CHAPTER XXVI
JOHN IS DRAINED AND CAST ASIDE
His lordship was busy with some letters, and did not look up for aminute or two, although he knew that I was there. Meanwhile I stoodwaiting to make my bow; afraid to begin upon him, and wondering at hisgreat bull-head. Then he closed his letters, well-pleased with theirimport, and fixed his bold broad stare on me, as if I were an oysteropened, and he would know how fresh I was.
'May it please your worship,' I said, 'here I am according to order,awaiting your good pleasure.'
'Thou art made to weight, John, more than order. How much dost thou tipthe scales to?'
'Only twelvescore pounds, my lord, when I be in wrestling trim. And sureI must have lost weight here, fretting so long in London.'
'Ha, ha! Much fret is there in thee! Hath His Majesty seen thee?'
'Yes, my lord, twice or even thrice; and he made some jest concerningme.'
'A very bad one, I doubt not. His humour is not so dainty as mine, butapt to be coarse and unmannerly. Now John, or Jack, by the look of thee,thou art more used to be called.'
'Yes, your worship, when I am with old Molly and Betty Muxworthy.'
'Peace, thou forward varlet! There is a deal too much of thee. We shallhave to try short commons with thee, and thou art a very long common.Ha, ha! Where is that rogue Spank? Spank must hear that by-and-by. It isbeyond thy great thick head, Jack.'
'Not so, my lord; I have been at school, and had very bad jokes madeupon me.'
'Ha, ha! It hath hit thee hard. And faith, it would be hard to missthee, even with harpoon. And thou lookest like to blubber, now. Capital,in faith! I have thee on every side, Jack, and thy sides are manifold;many-folded at any rate. Thou shalt have double expenses, Jack, for thewit thou hast provoked in me.'
'Heavy goods lack heavy payment, is a proverb down our way, my lord.'
'Ah, I hurt thee, I hurt thee, Jack. The harpoon hath no tickle forthee. Now, Jack Whale, having hauled thee hard, we will proceed toexamine thee.' Here all his manner was changed, and he looked with hisheavy brows bent upon me, as if he had never laughed in his life, andwould allow none else to do so.
'I am ready to answer, my lord,' I replied, 'if he asks me nought beyondmy knowledge, or beyond my honour.'
'Hadst better answer me everything, lump. What hast thou to do withhonour? Now is there in thy neighbourhood a certain nest of robbers,miscreants, and outlaws, whom all men fear to handle?'
'Yes, my lord. At least, I believe some of them be robbers, and all ofthem are outlaws.'
'And what is your high sheriff about, that he doth not hang them all? Orsend them up for me to hang, without more to do about them?'
'I reckon that he is afraid, my lord; it is not safe to meddle withthem. They are of good birth, and reckless; and their place is verystrong.'
'Good birth! What was Lord Russell of, Lord Essex, and this Sidney? 'Tisthe surest heirship to the block to be the chip of a good one. What isthe name of this pestilent race, and how many of them are there?'
'They are the Doones of Bagworthy forest, may it please your worship.And we reckon there be about forty of them, beside the women andchildren.'
'Forty Doones, all forty thieves! and women and children! Thunder ofGod! How long have they been there then?'
'They may have been there thirty years, my lord; and indeed they mayhave been forty. Before the great war broke out they came, longer backthan I can remember.'
'Ay, long before thou wast born, John. Good, thou speakest plainly.Woe betide a liar, whenso I get hold of him. Ye want me on the WesternCircuit; by God, and ye shall have me, when London traitors are spun andswung. There is a family called De Whichehalse living very nigh thee,John?'
This he said in a sudden manner, as if to take me off my guard, andfixed his great thick eyes on me. And in truth I was much astonished.
'Yes, my lord, there is. At least, not so very far from us. Baron deWhichehalse, of Ley Manor.'
'Baron, ha! of the Exchequer--eh, lad? And taketh dues instead of HisMajesty. Somewhat which halts there ought to come a little further, Itrow. It shall be seen to, as well as the witch which makes it so tohalt. Riotous knaves in West England, drunken outlaws, you shall dance,if ever I play pipe for you. John Ridd, I will come to Oare parish, androut out the Oare of Babylon.'
'Although your worship is so learned,' I answered seeing that now hewas beginning to make things uneasy; 'your worship, though being ChiefJustice, does little justice to us. We are downright good and loyalfolk; and I have not seen, since here I came to this great town ofLondon, any who may better us, or even come anigh us, in honesty, andgoodness, and duty to our neighbours. For we are very quiet folk, notprating our own virtues--'
'Enough, good John, enough! Knowest thou not that modesty is themaidenhood of virtue, lost even by her own approval? Now hast thou everheard or thought that De Whichehalse is in league with the Doones ofBagworthy?'
Saying these words rather slowly, he skewered his great eyes into mine,so that I could not think at all, neither look at him, nor yet away.The idea was so new to me that it set my wits all wandering; and lookinginto me, he saw that I was groping for the truth.
