We must now return for a short space of time to the spot beneath the
park wall where we left one of the assailants of Alice Herbert stunned
by a blow from the cudgel of John Graves. He lay there for some minutes
perfectly motionless and perfectly alone. At length, however, the sound
of a horse's feet, cantering lightly along the road was heard, and a
goodly gentleman, dressed in a fair suit of black, and mounted on a dun
fat-backed mare, made his appearance in the lane, and approached
rapidly towards the spot where the discomfited wayfarer lay.
The good round face of the new comer was turned up towards the sky,
calculating whether there was light enough left to admit of his
reaching Uppington in safety, or whether he had not better pause, and
sleep at the little neighbouring town; and the first thing that called
his attention to the object in his path was his dun mare, who had never
before shied at any object on earth, recoiling from the body of the
robber so violently as to throw forward the good round stomach of the
rider upon her neck and shoulders with a sonorous ejaculation of the
breath.
"Ugh! Gad's my life! who have we here?" exclaimed Master Nicholas, the
clerk of the collector at Uppington, whose saddle-bags were in truth
the tempting object which had brought forth the gentlemen of the road,
when they had been unseasonably diverted from their purpose by the
appearance of Alice Herbert--"Gad's my life, who have we here?" and,
dismounting from his mare, with charitable intent, he bent down over
the stranger.
There were two or three particulars in the sight that now presented
itself which made the heart of the collector's clerk beat rather more
rapidly than was ordinary. In the first place the stranger had in his
hand a drawn sword, in the next place a discharged pistol might be seen
lying within a foot of his nose, the sand was stained with blood hard
by, and in the countenance of the prostrate man, the collector's clerk,
who was a great physiognomist, discovered at once all the lines and
features of a robber. The good feelings of the Samaritan vanished from
his bosom as soon as he had made this discovery, and, stealthily
creeping away, as if afraid of waking a sleeping lion, the gentleman in
black regained his mare's back, made her take a circuit round the
little green, and, riding on as hard as he could to the country town we
have described in the commencement of this book, sent out a posse of
people to take charge of the body of the stunned or defunct robber.
Before this detachment reached the spot, however, the personage it
sought was gone. Shortly after the clerk had passed, he had began to
recover, and speedily regained his legs, looking about him with some
degree of wonder and amazement at the situation in which he found
himself. Whilst busy in recalling all that had passed, the sound of
some one singing met his ear, and, in another minute the head and
shoulders of John Graves appeared above the park paling. The
half-witted man saw that the robber was upon his feet again, and
without any hesitation, he proceed to clamber over the fence, and
approach his former antagonist.
"I have come to apprehend thee!" cried the madman, laying his hand
boldly upon the collar of the robber's vest. Strange to say, the
freebooter not only suffered him so to take hold of him, but very
probably might have even gone with him like a lamb to the slaughter, so
much was he overpowered by surprise, and so little did he imagine that
such an act would be performed without some power to support it, had
not two or three horsemen at that moment come galloping down the lane
as hard as they could ride. A single glance showed the captive of John
Graves that there was an infinite accession of strength on his side. He
accordingly twisted himself out of his mad antagonist's grasp in a
moment, and prepared to lay violent hands upon him in return. Silly
John, however, seemed by this time entirely to have forgotten his
purpose of arresting the robber; and looking round him as the others
came up, with an air of wonder, indeed, but not of alarm, he muttered,
"More foxes! more foxes!"
The worthies by whom he was surrounded, in the meantime held a sharp
consultation, of which he seemed to be the object; but at length one of
them exclaimed, "Come along, come along! Bring him with you, and do
what you like with him afterwards. If you stay disputing here, you will
have the whole country upon you."
After a moment's hesitation, the plan proposed was adopted, and two of
the robbers, seizing upon John Graves, dragged him along between them,
at a much quicker rate of progression than was at all agreeable to him.
After the first ten or twelve steps he resisted strenuously, and showed
a disposition to be vociferous, which instantly produced the
application of a pistol to his head, with a threat of death if he did
not keep silence. He was quite sufficiently sane to fear the fate that
menaced him; and the sight of the pistol had an immediate effect both
upon his tongue and his feet, which now moved rapidly onward. The paths
pursued by his captors were as tortuous as might well be, and the lane
which had been the scene of their exploits was quitted almost
immediately. For nearly an hour they hastened on as fast as they could
drag the half-witted man along; but at length, much to his relief, the
whole party stopped before a small lonely house on the edge of a wide
common. There was a tall pole, with a garland at the top, planted
before the door; and a bush hung above the lintel, giving notice to all
whom it may concern that entertainment for man, at least, was to be
found within. The sound of the strangers' arrival, in a moment drew out
the landlord of the place, who seemed not at all surprised to see the
company which visited his house at that late hour; and his own
pale-brown countenance bore, in its hawk-like features, an expression
very harmonious with the calling of his guests.
