CHAPTER XXXIII.
THE SCHOOLMASTER ABROAD.
"Boys, here's a noise!"
Sergeant Jakes strode up and down the long schoolroom on Friday morning,flapping his empty sleeve, and swinging that big cane with the tuberousjoints, whose taste was none too saccharine. That well-knownejaculation, so expressive of stern astonishment, had for the moment itsdue effect. Curly heads were jerked back, elbows squared, sniggers werehushed, the munch of apples (which had been as of milching kine) stuckfast, or was shunted into bulging cheek; never a boy seemed capable ofdreaming that there was any other boy in the world besides himself.Scratch of pens, and grunts of mental labour, were the only sounds inthis culmination of literature, known as "Copy-exercise." As Achilles,though reduced to a ghost, took a longer stride at the prowess of hisson; and as deep joys, on a similar occasion, pervaded Latona's silentbreast; even so High-Jarks sucked the top of his cane, and felt that hehad not lived in vain. There are many men still hearty--though it is solong ago--who have led a finer life, through that man's higher culture.
But presently--such is the nature of human nature, in its crudeprobation--the effect of that noble remonstrance waned. Silence (whichis itself a shadow, cast by death upon life perhaps) began toflicker--as all dulness should--with the play of small ideas moving it.Little timid whispers, a cane's length below the breath, and with theheart shuffling out of all participation; and then a tacit grin that wasafraid to move the molars, and then a cock of eye, that was intended toinvolve (when a bigger eye was turned away) its mighty owner; and then aclink of marbles in a pocket down the leg; and then a downright joke, ofsuch very subtle humour, that it stole along the bench through funnel'dhands; and then alas, a small boy of suicidal levity sputtered out alaugh, which made wiser wigs stand up!
His crime was only deepened by ending in sham cough; and sad to say, thevery boy who had made the fatal joke (instead of being grateful forreckless approbation) stood up and pointed an unmanly finger at him. TheSergeant's keen eye was upon them both; and a tremble ran along the oak,that bore many tempting aptitudes for the vindication of ethics. But theSergeant bode his time. His sense of justice was chivalrous. Let the bigboy make another joke.
"Boys, here's a noise, again!"
Those who have not had the privilege of the Sergeant's lofty disciplinecan never understand--far less convey--the significance of his secondshout. It expressed profound amazement, horror at our fallen state,incredulity of his own ears, promptitude to redress the wrong, and yet apathetic sorrow at the impending grim necessity. The boys knew well thathis second protest never ascended to heaven in vain; and the owners oftender quarters shrank, and made ready to slide beneath the protectionof their bench. Other boys, with thick corduroys, quailed for themoment, and closed their mouths; but what mouth was ever closedpermanently, by the opening of another?
"Now you shall have it, boys," the Sergeant thundered, as the uproarwaxed beyond power of words. "Any boy slipping out of stroke shall havedouble cuts for cowardice. Stop the ends up. All along both rows ofbenches; I am coming, I am coming!"
"Oh sir, please sir, 'twadn' me, sir! 'Twor all along o' Bill Cornish,sir."
He had got this trimmer by the collar, and his cane swung high in air,when the door was opened vigorously, and a brilliant form appeared.Brilliant, less by its own merits, than by brave embellishment, asbehoves a youth ascending stairs of state from page to footman, andmounting upward, ever upward, to the vinous heights of Butlerhood. Forthis was Bob Cornish, Bill's elder brother; and he smiled at the terrorsof the hurtling cane, compulsive but a year ago, of tears.
With a dignity already imbibed from Binstock, this young man took offhis hat, and employing a spare slate as a tray, presented a letter witha graceful bow. He was none too soon, but just in time. The weapon ofoutraged law came down, too lightly to dust a jacket; and the smiter,wonder-smitten, went to a desk, and read as follows.
"Lady Waldron will be much obliged if Sergeant Jakes will comeimmediately in the vehicle sent with the bearer of this letter. Let noengagement forbid this. Mr. Penniloe has kindly consented to it."
The roof resounded with shouts of joy, instead of heavy wailing, as theSergeant at once dismissed the school; and in half an hour he enteredthe business-room at Walderscourt, and there found the lady of thehouse, looking very resolute, and accompanied by her daughter.
"Soldier Jakes will take a chair. See that the door is closed, mychild, and no persons lingering near it. Now, Inez, will you say to thisbrave soldier of your father's regiment, what we desire him toundertake, if he will be so faithful; for the benefit of his Colonel'sfamily; also for the credit of this English country."
