THE "FAIR HAVEN" OF WAPPING
My father once, reading in a favourite philosopher, paused with his
finger on a certain passage to ask me what I made of the sense of that
he should read; and so continuing his lecture aloud, rehearsed some
score of good reasons there set down, why a man should do virtuously;
but that, either way, the gods ruled the event. When he had done I
asked him in my turn whether the whole book were in that kind, to which
he answered that such was indeed the tenour of it, though there were
yet other reasons given besides those he had read. But while I was yet
considering of my answer, he intercepted it, himself replying for me.
"You think there are too many reasons," said he smiling, "and that if
these the author calls gods take occasion to correct our errors we may
do as we please; but that if they do not so, then must we do as we can."
Then stroking down his beard with his hand, he bade me do virtuously,
at least so long as I was in any doubt about the gods; "which," said
he, "is a question only to be settled in that manner."
How many times since then I had recalled my father's grave and tolerant
irony, I know not, but it was not often; nor certainly had it ever
returned upon me with so compelling an insistency as now, while I still
stared after his evil-hearted brother, that murderer of the man at my
feet.
"If the gods rule the event out of this business," I thought, "how will
it go with thee, my uncle?" So easy is it to apply to another the
precepts were meant for ourselves! And truly, when I contrasted my own
qualities with Mr. Botolph Cleeve's, I came near to forgiving him, so
eminently did he make my own uprightness to appear.
Now, very greatly though I desired Idonia should know of my safe
return, I yet could not bring myself to leave Malpas thus exposed and
subject to every chance indignity by the wayside, nor was I willing to
carry him openly to the Inn or any house at hand; so that, after some
while's reflection, I decided to lay him in the boat I had come down
by, covering his face with the sailcloth, and after, to launch him out
into the ebbing stream. The night was clear above, the thunder having
wholly passed; but from a mounting wrack of cloud that peered above the
edges of the sky and a chill light wind athwart the river, I judged we
should have rain before morning, and so hastened to be done with my
task (which unspeakably revolted me) and get into shelter against the
oncoming tempest. Notwithstanding 'twas the better part of an hour ere
I had completed these hasty and suspicious rites, and had shoved away
the skiff with its gaunt recumbent passenger outward (or was it
homeward?) bound.
These pious offices done, I turned with a sigh from the black hurrying
water, and approached near to the Inn. I was surprised to see that a
light now shone in Idonia's chamber, and from the shadows that now and
then traversed it, I understood that she was not yet retired to rest.
How then I might direct her attention to me without at the same time
attracting such attention of others as I might well enough spare, I
very earnestly debated; but at length, minding myself of the knife I
had got from the dead Chinese, I drew it forth; and having torn off a
great burdock leaf where it grew by the bank, pricked with the knife's
point the one word Denis (sufficient for my purpose, I thought), and
running the blade through the midst of the leaf, poised, and let fly
with it at the window. It struck the sill fairly, and hung quivering.
My heart stood still during the interval that succeeded, but when
presently that sweet small head appeared, all dark against the glory of
her hair, it leapt to my very throat for excess of joy.
"Idonia," I whispered hoarsely, and came right beneath her window as I
spoke her name; "Idonia, I have come back."
"Hush, dear," she besought me, and leaned forth from the sill, so that
a strand or two of her hair hung down and touched the letters of my
name in the leaf. "Do not speak again.... Oh, I have been waiting for
you, Denis! But you are come; I can see your face. I can see your
eyes..."
"You speak as if you feared something," I replied, in disregard of her
warning. "Are you threatened with any danger?"
"No," she said; "at least I do not comprehend what may be dangers here.
For it is a house of mystery. My guardian has but now left me. He is
disguised: I cried out when I saw him.... Oh, Denis, I am horribly
afraid here.... It is all so silent, and yet I know the place is full
of men."
I hesitated no longer.
"Is there anything by which you can make a rope?" I asked, "any sheet
from your bed, or clothing?"
She caught at my intention.
"Yes, yes," she murmured, nodding. "There is my cloak. I will tear
it."
"They may hear the sound of the tearing," I said. "Do not move from
the window." And so, returning to the little slip or inlet whence I
had sent down the boat, I found the oars which I had removed from it,
and carried them with me to the house. Idonia could just touch the
blade of one with extended fingers when I held it out at arm's length.
"It is too short," said Idonia, with a pitiful catch in her voice.
I bade her keep her heart up, and, unclasping my belt, laced the two
oars tightly together where they were frayed hollow by the thole. The
joined staff they made reached high enough now, and without awaiting my
instruction Idonia caught it to her (I holding it upright) and swung
herself lightly to the ground.
