The affrighted Juliet, every instant in expectation of being stopt, was
silent the whole way; but the loquacity of her companions, to whom the
journey was an uninterrupted opportunity for wrangling, secured her from
any remark; and they arrived, and were separating, at Romsey, nearly
without having taken notice that they had ever been together, when
Juliet, having descended from the chaise, turned fearfully round, to
examine whether she were pursued.
She saw no one; and blest Heaven.
Nevertheless, it was night; she was alone, in the suburbs of a strange
town; and wholly ignorant of the way to the New Forest. It was too late
to go on without a guide; yet, to demand one, or to order a chaise, at
such an hour, would be risking to leave documents behind her, that might
facilitate her being discovered. She addressed herself, therefore, to
her fellow-travellers, and besought them to afford, or to procure her, a
safe lodging for the night.
The mother, coarsely, demanded immediate payment; which being accorded,
she said that she had some spare bedding, which could be put upon the
floor, in the sleeping-room of Debby.
Juliet, accompanied them to their homely habitation, at the further
extremity of a narrow lane, in the busy and prosperous town of Romsey;
and though nothing could be more ordinary than the dwelling, or the
accommodations which she there found, neither splendour, nor wealth, nor
luxury, nor pleasure, could have devised for her, at that moment, a
sojourn more acceptable; since, to all but safety, distress and affright
made her insensible.
But, this first moment of solid satisfaction passed, her whole mind
became absorbed in fearful ruminations upon the various risks that she
was running, and in gloomy apprehensions of what might be their result.
Her taciturnity and dejection were as little imitated as they were
little happy: her companion, almost equally self-occupied, though by no
means equally incommoded by foresight, or burthened with discretion,
broke forth immediately into the history of her own affairs and
situation; bitterly inveighing against the ill nature of her mother,
which was always thwarting every thing that was agreeable; and boldly
declaring her fixed determination to go to the fair with Mr Thomas.
The humanity of Juliet here conquered her silence; but her
representations, whether of danger or of duty, were scouted with rude
merriment; and she found again as wilful a victim to pleasure as Flora
Pierson; though without the simplicity, the good humour, or the beauty
of that credulous maiden.
Nearly with the light, Juliet arose, resolved, with whatever fatigue, to
travel on foot, that she might not hazard being recognized, through the
advertisement, by any coachman or postilion; and, to be less liable to
detection from passing observers, she changed, over night, her bonnet,
which was of white chip, for one the most coarse and ordinary of straw,
with her young hostess; of whom, also, she bought a blue striped apron.
Shocking to all her feelings was this attempt to disguise, so imitative
of guilt, so full of semblance to conscious imposture. But there are
sometimes circumstances, great and critical, that call for all the
energy of our courage, and demand all the resources of our faculties,
for warding off impending and substantial evil, at whatever risk of
transitory misconstruction.
Her account being already settled, she wished to depart unobserved, that
she might less easily be traced. Her young hostess, sleeping late and
tired, slept soundly, and was not disturbed by her rising, dressing, or
opening the room-door; and she glided down stairs without being missed,
or noticed. The door of the house was fastened only by a bolt, and she
gained the street without noise or interruption.
Here all yet was still as night; the houses were shut up, and nothing
was in view, nor in hearing, but a solitary cart, driven by a young
carter, who amused his toil by the alternate pleasure of smacking his
horse, and whistling to the winds.
This vehicle, which was probably travelling to the high road, she
determined to follow.
The general stillness made the slightest motion heard, and the carter,
though at a considerable distance, turned round, and called out, 'Why
you be up betimes, my lovey! come and Ize give you a cast.'
Startled, she looked down, crossing the way, and appearing not to
suppose herself to be the person thus addressed: but the carter,
standing still, repeated his invitation; assuring her that he had plenty
of room.
Uncertain how to act, she stopt.
Terms of coarse endearment, then, accompanied a more pressing desire
that she would advance.
Frightened, she drew back; but the carter, throwing his whip upon his
carriage, vowed that she should be caught, and ran after her, shouting
aloud, till she regained the house. He then scoffingly exclaimed, 'Why a
be plaguy shy o'the sudden, Mistress Debby!' and, composedly turning
upon his heel, began again to smack his horse, and whistle to the winds.
Juliet, who in finding herself taken for her young hostess, found, also,
how light a character that young hostess bore, was struck to see danger
thus every way surrounding her; and alarmed at the risk, to which
impatience had blinded her, of travelling, at so early an hour, alone.
Alas! she cried, is it only under the domestic roof,--that roof to me
denied!--that woman can know safety, respect, and honour?
She now strolled to the vicinity of a capital mansion, at the door of
which, if again put in fear, she could knock and make herself heard.
