For Faith and Freedom

by Walter Besant

  CHAPTER XLI.

  ON CONDITIONS.

  This servitude endured for a week, during which we were driven forthdaily with the negroes to the hardest and most intolerable toil, themaster's intention being so to disgust us with the life as to makeus write the most urgent letters to our friends at home; since, aswe told him two hundred guineas had been already paid on our account(though none of the money was used for the purpose), he supposedthat another two hundred could easily be raised. Wherefore, whilethose of the new servants who were common country lads were placedin the Ingenio, or the curing-house, where the work is shelteredfrom the scorching sun, we were made to endure every hardship thatthe place permitted. In the event, however, the man's greed wasdisappointed and his cruelty made of none avail.

  In fact, the thing I had foreseen quickly came to pass. When a manlies in a lethargy of despair, his body, no longer fortified by acheerful mind, presently falls into any disease which is lurkingin the air. Diseases of all kinds may be likened unto wild beasts:invisible, always on the prowl, seeking whom they may devour. Theyoung fall victims to some, the weak to others; the drunkards andgluttons to others; the old to others; and the lethargic, again, toothers. It was not surprising to me, therefore, when Robin, cominghome one evening, fell to shivering and shaking, chattering with histeeth, and showing every external sign of cold, though the eveningwas still warm, and the sun had that day been more than commonlyhot. Also, he turned away from his food, and would eat nothing.Therefore, as there was nothing we could give him, we covered himwith our rugs; and he presently fell asleep. But in the morning,when we awoke, behold! Robin was in a high fever: his hands andhead burning hot, his cheek flushed red, his eyes rolling, and hisbrain wandering. I went forth and called the overseer to come andlook at him. At first he cursed and swore, saying that the man wasmalingering (that is to say, pretending to be sick, in order toavoid work); that, if he was a negro instead of a gentleman, a fewcuts with his lash should shortly bring him to his senses; that, forhis part, he liked not this mixing of gentlemen with negroes; andthat, finally, I must go and bring forth my sick man or take it uponmyself to face the master, who would probably drive him afield withthe stick.

  'Sir,' I said, 'what the master may do I know not. Murder may bedone by any who are wicked enough. For my part, I am a physician,and I tell you that to make this man go forth to work will bemurder. But indeed he is light-headed, and with a thousand lashesyou could not make him understand or obey.'

  Well, he grumbled, but he followed me into the hut.

  'The man hath had a sunstroke,' he said. 'I wonder that any of youhave escaped. Well, we can carry him to the sick-house, where hewill die. When a new hand is taken this way he always dies.'

  'Perhaps he will not die,' I said, 'if he is properly treated. Ifhe is given nothing but this diet of loblollie and salt beef, andnothing to drink but the foul water of the pond, and no other doctorthan an ignorant old negress, he will surely die.'

  'Good Lord, man!' said the fellow. 'What do you expect in thiscountry? It is the master's loss, not mine. Carry him between you tothe sick-house.'

  So we carried Robin to the sick-house.

  At home we should account it a barn, being a great place with athatched roof, the windows open, without shutter or lattice, thedoor breaking away from its hinges. Within there was a black lyingon a pallet, groaning most piteously. The poor wretch, for somethingthat he had done, I know not what, had his flesh cut to pieces withthe whip. With him was an old negress mumbling and mouthing.

  We laid Robin on another pallet, and covered him with a rug.

  'Now, man,' said the overseer, 'leave him there, and come forth toyour work.'

  'Nay,' I said, 'he must not be left. I am a physician, and I muststay beside him.'

  'If he were your son I would not suffer you to stay with him.'

  'Man!' I cried. 'Hast thou no pity?'

  'Pity!' The fellow grinned. 'Pity! quotha. Pity! Is this a placefor pity? Why, if I showed any pity I should be working beside youin the fields. It is because I have no pity that I am overseer.Look here'--he showed me his left hand, which had been brandedwith a red-hot iron. 'This was done in Newgate seven years ago andmore. Three years more I have to serve. That done, I may beginto show some pity. Not before. Pity is scarce among the driversof Barbadoes. As well ask the beadle for pity when he flogs a'prentice.'

