CAPTAIN OF DENT
Little Dick Chester had never known a mother's love nor a father's
care. His mother died when he was born. His father had been too
much occupied with the King's business to attend to his family. Dick
had been alternately petted and tyrannized over by servants. He was
high-spirited, but had never been taught to control himself, and his
want of training amongst gentle people had left him something of a
savage. His cousin John had beaten him for his insolence, as he
called it; and the rector of the parish had set him tasks to learn
for his carelessness; but he had never had an example to go by. He
feared his cousin, and hated learning in the person of the rector.
He was proud--proud of his good birth, of his old castle, of his new
title,--inclined to be overbearing, and, if roughly used, revengeful.
Struggling out of the moat water, he dashed open the gate-house door,
and with a torrent of angry words, dripping, gasping, choking, flung
his small person into the room.
"Upon my word!" said Giles the stableman. He was sitting at the
table writing.
"What do you mean? How do you dare?" Dick cried, tossing the drops
from his hair. "Writing! Since when did beggars learn to spell?"
He swept ink, pens, and paper off the table on to the floor.
"Since young gentlemen ceased to learn manners," said Giles, and he
frowned.
"Pooh!" said Dick rudely, stamping on the fallen papers. "Go to, for
a surly rogue and pretender. You cannot write your own name nor what
you are--beggar."
"I could write your name and what you are, nathless," said Giles,
picking up his writing from the floor.
Dick clutched at the paper to tear it away. "Fair and softly," said
Giles, holding it far above his head. "Go and fetch your coat and
shoes, your honour, and then we'll have a talk."
He let down the bridge. Dick shook his head. "When I'm across
you'll pull it up again and leave me."
For answer Giles snapped his fingers, walked out across the bridge,
picked up the coat and shoes, and came back. The bridge was pulled
up, the portcullis lowered, and Giles came in to find Dick reading
the superscription of the letter which he had taken from the floor.
"'To His Majesty the King!'" He laughed at Giles. "You write to the
King, Giles!" and he laughed again.
"Sir," said Giles, "I was never thrashed for reading another man's
letter, but I have the best will in the world to thrash you for it
now. However, I'd do it did I not know you were ignorant of
politeness, never having been taught it. Let it pass."
Dick blushed, but said angrily: "You! Who are you? The stable-help?"
Giles bowed.
"Picked up by Captain Dent, who knows where, or how, three days ago."
"True," said Giles. "On the great North Road, sitting in the ditch,
starving. 'Want a job, my man?' said the captain. 'Want some food,
my lord,' said I meekly. 'Hold my horse,' growled the captain, and
went into an inn. At the end of half an hour he came out of the inn
and asked me one or two questions. 'On what side was I?' 'On the
road-side,' I answered. 'Did I want an easy job and much money?'
'Of course I did.' Followed a good meal at The Checkers, in the
presence of two ugly Puritans, and then the captain's stirrup and a
long trot hither."
Dick listened with interest, half-forgetting his anger.
"Why did you lie in the ditch starving, Giles?" he demanded.
"Because," said Giles gravely, "had I lain in the middle of the road
I should have been, by your leave, trodden on. And now, sir," he
added, "let me tell you I am for the King, and I happen to know it
was the King's will that this house should be held for him."
"Yes," Dick cried, "word was sent us with the express order to keep
the flag flying and hold out till relieved. Then comes news of my
father's death, and Master Purvis was frightened. Then comes my
cousin, Captain Dent, saying we must all quit, and he brings--"
"Me," said Giles, "and he bids me shut up the house closely when he
has gone, and surrender to the first Roundhead who knocks at the
gate. Captain John Dent is a traitor."
Dick started to his feet.
"Giles," he cried, "what shall we do?"
"When I saw you," said Giles, shaking his finger at him, "running
away this morning, I thought you too were a traitor. I would have
stood by the old place, and--"
"Giles! I only ran away from my cousin. I'm here. I've come back.
I hid so's to return."
"Very good," said Giles. "Then we two will hang on here, and fly our
old rag over the crop-ears of Puritans."
Dick did not think to question the loyalty and devotion of the
stableman. His plan was his plan; his intention jumped with his own.
He had only been in the place a week; he was a stranger, a beggar a
tramp from the road, a starving man out of a ditch, but there was
something so gay, so fearless about him that young Dick was attracted.
"For God and the King!" cried Giles, tossing his battered hat.
"For God and the King!" Dick echoed proudly, and they shook hands.
