CHAPTER XII.
THE CONSTABLE OF CLOWN.
"I am a wise fellow; and, which is more, an officer; ... and one thatknows the law, go to."--_Much Ado about Nothing._
It was one hour after midnight, when the fellow travellers left the loneinn near the Newark cross-road. They had arrived there at eight o'clockin the evening. During their stay, Hal had obtained no sleep but thatwhich he had taken at the table, and which had lasted but a few minutes.Anne had slept perhaps an hour before going down to the parlor. Thereader will remember the fatigued condition in which both had come tothe inn. Their next rest could not be had until a long and hard rideshould achieve for them a probable gain of some hours over the horsemenwhom Anthony Underhill had heard. For this gain, Hal counted on the factthat Barnet's horses, more recently ridden, could not be as fresh as hisown, and on Barnet's constant necessity of pausing at each branching ofthe road, to make inquiries. Such were the conditions under which thesecond full day of the flight began.
It was now a time for drawing on that reserved energy which manifestsitself only in seasons of strait. Hal was aware, from past experience,of this stored-up stock of endurance, that serves its possessor onoccasions of extremity. To Anne, its existence within her must have comeas a new disclosure. Hal, as a man of gentle rearing, had for her aman's compassion for a woman to whom this discovery is made by hardshipundergone for the first time. And yet, so does human nature abound inapparent contradictions, he had a kind of satisfaction, almost gleeful,at the toils she had brought upon herself by attempting to overreachhim. For, had she used in sleep the time she had spent in that attempt,had she not taken sufficient of the wine to enervate herself somewhat,she would now have been in fresh vigor for the wearing ride before her.
The riders had a slight check at Nottingham, owing to a difference ofopinion between Master Marryott and the watch, as to the propriety oftheir passing through the town at such an hour of the night. Hal was ininstant readiness for any outcry on the part of Mistress Hazlehurst. Buthe looked so resolute, Kit Bottle so formidable, Anthony Underhill sorigid with latent fighting force, that Anne doubtless saw little to begained from a conflict between her enemy and the unaided dotards of thenight watch. A gold piece, to reinforce a story explaining their earlyriding, proved the magic opener it commonly proves, and obtained alantern from one of the watchmen, as well; and the fugitives rode free,northward into Sherwood forest.
It was lone riding, and toilsome, through the green-wood where RobinHood and his outlaws had made merry, and past Newstead Abbey; and wouldhave been next to impossible but for the lantern, with which the Puritanlighted up a few inches of the tree-roofed road ahead. Dawn found themnear Mansfield, through which town they soon after passed without stay,and proceeded into Derbyshire.
At seven o'clock, having covered twenty-nine miles in the six hourssince their last setting out, and all but Kit Bottle being ready to fallfrom their saddles, they stopped before a humble hostelry at Scardiff.
They could get but one fresh horse here. Bottle took this one, uponwhich to ride back to a suitable spot for watching the road behind. Theothers of the party had to be content with giving their nearly used-upanimals what rest might be had in saddle and bridle, and under apenthouse roof at one end of the inn. Hal, before entering the inn,bought the vigilance of a hostler toward keeping his horses in readinessfor further going, and against any attempt on Anne's part, throughFrancis, to disable them while he slept; though, indeed, he saw littlelikelihood of her employing such means, both she and her page being inthe utmost need of immediate sleep; and she unable to purchase treacheryof the inn folk, for, as he observed when she paid the hostess inadvance, her purse was now sadly fallen away. Hal foresaw, from thislast circumstance, two things: a certainty of her resorting soon todesperate measures against him, and an opportunity for his chivalry todisplay itself in an offer to pay her charges while she continued withdeadly purpose to accompany him.
As Hal was about to follow Anne into the house, he was greeted by apleasant-eyed old fellow who had been sitting on a bench by the door,with a mug of ale at his side; an old fellow whose frieze jacket andbreeches proclaimed a yeoman, and whose presence on the outer bench onso cold a morning betokened a lively curiosity as to the doings of hisfellow-men.
"God save your worship!" said he, in a mild little voice, rising andbowing with great respect for gentility. "I dare say your honor hasna'fell in with the rascals, on your worship's travels?"
Seeing but a rustical officiousness and news hunger in this speech, Halpaused, and asked:
"What rascals, goodman?"
"Them that ha' pestered travellers, and householders, too, so bad oflate, on roads hereabout. Marry, 'tis well to go in plenty company, whenrobbers ride in such number together! They make parlous wayfaring forgentlefolk, your worship!"
"You mean that a band of highway robbers, more than common bold, hathbeen in the neighborhood?"
