Lorna Doone: A Romance of Exmoor

by R. D. Blackmore

  CHAPTER LXV

  FALLING AMONG LAMBS

  That faithful creature, whom I began to admire as if she were my own(which is no little thing for a man to say of another man's horse),stopped in front of a low black shed, such as we call a 'linhay.' Andhere she uttered a little greeting, in a subdued and softened voice,hoping to obtain an answer, such as her master was wont to give in acheery manner. Receiving no reply, she entered; and I (who could scarcekeep up with her, poor Kickums being weary) leaped from his back, andfollowed. There I found her sniffing gently, but with great emotion, atthe body of Tom Faggus. A corpse poor Tom appeared to be, if everthere was one in this world; and I turned away, and felt unable to keepaltogether from weeping. But the mare either could not understand, orelse would not believe it. She reached her long neck forth, and felt himwith her under lip, passing it over his skin as softly as a mother woulddo to an infant; and then she looked up at me again; as much as to say,'he is all right.'

  Upon this I took courage, and handled poor Tom, which being young I hadfeared at first to do. He groaned very feebly, as I raised him up; andthere was the wound, a great savage one (whether from pike-thrust ormusket-ball), gaping and welling in his right side, from which a pieceseemed to be torn away. I bound it up with some of my linen, so far as Iknew how; just to stanch the flow of blood, until we could get a doctor.Then I gave him a little weak brandy and water, which he drank with thegreatest eagerness, and made sign to me for more of it. But not knowinghow far it was right to give cordial under the circumstances, I handedhim unmixed water that time; thinking that he was too far gone toperceive the difference. But herein I wrong Tom Faggus; for he shook hishead and frowned at me. Even at the door of death, he would not drinkwhat Adam drank, by whom came death into the world. So I gave him alittle more eau-de-vie, and he took it most submissively.

  After that he seemed better, and a little colour came into his cheeks;and he looked at Winnie and knew her; and would have her nose in hisclammy hand, though I thought it not good for either of them. With thestay of my arm he sat upright, and faintly looked about him; as if atthe end of a violent dream, too much for his power of mind. Then hemanaged to whisper, 'Is Winnie hurt?'

  'As sound as a roach,' I answered. 'Then so am I,' said he: 'put me uponher back, John; she and I die together.'

  Surprised as I was at this fatalism (for so it appeared to me), of whichhe had often shown symptoms before (but I took them for mere levity),now I knew not what to do; for it seemed to me a murderous thing to setsuch a man on horseback; where he must surely bleed to death, even if hecould keep the saddle. But he told me, with many breaks and pauses,that unless I obeyed his orders, he would tear off all my bandages, andaccept no further aid from me.

  While I was yet hesitating, a storm of horse at full gallop went by,tearing, swearing, bearing away all the country before them. Only alittle pollard hedge kept us from their blood-shot eyes. 'Now is thetime,' said my cousin Tom, so far as I could make out his words; ontheir heels, I am safe, John, if I have only Winnie under me. Winnie andI die together.'

  Seeing this strong bent of his mind, stronger than any pains of death,I even did what his feeble eyes sometimes implored, and sometimescommanded. With a strong sash, from his own hot neck, bound and twisted,tight as wax, around his damaged waist, I set him upon Winnie's back,and placed his trembling feet in stirrups, with a band from one toanother, under the good mare's body; so that no swerve could throw himout: and then I said, 'Lean forward, Tom; it will stop your hurt frombleeding.' He leaned almost on the neck of the mare, which, as I knew,must close the wound; and the light of his eyes was quite different,and the pain of his forehead unstrung itself, as if he felt the undulousreadiness of her volatile paces under him.

  'God bless you, John; I am safe,' he whispered, fearing to open hislungs much: 'who can come near my Winnie mare? A mile of her gallopis ten years of life. Look out for yourself, John Ridd.' He sucked hislips, and the mare went off, as easy and swift as a swallow.

  'Well,' thought I, as I looked at Kickums, ignobly cropping up a bitof grass, 'I have done a very good thing, no doubt, and ought to bethankful to God for the chance. But as for getting away unharmed, withall these scoundrels about me, and only a foundered horse to trustin--good and spiteful as he is--upon the whole, I begin to think that Ihave made a fool of myself, according to my habit. No wonder Tom said,"Look out for yourself!" I shall look out from a prison window, orperhaps even out of a halter. And then, what will Lorna think of me?'