"Free, oh free!" came her cry of exultation, and a moment after we held
each other closely in a long embrace. Her lips were fire.
"Oh, Denis, Denis, do not let me go, nor never leave you," she said,
and I (witless braggart) swore that nought upon earth should sever us.
I led her up the turf path, sheltering her from the rain that had
already begun to fall thickly. My thoughts were all astray and I had
no plan of any sort, but still to have my arm about her, and feel her
yielding to my touch, as spent with love and weary with the pride of so
much given.
A man must feel humbled by the magnitude of that he asks of a maid, but
all I could say was, brokenly: "I will try to be worthy, sweetheart."
Poor words, but she thanked me for them joyfully. She besought me to
let her rest soon, and we sat down by a weather-twisted pile at the
water's edge, for I could not run into the jeopardy that might lurk
amid the inhospitable dark houses of this place, where everything
oppressed with a sense of evil. My cloak kept off the worst of the
rain, but, as the rising wind swept across the river, Idonia shivered
with the cold. Nevertheless she lost not a whit of her gaiety, which
indeed seemed to increase with her distress, and she would laugh more
loudly than I thought was altogether safe at some odd construction put
upon my remonstrance in her wayward speech. I could not long disguise
from myself her condition of fever, which at the same time I knew not
how to alleviate; but more than once I caught myself wishing I had left
her that night at the Inn, where, for all her fears, she had not been
any way molested, nor, I now thought, would likely have been, her
guardian having returned, and Malpas beyond the power to annoy her
further.
A little later, and quite suddenly, she relaxed her extravagant
hilarity, and fell into a moodiness equally to be pitied. She wept a
deal then, and seemed to have got a strange perception of the malignant
influences that surrounded us. The sound of the wind terrified her,
and she would shrink down whispering that something tugged at her
cloak. I did what I could to soothe and comfort her, but she only
shook her head, or pressed my fingers with her hot hand.
But the worst was when, by some trick of the brain, she thought herself
back in the Inn-room again, when Cleeve had entered in his horrid
uncouth dress, and with his yellow face and hands.
"He said he was my guardian," she ran on, in a dull low voice, "but I
knew he was no one of this world. He said it was a foreign habit he
had filched from a dead man he had been enforced to kill, and that he
used it to escape detection of the watch. Ah! it is all escaping with
us--escaping and killing! I knew he had some secret lurking-place near
the river; he has often said so, and that he went disguised when any
great danger threatened. The watch ... and yet he used to laugh at it;
but lately he has come to fear arrest: why is it? and so he killed an
innocent man and took his coat to save himself.... His eyes, when he
told me he had been waylaid at last, and almost at the Inn door! but he
killed that man too, he said: he hindering him. Christ! how his eyes
do sift you....
"These jewels in the jar, now, I know they have all been worn by men he
has killed. I remember them perfectly well. There is the great cross
the Spaniard wore; and these rings. I wonder when it was you murdered
him. He was a fair-spoken gentleman, and I thought you were friends...
"I forgot. This is you, Denis, not he I call my guardian. I do not
think he altogether trusts me any longer, although he gave me the jar
to keep ... and I have left it behind in the Inn. It was worth a
king's ransom, he said, and ordered me to keep it by me until he should
have finished a certain work he had below, that would not take him
long. I have left it, and he will be angry ... I fear him, Denis. He
is calm as death when he is angry....
"And yet he can laugh too. He laughed when he told me of the Chinese
he killed, and how he dared his fellow to betray him. Oh, he made a
merry tale of it, and of his forcing the poor wretch to simulate a
desire to take vengeance upon a man that had fled--when it was he, the
murderer himself, remained behind! Yes, and he laughed at you, Denis,
until my blood burnt me ... I shall never forget his wrinkled heathen
face as he laughed."
It may appear an incredible motion of my mind, but I could have cried
out for joy at a diversion which, then befalling, served to turn Idonia
from these crazed memories; albeit the cause was one properly, and at
another time wholly, to be feared. For chancing to lift my eyes to one
of the houses that be here builded by the water's edge, and serve
doubtless for the storage of marine stores and tackle, I saw a man, and
after, another, and then a whole posse of men armed with cuirass and
halberd, that advanced directly towards us. Idonia saw them almost at
the same moment, and seeming to recover her wits in the suddenness of
the danger, she broke off, and turned to me with a swift glance of
inquiry.
"Quick," I whispered; "down by the piles to the beach," and helped by
the darkness of the night we scrambled off the path on to the ribbon of
wet bank beneath it, where we crouched, perfectly concealed from the
soldiers.
"Halt!" cried a voice above our heads, and the trampling footsteps
ceased. "We be thirty men strong, and none too many for this business.
