his eyes inquiringly round the room. Their feeble light was ready to
expire. The rude gusts rocked the frail tenement "as if't had agues;"
and the walls groaned beneath their pressure. There was a small
casement, stuffed with paper and a matchless assortment of
parti-coloured rags, near the roof, directly over the bed. He ascended
softly to examine the nature of this outlet; but, to his further
alarm, he found it guarded outside with iron bars. This was a direct
confirmation of his surmises. A cold shudder crept over him. He felt
almost stiffening with horror as he looked down upon his thoughtful
companion, doomed, he doubted not, as well as himself, to fall a prey
to the assassin. He gazed wildly round the apartment, as if with some
desperate hope of deliverance. His head grew dizzy; objects seemed to
flit past him; and more than once he fancied that footsteps were
creeping up the ladder. This acute burst of agony subsiding, he
listened to the short and rapid whirl of the wind eddying by; and
never had the sound fallen upon his ear so fearfully. It seemed like
the wail of a departing spirit, or like some funeral dirge, moaning
heavily and deep through the sudden pauses of the blast. He threw
himself on the bed. Fatigue and long abstinence had enervated his
frame. Nature, forced almost beyond the limit of endurance, had become
passive, and almost incapable of suffering. A deep slumber stole upon
him, yet could he not escape the horrors by which he was surrounded.
Daggers reeking in blood--spectres covered with hideous
wounds--murderers on the rack--gibbets, and a thousand forms,
shapeless and unimaginable, crowded past with inconceivable rapidity.
A huge figure approached. In its hand a weapon was uplifted, as if to
destroy him. He made a vehement effort to escape; but was holden,
without the power of resistance. Just as it was descending he awoke.
For a while he was unable to recollect precisely the nature of his
situation. The apartment was quite dark. He groped confusedly about
him, but to no purpose. At that instant a ray seemed to glide from the
casement. It was a moonbeam struggling through that almost impervious
inlet. By this light he beheld a figure intently gazing towards the
window. At the first glance he did not recognise his companion; but,
as he started from the couch, the former approached him, and, laying
one hand on his shoulder, whispered that he should be still. He
obeyed, and remained motionless. The reason for this admonition was
soon apparent. He heard a slight pattering at intervals on the few
brittle fragments which the window yet retained. Seaton at first
thought it might be the rain, especially as the wind had considerably
abated; but he soon found there must be some other cause, from the
rattling of sand and other coarser materials upon the floor and bed.
He crept close to the window, looking out below, but was unable to
find out the reason of this disturbance. Suddenly a volley of pebbles
bounded past his face, and the moon shining forth at the same instant,
a figure was distinguished anxiously attempting to arouse and excite
their attention. To his great astonishment he recognised the wayward
being whose glance had startled him so disagreeably a few hours
before. He recollected the idiot's former signal, and felt convinced
that this was a more direct and friendly interference. Seaton
carefully pulled away a portion of the stuffing, and was thus enabled
to bring his head closer to the bars. This movement was observed; and
with an admonition to silence, the strange creature pointed to the
ground, at the same time he appeared as if urging them to escape.
Seaton comprehended his meaning; but the iron fastenings were an
apparently insurmountable impediment. He laid hold of one of the bars
with considerable force; and to his great joy it yielded to the
pressure. Apparently there was no other individual beneath, or this
friendly warning would not have been given. It seemed as if the
tenants of the hovel were too secure of their prey to set a watch. He
descended cautiously to his companion. A few whispers were sufficient
to convey the intelligence. Again he mounted to the window; and, on
looking down, found that their providential monitor had disappeared.