  'Let me go to the master, then.'

  'Best not; best not. Let this man die and keep yourself alive. Themorning is the worst time for him, because last night's drink isstill in his head. Likely as not you will but make the sick man'scase and your own worse. Leave him in the sick-house, and go back tohim in the evening.'

  The man spoke with some compassion in his eyes. Just then, however,a negro boy came running from the house and spoke to the overseer.

  'Why,' he said, 'nothing could be more pat. You can speak to themaster, if you please. He is in pain, and Madam sends for Dr.Humphrey Challis. Go, Doctor. If you cure him, you will be a luckyman. If you cannot cure him, the Lord have mercy upon you! Whereas,if you suffer him to die,' he added with a grin and a whisper,'every man on the estate will fall down and worship you. Let himdie! Let him die!'

  I followed the boy, who took me to that part of the house whichfronts the west and north. It was a mean house of wood, low andsmall, considering how wealthy a man was the master of it; on threesides, however, there was built out a kind of _loggia_, as theItalians call it, of wood instead of marble, forming a cloister oropen chamber, outside the house. They call it a verandah, and partof it they hang with mats made of grass, so as to keep it shadedin the afternoon and evening, when the sun is in the west. The boybrought me to this place, pointed to a chair where the master sat,and then ran away as quickly as he could.

  It was easy to understand why he ran away, because the master atthis moment sprang out of his chair and began to stamp up and downthe verandah, roaring and cursing. He was clad in a white linendressing-gown and linen nightcap. On a small table beside him stooda bottle of beer, newly opened, and a silver tankard.

  When he saw me he began to swear at me for my delay in coming,though I had not lost a moment.

  'Sir,' I said, 'if you will cease railing and blaspheming I willexamine into your malady. Otherwise I will do nothing for you.'

  'What?' he cried. 'You dare to make conditions with me, you dog,you!'

  'Fair words,' I said. 'Fair words. I am your servant to work onyour plantation as you may command. I am not your physician; and Ipromise you, Sir, upon the honour of a gentleman, and without usingthe sacred name which is so often on your lips, that if you continueto rail at me I will suffer you to die rather than stir a littlefinger in your help.'

  'Suffer the physician to examine the place,' said a woman's voice.'What good is it to curse and to swear?'

  The voice came from a hammock swinging at the end of the verandah.It was made, I observed, of a land of coarse grass loosely woven.

  The man sat down and sulkily bade me find a remedy for the painwhich he was enduring. So I consented and examined his upper jaw,where I soon found out the cause of his pain in a good-sized tumourformed over the fangs of a grinder. Such a thing causes agony evento a person of cool blood, but to a man whose veins are inflamedwith strong drink the pain of it is maddening.

  'You have got a tumour,' I told him. 'It has been forming for somedays. It has now nearly, or quite, reached its head. It began aboutthe time when you were cursing and insulting certain unfortunategentlemen, who are for a time under your power. Take it, therefore,as a Divine judgment upon you for your cruelty and insolence.'

  He glared at me, but said nothing, the hope of relief causing him toreceive this admonition with patience, if not in good part. Besides,my finger was still upon the spot, and if I so much as pressedgently I could cause him agony unspeakable. Truly, the power of thephysician is great.

  'The pain,' I told him, 'is already grown almost intolerable. Butit will be much greater in a few hours unless something is
done. Itis now like unto a little ball of red-hot fire in your jaw; in anhour or two it will seem as if the whole of your face was a burningfiery furnace; your cheek will swell out until your left eye isclosed; your tortures, which now make you bawl, will then make youscream; you now walk about and stamp; you will then lie down on yourback and kick. No negro slave ever suffered half so much under youraccursed lash as you will suffer under this tumour--unless somethingis done.'

  'Doctor,' it was again the woman's voice from the hammock, 'you havefrightened him enough.'

  'Strong drink,' I went on, pointing to the tankard, 'will only makeyou worse. It inflames your blood and adds fuel to the raging fire.Unless something is done the pain will be followed by delirium; thatby fever, and the fever by death. Sir, are you prepared for death?'