  Being in this wistful mood, I resolved to abide awhile, even where fatehad thrown me; for my horse required good rest no doubt, and was takingit even while he cropped, with his hind legs far away stretched out, andhis forelegs gathered under him, and his muzzle on the mole-hills; sothat he had five supportings from his mother earth. Moreover, the linhayitself was full of very ancient cow dung; than which there is no balmierand more maiden soporific. Hence I resolved, upon the whole, thoughgrieving about breakfast, to light a pipe, and go to sleep; or at leastuntil the hot sun should arouse the flies.

  I may have slept three hours, or four, or it might be even five--for Inever counted time, while sleeping--when a shaking more rude than theold landlady's, brought me back to the world again. I looked up, with amighty yawn; and saw twenty, or so, of foot-soldiers.

  'This linhay is not yours,' I said, when they had quite aroused me, withtongue, and hand, and even sword-prick: 'what business have you here,good fellows?'

  'Business bad for you,' said one, 'and will lead you to the gallows.'

  'Do you wish to know the way out again?' I asked, very quietly, as beingno braggadocio.

  'We will show thee the way out,' said one, 'and the way out of theworld,' said another: 'but not the way to heaven,' said one chap, mostunlikely to know it: and thereupon they all fell wagging, like a bed ofclover leaves in the morning, at their own choice humour.

  'Will you pile your arms outside,' I said, 'and try a bit of fair playwith me?'

  For I disliked these men sincerely, and was fain to teach them a lessonthey were so unchristian in appearance, having faces of a coffee colour,and dirty beards half over them. Moreover their dress was outrageous,and their address still worse. However, I had wiser let them alone, aswill appear afterwards. These savage-looking fellows laughed at the ideaof my having any chance against some twenty of them: but I knew thatthe place was in my favour; for my part of it had been fenced off (forweaning a calf most likely), so that only two could come at me at once;and I must be very much out of training, if I could not manage two ofthem. Therefore I laid aside my carbine, and the two horse-pistols; andthey with many coarse jokes at me went a little way outside, andset their weapons against the wall, and turned up their coat sleevesjauntily; and then began to hesitate.

  'Go you first, Bob,' I heard them say: 'you are the biggest man of us;and Dick the wrestler along of you. Us will back you up, boy.'

  'I'll warrant I'll draw the badger,' said Bob; 'and not a tooth will Ileave him. But mind, for the honour of Kirke's lambs, every man standsme a glass of gin.' Then he, and another man, made a rush, and theothers came double-quick-march on their heels. But as Bob ran at me moststupidly, not even knowing how to place his hands, I caught him with myknuckles at the back of his neck, and with all the sway of my right armsent him over the heads of his comrades. Meanwhile Dick the wrestler hadgrappled me, expecting to show off his art, of which indeed he had somesmall knowledge; but being quite of the light-weights, in a second hewas flying after his companion Bob.

  Now these two men were hurt so badly, the light one having knocked hishead against the lintel of the outer gate, that the rest had no desireto encounter the like misfortune. So they hung back whispering; andbefore they had made up their minds, I rushed into the midst of them.The suddenness and the weight of my onset took them wholly by surprise;and for once in their lives, perhaps, Kirke's lambs were worthy of theirname. Like a flock of sheep at a dog's attack they fell away, hustlingone another, and my only difficulty was not t
o tumble over them.

  I had taken my carbine out with me, having a fondness for it; but thetwo horse-pistols I left behind; and therefore felt good title to taketwo from the magazine of the lambs. And with these, and my carbine, Ileaped upon Kickums, who was now quite glad of a gallop again; and Ibade adieu to that mongrel lot; yet they had the meanness to shoot atme. Thanking God for my deliverance (inasmuch as those men would havestrung me up, from a pollard-ash without trial, as I heard them tellone another, and saw the tree they had settled upon), I ventured to gorather fast on my way, with doubt and uneasiness urging me. And now myway was home again. Nobody could say but what I had done my duty, andrescued Tom (if he could be rescued) from the mischief into whichhis own perverseness and love of change (rather than deep religiousconvictions, to which our Annie ascribed his outbreak) had led, orseemed likely to lead him. And how proud would my mother be; and--ahwell, there was nobody else to be proud of me now.