"Quick! take the horses up to the pits," he said, speaking to the boy
of all work, who appeared round the corner; and shading the candle
which he carried in his hand from the wind. "Why, Master Hardie, who
have you got there? By my life, it is Silly John! What, in the devil's
name, did you bring him here for?"
"Why, Master Guilford," replied one of the men, but not he to whom he
spoke, "here's Hardy and Wiley have got themselves into a pretty mess.
They would go out against the Captain's orders to try a bit of business
on a private account, and they have got more than they bargained for, I
take it. Here is Hardie with a cut in his neck, which has made him
bleed like an old sow pig; and Wiley was left for dead by a blow of
this same fellow's cudgel whom we have got here. Hardie came up for us
two upon the downs, or else it is likely Wiley would have been in the
pepper-pot at Uppington by this time; for we caught his horse half a
mile up the green lane."
This conversation had taken place while the party was alighting; but no
sooner was that operation concluded than the landlord pressed them to
come in quickly, and Silly John was hurried by them into a large room
behind, with a long deal table, and several settles and benches, for
its sole furniture, if we except a polished sconce over the chimney,
from which a single candle shed its dim and flickering rays. Underneath
the light, with his two arms leaning on the table, and his head resting
again upon them, the curls of the fair hair falling over the sleeves of
his coat, and his face hidden entirely, sat the boy Jocelyn, whom we
have before mentioned; and the gang of plunderers had been in the room
several minutes before he was aware of their presence, so sound was the
slumber in which he was buried.
"Hark ye, Master Doveton!" said the landlord, as soon as the door was
shut, and addressing the man who had given him an account of his
companions' adventure; "hark ye! I think it a very silly thing of you
to bring this fellow up here."
"Why, we did not know what else to do with him, Guilford," answered the
other. "Wiley wanted to shoot him as soon as he heard that it was his
cudgel which had beaten about his head so foully."
"You shall do no harm to him in my house, Master Doveton," replied the
other; "the man is a poor innocent, whom I have known this many a year,
and I won't have him hurt."
"Thank you, Master Guilford, thank you!" exclaimed the poor fellow, as
he heard this interposition in his favour. "These foxes have almost
twisted my thumbs off. Do not let them hurt me, Master Guilford, and
I'll give you the crooked sixpence out of my tobacco-box."
"You see, Guilford," replied Doveton, while one or two others crowded
round to hear the consultation, "the thing is we risk this fellow
betraying us. He has seen all our faces, and could, I dare say, swear
to us any where."
"What signifies _his_ swearing?" demanded the landlord; "he is as mad
as a March hare; nobody will believe his swearing."
"Ay, but he may give such information as will lead them to ferret us
out," replied another of the gang; "now we do not want to hurt the man,
but he must be got out of the way somehow."
"He sha'n't be got out of the way by foul means, howsoever, Master
Doveton," replied the landlord, whose new character of protector was
pleasant to him. "Come: nonsense! make him sit down and drink with you,
and he'll forget all about it. He'll sing you as good a song as any man
in the country; and, if he promises not to tell anything he has seen,
you may be quite sure of him."
"Truth--truth, Master Guilford," cried the object of their discourse.
"If my godfathers and godmothers at my baptism had known what they were
about they would have called me Truth. Why not Truth as well as Ruth? I
had a sister they called Ruth, though she never found out a Boaz, poor
girl! but died without being a widow--how could she, when she was never
married? If I had been married to Margaret Johnson myself, I should not
have gone mad, you know; but I always tell truth. Did anybody ever hear
me tell a lie in my life?"
So he rambled on, while the friendly landlord busied himself in hastily
setting out the table in the midst for the coming entertainment of his
worthy guests; and, at the same time, lent a sharp ear to the
consultation which they held together concerning the madman. That
consultation was not of a nature to satisfy him entirely; for, though
it seemed that the party were willing to follow his counsel so far as
keeping poor Silly John to drink with them, a word or two was spoken of
its being easy to do what they liked with him when he was drunk, which
did not at all please Master Guilford.
