Springhaven: A Tale of the Great War

by R. D. Blackmore

  CHAPTER XLIII

  LITTLE AND GREAT PEOPLE

  If ever a wise man departed from wisdom, or a sober place from sobriety,the man was John Prater, and the place Springhaven, towards the middleof June, 1804. There had been some sharp rumours of great things before;but the best people, having been misled so often, shook their headswithout produce of their contents; until Captain Stubbard came out inhis shirt sleeves one bright summer morning at half past nine, with alarge printed paper in one hand and a slop basin full of hot paste inthe other. His second boy, George, in the absence of Bob (who was nowdrawing rations at Woolwich), followed, with a green baize apron on, andcarrying a hearth-brush tied round with a string to keep the hair stiff.

  "Lay it on thick on the shutter, my son. Never mind about any othernotices, except the one about young men wanted. No hurry; keep yourelbow up; only don't dab my breeches, nor the shirt you had on Sunday."

  By this time there were half a dozen people waiting; for this shutter ofWidow Shanks was now accepted as the central board and official panelof all public business and authorised intelligence. Not only because allRoyal Proclamations, Offers of reward, and Issues of menace wereposted on that shutter and the one beyond the window (which served asa postscript and glossary to it), but also inasmuch as the kind-heartedCaptain, beginning now to understand the natives--which was not to bedone pugnaciously, as he had first attempted it, neither by any show ofinterest in them (than which they detested nothing more), but by takingthem coolly, as they took themselves, and gradually sliding, without anythought about it, into the wholesome contagion of their minds, and thedivine gift of taking things easily--our Captain Stubbard may be fairlynow declared to have made himself almost as good as a native, by the wayin which he ministered to their content.

  For nothing delighted them more than to hear of great wonders going onin other places--of battles, plague, pestilence, famine, and fire; ofpeople whose wives ran away with other people, or highwaymen stoppingthe coach of a bishop. Being full of good-nature, they enjoyed thesethings, because of the fine sympathies called out to their own credit,and the sense of pious gratitude aroused towards Heaven, that theynever permitted such things among them. Perceiving this genial desire oftheirs, the stout Captain of the Foxhill battery was kind enough to meetit with worthy subjects. Receiving officially a London newspaper almostevery other day, as soon as it had trodden the round of his friends,his regular practice was to cut out all the pieces of lofty publicinterest--the first-rate murders, the exploits of highwaymen, theepisodes of high life, the gallant executions, the embezzlements ofdemagogues, in a word, whatever quiet people find a fond delightin ruminating--and these he pasted (sometimes upside down) upon hisshutter. Springhaven had a good deal of education, and enjoyed most ofall what was hardest to read.

  But this great piece of news, that should smother all the rest, seemednow to take a terrible time in coming. All the gaffers were waitingwho had waited to see the result of Mr. Cheeseman's suicide, and theirpatience was less on this occasion. At length the great Captain unfoldedhis broad sheet, but even then held it upside down for a minute. It wasbelow their dignity to do anything but grunt, put their specs on theirnoses, and lean chin upon staff. They deserved to be rewarded, and sothey were.

  For this grand poster, which overlapped the shutters, was a RoyalProclamation, all printed in red ink, announcing that His Majesty KingGeorge the 3rd would on the 25th of June then ensuing hold a grandreview upon Shotbury Down of all the Volunteer forces and Reserve,mounted, footmen, or artillery, of the four counties forming theSoutheast Division, to wit, Surrey, Kent, Sussex, and Hants. Certainregiments of the line would be appointed to act with them; and officersin command were ordered to report at once, &c., &c. God save the King.

  If Shotbury Down had been ten miles off, Springhaven would have thoughtvery little of the matter; for no one would walk ten miles inland tosee all the sojers that ever were shot, or even the "King and Queen, andtheir fifteen little ones." Most of the little ones were very large now;but the village had seen them in a travelling show, and expected them tocontinue like it. But Shotbury Down was only three miles inland; and thepeople (who thought nothing of twenty miles along the coast) resolved toface a league of perils of the solid earth, because if they only turnedround upon their trudge, they could see where they lived from everycorner of the road. They always did all things with one accord; thefishing fleet all should stand still on the sand, and the houses shouldhave to keep house for themselves. That is to say, perhaps, all exceptone.

