CHAPTER LXX
COMPELLED TO VOLUNTEER
There had been some trouble in our own home during the previous autumn,while yet I was in London. For certain noted fugitives from the armyof King Monmouth (which he himself had deserted, in a low and currishmanner), having failed to obtain free shipment from the coast nearWatersmouth, had returned into the wilds of Exmoor, trusting tolurk, and be comforted among the common people. Neither were theydisappointed, for a certain length of time; nor in the end was theirdisappointment caused by fault on our part. Major Wade was one of them;an active and well-meaning man; but prone to fail in courage, uponlasting trial; although in a moment ready. Squire John Whichehalse (notthe baron) and Parson Powell* caught him (two or three months before myreturn) in Farley farmhouse, near Brendon. He had been up at our houseseveral times; and Lizzie thought a great deal of him. And well I knowthat if at that time I had been in the neighbourhood, he should not havebeen taken so easily.
* Not our parson Bowden, nor any more a friend of his. Our Parson Bowden never had naught whatever to do with it; and never smoked a pipe with Parson Powell after it.--J.R.
John Birch, the farmer who had sheltered him, was so fearful ofpunishment, that he hanged himself, in a few days' time, and even beforehe was apprehended. But nothing was done to Grace Howe, of Bridgeball,who had been Wade's greatest comforter; neither was anything done to us;although Eliza had added greatly to mother's alarm and danger by fallingupon Rector Powell, and most soundly rating him for his meanness,and his cruelty, and cowardice, as she called it, in setting menwith firearms upon a poor helpless fugitive, and robbing all ourneighbourhood of its fame for hospitality. However, by means of SergeantBloxham, and his good report of us, as well as by virtue of Wade'sconfession (which proved of use to the Government) my mother escaped allpenalties.
It is likely enough that good folk will think it hard upon ourneighbourhood to be threatened, and sometimes heavily punished, forkindness and humanity; and yet to be left to help ourselves againsttyranny, and base rapine. And now at last our gorge was risen, andour hearts in tumult. We had borne our troubles long, as a wise andwholesome chastisement; quite content to have some few things of our ownunmeddled with. But what could a man dare to call his own, or what rightcould he have to wish for it, while he left his wife and children at thepleasure of any stranger?
The people came flocking all around me, at the blacksmith's forge, andthe Brendon alehouse; and I could scarce come out of church, but theygot me among the tombstones. They all agreed that I was bound to takecommand and management. I bade them go to the magistrates, but theysaid they had been too often. Then I told them that I had no wits forordering of an armament, although I could find fault enough with the onewhich had not succeeded. But they would hearken to none of this.
All they said was 'Try to lead us; and we will try not to run away.'
This seemed to me to be common sense, and good stuff, instead of merebragging; moreover, I myself was moved by the bitter wrongs of Margery,having known her at the Sunday-school, ere ever I went to Tivertonand having in those days, serious thoughts of making her mysweetheart; although she was three years my elder. But now I felt thisdifficulty--the Doones had behaved very well to our farm, and to mother,and all of us, while I was away in London. Therefore, would it not beshabby, and mean, for me to attack them now?
Yet being pressed still harder and harder, as day by day the excitementgrew (with more and more talking over it), and no one else coming forwardto undertake the business, I agreed at last to this; that if the Doones,upon fair challenge, would not endeavour to make amends by giving upMistress Margery, as well as the man who had slain the babe, then Iwould lead the expedition, and do my best to subdue them. All our menwere content with this, being thoroughly well assured from experience,that the haughty robbers would only shoot any man who durst approachthem with such proposal.
And then arose a difficult question--who was to take the risk of makingovertures so unpleasant? I waited for the rest to offer; and as none wasready, the burden fell on me, and seemed to be of my own inviting. HenceI undertook the task, sooner than reason about it; for to give the causeof everything is worse than to go through with it.
It may have been three of the afternoon, when leaving my witnessesbehind (for they preferred the background) I appeared with our Lizzie'swhite handkerchief upon a kidney-bean stick, at the entrance to therobbers' dwelling. Scarce knowing what might come of it, I had taken thewise precaution of fastening a Bible over my heart, and another acrossmy spinal column, in case of having to run away, with rude men shootingafter me. For my mother said that the Word of God would stop a two-inchbullet, with three ounces of powder behind it. Now I took no weapons,save those of the Spirit, for fear of being misunderstood. But I couldnot bring myself to think that any of honourable birth would takeadvantage of an unarmed man coming in guise of peace to them.