This was clever of my lady. She knew that the veteran's liking was notparticularly active for herself, or any of the Spanish nation; but thathe had transferred his love and fealty of so many years, to hisOfficer's gentle daughter. Any request from Nicie would be almost assacred a command to him, as if it had come from her father. He stood up,made a low bow followed by a military salute, and gazed at the sweetface he loved so well.
"It is for my dear father's sake; and I am as sure as he himself wouldbe," Miss Waldron spoke with tears in her eyes, and a sad smile on herlips that would have moved a heart much harder than this veteran's,"that you will not refuse to do us a great, a very great service, if youcan. And we have nobody we can trust like you; because you are so true,and brave."
The Sergeant rose again, and made another bow even deeper than theformer one; but instead of touching his grizzled locks he laid his onehand on his heart; and although by no means a gushing man, he found itimpossible to prevent a little gleam, like the upshot of a well,quivering under his ferny brows.
"We would not ask you even so," continued Nicie, with a grateful glance,"if it were not that you know the place, and perhaps may find somepeople there still living to remember you. When my father lay wounded atthe house of my grandfather, and was in great danger of his life, you,being also disabled for a time, were allowed at his request to remainwith him, and help him. Will you go to that place again, to do us aservice no one else can do?"
"To the end of the world, Miss, without asking why. But the Lord havemercy on all them boys! Whatever will they do without me?"
"We will arrange about all that, with Mr. Penniloe's consent. If thatcan be managed, will you go, at once, and at any inconvenience toyourself?"
"No ill-convenience shall stop me, Miss. If I thought of that twice, Ishould be a deserter, afore the lines of the enemy. To be of the leastbit of use to you, is an honour as well as a duty to me."
"I thought that you would; I was sure that you would." Inez gave aglance of triumph at her less trustful mother. "And what makes us hurryyou so, is the chance that has suddenly offered for your passage. Weheard this morning, by an accident almost, that a ship is to sail fromTopsham to-morrow, bound direct for Cadiz. Not a large ship, but afast-sailing vessel--a schooner I think they call it, and the Captain isone of Binstock's brothers. You would get there in half the time itwould take to go to London, and wait about for passage, and then comeall down the Channel. And from Cadiz you can easily get on. You know alittle Spanish, don't you?"
"Not reg'lar, Miss. But it will come back again. I picked up just enoughfor this--I couldn't understand them much; but I could make them look asif they understanded me."
"That is quite sufficient. You will have letters to three or fourpersons who are settled there, old servants of my grandfather. We cannottell which of them may be alive, but may well hope that some of them areso. The old house is gone, I must tell you that. After all the troublesof the war, there was not enough left to keep it up with."
"That grand old house, Miss, with the pillars, and the carrots, and thearches, the same as in a picture! And everybody welcome; and you neverknew if there was fifty, or a hundred in it----"
"Sergeant, you describe it well;" Lady Waldron interrupted. "There areno such mansions in this country. Alas, it is gone from us for ever,because we loved our native
land too well!"
"Not only that," said the truthful Inez; "but also because the youngCount, as you would call him, has wasted the relics of his patrimony.And now I will explain to you the reasons for our asking this greatservice of you."
The veteran listened with close attention, and no small astonishment, tothe young lady's clear account of that great public lottery, and thegorgeous prize accruing on the death of Sir Thomas Waldron. This wasenough to tempt a ruined man to desperate measures; and Jakes had someknowledge in early days of the young Count's headstrong character. Butif it should prove so, if he were guilty of the crime which had causedso much distress and such prolonged unhappiness, yet his sister couldnot bear that the sordid motive should be disclosed, at least in thispart of the world. For the sake of others, it would be needful todenounce the culprit; but if the detection were managed well, no motiveneed be assigned at all. Let every one form his own conclusion. Spanishpapers, and Spanish news, came very sparely to Devonshire; and theEnglish public would be sure (in ignorance of that financial scheme,whose result supplied the temptation) to ascribe the assault uponProtestant rites to Popish contempt and bigotry.
"I should tell the whole, if I had to decide it;" said Nicie with thecandour and simplicity of youth. "If he has done it, for the sake ofnasty money, let everybody know what he has done it for."
But the Sergeant shook his head, and quite agreed with Lady Waldron. Theworld was quite quick enough at bad constructions, without receivingthem ready-made.