  "Do as you like," said Mrs. Tugwell to her husband; "nothing as youdo makes much differ to me now. If you feel you can be happy with themthousands of young men, and me without one left fit to lift a big crock,go your way, Zeb; but you don't catch me going, with the tears cominginto my eyes every time I see a young man to remind me of Dan--thoughthere won't be one there fit to stand at his side. And him perhapsfighting against his own King now!"

  "Whatever hath coom to Dannel is all along of your own fault, I tell'e." Captain Tugwell had scarcely enjoyed a long pipe since the nightwhen he discharged his paternal duty, with so much vigour, and such sadresults. Not that he felt any qualms of conscience, though his heart wassometimes heavy, but because his good wife was a good wife no longer, inthe important sphere of the pan, pot, and kettle, or even in listeningto his adventures with the proper exclamations in the proper places.And not only she, but all his children, from Timothy down to Solomon,instead of a pleasant chatter around him, and little attentions, and asmile to catch a smile, seemed now to shrink from him, and hold whispersin a corner, and watch him with timid eyes, and wonder how soon theirown time would come to be lashed and turned away. And as for the women,whether up or down the road--but as he would not admit, even to himself,that he cared twopence what they thought, it is useless to give voice totheir opinions, which they did quite sufficiently. Zebedee Tugwell feltsure that he had done the right thing, and therefore admired himself,but would have enjoyed himself more if he had done the wrong one.

  "What fault of mine, or of his, poor lamb?" Mrs. Tugwell asked, withsome irony. She knew that her husband could never dare to go to see theKing without her--for no married man in the place would venture to lookat him twice if he did such a thing--and she had made up her own mindto go from the first; but still, he should humble himself before she didit. "Was it I as colted him? Or was it him as gashed himself, like theprophets of Baal, when 'a was gone hunting?"

  "No; but you cockered him up, the same as was done to they, by thewicked king, and his wife--the worst woman as ever lived. If they hadn'tgashed theirselves, I reckon, the true man of God would 'a done it forthem, the same as he cut their throats into the brook Kishon. Solomonwas the wisest man as ever lived, and Job the most patient--the same asI be--and Elijah, the Tishbite, the most justest."

  "You better finish up with all the Psalms of David, and the HolyChildren, and the Burial Service. No more call for Parson Twemlow, orthe new Churchwarden come in place of Cheeseman, because 'a tried tohang his self. Zebedee Tugwell in the pulpit! Zebedee, come roundwith the plate! Parson Tugwell, if you please, a-reading out the tencommandments! But 'un ought to leave out the sixth, for fear of spoiling's own dinner afterwards; and the seventh, if 'a hopes to go to see KingGeorge the third, with another man's woman to his elbow!"

  "When you begins to go on like that," Captain Tugwell replied, with somedignity, "the only thing as a quiet man can do is to go out of houze,and have a half-pint of small ale." He put his hat on his head and wentto do it.

  Notwithstanding all this and much more, when the great day came forthe Grand Review, very few people saw more of the King, or entered morekindly into all his thoughts--or rather the thoughts that they made himthink--than Zebedee Tugwell and his wife Kezia. The place being so nearhome, and the smoke of their own chimneys and masts of their smack asgood as in sight--if you knew where to look--it was natural for them toregard the King as a stranger requiring to be taught about their place.This sense of proprietary
right is strong in dogs and birds and cows andrabbits, and everything that acts by nature's laws. When a dog sits infront of his kennel, fast chained, every stranger dog that comes in atthe gate confesses that the premises are his, and all the treasures theycontain; and if he hunts about--which he is like enough to do, unlessfull of self-respect and fresh victuals--for any bones invested in theearth to ripen, by the vested owner, he does it with a low tail and manypricks of conscience, perhaps hoping in his heart that he may discovernothing to tempt him into breach of self-respect. But now men areordered, in this matter, to be of lower principle than their dogs.