  But while thinking these things, and desiring my breakfast, beyond anypower of describing, and even beyond my remembrance, I fell into anotherfold of lambs, from which there was no exit. These, like true crusaders,met me, swaggering very heartily, and with their barrels of cider set,like so many cannon, across the road, over against a small hostel.

  'We have won the victory, my lord King, and we mean to enjoy it. Downfrom thy horse, and have a stoup of cider, thou big rebel.'

  'No rebel am I. My name is John Ridd. I belong to the side of the King:and I want some breakfast.'

  These fellows were truly hospitable; that much will I say for them.Being accustomed to Arab ways, they could toss a grill, or fritter, orthe inner meaning of an egg, into any form they pleased, comely andvery good to eat; and it led me to think of Annie. So I made the rarestbreakfast any man might hope for, after all his troubles; and gettingon with these brown fellows better than could be expected, I cravedpermission to light a pipe, if not disagreeable. Hearing this, theyroared at me, with a superior laughter, and asked me, whether or not,I knew the tobacco-leaf from the chick-weed; and when I was forced toanswer no, not having gone into the subject, but being content withanything brown, they clapped me on the back and swore they had neverseen any one like me. Upon the whole this pleased me much; for I donot wish to be taken always as of the common pattern: and so we smokedadmirable tobacco--for they would not have any of mine, though verycourteous concerning it--and I was beginning to understand a little ofwhat they told me; when up came those confounded lambs, who had shownmore tail than head to me, in the linhay, as I mentioned.

  Now these men upset everything. Having been among wrestlers so much asmy duty compelled me to be, and having learned the necessity of the restwhich follows the conflict, and the right of discussion which all peoplehave to pay their sixpence to enter; and how they obtrude this right,and their wisdom, upon the man who has laboured, until he forgets allthe work he did, and begins to think that they did it; having someknowledge of this sort of thing, and the flux of minds swimming inliquor, I foresaw a brawl, as plainly as if it were Bear Street inBarnstaple.

  And a brawl there was, without any error, except of the men who hittheir friends, and those who defended their enemies. My partners inbreakfast and beer-can swore that I was no prisoner, but the best andmost loyal subject, and the finest-hearted fellow they had ever the luckto meet with. Whereas the men from the linhay swore that I was a rebelmiscreant; and have me they would, with a rope's-end ready, in spiteof every [violent language] who had got drunk at my expense, and beenmisled by my [strong word] lies.

  While this fight was going on (and its mere occurrence shows, perhaps,that my conversation in those days was not entirely despicable--elsewhy should my new friends fight for me, when I had paid for the ale, andtherefore won the wrong tense of gratitude?) it was in my power at anymoment to take horse and go. And this would have been my wisest plan,and a very great saving of money; but somehow I felt as if it would be amean thing to slip off so. Even while I was hesitating, and the men werebreaking each other's heads, a superior officer rode up, with his sworddrawn, and his face on fire.

  'What, my lambs, my lambs!' he cried, smiting with the flat of hissword; 'is this how you waste my time and my purse, when you ought to becatching a hundred prisoners, worth ten pounds apiece to me? Who is thisyoung fellow we have here? Speak up, sirrah; what art thou, and how muchwill thy good mother pay for thee?'

  'My mother will pay naught for me,' I answered; while the lambs fellback, and glowered at one another: 'so please your worship, I am norebel; but an honest farmer, and well-proved of loyalty.'

  'Ha, ha; a farmer art thou? Those fellows always pay the best. Goodfarmer, come to yon barren tree; thou shalt make it fruitful.'

  Colonel Kirke made a sign to his men, and before I could think ofresistance, stout new ropes were flung around me; and with three men oneither side I was led along very painfully. And now I saw, and repenteddeeply of my careless folly, in stopping with those boon-companions,instead of being far away. But the newness of their manners to me, andtheir mode of regarding the world (differing so much from mine own), aswell as the flavour of their tobacco, had made me quite forget my dutyto the farm and to myself. Yet methought they would be tender to me,after all our speeches: how then was I disappointed, when the men whohad drunk my beer, drew on those grievous ropes, twice as hard as themen I had been at strife with! Yet this may have been from no ill will;but simply that having fallen under suspicion of laxity, they werecompelled, in self-defence, now to be over-zealous.