  He turned horribly pale and gasped.

  'Do something for me!' he said. 'Do something for me, and thatwithout more words!'

  'Nay; but I will first make a bargain with you. There is in thesick-house a gentleman, my cousin--Robin Challis by name--one of thenewly-arrived rebels, and your servant. He is lying sick unto deathof a sunstroke and fever caused by your hellish cruelty in sendinghim out to work on the fields with the negroes instead of puttinghim to light labour in the Ingenio or elsewhere. I say, his sicknessis caused by your barbarity. Wherefore I will do nothing for you atall--do you hear? Nothing! nothing!--unless I am set free to do allI can for him. Yea; and I must have such cordials and generous dietas the place can afford, otherwise I will not stir a finger to helpyou. Otherwise--endure the torments of the damned; rave in madnessand in fever. Die and go to your own place. I will not help you. So;that is my last word.'

  Upon this I really thought the man had gone stark, staring mad. For,at the impudence of a mere servant (though a gentleman of far betterfamily than his own) daring to make conditions with him, he becamepurple in the cheeks, and, seizing his great stick which lay on thetable, he began belabouring me with all his might about the head andshoulders. But I caught up a chair and used it for a shield, whilehe capered about, striking wildly and swearing most horribly.

  At this moment the lady who was in the hammock stepped out of itand walked towards us slowly, like a Queen. She was without anydoubt the most beautiful woman I had ever seen. She was dressed ina kind of dressing-gown of flowered silk, which covered her fromhead to foot; her head was adorned with the most lovely glossyblack ringlets; a heavy gold chain lay round her neck, and a chainof gold with pearls was twined in her hair, so that it looked likea coronet; her fingers were covered with rings, and gold braceletshung upon her bare white arms. Her figure was tall and full; herface inclined to the Spanish, being full and yet regular, with largeblack eyes. Though I was fighting with a madman, I could not resistthe wish that I could paint her, and I plainly perceived that shewas one of that race which is called Quadroon, being most likely thedaughter of a mulatto woman and a white father. This was evident bythe character of her skin, which had in it what the Italians callthe _morbidezza_, and by a certain dark hue under the eyes.

  'Why,' she said, speaking to the master as if he had been a petulantschool-boy, 'you only make yourself worse by all this fury. Sitdown, and lay aside your stick. And you. Sir'--she addressed herselfto me--'you may be a great physician, and at home a gentleman; buthere you are a servant, and therefore bound to help your master inall you can without first making conditions.'

  'I know too well,' I replied, 'he bought me as his servant, but notas his physician. I will not heal him without my fee; and my fee isthat my sick cousin be attended to with humanity.'

  'Take him away!' cried the master, beside himself with rage. 'Claphim in the stocks! Let him sit there all day long in the sun! Heshall have nothing to eat or to drink! In the evening he shall beflogged! If it was the Duke of Monmouth himself, he should be tiedup and flogged! Where the devil are the servants?'

  A great hulking negro came running.

  'You have now,' I told him quietly, 'permitted yourself to beinflamed with violent rage. The pain will therefore more rapidlyincrease. When it becomes intolerable, you will be glad to send forme.'

  The negro dragged me away (but I made no resistance), and led meto the courtyard, where stood the stocks and a whipping-post. Hepointed to the latter with a horrid grin, and then laid me fast inthe former. Fortunately, he left me my hat, otherwise the hot sunwould have made an end of me. I was, however, quite easy in my mind.I knew that this poor wretch, who already suffered so horribly,would before long feel in that jaw of his, as it were, a ball offire. He would drink, in order to deaden the pain; but the winewould only make the agony more horrible. Then he would be forced tosend for me.

  This, in fact, was exactly what he did.

  I sat in those abominable stocks for no more than an hour. ThenMadam herself came to me, followed by the negro fellow who hadlocked my heels in those two holes.

  'He is now much worse,' she said. 'He is now in pain that cannot beendured. Canst thou truly relieve his suffering?'