  King George the third, who hated pomp and show, and had in his blood theold German sense of patriarchal kingship, would have enjoyed a good talkwith Zebedee and his wife Kezia, if he had met them on the downs alone;but, alas, he was surrounded with great people, and obliged to restricthimself to the upper order, with whom he had less sympathy. Zebedee,perceiving this, made all allowance for him, and bought a new Sunday hatthe very next day, for fear of wearing out the one he had taken off toHis Majesty, when His Majesty looked at him, and Her Majesty as well,and they manifestly said to one another, what a very fine subject theyhad found. Such was loyalty--aye, and royalty--in those times that wedespise.

  But larger events demand our heed. There were forty thousand gallantfellows, from the age of fifteen upwards, doing their best to look likesoldiers, and some almost succeeding. True it is that their legs andarms were not all of one pattern, nor their hats put on their headsalike--any more than the heads on their shoulders were--neither did theyswing together, as they would have done to a good swathe of grass; butfor all that, and making due allowance for the necessity they were underof staring incessantly at the King, any man who understood themwould have praised them wonderfully. And they went about in suchwide formation, and occupied so much of their native land, that thebest-drilled regiment Napoleon possessed would have looked quite smallamong them.

  "They understand furze," said a fine young officer of the staff, whohad ridden up to Admiral Darling's carriage and saluted three ladies whokept watch there. "I doubt whether many of the Regular forces wouldhave got through that brake half so well; certainly not without doublegaiters. If the French ever land, we must endeavour to draw them intofurzy ground, and then set the Volunteers at them. No Frenchman can domuch with prickles in his legs."

  Lady Scudamore smiled, for she was thinking of her son, who would havejumped over any furze-bush there--and the fir-trees too, according toher conviction; Dolly also showed her very beautiful teeth; but Faithlooked at him gratefully.

  "It is very kind of you, Lord Dashville, to say the best of us that youcan find to say. But I fear that you are laughing to yourself. You knowhow well they mean; but you think they cannot do much."

  "No, that is not what I think at all. So far as I can judge, which isnot much, I believe that they would be of the greatest service, if theCountry should unfortunately need them. Man for man, they are as braveas trained troops, and many of them can shoot better. I don't mean tosay that they are fit to meet a French army in the open; but for actingon their flanks, or rear, or in a wooded country--However, I have noright to venture an opinion, having never seen active service."

  Miss Darling looked at him with some surprise, and much approval ofhis modesty. So strongly did most of the young officers who came to herfather's house lay down the law, and criticise even Napoleon's tactics.

  "How beautiful Springhaven must be looking now!" he said, after Dollyhad offered her opinion, which she seldom long withheld. "The cottagesmust be quite covered with roses, whenever they are not too near thesea; and the trees at their best, full of leaves and blossoms, by theside of the brook that feeds them. All the rest of the coast is so hardand barren, and covered with chalk instead of grass, and the shore sostraight and staring. But I have never been there at this time of year.How much you must enjoy it! Surely we ought to be able to see it, fromthis high ground somewhere."

  "Yes, if you will ride to that shattered tree," said Faith, "you willhave a very fine view of all the valley. You can see round the cornerof Foxhill there, which shuts out most of it just here. I think you havemet our Captain Stubbard."

  "Ah, I must not go now; I may be wanted at any moment"--Lord Dashvillehad very fine taste, but it was not the inanimate beauties ofSpringhaven that he cared a dash for--"and I fear that I could never seethe roses there. I think there is nothing in all nature to compare witha rose--except one thing."

