CHAPTER XXI
LORNA ENDS HER STORY
'It is not a twelvemonth yet, although it seems ten years agone, sinceI blew the downy globe to learn the time of day, or set beneath mychin the veinings of the varnished buttercup, or fired the fox-glovecannonade, or made a captive of myself with dandelion fetters; for thenI had not very much to trouble me in earnest, but went about, romancinggravely, playing at bo-peep with fear, making for myself strong heroesof gray rock or fir-tree, adding to my own importance, as the childrenlove to do.
'As yet I had not truly learned the evil of our living, the scorn oflaw, the outrage, and the sorrow caused to others. It even was a pointwith all to hide the roughness from me, to show me but the gallant side,and keep in shade the other. My grandfather, Sir Ensor Doone, had givenstrictest order, as I discovered afterwards, that in my presence allshould be seemly, kind, and vigilant. Nor was it very difficult tokeep most part of the mischief from me, for no Doone ever robs at home,neither do they quarrel much, except at times of gambling. And thoughSir Ensor Doone is now so old and growing feeble, his own way he willhave still, and no one dare deny him. Even our fiercest and most mightyswordsmen, seared from all sense of right or wrong, yet have plentifulsense of fear, when brought before that white-haired man. Not that he isrough with them, or querulous, or rebukeful; but that he has a strangesoft smile, and a gaze they cannot answer, and a knowledge deeper farthan they have of themselves. Under his protection, I am as safe fromall those men (some of whom are but little akin to me) as if I sleptbeneath the roof of the King's Lord Justiciary.
'But now, at the time I speak of, one evening of last summer, a horriblething befell, which took all play of childhood from me. The fifteenthday of last July was very hot and sultry, long after the time ofsundown; and I was paying heed of it, because of the old saying that ifit rain then, rain will fall on forty days thereafter. I had been longby the waterside at this lower end of the valley, plaiting a littlecrown of woodbine crocketed with sprigs of heath--to please mygrandfather, who likes to see me gay at supper-time. Being proud of mytiara, which had cost some trouble, I set it on my head at once, to savethe chance of crushing, and carrying my gray hat, ventured by a path notoften trod. For I must be home at the supper-time, or grandfatherwould be exceeding wrath; and the worst of his anger is that he nevercondescends to show it.
'Therefore, instead of the open mead, or the windings of the river, Imade short cut through the ash-trees covert which lies in the middle ofour vale, with the water skirting or cleaving it. You have never beenup so far as that--at least to the best of my knowledge--but you see itlike a long gray spot, from the top of the cliffs above us. Here I wasnot likely to meet any of our people because the young ones are afraidof some ancient tale about it, and the old ones have no love of treeswhere gunshots are uncertain.
'It was more almost than dusk, down below the tree-leaves, and I waseager to go through, and be again beyond it. For the gray dark hungaround me, scarcely showing shadow; and the little light that glimmeredseemed to come up from the ground. For the earth was strown with thewinter-spread and coil of last year's foliage, the lichened clawsof chalky twigs, and the numberless decay which gives a light in itsdecaying. I, for my part, hastened shyly, ready to draw back and runfrom hare, or rabbit, or small field-mouse.
'At a sudden turn of the narrow path, where it stopped again to theriver, a man leaped out from behind a tree, and stopped me, and seizedhold of me. I tried to shriek, but my voice was still; I could only hearmy heart.
'"Now, Cousin Lorna, my good cousin," he said, with ease and calmness;"your voice is very sweet, no doubt, from all that I can see of you. ButI pray you keep it still, unless you would give to dusty death your verybest cousin and trusty guardian, Alan Brandir of Loch Awe."
'"You my guardian!" I said, for the idea was too ludicrous; andludicrous things always strike me first, through some fault of nature.
'"I have in truth that honour, madam," he answered, with a sweeping bow;"unless I err in taking you for Mistress Lorna Doone."
'"You have not mistaken me. My name is Lorna Doone."