But the higgler went on; and another cart soon appeared, in which she
had the pleasure to see a woman, driven by a boy. Unannoyed, then, she
walked by its side till she came to the long middle street; when she
found that, from solitude, at least, she had nothing more to apprehend.
Carts, waggons, and diligences, were wheeling through the town;
market-women were arriving with butter, eggs, and poultry; workmen and
manufacturers were trudging to their daily occupations; all was alive
and in motion; and commerce, with its hundred hands, was every where
opening and spreading its sources of wealth, through its active sisters,
ingenuity and industry.
No difficulty now remained for finding the route; travellers of every
kind led the way. Her coarse bonnet, and blue apron saved her from
peculiar remark; and her appearance of decency, with the deep care in
her countenance, which, to the common observer, seemed but an air of
business, kept aloof all intrusive impertinence.
Thus, for the first early hours of the morning, she journeyed on, nearly
unnoticed, and wholly unmolested. Every one, like herself, alert to
proceed, and impressed with the value of time, because using it to
advantage, pursued his own purpose, without leisure or thought to
trouble himself with that of his neighbour.
Five times she had already counted the friendly mile-stone, since she
had quitted Romsey: one mile only remained to be trodden, ere she
reached the New Forest; but that mile was replete with obstacles, to
which its five sisters had been strangers.
It was now noon; and a gentle breeze, which hitherto had fanned her
passage, and wafted to her refreshment, suddenly ceased its playful
benignity; chaced to a distance by the burning rays of a vertical sun,
just bursting forth with meridianal fire and splendour; and dispersing
the flying clouds which, in obstructing its refulgence, had softened its
intenseness.
This quick change of temperature, operating, materially, like an
effective change of climate, annihilated, for the moment, all the
strength of Juliet; who, as yet, from the freshness of the morning air,
the vivacity of mental courage, had been a stranger of fatigue.
Upon looking around, to seek a spot where she might obtain a few
instants' rest, and some passing succour; she observed that the road,
but just before so busily peopled, appeared to be abruptly forsaken. The
labourers were no longer working at the high ways, or at the hedges; the
harvest-men were vanished; the market-women were gone; the road retained
merely here and there an idle straggler; and the fields exhibited only a
solitary boy, left to frighten away the birds.
A sensation nearly of famine with which next, from long fasting, joined
to vigourous exercise in the open air, she felt assailed, soon pointed
out to her that the cause of this general desertion was the rural hour
of repast.
Initiated, now, by her own exertions, in the necessity both of support,
and of rest, she, too, felt that this was the hour of nature for
recruit. But where stop? and how procure sustenance with safety and
prudence?
She looked about for some cottage, and was not long ere she found one;
but, upon begging for a glass of water from a husbandman, who was
standing upon the threshold, he answered that she should have it, if she
would pay him with a kiss.
She walked on to another; but some men were smoaking at the door, and
she had not courage to make her demand.
At a third, she was disconcerted, by a familiar invitation to partake of
a cup of cyder.
She now resolved to make no further application but to females; since
countrymen, even those who are freest from any evil designs, are almost
all either gross or facetious.
Women, however, at this hour, were not easily met with; they were
within, preparing their meals, or cleaning their platters, and feeding
their poultry, rabbits, or pigs.
She now dropped, scarcely able to breathe from the oppression of the
heat; or to sustain herself from the enfeebling effects of emptiness,
joined to overpowering fatigue. With pain and difficulty she dragged on
her wearied limbs; while a furious thirst parched her mouth, and seemed
consuming her inside.
Now, too, her distress received the tormenting augmentation of intrusive
interruption; for, in losing the elasticity of her motions, she lost, to
the vulgar observer, her appearance of innocence. Her eye, eagerly cast
around in search of an asylum, appeared to be courting attention; her
languor seemed but loitering; and her slow unequal pace, wore the air of
inviting a companion.
Nor was the character of chaste diligence, and vivacious business, any
longer predominant in those whom she now casually encountered. The
noon-tide heat, in impairing their bodily strength, caused a mental
lassitude, that made them ready for any dissipation that might divert
their weariness; and Juliet, young, rosy, and alone, seemed exactly
fashioned for awakening their drowsy faculties. No one, therefore,
passed, without remarking her; and scarcely any one without making her
some address. The inconsistency of her attire, which her slackened pace
allowed time for developing, gave rise to much comment, and some
mockery. Her ordinary bonnet and blue apron, ill accorded with the other
part of her dress; and she was now assailed with coarse compliments upon
her pretty face; now by jocose propositions to join company; and now by
free solicitations for a salute.
Painfully she forced herself on, till, at length, she discerned an
ancient dame, in a field by the side of the road, who sat spinning at
the door of a cottage.
