THE PRISONER IN THE COACH.
"It smites my heart to deal ungently with thee, lady."--_The Fair
Immured._
"She is like to find some magistrate of knowledge and resources next
time!" continued Hal, alluding to Anne. "Well, there's naught to do but
ride after her!"
"But what then?" put in Kit. "What shall hinder her from crying out?"
Hal, just mounted, happened to glance at the coach in the lane. He had,
in one moment, a swift series of thoughts.
"Would that a dozen horses were to be had!" quoth he.
"Why, now," said Kit, "here come a score of horses, but with men upon
their backs."
Hal turned a startled look southward. No, the riders were not Barnet's
men; they rode together in too great disorder. Something impelled Hal to
wait their coming up. In a few minutes it could be seen that they were a
diverse company, some bravely dressed, some raggedly, some in both
bravery and rags at once. Some had reckless faces, some uneasy, some
stealthy, some sheepish. Their leader, a tall man, who would have been
handsome but for his low brow and an inequality between the two halves
of his visage, looked a mixture of insolent boldness and knavish
servility.
"Why, God's body!" ejaculated Kit Bottle, with sudden astonishment and
gladness. "'Tis that same rascal, the very rogue himself, and none else!
I had thought we might fall in with him hereabouts!"
"Of whom speak you?" asked Hal, curtly.
"Of that villain Rumney,--mine old comrade that turned robber; him I
once told you of. Ho. Rumney, thou counterfeit captain! Well met, thou
rogue, says Kit Bottle!"
And while the one "captain" rode out to welcome the other, Hal
remembered what the yeoman at Scardiff had told him of the highway
robbers; he scanned the villainous faces of these men, and was thankful
in his heart that Anne Hazlehurst had not ridden their way; and then he
thought of her on the road ahead, and looked again at the coach, and at
the horses of the newcomers.
By the time the two former companions in arms had finished their first
salutations, Hal had formed his plan. He called Kit back to him, and
said:
"If thy friend hath a mind to put himself and his company in my service
for three days, there shall be fair pay forthcoming."
"I know not how Rumney will take to honest service," replied Kit,
doubtfully. "But leave the handling of the matter to me--and the fixing
of the pay, too." And he rode back to the robber captain, who with his
band had remained awaiting Kit's return at the place where they had
stopped, some distance from Hal and Anthony. The villagers, now joined
by the constable himself, stood gaping before the ale-house, exchanging
a curious inspection with the questionable-looking newcomers.
Kit and Captain Rumney whispered together for a long time, gravely and
mysteriously. Rumney was at first of a frowning and holding-off
disposition; looked askance at Hal several times, and shook his head
skeptically, as if he could see no advantage in what was proposed. Kit,
as his face and gestures showed, waxed eloquent and urgent. There were
moments when wrathful looks and words passed between the two, and old
matters were raked up, and recriminations cast. But in the end, Rumney
showed a yielding countenance, and Kit came back to Hal in triumph. The
rate of hire being within Hal's limits, the robber captain rode up, at
Kit's motion, and was introduced to Hal as to Sir Valentine Fleetwood.
Hal, on viewing this new ally more closely, mentally set him down as
good for two or three days' fidelity if tactfully dealt with. Rumney, on
his part, looked Hal over searchingly, with half closed gray eyes, as if
to see what might be made out of him. The rascal had a fawning manner
that might become insolent, or threatening, or cruel, upon the least
occasion.
Rumney now went back to his men, and briefly acquainted them with what
he had done,--a disclosure whose only outward effect was to make them
gaze with a little more interest at Master Marryott. At this time, Hal
was questioning the constable regarding the coach. He learned that, when
bogged in mire during a prolonged rain, it had been abandoned by its
former owners, who had taken to horseback and left it with the ale-house
keeper in lieu of other payment of a large score run up while they were
storm-stayed. Hal promptly bought it from the landlord, with what
harness belonged to it, and with all the carriers' gear that remained
about the stables.
At Hal's order, Rumney now had his men hitch their horses to the great
vehicle, and thereupon remount, so that the animals might serve at once
to bear and to draw. Master Marryott put Kit Bottle in charge of the
robbers and the coach, with instructions to follow at the best possible
speed, and then spurred off, with Anthony Underhill, in hope of
overtaking Mistress Hazlehurst.