There was no time to be lost. Seaton again tried the bar, and
succeeded in removing it. Another was soon wrenched from its hold, and
a few minutes more saw him safely through the aperture, from which he
let himself down with little difficulty to the ground. His companion
immediately followed; and once more outside their lodging, a new
difficulty presented itself. Seaton knew of no other path than the one
by which they had previously gained the cottage; and this would, in
all probability, afford a leading track to their pursuers, who might
be expected shortly to be aware of their escape. But he was relieved
from this dilemma by his companion making a signal that he should
follow. "Remember thy promise," said he. Seaton was prepared to obey,
feeling a renewed confidence in the discretion of his guide. Turning
into a pathway near the place where they had alighted, their course
was towards a river, which they beheld at no great distance twinkling
brightly in the moonbeams. They cautiously yet rapidly proceeded down
a narrow descent, fear hastening their flight, for they expected every
moment to hear the footsteps of their pursuers. In a little while they
turned out of the road, and, by a circuitous path, which the guide
seemed to tread with unhesitating confidence, they came to the river's
brink. By the brawling of its current, and the appearance it
presented, the water was evidently shallow, and might be crossed
without much difficulty. Seaton was preparing to make the attempt, but
was prevented by his comrade.
"I have some inward impression that we may not cross here. We shall be
pursued; and our adversaries will imagine that we have passed over
what is doubtless the ford of this Jordan. I know not why, but we must
follow its banks, and for some distance, ere we pass."
Seaton urged the danger and folly of this proceeding, and proposed
crossing immediately, but met with a decided and unflinching refusal
from his companion. They now kept along the river's brink, but with
much difficulty. The rain having swollen the waters, they were often
forced to wade up to the knees through the little creeks and rivulets
that intersected their path. They journeyed on for a considerable
time in silence, when the elder traveller made a sudden pause.
"It is here," said he. Seaton looked on the river; but the broad and
deep wave rolled past with frightful impetuosity. The moonbeams
glittered on a wide and rapid flood, whose depths were unknown, but to
which, nevertheless, it seemed that they were on the point of
committing themselves.
"The river is both wide and deep!" said the youth.
"Nevertheless, we must cross," replied his more taciturn companion.
Without further parley the latter plunged boldly into the stream.
Urged on by his fears, and preferring death in any shape to the death
that was pursuing him, Seaton followed his example. For some time they
struggled hard with the full sweep of the current; and it seemed
little short of a miracle when they arrived, almost breathless and
exhausted, on the opposite side.
"Praised be His name who hath given strength! Though deep waters have
encompassed us, yet His arm is our deliverance."
With a holy and ardent outpouring of soul did this good man render
thanksgivings unto Him whose hand had been so visibly stretched out
for their protection. Just as he had made an end of speaking, a
distant but distinct howl was borne down upon the wind. They listened
eagerly, as the sound evidently grew nearer. It was like the short but
stifled cry of a hound in full chase.
"Peril cometh as a whirlwind," said George Fox; "but fear not--a way
will be left for our escape!"
"It is that malicious hound!" replied Seaton shuddering, as he
remembered the beast which had gazed so intently on him, and which was
evidently trained for the present purpose.
"We must climb up to those tall bushes with all speed," said the
companion of his flight, at the same time leading the way with
considerable haste and agility.
From this height they saw, at some distance up the river, three men on
horseback, preceded by a large hound, who, true to the scent, was
following steadily on their footsteps. They approached rapidly to the
place where the fugitives had gone over, when the dog made a dead
halt, and looked wistfully across.
"Loo, loo!" said the foremost rider, "hie on, lass!" But the beast
would not move.
"Sure now, Mike," said he, as the others came up, "if they've taken
the water at this unlucky hole, they'll need no drownin' by this
anyhow."
"It's the brute, bad luck to her," replied his comrade. "She's on the
wrong scent. Why they're over the ford by this, and we shall have the
bloody thief-catchers here before we can open the door for 'em."
"If the bitch had followed my nose, instead of her own beautiful
scent," said the remaining speaker, "we should ha' been over the ford
too, long ago. They'd as soon think of swimming o'er the bay in a
cabbage-leaf as cross at this place. Back, back; and we'll shoulder
'em yet, my darlings. Come along, boys--one of you take the ford, an'
watch the road over the hill. Have a care, now, that the rogues be not
skulking round the bog. I'll keep the road hereabout; an' thou, Mike,
lay to with the hound when thou art on the other side. Maybe they'll
not find it just so easy to beat us in the hunting while we've a leg
to lay on after them."
The worthy triumvirate here withdrew. The animal was with much
difficulty forced from her track; but by the help of a stout cord she
was dragged off, yelping and whining, to the great joy of their
intended victims. Seaton could not but recognise the very finger of
Providence, which had pointed out the means of preservation. No other
way was left apparently for their escape. Whatsoever course they had
taken, save this, must have inevitably thrown them into the very toils
of their pursuers; and he determined to follow, fearlessly and without
question, the future impulses of his companion.
