by John Buchan
As his mind grasped the gist of the thing, a flush crept over his face and he felt the beat of his heart quicken. Here was news, tremendous news. The West was rising, careless of a preliminary English victory, and waiting only the arrival of the Prince at some convenient rendezvous. There were ten thousand men and half a million of money in these lists, and they were not all. Beaufort was still to come, and Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire, and the Welsh south-west. The young man’s eyes kindled, and then grew a little dim. He saw the triumph of his Prince, and the fulfilment of his dreams, for the war would no longer be a foreign invasion but a rising of Englishmen. He remembered Midwinter’s words, “You can win only by enlisting Old England.” It looked as if it had been done. . . . He saw now why Kyd must linger in the south. He was the conduit pipe of a vital intelligence which must go to the Prince by the swiftest means, for on it all his strategy depended. He himself would carry this budget, and for the others Kyd had doubtless made his own plans. Even now Lancashire would be up, and Cheshire stirring. . . .
The kitchen door was flung open with a violence which startled three topers left by the table. A lantern wavered in the doorway, and in front of it a square-set man in fustian stumped into the place. He carried a constable’s stave in one hand and in the other a paper. Behind him a crowd followed, among which might be recognised the mummers of the evening, notably the one whose bandaged face bore witness to the strength of Mr Samuel Johnson’s fist.
The constable marched up to the hearth.
“By these ‘ere presents I lays ‘old on the bodies of two suspected pussons, to wit one Muck Lane, a Scotchman, and one Johnson, a schoolmaster, they being pussons whose doings and goings and comings are contrairy to the well-bein’ of this ‘ere realm and a danger to the peace of our Lord the King.”
The mention of himself by name showed Alastair that this was no affair of village spy-hunters, but a major peril. In his hand he still held the packet addressed to Kyd. Were he searched it might be damning evidence; moreover he had already the best part of the intelligence therein contained in his head. Mr Johnson, who was chilly, had just flung on more logs and the fire blazed high. Into the red heart of it went the paper and, since the tutor’s bulky figure was between him and the door, the act was not noticed by the constable and his followers.
“What whim of rascality is this?” asked Mr Johnson, reaching for a stout oak stick which he had propped in a corner.
“A very troublesome whim for you,” said a voice. “The constable holds a warrant issued by Squire Thicknesse for the arrest of two Jacobite emissaries traced into this village.”
“Ay,” said the constable, “‘ee’d better come quiet, for Squire ‘ave sent a brave lot o’ keepers and stable lads to manhandle ‘ee if ‘ee don’t. My orders is to carry ‘ee to the Manor and lock ‘ee up there till such time as ‘ee can be sent to Brumming’am.”
“Arrant nonsense,” cried Johnson. “I’m a better subject of His Majesty than any rascal among you, and so, I doubt not, is my friend. Yet so great is our veneration for the laws of England, that we will obey this preposterous summons. Take me to your Squire, but be warned, every jack of you, that if a man lays his hand on me I will fell him to the earth.”
“And I say likewise,” said Alastair, laying a significant hand on his sword.
The constable, who had no great stomach for his duty, was relieved by his prisoners’ complaisance, and after some discussion with his friend announced that no gyves should be used if they consented to walk with the Squire’s men on both sides of them. Alastair insisted on having his baggage brought with him, which was duly delivered to one of the Manor’s grooms by a silent landlady; Mr Johnson carried his slender outfit in his pockets. The landlord did not show himself. But at the inn door, before the Manor men closed up, a figure pressed forward from the knot of drunken onlookers, and Alastair found his sleeve plucked and the face of Brother Gilly’s messenger beside him.
“I’ve been mistook, maister. ‘Ee bain’t the Dook’s man, not the one I reckoned. Gimme back the letter.”
“It’s ashes now. Tell that to him that sent you. Say the letter’s gone, but the news travels forward in a man’s head.”
