Arrah Neil; or, Times of Old

by G. P. R. James

  CHAPTER XI.

  In a small tavern at Nottingham was a large but low-roofed room, withthe heavy beams, blackened by smoke, almost touching the heads of someof the taller guests; in which, on the night after that of which wehave just spoken, were assembled as many persons as it could wellcontain; and a strange scene of confusion it presented. Hats andfeathers, swords and daggers, pipes and glasses, bottles and plates,big men and little, men of war and men of peace; an atmospherecomposed of smoke, of the fumes of wine, the smell of strong watersand of beer, and the odour of several large pieces of roast meat,together with sounds of innumerable kinds, oaths, cries for thetapster and the boy, loud laughter, low murmurs, the hoarseaccusation, the fierce rejoinder, the sustained discussion, the prosytale, and the dull snore, as well as the half-drunken song, had alltheir place in the apartment, which might well have been supposed thetap-room of the tower of Babel. The house was, in short, a place ofresort for the lower order of Cavaliers, and the hour that at whichthe greater part having supped, were betaking themselves to theirdrink with the laudable determination, then but too common, of leavingthemselves as little wit as possible till the next morning.

  "_Basta, basta!_ It sufficeth!" cried a tall man with a peculiarlyconstructed nose. "I would find the good youth if he were in a hundredHulls. What's Hull to me? or I to Hull? as the poet says. I know, if Ican bring the girl back out of his clutches, where a hundred crownsare to be got. We have open hands amongst us; but mark me, master, ifyou are deceiving me, I will cut your ears off."

  The man whom he addressed was a small, sharp-eyed man, reddish in thehair and pale about the gills; but he answered stoutly, "That's whatyou dare not, Master Barecolt."

  "Dare not!" cried Barecolt, seizing a knife that lay upon the table,and starting up with an ominous look--"Dare not! What is it that Idare not? Now, look you, repeat that word again, and you shall goforth from this room with no more ears than a grinder's cur. Dare not!thou small chandler, I could break you across my knee like a piece ofrotten wood."

  There was some truth in what he said, and the small man felt the forceof that truth, so that he thought it expedient to lower his tone.

  "I meant I would take the law of you if you did," he said; "so no moreof cutting off ears, Master Barecolt, for we have sharp justices inNottingham. But what I said is very true. I know old Dry very well;have known him, indeed, these twelve years. When first he used to cometo Hull to buy goods of the Hamburghers, I had a shop there, where heused to stop and take a glass of cinnamon now and then. But he hasgrown a great man now, and would hardly notice an old acquaintance,especially as he was riding with men of war."

  "And you are sure he had a woman with him?" asked Barecolt, resuminghis seat and filling his glass.

  "A sort of girl, mayhap some sixteen years of age," answered hiscompanion. "She looked somewhat rueful too, with her eyes cast downupon the ground as she rode along."

  "That's she," replied Barecolt; "'tis beyond all doubt. What does thedried herring at Hull, I wonder? Let me see. It would take somethreescore men to capture Hull, I doubt?"

  "Threescore!" exclaimed the other; "some thirty thousand, you mean."

  Barecolt gave him a look of unutterable contempt. "Four petards," hesaid, continuing his own calculations in an under tone, "for the outergate, the bridge, the inner gate, and one to spare, ha! threescoremen--half must be musketeers. Well, there is Hughes's company. I willdo it."

  "You had better not try," answered his companion. "I could tell you amuch better plan, if you would strike a bargain in an honest way, andgive me half the reward for finding this young woman, as you say thereare great folks looking after her."

  "Half the reward, thou little Carthagenian!" exclaimed Barecolt. "Bymy faith! if you have half the reward, you shall have the danger too;and a quarter of it would turn your liver as white as a hen pigeon's."