  Nevertheless, however pure and godly might be their motives, I beheldmyself in a grievous case, and likely to get the worst of it. For theface of the Colonel was hard and stern as a block of bogwood oak; andthough the men might pity me and think me unjustly executed, yet theymust obey their orders, or themselves be put to death. Therefore Iaddressed myself to the Colonel, in a most ingratiating manner; begginghim not to sully the glory of his victory, and dwelling upon my pureinnocence, and even good service to our lord the King. But Colonel Kirkeonly gave command that I should be smitten in the mouth; which officeBob, whom I had flung so hard out of the linhay, performed with greatzeal and efficiency. But being aware of the coming smack, I thrustforth a pair of teeth; upon which the knuckles of my good friend made amelancholy shipwreck.

  It is not in my power to tell half the thoughts that moved me, whenwe came to the fatal tree, and saw two men hanging there already, asinnocent perhaps as I was, and henceforth entirely harmless. Thoughordered by the Colonel to look steadfastly upon them, I could not bearto do so; upon which he called me a paltry coward, and promised mybreeches to any man who would spit upon my countenance. This vilething Bob, being angered perhaps by the smarting wound of his knuckles,bravely stepped forward to do for me, trusting no doubt to the rope Iwas led with. But, unluckily as it proved for him, my right arm was freefor a moment; and therewith I dealt him such a blow, that he never spakeagain. For this thing I have often grieved; but the provocation was verysore to the pride of a young man; and I trust that God has forgiven me.At the sound and sight of that bitter stroke, the other men drew back;and Colonel Kirke, now black in the face with fury and vexation, gaveorders for to shoot me, and cast me into the ditch hard by. The menraised their pieces, and pointed at me, waiting for the word to fire;and I, being quite overcome by the hurry of these events, and quiteunprepared to die yet, could only think all upside down about Lorna,and my mother, and wonder what each would say to it. I spread my handsbefore my eyes, not being so brave as some men; and hoping, in somefoolish way, to cover my heart with my elbows. I heard the breath ofall around, as if my skull were a sounding-board; and knew even how thedifferent men were fingering their triggers. And a cold sweat broke allover me, as the Colonel, prolonging his enjoyment, began slowly to say,'Fire.'

  But while he was yet dwelling on the 'F,' the hoofs of a horse dashedout on the road, and horse and horseman flung themselves betwixt me andthe gun muzzles. So narrowly was I saved that one man could not checkhis trigger: his musket went off, and t
he ball struck the horse on thewithers, and scared him exceedingly. He began to lash out with his heelsall around, and the Colonel was glad to keep clear of him; and the menmade excuse to lower their guns, not really wishing to shoot me.

  'How now, Captain Stickles?' cried Kirke, the more angry because he hadshown his cowardice; 'dare you, sir, to come betwixt me and my lawfulprisoner?'

  'Nay, hearken one moment, Colonel,' replied my old friend Jeremy; andhis damaged voice was the sweetest sound I had heard for many a day;'for your own sake, hearken.' He looked so full of momentous tidings,that Colonel Kirke made a sign to his men not to shoot me till furtherorders; and then he went aside with Stickles, so that in spite of all myanxiety I could not catch what passed between them. But I fancied thatthe name of the Lord Chief-Justice Jeffreys was spoken more than once,and with emphasis and deference.

  'Then I leave him in your hands, Captain Stickles,' said Kirke at last,so that all might hear him; and though the news was good for me, thesmile of baffled malice made his dark face look most hideous; 'and Ishall hold you answerable for the custody of this prisoner.'

  'Colonel Kirke, I will answer for him,' Master Stickles replied, with agrave bow, and one hand on his breast: 'John Ridd, you are my prisoner.Follow me, John Ridd.'

  Upon that, those precious lambs flocked away, leaving the rope stillaround me; and some were glad, and some were sorry, not to see meswinging. Being free of my arms again, I touched my hat to ColonelKirke, as became his rank and experience; but he did not condescend toreturn my short salutation, having espied in the distance a prisoner,out of whom he might make money.

  I wrung the hand of Jeremy Stickles, for his truth and goodness; andhe almost wept (for since his wound he had been a weakened man) as heanswered, 'Turn for turn, John. You saved my life from the Doones; andby the mercy of God, I have saved you from a far worse company. Let yoursister Annie know it.'