"We're well victualled, sir," said Giles, "and our walls will stand
anything but cannon. You must know I heard a thing or two at The
Checkers that led me to suppose the enemy may be here any moment."
Dick gave a caper of delight. Fancy the glory! A castle to hold
alone--almost alone! Sir Richard Chester, aged eleven, supported
only by a stable-helper, held his castle for the King for--oh,
weeks!--with incredible risks! Dick almost regretted the great
stores of flour, of beer, of hams and cured pork, of preserves and
wines at his command. He was almost ashamed of the thickness of his
walls, for he was in comparative safety, and might dwell at his ease
and laugh at his foes he thought.
"Giles," he said.
"Sir," said Giles, pulling his forelock.
"I am the captain of this castle."
"Not a doubt of it, sir."
Dick smiled, and walked, head in air, across the floor. Giles
watched him.
"If your honour will go and change your clothes, which are too wet to
be healthy, I will prepare dinner," he said respectfully.
A clammy, clinging feeling about the legs and back moved Dick to
acquiescence. He ran out, first being graciously pleased to remark
that he was hungry.
Giles followed him thoughtfully across the court and into the
kitchen. During dinner, which Dick insisted upon Giles sharing with
him, he explained that he had decided that Giles must be promoted
from the stables to be his lieutenant, especially as there were no
horses in the stables to mind. Giles thanked him with becoming
gratitude. Then Dick held forth upon the grand position they were
in, the solemnity of their trust, and the wicked desertion of Captain
John Dent.
"He said he had no orders to hold the place," Dick said, "and we
couldn't without him. His orders were to rejoin his regiment. He
frightened the men-servants with something or other, and they ran
away. No one cared but me."
"What did he mean to do with you, I wonder?" said Giles.
"Take me with him and put me to school, he said," and Dick shrugged
his shoulders. Defending a castle is better than school, and an
enemy not yet arrived is pleasanter in contemplation than a cousin's
harsh words and heavy whip.
"Is the flag up, Giles?" he questioned restlessly. And, seeing that
it was, he set off to visit the walls and defences, as he said.
Later in the afternoon he came out on the leads by the flagstaff, and
found Giles there looking out over the land. Giles was a tall young
man, but he stooped somewhat. His dark hair was not cropped like the
Puritans', nor long and waving like the Cavaliers'. It fell over his
brow and straggled over his shoulders untidily. He wore a long beard
and moustache, and his skin was tanned and browned by sun and wind.
He was thin, but seemed stronger and more active than he looked. His
clothes were an indescribable tangle of rags. Yet, withal, he looked
clean, and Dick remembered seeing him undergoing very prolonged
morning ablutions at the pump in the yard. His eyes were
particularly nice, large and rather sad, but very friendly and kind.
Dick sat down by him on the leads. He was tired, and a little
disappointed that the enemy had not arrived yet and given him an
opportunity for importance.
"Giles," he said, "have you always been a groom?"
"No, sir," said Giles, smiling.
"What have you been?"
"Everything, I fancy, except a thief; and then, again, nothing,
except a fool."
Dick was puzzled.
"What were you doing on the road when Cousin John picked you up?
Where had you been?"
"I had just come from France," said Giles.
Dick stared.
"Well--" he said.
"I was in France, and my master sent for me to come to England."
"I see. Your master was in England?"
"Ay. So I took ship and came over. I was ill at the time, but that
was no matter. When we landed we stayed the night at an inn--an
infamous place. The landlord would have murdered me. The servant
who was with me ran away--custom of servants, you will observe,--the
landlord seized my baggage. His wife helped me to escape in these
rags of her husband's. I took, perforce, to the road, for I was
penniless and a stranger, and your cousin found me. And," he turned
himself round with a comical movement of his hands towards his
tattered person, "behold me!" he said.
Dick laughed.
"And your master, Giles; where is he?"
"Ah, boy! where is every man's master in these days? He is riding up
and down England, fighting and flying."
"A soldier?" Dick asked.
"Be sure of it," Giles answered. "We shall meet soon, doubtless."
Then he laughed. "Faith, he wouldn't know me if we met to-day," he
said.
"Have you been in other countries besides France?" Dick questioned.
"Ay. Germany, the Low Countries, and Spain, and Russia, and Italy."
"With your master?"
"I have served many masters," said Giles shortly.
Silence fell. Then Dick suddenly sprang up.
"Look!" he cried, "look!" He pointed to a cloud of dust on the
highroad. "They come!" he said.