"Leave busy-bodies to do their own buzzing;" was his oracularsuggestion. "'Tis a grand old family, even on your mother's side, Miss;"Nicie smiled a little, as her mother stared at this new comparativeestimate. "And what odds to our clodhoppers what they do? A Don don'tlook at things the same as a dung-carter; and it takes a man who knowsthe world to make allowance for him. The Count may have done it, mind. Iwon't say no, until such time as I can prove it. But after all, 'tiscomforting to think that it was so, compared to what we all was afraidof. Why, the dear old Colonel would be as happy as a King, in the placehe was so nigh going to after the battle of Barosa; looking down overthe winding of the river, and the moon among the orange-trees, where hewas a' making love!"
"Hush!" whispered Nicie, as her mother turned away, with a trembling inher throat; and the old man saw that the memory of the brighter days hadbrought the shadows also.
"Saturday to-morrow. Boys will do very well, till Monday;" he came outwith this abruptly, to cover his confusion. "By that time, please God, Ishall be in the Bay of Biscay. This is what I'll do, Miss, if it suitsyou and my lady. I'll come again to-night at nine o'clock, with my kitslung tidy, and not a word to anybody. Then I can have the letters,Miss, and my last orders. Ship sails at noon to-morrow, name of_Montilla_. Mail-coach to Exeter passes White Post, a little afterhalf-past ten to-night. Be aboard easily, afore daylight. No, Miss,thank you, I shan't want no money. Passage paid to and fro. Old soldieralways hath a shot in the locker."
"As if we should let you go, like that! You shall not go at all, unlessyou take this purse."
That evening he received his last instructions, and the next day hesailed in the schooner _Montilla_.
Even after the many strange events, which had by this time caused such awhirl of giddiness in Perlycross, that if there had been a good crackacross the street, every man and woman would have fallen headlong intoit; and even before there had been leisure for people to try to tellthem anyhow, to one another--much less discuss them at all as theydeserved--this sudden break-up of the school, and disappearance of HighJarks, would have been absolutely beyond belief, if there had not beenscores of boys, too loudly in evidence everywhere. But when a chap,about four feet high, came scudding in at any door that was open, andkicking at it if it dared to be shut, and then went trying everycupboard-lock, and making sad eyes at his mother if the key was out; andthen again, when he was stuffed to his buttons--which he would be, assure as eggs are eggs--if the street went howling with his playful ways,and every corner was in a jerk with him, and no elderly lady could goalong without her umbrella in front of her--how was it possible for anymother not to feel herself guilty of more harm than good?
In a word, "High Jarks" was justified (as all wisdom is) of hischildren; and the weak-minded women, who had complained that he smotetoo hard, were the first to find fault with the feeble measures of hissubstitute, Vickary Toogood of Honiton. This gentleman came into officeon Monday, smiling in a very superior manner at his predecessor'sarrangements.
"I think we may lock up that," he said, pointing to the Sergeant'slittle tickler; "we must be unworthy of our vocation, if we cannotdispense with such primitive tools." A burst of applause thrilled everybench; but knowing the boys of his parish so well, Mr. Penniloe shookhis head with dubious delight.
And truly before the week was out, many a time would he murmursadly--"Oh for one hour of the Sergeant!" as he heard the Babel oftongues outside, and entering saw the sprawling elbows, slouchingshoulders, and hands in pockets, which the "Apostle of Moralforce"--_Moral farce_ was its sound and meaning here--permitted as theattitude of pupilage.
"Sim'th I be quite out in my reckoning;" old Channing the Clerk had thecheek to say, as he met the Parson outside the school-door; "didn't knowit were Whit-Monday yet."
Mr. Penniloe smiled, but without rejoicing; he understood the referencetoo well. Upon Whit-Monday the two rival Benefit-clubs of the villageheld their feast, and did their very utmost from bridge to Abbey, toout-drum, out-fife, and out-trumpet one another. Neither in his housewas his conscience left untouched.
"I think Lady Waldron might have sent us a better man than that is;"Mrs. Muggridge observed one afternoon, when the uproar came across theroad, and pierced the rectory windows. "I am not sure but what littleMaster Mike could keep better order than that is. Why, the beating ofthe bounds was nothing to it. What could you be about, sir, to take sucha man as that?" Thyatira had long established full privilege of censure.
