
and oil and wine and spices and white wool. And the words sounded in
my ear like a denunciation of the places I had chosen to go among; and
I was glad when it was all over; and I went upstairs to my bedroom,
hearing my father shoot the great bolts of the house door for the last
time.
I made shift to take off my coat and shoes, and got into the bed, lest
my mother should come in to bid me good-night, as she sometimes did.
And well it was that I had thought of this, for in her anxiety about
me she followed me up soon after with a dose of the Jesuits' bark,
which she compelled me to swallow, though sorely against my will. Then
she sat down by the bedside for the space of, I daresay, fifteen
minutes, or longer as it seemed to me then, and fell to stroking my
hair, which I wore without a queue, my father setting his face against
that French fashion.
I fidgetted so much that at length my mother perceived that I would be
alone. I heard her draw a sigh as she rose to go away, and then,
tucking the bedclothes round me with great care, she gave me a kiss
and left me.
I waited as long as I could contain my impatience, for my parents to
fall asleep. Then I arose softly, without rekindling the light, which
my mother had blown out, completed my dress, and filled a small
knapsack with such few things as I had immediate need for. I
remembered also to put in my pocket a bright guinea which good Mr.
Walpole had presented me with in my twelfth year as a reward for
having repeated the 119th Psalm, and which my father had strictly
forbidden me to spend.
Thus provided, I opened the door of my bedroom and crept out, carrying
my shoes in my hand. I crossed the landing, treading like a thief, to
the door of the room where my parents slept, and laid my lips against
the panel that was nearest to my mother's side. And with that I found
my eyes were smarting, and a lump rose in my throat, so that I turned
away hastily, and made the best of my way down the stairs, and by
unbarring the kitchen door, out into the open air. Then I turned my
back on the house where I was born, and set out to walk through the
night to Yarmouth.
Lest my father should surmise where I was, I had got ready a feigned
letter in which I pretended--I am ashamed to say so--that seeing no
likelihood of Mr. Walpole's receiving me without that extra fifty
pounds which stuck so in my father's gizzard, I had taken the
resolution of going up to London to seek my fortune; and I promised to
send him news as soon as I should arrive there; which promise, as it
turned out, I had no opportunity of keeping or breaking, for I did not
set foot in that great city until years had passed, and I had gone
through the wonderful adventures which were to make a man of me, and
had come thither as the messenger of the second greatest Englishman,
as I think, who has lived in my time; aye, and had speech of him who
was the greatest of all. But of this hereafter.
The clammy air of the marshes clung about me and chilled my spirits,
as I proceeded through the desolate region which lay between me and
the town. The road hereabouts runs straight along for miles, without
hedge or fence, save for a couple of upright posts, with three or four
crossbars, rising up here and there at the corners of the fields where
the dykes run into one another. A hundred years before all this part
of Norfolk had been little better than a fen, which the Brandon Water
overflowed at spring tides, till engineers had come over to us from
Holland, who taught us to make these dykes and embankments after the
fashion of their country. And, indeed, the people of Bury have a
tradition that the ocean itself once came up over these parts, and
that their hamlet, however since decayed, was then a flourishing town
and seaport; but I could never find that any one outside of Bury
believed in this legend.
Be that as it may, I had but a doleful walk of it; moreover, I was
fain to button up my coat and pull my collar close about my neck, by
reason of the cutting wind which blew across from the German seas. Nor
did I meet any adventure on the way, but in avoiding the turnpike at
Broxall I was forced to leap a dyke in the dark, and missing the
further bank by about a foot, I fell into the water knee-deep. I got a
sound drenching, but no other damage except for the mud bespattering
my clothes, which must have presented a sorry spectacle had there been
any there to observe me.
The noise of my splash brought out the pike-man, uttering many oaths,
to see who it was that had been defrauding his gate. But I got nimbly
on to my legs and ran past, and though he made a show of chasing me
for a short space, he soon thought better of it, and went back to his
bed.
It must have been, I suppose, half-way between midnight and dawn when
I arrived in Yarmouth. And well pleased I was when I had safely
crossed the bridge across the Bure river and felt the pavement of the
town underneath my feet. For though there was not another soul abroad
in the streets at that hour, that I could perceive, yet the knowledge
that the houses on either hand were full of sleeping folks seemed to
be some company after the desolateness I had just come through.
