Shrewsbury: A Romance

by Stanley John Weyman

  CHAPTER XXXV

  Rightly has the Latin poet sung of the _dura ilia_ of the Fates, whoeither resistless rout all human resolutions, or, where the mind hasbeen hardened to meet the attack, turn the poor wretch's flank, andlo! while he squares his shield, and shortens his spear to meet theoccasion, _habet_--he has it under the fifth rib.

  So it was with me. While I dreamed of resistance, and would harden myheart and set fast my feet, fate cross-buttocked me; and I fell, notknowing. The Countess's coach bore me away, unresisting; and Smith,whom I hated as I never hated even Ferguson, gave me the word. From myplain clothes, to the long curled peruke, the cravat, ruffles, andfine suit in which I had once before paraded myself, was but a step; Itook it perforce, and being conducted, when I was ready, into theCountess's chamber, to wait her pleasure, could have fancied the lastsix months a dream--could have fancied the conspirators still at work,Captain Barclay still pacing the Piazza, my lord still a stranger tome, the library a vision; in a word, I could have fancied all thoseevents, which had filled half a year, to be no more than creatures ofthe imagination, so unchanged was the great silent room, where mylady, while I waited, played piquet with Monterey, amid thegorgeousness of her rose-and-silver suite.

  The monkey gibbered as of old, and the parrot vied with the broideredparrots on the wall; and now, as then, the air was heavy with scentand musk, while the light, cunningly arranged, fell on the part wherethe Countess sat, now grumbling and now swearing, or now, while thecards were dealing, thumping the floor impatiently with her stick. Shehad so perfectly the grand air of a past generation, that when her eyeturned in my direction I trembled, and thought no more of resistance;yet when she resumed the game, she gradually--and more and morecompletely, as I watched--sank into a querulous, feeble, fierce oldwoman, whose passion, where it did not terrify, moved to derision, andwhose fads and fancies, as patent as the day, placed her at the mercyof all who cared to flatter or cozen her.

  Madame was about it now; letting her win, and again gaining a slightadvantage; mingling hints at old vanities and conquests (whereat mylady grew garrulous) with new scandals, coarse and spiteful; whining alittle when my lady, in a fury caused by a bad hand, struck her acrossthe face with a fan to teach her to be awkward, but cheering up atonce when the Countess's mood changed with the cards. In a word, asshe had betrayed me young, she cozened my lady old; but seeing herfeatures grown hard with time, and her eyes grown lifeless, and thedevil grinning more plainly from behind the mask, that once had beenso fair, it was a wonder to me that even the Countess was deceived.

  Presently my lady threw down her cards in a rage, and calling heropponent a cheating slut, proceeded to turn her anger on me.

  "What is the gaby doing, standing there like a gawk?" she shrieked."Why is he not about his business?"

  Monterey whispered her that I had not had my instructions.

  "Then give them, and let him go!" she cried. "Where is the ring? Here,you daw in peacock's feathers--like my son, indeed? About as like asthat squinting vixen Villiers is to a beauty! Take that, and ride withMatthew Smith, and give it to the gentleman you will meet at the innat Ashford, and say--Monterey, tell him what to say."

  "Say, 'Colonel Talbot sends this ring, and his service.' And if thegentleman asks 'Whither?' or this, or that, to whatever he asks,answer thus: 'I am not here. Sir John, to answer questions. Favour meby conveying that ring and my services whither you are going. I do nottalk, but when the time comes I shall act.'"

  "_C'est tout!_" said the Countess, nodding approval. "If you are notman enough to repeat that, whip you for a noodle! Say it, man."

  But when I went to say it, first I could not remember it, and brokedown; and then when, my lady storming at me for a fool and animbecile, I had got the sentences into my head, I but whimpered them,bringing no heart to the task. My lady, when she saw that, flew out atme afresh, and threw first the vapours bottle and then her cane at me,which, breaking a piece of china, put her fairly beside herself. "Comehere!" she shrieked, swaying to and fro in her chair. "Do you hear,you puling, psalm-singing canter? Come here, I say!" And when,trembling and scared, I had approached, she leant forward, and seizinghold of my ear, as Ferguson had once seized it, she twisted it withsuch unexpected strength and spite that I roared with pain, and fairlyfell on my knees beside her.