It was his intention to catch her if he could do so without entering any
inhabited place or putting himself at risk of a second capture. Should
he find himself approaching any such place or risk, he would wait for,
or return to, Kit and the robbers. With his so greatly augmented force
of fighting men, he could overawe or rout such a crowd as he had met at
Clown; and, should the necessity arise, he might even offer a hopeful
resistance to Roger Barnet's party. But against a general hue and cry,
or an effectual marshalling of magistrate's officers and servants,
either or both of which Anne might cause in front of him, he could not
long contend. Hence the speed at which he now urged his horse in pursuit
of her.
He had ridden seven miles from Clown, and met with no impediment in any
of the intermediate hamlets,--a fact which convinced him that she would
not again rely on such inferior agents of the law as she had first
fallen in with,--when at a sharp turn of the road he suddenly came in
sight of her. She and her page were at a standstill, she mounted, he
afoot. It was a miry place, sheltered by trees and thickets from the
drying effect of sun and the freezing effect of wind; and Francis stood
in deep mud, examining the stone-bruised forefoot of her horse.
"This is good fortune, madam!" cried Hal, his eyes sparkling as well
with the pleasure of seeing her as with relief of mind.
"If it be so, enjoy it while you may," she answered, scorning his
elation, "My hindrance here is but for a time."
"I know it well, madam," replied Hal, courteously; "for I, myself, have
provided for your going forward."
"_You_ have provided?" she said, regarding him with astonishment.
"Yes, mistress; for look you: if I thought to send you anywhere under
escort, I could not afford what escort I might trust, or trust what
escort I might afford. If I left you here, without escort, you would be
in danger from rogues and vagabonds of the road, and you would be free
to raise the country about me,--as you tried yonder, and rode on to try
again. If I committed you to the hospitality of gentlefolk hereabouts,
you would have that same freedom. Even though you gave up your design
against me, and would start back for Hertfordshire or elsewhere--"
"No fear of that!" she said, defiantly.
"If there were hope of it," Hal went on, "your safety, and another
reason, would forbid my allowing it."
The other reason, which he dared not tell her, was this: if permitted to
return southward, she might meet Roger Barnet and incidentally give
such description of Hal as would beget a doubt whether, after all, the
right man was being chased.
"Therefore," concluded Hal, who had so opened his mind to her for his
own justification, "it behoveth me to take you with me."
"To _take_ me!" said she, with the emphasis of both query and correction
on the verb.
"As a prisoner," added Hal, quietly.
She looked at him as a queen might look at a madman.
"I your prisoner!" she said. "By God's light, never!"
"My prisoner," said Hal, gently, "now and for three days to come.
Anthony, look to the boy, and to his horse tied yonder; and follow this
lady and me into the woods, that we may wait my men without scrutiny of
passing travellers. Madam, be so good, I pray you, to ride betwixt yon
thickets."
"That I will not!" cried Anne, with eyes afire.
Hal waited for one drawing of his breath; then rode to her side, grasped
her bridle, and led her unwilling horse after him through the fairly
clear way that he had pointed out. She showed herself too amazed for
action, and made no resistance with her hands; but if looks could have
smitten, Master Marryott would have found himself sorely belabored.
Hal stopped in the woods, within easy hearing distance of the road.
Anthony, having lifted the small page to his own saddle-bow, disarmed
him of weapons, and taken the other horse in leading, came after. When
the little group was finally stationary among the trees and underbrush,
Anne's face betrayed some falling away of defiance. She looked around in
a kind of momentary panic, as if she would leap from her horse, and flee
afoot. But on every side she saw but dark pools, damp earth, moist
roots, and brush. She gave a shiver, and stayed in her saddle.
"Have no fear, mistress," said Hal. "No harm will come to you. While you
go yieldingly, no hand shall touch you; and in any case, no hand but
mine own, which is a gentleman's."
"Would you dare use force?" she cried, somewhat huskily, her eyes--half
threatening, half intimidated--turned full upon him.
"If I must," said he, meeting her gaze with outward calmness.
She dropped her glance, and was silent. Anthony now placed Francis on
the latter's own horse, but kept a stern eye upon him, and a firm hand
upon his bridle. The four sat perfectly still, save for the restless
movements of their shivering horses, in the chill and sombre forest. No
one was heard to pass in the road.
"For what are you waiting?" asked Anne, after awhile.
"For my men to come up, with the coach you are to occupy," Hal replied.
She answered him with a look of surprise, but said nothing.