The messenger blinked uncomprehendingly and then made as if to repeat his request, but a sudden rush of merrymakers, hungry for a fresh spectacle, swept him down the street. Presently the escort was clear of the village and tramping through a black aisle of trees. Someone lit a lantern, which showed the mattress of chestnut leaves underfoot and the bare branches above. The keepers and stable-boys whistled, and Mr Johnson chanted aloud what sounded like Latin hexameters. For him there was no discomfort in the adventure save that on a raw night it removed him from a warm fireside.
But for Alastair the outlook was grave. Here was he arrested by a booby constable on the warrant of some Justice Shallow, but arrested under his own name. He had passed secretly from Scotland to Cornbury, and but for the party at the latter place and one strange fellow on Otmoor, no one had known that name. Could the news have leaked out from the Cornbury servants? But, even then, he was not among the familiar figures of Jacobitism, and he had but just come from France. Only Lord Cornbury knew his true character, and Lord Cornbury did not talk. Yet someone with full knowledge of his past and present had tracked him to this village, a place far from any main highway to the North.
What he feared especially was delay. Unless Cornbury bore witness against him, or the man from Otmoor, the law had no evidence worth a farthing. Hearsay and suspicion could not hang him. He would play the part of the honest traveller now returning from an Oxfordshire visit, and if needs be he would refer to Queensberry’s business. But hearsay and suspicion could delay. He was suddenly maddened by the thought that some bumbling Justice might detain him in these rotting midlands when the Prince was crossing Ribble. And he had to get north with the news of the Welsh recruiting! At the thought he bit his lips in a sharp vexation.
They passed through gates into a park where the trees fell back from the road, and presently were in a flagged courtyard with a crack of light showing from a door ajar. It opened and a portly butler filled it.
“You will await his honour in the Justice Room,” he announced, and the prisoners swung to the right under an archway into another quadrangle.
The Justice Room proved to be a bare apartment, smelling strongly of apples, with a raised platform at one end and on the floor a number of wooden forms arranged like the pens at a sheep fair. On the platform stood a large handsome arm-chair covered in Spanish leather, and before it a small table. The butler entered by a door giving on the platform, and on the table placed a leather-bound book and on the chair a red velvet cushion.
“Exit the clerk, enter the preacher,” said Johnson.
The servant, bowing profoundly, ushered in a tall gentleman in a suit of dark-blue velvet, with a fine lace cravat falling over a waistcoat of satin and silver. The gentleman might have been fifty years of age by the lines round his mouth, but his cherubic countenance was infantine in contour, and coloured, by hunting or the bottle, to an even pink. He had clearly been dining well, for he plumped down heavily in the chair and his eye was as blue and vacant as a frosty sky. When he spoke it was with the careful enunciation of one who is not in a condition to take liberties with the English tongue.
“Makin’ so bold, your honour,” said the constable, “them ‘ere’s the prisoners as is named in your honour’s worshipful warrant.”
His honour nodded. “What the devil do you want me to do, Perks?” he asked.
The mummer with the broken head, who had become mysteriously one of the party, answered.
“Lock ‘em up for to-night, Squire Thicknesse, and to-morrow send ‘em to Birmingham with a mounted escort. It’s political business, and no matter of poaching or petty thieving.”
“I require that the charge be read,” said Johnson.
Squire Thicknesse took up a paper, looked at it with aversion, and gazed round him helplessly. “Wh
ere the devil is my clerk?” he lamented. “Gone feasting to Flambury, I’ll warrant. I cannot read this damned crabbed hand.”
“Let me be your clerk, Nunkie dear.”
A girl had slipped through the door, and now stood by the chair looking over the Squire’s shoulder. She was clearly very young, for her lips had the pouting fullness and her figure the straight lines of a child’s, and her plain white gown and narrow petticoats had a nursery simplicity. The light was bad, and Alastair could not note the details, seeing only a glory of russet hair and below it a dimness of pearl and rose. On that much he was clear, and on the bird-like charm of her voice.
The effect of the vision on Johnson was to make him drive an elbow into Alastair’s ribs and to murmur in what was meant for a whisper: “That is my lady. That is the dear child.”
The sharp young eyes had penetrated the gloom below the platform.