  "Why, I will save you all danger, if you will listen to me," answeredthe small gentleman. "I will tell you my plan, and you shall judge,and whatever risk there is, I will share readily enough. I know allthe houses that Dry frequents in Hull; all his haunts, from the storewhere he used to buy dried beef and neats' tongues salted, to the shopwhere he used to take the fourth glass of strong waters. If you willput off your swagger and your feathers, clothe yourself like aPuritan, and walk demurely, we will take two companions, slip intoHull with a couple of horse-loads of drapery, find out where MasterDry lodges, and while I busy him with a little speculation in his ownway, by which I can easily make him believe that he will fill hispockets, you can deal with the girl, and get her out of the city."

  "Clothe myself like a puritan!" said Barecolt, thoughtfully, "that isthe only difficult part of the affair; for unless I steal old MajorRandal's suit of black, where I am to get a pious doublet I know not.The fifty crowns Lord Walton gave me have been spent on this newbravery, and sundry pottle pots, together with things that shall benameless, friend Tibbets; but, by my faith! I will go and ask the goodlord for more. He will not grudge the pistoles if we can get MistressArrah back again to him. He's as fond of her as a hen of her chickens,yet all in honour, Master Tibbets, all in honour, upon my life. I willgo this minute, as soon as I have finished this pint;" and again hefilled his glass, and drained it at a draught.

  He then rose from his seat, and was in the act of saying, "Wait herefor me, and I will be back in a minute," when an officer was seendimly through the smoke, entering by the door on the other side of theroom. After gazing round for a moment, from table to table, heexclaimed aloud, "Is one Captain Barecolt here? He is wanted by theking."

  "I knew it?" cried Barecolt, giving a towering look at Master Tibbets."I was sure of it--my great services, sir, my name is Barecolt, andyour very humble servant."

  The officer gazed at him with a look of some consideration andsurprise. "My good friend," he said, "you seem scarcely fit to obeythe king's summons. You have been drinking."

  "So does his majesty, I wot, when he thirsty," replied Barecolt,nothing abashed; "but if it be of proportions you speak, if it bequantity which makes the difference, I will soon remedy the amount ofwine within, by the application of water without. I am not drunk, sir;I never was drunk in my life. No, sir, nor was I ever the worse forliquor, as it is termed, though often much the better for it. Butwhenever I find my eyes a little misty, and see a fringe round thecandles, or feel the floor move in an unusual manner, or the cupsdance without any one touching them, I have a secret for remedyingsuch irregularities, which secret lies, like truth, in the bottom of awell. Hold, Tapster! I have drunk wine enough to-night to justify mein calling for water, even in a tavern. Tapster, I say, get me abucket of cold water from the pump, and put it down before the door,then bring a napkin to take off the superfluous. I remember when I wasin the Palatinate going to see the great tun----"

  "Sir, we have no time for tales," said the officer drily; "the kingwaits. Make yourself as sober as you can, and as speedily aspossible."

  "Sir, I am with you in an instant," rejoined Barecolt. "MasterTibbets, wait here till I come back. You can finish the tankard forme; it is paid for."

  Thus saying, he went forth, and returned in a few minutes, buttoningup his collar, with his scattered hair somewhat dishevelled anddripping; and, saying he was ready, he followed the officer, makinganother sign to Tibbets to wait for his return.

  "Who is that fellow?"

  "What the devil can the king want with him?"

  "Why, it's Captain Barecolt, of Randal's."

  "I think the king might have chosen a better man."

  "That's a lie. There is not a better man in the service."

  "He's a bragging fool."

  "I dare say a coward too."

  "No, no, no coward, for all his brags."

  Such were some of the observations which followed Barecolt's departurewith the officer, while they wended on their way through the streetsof Nottingham to the king's lodging, whither we shall take leave tofollow them. The style and semblance
of a court was kept up long afterthe royal authority was gone; and in the first room which Barecoltentered were a number of servants and attendants. Beyond that was avacant chamber, and then a small anteroom, in which a pale boy, in apage's dress, sat reading by a lamp. He looked up, as the captain andhis conductor appeared, but did not offer to move till the officertold him to go in, and say to his majesty, that Captain Barecolt wasin attendance; on which he rose, opened a door opposite, and knockedat a second, which appeared within. Voices were heard speaking; and,after a moment's pause, the boy repeated the signal, when the door wasopened, and he made the announcement.