I had never before been in a great town at night, and I was much
amazed by the splendour of the illumination from the lamps which hung
across the high streets, and made almost as much brightness as if
there had been a moon. Being somewhat afraid of meeting with the
watch, for I did not then know the habits of these gentry as well as I
did afterwards, I soon left the region of the lights, and turned down
into the lanes, which the men of Yarmouth call rows, and of which they
are not a little proud, and to my mind with some warrant, for, though
strait, these passages are very regularly built, and beautifully paved
with cobblestones, and are besides so numerous that I have never seen
the like in any city I have visited, neither in Europe nor in the
Indies.
In the end I got out from among the houses, and arrived upon the
sea-beach, where I discovered a sheltered pit among the sand hillocks,
which they call denes, and there I lay down and slept off my
weariness.
When I awoke the sun was so far up that I judged it to be nearly nine
o'clock. Taking shame that I had proved such a sluggard, I rose up
quickly, and brushed away the sand, which I was rejoiced to perceive
had finely cleansed away the mud from the dyke at Broxall. This done I
made the best of my way into the town to keep my rendezvous with
Cousin Rupert, for I was sharply beset by hunger.
I had to ask my way more than once before I could find out the tavern,
which lay down on the quay, over against the river Yare. By this I
soon saw that the "Three-decker" had a reputation not over and above
savoury among the townsfolk, for the more respectable of those I
addressed myself to gave me harsh looks before answering my question.
And no doubt the soberness of my dress and carriage must have made it
seem strange that I should be seeking the whereabouts of such a haunt.
I will not deny that this observation a little daunted me when I found
myself at the door of the house. The tavern was by way of being an
ancient one, for the oak props were blackened with age and the upper
storeys jutted out one above the other, in the way our forefathers
were used to build in walled towns, where every foot of space was of
account. Nor did the place look to be ill-kept, though situated in a
mean part of the town beside the fish market. However, it was no time
for me to make reflections, having come so far, wherefore I quickly
drew the latch and stepped inside.
I had no need of a guide to conduct me to the parlour, for I caught a
hubbub of voices coming from my right hand, above which rose a roaring
stave in chorus, interspersed with a clapping of hands and a rapping
of mugs upon the table. I undid the door, meaning to slip in quietly,
but no sooner did I pass my head into the room than the entertainment
suddenly ceased, and the whole crew turned to observe my entrance.
Truly it was easier for them to discern me than for me to do the same
by them, for besides the dismay of meeting so many faces at once, the
whole room was filled with the smoke of tobacco, a thing which was
strange to me, and which caused my eyes to tingle, besides tempting me
to cough. I made out, however, that there was at least a score of men
present, the most part of them seated round a table in the middle of
the room, at the head of which table stood a high arm-chair, and in
it, as I believe, the biggest man I had ever seen. The looks of the
company are past my power to describe, being such as to make me feel
as if I had broke into Bedlam. Their faces were all red and blotched
with drink, and their heads covered with extravagant ringlets, which
might never have seen a comb, while their dress was disordered to
indecency, and the whole table was covered with a confusion of
tankards and bottles and tobacco-pipes, not to mention playing-cards
and dice. The huge man at their head bore a most terrifying aspect. He
had an immense head set on a neck so short and thick that it seemed as
if he must infallibly choke at every morsel he swallowed, and a belly
capacious enough to have held a firkin of liquor. He had made himself
easy by unbuttoning his waistcoat and the upper part of his breeches,
and lolled back in his seat as if he had no mind to stir for the rest
of the morning. One of his eyes was closed up, and had a French
plaister across it, but the other stared and rolled enough for two.
On a bench in the window there were two other men withdrawn by
themselves; but these I did not at first notice, being taken up with
attending to this one-eyed ruffian.
"Who in the foul fiend's name have we here?" he called out as soon as
I was come in, using many other oaths beside, which I have no need to
set forth. "Is this some sprouting soul-catcher come to bestow upon us
a word in season? Speak, boy, your name and business? Show your
colours, d'ye hear! Or will you mount the table and pitch up a godly
psalm for our sinful ears? A blister on the brat's tongue; why don't
he answer?"
