As the days went on, echoes of the life and bustle of the town reached
the ears of the quiet people in Overcombe hollow--exciting and moving
those unimportant natives as a ground-swell moves the weeds in a cave.
Travelling-carriages of all kinds and colours climbed and descended the
road that led towards the seaside borough. Some contained those
personages of the King's suite who had not kept pace with him in his
journey from Windsor; others were the coaches of aristocracy, big and
little, whom news of the King's arrival drew thither for their own
pleasure: so that the highway, as seen from the hills about Overcombe,
appeared like an ant-walk--a constant succession of dark spots creeping
along its surface at nearly uniform rates of progress, and all in one
direction.
The traffic and intelligence between camp and town passed in a measure
over the villagers' heads. It being summer time the miller was much
occupied with business, and the trumpet-major was too constantly engaged
in marching between the camp and Gloucester Lodge with the rest of the
dragoons to bring his friends any news for some days.
At last he sent a message that there was to be a review on the downs by
the King, and that it was fixed for the day following. This information
soon spread through the village and country round, and next morning the
whole population of Overcombe--except two or three very old men and
women, a few babies and their nurses, a cripple, and Corporal
Tullidge--ascended the slope with the crowds from afar, and awaited the
events of the day.
The miller wore his best coat on this occasion, which meant a good deal.
An Overcombe man in those days would have a best coat, and keep it as a
best coat half his life. The miller's had seen five and twenty summers
chiefly through the chinks of a clothes-box, and was not at all shabby as
yet, though getting singular. But that could not be helped; common coats
and best coats were distinct species, and never interchangeable. Living
so near the scene of the review he walked up the hill, accompanied by
Mrs. Garland and Anne as usual.
It was a clear day, with little wind stirring, and the view from the
downs, one of the most extensive in the county, was unclouded. The eye
of any observer who cared for such things swept over the wave-washed
town, and the bay beyond, and the Isle, with its pebble bank, lying on
the sea to the left of these, like a great crouching animal tethered to
the mainland. On the extreme east of the marine horizon, St. Aldhelm's
Head closed the scene, the sea to the southward of that point glaring
like a mirror under the sun. Inland could be seen Badbury Rings, where a
beacon had been recently erected; and nearer, Rainbarrow, on Egdon Heath,
where another stood: farther to the left Bulbarrow, where there was yet
another. Not far from this came Nettlecombe Tout; to the west, Dogberry
Hill, and Black'on near to the foreground, the beacon thereon being built
of furze faggots thatched with straw, and standing on the spot where the
monument now raises its head.
At nine o'clock the troops marched upon the ground--some from the camps
in the vicinity, and some from quarters in the different towns round
about. The approaches to the down were blocked with carriages of all
descriptions, ages, and colours, and with pedestrians of every class. At
ten the royal personages were said to be drawing near, and soon after the
King, accompanied by the Dukes of Cambridge and Cumberland, and a couple
of generals, appeared on horseback, wearing a round hat turned up at the
side, with a cockade and military feather. (Sensation among the crowd.)
Then the Queen and three of the princesses entered the field in a great
coach drawn by six beautiful cream-coloured horses. Another coach, with
four horses of the same sort, brought the two remaining princesses.
(Confused acclamations, 'There's King Jarge!' 'That's Queen Sharlett!'
'Princess 'Lizabeth!' 'Princesses Sophiar and Meelyer!' etc., from the
surrounding spectators.)
Anne and her party were fortunate enough to secure a position on the top
of one of the barrows which rose here and there on the down; and the
miller having gallantly constructed a little cairn of flints, he placed
the two women thereon, by which means they were enabled to see over the
heads, horses, and coaches of the multitudes below and around. At the
march-past the miller's eye, which had been wandering about for the
purpose, discovered his son in his place by the trumpeters, who had moved
forwards in two ranks, and were sounding the march.
'That's John!' he cried to the widow. 'His trumpet-sling is of two
colours, d'ye see; and the others be plain.'
Mrs. Garland too saw him now, and enthusiastically admired him from her
hands upwards, and Anne silently did the same. But before the young
woman's eyes had quite left the trumpet-major they fell upon the figure
of Yeoman Festus riding with his troop, and keeping his face at a medium
between haughtiness and mere bravery. He certainly looked as soldierly
as any of his own corps, and felt more soldierly than half-a-dozen, as
anybody could see by observing him. Anne got behind the miller, in case
Festus should discover her, and, regardless of his monarch, rush upon her
in a rage with, 'Why the devil did you run away from me that night--hey,
madam?' But she resolved to think no more of him just now, and to stick
to Loveday, who was her mother's friend. In this she was helped by the
stirring tones which burst from the latter gentleman and his subordinates
from time to time.
'Well,' said the miller complacently, 'there's few of more consequence in
a regiment than a trumpeter. He's the chap that tells 'em what to do,
after all. Hey, Mrs. Garland?'
'So he is, miller,' said she.
'They could no more do without Jack and his men than they could without
generals.'
'Indeed they could not,' said Mrs. Garland again, in a tone of pleasant
agreement with any one in Great Britain or Ireland.