“Why, Nunkie, there is a face I know. Heavens! It is our tutor from Chastlecote. Old Puffin we called him, for he puffs like my spaniel. A faithful soul, Nunkie, but at times oppressive. What can he want so far from home?”
The mummer, who seemed to have assumed the duties of prosecution, answered:
“The man Johnson is accused of being act and part with the other in conspiracy against His Majesty’s throne.”
The girl’s laughter trilled through the place. “Oh, what delectable folly! Mr Samuel a conspirator! He is too large and noisy, Nunkie, and far, far too much of a sobersides. But give me the paper and I will be your clerk.”
With disquiet and amazement Alastair listened to the record. His full name was set down and his rank in King Louis’ service. His journey into Oxfordshire was retailed, and its purpose, but the name of Cornbury was omitted. Then followed his expedition into Wales, with special mention of Wynnstay, and last his urgent reasons for returning north. Whoever had compiled the indictment was most intimately informed of all his doings. His head swam, for the thing seemed starkly incredible, and the sense of having lived unwittingly close to a deadly foe affected him with something not far from fear.
“What do you say to that?” Squire Thicknesse asked.
“That it is some foolish blunder. You have laid hold on the wrong man, sir, and I admit no part of it except the name, which is mine, and, with deference, as ancient and unsmirched as your honour’s. No single fact can be adduced to substantiate these charges.”
“They will be abundantly proven.” The mummer’s voice croaked ominous as a raven’s.
The charge against Johnson proved to be much flimsier, and was derided by the girl. “I insist that you straightly discharge my Mr Samuel,” she cried. “I will go bail for his good behaviour, and to-morrow a servant shall take him back to Chastlecote. He is too innocent to be left alone. The other—”
“He says he is an agent of the Duke of Queensberry,” said the relentless mummer. “I can prove him to be a liar.”
The girl was apparently not listening. Her eyes had caught Alastair’s and some intelligence seemed to pass from them to his. She spoke a word in the Squire’s ear and then looked beyond the prisoners to the mummer.
“My uncle, who is known for his loyalty to the present Majesty, will take charge of the younger prisoner and send him safe to-morrow to Birmingham. The other he will discharge. . . . That is your will, Nunkie?”
The Squire nodded. He was feeling very sleepy and at the same time very thirsty, and his mind hovered between bed and a fresh bottle.
“You may go home now, friends,” she said, “and sweet dreams to you. You, constable, bring the two men to the Great Hall.” Then she slipped an arm inside her uncle’s. “My Mr Sam shall sup in the buttery and have a bed from Giles. Tomorrow we will find him a horse. You are a wise judge, Nunkie, and do not waste your wisdom on innocents. The other man looks dangerous and must be well guarded. Put him in the Tower garret, and give Giles the key. But first let the poor creature have bite and sup, if he wants it. He has the air of a gentleman.”
As Alastair walked before the staff of the constable, who wielded it like an ox-goad, his mind was furiously busy at guessing the source of the revelations in the warrant. Not till they stood in the glow of the hall lights did the notion of Kyd’s servant come to him by the process of exhausting other possibilities. But the man had set off with Kyd early that morning for the South from a place forty miles distant. It was a naked absurdity, but nevertheless he asked Johnson the question, “Where did you see the serving man who took your horse at Cornbury?”
The answer staggered him. “This very day at the gate of this place about an hour after noon.”
As his perturbed gaze roamed round the hall he caught again the eye of the girl, looking back with her foot on the staircase. This time there could be no mistake. Her face was bright with confidential friendliness.
CHAPTER VII. How a Man May Hunt with the Hounds and yet Run with the Hare
The butler Giles conducted him through long corridors to the door which separated the manor proper from its ancient Edwardian tower, and then up stone stairways to a room under the roof which had once been the sleeping apartment of the lord of the castle. The walls were two yards thick, the windows mere slits for arrows, the oaken floor as wavy as a ploughland. He had refused supper and asked only peace to collect his wits. Giles set a candle down on an oak table, and nodded to a cavernous canopied bed. “There’s blankets enow to keep you warm, since the night be mild for the time o’ year. Good sleep to ye and easy dreams.” The key turned in the lock, and the shuffle of heelless shoes died on the stair.