'John Ridd, thine eyes are enough for me. I see thou hast never dreamedof it. Now hast thou ever seen a man whose name is Thomas Faggus?'
'Yes, sir, many and many a time. He is my own worthy cousin; and I fearhe that hath intentions'--here I stopped, having no right there to speakabout our Annie.
'Tom Faggus is a good man,' he said; and his great square face had asmile which showed me he had met my cousin; 'Master Faggus hath mademistakes as to the title to property, as lawyers oftentimes may do; buttake him all for all, he is a thoroughly straightforward man; presentshis bill, and has it paid, and makes no charge for drawing it.Nevertheless, we must tax his costs, as of any other solicitor.'
'To be sure, to be sure, my lord!' was all that I could say, notunderstanding what all this meant.
'I fear he will come to the gallows,' said the Lord Chief Justice,sinking his voice below the echoes; 'tell him this from me, Jack. Heshall never be condemned before me; but I cannot be everywhere, and someof our Justices may keep short memory of his dinners. Tell him to changehis name, turn parson, or do something else, to make it wrong to hanghim. Parson is the best thing, he hath such command of features, and hemight take his tithes on horseback. Now a few more things, John Ridd;and for the present I have done with thee.'
All my heart leaped up at this, to get away from London so: and yet Icould hardly trust to it.
'Is there any sound round your way of disaffection to His Majesty, Hismost gracious Majesty?'
'No, my lord: no sign whatever. We pray for him in church perhaps,and we talk about him afterwards, hoping it may do him good, as it isintended. But after that we have naught to say, not knowing much abouthim--at least till I get home again.'
'That is as it should be, John. And the less you say the better. But Ihave heard of things in Taunton, and even nearer to you in Dulverton,and even nigher still upon Exmoor; things which are of the pillorykind, and even more of the gallows. I see that you know naught of them.Nevertheless, it will not be long before all England hears of them. Now,John, I have taken a liking to thee, for never man told me the truth,without fear or favour, more thoroughly and truly than thou hast done.Keep thou clear of this, my son. It will come to nothing; yet many shallswing high for it. Even I could not save thee, John Ridd, if thou wertmixed in this affair. Keep from the Doones, keep from De Whichehalse,keep from everything which leads beyond the sight of thy knowledge. Imeant to use thee as my tool; but I see thou art too honest and simple.I will send a sharper down; but never let me find thee, John, either atool for the other side, or a tube for my words to pass through.'
Here the Lord Justice gave me such a glare that I wished myself wellrid of him, though thankful for his warnings; and seeing how he hadmade upon me a long abiding mark of fear, he smiled again in a jocularmanner, and said,--
'Now, ge
t thee gone, Jack. I shall remember thee; and I trow, thouwilt'st not for many a day forget me.'
'My lord, I was never so glad to go; for the hay must be in, and thericks unthatched, and none of them can make spars like me, and two mento twist every hay-rope, and mother thinking it all right, and listeningright and left to lies, and cheated at every pig she kills, and even theskins of the sheep to go--'
'John Ridd, I thought none could come nigh your folk in honesty, andgoodness, and duty to their neighbours!'
'Sure enough, my lord; but by our folk, I mean ourselves, not the mennor women neither--'
'That will do, John. Go thy way. Not men, nor women neither, are betterthan they need be.'
I wished to set this matter right; but his worship would not hear me,and only drove me out of court, saying that men were thieves and liars,no more in one place than another, but all alike all over the world,and women not far behind them. It was not for me to dispute this point(though I was not yet persuaded of it), both because my lord was aJudge, and must know more about it, and also that being a man myself Imight seem to be defending myself in an unbecoming manner. Therefore Imade a low bow, and went; in doubt as to which had the right of it.
But though he had so far dismissed me, I was not yet quite free togo, inasmuch as I had not money enough to take me all the way to Oare,unless indeed I should go afoot, and beg my sustenance by the way, whichseemed to be below me. Therefore I got my few clothes packed, and my fewdebts paid, all ready to start in half an hour, if only they would giveme enough to set out upon the road with. For I doubted not, being youngand strong, that I could walk from London to Oare in ten days or intwelve at most, which was not much longer than horse-work; only I hadbeen a fool, as you will say when you hear it. For after receiving fromMaster Spank the amount of the bill which I had delivered--less indeedby fifty shillings than the money my mother had given me, for I hadspent fifty shillings, and more, in seeing the town and treating people,which I could not charge to His Majesty--I had first paid all my debtsthereout, which were not very many, and then supposing myself to be anestablished creditor of the Treasury for my coming needs, and alreadyscenting the country air, and foreseeing the joy of my mother, what hadI done but spent half my balance, ay and more than three-quarters of it,upon presents for mother, and Annie, and Lizzie, John Fry, and his wife,and Betty Muxworthy, Bill Dadds, Jim Slocombe, and, in a word, half ofthe rest of the people at Oare, including all the Snowe family, who musthave things good and handsome? And if I must while I am about it, hidenothing from those who read me, I had actually bought for Lorna a thingthe price of which quite frightened me, till the shopkeeper said it wasnothing at all, and that no young man, with a lady to love him, coulddare to offer her rubbish, such as the Jew sold across the way. Now themere idea of beautiful Lorna ever loving me, which he talked about aspatly (though of course I never mentioned her) as if it were a settledthing, and he knew all about it, that mere idea so drove me abroad,that if he had asked three times as much, I could never have counted themoney.