"Ay, and I would any man might say the rogues were yet out of it! Theyhave terrified constables, and the justices sleep over the matter, andthe sheriff hath his affairs elsewhere; so God look after honesttravellers, say I, sir!"
"You say well," replied Marryott, casting a glance at Anne, who also hadstopped to listen to the countryman's words. She took from Hal'scountenance a sense of the further obligation she must needs be underfor his protection, now that a particular known danger was at hand; butthis sense only moved her to the inward resolve of ending alike thatobligation and their northward travel, by some supreme effort to entraphim. He read her thought in her face, and his look defied her. Shehastened to her room, he to his; she, attended by Francis, he by AnthonyUnderhill.
Marryott and Anthony soon despatched the scant meal brought to theirchamber. Before placing himself for sleep, Harry looked into thepassage. The boy Francis was at his customary post outside hismistress's door.
Hal and the Puritan were asleep before eight o'clock. At ten, Hal awoke.After he had glanced out of the window, and seen no one about the inn,something--he knew not what--impelled him to take another view of thepassage. He did so; and this time he beheld no Francis.
He awakened Anthony, and the two stepped softly into the passage. Theystood for an instant before Mistress Hazlehurst's door, but heard nosound from within. Down-stairs they went, surveying the public room ofthe house as they passed out to the open air. The room was empty. Theyhastened to the shed where the horses were. The horses were now buttwo,--Marryott's and Anthony's. Those of Mistress Hazlehurst and herpage were gone.
With Hal's quick feeling of alarm, there came also a chilling sense ofsudden loneliness. A void seemed to have opened around him.
"The devil!" was all that he could say.
"She cannot have given up, and gone back," volunteered Anthony. "Shewould have had to pass your man Bottle, and he would have ridden hitherto tell you she was stirring."
"Ay, 'tis plain enough she hath not fled southward, where Kit keepswatch for Barnet's men. She hath ridden forward! Ho, John Ostler, amurrain on you!" cried Hal. "The lady--whither hath she gone, and when?Speak out, or 'twill fare hard with you!"
"'Twas but your own two beasts your honor bade me guard," said thehostler, coming from the stables. "As for the lady, her and the lad wentthat way, an hour since or so!" And the fellow pointed northward.
"Haste, Anthony!" muttered Hal, untying his own horse. "Ride yonder forKit Bottle, and then you and he gallop after me! She hath gone to raisethe country ahead of us! Failure of other means hath pushed her to belieher declaration."
"A woman's declaration needeth little pushing, to be o'erthrown,"commented Anthony, sagely, as he mounted.
"Tut, knave, 'tis a woman's privilege to renounce her word!" repliedMaster Marryott, sharply, having already leaped to saddle.
"It may be so; I know not," said Anthony, with sour indifference; andthe two made for the road together.
"Well, see that Kit and you follow speedily, while I fly forward to staythat lady, lest we be caught 'twixt Barnet'
s men behind us, and a hueand cry in front!" Whereupon, without more ado, Hal spurred his horse inthe direction that Anne had taken, while Anthony turned southward inquest of Bottle.
As Hal sped along, he did not dare confess which of the two motives morefed his anxious impatience: solicitude for his own cause, or fear thatAnne might meet danger on the road,--for he recalled what the countrymanhad told him of highway robbers infesting the neighborhood.
He put four miles behind him, neither winning glimpse of her nor beingovertaken by Kit and Anthony. Seeking naught in the forward distance buther figure--now so distinct in his imagination, so painfully absent fromhis real vision,--he paid no heed, until he had galloped into the verymidst of it, to a numerous crowd of heavy-shod countrymen that linedboth sides of the road at the entrance to the village of Clown.
So impetuous had been Hal's forward movement, so complete the possessionof his mind by the one image, that he had seen this village assemblagewith dull eyes, and with no sense of its possibly having anything to dowith himself; yet it was just such a gathering that he ought to haveexpected, and against which he ought to have been on his guard. Notuntil it closed about him, not until a huge loutish fellow caught therein of his suddenly impeded horse, and a pair of rustics drew acrossthe road--from a side lane--a clumsy covered coach that wholly blockedthe way, and a little old man on the edge of the crowd brandished arusty bill and called out in a squeaky voice, "Surrender!" did Halrealize that he had ridden right into the hands of a force hastilygathered by the village constable to waylay and take him prisoner.