Alastair flung himself on the bed, and lay staring at the roof of the canopy, fitfully illumined by the dancing candle. A light wind must have crept into the room from some cranny of the windows, for the flame flickered and queer shadows chased each other over the dark walls. He was in a torment of disquietude since hearing the warrant — not for his own safety, for he did not despair of giving these chaw-bacons the slip, but for the prospects of the Cause. There was black treason somewhere in its innermost councils. The man who had betrayed every danger-point in his own career could do the same thing for others. The rogue — Kyd’s servant or whoever he might be — was in the way of knowing the heart of every secret. Kyd, charged with a most vital service on which the future of England hung, had this Judas always at his elbow to frustrate or falsify any message to the North, to play the devil with the Prince’s recruiting, and at the end to sell his master’s head for gold. The thought made the young man dig his nails into his palms. God’s pity that in an affair so gossamer-fine there should be this rude treachery to rend the web. . . . But if the miscreant was Kyd’s servant, how came he in this neighbourhood? Had he been dismissed Kyd’s service? Or was Kyd himself at hand and the journey into Wiltshire relinquished? His mind was in utter confusion.
Nevertheless the discovery had quickened his spirit, which of late he thought had been growing languid. He was a campaigner, and made his plans quick. His immediate duty was to escape, his next to reach the Prince and concert measures to meet the case of West England. Fortunate for him that the letter of Brother Gilly had fallen into his hand, for now he knew the magnitude of the business. But first he must sleep, for all evening he had been nodding. He had the soldier’s trick of snatching odd hours of slumber, so, drawing a blanket round him and resolutely shutting off all thoughts, he was soon unconscious.
He slept lightly, and woke to see the candle, which he had left burning, guttering over the edge of the iron candlestick. A swift shadow ran across the wall before him, and a sudden waft of air caused the candle-end to flare like a torch. He glanced at the door, and it seemed to move. Then the place was quiet again, but it was brighter, for a new light had come into it. He scrambled from the bed to see the glow of a shaded lantern, and a slim cloaked figure slipping the key from the door.
The lantern was set beside the candle on the table. The figure wore a furred bed-gown and a nightcap of lace and pink satin, and its brown eyes in the shadow were bright as a squir
rel’s and very merry.
“La, la, such a commotion ere I could come to you, sir,” she said. “Giles must carry Nunkie to bed and hoist Squire Bretherton and Sir Ambrose on their horses, and get a message from me to Black Ben, and pass a word to Stable Bill about Moonbeam. You have slept, wise man that you are? But it is time to be about your business of escaping, for in three hours it will be daylight.”
She was like a pixie in the half darkness, a tall pixie, that had a delicious small stammer in its speech. Alastair was on his feet now, bowing awkwardly.
“Tell me,” she whispered. “The warrant is true? You are Alastair Maclean, a captain in Lee’s Regiment of France, and a messenger from the Prince in Scotland. Oh, have no fear of me, for I am soul and body for the Cause.”
“The warrant spoke truly,” he said.
“And you will join the Prince at the first possible moment? How go things in the North? Have you any news, sir?”
“The Prince crossed the Border yesterday. He marches to Lancashire.”
She twined her fingers in excitement. “You dare not delay an hour. And you shall not. I have made everything ready. Sir, you will find I have made everything ready. See, you shall follow me downstairs and Giles will be waiting. The lock of your door fits badly, for the wood around is worm-eaten. To-morrow it will be lying on the floor, to show my uncle how you escaped. Giles will take you by a private way to the Yew Avenue, and there Bill from the stables will await you with Moonbeam saddled and ready — my uncle’s favourite, no less. You will ride down the avenue very carefully, keeping on the grass and making no sound, till you reach the white gate which leads to Wakehurst Common. There Ben will meet you and guide you out of this county so that by the evening you may be in Cheshire.”