And this conclusion of mine held good, at least for a certain length oftime; inasmuch as two decent Doones appeared, and hearing of my purpose,offered, without violence, to go and fetch the Captain; if I would stopwhere I was, and not begin to spy about anything. To this, of course,I agreed at once; for I wanted no more spying, because I had thoroughknowledge of all ins and outs already. Therefore, I stood waitingsteadily, with one hand in my pocket feeling a sample of corn formarket; and the other against the rock, while I wondered to see it sobrown already.
Those men came back in a little while, with a sharp short message thatCaptain Carver would come out and speak to me by-and-by, when his pipewas finished. Accordingly, I waited long, and we talked about the signsof bloom for the coming apple season, and the rain that had fallen lastWednesday night, and the principal dearth of Devonshire, that it willnot grow many cowslips--which we quite agreed to be the prettiest ofspring flowers; and all the time I was wondering how many black anddeadly deeds these two innocent youths had committed, even since lastChristmas.
At length, a heavy and haughty step sounded along the stone roof of theway; and then the great Carver Doone drew up, and looked at me ratherscornfully. Not with any spoken scorn, nor flash of strong contumely;but with that air of thinking little, and praying not to be troubled,which always vexes a man who feels that he ought not to be despised so,and yet knows not how to help it.
'What is it you want, young man?' he asked, as if he had never seen mebefore.
In spite of that strong loathing which I always felt at sight of him,I commanded my temper moderately, and told him that I was come for hisgood, and that of his worshipful company, far more than for my own.That a general feeling of indignation had arisen among us at the recentbehaviour of certain young men, for which he might not be answerable,and for which we would not condemn him, without knowing the rights ofthe question. But I begged him clearly to understand that a vile andinhuman wrong had been done, and such as we could not put up with; butthat if he would make what amends he could by restoring the poor woman,and giving up that odious brute who had slain the harmless infant, wewould take no further motion and things should go on as usual. As I putthis in the fewest words that would meet my purpose, I was grieved tosee a disdainful smile spread on his sallow countenance. Then he made mea bow of mock courtesy, and replied as follows,--
'Sir John, your new honours have turned your poor head, as might havebeen expected. We are not in the habit of deserting anything thatbelongs to us; far less our sacred relatives. The insolence of yourdemand well-nigh outdoes the ingratitude. If there be a man upon Exmoorwho has grossly ill-used us, kidnapped our young women, and slain halfa dozen of our young men, you are that outrageous rogue, Sir John. Andafter all this, how have we behaved? We have laid no hand upon yourfarm, we have not carried off your women, we have even allowed you totake our Queen, by creeping and crawling treachery; and we have givenyou leave of absence to help your cousin the highwayman, and to comehome with a title. And now, how do you requite us? By inflaming theboorish indignation at a little frolic of our young men; and bycoming wit
h insolent demands, to yield to which would ruin us. Ah, youungrateful viper!'
As he turned away in sorrow from me, shaking his head at my badness, Ibecame so overcome (never having been quite assured, even by people'spraises, about my own goodness); moreover, the light which he threw uponthings differed so greatly from my own, that, in a word--not to be toolong--I feared that I was a villain. And with many bitter pangs--forI have bad things to repent of--I began at my leisure to ask myselfwhether or not this bill of indictment against John Ridd was true. Someof it I knew to be (however much I condemned myself) altogether out ofreason for instance, about my going away with Lorna very quietly, overthe snow, and to save my love from being starved away from me. In thisthere was no creeping neither crawling treachery; for all was done withsliding; and yet I was so out of training for being charged by otherpeople beyond mine own conscience, that Carver Doone's harsh words cameon me, like prickly spinach sown with raking. Therefore I replied, andsaid,--
'It is true that I owe you gratitude, sir, for a certain time offorbearance; and it is to prove my gratitude that I am come here now. Ido not think that my evil deeds can be set against your own; although Icannot speak flowingly upon my good deeds as you can. I took your Queenbecause you starved her, having stolen her long before, and killed hermother and brother. This is not for me to dwell upon now; any more thanI would say much about your murdering of my father. But how the balancehangs between us, God knows better than thou or I, thou low miscreant,Carver Doone.'
