Chapter XXV. Of Strange Doings in the Boteler Dungeon
'Take down this fellow's statement,' said the Duke to his scrivener.'Now, sirrah, it may not be known to you that his gracious Majesty theKing hath conferred plenary powers upon me during these troubled times,and that I have his warrant to deal with all traitors without eitherjury or judge. You do bear a commission, I understand, in the rebelliousbody which is here described as Saxon's regiment of Wiltshire Foot?Speak the truth for your neck's sake.'
'I will speak the truth for the sake of something higher than that, yourGrace,' I answered. 'I command a company in that regiment.'
'And who is this Saxon?'
'I will answer all that I may concerning myself,' said I, 'but not aword which may reflect upon others.'
'Ha!' he roared, hot with anger. 'Our pretty gentleman must needs standupon the niceties of honour after taking up arms against his King. Itell you, sir, that your honour is in such a parlous state already thatyou may well throw it over and look to your safety. The sun is sinkingin the west. Ere it set your life, too, may have set for ever.'
'I am the keeper of my own honour, your Grace,' I answered. 'As to mylife, I should not be standing here this moment if I had any great dreadof losing it. It is right that I should tell you that my Colonel hathsworn to exact a return for any evil that may befall me, on you or anyof your household who may come into his power. This I say, not as athreat, but as a warning, for I know him to be a man who is like to beas good as his word.'
'Your Colonel, as you call him, may find it hard enough to save himselfsoon,' the Duke answered with a sneer. 'How many men hath Monmouth withhim?'
I smiled and shook my head.
'How shall we make this traitor find his tongue?' he asked furiously,turning to his council.
'I should clap on the thumbikins,' said one fierce-faced old soldier.
'I have known a lighted match between the fingers work wonders,' anothersuggested. 'Sir Thomas Dalzell hath in the Scottish war been able towin over several of that most stubborn and hardened race, the WesternCovenanters, by such persuasion.'
'Sir Thomas Dalzell,' said a grey-haired gentleman, clad in blackvelvet, 'hath studied the art of war among the Muscovites, in theirbarbarous and bloody encounters with the Turks. God forbid that weChristians of England should seek our examples among the skin-cladidolaters of a savage country.'
'Sir William would like to see war carried out on truly courteousprinciples,' said the first speaker. 'A battle should be like a statelyminuet, with no loss of dignity or of etiquette.'
'Sir,' the other answered hotly, 'I have been in battles when you werein your baby-linen, and I handled a battoon when you could scarce shakea rattle. In leaguer or onfall a soldier's work is sharp and stern, butI say that the use of torture, which the law of England hath abolished,should also be laid aside by the law of nations.'
'Enough, gentlemen, enough!' cried the Duke, seeing that the dispute waslike to wax warm. 'Your opinion, Sir William, hath much weight with us,and yours also, Colonel Hearn. We shall discuss this at greater lengthin privacy. Halberdiers, remove the prisoner, and let a clergyman besent to look to his spiritual needs!'
'Shall we take him to the strong room, your Grace?' asked the Captain ofthe guard.
'No, to the old Boteler dungeon,' he replied; and I heard the next nameupon the list called out, while I was led through a side door with aguard in front and behind me. We passed through endless passages andcorridors, with heavy stop and clank of arms, until we reached theancient wing. Here, in the corner turret, was a small, bare room, mouldyand damp, with a high, arched roof, and a single long slit in the outerwall to admit light. A small wooden couch and a rude chair formedthe whole of the furniture. Into this I was shown by the Captain, whostationed a guard at the door, and then came in after me and loosenedmy wrists. He was a sad-faced man, with solemn sunken eyes and adreary expression, which matched ill with his bright trappings and gaysword-knot.
'Keep your heart up, friend,' said he, in a hollow voice. 'It is but achoke and a struggle. A day or two since we had the same job to do, andthe man scarcely groaned. Old Spender, the Duke's marshal, hath as surea trick of tying and as good judgment in arranging a drop as hath Dunof Tyburn. Be of good heart, therefore, for you shall not fall into thehands of a bungler.'