Hal clapped hand to sword-hilt, and surveyed the crowd with a sweepingglance. The constable had evidently brought out every able-bodied manin the near neighborhood. Three or four were armed with long bills,hooked and pointed, like that borne by the constable himself. Otherscarried stout staves. Emboldened by the example of the giant who hadseized Hal's rein, the clowns pressed close around his horse. Ere Halcould draw sword, his wrist was caught in the iron grasp of one of thegiant's great brown paws. Two other burly villagers laid hold of hispistols. With his free hand, Hal tried to back his horse out of thepress, but was prevented both by the throng behind and by the bigfellow's gripe of the rein. Marryott thereupon flashed out his dagger,and essayed to use it upon the hand that imprisoned his wrist. But hisarm was caught, in the elbow crook, by the hook of a bill that a yeomanwielded in the nick of time. The next instant, a heavy blow from a stavestruck the dagger from Hal's hand. His legs were seized, and he was acaptured man.
All this had occurred in short time, during the plunging of Hal's horseand the shouting of the crowd. It had been a vastly different matterfrom the night encounter with Mistress Hazlehurst's servants. Theseyokels of Clown, assembled in large number, led by the parish Hercules,bearing the homely weapons to which they were used, opposing afoot andby daylight a solitary mounted man to whom their attack was a completesurprise, were a force from whom defeat was no disgrace. Yet never didMaster Marryott know keener rage, humiliation, and self-reproach--self-reproach for his heedless precipitancy, and his having ridden onwithout his two men--than when he found himself captive to theserustics; save when, a moment later, his glance met an open casement ofan ale-house at one side of the road, and he saw Anne Hazlehurst! Herlook was one of triumph; her smile like that with which he had greetedher after the incident of the locked door at Oakham. And, for the spaceof that moment, he hated her.
"Sir Valentine Fleetwood," cried the constable, in his senile squeak,pushing his way with a sudden access of pomposity from his place at thecrowd's edge, "I apprehend you for high treason, and charge you to getdown from your horse and come peaceably to the justice's house."
"Justice's house!" cried Hal, most wrathfully. "Of what do you prate,old fool? What have I to do with scurvy, rustical justices?"
"To Justice Loudwight's, your honor," replied the constable, suddenlytamed by Hal's high and mighty tone. "In good sooth, his house ispleasant lodging, even for a knight, or lord either, and his table andwine--"
"Devil take Justice Loudwight's table and wine, and a black murrain takeyourself!" broke in Hal, from his horse. "Give me my weapons, and letme pass! What foolery is this, you rogue, to hinder one of her Majesty'ssubjects travelling on weighty business?"
"Nay, sir, I know my duty, and Mr. Loudwight shall judge. I must holdyou till he come back from Chesterfield, whither he hath gone to--"
"I care not wherefore Mr. Loudwight hath gone to Chesterfield, or ifevery other country wight in Derbyshire hath gone to visit the foulfiend! Nor can I tarry for their coming back," quoth Hal, truly enough,for such tarrying meant his detention for the arrival of Roger Barnet."Let me pass on, or this place shall rue this day!"
"I be the constable, and I know my duty, and I must apprehend all flyingtraitors, whether they be traitors or no, which is a matter for mybetters in the law to give judgment on."
The constable's manner showed a desire to prove himself an authoritativepersonage, in the eyes of the community and of Mistress Hazlehurst. Hewas a quailing old fellow, who pretended boldness; a simple soul, whoaffected shrewdness.
"Know your duty, say you?" quoth Hal. "Were that so, you would know aconstable may not hold a gentleman without a warrant. Where is yourwrit?"
"Talk not of warrants! I'll have warrants enough when Justice Loudwightcometh home. Though I have no warrant yet, I have information," and theconstable glanced at the window from which Anne looked down at thescene.
Hal thought of the surely fatal consequences of his remaining in custodytill either Justice Loudwight should come home or Roger Barnet arrive.His heart sank. True, Kit Bottle and Anthony Underhill might appear atany moment; but their two swords, unaided by his own, would scarce availagainst the whole village toward effecting a rescue. He pondered asecond; then spoke thus:
"Look you, Master Constable! You have information. Well, information isbut information. Mine affairs so press me onward that I may not wait tobe judged of your Mr. Loudwight. Hear you, therefore, the charge againstme, and mine answer to't. While the justice is away, is not theconstable the main pillar of the law? And shall not a constable judge ofinformation that cometh to him first? Ods-light, 'tis a pretty pass whenone may say this-and-that into the ears of a constable, and bid him actupon it as 'twere heaven's truth! Hath he no mind of his own, by whichhe may judge of information? If he have authority to receiveinformation, hath he not authority to receive denial of it, and torender opinion 'twixt the two?"
The constable, flattered and magnified--he knew not exactly why--byHal's words and mien, expanded and looked profound; then answered, witha sage, approving nod:
"There is much law and equity in what you say, sir!"
