My master was very surly with me when I refused to go his errand abroad;
yet he had too much need of my service in the business he was engaged on
to fall out with me as he would have liked. And seeing me resolved to
abide where I was, he bade me stay and look to the place while he
himself saw after the removing of the stuff from Mistress Crane's house
to Moulsey.
"As to the type," said he, "we will speak of that again. But mark me,
Humphrey, a 'prentice who is not good enough to do an errand like this
is not good enough to be my son-in-law."
And he went off in dudgeon, leaving me very lonely and miserable. And,
to tell the truth, at any other season I should have hailed this voyage;
and when next day I saw lying near London Bridge the _Misericorde_
herself, and hailing the captain (who was that same shipmate who had
steered us into Leith Roads), heard from him that in a week he should
sail for France, I wished I could divide myself in two and go half with
him and half remain at my post in London.
A day or two later, being evening, I had locked up the printing house
and was wandering to take the air towards Smithfield. I had passed
under Temple Bar and was making my way down Fleet Street, when there
knocked up against me a great carter fellow, whom, by his gait, I took
to be more than half drunk. Being a 'prentice, and not in the humour
for knocks of that kind, I swung round on the fellow to kick him for his
clumsiness, when he looked me suddenly in the face and uttered my name.
It was Ludar.
It was my turn now to reel like a drunken man; and so mighty a knock did
my heart give against my ribs that I believe I should have fallen had he
not roughly caught my arm and muttered--
"Not a word, but lead on." And he staggered away, smacking his whip and
calling to his horse to go forward.
I walked on in a dream, knowing by the crack of the whip behind that he
followed at a distance, yet never daring to turn my head. At last, as
we came near Smithfield, I looked back. He lay on the top of a load of
hay in his cart, singing aloud noisily and cracking his whip, and
seeming no more concerned in me or any one else than the patient horse
he drove.
The market place was full of carts, amidst which he was presently able
to leave his own and come near where I stood with a crowd looking at
some bulls just brought in. He had left his whip behind, by which I
guessed he had done with his cart and was free to follow me on foot. So
presently I edged out and wandered slowly back citywards. It was
already dusk, and by the time I got back to my master's door and
unlocked it, night had fallen. I durst not look back as I entered, and
indeed made a great noise as of fastening bolts and bars within. Then I
stood and waited in a fever.
Had I been wrong after all? An hour passed and never a footfall on the
pavement. Then the watch marched by, and as their slow tramp died away
in the distance the door quietly opened and there stood Ludar, very
pale, but as cool and unconcerned as the day I first met him near
Oxford.
"Are you alone?" said he.
"Yes."
"Is there any food in the house?"
I flew to get him some, while he slowly took off his faded carter's
cloak, and flung himself wearily on a chair.
He kept me waiting while he ate, nor had I the words to question him.
But when his hunger was appeased, he said:
"Six days I have waited and thought you lost. Yet I knew I should find
you at last, and I did."
"You escaped?" I asked, the words coming slowly and charily.
"Yes, Humphrey, my friend. After six months, with great labour, and by
the help of a nail, I filed my wrist chain and freed my hands. Then
when my warder came one evening later than usual, I flew on him and
felled him. He was but stunned, and lay still scarce long enough for me
to strip him and put him in my clothes. Then I left him and walked out,
jingling the keys. In the dark, no one looked twice at me, even when at
the porter's lodge I went to hang up my keys. 'You be late in your
rounds to-night,' said the porter, who dozed at the fire. I grunted in
reply, and sat beside him till he was well asleep. Then I slipped the
great key from his belt, and bade him good-night, to which he muttered
something. At the great gate stood a young sentry, who, seeing me to be
a warder, asked me where I went at that hour. I told him a state
prisoner was very sick and I was bidden by the leech go to the druggist
for a plaster. 'A pretty errand to send an honest fellow,' said I, 'who
has work enough of his own without being waiting gentleman to every
knave in the place who has a fit of the colic.' The soldier laughed and
said, 'twas a pity they did not keep a supply of plasters in the place.
To which I agreed, and unlocking the gate, bade him guard the key while
I was out, as 'twas a risk to carry it beyond the precincts. 'But I
pray you, comrade,' said I, 'be at hand to admit me when I return.'
'Ay, ay,' said he, with a grin. 'There be some in here who would not
tap hard to get in again.' So we parted good friends, and out I got.
After that I went down to the river, where all was dark, and being
anxious to part with my warder's clothes which might tell tales, I
stripped, and filling the pockets with stones, dropped them into the
tide. Then I set out to swim to the other shore, and you may guess if
it was not brave to feel free once more. 'Twas a long swim, and the
tide carried me far down to Rotherhithe, where, as luck would have it,
as I neared shore I struck against something floating on the stream. At
first I thought it a log, but as I laid my arms upon it, I found it, to
my horror, to be a corpse of a man drowned. I was going to cast off
again, when I bethought me, here was a man whose clothes were no use to
him or any one else, while I went naked. So I dragged him to a desolate
part of the shore. He seemed to be a carrier, and having no wound or
sign of violence on him, I concluded him to have fallen in the water
either by accident or of his own accord. These garments I wear are
his."