'I would that I could let Monmouth know that his letters weredelivered,' I exclaimed, seating myself on the side of the bed.
'I' faith, they were delivered. Had you been the penny postman of Mr.Robert Murray, of whom we heard so much in London last spring, you couldnot have handed it in more directly. Why did you not talk the Duke fair?He is a gracious nobleman, and kind of heart, save when he is thwartedor angered. Some little talk as to the rebels' numbers and dispositionsmight have saved you.'
'I wonder that you, as a soldier, should speak or think of such athing,' said I coldly.
'Well, well! Your neck is your own. If it please you to take a leap intonothing it were pity to thwart you. But his Grace commanded that youshould have the chaplain. I must away to him.'
'I prythee do not bring him,' said I. 'I am one of a dissenting stock,and I see that there is a Bible in yonder recess. No man can aid me inmaking my peace with God.'
'It is well,' he answered, 'for Dean Hewby hath come over fromChippenham, and he is discoursing with our good chaplain on the need ofself-denial, moistening his throat the while with a flask of the primeTokay. At dinner I heard him put up thanks for what he was to receive,and in the same breath ask the butler how he dared to serve a deaconof the Church with a pullet without truffle dressing. But, perhaps, youwould desire Dean Hewby's spiritual help? No? Well, what I can do foryou in reason shall be done, since you will not be long upon our hands.Above all, keep a cheery heart.'
He left the cell, but presently unlocked the door and pushed his dismalface round the corner. 'I am Captain Sinclair, of the Duke's household,'he said, 'should you have occasion to ask for me. You had best havespiritual help, for I do assure you that there hath been something worsethan either warder or prisoner in this cell.'
'What then?' I asked.
'Why, marry, nothing less than the Devil,' he answered, coming in andclosing the door. 'It was in this way,' he went on, sinking his voice:'Two years agone Hector Marot, the highwayman, was shut up in this veryBoteler dungeon. I was myself on guard in the corridor that night, andsaw the prisoner at ten o'clock sitting on that bed even as you are now.At twelve I had occasion to look in, as my custom is, with the hopeof cheering his lonely hours, when lo, he was gone! Yes, you may wellstare. Mine eyes had never been off the door, and you can judge whatchance there was of his getting through the windows. Walls and floor areboth solid stone, which might be solid rock for the thickness. WhenI entered there was a plaguy smell of brimstone, and the flame of mylanthorn burned blue. Nay, it is no smiling matter. If the Devil did notrun away with Hector Marot, pray who did? for sure I am that no angel ofgrace could come to him as to Peter of old. Perchance the Evil One maydesire a second bird out of the same cage, and so I tell you this thatyou may be on your guard against his assaults.'
'Nay, I fear him not,' I answered.
'It is well,' croaked the Captain. 'Be not cast down!' His headvanished, and the key turned in the creaking lock. So thick were thewalls that I could hear no sound after the door was closed. Save forthe sighing of the wind in the branches of the trees outside the narrowwindow, all was as silent as the grave within the dungeon.
Thus left to myself I tried to follow Captain Sinclair's advice as tothe keeping up of my heart, though his talk was far from being of acheering nature. In my young days, more particularly among the sectarieswith whom I had been brought most in contact, a belief in the occasionalappearance of the Prince of Darkness, and his interference in bodilyform with the affairs of men, was widespread and unquestioning.Philosophers in their own quiet chambers may argue learnedly on theabsurdity of such things, but in a dim-lit dungeon, cut off from theworld, with the grey gloaming creep
ing down, and one's own fate hangingin the balance, it becomes a very different matter. The escape, if theCaptain's story were true, appeared to border upon the miraculous. Iexamined the walls of the cell very carefully. They were formed of greatsquare stones cunningly fitted together. The thin slit or window wascut through the centre of a single large block. All over, as high asthe hand could reach, the face of the walls was covered with letters andlegends cut by many generations of captives. The floor was composed ofold foot-worn slabs, firmly cemented together. The closest search failedto show any hole or cranny where a rat could have escaped, far less aman.