I had worked myself up, as I always do, in the manner of heavy men;growing hot like an ill-washered wheel revolving, though I start witha cool axle; and I felt ashamed of myself for heat, and ready to askpardon. But Carver Doone regarded me with a noble and fearless grandeur.
'I have given thee thy choice, John Ridd,' he said in a lofty manner,which made me drop away under him; 'I always wish to do my best with theworst people who come near me. And of all I have ever met with thou artthe very worst, Sir John, and the most dishonest.'
Now after all my labouring to pay every man to a penny, and to allow thewomen over, when among the couch-grass (which is a sad thing for theirgowns), to be charged like this, I say, so amazed me that I stood, withmy legs quite open, and ready for an earthquake. And the scornful wayin which he said 'Sir John,' went to my very heart, reminding me of mylittleness. But seeing no use in bandying words, nay, rather the chanceof mischief, I did my best to look calmly at him, and to say with aquiet voice, 'Farewell, Carver Doone, this time, our day of reckoning isnigh.'
'Thou fool, it is come,' he cried, leaping aside into the niche of rockby the doorway; 'Fire!'
Save for the quickness of spring, and readiness, learned in many awrestling bout, that knavish trick must have ended me; but scarce wasthe word 'fire!' out of his mouth ere I was out of fire, by a singlebound behind the rocky pillar of the opening. In this jump I was sobrisk, at impulse of the love of life (for I saw the muzzles set uponme from the darkness of the cavern), that the men who had trained theirguns upon me with goodwill and daintiness, could not check their fingerscrooked upon the heavy triggers; and the volley sang with a roar behindit, down the avenue of crags.
With one thing and another, and most of all the treachery of thisdastard scheme, I was so amazed that I turned and ran, at the very topof my speed, away from these vile fellows; and luckily for me, theyhad not another charge to send after me. And thus by good fortune, Iescaped; but with a bitter heart, and mind at their treacherous usage.
Without any further hesitation I agreed to take command of the honestmen who were burning to punish, ay and destroy, those outlaws, as nowbeyond all bearing. One condition, however, I made, namely, that theCounsellor should be spared if possible; not because he was less avillain than any of the others, but that he seemed less violent; andabove all, had been good to Annie. And I found hard work to make themlisten to my wish upon this point; for of all the Doones, Sir Counsellorhad made himself most hated, by his love of law and reason.
We arranged that all our men should come and fall into order with pikeand musket, over against our dung-hill, and we settled early in the day,that their wives might come and look at them. For most of these men hadgood wives; quite different from sweethearts, such as the militia had;women indeed who could hold to a man, and see to him, and bury him--ifhis luck were evil--and perhaps have no one afterwards. And all thesewomen pressed their rights upon their precious husbands, and brought somany children with them, and made such a fuss, and hugging, and racingafter little legs, that our farm-yard might be taken for an out-doorschool for babies rather than a review ground.
I myself was to and fro among the children continually; for if I loveanything in the world, foremost I love children. They warm, and yet theycool our hearts, as we think of what we were, and what in young clotheswe hoped to be; and how many things have come across. And to see ourmotives moving in the little things that know not what their aim orobject is, must almost or ought at least, to lead us home, and softenus. For either end of life is home; both source and issue being God.
Nevertheless, I must confess that the children were a plague sometimes.They never could have enough of me--being a hundred to one, you mightsay--but I had more than enough of them; and yet was not contented.For they had so many ways of talking, and of tugging at my hair, andof sitting upon my neck (not even two with their legs alike), and theyforced me to jump so vehemently, seeming to court the peril of my comingdown neck and crop with them, and urging me still to go faster, howeverfast I might go with them; I assure you that they were sometimes so hardand tyrannical over me, that I might almost as well have been among thevery Doones themselves.
Nevertheless, the way in which the children made me useful proved alsoof some use to me; for their mothers were so pleased by the exertions ofthe 'great Gee-gee'--as all the small ones entitled me--that they gaveme unlimited power and authority over their husbands; moreover, they didtheir utmost among their relatives round about, to fetch recruitsfor our little band. And by such means, several of the yeomanry fromBarnstaple, and from Tiverton, were added to our number; and inasmuchas these were armed with heavy swords, and short carabines, theirappearance was truly formidable.