'He looked at me, with gravity, and was inclined to make some claim tocloser consideration upon the score of kinship; but I shrunk back, andonly said, "Yes, my name is Lorna Doone."
'"Then I am your faithful guardian, Alan Brandir of Loch Awe; calledLord Alan Brandir, son of a worthy peer of Scotland. Now will youconfide in me?"
'"I confide in you!" I cried, looking at him with amazement; "why, youare not older than I am!"
'"Yes I am, three years at least. You, my ward, are not sixteen. I, yourworshipful guardian, am almost nineteen years of age."
'Upon hearing this I looked at him, for that seemed then a venerableage; but the more I looked the more I doubted, although he was dressedquite like a man. He led me in a courtly manner, stepping at his tallestto an open place beside the water; where the light came as in channel,and was made the most of by glancing waves and fair white stones.
'"Now am I to your liking, cousin?" he asked, when I had gazed at him,until I was almost ashamed, except at such a stripling. "Does my CousinLorna judge kindly of her guardian, and her nearest kinsman? In a word,is our admiration mutual?"
'"Truly I know not," I said; "but you seem good-natured, and to have noharm in you. Do they trust you with a sword?"
'For in my usage among men of stature and strong presence, this prettyyouth, so tricked and slender, seemed nothing but a doll to me. Althoughhe scared me in the wood, now that I saw him in good twilight, lo! hewas but little greater than my little self; and so tasselled and soruffled with a mint of bravery, and a green coat barred with red, anda slim sword hanging under him, it was the utmost I could do to look athim half-gravely.
'"I fear that my presence hath scarce enough of ferocity about it,"(he gave a jerk to his sword as he spoke, and clanked it on thebrook-stones); "yet do I assure you, cousin, that I am not withoutsome prowess; and many a master of defence hath this good sword of minedisarmed. Now if the boldest and biggest robber in all this charmingvalley durst so much as breathe the scent of that flower coronal, whichdoth not adorn but is adorned"--here he talked some nonsense--"I wouldcleave him from head to foot, ere ever he could fly or cry."
'"Hush!" I said; "talk not so loudly, or thou mayst have to do boththyself, and do them both in vain."
'For he was quite forgetting now, in his bravery before me, where hestood, and with whom he spoke, and how the summer lightning shone abovethe hills and down the hollow. And as I gazed on this slight fair youth,clearly one of high birth and breeding (albeit over-boastful), a chillof fear crept over me; because he had no strength or substance, andwould be no more than a pin-cushion before the great swords of theDoones.
'"I pray you be not vexed with me," he answered, in a softer voice;"for I have travelled far and sorely, for the sake of seeing you. I knowright well among whom I am, and that their hospitality is more of theknife than the salt-stand. Nevertheless I am safe enough, for my foot isthe fleetest in Scotland, and what are these hills to me? Tush! I haveseen some border forays among wilder spirits and craftier men than thesebe. Once I mind some years agone, when I was quite a stripling lad--"
'"Worshipful guardian," I said, "there is no time now for history. Ifthou art in no haste, I am, and cannot stay here idling. Only tell mehow I am akin and under wardship to thee, and what purpose brings theehere."
'"In order, cousin--all things in order, even with fair ladies. First,I am thy uncle's son, my father is thy mother's brother, or at least thygrandmother's--unless I am deceived in that which I have guessed, and noother man. For my father, being a leading lord in the councils ofKing Charles the Second, appointed me to learn the law, not for mylivelihood, thank God, but because he felt the lack of it in affairsof state. But first your leave, young Mistress Lorna; I cannot lay downlegal maxims, without aid of smoke."
'He leaned against a willow-tree, and drawing from a gilded box a littledark thing like a stick, placed it between his l
ips, and then strikinga flint on steel made fire and caught it upon touchwood. With this hekindled the tip of the stick, until it glowed with a ring of red, andthen he breathed forth curls of smoke, blue and smelling on the airlike spice. I had never seen this done before, though acquainted withtobacco-pipes; and it made me laugh, until I thought of the peril thatmust follow it.