  "Let him wait," was the reply; and for about twenty minutes the worthycaptain remained, his head getting each moment cooler, and freer fromthe fumes of the wine; but his fancy only became the more active andrampant, and running away with him over the open plain of possibility,without the slightest heed of whither she was carrying her rider.Having already given the reader a sample of her doings with CaptainBarecolt in a preceding chapter, we will spare him on the presentoccasion, especially as it would take much more time to recount hervagaries in the good gentleman's brain that it did for her to enactthem.

  At length the door opened, and a voice pronounced the words, "CaptainBarecolt!" at which sound the captain advanced and entered, notwithout some trepidation, for there is something in majesty, even whenshorn of its beams, that is not to be lightlied by common men.

  The king was seated at a table in a small room, with lights and papersbefore him, and three or four gentlemen were standing round, of whomBarecolt knew but one, even by sight. That one was the Earl ofBeverley, who, with a packet of letters in his hand, stood a littlebehind and on the right of the king. The monarch wore his hat andplume, and the full light was shining on his fine melancholy features,which looked more sad rather than more cheerful for a faint smile thatwas passing over his lip. His fair right hand lay upon the table, withthe fingers clasped round a roll of papers, upon which they closed andopened more than once, while Barecolt advanced to the end of the tablewith a low bow; and the monarch gazed at him attentively for a fewmoments.

  "Your name is Barecolt?" asked the king at length.

  "It is, may it please your majesty," replied the captain. "You havebeen much in France, I think?" continued Charles.

  "Many years, sire," answered the soldier, "and speak the language asmy own."

  "Good!" said the king. "With what parts of the country are you mostacquainted?"

  "With all parts, your majesty," rejoined the captain, who wasbeginning to recover his loquacity, which had been somewhat checked bythe first effect of the king's presence. "I have been in the north,sire, where I fought against Fuentez; and I have travelled all overthe ground round Paris. I know every part of Picardy and the Isle ofFrance. Normandy, too, I have run through in every direction, andcould find my way from Caudabec to Alen?on with my eyes blindfolded.Poitou and Maine I am thoroughly conversant with; and know all thetowns on the Loire and in the Orleannois, the passes of the Cevennes,the Forez, and the Vivarais."

  But Charles waved his hand, saying, "Enough! enough! Now, tell me, ifyou were landed on the coast of Normandy, say at Pont au-de-Mer, andhad to make your way secretly to Paris, what course would you take?"

  "Please your majesty, Pont au-de-Mer is not a seaport," repliedBarecolt. The king smiled, and Barecolt continued, "I know it well,and a pretty little town it is, upon the Rille."

  "Well, well," said the king; "suppose you were landed at Harfleur,then, I did but wish to try you, sir, how would you direct your coursefor Paris from Harfleur?"

  "If I were to go secretly, may it please your majesty," was the reply,"I do not think I should go near Pont au-de-Mer at all, for then Imust pass through Rouen, where they are cute and cunning, ask allsorts of questions, and look to passes sharply. No; I would rathertake a little round by Lisieux, Evreux, and Pacy, or perhaps, keepstill farther out from the Seine, and come upon Paris by Dreux,Pontchartrain, and Versailles. Then they would never suspect one camefrom the sea-side."

  The king slowly nodded his head with a satisfied air, saying, "I seeyou know what you speak of, my friend. My Lord of Beverley, this willdo. If you wish to ask him any more questions before you trustyourself to his guidance, pray do so."

