IN SEARCH OF PEACE AND FORTUNE.
_"Blessed are those whose blood
And judgment are so commingled,
That they are not a pipe for Fortune's finger
'To sound what stop she pleases.'
'Give me that man that is not passion's slave,'
And I will wear him in my heart's core,
Ay, in my heart of heart as I do thee."_
Early on the morning of the 9th of September, 1586, William and myself took
our departure from the Crown Tavern. The landlord, Tom Gill, gave us a
bottle of his best gin and brandy to cheer us on our way to fame and
fortune. Fannie Hill, the barmaid, threw kisses at us until we rounded the
corner of the street leading to the old Grammar School. We carried
blackthorn cudgels to protect us from gamekeepers, lords and dogs.
As we passed the modest cottage where William's parents resided, he
impulsively broke away from my presence to bid a long farewell to his
angelic mother, and soon again he was at my side, flushed with pride and
tears, exclaiming in undertone:
_A mother's love and fervent hope
Are coined into our horoscope,
And to our latest dying breath
Her heart and soul are ours to death!_
In his clutched hand he held four gold "sovereigns" that his fond mother
had given him at parting to help him in the daily trials of life, when no
other friend could be so true and powerful. Gold gilds success.
"Here, Jack, keep two of these for yourself, and if I should ever be
penniless, and you have gold, I know you will aid me in a pinch. The wine
nature of your soul needs no bush."
_"We still have slept together,
Rose at an instant, learned, played, eat together,
And wherever we went like Juno's swans,
Still we went coupled, and inseparable."_
"William," said I, "memory with her indelible signet shall long imprint
this generous act of yours upon my soul, and when hundreds of years have
passed, I shall tell of the undying friendship of two bohemians, who, day
and night, set their own fashion, created a world of their own, and lived
ecstatically, oscillating between the blunders of Bacchus and the vanity of
Venus!"
William's heart was heavy when turning his back on father, mother, brother,
sister, wife and children, at the age of twenty-two.
We passed along the Clopton stone bridge, and as we tramped over Primrose
Hill looking back at the roofs and spires of Stratford, glinting in the
morning light, the Bard uttered this impulsive dash of eloquence:
_Farewell, farewell! a sad farewell
To glowing scenes of boyhood.
Ye rocks, and rills and forests primeval
List to my sighing soul, trembling on the tongue
To vent its echoes in ambient air.
No more shall wild eyed deer,
Fretful hares, hawks and hounds
Entrance mine ear and vision,
Or frantically depart when
Stealthy footsteps disturb the lark,
Ere Phoebus' golden light
Illuminates the dawn.
Memory, many hued maiden,
Oft in midnight hours
Shall picture these eternal hills,
And purling streams, rimmed by
Vernal meadows;
And pillowed even in the lap of misery
Fantastic visions of thee
Shall lull deepest woe to repose.
And banqueting at yon alehouse,
Nestling near blooming hedge and snowy
Hawthorn, I shall live again
In blissful dreams among the enchanting
Precincts of the silver, serpentine Avon.
To thee I lift my hands in prayer
Disappearing, and pinioned with Hope;
Daughter of Love and sunrise--
Go forth to multitudinous London,
And, "buckle fortune on my back"
"To bear her burden," to successful,
Lofty heights of mind illimitable._
With this apostrophe, we took a last look at the glinting gables and
sparkling spires of Stratford, disappearing over the hill, our steps and
faces turned to London town, that seething whirlpool of human woe and
pleasure.
The air was cold and the country roads were rutty and muddy, but the autumn
landscape was beautiful, in its gray and purple garb, while the notes of
flitting wild birds chirped and sang from bush, hedge, field and forest, in
a mournful monotone to the fading glory of the year.
The various birds chattered in clumps along the highway, and then would
rise over our heads in flitting flocks, steering their course to the south
and seemingly accompanying us on our wandering way to the great metropolis.
In our zigzag course we passed through the towns of Ettington, Oxhill,
Wroxton, Woodstock, Eversham and Oxford.