It is a very strange thing, my dears, to sit down in cold blood, andthink that the chances are that within a few hours your pulses willhave given their last throb, and your soul have sped away upon its finalerrand. Strange and very awesome! The man who rideth down into thepress of the battle with his jaw set and his grip tight upon reign andsword-hilt cannot feel this, for the human mind is such that one emotionwill ever push out another. Neither can the man who draws slow andcatching breaths upon the bed of deadly sickness be said to haveexperience of it, for the mind weakened with disease can but submitwithout examining too closely that which it submits to. When, however,a young and hale man sits alone in quiet, and sees present death hangingover him, he hath such food for thought that, should he survive and liveto be grey-headed, his whole life will be marked and altered by thosesolemn hours, as a stream is changed in its course by some rough bankagainst which it hath struck. Every little fault and blemish standsout clear in the presence of death, as the dust specks appear when thesunbeam shines into the darkened room. I noted them then, and I have, Itrust, noted them ever since.
I was seated with my head bowed upon my breast, deeply buried in thissolemn train of thoughts, when I was startled by hearing a sharp click,such as a man might give who wished to attract attention. I sprang to myfeet and gazed round in the gathering gloom without being able to tellwhence it came. I had well-nigh persuaded myself that my senses haddeceived me, when the sound was repeated louder than before, and castingmy eyes upwards I saw a face peering in at me through the slit, or partof a face rather, for I could but see the eye and corner of the cheek.Standing on my chair I made out that it was none other than the farmerwho had been my companion upon the road.
'Hush, lad!' he whispered, with a warning forefinger pushed through thenarrow crack. 'Speak low, or the guard may chance to hear. What can I dofor you?'
'How did you come to know where I was?' I asked in astonishment.
'Whoy, mun,' he answered, 'I know as much of this 'ere house as Beaufortdoes himsel'. Afore Badminton was built, me and my brothers has spentmany a day in climbing over the old Boteler tower. It's not the firsttime that I have spoke through this window. But, quick; what can I dofor you?'
'I am much beholden to you, sir,' I answered, 'but I fear that there isno help which you can give me, unless, indeed, you could convey news tomy friends in the army of what hath befallen me.'
'I might do that,' whispered Farmer Brown. 'Hark ye in your ear, lad,what I never breathed to man yet. Mine own conscience pricks me at timesover this bolstering up of a Papist to rule over a Protestant nation.Let like rule like, say I. At the 'lections I rode to Sudbury, and Iput in my vote for Maister Evans, of Turnford, who was in favour o' theExclusionists. Sure enough, if that same Bill had been carried, the Dukewould be sitting on his father's throne. The law would have said yes.Now, it says nay. A wonderful thing is the law with its yea, yea, andnay, nay, like Barclay, the Quaker man, that came down here in a leathersuit, and ca'd the parson a steepleman. There's the law. It's no useshootin' at it, or passin' pikes through it, no, nor chargin' at it wi'a troop of horse. If it begins by saying "nay" it will say "nay" to theend of the chapter. Ye might as well fight wi' the book o' Genesis. LetMonmouth get the law changed, and it will do more for him than all thedukes in England. For all that he's a Protestant, and I would do what Imight to serve him.'
'There is a Captain Lockarby, who is serving in Colonel Saxon'sregiment, in Monmouth's army,' said I. 'Should things go wrong with me,I would take it as a great kindness if you would bear him my love, andask him to break it gently, by word or by letter, to those at Havant.If I were sure that this would be done, it would be a great ease to mymind.'
'It shall be done, lad,' said the good farmer. 'I shall send my best manand fleetest horse this very night, that they may know the straits inwhich you are. I have a file here if it would help you.'
'Nay,' I answered, 'human aid can do little to help me here.'
'There used to be a hole in the roof. Look up and see if you can seeaught of it.'
'It arches high above my head,' I answered, looking upwards; 'but thereis no sign of any opening.'
'There was one,' he repeated. 'My brother Roger hath swung himself downwi' a rope. In the old time the prisoners were put in so, like Josephinto the pit. The door is but a new thing.'