  "Oh no, sire," replied the earl; "I satisfied myself by myconversation with Major Randal, before I spoke with your majesty onthe subject. He assures me that Captain Barecolt knows France well,and I have had cause to be aware that he is a serviceable companion inmoments of danger. There is but one bad habit, which I trust CaptainBarecolt will lay aside for the time: that is, too much talking. I amgoing, sir, to Paris, on business of importance. The road that I knowis not now open to me, and I have need of one to accompany me who iswell acquainted with the country through which I have to pass. By hismajesty's permission, and on Major Randal's recommendation, I havechosen you, sir, for a service which will be rewarded as according asit is well performed. But you must recollect that the least whisperthat I am not what I seem may prove my ruin, though it can benefit noother party, as it is to avoid sending despatches that I go myself."

  "You need not be afraid, my lord," replied Barecolt; "for, though I ama soldier of fortune, yet it has ways been my rule to stick to thecause I first espouse till my engagement be up. If I do sell myself tothe best bidder, as soon as I have touched a crown the market is over.I am no more for sale. The goods are disposed of; and if I were to goover to the enemy even for an hour, I should look upon it that I wasstealing myself a sort of _felo de se_ in the code of honour, which Inever did, and never will be guilty of. Then, as for discretion, mylord, I declare upon my word, that all the time I am with you I willnot utter one syllable of truth. I will be all one tall lie, savinghis majesty's presence. You shan't have to accuse me of speaking truthindiscreetly, depend upon it."

  "But speaking too much at all, Master Barecolt, may do as much harm,"replied Lord Beverley: "a lie is a difficult thing to manage."

  "For those who are not accustomed to it, my lord," replied Barecolt,with a low bow; "but I am experienced, sir and owe my life some twentytimes over to a well-managed fiction. Oh a clumsy lie is a hatefulthing, not to be tolerated amongst gentlemen; and a timid lie is stillworse, for it shows cowardice; but a good bold falsehood, wellsupported and dexterously planted, is as good as a battery at anytime."

  "Not a very creditable sort of weapon," said the king, with a gravebrow. "But enough of this, sir. Where to deceive an enemy in openstrife, to gain a mighty object, such as security, or conceal one'sneedful proceedings from the eyes of those who have no right to pry,is the end proposed, some palliation may be found, perhaps, for adeviation from the strict truth. Would it were not sometimesnecessary!" he added, looking round, as if doubtful of the approval ofall present; "but, at all events, to speak unnecessary untruths is asdangerous as it is foolish, and as foolish as it is wicked."

  "May it please your majesty," answered Barecolt, whose self-confidencehad now fully returned, "what your majesty says is quite just; butsome of these necessary lies I suppose we must tell from thebeginning. Neither I nor my lord the earl, I take it, must pass for anEnglishman, or there will be no more secrecy. We must both say we areFrenchmen, or Dutchmen, or Italians--a good big falsehood to commencewith."

  Lord Beverley laughed. "I am afraid, sire," he observed, "we must sayno more upon the subject, or we shall have a strange treatise uponethics; but, however, as we go across the country to embark, I willendeavour to drill my friend here to use his tongue as little as maybe, so that we shall be spared more fraud than is needful. I will nowtake my leave of your majesty, having received my instructions, and bydaybreak to-morrow I will be on my way. May God graciously speed yourmajesty's cause during my absence!" Thus saying, he bent one knee, andkissed Charles's hand, and then, making a sign to Barecolt to follow,he quitted the presence.

  "Now, Master Barecolt," said the earl, as soon as they were in thestreet, "I know you are a man of action. Be with me by four to-morrow.There
is something for your preparations;" and he put a small butheavy leathern bag in his hand, adding, "That is all that is neededfor a soldier, I know."

  "Good faith! I must speak with Lord Walton before I go," answeredBarecolt, "though it be somewhat late."

  "Well, then, come quick," replied the earl; and he led the way to thelodging of his friend, where, while Barecolt entertained the youngnobleman for near an hour in the room below, Lord Beverley passed somesweet, though parting moments with bright Annie Walton; and when heleft her, her cheek was glowing and her eyelids moist with tears.