As he went round and round the table, however, setting down a cup here,
and a platter there, he gave the boy Jocelyn a sharp knock on the
elbow, which roused him from his sleep; and, the next time he passed,
the landlord whispered a word in his ear. The boy took no particular
notice at the moment, but rubbed his eyes, yawned, spoke for a moment
to Doveton and the rest, and then disappeared from the room.
Large joints of roast meat soon graced the board; and the hall assumed
very much the appearance of the palace of Ulysses, in the days of the
suitors; except that, in all probability, it was a little more cleanly,
and that the beef was not killed at the end of the table. Silly John
was made to sit down between the two men, Hardcastle and Wiley, who
were certainly not his greatest friends; but they, nevertheless, loaded
his platter with food, which he devoured with a wonderful appetite, and
filled his cup with ale from a tankard called a black jack, which
circulated freely till supper was over.
The gentlemen into whose society he was thrown, however, were not of a
class to rest satisfied with even the best old humming ale; and while
one body of them demanded the implements and materials for making
punch, another called for a pitcher of Burgundy, which, notwithstanding
the size, character, and appearance of the house, was produced as a
matter of course. John Graves had his ladleful from the bowl, and his
glassful from the pitcher; and Doveton, who was beginning to get merry,
and eke good-humoured in his cups, insisted upon having one of the
songs the landlord had so much vaunted. The madman required no
pressing; the very name of music was enough for him; and with a full
sonorous voice, and memory which failed not in the slightest
particular, he began an old song, one of the many in praise of punch.
"Now I will sing you a song in return, Master John," cried the
rough-featured fellow called Hardcastle, who had been one of the
assailants of Alice Herbert.
"Why, Hardie, thou canst never sing to-night," replied Doveton. "Thou
canst never sing to-night, with the slit in the weasand thou hast
gotten there. It will let all the wind out, and thy song will be like
the song of a broken bellows or bursten bagpipe."
"Never you mind that, Doveton," replied the other; "my song shall be
sung, if the devil and you stood at the door together; a pretty pair of
you!" and he accordingly proceeded to pour forth, in a voice of goodly
power, but very inferior in melody to that of the madman, a song well
suited to the taste of his auditors:--
THE WATERY MOON.
The wat'ry moon is in the sky,
Looking all dim and pale on high;
And the traveller gazes with anxious eye,
And thinks it will rain full soon:
And he draws his cloak around him tight,
But if I be not mistaken quite,
He will open that cloak again to-night
Beneath the wat'ry moon.
The wat'ry moon is sinking low,
The traveller's beast is dull and slow,
And neither word, nor spur, nor blow
Will bring him sooner boon.
But the saddle-bags are heavy and full,
And all too much for a beast so dull,
Up this steep shady hill to pull,
Beneath the wat'ry moon.
The wat'ry moon is gone to bed;
The traveller on his way has sped;
The horse seems lighter the road to tread,
And he'll be home very soon;
But with a young man he met on the hill,
Who lightened his load with right good will,
Hoping often to show the same kindness still,
Beneath the wat'ry moon.
Scarcely had Hardcastle done his song, amidst great applause on the
part of his companions, when a step was heard in the neighbouring
passage, which made the whole party start and look in each other's
faces. The next moment, however, the door was opened, and the personage
of whom we have already spoken more than once, under the title of
Franklin Gray, stood amongst them. It was very clear that he was an
unexpected and not a very welcome guest at that moment; but, at the
same time, the whole of the fraternity who occupied the hall,
immediately put on the most agreeable look in the world, and strove to
appear delighted with his coming. His brow was somewhat cloudy, indeed,
but his bearing was frank and straightforward; and sitting down in a
chair which had been placed for him with busy haste by the others, he
fixed his eyes sternly upon the man who had suffered from the cudgel of
Silly John, demanding, "What is all this I hear, Wiley?"
The personage to whom he spoke hesitated to reply, bit his lip, tried
to frown, and to toss his head; and, before he had made up his mind
what to say upon the occasion, the one who had been called Doveton
answered for him.