'Hole or no hole, it cannot help me,' I answered. 'I have no meansof climbing to it. Do not wait longer, kind friend, or you may findyourself in trouble.'
'Good-bye then, my brave heart,' he whispered, and the honest grey eyeand corner of ruddy cheek disappeared from the casement. Many a timeduring the course of the long evening I glanced up with some wild hopethat he might return, and every creak of the branches outside brought meon to the chair, but it was the last that I saw of Farmer Brown.
This kindly visit, short as it was, relieved my mind greatly, for I hada trusty man's word that, come what might, my friends should, at least,have some news of my fate. It was now quite dark, and I was pacing upand down the little chamber, when the key turned in the door, and theCaptain entered with a rushlight and a great bowl of bread and milk.
'Here is your supper, friend,' said he. 'Take it down, appetite or no,for it will give you strength to play the man at the time ye wot of.They say it was beautiful to see my Lord Russell die upon Tower Hill. Beof good cheer! Folk may say as much of you. His Grace is in a terribleway. He walketh up and down, and biteth his lip, and clencheth his handslike one who can scarce contain his wrath. It may not be against you,but I know not what else can have angered him.'
I made no answer to this Job's comforter, so he presently left me,placing the bowl upon the chair, with the rushlight beside it. Ifinished the food, and feeling the better for it, stretched myself uponthe couch, and fell into a heavy and dreamless sleep. This may havelasted three or four hours, when I was suddenly awoken by a sound likethe creaking of hinges. Sitting up on the pallet I gazed around me. Therushlight had burned out and the cell was impenetrably dark. A greyishglimmer at one end showed dimly the position of the aperture, but allelse was thick and black. I strained my ears, but no further sound fellupon them. Yet I was certain that I had not been deceived, and that thenoise which had aroused me was within my very chamber. I rose and feltmy way slowly round the room, passing my hand over the walls and door.Then I paced backwards and forwards to test the flooring. Neither aroundme nor beneath me was there any change. Whence did the sound come from,then? I sat down upon the side of the bed and waited patiently in thehope of hearing it once again.
Presently it was repeated, a low groaning and creaking as though a dooror shutter long disused was being slowly and stealthily opened. At thesame time a dull yellow light streamed down from above, issuing from athin slit in the centre of the arched roof above me. Slowly as I watchedit this slit widened and extended as if a sliding panel were beingpulled out, until a good-sized hole was left, through which I saw ahead, looking down at me, outlined against the misty light behind it.The knotted end of a rope was passed through this aperture, and camedangling down to the dungeon floor. It was a good stout piece of hemp,strong enough to bear the weight of a heavy man, and I found, uponpulling at it, that it was firmly secured above. Clearly it was thedesire of my unknown benefactor that I should ascend by it, so I wentup hand over hand, and after some difficulty in squeezing my shouldersthrough the hole I succeeded in reaching the room above. Whi
le I wasstill rubbing my eyes after the sudden change from darkness into light,the rope was swiftly whisked up and the sliding shutter closed oncemore. To those who were not in the secret there was nothing to throwlight upon my disappearance.
I found myself in the presence of a stout short man clad in a rudejerkin and leather breeches, which gave him somewhat the appearance of agroom. He wore a broad felt hat drawn down very low over his eyes, whilethe lower part of his face was swathed round with a broad cravat. In hishand he bore a horn lanthorn, by the light of which I saw that theroom in which we were was of the same size as the dungeon beneath, anddiffered from it only in having a broad casement which looked out uponthe park. There was no furniture in the chamber, but a great beam ranacross it, to which the rope had been fastened by which I ascended.
'Speak low, friend,' said the stranger. 'The walls are thick and thedoors are close, yet I would not have your guardians know by what meansyou have been spirited away.'
'Truly, sir,' I answered, 'I can scarce credit that it is other than adream. It is wondrous that my dungeon should be so easily broken into,and more wondrous still that I should find a friend who would be willingto risk so much for my sake.'