  "There is for you, _gros cochon!_" she cried. "So you _can_ speak upwhen you like! Now go to the end of the room, my man, and play yourpart again, and play it better! Or, by ----, I will have up those whoshall lash your back to the bone. Hoity toity! These are fine times,when scum like you, my lad, put on airs!"

  This was not the discipline, nor were these the threats, to give anactor courage; but in sheer desperation, I spoke up, and, this time,had the good fortune to please her; and, Monterey mocking me, andpushing me this way and that, I went through my part a dozen times. Atlength the Countess expressed herself satisfied, and with a grim nod,and an "Odds my life, he is not so unlike, after all!" gave me leaveto go. But when I was half way to the door, she called me back, andafter I had timidly obeyed, she sat awhile, glowering at me insilence. At last, "No," she said irritably, "it is too late!" and shestruck on the floor with her stick. "It is too late to turn back! Thecross devil did nothing but thwart me to-day, and what he will not do_bon gre_, he shall do perforce. He has brought it on himself, and hemust abide his _destin!_ Yet--Monterey!"

  The woman was at her side in a moment. "Yes, madam!"

  "I suppose that there is no danger of a _contretemps_," she said,stirring restlessly in her chair. "Sir John will get away? They willnot take him, and find the ring on him--and learn whose it is?"

  On that, if I had been quick, and had had both wits and courage atcommand, I should have thrown myself at her feet; and so I might haveopened her eyes. But I wavered, and before I had found heart to do it,the waiting-woman, smooth and watchful, was in the breach.

  "Ashford, my lady, is only three hours' riding from Dymchurch in theMarsh," she said, "where the boat waits for him to-morrow night. SirJohn is well mounted, and it will be odd, if, after baffling pursuitfor months, he should be taken in that time."

  "Yes, yes!" my lady said querulously. "Let him go! Let him go! Thoughyou are a fool to boot. A man is taken or not taken in less than threehours. Even now, if that contrary devil of a son of mine had notargued with me, and argued with me to-day--but, let him go! Let himgo!"

  The woman lost no time in taking her at her word, and hurrying me out;not by the main entrance through which I had come in, but by thelittle side door, leading to the dingy closet at the head of theprivate staircase. In the closet a bright, unshaded lamp burned on thedusty table, and beside it stood Matthew Smith, wearing a cloak,riding-boots, and a great flapped hat. He looked eagerly at the woman,his eyes shining in the glare of the lamp; but he did not speak untilshe had closed the door behind her. Then, "Is it right?" he whispered.

  She nodded.

  "You have got the ring?"

  She gave it to him with a smile of triumph.

  He looked at it, and with a grim face slipped it into his pocket."Good," he said, "and now, my friend, the sooner we are away, thebetter."

  But my gorge rose. On the table beside him, in the full glare of thelamp, lay a cloak and holsters, a mask, sword, and riding-whip. I knewwhat these objects meant, and for whom they were prepared; and at theprospect of the plunge into the dark night, of the journey, and theperils of the unknown road, I cried out that I would not go! Iwould not go! And I tried to force my way back into the Countess'sroom--with what intention heaven knows.

  But Smith whipped between me and the door. "You fool!" he said,pushing me back. "Are you mad? Or don't you know me yet?" "I know youtoo well!" I cried, beside myself with rage, and with apprehensions ofthe plunge on the brink of which I stood. "You have cursed me from thefirst day I saw you at Ware! You have been the curse of my life! You,and that Jezebel!"

  SHE CAME A STEP NEARER TO ME, AND PEERED AT ME]

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bsp; "Are you mad?" he said again; and threatened me with his hand.

  But she came a step nearer to me, and peered at me; and after one looktook the lamp from the table and held it to my face. "At Ware?" shesaid. "At Ware?" And then, putting the lamp back on the table, shefell to laughing. "He is right!" she said. "I know him now. But youtold me that his name was Taylor."

  "Taylor?" he said wrathfully. "So it is; and Price, and half a dozenother names, for all I know. What does it matter what his name is?"

  "Oh, it matters very much," she said, affecting to ogle me in anexaggerated fashion. "He is an old flame of mine. His face alwaysbrought something to my mind--but I thought that it was his likenessto the Duke."

  He cursed her old flames, and the Duke. And then, "What does it mean?"he said. "Who is he?"