"Shall we attempt to flee, or must we tarry here a space?" he
hesitatingly inquired.
"Nay, friend," said his guide, "I wis not yet what we shall do; but
methinks we are to abide here until morning!"
Seaton shivered at this intimation. His clothes were drenched, and his
whole frame stiffened and benumbed with cold. His position, too,
crouching amongst decayed branches and alder twigs, was none of the
most eligible or easy to sustain. He felt fully resolved, however, to
follow the leadings of his friend, being convinced that his ultimate
safety depended on a strict adherence to this determination.
The country was very thinly inhabited, and their enemies were in
possession of the only outlets by which they could escape to the
nearest village. Aided, too, by the sagacity of the dog, their track
would inevitably be discovered before daylight enabled them to find
shelter. These considerations were too important to be overlooked, and
Seaton quietly resolved to make himself as comfortable as
circumstances would permit. He wrung out the wet from his clothes,
chafed his limbs, and ere long, to his inexpressible relief, the first
symptoms of the dawn were visible in the east. Just as a glowing rim
of light was gliding above the horizon, they ventured to peep forth
cautiously from their retreat. To their great mortification, they saw,
at a considerable distance, a horseman stationed on the brow of a
neighbouring hill, evidently for the purpose of a more extended
scrutiny. Signals would inevitably betray their route should they
emerge from their concealment; and escape now seemed as hopeless as
ever.
In this fresh difficulty Seaton again sought counsel from his friend,
who replied with great earnestness--
"There is yet another and a more grievous trial;"--he lifted up his
eyes, darkening already with the energy of his spirit;--"but I trust
our deliverance draweth nigh. We must return!"
"Return?" cried Seaton, his lips quivering with amazement. "Whither?
Not to the den we have just left?"
"Even so," said the other with great composure.
"Then all hope is lost!" mournfully returned the inquirer.
"Nay," replied his companion, "but let me ask what chance, even
according to thine own natural and unaided sense, there is of
deliverance in our present condition? Hemmed in on every hand, without
a guide, and strangers to the path we should take, if the watchman
from the hill miss our track, there is the hound upon our scent!"
There was no gainsaying these suggestions; but still a proposal that
they should return to the cabin, whence they had with such pains and
difficulty made their escape, in itself was so absurd and inexplicable
a piece of manoeuvring, that common sense and common prudence alike
forbade the attempt. Yet, on the other hand, common sense and common
prudence appeared to be equally unavailing as to any mode of escape
from the toils in which they were entangled.
Again he determined to follow his friend's guidance: who, addressing
himself immediately to the task, made the best of his way to the ford
which he had refused to cross the preceding night. They now took the
direct road to the house. The morning was sharp and clear. Seaton felt
the cold and raw atmosphere cling to his frame, already chilled to an
alarming degree; but the excitation he had undergone prevented further
mischief than the temporary inconvenience he then suffered. As they
came nearer the hut his very faculties seemed to escape from his
control. A sense of danger, imminent and almost insupportable, came
upon him. Bewildered, and actuated with that unaccountable but
instinctive desperation which urges on to some inevitable doom, he
rushed wildly into the dwelling. It was not as they had left it.
Several horses were quietly standing by the door; and a party, who had
merely called for the purpose of half-an-hour's rest and refreshment,
were then making preparations to depart. Seaton took one of them
aside, and disclosed the terrible circumstances we have related. By a
judicious but prompt application of their forces they prevented any
one from leaving the house, and were prepared to seize all who should
return thither. A close search soon betrayed the quality and calling
of its inmates. A vast hoard of plunder was discovered, and proofs too
abundant were found that deeds had been there perpetrated of which we
forbear the recital. The old woman was seized; and her capture was
followed by the apprehension of the whole gang, who shortly after met
with the retribution merited by their crimes.