After a weary length, the tread of many horses and the noise of cumbrous
wheels was heard from the uneven and miry road. Hal, retaining Anne's
bridle, and motioning Anthony to follow, led the short but toilsome ride
back to the highway. The strange crew, headed by Kit Bottle and Captain
Rumney, came into view around the turn. Losing no time for greetings,
Hal ordered the men to ride on at their best pace to a dryer part of the
road, that the coach might not become fixed in the mire. This was done,
the robbers looking with some curiosity at Anne as they passed. Hal and
his immediate party followed. At an open place, where the earth was
hard, he called a halt; then dismounted, and led Anne's horse close to
the coach.
The vehicle was as crude as may be supposed when it is remembered that
the use of coaches in England was then scarce thirty-five years old. It
was springless, heavy of wheel, and with a cover having the
entrance-opening at the side. An occupant of it, unless he sat by this
opening, was concealed from view; and his cries, if he made any, might
be drowned by the various noises of the creaking and rumbling vehicle,
the heavily harnessed horses, and the boisterous escort. Once an inmate
of this moving prison, Anne might try in vain to communicate with the
outside world through which her captors might convey her.[26]
"Mistress," said Hal, with great respect, "be so gracious as to exchange
your lame horse for the coach." And he offered his hand to assist her.
"I will not stir!" she replied, to the additional curiosity of Rumney
and such of his men as could witness the scene by looking back from
their horses.
Knowing how much slower must be his future progress, with this coach to
be dragged along, and how much less he could afford to suffer delay, he
forthwith abandoned words for acts. With all possible gentleness, but
all necessary force, he deliberately grasped her foot and took it from
the stirrup. He then directed Kit Bottle to dismount, and unfasten the
saddle-girth of her horse. This done. Hal drew the saddle down, on his
side, until he could clasp her waist. He then had Bottle lead her horse
away, so that, the saddle sliding to the ground, she could not but set
foot upon the earth. She held, however, to the bridle, until Hal, by a
steady compulsion, which he made as painless as possible, loosened her
hands from it, one at a time.
He had been in some slight fear of a more active resistance from her;
but she proved herself of a dignity above that of women who bite and
scratch. She was of too great a stateliness to put herself into
ungraceful or vixenish attitudes. So she neither clawed nor pounded,
though she would have struck with her dagger had Hal not taken it from
her in time. But she exerted all her strength in holding back from
whatever motion he sought to compel from her. He saw that he should have
difficulty in making her enter the coach.
He had a rude, bench-like seat taken out of the vehicle, and placed
beneath the opening, to serve as a step. As she would not budge, even to
approach the carriage, he lifted her with both arms, carried her
forward, and placed her in a standing position on the bench. He then
paused for breath, still keeping one arm about her. Commanding Kit to
hold the bench steady, Hal stepped upon it, for the purpose of lifting
her into the vehicle. He saw that she was taller by far than the opening
through which she would have to pass, and saw, at the same moment, that
she made herself rigid, so that, in forcing her into the coach, he might
be put to the use of violence.
He gathered strength for his final effort, and grasped her waist again.
At this instant, he noticed an amused grin on the faces of some of
Rumney's ruffians, and was conscious that, perspiring and red-faced from
his exertions, he doubtless made a somewhat ridiculous figure. Perhaps
this knowledge acted as a stimulant, and also made him a little less
considerate toward his prisoner. He stiffened his muscles, changed her
direction from the perpendicular to the oblique, and stepped up into the
coach, her diagonal position permitting her admission, headforemost,
through the opening. He then caused the seat to be returned, and placed
her, full-length, upon it; and ordered Francis to be put into the coach
with her.
His own horse being brought close to the opening. Hal transferred
himself to the saddle, his intention being to ride at the side of the
coach wherever the width of the road should allow. Anthony was to follow
close behind him. Captain Bottle was sent forward to lead the caravan.
Anne's side-saddle was placed in the coach; her horse, being lame, was
turned loose; that of Francis was hitched, with the animals ridden by
the robbers, to the vehicle. Captain Rumney was left to choose his own
place, Hal supposing he would elect to be near his old-time gossip,
Bottle. But Rumney preferred to ride behind the coach. Hal thereupon
called to Bottle to start, the robbers whipped their horses, the
coach-wheels began to turn, and the flight was at last resumed.
Why should Rumney have placed himself at the rear? Hal wondered, and a
vague misgiving entered his mind; nor was he reassured when, at a place
where a hard heath permitted Anthony to ride for a moment at Hal's
side, the Puritan muttered to him:
"Saw'st thou the look of that robber captain when he first set eyes on
the lady? I liked it not!"
With which, Anthony fell behind again to Rumney's side.
Nor--now that he recalled that look, a greedy lighting up of wicked
eyes--did Hal himself like it, and the future seemed dubious.