I stood aghast at this scurrilous address, the like of which I had
never yet heard. The others followed it up with shouts of applause,
and one of those at my end of the table rose and came towards me,
making as if he would catch me by the shoulder to drag me forward.
But this I was not inclined to suffer.
"My name need not concern you," I said, replying to their chairman.
"As for my business here, I have come to inquire after a kinsman of
mine who uses this house. Stand back, sir, I am not to be mauled by
you!"
I spoke these last words sharply to the fellow who had tried to
lay hold of me. Though some years my senior he was but a lean,
spindle-shanked creature, whom I felt better able to give a buffet to
than to take one from him.
The big man let loose a round dozen of oaths.
"Here's a fine cockerel come into our own house of call to beard us!"
he exclaimed between his profanities. "I should like to know who uses
the 'Three-decker,' when the crew of the _Fair Maid_ are here, without
our licence? What is the matter with you, Trickster Tim? Are you
afraid to handle the yokel?"
Thus egged on, the man, who had given way under my angry looks, made
at me again. But my blood was now up, and I dealt him a blow on the
jaw which sent him down fairly to the floor. He got up, spluttering
blood, his clothes all smeared with the sawdust and the stains of
liquor, and the whole party leaped to their feet at the same time, as
if they would set upon me.
I doubt but I should have fared roughly at their hands if I had not
been delivered by a most unexpected diversion.
"Stand clear, you cowards, and leave Tim Watts to fight his own
corner, if he can!"
I turned round to the window at these words and beheld to my joy my
cousin Rupert, who had been one of the two sitting there apart, and
who had now risen, pale and very angry, with his hand on the basket of
a cutlass which he wore at his belt.
Though I should have thought it kinder if he had come to my assistance
earlier, instead of leaving me to show what I was made of first, I
hailed his interference with much relief, and stepped quickly to his
side.
But the fellows he had rebuked looked sourly in our direction and
began to grumble to each other.
"No orders here!" came from one man. "No lieutenants over us ashore!"
said another. "We're all equal in the 'Three-decker.'"
"Silence, Jim Palmer!" cried Rupert sternly. "And you too, Andrews; I
thought you had more manhood in you! What reason had you for baiting
this young man when he came in civilly? Do you know who he is, you
fools? This is my own cousin, who has just given the slip to his sour
old Puritan of a father, and come here to join our jolly fellowship!"
I felt some pricks of shame at this lewd reference to my father. But
Rupert's words completely turned the tide in my favour; and when he
went on to call for the potman and order a quart of ale and a noggin
of gin all round the table, I became the most popular man in the
assembly for at least half an hour. My health was called for by the
man in the chair who had so abused me, and who, as I now found out,
was the boatswain, or foreman of the crew. They even would have
Trickster Tim to apologise and shake me by the hand. He tried to go
through this performance with an air of cordiality, but succeeded very
ill.
After this my cousin drew me aside and presented me to his companion,
whom he named to me as Mr. Sims, the captain of the _Fair Maid_.
However, it did not take me long to see that though Mr. Sims commanded
the vessel, by reason of his skill in navigation, yet my cousin was
the real moving spirit of the entire ship's company, and could turn
the captain round his little finger, if he had a mind.
Pens and ink were then sent for, and a sheet of parchment, on which
Captain Sims, who was an old hand at this work, himself drew up the
articles of my apprenticeship. It was necessary that I should ship
before the mast, he explained, in order to avoid provoking the
jealousy of the crew; but they both promised me that I should be rated
as an officer as soon as a fair excuse offered itself for my
promotion. The others present were all called round to witness me sign
the indenture, after which, like a vain young fool, I must needs
produce Mr. Walpole's guinea and order a fresh supply of liquor as far
as it would go. This display of spirit, as they esteemed it, did my
business with the crew, who having now been ashore for four weeks had
spent most of their money, without in any degree lessening their
thirst. But I fear good Mr. Walpole would have been but ill-satisfied
if he could have known how his money was spent.
This business disposed of, Rupert thought it prudent to take me inside
and have me bestowed in some safe corner of the house till the search
after me should have blown over. And the first person whose help he
must needs obtain in this was the tavern keeper's niece, Marian, whom
I thought then, and think to this day, the most handsome creature that
there was in the world, and whom I loved desperately from that hour.