Anthony, take you twelve and post them before the door. Six men go
with Will Huet; see that none escape by the windows. There is a light
burns at one yet. I will take the complement and go within. Now mark
me well: our warrant is principally to the capture of Skene, alias
Cleeve, and one Guido Malpas, that was of the Earl of Pembroke's
household, but since discharged. He is a tall black man and a
dangerous. It standeth upon us to apprehend the whole sort that here
congregate together. They will make resistance and you will defend
yourselves, but for the rest I have it in my authority that no blood be
wasted needlessly. A live captive may prove useful; a dead villain is
nothing worth. The password is _At last_. Set on."
Idonia had half risen from her place; she watched the retreating men as
they filed along towards the Inn.
"I must warn him," she cried impetuously, and had clambered on to the
turf path ere I could let her.
"What madness is this?" I urged, aghast. "You would yourself be
arrested or ever you could get sight of that devil."
"Devil or no," she panted, while she struggled to unclasp my
restraining arms, "devil or no, he is my guardian. Denis, I cannot
stand by idle and see him taken."
"Sweetheart," I entreated her, "you can do nought, indeed. They be all
armed men..."
"Hinder me no more!"
"Idonia!"
"Oh, it is cowardly, cowardly!"
"Listen," I said, appealing.
"Ah, Denis, let me not thus, or you will kill me.... See! they are
close to the house already. A little while and..." Her voice rose to
a scream of absolute terror that I vainly sought to stifle against my
heart. She flung her head back; her hair, shaken from the filet and
caught by the wind, streamed betwixt us like a cloud. We stood long
thus.
"Loose my wrists," she whispered, "or I shall grow to hate you, Denis!"
and methought there went a sort of awe with the words. I let her go,
when suddenly, with a sob, she dropped down unresisting into my arms.
I knew she had spoken under the stress of her disorder, but none the
less her words hurt me like a lash. It had revolted me to use my
strength upon her, although in love, and to hold her so straitly
against her will, who but a moment before had been leaning in free
confidence beside me. The wind and rain were now increased to such a
pitch as I have scarce known: the dim bulk of the Inn hung in a mist of
swinging vapour, through which the glimmer of the one light aloft,
shining, touched the edges of the slanted pikes.
Idonia was plucking weakly at my sleeve. Her eyes were pitifully big.
"You look distressed, Denis," she said, in a crazed dull voice. "Why
do you look so stern and sad? We are together.... I forget how I got
away, but that does not matter now, does it? Some one was holding me
by the wrist and hurting me. I cried out, and you came. You always
come when they would be hurting me.... It is very cold," she shivered,
and drew down more closely within my arms; all wet as her cheek was,
its fever heat burnt through to my bosom.
"You cannot walk," I said: "I will carry you." But all the while I was
thinking: "Is her reason gone?"
"Whither, Denis? To the Inn? It would be warm there, out of the wind."
"God forbid!" I answered her.
"Ah! no ... I remember now. He is there.... His yellow face, and his
eyes when he gave me the jar to keep! ... Denis, Denis, Denis..."
And so, without any further effort to beat off the oppression in her
brain and blood, she fell away into a long swoon: so long, indeed, that
I had almost despaired of reviving her, when I bethought me of the Inn,
to which she had hoped I was about to bear her. There would be strong
cordial wine in the vault, I knew; and a cordial she needed instantly.
I might quickly go and return again with the wine--if the vent were but
open.
The Inn was scarce ten score paces distant. There was some risk,
perhaps, but not great: less, surely, than I took, kneeling helpless
beside her in the bitter storm. I bent over her and kissed her
passionately on her eyes and lips and brow; and then I hastened away.
Had I known the upshot then, I would rather have lost my right hand
than leave her; but that was in God's mercy hid....
To speak my bottom thought, I had hardly dared to hope that the shutter
were still unhasped: but yet it was, and yielded easily to my touch. I
felt a strange tightening of the throat as I pushed it back and leapt
astride the sill. The vault below me was wholly dark. Without more
ado I swung myself in. I missed my footing, fell, and lay stunned.
How long a while elapsed ere I recovered consciousness I know not, nor
yet how long I remained in that intermediate state where things outward
be still denied for real. A confusion of sounds assailed my aching
brain, from which I recked not to gather any purpose or tendency. But
at length, my head having somewhat cleared, I recalled my situation,
where I was in the narrow passage-vault; and soon perceived that the
sounds I had heard were those of men in earnest conference within one
of the vaults adjacent, that had formerly been barred. The lamp which
had lighted the passage had been removed, and from the pale ray that
issued from the chink of the door, I saw it was now used for their
purposes who spoke together beyond.
Without, the storm raged very furiously, so that there were times when
I could hear nought else; but otherwhiles, whatever snatches of debate
I overheard they went always to the continuous deep second of the wind.
