CHAPTER XVII.
I MEET WITH A HAPPY ADVENTURE BY BURNING OF A GREEN LIGHT.
The rest of this signal victory (in which 1,700 prisoners were taken,besides the Major-General Chudleigh; and all the rebels' camp, cannonand victuals) I leave historians to tell. For very soon after the routwas assured (the plain below full of men screaming and running, and Col.John Digby's dragoons after them, chasing, cutting, and killing), a wetmuzzle was thrust into my hand, and turning, I found Molly behind me,with the groom to whom I had given her in the morning. The rogue hadcounted on a crown for his readiness, and swore the mare was ready foranything, he having mix'd half a pint of strong ale with her mash, nothalf an hour before.
So I determin'd to see the end of it, and paying the fellow, climb'dinto the saddle. On the summit the Cornish captains were now met, andcordially embracing. 'Tis very sad in these latter times to call backtheir shouts and boyish laughter, so soon to be quench'd on Lansdowneslopes, or by Bristol graff. Yet, O favor'd ones!--to chase Victory, tograsp her flutt'ring skirt, and so, with warm, panting cheeks, kissingher, to fall, escaping evil days!
How could they laugh? For me, the late passionate struggle left meshaken with sobs; and for the starting tears I saw neither moors around,nor sun, nor twinkling sea. Brushing them away, I was aware of BillyPottery striding at my stirrup, and munching at a biscuit he had foundin the rebels' camp. Said he, "In season, Jack, is in reason. Therebe times to sing an' to dance, to marry and to give in marriage; an'likewise times to become as wax: but now, lookin' about an' seein'no haughty slaughterin' cannon but has a Cornishman seated 'pon thetouch-hole of the same, says I in my thoughtsome way, 'Forbear!'"
Presently he pulls up before a rebel trooper, that was writhing on theslope with a shatter'd thigh, yet raised himself on his fists to gaze onus with wide, painful eyes.
"Good sirs," gasp'd out the rebel, "can you tell me--where be NatShipward?"
"Now how should I know?" I answer'd.
"'A had nutty-brown curls, an' wore a red jacket--Oh, as straight ayoung man as ever pitched hay! 'a sarved in General Chudleigh's troop--avery singular straight young man."
"Death has taken a many such," said I, and thought on the man I had runthrough in our last charge.
The fellow groaned. "'A was my son," he said: and though Billy pull'dout a biscuit (his pockets bulged with them) and laid it beside him, heturn'd from it, and sank back on the turf again.
We left him, and now, the descent being gentler, broke into a run, inhopes to catch up with Col. John Digby's dragoons, that already were faracross the next vale. The slope around us was piled with dead and dying,whereof four out of every five were rebels; and cruelly they cursed usas we passed them by. Night was coming on apace; and here already wewere in deep shadow, but could see the yellow sun on the hills beyond.We crossed a stream at the foot, and were climbing again. Behind us thecheering yet continued, though fainter: and fainter grew the cries andshouting in front. Soon we turn'd into a lane over a steep hedge, underthe which two or three stout rebels were cowering. As we came tumblingalmost atop of them, they ran yelling: and we let them go in peace.
The lane gradually led us to westward, out of the main line of the rout,and past a hamlet where every door was shut and all silent. And at lasta slice of the sea fronted us, between two steeply shelving hills. Onthe crest of the road, before it plunged down toward the coast, wasa wagon lying against the hedge, with the horses gone: and beside it,stretch'd across the road, an old woman. Stopping, we found her dead,with a sword-thrust through the left breast; and inside the wagon ayoung man lying, with his jaw bound up,--dead also. And how this sadspectacle happened here, so far from the battlefield, was more than wecould guess.
I was moving away, when Billy, that was kneeling in the road, chancedto cast his eyes up toward the sea, and dropping the dead woman's handscrambled on his feet and stood looking, with a puzzled face.