'Look there!' quoth he, holding down his lanthorn so as to cast itslight on the part of the floor where the panel was fitted. Can you notsee how old and crumbled is the stone-work which surrounds it? Thisopening in the roof is as old as the dungeon itself, and older farthan the door by which you were led into it. For this was one of thosebottle-shaped cells or oubliettes which hard men of old devised for thesafe keeping of their captives. Once lowered through this hole into thestone-girt pit a man might eat his heart out, for his fate was sealed.Yet you see that the very device which once hindered escape has nowbrought freedom within your reach.'
'Thanks to your clemency, your Grace,' I answered, looking keenly at mycompanion.
'Now out on these disguises!' he cried, peevishly pushing back thebroad-edged hat and disclosing, as I expected, the features of the Duke.'Even a blunt soldier lad can see through my attempts at concealment.I fear, Captain, that I should make a bad plotter, for my nature is asopen--well, as thine is. I cannot better the simile.'
'Your Grace's voice once heard is not easily forgot,' said I.
'Especially when it talks of hemp and dungeons,' he answered, with asmile. 'But if I clapped you into prison, you must confess that I havemade you amends by pulling you out again at the end of my line, like aminnow out of a bottle. But how came you to deliver such papers in thepresence of my council?'
'I did what I could to deliver them in private,' said I. 'I sent you amessage to that effect.'
'It is true,' he answered; 'but such messages come in to me from everysoldier who wishes to sell his sword, and every inventor who hath a longtongue and a short purse. How could I tell that the matter was of realimport?'
'I feared to let the chance slip lest it might never return,' said I. 'Ihear that your Grace hath little leisure during these times.'
'I cannot blame you,' he answered, pacing up and down the room. 'But itwas untoward. I might have hid the despatches, yet it would have rousedsuspicions. Your errand would have leaked out. There are many who envymy lofty fortunes, and who would seize upon a chance of injuring me withKing James. Sunderland or Somers would either of them blow the leastrumour into a flame which might prove unquenchable. There was naught forit, therefore, but to show the papers and to turn a harsh face on themessenger. The most venomous tongue could not find fault in my conduct.What course would you have advised under such circumstances?' 'The mostdirect,' I answered. 'Aye, aye, Sir. Honesty. Public men have, however,to pick their steps as best they may, for the straight path would leadtoo often to the cliff-edge. The Tower would be too scanty for itsguests were we all to wear our hearts upon our sleeves. But to you inthis privacy I can tell my real thoughts without fear of betrayal ormisconstruction. On paper I will not write one word. Your memory mustbe the sheet which bears my answer to Monmouth. And first of all, erasefrom it all that you have heard me say in the council-room. Let it be asthough it never were spoken. Is that done?'
'I understand that it did not really represent your Grace's thoughts.'
'Very far from it, Captain. But prythee tell me what expectation ofsuccess is there among the rebels themselves? You must have heard yourColonel and others discuss the question, or noted by their bearing whichway their thoughts lay. Have they good hopes of holding out against theKing's troops?'
'They have met with naught but success hitherto,' I answered.
'Against the militia. But they will find it another thing when they havetrained troops to deal with. And yet--and yet!--One thing I know, thatany defeat of Feversham's army would cause a general rising throughoutthe country. On the other hand, the King's party are active. Everypost brings news of some fresh levy. Albemarle still holds the militiatogether in the west. The Earl of Pembroke is in arms in Wiltshire.Lord Lumley is moving from the east with the Sussex forces. The Earl ofAbingdon is up in Oxfordshire. At the university the caps and gowns areall turning into head-pieces and steel fronts. James's Dutch regimentshave sailed from Amsterdam. Yet Monmouth hath gained two fights, and whynot a third? They are troubled waters--troubled waters!' The Duke pacedbackwards and forwards with brows drawn down, muttering all this tohimself rather than to me, and shaking his head like one in the sorestperplexity.
'I would have you tell Monmouth,' he said at last, 'that I thank him forthe papers which he hath sent me, and that I will duly read and weighthem. Tell him also that I wish him well in his enterprise, and wouldhelp him were it not that I am hemmed in by those who watch me closely,and who would denounce me were I to show my true thoughts. Tell himthat, should he move his army into these parts, I may then openlydeclare myself; but to do so now would be to ruin the fortunes of myhouse, without in any way helping him. Can you bear him that message?'