Quick to improve the situation, Hal instantly added:
"Then face me with your informer, Master Constable, and judge lawfullybetween us!"
"Bring this worshipful prisoner before me!" commanded the constable,addressing the giant and the others in possession of Hal's horse, legs,and weapons; and thereupon walked, with great authority, into theale-house. Hal was promptly pulled from his saddle, and led after him.The constabulary presence established itself behind a table at one sideof the public room. The giant and another fellow held Hal, while a thirdtied his hands behind with a rope.
The villagery crowded into the room, pushing Hal almost against theconstable's table. But, after a moment, the crowd parted; for AnneHazlehurst, having witnessed the course of events from her window, hadcome down-stairs without being summoned, and she now moved forward toHal's side, closely followed by Francis. Meanwhile, at the constable'sorder, a gawkish stripling, whose looks betokened an underdonepedagogue, took a seat at the table's end, with writing materials whichthe officer of the peace had commanded from the ale-house keeper inorder to give an imposing legal aspect to the proceedings.
"Now, sir," began the constable, with his best copy of a judicial frown,"there is here to be examined a question of whether this offender be intruth a pursued traitor--"
"Pardon me, M
aster Constable," objected Hal. "Sith it is questionablewhether I be that traitor. I may not yet be called an offender."
"Sir," replied the constable, taking on severity from the presence ofAnne, "leave these matters to them that stand for the laws. Offender youare, and that's certain, having done offence in that you did resistapprehension."
"Nay, if I be the pursued traitor I am charged with being," said Hal,"then might that apprehension have been proper, and I might stand guiltyof resistance; but if I be no such traitor, the apprehension was but themolesting of a true subject of the queen, and my resistance was but aself-defence, and the offence was of them that stayed me."
The constable began to fear he was in deep waters; so cleared his throatfor time, and at last proceeded:
"There is much can be said thereon, and if it be exhibited that therewas resistance, then be sure justice will be rendered. If it be provenyou are no traitor, then perhaps it shall follow that there was noresistance. But yet I say not so for certain. What is your name, sir?"
Before Hal could answer, Mistress Hazlehurst put in:
"His name is Sir Valentine Fleetwood, and he is flying from a warrant--"
"Write down Sir Valentine Fleetwood," said the constable, in anundertone, to the youth with quill, ink-horn, and paper.
"Write down no such name!" cried Hal. "Write down Harry Marryott,gentleman, of the lord chamberlain's company of players!" And Hal facedAnne, with a look of defiance. Ere any one could speak, he went on,"This lady, whom I take to be your informer, will confess that, if I benot Sir Valentine Fleetwood, I am not the person she doth accuse."
During the silence of the assemblage, Anne regarded Hal with acontemptuous smile, as if she thought his device to escape detention asshallow and foolish as had been her own first attempt to hinder him.
"What name shall I put down?" asked the puzzled scribe, of theconstable.
"Write Sir Valentine Fleetwood!" repeated Anne, peremptorily. "Thisgentleman's sorry shift to evade you, Master Constable, is scarce worthyof his birth."
"Write down Sir Valentine Fleetwood," ordered the constable. "Is notthis the examination of Sir Valentine Fleetwood, and whose name else--?"
"If it be the examination of Sir Valentine Fleetwood," interrupted Hal,"then 'tis not my examination, and I demand of you my liberty forthwith;for I do not acknowledge that name! I warn you, constable!"
Taken aback by Hal's threatening tone, the constable looked irresolute,and glanced from Hal to Anne and back again.
Mistress Hazlehurst opened her eyes in a mixture of amazement and alarm,as if it might indeed be possible that her enemy's device should haveeffect upon this ignorant rustic. She took the supposed Sir Valentine'sdenial of that name to be a pitiful lie, employed on the spur of themoment. It was not less important to Hal that she should so take it,than it was that the constable should receive it as truth; and he nowhad to wear toward the officer a manner of veracity, and toward Anne themien of a ready and brazen liar. This could not but make her loathe himthe more, and it went against him to assume it. But in his mind he couldhear the steady hoof-beats of Roger Barnet's horses coming up from thesouth, and so he must stick firmly to the truth which made him in hereyes a liar.
Her momentary look of alarm died away as the constable continued to gazein stupid indecision. She waited for others to speak; she had nointerest in hastening matters; her hopes were served by every minute ofdelay. But Hal's case was the reverse.
"Well, man," he said, to the slow-thinking constable. "I am here toanswer to any charge made against me in mine own name. If you have aughtto say concerning Mr. Harry Marryott, of the lord chamberlain's players,set it forth, for I am in haste. I swear to you, by God's name, and onthe cross of my sword if yon fellow hand it back to me, that I am notSir Valentine Fleetwood, and that there is no warrant for myapprehension!"