"I believe, Captain," he said, "the best way when one has been in the
wrong is to own it, and to tell the truth. Now, we have all, more or
less, been wrong, I believe. Wiley, there, heard that Master Nicholas,
the clerk of the collector at Uppington, was coming along the green
lane this evening with all the receipts, and he thought it would be a
good sweep for us all if we could get the bags. He asked us all to go,
but only Hardcastle would have a hand in it, though the rest of us
promised to exercise our horses upon the hill above, and come down if
they were likely to be caught. Well, they fell in with a young lady
first, and they thought they might as well have her purse too--"
Franklin Gray set his teeth hard, but said nothing; and Doveton, who
saw the expression on the other's face, went on--"It was very wrong, I
know, Captain Gray--quite contrary to your orders, to do anything of
the kind; and more especially to attack a woman, which you spoke of the
other day. But, however, temptation, you know, Captain, temptation will
get the better of us all, at times. As I was saying, however, some one
came to help the lady, with this poor silly fellow; and Hardcastle got
a cut in his neck that won't be well these ten days, and Wiley a broken
head, which I hope will teach him better manners for the rest of his
life."
The brow of Franklin Gray never relaxed its heavy frown, except at the
moment when Doveton announced the corporeal evils which had befallen
the two adventurers as a reward for their disobedience; and then a grim
smile for a moment curled his lip. It passed away, however, instantly,
and he demanded, looking at Wiley, "Do you know who it was that came to
the lady's help?"
"Oh! I marked him well enough," replied Wiley; "I shall not forget him;
and, if ever the time comes----" The rest of the sentence was lost
between his teeth; but he went on in a louder tone immediately after,
adding, "He is one of your good friends, Captain Gray. I have seen you
walking with him twice; and I think he might have known better than
interrupt a gentleman in his occupations. We should not have hurt the
young woman. What business was it of his?"
"The only pity is," said Franklin Gray, coolly, "that he did not send a
bullet through your head."
"He has got one in his own shoulder," said Wiley, doggedly; "for I saw
the ball strike, and I hope it may do for him."
"If he chance to die of it," said Gray, in the same calm, stern tone,
"I will blow your brains out! Remember what I say, Master Wiley: you
know me! Nay, a word more. When we joined together, and came down here,
it was for a particular purpose, and you all swore an oath to obey my
directions, and submit to my laws for the next three months. You and
Hardcastle have scarcely been a fortnight with me, but you break your
oaths; and when I especially told you not to enter into any petty
enterprise, because we had a greater in hand, which you would ruin if
you did, you go and disgrace yourselves by attacking a girl. Now it
seems that you have received some punishment in the very act, and
therefore I shall inflict no other; but be warned, both of you! I am
not a man to be trifled with; and if once more either of you disobey,
be sure that I will then be as severe as I am now lenient. Can any one
tell," he continued, "who the lady was that was attacked by them? I can
only suppose that it was old Sir Walter's daughter."
"Just so! just so!" cried Silly John Graves, from the other end of the
table; "it was pretty Mistress Alice Herbert, and good Mrs. Alice
Herbert, too, which is better than pretty: and you too, seem to be
good, which is better than brave--very good, indeed, for a fox, and a
leader of foxes. I vow and protest you have read them a homily as fair
as any in the book; and now pray let me go, for I have sung them a song
such as they won't hear again in a hurry."
"Why have you brought him hither?" continued Franklin Gray, in a sharp
tone, without making any reply to John Graves's observation. "Was it to
end folly by madness, and conclude your own disobedience by insuring
its own punishment?"
It took some time to explain to the leader of the band the motives
which had induced them to bring the half-witted fellow thither, and how
he had been found busy in the laudable occupation of arresting Wiley
when the rest of the party came to the rescue.
"And therefore," exclaimed Gray, interrupting the speaker, "because he
was likely to recognise Wiley, and bring him to the gallows, Master
Wiley persuaded you to drag him up here, that he may recognise us all,
and bring us to Tyburn along with him. It was worthy of you, Master
Wiley."
"You are wrong for once, Captain," said Wiley; "if I had had my wits, I
would have taken care that he should recognise no one. Dead men tell no
tales, I said then; and I say so still."
"They tell tales that are heard long years after!" replied Franklin
Gray, with melancholy sternness. "Ay! and often, when time has flown,
and the hot blood has become cool, and the black hair grey, and the
strong limbs feeble, and easy competence has soothed regret, and either
penitence or pleasure has stilled remorse; I tell ye, my masters, that
often then, in the hour of security, and tranquillity, and luxury, the
avenger of blood needlessly spilt--the avenger, who has slept so
long--will awaken, and the merest accident bring forth proof fit to
lead us to shame, and condemnation, and death. No, no! I will deal with
this man, but I must first go forth, and ascertain what are likely to
be the consequences of this act of folly. In the mean time, Harvey, I
leave him under your charge! See that no evil befal him, and keep as
quiet as may be. No roaring, no singing, mark me! and, if possible,
abstain from drink."