  Faith had a lovely moss-rose in her hat--a rose just peeping throughits lattice at mankind, before it should open and blush at them--and sheknew what it was that he admired more than the sweetest rose thatever gemmed itself with dew. Lord Dashville had loved her, as she wasfrightened to remember, for more than a year, because he could not helpit, being a young man of great common-sense, as well as fine taste, andsome knowledge of the world. "He knows to which side his bread will bebuttered," Mr. Swipes had remarked, as a keen observer. "If 'a can onlyget Miss Faith, his bread 'll be buttered to both sides for life--hisself to one side, and her to do the tother. The same as I told MotherCloam--a man that knoweth his duty to head gardeners, as his noblelordship doth, the same know the differ atwixt Miss Faith--as fine ayoung 'ooman as ever looked into a pink--and that blow-away froth of athing, Miss Dolly."

  This fine young woman, to use the words of Mr. Swipes, coloured softly,at his noble lordship's gaze, to the tint of the rose-bud in her hat;and then spoke coldly to countervail her blush.

  "There is evidently something to be done directly. All the people aremoving towards the middle of the down. We must not be so selfish as tokeep you here, Lord Dashville."

  "Why, don't you see what it is?" exclaimed Miss Dolly, hotly resentingthe part of second fiddle; "they are going to have the grand march-past.These affairs always conclude with that. And we are in the worst part ofthe whole down for seeing it. Lord Dashville will tell us where we oughtto go."

  "You had better not attempt to move now," he answered, smiling as healways smiled at Dolly, as if she were a charming but impatient child;"you might cause some confusion, and perhaps see nothing. And now Imust discharge my commission, which I am quite ashamed of having leftso long. His Majesty hopes, when the march-past is over, to receive amarch-up of fair ladies. He has a most wonderful memory, as you know,and his nature is the kindest of the kind. As soon as he heard that LadyScudamore was here, and Admiral Darling's daughters with her, he said:'Bring them all to me, every one of them; young Scudamore has done goodwork, good work. And I want to congratulate his mother about him. AndDarling's daughters, I must see them. Why, we owe the security of thecoast to him.' And so, if you please, ladies, be quite ready, and allowme the honour of conducting you."

  With a low bow, he set off about his business, leaving the ladies in astate of sweet disturbance. Blyth Scudamore's mother wept a little, forancient troubles and present pleasure. Lord Dashville could not repeatbefore her all that the blunt old King had said: "Monstrous ill-treatedwoman, shameful, left without a penny, after all her poor husband didfor me and the children! Not my fault a bit--fault of the Whigs--alwaysstingy--said he made away with himself--bad example--don't believe aword of it; very cheerful man. Blown by now, at any rate--must seewhat can be done for her--obliged to go for governess--disgrace to theCrown!"

  Faith, with her quiet self-respect, and the largeness learned fromsorrow, was almost capable of not weeping that she had left at home herapple-green Poland mantlet and jockey bonnet of lilac satin checked withmaroon. But Dolly had no such weight of by-gone sorrow to balanceher present woe, and the things she had left at home were infinitelybrighter than that dowdy Faith's.

  "Is there time to drive back? Is there time to drive home? The Kingknows father, and he will be astonished to see a pair of frumps, andhe won't understand one bit about the dust, or the sun that takes thecolour out. He will think we have got all our best things on. Oh,Lady Scudamore, how could you do it? You told us to put on quite plainthings, because of the du
st, and the sun, and all that; and it mightcome to rain, you said--as if it was likely, when the King was on thehill! And with all your experience of the King and Queen, that you toldus about last evening, you must have known that they would send for us.Gregory, how long would it take you to go home, at full gallop, allow ushalf an hour in the house, and be back here again, when all these peopleare gone by?"

  "Well, miss, there be a steepish bit of road, and a many ockardcornders; I should say 'a might do it in two hours and a half, with afresh pair of nags put in while you ladies be a-cleaning of yourselves,miss. Leastways, if Hadmiral not object."

  "Hadmiral, as you call him, would have nothing to do with it"--Dolly wasalways free-spoken with the servants, which made her very popular withsome of them--"he has heavier duty than he can discharge. But two hoursand a half is hopeless; we must even go as we are."