It was near sunset when the lofty towers and steeples of ancient Oxford,
the great site of classic lore, met our view. In our haste to enter the
city before dark, we jumped a hedge fence, and stone wall, making a short
cross-cut over the lordly domain of the Earl of Norfolk, and just as we
were again emerging into the great road, a gamekeeper was seen approaching
with a huge mastiff, who rushed upon us like a lion.
We were near a rough wall, and it appeared to both of us that unless we
stood for immediate fight the dog would tear us to pieces.
The gamekeeper urged the dog in his barking, mad career, but just as he
made a grand leap at William's throat, his blackthorn cudgel came down with
a whirl and broke the forelegs of the mastiff, sending him to earth with a
growl and roar that could be heard over the castle walls that loomed up in
the evening gray. The gamekeeper aimed a blunderbuss at the Bard, but ere
he could fire the deadly weapon, I jumped on the petty tyrant whelp, and
cudgeled his face into a macerated beefsteak.
We then leaped the garden wall and rushed into the city crowd where the
curtains of night screened us from dogs and licentious lords.
We found our way to the Crown Tavern, kept by Richard Devanant and his
buxom black-eyed wife.
The old Boniface was jolly, but was in his physical and spiritual dotage,
yet "Nell," his second wife, was the life of the place, being immensely
popular with the Oxford students, who circled about the "Crown" in midnight
hours, with hilarious independence, that defied the raids of beadles,
watchmen and armed constabulary.
Those were gay and roystering days and nights when the greatest yeoman,
tradesman, student, or lord, was the one who "drank his comrade under the
table" and went away at sunrise like a lark, fluttering with dew from his
downy wing, and soaring into the sky of beauty and action.
It was Saturday night when we pulled up at the old tavern, and there seemed
to be a great crowd of town people celebrating some local event.
We soon found that the senior class of Oxonian students had conquered the
senior class of Cambridge at a great game of inter-college football and the
cheers and yells of Oxford bloods permeated the atmosphere until midnight.
A round table spread in the tavern hall was loaded with food and liquors,
while songs and speeches were given with a vim, all boasting of the prowess
and patriotism of Oxford.
A number of strolling players and boxers were introduced during the
evening.
A young lord named Bob Burleigh, was president of the club, while Mat
Monmouth was the spokesman, who called on the various students and actors
to entertain the town roysters who dropped in to see the free and easy
celebration of the football victory.
While drowning our grief and loneliness in pewter pots of ale at a side
table, in a snug corner, who should slap William on the shoulder but Ned
Sadler, our old schoolmate from Stratford. Ned was a jolly rake, and had
been in London sporting with theatrical companies, and, as a citizen of the
world, was perfectly at home wherever night overtook him.
At the height of the college banquet Mat Monmouth announced that the
president of the Cambridge Boxing Club had just challenged the president of
the Oxford Club to fight, under the King's rule, for a purse of twenty
guineas.
A wild cheer rent the room, and instanter the chairs and tables were pushed
aside, when Dick Milton and Jack Norfolk stepped into the improvised prize
ring, made by the circling arms of the students.
Five rounds with gloves were to be fought, and the champion who knocked out
his opponent three times, should be the victor.
Dick Milton, the Cambridge athlete, when "time" was called, rushed on Jack
Norfolk, the Oxford man, with a blow that sent him over the circling arms
and into the chairs.
Score one for Dick.
Time was called, and Jack, although a little dazed, leaped at his opponent,
who dodged the rush, and with a quick turn got in a left-hander on Jack's
neck, and pastured him again among the yelling bloods.
Score two for Dick.
When time was called for the third round, the Oxford man looked bleary and
tremulous, but with that bull-dog courage that never deserts an Englishman,
he threw himself on the Cambridge man with great force and both went down
with a crash.
Dick shook his opponent off like a terrier would a rat, and standing erect
at the end of the room, waited for the call of time.
Jack Norfolk did not respond to the call.
Score three for Dick. Victory!
Then the yell of the Cambridge students could be heard among the turrets
and gables of classic Oxford, a recompense for their defeat at the
afternoon football game.