Thus saying, he left them: but returned much sooner than they had
expected, and when he appeared was evidently much moved. His dark brow
was gathered into angry frowns, and his bright eye flashed in a manner
which made those who knew him best augur some sudden violence. He sat
down at the table, however, and remained for a moment in silence, with
his brow leaning upon his hand.
"I am foolish enough," he said, at length, "to follow the weak custom
of the world, and be more angry at the bad consequences of an evil act
than I was at the act itself: but I will not yield to such folly. What
think ye, sirs? I find that the whole county is already in a stir
against us on this bad business. There have been large parties of men
from Uppington, scouring the lanes in every direction. Messengers have
been sent out from the Manor to call a general meeting of the
magistrates for to-morrow. There is foolish Thomas Waller and silly
Matthew Scrope, and all the men who are likely to be the most active
and violent against us, called to consult at the Talbot; and nothing is
to be done but for each one of us to take his own way out of the county
till the storm has blown over. Let us all meet this day week at Ashby.
That is seventy miles off; and we can there see how to pass the time
till we can return here, and pursue our great enterprise in safety. But
one word more. We are all men of honour; and, if any of us should
chance to fall into the hands of the enemy, we can die in silence: that
is enough."
"But what is to be done with him?" demanded one or two of the
fraternity, pointing to the unhappy lunatic; while, at the same time,
some of the others came forward and whispered to their captain,
apparently on the same subject, with somewhat sinister looks. But Gray
replied, sternly, "No! I say, no! Leave him to me: I know him well, and
he may be trusted. I shall remain a day, or perhaps two, behind you.
Now to horse, and depart, but one by one."
The tone in which he spoke courted no reply; and the band quitted the
room, every man according to his own peculiar manner of doing such
things; for there is as much art in quitting a room as in entering one,
though the first is much more important as an evolution. However, one
walked straight out, without saying a word to anybody; one spoke for a
few minutes with a companion, and then, suddenly turning, passed
through the door; one entered into a conspiracy with another to go out
conversing with each other; one stayed a moment to empty the remains of
the tankard into a large cup, and drink it off at a draught; and
another (Doveton) went up to Gray, shook him by the hand, wished him
well, and told him he was very sorry that he had even connived at
Wiley's scheme. The last was the only one who, in fact, suffered to
appear the feelings which affected all the others, and embarrassed them
in their exits. They all felt they had been wrong, with the exception
of him who emptied the tankard; they all felt that Gray had just cause
to be angry and indignant; but one feeling or another--pride, vanity,
shyness, and many others, keep nine hundred and ninety-nine men out of
a thousand from opening their lips under such circumstances. It is only
the thousandth who candidly and straightforwardly walks up to the
truth, and says, "I am sorry I have done wrong."
At length the room was left untenanted by any but Franklin Gray and his
half-witted companion, who sat twirling his thumbs at the table,
apparently lost to the recollection of what was passing around him. He
was roused, however, by the voice of Gray pronouncing his name, and
found the keen dark eye of the Robber fixed intently upon him.
"John Graves," said Gray, "do you know what those men pray me to do
with you? They say that if I let you go, you will betray what you have
seen this night, lead people to the places where we meet, or give
evidence against us if ever we are in trouble; and they say that the
only way to avoid this is, to silence your tongue for ever."
"No, no, no!" cried the poor man, fully awakened to his situation by
such words; "pray don't! pray don't! I will never tell anything about
it, as I hope for God's mercy, and that he will restore my wits in
another world. Wits? I have not got wits enough to tell anything;
besides, I won't, indeed I won't."
"If you will swear," said Gray, "by all you hold dear, never to tell
any one what you have seen to-night; never to point any one of us out,
by word, or look, or gesture, as men you have seen do this or that;
never to lead any one to this our place of meeting."
"I will! I do!" cried the madman, solemnly; "I will betray you in no
respect--"
"So far, so good," answered Gray; "but that is not all. I give you your
life, when every voice amongst us but my own was for taking it; and
with it you must promise, if ever I call upon you, to do me a piece of
service."