She crossed a style, and, presenting herself to the old woman, craved a
draught of water, and permission to take a little rest.
The good old dame, who was surrounded by little boys and girls, to whom
she was singing the antique ballad of the children of the wood, in a
tone so dolorous, and with such heavy sighs, that the elder of her
hearers, who were five and six years old, were dissolved in tears; while
the younger ones clung to her knees, pale and scared, finished her
stanza, before she would answer, or look at the supplicant stranger. She
then raised her eyes, with evident vexation at the interruption; but,
when she perceived the weak state, and listened to the faint accents of
her petitioner, the expression of her countenance became all
benevolence; and, good humouredly nodding her head, she disengaged
herself from the children, arose, fetched a horn of water, added to it a
cup of milk, and then, presenting to the weary traveller her own chair,
which was large and low, she got a smaller, and less commodious one,
from the kitchen for herself.
The nearly exhausted Juliet gratefully accepted this hospitality; and,
in quaffing her milk and water, believed herself initiated in the
knowledge of the flavour, and of all the occult qualities, of Nectar.
It is thus, then, she thought, that the poor and laborious, also, learn,
even from their toils and sufferings, what is luxury and enjoyment! for
where is the regale, and what is the libation, which the most sumptuous
table of refined elegance can offer, that can be more exquisite to the
taste, than this simple beverage of milk and water, received thus at the
moment of parching thirst, and deadly fatigue?
Meanwhile, the little ones, impatient at the interruption of a tale
which engaged all their tenderest feelings; and of which no repetition
could diminish the interest; looked with clouded brows, and unchecked
ill humour, upon the intruder; and, while the elder ones vented their
chagrin by crying, some of the younger ones, yet more completely in the
rough hands of untutored nature, rushed forward to beat the cause of
their vexation; while others, indignantly, struggled to pull her out of
the chair of their grandame.
Juliet, whom their fat little hands could not hurt, and who approved
their fondness both for their grandmother and for the ballad, forgave
their petulance in favour of its motive: but the grandame, putting aside
her spinning wheel, called them all around her, and calmly enquired what
was the matter?
They vociferously answered that they wanted to push away the naughty
person who was come to take granny's chair.
And what, she asked, would they do themselves, should they be obliged to
walk a great way off, till they were tired to death, and as dry as dust,
if nobody would give them a little drink, nor a seat to sit down?
But they would never walk a great way off, they answered; never as long
as they lived! They would always stay at home with dad and mam and
grandam.
But dad and mam, she resumed, were often obliged to walk a great way off
themselves; and if nobody would let them have a seat, not any thing to
drink, what would become of them? whereas, if they should hap to light
on this young gentlewoman in any trouble, she would remember what had
been done for herself, and get them fresh water, and sweet milk, and the
easiest chair she could find: and would not they be glad of such good
luck to dad and mam? Besides that, by doing good, they would be loved by
all good boys and girls; and even by God himself, who was the Father of
them all.
This was speaking at once to their sensations and their understandings;
dad and mam in distress and relieved seemed present to their view; and
they all flew to do something for their guest, as if their gratitude
were already indebted. One brought her half an apple, another, a quarter
of a pear; one, a bunch of red currants, another, of white; the youngest
of the little girls presented her with an old broken rattle; and the
smallest of the little boys, waddled to her with a hoop.
Amused by this infantine scene of filial piety, and revived by rest and
refreshment, Juliet soon recompensed their endearing innocence, by
dancing the smaller ones in her arms, and prattling playfully with those
who were less babyish.
Then, putting a shilling into one of their hands, she requested to have
a couple of eggs and a crust of bread.
The eggs were immediately baked in the cinders; the crust was cut from a
loaf of sweet and fresh brown bread. And if her drink had seemed nectar,
what was more substantial appeared to her to be ambrosia! and her little
waiters became Hebes and Ganymedes.
Refreshment thus salubrious, rest thus restorative, and security thus
serene, after fatigue, fasting and alarm, made her deem this one of the
most felicitous moments of her life. Her sole immediate desire was to
lengthen it, and to spend, in this tranquil retreat, a part, at least,
of the period destined to concealment and obscurity. She had not
forgotten her first little _protegés_, nor lost her wish to join them
and their worthy mother; but she had severely experienced how little
fitted to the female character, to female safety, and female propriety,
was this hazardous plan of lonely wandering. She begged, therefore,
permission, as a weary traveller, to pass the night in the cottage.
The good dame readily consented; saying, that she could not offer very
handsome bedding; but that it should be clean and wholesome, for it had
belonged to her youngest daughter, who was just gone out to service.
