The Admirable Lady Biddy Fane

by Frank Barrett

  CHAPTER LXIV.

  HOW (AMONG OTHER MATTERS), IN SEEKING TO KILL A SNAPPING BOAR, WE FALLUPON AN OLD FRIEND.

  No hearts were more joyful than ours at this escape from that cave ofeternal night (as my lady called it). To us the little stars were asfull of radiance and comfort as the sun of midday, so that we could donaught but feast our eyes for a long while. But we were not unmindful ofour debt to Providence for this deliverance, taking it as a specialmercy that we had been brought out in the night; for the light of daywould have blinded us to a certainty after being plunged so long inimpenetrable darkness, as men eating after starvation do drop dead ofsurfeit.

  Being no more inclined to sleep than a throstle in the morn (for thiswas to us, indeed, rather the break of day than the fall of night), wewent gently down with the stream, which was of a reasonable body,winding awhile amongst rocks, but coming at length to an open country,whence we caught sight of the moon resting on the tops of thosemountains we had passed under, and more fair than ever we had counted itbefore.

  For many days our minds were haunted (as of a dream) with therecollection of those fearful hours under the mountains, and meetingsome friendly Ingas we questioned them about it; but as well as we couldmake out, they knew it only for a mighty den, whence they supposed theriver sprang; but they knew nothing of the issue on the other side, noneever having dared to go beyond a few fathoms of its entrance, because ofthe prodigious darkness and obscurity therein, etc.

  I could write several books of our adventures in descending that riverinto the Baraquan, and so down the Oronoque, if I had the patience; butI have not. For a man can not be forever a-counting of mile-stones, butmust needs (seeing himself near his journey's end) run on amain, takinglittle heed of things of the wayside. And, in truth, having got again onthe broad river, with an easy, free current to bear us onward, andNature above and around smiling upon us encouragement, we openly deemedthat the worst of our troubles were over.

  I say we openly deemed this, but secretly I judged that the worst of mytroubles was to come. For I could no longer blind myself, as I had inthe beginning of our journey, to the fact that in the end we must part.Nay, remembering the terrible shock I had sustained that day in ourcavern, when I thought it possible my dear lady might die of fever, Inow felt it my duty to contemplate our inevitable separation, in orderthat when the time came for our farewell I might bear myself withbecoming fortitude. So every night, when I lay down, I repeated tomyself that awful question, "What should I do without her?" settingmyself to devise some manner of life by which I might reconcile myselfto the will of Providence. In this way I strove to armor myself againstthe sure arrow of adversity.

  Whether Smidmore were alive or dead, as I sometimes guessed he might be,the result must be the same when my lady came again amongst her friendsin England; for there must she resume her condition, and be honored as alady of position, whilst I must ever be plain Benet Pengilly, and a manof the woods. Thus, knowing I must lose her, I begrudged the movement ofthe sun, and saw him set each evening with a profound melancholy,knowing another day was past from the few that were to give mehappiness.

  How I clung to those days, how I strained my senses to catch every wordand gesture of my dear lady's, only they can imagine who have beenwarned by physicians that their dearest friend must surely die ere long.'Twas, indeed, the feeling that had choked me when I believed my dearlady to be dying, only lessened by the hope that after my last hour ofjoy was come, long years of happiness might be her portion.

  We were many weeks--nay, months--on the river, and, as I say, we hadadventures of divers kinds without number: some pleasant, and somedistressful; but, on the whole, my dear lady's health and spirits beingof the best, our journey was prosperous. But as weeks and weeks passedon, it did seem we should never come to the end of this great river andnow we began to grow mighty anxious lest the rains should set in againere we reached the coast of Guiana, which would enforce us to takerefuge from the floods till the season was past. One day we setourselves to calculate how long we had been a-coming from the cave, andwhat time we might yet have for our going; and as near as we couldreckon, rain might be expected in three weeks. But as to our distancefrom the coast, we were without means of calculation, the Ingas on thispart of the river whom we encountered understanding nothing of what wesaid, and showing such hostile spirit as made us chary in seeking themfor information.

  It was our practice of a morning to leave our canoe in the mooring wehad found for it the night before, and go a-hunting in the woods forsuch fruit and game as we required for the day. From one of theseexpeditions we were making our way back to the canoe with nothing butsome fruit, and that none of the best, for we were in an unfavored part,and our eyes on the lookout for any kind of game that might serve ourturn, when my lady, being in advance of me, suddenly came to a stand.