The maniac proved to be a son of the old beldame. At times, the cloud
unhappily clearing from his mental vision had left him for a short
space fearfully cognisant of the transactions he was then doomed to
witness. On that night to which our history refers a sudden
providential gleam of intelligence flashed upon him, and an unknown
impulse prompted his interference in behalf of the unfortunate, and,
as he thought, unsuspecting victims. Ere leaving the country they saw
him comfortably provided for; and, as far as the nature of his malady
would permit, his mind was soothed, and his darkest moments partly
relieved from the horrors which humanity alone could mitigate, but not
prevent.
[15] _Vide_ West's _Antiquities of Furness_.
THE DEMON OF THE WELL.
"Avaunt, thou senseless thing!
Can graven image mimic life, and glare
Its stony eye-balls; grin, make mouths at me?
Go to, it is possessed;--some demon lurks
Within its substance."
Peggy's well, the subject of our engraving, is near the brink
of the Ribble, in a field below Waddow Hall; Brunckerley
Stepping-stones not being far distant, where several lives have
been lost in attempting to cross, at times when the river was
swollen by a rapid rise, which even a day's rain will produce.
These calamities, along with any other fatal accidents which
happened in the neighbourhood, are usually attributed to the
malevolence of Peggy. The stepping-stones are alluded to in our
first volume as the place where King Henry VI was taken, after
escaping from Waddington Hall.
Some stones are still visible at low water; but whether these
are the original "Hippins," or the foundations of a wooden
bridge which succeeded them, and was borne down by the ice at
the breaking up of the frost in the year 1814, is not known.
The stone image by the well, depicted in our engraving, has
been the subject of many strange tales and apprehensions, being
placed there when turned out of the house at Waddow, to allay
the terrors of the domestics, who durst not continue under the
same roof with this misshapen figure. It was then broken,
either from accident or design, and the head, some time ago, we
have understood, was in one of the attic chambers at Waddow
Hall.
One loud, roaring, and tempestuous night--the last relics of the year
1660--some half-dozen boon companions were comforting themselves
beside a blazing fire, and a wassail-cup, at the ingle of a
well-ordered and well-accustomed tavern within the good borough of
Clitheroe, bearing on its gable front, over a grim and narrow porch, a
marvellous portraiture apparently of some four-footed animal, by
common usage and consent denominated "The Bull." What recked they of
the turmoil that was abroad, while good liquor lasted, and the troll
and merry tale went round? The yule-log was blazing on the hearth,
and their cups were bright and plenished.
[Illustration 10: PEG O'NELLY'S WELL, NEAR CLITHEROE.
_Drawn by G. Pickering._
_Engraved by Edw^d Finden._]
"'Ods bodikins, Nic--and that's a parson's oath," said a small waspish
figure from the farther chimney-corner, in a sort of husky wheezing
voice, "I'll lay thee a thimblefull of pins thou dar'na do it."
"And I'll lay thee a grey lapstone, an' a tachin-end to boot, that I
run ower t' hippin-stones to-night, and never a wet sole; but a buss
and a wet lip I'll bring fro' the bonniest maiden at Waddow!"
"Like enough, like enough, though thou hast to brag for't," said the
first speaker tauntingly--an old customer of the house, and a compiler
of leathern extremities for the good burghers and their wives.
"Give o'er your gostering," said another; "_Non omnes qui citharam
tenent, sunt citharoedi_.[iii] Many talk of Robin Hood who never shot from
his bow. Know ye not 'tis Peggy's year, and her oblation hath not been
rendered? Eschew therefore the rather your bravery until this night be
overpast."
This learned harangue betrayed the schoolmaster, who was prone to make
Gaffer Wiswall's chimney-side a temporary refuge from the broils and
disturbances of his own, where his spouse, by way of enticing him to
remain, generally contrived either to rate him soundly or to sulk
during their brief communion.
"Who cares for Peg?" said the hero who had boasted of his
blandishments with the maids. "She may go drown herself i' the Red Sea
for aught I care!"
This heretical, unbelieving, and impious scorner was a man of shreds
and patches, a pot-valiant tailor, whose ungartered hosen, loose
knee-strings, and thin shambling legs, sufficiently betokened the
sedentary nature of his avocations. "I wonder the parson hasn't gi'en
her a lift wi' Pharaoh and his host ere this," continued he.