  Coachman Gregory smiled in his sleeve. He knew that the Admiral had thatday a duty far beyond his powers--to bring up his Sea-Fencibles to seethe King--upon which they had insisted--and then to fetch them allback again, and send them on board of their several craft in a state ofstrict sobriety. And Gregory meant to bear a hand, and lift it prettyfrequently towards the most loyal part of man, in the large festivitiesof that night. He smacked his lips at the thought of this, and gave alittle flick to his horses.

  After a long time, long enough for two fair drives to Springhaven andback, and when even the youngest were growing weary of glare, and dust,and clank, and din, and blare, and roar, and screeching music, LordDashville rode up through a cloud of roving chalk, and after a littletalk with the ladies, ordered the coachman to follow him. Then stoppingthe carriage at a proper distance, he led the three ladies towards theKing, who was thoroughly tired, and had forgotten all about them. HisMajesty's sole desire was to get into his carriage and go to sleep; forhe was threescore years and six of age, and his health not such as itused to be. Ever since twelve o'clock he had been sitting in a box madeof feather-edged boards, which the newspapers called a pavilion, havingtwo little curtains (both of which stuck fast) for his only defenceagainst sun, noise, and dust. Moreover, his seat was a board full ofknots, with a strip of thin velvet thrown over it; and Her Majestysitting towards the other end (that the public might see between them),and weighing more than he did, every time she jumped up, he went down,and every time she plumped down, he went up. But he never complained,and only slowly got tired. "Thank God!" he said, gently, "it's all overnow. My dear, you must be monstrous tired; and scarcely a bit to eat allday. But I locked some in the seat-box this morning--no trusting anybodybut oneself. Let us get into the coach and have at them." "Ja, ja,meinherr," said the Queen.

  "If it please your Majesties"--a clear voice entered between thebonnet-hoods of the curtains--"here are the ladies whose attendance Iwas ordered to require."

  "Ladies!--what ladies?" asked King George, rubbing his eyes, andyawning. "Oh yes, to be sure! I mustn't get up so early to-morrow. Won'ttake a minute, my dear. Let them come. Not much time to spare."

  But as soon as he saw Lady Scudamore, the King's good-nature overcamethe weariness of the moment. He took her kindly by the hand, and lookedat her face, which bore the mark of many heavy trials; and she, who hadoften seen him when the world was bright before her, could not smotherone low sob, as she thought of all that had been since.

  "Don't cry, don't cry, my dear," said the King, with his kind heartshowing in his eyes; "we must bow to the will of the Lord, who gives sadtrials to every one of us. We must think of the good, and not the evil.Bless me, keep your spirits up. Your son is doing very well indeed,very well indeed, from all I hear. Good chip of the old block, very goodchip. Will cure my grandchildren, as soon as they want it; and nobody isever in good health now."

  "No, your Majesty, if you please, my son is in the Royal Navy, fightingfor his Country and his King. And he has already captured--"

  "Three French frigates. To be sure, I know. Better than curing threehundred people. Fine young officer--very fine young officer. Must cometo see me when he gets older. There, you are laughing! That's as itshould be. Goodbye, young ladies. Forty miles to go tonight, and veryrough roads--very rough indeed. Monstrous pretty girls! Uncommon gladthat George wasn't here to see them. Better stay in the country--toogood for London. Must be off; sha'n't have a bit o' sleep to-night,because of sleeping the whole way there, and then sure to be late inthe morning, not a bit of breakfast till eight o'clock, and all the daythrown upside down! Darlings, Darlings--the right name for them! Butthey mustn't come to London. No, no, no. Too much wickedness therealready. Very glad George wasn't here to-day!"

  His Majesty was talking, as he always did, with the firm convictionthat his words intended for the public ear would reach it, whilethose addressed, without change of tone, to himself, would be strictlyprivate. But instead of offending any one, this on the whole gave greatsatisfaction, and impressed nine people out of ten with a strong andspecial regard for him, because almost every one supposed himself to beadmitted at first sight to the inner confidence of the King. And to whatcould he attribute this? He would do his own merits great demerit unlesshe attributed it to them, and to the King an unusual share of sagacityin perceiving them.