'"Cousin, have no fear," he said; "this makes me all the safer; theywill take me for a glow-worm, and thee for the flower it shines upon.But to return--of law I learned as you may suppose, but little; althoughI have capacities. But the thing was far too dull for me. All I care foris adventure, moving chance, and hot encounter; therefore all of law Ilearned was how to live without it. Nevertheless, for amusement's sake,as I must needs be at my desk an hour or so in the afternoon, I took tothe sporting branch of the law, the pitfalls, and the ambuscades; andof all the traps to be laid therein, pedigrees are the rarest. There isscarce a man worth a cross of butter, but what you may find a hole inhis shield within four generations. And so I struck our own escutcheon,and it sounded hollow. There is a point--but heed not that; enough thatbeing curious now, I followed up the quarry, and I am come to this atlast--we, even we, the lords of Loch Awe, have an outlaw for our cousin,and I would we had more, if they be like you."
'"Sir," I answered, being amused by his manner, which was new to me (forthe Doones are much in earnest), "surely you count it no disgrace to beof kin to Sir Ensor Doone, and all his honest family!"
'"If it be so, it is in truth the very highest honour and would heal tenholes in our escutcheon. What noble family but springs from a captainamong robbers? Trade alone can spoil our blood; robbery purifies it. Therobbery of one age is the chivalry of the next. We may start anew, andvie with even the nobility of France, if we can once enrol but half theDoones upon our lineage."
'"I like not to hear you speak of the Doones, as if they were no morethan that," I exclaimed, being now unreasonable; "but will you tell me,once for all, sir, how you are my guardian?"
'"That I will do. You are my ward because you were my father's ward,under the Scottish law; and now my father being so deaf, I havesucceeded to that right--at least in my own opinion--under which claim Iam here to neglect my trust no longer, but to lead you away from scenesand deeds which (though of good repute and comely) are not the best foryoung gentlewomen. There spoke I not like a guardian? After that can youmistrust me?"
'"But," said I, "good Cousin Alan (if I may so call you), it is notmeet for young gentlewomen to go away with young gentlemen, though fiftytimes their guardians. But if you will only come with me, and explainyour tale to my grandfather, he will listen to you quietly, and take noadvantage of you."
'"I thank you much, kind Mistress Lorna, to lead the goose into thefox's den! But, setting by all thought of danger, I have other reasonsagainst it. Now, come with your faithful guardian, child. I will pledgemy honour against all harm, and to bear you safe to London. By the lawof the realm, I am now entitled to the custody of your fair person, andof all your chattels."
'"But, sir, all that you have learned of law, is how to live withoutit."
'"Fairly met, fair cousin mine! Your wit will do me credit, after alittle sharpening. And there is none to do that better than your aunt,my mother. Although she knows not of my coming, she is longing toreceive you. Come, and in a few months' time you shall set the mode atCourt, instead of pining here, and weaving coronals of daisies."
'I turned aside, and thought a little. Although he seemed so light ofmind, and gay in dress and manner, I could not doubt his honesty; andsaw, beneath his jaunty air, true mettle and ripe bravery. Scarce had Ithought of his project twice, until he spoke of my aunt, his mother, butthen the form of my dearest friend, my sweet Aunt Sabina, seemed to comeand bid me listen, for this was what she prayed for. Moreover I felt(though not as now) that Doone Glen was no place for me or any proudyoung maiden. But while I thought, the yellow lightning spread behind abulk of clouds, three times ere the flash was done, far off and void ofthunder; and from the pile of cloud before it, cut as from black paper,and lit to depths of blackness by the blaze behind it, a form as of anaged man, sitting in a chair loose-mantled, seemed to lift a hand andwarn.