  "He is the lad we left at Ware--in the old woman's room," sheanswered, her voice sinking, and growing almost soft. "Lord! it seemsso long ago, it might have happened in another life! You remember him.Matt? You saw him with me at The Rose one night? The first night I sawyou?"

  He looked at me, long and strangely. "And what does it mean?" he saidat last, scowling between wonder and suspicion.

  She shrugged her shoulders. "_Sais pas!_" she answered. "Ask him!"

  "You ruined me once!" I cried. "And he saved me! And now you wouldhave me ruin him. You are devils, you are! Devils! But I defy you!"

  He did not answer, but continued to stare at me; as if he discerned orsuspected that there was more in this than appeared on the surface. Atlength the woman laughed, and he turned to her, rage in his face. "Isee nothing to laugh at," he said.

  "But I do!" she answered pertly. "You three all mixed up! It wouldmake a cat laugh my lad."

  He cursed her. "Have done with that!" he said fiercely. "And say, whatis to be done?"

  "Done?" she answered briskly, and in a tone of genuine surprise. "Why,that which was to be done. What difference does this make?"

  But he looked at her, pondering darkly, as if it did make adifference. I suppose that somewhere, deep down in his nature, therelurked a grain of superstition, which found in this singularcoincidence, this sudden stringing together of persons long parted, anevil omen. Or it may be that he had still some scrap of conscienceleft, that, seared and deadened as it was, stirred and started at thisstrange upheaval of an old crime. At any rate, "I don't know," hegrowled at last. "I don't like it, and that is flat. There is somepractice in this."

  "There is a fool in it," she answered naively. "And there are like tobe two!"

  I thought to back him up, and I braced myself against the wall, towhich I had retired. "I won't go!" I said doggedly. "I will call forhelp in the streets, first!"

  "You will do as you are told," she answered coolly. "And you," shecontinued to Smith in a voice of stinging scorn, "are you going togive it up now, when all is safe? Will you stand to my lord as thispoor silly fellow stands to you? Have you waited for years for yourrevenge--to move aside now? Why, my G--d! the Duke is worth ten ofyou. He is a man, at any rate. He is----"

  "Peace, girl," he cried, with I know not what of menace in his tone.

  "Then, will you go?"

  "Yes, I will go!" he answered between his teeth. "But by heaven, youslut, if ill comes of it, I will wring your neck! I will, so help meheaven! You shall deceive no other man! If there is practice of yoursin this, if this tool is here by your connivance----"

  "He is not!" she answered. "Be satisfied."

  Apparently he was satisfied, for he drew a deep breath, and stoodsilent. She turned to me. "Get ready," she said sharply.

  "No," I muttered, summoning all my resolution. "I shall not go. I--Ihave not----"

  Smith turned to me, and the refusal died on my lips. The struggle withthe woman had roused the man's passions; and I read in his eyes such aglare of ferocity as chilled my blood and unstrung my knees. Nor wasthat all; for when I went, trembling, to take the cloak, "One moment,"he said grimly, "not so fast, my friend. Let us understand one anotherbefore we start. Mr. Price or Mr. Taylor or whatever your name is,take note, do you hear me, of three things? One, that the business weare on is life or death. Do you grasp that?"

  I muttered a shuddering assent.

  "Secondly," he continued, with the same gruesome civility, "my handwill never be more than six inches from the butt of a pistol, until Isee this home again. Do you grasp that?"

  I nodded.

  "Thirdly, at the least sign of treachery or disobedience on your part,I blow out your brains first, and my own afterwards, if that benecessary. Do you grasp that?"

  I nodded.

  "That is especially well," he said. "Because the last item isimportant to you. On the other hand, Mr. Price, play honest John withme, and in forty-eight hours you shall be back in your master's house,free and safe; and I shall trouble you no more. Do you understandthat?"

  I said I did; my teeth chattering, and my eyes seeking to evade his.

  "Then, now, yon may get into those things," he said. "And do you ridewhen I bid you, and halt when I bid you, and speak when I say speak,and be silent when I say be silent--do those four things, I say, andyou will die in your bed. They are all I ask."

  I stooped, shaking all over, to take up the boots. "Heart up, pretty!"cried the woman, with an odd laugh that broke off short with a sort ofquaver. "It is clear that you are not born to be hanged. And for therest----"

  "Peace, peace, wench," said Smith impatiently. "And dress him."