"Or the schoolmaster," said that provoking little personage, the first
speaker, whose sole aim was to throw the apple of discord amongst his
fellows.
"And pray who may this lady be whom ye so ungallantly devote to
perdition?" inquired a stranger from behind, who had hitherto been
silent, apparently not wishful to join the hilarity of those he
addressed. The party quesited was in the midst of a puff of exhalation
more than usually prolonged when the question was put, so that ere he
could frame his organs to the requisite reply the pragmatical tailor,
whose glibness of tongue was equalled only by his assurance, gave the
following by way of parenthesis:--
"Plague on't, where's t'ou bin a' thy life, 'at doesn't know Peg
O'Nelly, man?"
"Deuce tak' thee for a saucy lout," said the sutor; "I'll brak' thy
spindle-shanks wi' my pipe-stump. Be civil if thou can, Nicky, to thy
betters. Sir, if it please ye to listen, we'll have ye well instructed
in the matter by the schoolmaster here." He cast a roguish look at the
pedagogue as he spoke. But I pray you draw in with us, an' make one
wi' the rest."
The scholar adjusted himself, passed one hand thoughtfully upon his
brow, and with a gentle inclination commenced with a loud hem, or
clearance of aught that might obstruct the free communication of his
thoughts.
"Peg, or Peggy, as some do more euphoniously denominate her, was maid,
woman, or servant--_ancilla_, _famula_, _ministra_, not _pedissequa_,
or one who attends her mistress abroad, but rather a servant of all
work, in the house yonder at Waddow, many years past. Indeed, my
grandmother did use to speak of it as _ex vetere fama_--traditionary,
or appertaining unto the like."
"I tell thee what, gossip, if thee doesn't get on faster wi' thy tale,
Peggy's ghost will have a chronicle of another make. I can see Nic's
tongue is yammering to take up a stitch i' thy narrative," interrupted
the leathern artificer.
"And I'd bring it up in another guess way," said Nicholas, tartly,
"than wi' scraps and scrapings fro' gallipots, and remnants o' mass
books."
"Pray ye, friends, be at peace a while, or I may be dealt with never a
word to my question," said the stranger beseechingly.
"Go on," rejoined the peremptory occupant of the chimney-corner; "but
let thy discourse be more akin to thy text."
The schoolmaster, thus admonished, again set forward.
"As I was a-saying precedent or prior to this unseasonable
interruption--_medium sermonem_--I crave your mercy, but I was born,
as I may say, with the Latin, or the _lingua latialis_ in my mouth,
rather than my mother-tongue; so, as I was a-saying, this same Peggy,
_filia_ or daughter to Ellen, if I mistake not, seeing that Peg
O'Nell doth betoken, after the manner and use of these rude
provincials, that the genitrix or _mater_ is the genitive or
generator, being"----
"Now a murrain light on all fools, coxcombs, and"----
"Tailors' shins--hang thee, for thou hast verily split mine wi' thy
gilly-pegs. They're as sharp as a pair of hatchets," said an
unfortunate neighbour who had the ill-luck to encounter the gyrations
of these offensive and weapon-like appendages to the trunk of Nicholas
Slater, who, in his great ardour and distress at the floundering and
abortive attempts of the scholar, threw them about in all directions,
to the constant jeopardy and annoyance of those more immediately
within their sphere of operation.
"Keep 'em out o't gait then," said the testy aggressor, angry at the
interruption, being fearful of losing so lucky an opportunity.
"Peg O'Nelly, sir, was a maid-servant once at Waddow, killed first,
and then drowned i' the well by one o' the men for concubinage, as the
parson says; and so for the wrong done, her ghost ne'er having been
laid, you see she claims every seventh year an offering which must be
summat wick--and"----While he hesitated another took up the thread of
his narrative.
"This is the last night o' the year, you see," said the other in
continuation; "and we be just thinking to bid good-bye to th' old
chap, and greet th' new one with a wag of his paw, and a drink to his
weel-doing. But the first cause o' this disturbance was by reason of
its being Peggy's year, and as she hasn't had her sop yet, we thought
as how it would be no bad job to get rid o' this drunken tailor here,
and he might save some better man; so we have been daring him to cross
t' hippin-stones to-night; for there is but an hour or two to spare
before her time's up."