Some instinct of security held me silent, and after a little I dragged
myself painfully along the stone floor, until I had my ear at the
chink. The halberdiers were certainly not of the party; they had
either not yet entered, or else had come and, failing to discover these
men's place of concealment, had gone. A man was speaking; a jovial
rough voice it was, interrupted now and again by careless laughter.
"You mind me of that tale of the two robbers," said the fellow, and I
heard the clink of a cup set down, "that were engaged to set upon a
certain Canon who should pass through the wood they lurked within. Now
a passenger approaching, the one was for killing him out of hand, but
his companion, being something scrupulous, would not, but bade him stay
his hand until the man should sing.
"'I care not a jot how he sing,' says the Captain-robber.
"'Nay, by his singing I can tell in a trice whether he be a canon or
no,' says the robber-squire.
"By this the passenger was got free of their ambush and into a place
where two sheriff's men met him, at which he swore for mere joy.
"'I would he had sung,' says the squire.
"'Go to, buffle-head!' cries the other in a great rage, 'for by his
swearing I know him for the Father Abbot himself, and better your
squealing Canon, by how much noon-sun surpasses candle-light.'"
A round of hoarse merriment went to this shrewd apologue, of which I
was yet to learn the application; but waited not long for it.
"So then, Cutts, 'hold to that you have,' is your advice, trow?"
"Ay, abbot or traitor, or barndoor fowl," replied Cutts (who was none
other, I found, than he that had fled away from Dunster so long since);
"'truss and lay by,' says the housewife."
"Well, you have me trussed already," said a mild voice, that for all
its stillness overbore the murmurs which greeted Cutts his policy; and
at the sound of it I caught in my breath, for 'twas my uncle that
spoke, and by his words I knew they had him bound.
"I am not in case to do you harm, as a traitor, nor yet to benefit you
as an abbot," my uncle proceeded very coolly. "But if it seem good to
your worships to restore me my freedom, I have my proofs of innocence
at hand to show to any that professes to doubt my faith."
"Too late for that, Master Skene," said another.
"Ay, Captain Spurrier, say you so?" returned my uncle, with a little
menacing thrill in the sweet of his voice. "I had thought you that use
the sea knew that one must luff and tack upon occasion. Delay is
sometimes necessary, when haste would mean sudden shipwreck. Wherefore
then do you say I speak too late?"
"Where is Malpas?" cried Captain Spurrier, and by the grating of a
chair I perceived he had started to his feet.
"I had thought to meet him here," said my uncle. "Our design stays for
him."
There was a dead pause at that, and I could not but admire the
fortitude with which the baited man met and countered his opposites.
"He denounced you to this council, ere he went forth," said that subtle
voice of the tavern-server, "and upon such positive testimony as we
could not but allow it. If any lead this enterprise it is Malpas, and
not thou, old fox."
"So thou use better terms, friend Jocelin," said Cleeve, "it shall not
be amiss, nor yet if thou answer me why it was I returned freely hither
amongst you all? Had I aught to gain from you? But rather had I not
all to lose? There is a warrant out against me on the Queen's part;
had I not done wisely, being so disguised as no man might know me, to
avoid this suspected house? Yet I returned. Our ship is to sail
to-morrow. Captain Spurrier is here in his place. What lacks of our
engagement? What hath gone untowardly? Is it Malpas his failure? I
ask of you in my turn, where is Malpas? Is it not strange that upon
such a night he should not be here to bear his part, as I do, and Lucas
Spurrier and Jocelin, and the rest? I say there is something I like
not in this defection; but yet it fears me not. Let them that be
faint-hearted stay away; this enterprise is not for cowards. Do you
lack a leader? You trusted me once. Malpas trusted me, for all he
cozened you into a belief that he did not so; but he is gone." He
paused, and then with so strangely intense a malignancy as, despite my
knowledge, I could scarce credit that 'twas assumed, he added: "Would
that I knew whither Guido Malpas hath gone, and what to do!"
There was such clamour of contrary opinions, oaths and hot argument,
when he had done, that I could not tell how it went, but gradually
conceived the opinion that they believed him and were about to set him
free, when, to my utter dismay, I heard the door at the stairhead open
and heavy steps descend to the passage where I lay concealed. I
crouched down on the instant, but dared not move from the place, nor
indeed had the opportunity to retreat by one step, when the men were
already in the room; but so dark it was I could not see their arms (for
I doubted nothing of their being the halberdiers) nor their numbers
that entered. They set the door open of the inner vault and trooped in
upon the conspirators.
I saw them now. They were men that bore a body. The tide had set in
again. The boat with its burden had returned upon the flood.