Dick Milton, flushed with wine and victory, held aloft the purse of
guineas, and challenged any man in the room to fight him three rounds.
There seemed to be no immediate response, but I noticed a flush in the face
of William, who modestly rose in his six-foot form and asked if the
challenge included outside citizens?
Dick immediately replied, "You, or anybody in England." William said he did
not know much about fighting with gloves, but if the gentleman would
consent to three rounds with bare knuckles he would be pleased to
accommodate him at once.
"All right, toe the mark!"
Mat Monmouth called time.
Dick Milton made a tiger leap at William, and landed with his right eye on
the right knuckles of the Stratford citizen. The quickness and science of
the Bard was a great surprise to the Cambridge athlete, and when time was
called he came up groggy with a funeral eye, on the defense, and not on the
tiger attack.
Considerable sparring for place, and dodging about the human ring, was
indulged in by Dick, but William foiled each blow, and as the Cambridge man
inadvertently rubbed his swollen eye, the Bard landed a stinging blow on
the left optic of Milton and sent him into the arms of the landlord.
When time was called, no response from the Cambridge champion was heard,
and Mat Monmouth handed over the prize purse to William, when the Oxford
lads cheered the Stratford stranger to the echo, and made him an honorary
member of their athletic club.
_"Screw your courage to the sticking place,
And we will not fail."_
At the second crow of the cock William and myself bid good-bye to the jolly
Boniface and his fantastic spouse, who made a deep impression on the Bard.
In fact, he was easily impressed when youth, beauty and pleasure reigned
around, and had he been born in Kentucky, no blue ribbon stallion in the
commonwealth could match his form, spirit or gait.
Apollo with his rosy footsteps lit up hill, meadow and lawn, and kissed
away the sparkling dewdrops of bush and hedge, cheering us on our way
through the towns of Thane, over the Chilton Hills, on to Great Marlow,
Maidenhead and renowned Windsor, where forest and castle thrilled the
beholder with admiration for the works of Nature and Art.
It was late in the afternoon when we entered the broad highway to Windsor,
passing numerous yeomen and tradespeople on their way to and from the royal
domain of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth.
In striding along, with hearts light and airy, we were suddenly startled by
cries of frantic yells coming from the rear, and looking around beheld a
wild, runaway horse, and an open wagon with two young girls screaming for
help.
To see, think and act was always the way of William, and as the horse
rushed by with wagon and girls, nearly clipping our legs off, the Bard made
a leap for the tail board of the vehicle and landed in the midst of the
frightened girls. He then, as if inspired with the impulse of a tiger,
jumped on the back of the rushing animal, grabbed the trailing lines, and
neck of the horse, and steered him into a huge box hedge row that skirted
the castle walls of Windsor.
Every one went after the runaway to see the fate of the party; but strange
to say, the horse was lodged high and dry in the hedge row, while William
and the girls crawled out of the wreck without a scratch, soon recovering
from the fear, trepidation and danger that but a moment before reigned
supreme.
We put up for the night at the Red Lion Tavern, and you may be sure that
William was the hero of the town.
Rose and Bess Montagle were the young ladies whose lives had been
providentially saved, and their father was the head gamekeeper of Windsor.
William was invited for breakfast the next morning at the stone lodge to
receive hearty thanks and reward for his heroic action in risking his life
for the salvation of others; but the Bard excused himself, saying that he
must start by daylight for his last stretch to London, and only asked from
the young ladies a sprig of boxwood and lock of their golden hair.
At parting the father threw William a bag of gold, and the girls presented
him with the tokens desired, in addition to impulsive bashful kisses.
We were off promptly by sunrise, and steering our course to Houndslow,
Brentford, Kensington, and to the top of Primrose Hill, we first caught
sight of the spires, domes, turrets, temples and palaces of multitudinous,
universal London.
_"London, the needy villain's general home,
The common sewer of Paris and of Rome;
With eager thirst by folly or by fate,
Sucks in the dregs of each corrupted state."_