"Certainly there is a noise;" the Curate was always candid. "But hebrought the very highest credentials from the Institute. We havescarcely given him fair trial yet. The system is new, you see, Mrs.Muggridge; and it must be allowed some time to take effect. No physicalforce, the moral sense appealed to, the higher qualities educed bykindness, the innate preference of right promoted and strengthened byself-exertion, the juvenile faculties to be elevated, from the momentof earliest development, by a perception of their high responsibility,and, and--well I really forget the rest, but you perceive that itamounts to----"
"Row, and riot, and roaring rubbish. That's what it amounts to, sir. ButI beg your pardon, sir; excuse my boldness, for speaking out, uponthings so far above me. But when they comes across the road, at teno'clock in the morning, to beg for a lump of raw beefsteak, by reason oftwo boys getting four black eyes, in fighting across the Master's desk,the new system seem not Apostolical. An Apostle, about as much as I am!My father was above me, and had gifts, and he put himself back, when notunderstanded, to the rising generation; but he never would demeanhimself, to send for raw beefsteak for their black eyes."
"And I think he would have shown his common sense in that. What did youdo, my good Thyatira?" Mr. Penniloe had a little spice of mischief inhim, which always accompanies a sub-sense of humour.
"This was what I did, sir. I looked at him, and he seemed to have beenin the wars himself, and to have come across, perhaps to get out ofthem, being one of the clever ones, as true Schoolmaster sayeth, and bythe same token not so thick of head; and he looked up at me, as if hewas proud of it, to take me in; while the real fighting boys look down,as I know by my brother who was guilty of it; and I said to him, veryquiet like--'No steak kept here for moral-force black-eyes-boys. You goto Robert Jakes, the brother of a man that understands his business, andtell him to enter in his books, half a pound prime-cut, for four blackeyes, to the credit of Vickary Toogood.'"
It was not only thus, but in many other ways, that the village at largeshed painful tears (sadly warra
nted by the ears), and the Church lookedwith scorn at the children straggling in, like a lot of Dissenters goinganyhow; and the Cross at the meeting of the four main roads, which hadbeen a fine stump for centuries, lost its proper coat of whitewash onCandlemas-day; and the crystal Perle itself began to be threaded withred from pugnacious noses. For the lesson of all history was repeated,that softness universal, and unlimited concession, set off verygrandly, but come home with broken heads, to load their guns withgrapnel.
And what could Mr. Penniloe do, when some of the worst belligerents werethose of his own household; upon one frontier his three pupils, and uponanother, Zip Tremlett? Pike, Peckover, and Mopuss, the pupils now comeback again, were all very decent and law-abiding fellows, but haddrifted into a savage feud with the factory boys at the bottom of thevillage. As they were but three against three score, it soon becameunsafe for them to cross Perlebridge, without securing their line ofretreat. Of course they looked down from a lofty height upon "cads whosmelled of yarn, and even worse;" but what could moral, or even linealexcellence, avail them against the huge disparity of numbers? Each ofthem held himself a match for any three of the enemy, and they issued achallenge upon that scale; but the paper-cap'd host showed no chivalry.On one occasion, this noble trio held the bridge victoriously againstthe whole force of the enemy, inflicting serious loss, and evenpreparing for a charge upon the mass. But the cowardly mass found a heapof road-metal, and in lack of their own filled the air with it, and thePennilovian heroes had begun to bite the dust, when luckily Farmer Johnrode up, and saved the little force from annihilation by slashing rightand left through the Operative phalanx.
When Mr. Penniloe heard of this pitched battle, he was deeply grieved;and sending for his pupils administered a severe rebuke to them. ButJohn Pike's reply was a puzzler to him.
"If you please, sir, will you tell us what to do, when they fall uponus?"
"Endeavour to avoid them;" replied the Clergyman, feeling some want ofconfidence however in his counsel.
"So we do, sir, all we can;" Pike made answer, with the aspect of adove. "But they won't be avoided, when they think they've got enoughcads together to lick us."
"I should like to know one thing," enquired the Hopper, striking out hiscalves, which were now becoming of commanding size; "are we to be called'Latin tay-kettles,' and 'Parson's pups,' and then do nothing but runaway?"
"My father says that the road is called the King's Highway;" saidMopuss, who was a fat boy, with great deliberation, "because all hissubjects have a right to it, but no right to throw it at one another."
"I admit that a difficulty arises there;" replied Mr. Penniloe asgravely as he could, for Mopuss was always quoting his papa, a lawyer ofsome eminence. "But really, my lads, we must not have any more of this.There is fault upon both sides, beyond all doubt. I shall see thefactory manager to-morrow, and get him to warn his pugnacious band. I amvery unwilling to confine you to these premises; but if I hear of anymore pitched battles, I shall be compelled to do so, until peace hasbeen proclaimed."
Here again was Jakes to seek; for the fear of him lay upon the factoryboys, as heavily as upon his own school-children. And perhaps as sore apoint as any was that he should have been rapt away, without full reasonrendered.