'I shall do so, your Grace.
'Tell me,' he asked, 'how doth Monmouth bear himself in thisenterprise?'
'Like a wise and gallant leader,' I answered.
'Strange,' he murmured; 'it was ever the jest at court that he hadscarce energy or constancy enough to finish a game at ball, but wouldever throw his racquet down ere the winning point was scored. His planswere like a weather-vane, altered by every breeze. He was constantonly in his inconstancy. It is true that he led the King's troops inScotland, but all men knew that Claverhouse and Dalzell were the realconquerors at Bothwell Bridge. Methinks he resembles that Brutus inRoman history who feigned weakness of mind as a cover to his ambitions.'
The Duke was once again conversing with himself rather than with me, sothat I made no remark, save to observe that Monmouth had won the heartsof the lower people.
'There lies his strength,' said Beaufort. 'The blood of his mother runsin his veins. He doth not think it beneath him to shake the dirty pawof Jerry the tinker, or to run a race against a bumpkin on the villagegreen. Well, events have shown that he hath been right. These samebumpkins have stood by him when nobler friends have held aloof. I wouldI could see into the future. But you have my message, Captain, andI trust that, if you change it in the delivery, it will be in thedirection of greater warmth and kindliness. It is time now that youdepart, for within three hours the guard is changed, and your escapewill be discovered.'
'But how depart?' I asked.
'Through here,' he answered, pushing open the casement, and sliding therope along the beam in that direction. 'The rope may be a foot or twoshort, but you have extra inches to make matters even. When you havereached the ground, take the gravel path which turns to the right, andfollow it until it leads you to the high trees which skirt the park. Theseventh of these hath a bough which shoots over the boundary wall. Climbalong the bough, drop over upon the other side, and you will find myown valet waiting with your horse. Up with you, and ride, haste, haste,post-haste, for the south. By morn you should be well out of danger'sway.'
'My sword?' I asked.
'All your pro
perty is there. Tell Monmouth what I have said, and let himknow that I have used you as kindly as was possible.'
'But what will your Grace's council say when they find that I am gone?'I asked.
'Pshaw, man! Never fret about that! I will off to Bristol at daybreak,and give my council enough to think of without their having time todevote to your fate. The soldiers will but have another instance ofthe working of the Father of Evil, who hath long been thought to have aweakness for that cell beneath us. Faith, if all we hear be true, therehave been horrors enough acted there to call up every devil out of thepit. But time presses. Gently through the casement! So! Remember themessage.'
'Adieu, your Grace!' I answered, and seizing the rope slipped rapidlyand noiselessly to the ground, upon which he drew it up and closed thecasement. As I looked round, my eye fell upon the dark narrow slit whichopened into my cell, and through which honest Farmer Brown had heldconverse with me. Half-an-hour ago I had been stretched upon the prisonpallet without a hope or a thought of escape. Now I was out in the openwith no hand to stay me, breathing the air of freedom with the prisonand the gallows cast off from me, as the waking man casts off his evildreams. Such changes shake a man's soul, my children. The heart that cansteel itself against death is softened by the assurance of safety. SoI have known a worthy trader bear up manfully when convinced that hisfortunes had been engulfed in the ocean, but lose all philosophy onfinding that the alarm was false, and that they had come safely throughthe danger. For my own part, believing as I do that there is nothing ofchance in the affairs of this world, I felt that I had been exposed tothis trial in order to dispose me to serious thought, and that I hadbeen saved that I might put those thoughts into effect. As an earnest ofmy endeavour to do so I knelt down on the green sward, in the shadow ofthe Boteler turret, and I prayed that I might come to be of use onthe earth, and that I might be helped to rise above my own wants andinterests, to aid forward whatever of good or noble might be stirring inmy days. It is well-nigh fifty years, my dears, since I bowed my spiritbefore the Great Unknown in the moon-tinted park of Badminton, but Ican truly say that from that day to this the aims which I laid downfor myself have served me as a compass over the dark waters of life--acompass which I may perchance not always follow--for flesh is weak andfrail, but which hath, at least, been ever present, that I might turn toit in seasons of doubt and of danger.