"Perjurer!" cried Anne, with scorn and indignation.
"Nay, madam," quoth the constable, somewhat impressed by Hal'sdeclaration, "an oath is an oath. There be the laws of evidence--"
"Then hear my oath!" she broke in. "I swear, before God, this gentlemanis he that the royal officers are in pursuit of, with properwarrant,--as you shall soon know, when they come hither!"
The constable sat in bewilderment; frowned, gulped, and hemmed; gazed atHal, at Anne, at the table before him, and into the open mouth of thelean clerk, who waited for something to write down. At last he squeaked:
"'Tis but oath against oath--a fair balance."
"Then take the oath of my page," said Anne, quickly, drawing Francisforward. "He will swear this is the gentleman of whom I told you."
"That I do," quoth Francis, sturdily, "upon this cross!" And he heldaloft his dagger-hilt.
The constable heaved a great sigh of relief, and looked upon Hal with aneased countenance.
"The weight of evidence convicts you, sir," he said. "Let the name ofSir Valentine Fleetwood be taken down, and then his oath, and then thenames of these two swearers, and their two oaths--"
"Stay a moment, Master Constable!" cried Hal, his eye suddenly caught bythe dismounting of two men from horseback, outside the ale-house window,which had been opened to let fresh air in upon the crowd. "There beother oaths to take down! Ho. Kit Bottle, and Anthony, tie your horsesand come hither! Nay, gripe not your swords! Let there be no breach ofthe peace. But hasten in!"
The general attention fell upon the newcomers, who had ridden hotly.With a dauntless air Kit Bottle strode through the crowd, handling menroughly to make a way, and followed close by Anthony.
"What a murrain hath befallen--?" Kit was beginning; but Hal stopped himwith:
"No time for words! Captain Bottle, you and worthy Master Underhill,testify to this officer my name, the name half London knows me by as aplayer of the lord chamberlain's company! This lady will have it I amone Sir Valentine Fleetwood. Speak my true name, therefore, upon youroath."
Hal had said enough to inform both Kit and Anthony what name was wantedon this occasion, and the captain instantly answered:
"I will swear to this officer--an thou call'st him such--and maintain itwith my sword against any man in England, that thou art no Sir ValentineFleetwood, but art Master Harry Marryott, and none other, of the lordchamberlain's servants!"
"'Tis the simple truth," said Anthony Underhill, glowering coldly uponthe constable. "I will take oath thereto."
The constable held up three fingers of one hand, on Hal's side, and twofingers of the other hand, on Anne's side, and said to her:
"Mistress, here be three oaths against two; thou'rt clearly outsworn!"
"Perjurers!" said Anne, facing Master Marryott and his men.
"Nay, nay, madam!" quoth the constable, becoming severe on thevictorious side. "An there be charge of perjury in the case, look tothyself! Since these three have sworn truly, it followeth that thy twooaths be false oaths!"
"Rascal!" cried Hal. "Do you dare accuse this lady of false swearing?"
"Why, why, surely your three oaths be true--"
"True they are, and see you to't my horse and weapons be rendered up tome straightways! But this lady swore what she thought true. She had goodreason for so thinking, and village rogues would best use fair words toher!"
He cast a side-glance at Anne, as he finished speaking; but at thatinstant she turned her back upon him, and went from the room, as swiftlyas the crowd could let her. Hal, perforce, stayed to be unbound by therustics that had held him. At the further orders of the constable, whospeedily dwindled into obsequious nothingness under the swaggeringdisdain of Captain Bottle, Hal's weapons were restored to him. When hewent out to the road, he found his horse ready, with Kit's andAnthony's. The huge coach, recently used by the rustics to obstruct theway, had been moved back into the lane. Hal remarked aloud upon this, ashe made ready to mount.
"Ay, your worship," said a villager, who had overheard him, "we openedthe way again, when the lady rode off a minute ago."
"The lady!" cried Hal, and exchanged a blank look wi
th Kit and Anthony.He had lost sight of her, while being released and repossessed of hisweapons. "A plague on my dull wits!" he added, for the ears of his twomen alone. "She hath gone to try the same game in the next parish, andfortune will scarce favor me with such another choice organ of the lawas this constable!"
Meanwhile, in the ale-house, the constable, after some meditation,called for ale to be brought to the table at which he had been sitting,and said, thoughtfully, to his ally of the pen and ink-horn:
"Thou mayst tear what thou hast taken down of the examination, William."
And William, muddled by participation in the recent rush of events,absently tore to pieces his sheet of paper, on which he had writtennothing.