Now in all this I was a fool of course--not for remembering my friendsand neighbours, which a man has a right to do, and indeed is bound todo, when he comes from London--but for not being certified first whatcash I had to go on with. And to my great amazement, when I went withanother bill for the victuals of only three days more, and a week'sexpense on the homeward road reckoned very narrowly, Master Spank notonly refused to grant me any interview, but sent me out a piece of bluepaper, looking like a butcher's ticket, and bearing these words and nomore, 'John Ridd, go to the devil. He who will not when he may, when hewill, he shall have nay.' From this I concluded that I had lost favourin the sight of Chief Justice Jeffreys. Perhaps because my evidence hadnot proved of any value! perhaps because he meant to let the matter lie,till cast on him.
Anyhow, it was a reason of much grief, and some anger to me, and verygreat anxiety, disappointment, and suspense. For here was the time ofthe hay gone past, and the harvest of small corn coming on, and thetrout now rising at the yellow Sally, and the blackbirds eating ourwhite-heart cherries (I was sure, though I could not see them), and whowas to do any good for mother, or stop her from weeping continually? Andmore than this, what was become of Lorna? Perhaps she had cast me awayaltogether, as a flouter and a changeling; perhaps she had drownedherself in the black well; perhaps (and that was worst of all) she waseven married, child as she was, to that vile Carver Doone, if the Doonesever cared about marrying! That last thought sent me down at once towatch for Mr. Spank again, resolved that if I could catch him, spank himI would to a pretty good tune, although sixteen in family.
However, there was no such thing as to find him; and the usher vowed(having orders I doubt) that he was gone to the sea for the good of hishealth, having sadly overworked himself; and that none but a poor devillike himself, who never had handling of money, would stay in London thisfoul, hot weather; which was likely to bring the plague with it. Herewas another new terror for me, who had heard of the plagues of London,and the horrible things that happened; and so going back to my lodgingsat once, I opened my clothes and sought for spots, especially as beingso long at a hairy fellmonger's; but finding none, I fell down andthanked God for that same, and vowed to start for Oare to-morrow, withmy carbine loaded, come weal come woe, come sun come shower; though allthe parish should laugh at me, for begging my way home again, after thebrave things said of my going, as if I had been the King's cousin.
But I was saved in some degree from this lowering of my pride, and whatmattered more, of mother's; for going to buy with my last crown-piece(after all demands were paid) a little shot and powder, more needful onthe road almost than even shoes or victuals, at the corner of the streetI met my good friend Jeremy Stickles, newly come in search of me. I tookhim back to my little room--mine at least till to-morrow morning--andtold him all my story, and how much I felt aggrieved by it. But hesurprised me very much, by showing no surprise at all.
'It is the way of the world, Jack. They have gotten all they can fromthee, and why should they feed thee further? We feed not a dead pig, Itrow, but baste him well with brine and rue. Nay, we do not victual himupon the day of killing; which they have done to thee. Thou art a luckyman, John; thou hast gotten one day's wages, or at any rate half a day,after thy work was rendered. God have mercy on me, John! The things Isee are manifold; and so is my regard of them. What use to insist onthis, or make a special point of that, or hold by something said of old,when a different mood was on? I tell thee, Jack, all men are liars; andhe is the least one who presses not too hard on them for lying.'
This was all quite dark to me, for I never looked at things like that,and never would own myself a liar, not at least to other people, noreven to myself, although I might to God sometimes, when trouble was uponme. And if it comes to that, no man has any right to be called a 'liar'for smoothing over things unwitting, through duty to his neighbour.
'Five pounds thou shalt have, Jack,' said Jeremy Stickles suddenly,while I was all abroad with myself as to being a liar or not; 'fivepounds, and I will take my chance of wringing it from that great rogueSpank. Ten I would have made it, John, but for bad luck lately. Put backyour bits of paper, lad; I will have no acknowledgment. John Ridd, nononsense with me!'
For I was ready to kiss his hand, to think that any man in London (themeanest and most suspicious place, upon all God's earth) should trust mewith five pounds, without even a receipt for it! It overcame me so thatI sobbed; for, after all, though big in body, I am but a child at heart.It was not the five pounds that moved me, but the way of giving it; andafter so much bitter talk, the great trust in my goodness.