The path to the right led through groves and past carp ponds for a mileor more, until I reached the line of trees which skirted the boundarywall. Not a living thing did I see upon my way, save a herd offallow-deer, which scudded away like swift shadows through theshimmering moonshine. Looking back, the high turrets and gables of theBoteler wing stood out dark and threatening against the starlit sky.Having reached the seventh tree, I clambered along the projecting boughwhich shot over the park wall, and dropped down upon the other side,where I found my good old dapple-grey awaiting me in the charge of agroom. Springing to my saddle, I strapped my sword once more to my side,and galloped off as fast as the four willing feet could carry me on myreturn journey.
All that night I rode hard without drawing bridle, through sleepinghamlets, by moon-bathed farmhouses, past shining stealthy rivers, andover birch-clad hills. When the eastern sky deepened from pink intoscarlet, and the great sun pushed his rim over the blue north Somersethills, I was already far upon my journey. It was a Sabbath morning, andfrom every village rose the sweet tinkling and calling of the bells.I bore no dangerous papers with me now, and might therefore be morecareless as to my route. At one point I was questioned by a keen-eyedtoll-keeper as to whence I came, but my reply that I was riding directfrom his Grace of Beaufort put an end to his suspicions. Further down,near Axbridge, I overtook a grazier who was jogging into Wells upon hissleek cob. With him I rode for some time, and learned that the wholeof North Somerset, as well as south, was now in open revolt, and thatWells, Shepton Mallet, and Glastonbury were held by armed volunteersfor King Monmouth. The royal forces had all retired west, or east, untilhelp should come. As I rode through the villages I marked the blue flagupon the church towers, and the rustics drilling upon the green, withoutany sign of trooper or dragoon to uphold the authority of the Stuarts.
My road lay through Shepton Mallet, Piper's Inn, Bridgewater, and NorthPetherton, until in the cool of the evening I pulled up my weary horseat the Cross Hands, and saw the towers of Taunton in the valley beneathme. A flagon of beer for the rider, and a sieveful of oats for thesteed, put fresh mettle into both of us, and we were jogging on our wayonce more, when there came galloping down the side of the hill aboutforty cavaliers, as hard as their horses could carry them. So wild wastheir riding that I pulled up, uncertain whether they were friend orfoe, until, as they came whirling towards me, I recognised that the twoofficers who rode in front of them were none other than Reuben Lockarbyand Sir Gervas Jerome. At the sight of me they flung up their hands, andReuben shot on to his horse's neck, where he sat for a moment astride ofthe mane, until the brute tossed him back into the saddle.
'It's Micah! It's Micah!' he gasped, with his mouth open, and the tearshopping down his honest face.
'Od's pitlikins, man, how did you come here?' asked Sir Gervas, pokingme with his forefinger as though to see if I were really of flesh andblood. 'We were leading a forlorn of horse into Beaufort's country tobeat him up, and to burn his fine house about his ears if you had cometo harm. There has just come a groom from some farmer in those parts whohath brought us news that you were under sentence of death, on which Icame away with my wig half frizzled, and found that friend Lockarby hadleave from Lord Grey to go north with these troopers. But how have youfared?'
'Well and ill,' I answered, wringing their kindly hands. 'I had notthought last night to see another sun rise, and yet ye see that I amhere, sound in life and limb. But all these things will take some timein the telling.'
'Aye, and King Monmouth will be on thorns to see you. Right about, mylads, and back for the camp. Never was errand so rapidly and happilyfinished as this of ours. It would have fared ill with Badminton had youbeen hurt.'
The troopers turned their horses and trotted slowly back to Taunton,while I rode behind them between my two faithful friends, hearing fromthem all that had occurred in my absence, and telling my own adventuresin return. The night had fallen ere we rode through the gates, where Ihanded Covenant over to the Mayor's groom, and went direct to the castleto deliver an account of my mission.
Micah Clarke Page 23