  'Certainly I can. But on conditions. My cousin will die if he isneglected. Suffer me to minister to his needs. Give him what I wantfor him and I will cure your'--I did not know whether I might say'your husband,' so I changed the words into--'my master. After thatI will cheerfully endure again his accursed cruelty of the fields.'

  She bade the negro unlock the bar.

  'Come,' she said. 'Let us hear no more about any bargains. I willsee to it that you are able to attend to your cousin. Nay, thereis an unfortunate young gentlewoman here, a rebel, and a servantlike yourself--for the last week she doth nothing but weep for themisfortunes of her friends--meaning you and your company. I will askher to nurse the sick man. She will desire nothing better, being amost tender-hearted woman. And as for you, it will be easy for youto look after your cousin and your master at the same time.'

  'Then, Madam,' I replied, 'take me to him, and I will speedily doall I can to relieve him.'

  I found my patient in a condition of mind and body most dangerous. Iwondered that he had not already fallen into a fit, so great was hiswrath and so dreadful his pain. He rolled his eyes; his cheeks werepurple; he clenched his fists; he would have gnashed his teeth butfor the pain in his jaws.

  'Make yourself easy,' said Madam. 'This learned physician will causeyour pain to cease. I have talked with him and put him into a bettermind.'

  The master shook his head as much as to say that a better mind wouldhardly be arrived at without the assistance of the whipping-post;but the emergency of the case prevented that indulgence. Briefly,therefore, I took out my lancet and pierced the place, whichinstantly relieved the pain. Then I placed him in bed, bled himcopiously, and forbade his taking anything stronger than small-beer.Freedom from pain and exhaustion presently caused him to fall intoa deep and tranquil sleep. After all this was done I was anxious tosee Robin.

  'Madam,' I said, 'I have now done all I can. He will awake atnoon, I dare say. Give him a little broth, but not much. There isdanger of fever. You had better call me again when he awakes. Warnhim solemnly that rage, revenge, cursing, and beating must be allpostponed until such time as he is stronger. I go to visit my cousinin the sick-house, where I await your commands.'

  'Sir,' she said courteously, 'I cannot sufficiently thank your skilland zeal. You will find the nurse of whom I spoke in the sick-housewith your cousin. She took with her some cordial, and will tellme what else you order for your patient. I hope your cousin mayrecover. But, indeed'----she stopped and sighed.

  'You would say, Madam, that it would be better for him and for usall to die. Perhaps so. But we must not choose to die, but ratherstrive to live, as more in accordance with the Word of God.'

  'The white servants have been hitherto the common rogues and thievesand sweepings of your English streets,' she said. 'Sturdy roguesare they all, who fear naught but the lash, and have nothing oftenderness left but tender skins. They rob and steal; they will notwork, save by compulsion; they are far worse than the negroes forlaziness and drunkennes
s. I know not why they are sent out, or whythe planters buy them, when the blacks do so much better serve theirturn, and they can without reproach beat and flog the negroes, whileto flog and beat the whites is by some accounted cruel.'

  'All this, Madam, is doubtless true: but my friends are not thesweepings of the street.'

  'No, but you are treated as if you were. It is a new thing havinggentlemen among the servants, and the planters are not yetaccustomed to them. They are a masterful and a wilful folk, theplanters of Barbadoes; from childhood upwards they have their ownway, and brook not opposition. You have seen into what a madnessof wrath you threw the master by your opposition. Believe me, Sir,the place is not wholesome for you and for your friends. The masterlooks to get a profit, not from your labour, but by your ransom.Sir'--she looked me very earnestly in the face--'if you have friendsat home--if you have any friends at all--entreat them--commandthem--immediately to send money for your ransom. It will not costthem much. If you do not get the money you will most assuredly die,with the life that you will have to live. All the white servantsdie except the very strongest and lustiest. Whether they work inthe fields, or in the garden, or in the Ingenio, or in the stables,they die. They cannot endure the hot sun and the hard fare. Theypresently catch fever, or a calenture, or a cramp, and so they die.This young gentlewoman who is now with your cousin will presentlyfall into melancholy and die. There is no help for her, or foryou--believe me, Sir--there is no hope but to get your freedom.' Shebroke off here, and never at any other time spoke to me again uponthis subject.