It was said that the line that day was three miles long, reaching from
the high ground on the right of where the people stood to the turnpike
road on the left. After the review came a sham fight, during which
action the crowd dispersed more widely over the downs, enabling Widow
Garland to get still clearer glimpses of the King, and his handsome
charger, and the head of the Queen, and the elbows and shoulders of the
princesses in the carriages, and fractional parts of General Garth and
the Duke of Cumberland; which sights gave her great gratification. She
tugged at her daughter at every opportunity, exclaiming, 'Now you can see
his feather!' 'There's her hat!' 'There's her Majesty's India muslin
shawl!' in a minor form of ecstasy, that made the miller think her more
girlish and animated than her daughter Anne.
In those military manoeuvres the miller followed the fortunes of one man;
Anne Garland of two. The spectators, who, unlike our party, had no
personal interest in the soldiery, saw only troops and battalions in the
concrete, straight lines of red, straight lines of blue, white lines
formed of innumerable knee-breeches, black lines formed of many gaiters,
coming and going in kaleidoscopic change. Who thought of every point in
the line as an isolated man, each dwelling all to himself in the
hermitage of his own mind? One person did, a young man far removed from
the barrow where the Garlands and Miller Loveday stood. The natural
expression of his face was somewhat obscured by the bronzing effects of
rough weather, but the lines of his mouth showed that affectionate
impulses were strong within him--perhaps stronger than judgment well
could regulate. He wore a blue jacket with little brass buttons, and was
plainly a seafaring man.
Meanwhile, in the part of the plain where rose the tumulus on which the
miller had established himself, a broad-brimmed tradesman was elbowing
his way along. He saw Mr. Loveday from the base of the barrow, and
beckoned to attract his attention. Loveday went halfway down, and the
other came up as near as he could.
'Miller,' said the man, 'a letter has been lying at the post-office for
you for the last three days. If I had known that I should see ye here
I'd have brought it along with me.'
The miller thanked him for the news, and they parted, Loveday returning
to the summit. 'What a very strange thing!' he said to Mrs. Garland, who
had looked inquiringly at his face, now very grave. 'That was Budmouth
postmaster, and he says there's a letter for me. Ah, I now call to mind
that there _was_ a letter in the candle three days ago this very night--a
large red one; but foolish-like I thought nothing o't. Who _can_ that
letter be from?'
A letter at this time was such an event for hamleteers, even of the
miller's respectable standing, that Loveday thenceforward was thrown into
a fit of abstraction which prevented his seeing any more of the sham
fight, or the people, or the King. Mrs. Garland imbibed some of his
concern, and suggested that the letter might come from his son Robert.
'I should naturally have thought that,' said Miller Loveday; 'but he
wrote to me only two months ago, and his brother John heard from him
within the last four weeks, when he was just about starting on another
voyage. If you'll pardon me, Mrs. Garland, ma'am, I'll see if there's
any Overcombe man here who is going to Budmouth to-day, so that I may get
the letter by night-time. I cannot possibly go myself.'
So Mr. Loveday left them for awhile; and as they were so near home Mrs.
Garland did not wait on the barrow for him to come back, but walked about
with Anne a little time, until they should be disposed to trot down the
slope to their own door. They listened to a man who was offering one
guinea to receive ten in case Buonaparte should be killed in three
months, and to other entertainments of that nature, which at this time
were not rare. Once during their peregrination the eyes of the sailor
before-mentioned fell upon Anne; but he glanced over her and passed her
unheedingly by. Loveday the elder was at this time on the other side of
the line, looking for a messenger to the town. At twelve o'clock the
review was over, and the King and his family left the hill. The troops
then cleared off the field, the spectators followed, and by one o'clock
the downs were again bare.
They still spread their grassy surface to the sun as on that beautiful
morning not, historically speaking, so very long ago; but the King and
his fifteen thousand armed men, the horses, the bands of music, the
princesses, the cream-coloured teams--the gorgeous centre-piece, in
short, to which the downs were but the mere mount or margin--how entirely
have they all passed and gone!--lying scattered about the world as
military and other dust, some at Talavera, Albuera, Salamanca, Vittoria,
Toulouse, and Waterloo; some in home churchyards; and a few small
handfuls in royal vaults.
In the afternoon John Loveday, lightened of his trumpet and trappings,
appeared at the old mill-house door, and beheld Anne standing at hers.
'I saw you, Miss Garland,' said the soldier gaily.
'Where was I?' said she, smiling.
'On the top of the big mound--to the right of the King.'
'And I saw you; lots of times,' she rejoined.
Loveday seemed pleased. 'Did you really take the trouble to find me?
That was very good of you.'
'Her eyes followed you everywhere,' said Mrs. Garland from an upper
window.
'Of course I looked at the dragoons most,' said Anne, disconcerted. 'And
when I looked at them my eyes naturally fell upon the trumpets. I looked
at the dragoons generally, no more.'
She did not mean to show any vexation to the trumpet-major, but he
fancied otherwise, and stood repressed. The situation was relieved by
the arrival of the miller, still looking serious.
'I am very much concerned, John; I did not go to the review for nothing.
There's a letter a-waiting for me at Budmouth, and I must get it before
bedtime, or I shan't sleep a wink.'
'I'll go, of course,' said John; 'and perhaps Miss Garland would like to
see what's doing there to-day? Everybody is gone or going; the road is
like a fair.'
He spoke pleadingly, but Anne was not won to assent.
'You can drive in the gig; 'twill do Blossom good,' said the miller.
'Let David drive Miss Garland,' said the trumpet-major, not wishing to
coerce her; 'I would just as soon walk.'
Anne joyfully welcomed this arrangement, and a time was fixed for the
start.