The other gazed earnestly in his face, seeming, by a painful effort, to
gather together all his remaining fragments of mind, to cope with one,
who he feared was trying to lead him astray by the bribe of life. "What
is it," he demanded; "what is it I am to do? I will break none of the
commandments. I will neither rob nor murder, nor help to rob, or
murder. Ah, man! remember, though perhaps I am crazy, as people say, I
have a soul to be saved as well as others. If it must be, I will die
sooner than do these things."
"I require no such things at your hands," replied Gray, moved a good
deal by his companion's earnestness. "I may only require you to guide
me on my way in a moment of difficulty; to lead me by the paths which,
I am told, no one knows so well as you do, and, perhaps, to guide me
into a house--"
"Not to take other men's goods!" cried Graves. "No, never! Guide you I
will, in moments of difficulty; lead you I will, when you want it, but
not to commit a crime, for then I am a sharer."
"What I shall ask you." said Gray, solemnly, "is to commit no crime. My
purpose shall be to take no man's goods, but rather to restore to him
who is deprived of it that which is his own."
"Swear to that!" exclaimed the other, "and I will lead you anywhere."
"I swear it now!" answered Gray; "and remember that, having sworn it, I
shall never ask you to do anything but that which you now agree to do,
and in consideration of which I give you your life. No questions,
therefore, hereafter, even were I to ask you to lead me into the heart
of Danemore Castle."
The madman laughed loud. "There should be none!" he answered; "for I
know why you go."
"Indeed!" said Gray, with a smile; "but it is enough that you are
willing. I trust to your word in everything, and doubt not that you
will keep it to the letter. Hast thou any money, poor fellow?"
"Nothing but my crooked sixpence in my tobacco-box," replied the man,
looking ruefully in his interrogator's face. "Pray, do not take that
from me: it and I are old friends."
"I would rather give than take from thee," replied his companion.
"There is a guinea to keep thee warm; and now thou art at liberty to
go, so fare thee well."
As he said this, he turned away, and left the room, and poor Silly John
continued gazing upon the gold piece in his palm with evident delight,
though he held some curious consultations with himself regarding the
lawfulness of taking money from such hands as those which had bestowed
it. In those consultations much shrewd casuistry was mingled with much
simple folly; but, in the end, the counsel for the defence, as usual,
got the better, and he slipped the gold piece into his pouch,
chuckling. He then crept quietly out of the inn; and, although it may
seem strange to attach ourselves go particularly to a personage of the
class and character of Silly John, yet must we nevertheless follow him
a little further in his wanderings.
By the time that all this had passed, it was near midnight; and,
instead of taking his way back to the little town of Moorhurst, the
half-witted man walked on, with his peculiar halting gait, towards the
high dim moors that might be seen rising dark and wild against the
moonlight sky, like the gloomy track of difficulties and dangers which
we too often find in life lying between us and the brighter region,
lighted up by hope, beyond. On the edge of the moor was a low shed and
a stack of fern, which the poor fellow must have remarked in some of
his previous peregrinations; for towards these he directed his steps at
once, pulled down a large quantity of the dry leaves, dragged them into
the shed, and, having piled them up in a corner, nestled down therein,
though not without having addressed a prayer and a thanksgiving towards
the God whom, in all his madness, he never forgot. We will not inquire
whether that act of adoration was couched in wild and wandering terms,
whether it was connected or broken, reasonable or distracted--it was
from the heart, and we are sure it was accepted.
By daylight he was upon his way, and an hour's walk brought him into
the deep woods that backed the splendid dwelling of Lord Harold and his
father, which was known in the country by the name of "The Castle;" for
very few of the good folks round had ever seen any other building of
the kind, and it was therefore "their castle," _par excellence_, It was
by the back way that Silly John now approached the mansion, seeming
quite familiar with all the roads and paths about the place; but before
he reached the spot where the wood, cut away, afforded an open space,
in which were erected the principal offices, he was met by a person, at
the sight of whom he bent down his head, and glanced furtively up with
his eye, like a dog who does not very well know whether it will be
kicked or caressed.
The figure that approached him in the long dim walk was that of a tall
thin woman, of perhaps fifty years of age, dressed in dark-coloured
garments, exceedingly full and ample, with a sort of shawl of fine
white lace pinned across her shoulders; while over a broad white coif,
which she wore upon her head, was a black veil drawn close, and
crossing under the chin. Her features were high and sharp, her eyes
fine, and fringed with long black eyelashes, her lips thin and pale,
her teeth very white, and her complexion, which must have been
originally dark and troubled, now sallow, without the slightest trace
of red in any part of the cheek. She did not frown, but there was a
cold calmness about her compressed lips and tight-set teeth, and a
piercing sharpness about her clear black eye, which rendered the whole
expression harsh and forbidding. Although past the usual period of
grace, yet she walked gracefully and with dignity, and bore every trace
of having been a very handsome woman, though it was impossible to
conceive that she had ever been a very pleasing one.