  In three weeks' time, indeed, we were to regain our freedom, but notin the way Madam imagined.

  Before I go on to tell of the wonderful surprise which awaited me,I must say that there was, after this day, no more any questionabout the field-work for me. In this island, then, there was a greatscarcity of physicians; nay, there were none properly qualified tocall themselves physicians, though a few quacks; the sick servantson the estates were attended by the negresses, some of whom have, Iconfess, a wonderful knowledge of herbs--in which respect they maybe likened to our countrywomen, who, for fevers, agues, toothache,and the like, are as good as any physicians in the world. It was,therefore, speedily rumoured abroad that there was a physician uponmy master's estate, whereupon there was immediately a great demandfor his services; and henceforth I went daily, with the master'sconsent, to visit the sick people on the neighbouring estates--nay,I was even called upon by his Excellency the Lieutenant-Governorhimself, Mr. Steed, for a complaint from which he suffered. AndI not only gave advice and medicines, but I also received a feejust as if I had been practising in London. But the fees went tomy master, who took them all, and offered me no better diet thanbefore. That, however, mattered little, because wherever I went Iasked for, and always received, food of a more generous kind, anda glass or two of wine, so that I fared well and kept my healthduring the short time that we remained upon the island. I had alsoto thank Madam for many a glass of Madeira, dish of cocoa, plate offruit, and other things, not only for my patient Robin, but also formyself, and for another, of whom I have now to speak.

  When, therefore, the master was at length free from pain and in acomfortable sleep, I left him, with Madam's permission, and soughtthe sick-house in a most melancholy mood, because I believed thatRobin would surely die, whatever I should do. And I confess that,having had but little experience of sunstroke and the kind offever which followeth upon it, and having no books to consult andno medicine at hand, I knew not what I could do for him. And theboasted skill of the physician, one must confess, availeth littleagainst a disease which hath once laid hold upon a man. 'Tis betterfor him so to order the lives of his patients while they are well asto prevent disease, just as those who dwell beside an unruly river(as I have seen upon the great river Rhone) build up a high levee,or bank, over which it cannot pass.

  In the sick-house the floor was of earth, without boards; there wasno other furniture but two or three wooden beds, on each a coarsemattress with a rug; and all was horribly filthy, unwashed, andfoul. Beside the pallet where Robin lay there knelt, praying, awoman with her head in her hands. Heavens! there was, then, in thisdark and heathenish place one woman who still remembered her Maker!

  Robin was awake. His restless eyes rolled about; his hands clutcheduneasily at his blanket; and he was talking. Alas! the poor brain,disordered and wandering, carried him back to the old village. Hewas at home again in imagination, though we were so far away. Yea;he had crossed the broad Atlantic, and was in fair Somerset, amongthe orchards and the hills. And, only to hear him talk, the tearsrolled down my cheeks.

  'Alice,' he said. Alas! he thought that he was again with the sweetcompanion of his youth. 'Alice; the nuts are ripe in the woods. Wewill to-morrow take a basket and go gather them. Benjamin shall notcome to spoil sport. Besides, he would want to eat them all himself.Humphrey shall come, and you, and I. That will be enough.'

  Then his thoughts changed again. 'Oh! my dear,' he said--in a momenthe had passed over ten years, and was now with his mistress, a childno longer. 'My dear, thou hast so sweet a face. Nowhere in the wholeworld is there so sweet a face. I have always loved thy face; not aday but it has been in my mind--always my love, my sweetheart, mysoul, my life. My dear, we will never leave the country; we want nograndeur of rank, and state, and town; we will always continue here.Old age shall find us lovers still. Death cannot part us, oh! mydear, save for a little while--and then sweet Heaven will unite usagain to love each other for ever, and for ever'----

  'Oh! Robin! Robin! Robin!'

  I knew that voice. Oh! Heavens! was I dreaming? Was I, too,wandering? Were we all back in Somerset?

  For the voice was none other than the voice of Alice herself!