This arranged, the ballad was again begun, so exquisitely to the delight
of the young audience, that though, at the stanza
Their little lips with blackberries
Were all besmear'd and dyed;
And when they saw the darksome night
They sat them down and cried,
they all sobbed aloud; they were yet so grieved when it was over, that
they clung around their grandame, saying, with one voice, 'Aden, granny,
aden!'
Granny, however, was too much tired to comply, and the repetition was
deferred to another day.
In the evening, the mother of the children came home, and heard what had
been settled with her new and unknown guest, without objection or
interference. The father appeared soon after, and was equally passive.
The grandame was mistress of the cottage, and in her own room, which was
that, also, of the elder children, Juliet was lodged. The younger
branches of the family slept, with their father and mother, in the
kitchen; which, like the apartment of the cobler, served them equally
for parlour and hall.
Juliet found the man and his wife perfectly good sort of people, simply,
but usefully employed in earning their living; while their aged mother
took charge of their dwelling, their nourishment, and their children.
Thus safely and tranquilly situated, Juliet, without meeting any
difficulty, proposed to sojourn with them for some days. She gave, also,
a commission, to the younger mistress of the house, to purchase her some
ready-made linen at Romsey; and she was soon more consistently equipped,
in new, but homely apparel.
This interval was most seasonably passed, in recruiting her strength,
and calming her spirits. She took pleasant walks, accompanied by the
tallest boy and girl; she worked for the grandmother; taught a part of
the catechism to some of the children; played with them all, and made
herself at once so useful and so agreeable in the rustic dwelling, that
she won the heart and good will of all its inhabitants.
Yet, three times only the sun had set thus serenely, when her host,
returning half an hour later in the evening than usual, appeared so
altered and ill humoured, that Juliet thought it advisable to leave him
with his family; but the slightness of the small building made as
inevitable as it was alarming, her learning that she was herself the
subject of his discontent.
He told his mother that she must be more cautious how she harboured
travellers, or she might come to trouble; for there was a young
female-swindler, in or about Salisbury, who was advertised in the
news-papers; and who, upon being found out in her tricks, had made off
with Dame Goss's, without so much as paying for her lodging. She had
been traced as far as Romsey, by means of a postilion; but there, too,
she had left her lodgings by stealth, in the very middle of the night.
All the coachmen and postilions and innkeepers were looking out for her;
a handsome reward being offered, for sending tidings where she might be
met with, to an attorney in London. 'And now, mother,' he continued,
'suppose, by hap, this young gentlewoman be she? why you'll be fit to
hong yourself, mother! for as to her being so koind to the children,
that be no sign; for the bad ones be oftentimes the koindest.'
He then enquired whether she had arrived in a white muslin gown, and a
white chip-hat.
Her gown might be white muslin, the mother answered, for aught she could
say to the contrary, for it was covered almost all round by a blue
striped apron; but as to her hat, it was nothing but a straw-bonnet as
coarse and ordinary as he might wish to set eyes on.
O then, he said, it was clear it could not be she, she was not a person
to wear a blue apron; she had been seen, the very night she made off,
dressed quite genteel.
What now was the consternation of Juliet, to find herself thus pursued
as a run-away, and stigmatized as a swindler and an imposter!
Astonishing destiny! she cried; for what am I reserved? O when may I
cast off this veil of humiliating concealment? when meet unappalled the
fair eye of open day? when appear,--when alas!--even know what I am!
This, however, was not the end: it soon seemed scarcely the beginning of
new distress, so far more deeply terrible to her with the intelligence
by which it was followed. When the women demanded where he had heard
this news, he answered, at the public-house; where he was told that all
Salisbury was in an uproar; a rich outlandish Mounseer, in a
post-chaise, having just come to the great inn, with the advertisement
in his hand, pointing to the reward, and promising, in pretty good
English, to double it, if the person should be found.
Not another word could Juliet hear; not an instant, not a thought could
she bestow to learn further what was past, or even to gather what was
passing; the future, the dread of what was to come, took sole possession
of her feelings and her faculties, and again to fly, more rapidly, more
eagerly, more affrighted than ever, to fly, was her immediate act,
rather than resolution.
She accoutred herself, therefore, in all that was most homely to her new
apparel; made a packet of what remained of her genuine attire; left
half-a-guinea open upon a little table, to avoid again the accusation of
being a swindler; and then, descending the ladder, and contriving to
hide her bundle with her blue apron, as she passed, said that she was
going to walk in the neighbouring fields, but that it was too late to
take out the children; and, giving to each of them a penny, to buy
cakes, she quitted the cottage.
Without an instant, without even any powers for reflection, she darted
across the fields, gained the road, and, within twenty minutes, arrived
at an entrance into the New Forest; to which she had already learnt the
way in her rambles with the children.