From the moment she saw him, her eye remained fixed upon Silly John,
steadfastly, but not sternly: and he advanced towards her, crouching,
as we have said, and sidling with a degree of awe which he would not
have shown to the highest monarch on the earth from any reverence for
mere external rank. But the sharp and seemingly cold decision of her
character was exactly that which most strongly affects people in his
situation; and "Mistress Bertha, the housekeeper of Danemore Castle,"
the servants used to declare, "could always bring Silly John Graves to
his senses when she pleased." Although no smile curled her lip, and her
countenance underwent no change, the tone of her voice, while she spoke
the first few words, at once showed the half-witted man that he was not
out of favour.
"Why, how is it, John," she asked, speaking with a very slight foreign
accent, "how is it that you have not been up at the Castle for these
six weeks?"
"Because I got my fill at the town and the Manor, Mistress Bertha,"
replied the other.
"Ay, that is it!" she exclaimed; "that is it! if every one would but
say it. Men go for what they can get; and when they can get their fill
at one place, they seek not another. The only difference between madmen
and the world is, that madmen tell the truth, and the world conceals
it."
"I always tell the truth," cried the half-witted man, caught by the
sound of a word connected with one of his rooted ideas; "I always tell
the truth; do not I, Mistress Bertha?"
"Yes; but you are only half mad," answered the housekeeper; "for you
can sometimes conceal it too. But go in John; go into the Castle; and,
if you go through the long back corridor below, you will find my little
maid in the room at the end. Bid her give you the cold meat that Lord
Harold left after his breakfast."
"After his breakfast!" cried the half-witted man. "He has breakfasted
mighty early! But now--oh, I guess it; he has gone to London. I heard
her tell him to go."
"Heard who tell him?" demanded Mistress Bertha, with an air of some
surprise.
"Why, pretty Mistress Alice Herbert, to be sure," replied the other.
"Did not I hear all they said as they came down the walk and through
the woods?"
"Nay, then," said the housekeeper, smiling, as far as she was ever
known to smile, "I suppose he's gone to buy the wedding ring, and have
the marriage settlements drawn up. Methinks he might have told me,
too."
"Nay, Mistress Bertha," replied the other, "no wedding rings! no
marriage settlements! Mistress Alice is not for him!"
A slight flush came over the pale cheek of her to whom he spoke. "Not
for him!" she exclaimed! "Does she refuse him, then!"
"Yes, to be sure," replied John Graves; "every man is refused once in
his life. I was refused myself, for that matter; but I was wise, and
resolved that I would never be refused again."
"Art thou lying, or art thou speaking truth?" demanded Mistress Bertha,
fixing her eyes sternly upon him. "Did she refuse him?"
"Truth!" replied the man: "I always speak truth! She refused him, as
sure as I am alive: nothing he could say would move her. I knew it very
well, and I told him so before; but he would not believe me."
Bertha stood and gazed upon the ground for several minutes "I do
believe," she said, speaking to herself, "I do believe that things
possessed without right have a doom upon them, which prevents them from
bringing happiness even to those who hold them, unconscious of holding
them wrongly. Now is this poor boy, notwithstanding all his great
wealth and high expectations, destined to be crossed in this
long-cherished love, which was to make both himself and his father so
happy! Poor youth! how long and deeply he has loved her! How his heart
must have ached when I talked about her this morning! and shall I help
to take from him anything he possesses?"
"We ought always to do what is right, Mistress Bertha," exclaimed the
half-witted man, whose presence she had totally forgotten. "And both
you and I know that right has not always been done."
"Out upon the fool!" exclaimed the housekeeper. "Hold thy mad tongue!
Now darest thou prate of right and wrong, not having wit to keep thee
from running thy head against a post! Get thee in before me! Thou shalt
give the Earl an account of this refusal!"
John Graves slunk away before her flashing eye and angry words, like a
cowed dog, looking ever and anon to the right and left, as if for some
means to escape; but she kept him in view, following closely upon his
steps till they both entered the large mansion before them.