'This minded me of my grandfather, and all the care I owed him.Moreover, now the storm was rising and I began to grow afraid; for ofall things awful to me thunder is the dreadfulest. It doth so growl,like a lion coming, and then so roll, and roar, and rumble, out of athickening darkness, then crack like the last trump overhead throughcloven air and terror, that all my heart lies low and quivers, like aweed in water. I listened now for the distant rolling of the great blackstorm, and heard it, and was hurried by it. But the youth before mewaved his rolled tobacco at it, and drawled in his daintiest tone andmanner,--
'"The sky is having a smoke, I see, and dropping sparks, and grumbling.I should have thought these Exmoor hills too small to gather thunder."
'"I cannot go, I will not go with you, Lord Alan Brandir," I answered,being vexed a little by those words of his. "You are not grave enoughfor me, you are not old enough for me. My Aunt Sabina would nothave wished it; nor would I leave my grandfather, without his fullpermission. I thank you much for coming, sir; but be gone at once by theway you came; and pray how did you come, sir?"
'"Fair cousin, you will grieve for this; you will mourn, when you cannotmend it. I would my mother had been here, soon would she have persuadedyou. And yet," he added, with the smile of his accustomed gaiety, "itwould have been an unco thing, as we say in Scotland, for her ladyshipto have waited upon you, as her graceless son has done, and hopes to doagain ere long. Down the cliffs I came, and up them I must make way backagain. Now adieu, fair Cousin Lorna, I see you are in haste tonight;but I am right proud of my guardianship. Give me just one flower fortoken"--here he kissed his hand to me, and I threw him a truss ofwoodbine--"adieu, fair cousin, trust me well, I will soon be hereagain."
'"That thou never shalt, sir," cried a voice as loud as a culverin; andCarver Doone had Alan Brandir as a spider hath a fly. The boy made alittle shriek at first, with the sudden shock and the terror; then helooked, methought, ashamed of himself, and set his face to fight forit. Very bravely he strove and struggled, to free one arm and grasphis sword; but as well might an infant buried alive attempt to lift hisgravestone. Carver Doone, with his great arms wrapped around the slimgay body, smiled (as I saw by the flash from heaven) at the poor youngface turned up to him; then (as a nurse bears off a child, who is loathto go to bed), he lifted the youth from his feet, and bore him away intothe darkness.
'I was young then. I am older now; older by ten years, in thought,although it is not a twelvemonth since. If that black deed were doneagain, I could follow, and could combat it, could throw weak arms onthe murderer, and strive to be murdered also. I am now at home withviolence; and no dark death surprises me.
'But, being as I was that night, the horror overcame me. The crash ofthunder overhead, the last despairing look, the death-piece framed withblaze of lightning--my young heart was so affrighted that I could notgasp. My breath went from me, and I knew not where I was, or who, orwhat. Only that I lay, and cowered, under great trees full of thunder;and could neither count, nor moan, nor have my feet to help me.
'Yet hearkening, as a coward does, through the brushing of the wind,and echo of far noises, I heard a sharp sound as of iron, and a fallof heavy wood. No unmanly shriek came with it, neither cry for mercy.Carver Doone knows what it was; and so did Alan Brandir.'
Here Lorna Doone could tell no more, being overcome with weeping. Onlythrough her tears she whispered, as a thing too bad to tell, that shehad seen that giant Carver, in a few days afterwards, smoking a littleround brown stick, like those of her poor cousin. I could not press herany more with questions, or for clearness; although I longed verymuch to know whether she had spoken of it to her grandfather or theCounsellor. But she was now in such condition, both of mind and body,from the force of her own fear multiplied by telling it, that I didnothing mo
re than coax her, at a distance humbly; and so that she couldsee that some one was at least afraid of her. This (although I knewnot women in those days, as now I do, and never shall know much of it),this, I say, so brought her round, that all her fear was now for me,and how to get me safely off, without mischance to any one. And sooth tosay, in spite of longing just to see if Master Carver could have servedme such a trick--as it grew towards the dusk, I was not best pleasedto be there; for it seemed a lawless place, and some of Lorna's frightstayed with me as I talked it away from her.
Lorna Doone: A Romance of Exmoor Page 22