  "I am convinced," says she in a whisper, as I came quickly to her side,"that I saw something leap behind yonder thicket," pointing to a clumpof shrubs about a furlong distant. "Do you go, Benet, to the right,while I make my way to the left, that between us we do not miss ourgame, for I am greatly mistaken if it be not a tayacutirica."[7]

  [Footnote 7: These tayacutiricas are a kind of large snapping boars,very fierce.--B. P.]

  To this I agreed, begging my lady to have a care for her safety, forthese creatures have tusks like any jack-knife; and so we separated,going about to get a fair shot with our arrows at the beast. Now, to getto the further side of the thicket, I must either cross an open space,or round a growth of high shrubs; and as, for lack of provisions, Ifeared greatly to startle our quarry before getting aim, I chose thelatter. Scarce had I got beyond the thicket when I heard a scream that Iknew at once no boar could make, and, fearing my lady had startled somesavage Inga or jagoarete and stood in peril, I drew the sword from mybelt in a twinkling, and leaping out of the scrub into the open rushedtowards the thicket, shouting lustily. But ere I was half across theopen I heard a voice cry out therefrom:

  "Lord love you, master, do me no mischief. 'Tis but your humble servant,Matthew Pennyfarden." And with this, out from the thicket leaps myfaithful friend; but a sight to see, for the rags of clothes thatcovered his nakedness all fastened together with strings of grass inlack of buttons, and a great bush of hair about his head, so that butfor his voice I might not have known him.

  Before I could recover of my astonishment he seizes my hand, and crieshe: "Quick, master, behind these brambles for a refuge, though I fearnever a Portugal in the world now I have you at hand."

  "There be no Portugals here, friend Matthew," says I.

  "There you are wrong," says he; "for I do assure you I spied one of 'emcreeping upon me with a bow, when I sang out in the hope of alarming mymates, and had the good chance to bring you forth. Nay, look you,master; there is the young villain!"

  Then I burst into a good, hearty laugh, for the "young villain" to whomhe pointed was none but my dear lady, who was now running towards us.Then discerning who it was, on spying more closely, my friend Matthewslaps his leg, and cries he:

  "Zookers! 'tis her ladyship, as I might have seen if my eyes had notbeen dimmed with a fever. I beg your pardon a thousand times, madam, inhaving mistaken you for a Portugal. 'Tis not the first time I have fledfrom a female, but 'twould be the last if every one wore thebreeches--saving your presence--to such advantage."

  "Tell me, good friend," says she, cutting short this pleasantry on hercostume, "have you happily found my uncle?"

  "Ay, madam," he replies. "That I did by such good fortune as I shallrelate to you at our leisure; and, sure, I was no happier to find himthan he to be found. I left him hale and hearty at the mouth of theOronoque, where he guards his two ships against the accursed piratesthat practice their villainous calling in those latitudes. His lovingmessages to your ladyship and to your master I can but ill express atthis moment for my own delight in seeing you once more."

  And therewith, as if unable to restrain his affection any longer, hethrew himself u
pon my neck, declaring this was the happiest day of hislife. "For Lord love you, master," says he, "I thought never to haveseen you again; and but for the strategy I have learned of thePortugals, I could not have persuaded my company to persevere in thissearch for you."

  "Where is your company, friend Matthew?" says I.

  "Best part of 'em, master, are dead of disease, or eaten up by wildbeasts," says he with a rueful shake of his head. "Only eleven of us areleft out of twenty-five stout and lusty fellows who left the ships inthe beginning of the summer, and they lie about a mile down the river.'Twas as much as three boats could hold us with our stores andprovisions, when we started; but now a single boat would carry us, forour stores are long since gone, and we are all more or less wasted withprivations and sickness. Only I have contrived to keep a little flesh onmy bones, and that was due to a hope which the rest have long sinceabandoned."

  "Are we still so far from the mouth of this long river?" asks my lady.

  "Nay, madam; not so long but we may hope to get down to it in a fewweeks," says he. "Though I have kept this from my company, lest theyshould insist on returning. We began our journey when the river wasstill swollen with the rains, and we have been for ever a-going up thoserivers that discharge themselves into this, whereof there are scores,and all so alike that no man can tell which is the right but at a guess.Hows'mever, no such trouble shall we have now, for the current must bearus to the sea, and I have taken good note of the way."

  In this, discourse, and much other for which I have no space, we madeour way to the river, and in our canoe speedily dropped down to thatpart where lay the poor remnant of that good company who had braved somuch to find us.