Tom Faggus also joined us heartily, being now quite healed of hiswound, except at times when the wind was easterly. He was made second incommand to me; and I would gladly have had him first, as more fertilein expedients; but he declined such rank on the plea that I knew mostof the seat of war; besides that I might be held in some measure to drawauthority from the King. Also Uncle Ben came over to help us with hisadvice and presence, as well as with a band of stout warehousemen, whomhe brought from Dulverton. For he had never forgiven the old outrage putupon him; and though it had been to his interest to keep quiet duringthe last attack, under Commander Stickles--for the sake of his secretgold mine--yet now he was in a position to give full vent to hisfeelings. For he and his partners when fully-assured of the value oftheir diggings, had obtained from the Crown a licence to adventure insearch of minerals, by payment of a heavy fine and a yearly royalty.Therefore they had now no longer any cause for secrecy, neither fordread of the outlaws; having so added to their force as to be a matchfor them. And although Uncle Ben was not the man to keep his miners idlean hour more than might be helped, he promised that when we had fixedthe moment for an assault on the valley, a score of them should cometo aid us, headed by Simon Carfax, and armed with the guns which theyalways kept for the protection of their gold.
Now whether it were Uncle Ben, or whether it were Tom Faggus or even myown self--for all three of us claimed the sole honour--is more than Ithink fair to settle without allowing them a voice. But at any rate, aclever thing was devised among us; and perhaps it would be the fairestthing to say that this bright stratagem (worthy of the great Dukehimself) was contributed, little by little, among the entire three ofus, all having pipes, and schnapps-and-water, in the chimney-corner.However, the world, which always judges according to reputation, vowedthat so fine a stroke of war
could only come from a highwayman; and soTom Faggus got all the honour, at less perhaps than a third of the cost.
Not to attempt to rob him of it--for robbers, more than any other,contend for rights of property--let me try to describe this grandartifice. It was known that the Doones were fond of money, as well asstrong drink, and other things; and more especially fond of gold, whenthey could get it pure and fine. Therefore it was agreed that in thisway we should tempt them; for we knew that they looked with ridiculeupon our rustic preparations; after repulsing King's troopers, and themilitia of two counties, was it likely that they should yield theirfortress to a set of ploughboys? We, for our part, felt of course,the power of this reasoning, and that where regular troops had failed,half-armed countrymen must fail, except by superior judgment and harmonyof action. Though perhaps the militia would have sufficed, if they hadonly fought against the foe, instead of against each other. From thesethings we took warning; having failed through over-confidence, was itnot possible now to make the enemy fail through the selfsame cause?
Hence, what we devised was this; to delude from home a part of therobbers, and fall by surprise on the other part. We caused it to bespread abroad that a large heap of gold was now collected at the mineof the Wizard's Slough. And when this rumour must have reached them,through women who came to and fro, as some entirely faithful to themwere allowed to do, we sent Captain Simon Carfax, the father of littleGwenny, to demand an interview with the Counsellor, by night, and as itwere secretly. Then he was to set forth a list of imaginary grievancesagainst the owners of the mine; and to offer partly through resentment,partly through the hope of gain, to betray into their hands, upon theFriday night, by far the greatest weight of gold as yet sent up forrefining. He was to have one quarter part, and they to take the residue.But inasmuch as the convoy across the moors, under his command, wouldbe strong, and strongly armed, the Doones must be sure to send not lessthan a score of men, if possible. He himself, at a place agreed upon,and fit for an ambuscade, would call a halt, and contrive in thedarkness to pour a little water into the priming of his company's guns.
It cost us some trouble and a great deal of money to bring the sturdyCornishman into this deceitful part; and perhaps he never would haveconsented but for his obligation to me, and the wrongs (as he said) ofhis daughter. However, as he was the man for the task, both from hiscoolness and courage, and being known to have charge of the mine, Ipressed him, until he undertook to tell all the lies we required.And right well he did it too, having once made up his mind to it; andperceiving that his own interests called for the total destruction ofthe robbers.
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