Following his gaze, I saw a small sloop moving under shorten'd canvas,about two miles from the land. She made a pleasant sight, with the lastrays of sunlight flaming on her sails: but for Billy's perturbation Icould not account, so turn'd an enquiring glance to him.
"Suthin' i' the wind out yonder," was his answer: "What's a sloop doingon that ratch so close in by the point? Be dang'd! but there she goesagain;"--as the little vessel swung off a point or two further from thebreeze, that was breathing softly up Channel. "Time to sup, lad, for theboth of us," he broke off shortly.
Indeed, I was faint with hunger by this time, yet had no stomach toeat thus close to the dead. So turning into a gate on our left hand, wecross'd two or three fields, and sat down to sup off Billy's biscuits,the mare standing quietly beside us, and cropping the short grass.
The field where we now found ourselves ran out along the top of a smallpromontory, and ended, without fence of any sort, at the cliff's edge.As I sat looking southward, I could only observe the sloop by turning myhead: but Billy, who squatted over against me, hardly took his eyes offher, and between this and his meal was too busy to speak a word. Forme, I had enough to do thinking over the late fight: and being near wornout, had half a mind to spend the night there on the hard turf: for,though the sun was now down and the landscape grey, yet the air wasexceeding warm: and albeit, as I have said, there breath'd a lightbreeze now and then, 'twas hardly cool enough to dry the sweat off me.So I stretch'd myself out, and found it very pleasant to lie still;nor, when Billy stood up and sauntered off toward the far end of theheadland, did I stir more than to turn my head and lazily watch him.
He was gone half an hour at the least, and the sky by this time was sodark, that I had lost sight of him, when, rising on my elbow to lookaround, I noted a curious red glow at a point where the turf broke off,not three hundred yards behind me, and a thin smoke curling up in it, asit seem'd, from the very face of the cliff below. In a minute or so thesmoke ceased almost; but the shine against the sky continued steady,tho' not very strong. "Billy has lit a fire," I guessed, and waspreparing to go and look, when I spied a black form crawling toward me,and presently saw 'twas Billy himself.
Coming close, he halted, put a finger to his lip and beckoned: thenbegan to lead the way back as he had come.
Thought I, "these are queer doings:" but left Molly to browse, and creptafter him on hands and knees. He turn'd his head once to make sure I wasfollowing, and then scrambled on quicker, but softly, toward the pointwhere the red glow was shining.
Once more he pull'd up--as I judg'd, about twelve paces' distance fromthe edge--and after considering for a second, began to move again; onlynow he worked a little to the right. And soon I saw the intention ofthis: for just here the cliff's lip was cleft by a fissure--very likethat in Scawfell which we were used to call the _Lord's Rake_, onlynarrower--that ran back into the field and shelved out gently at thetop, so that a man might easily scramble some way down it, tho' how farI could not then tell. And 'twas from this fissure that the glow came.
Along the right lip of this Billy led me, skirting it by a couple ofyards, and wriggling on his belly like a blind worm. Crawling closer now(for 'twas hard to see him against the black turf), I stopp'd beside himand strove to quiet the violence of my breathing. Then, after a minute'spause, together we pulled ourselves to the edge, and peer'd over.
The descent of the gully was broken, some eight feet below us, by asmall ledge, sloping outward about six feet (as I guess), and screen'dby branches of the wild tamarisk. At the back, in an angle of thesolid rock, was now set a pan pierced with holes, and full of burningcharcoal: and over this a man in the rebels' uniform was stooping.
He had a small paper parcel in his left hand, and was blowing at thecharcoal with all his might. Holding my breath, I heard him clearly,but could see nothing of his face, for his back was toward us, all sableagainst the glow. The charcoal fumes as they rose chok'd me so, thatI was very near a fit of coughing, when Billy laid one hand on myshoulder, and with the other pointed out to seaward.
Looking that way, I saw a
small light shining on the sea, pretty closein. 'Twas a lantern hung out from the sloop, as I concluded on theinstant: and now I began to have an inkling of what was toward.
But looking down again at the man with the charcoal pan I saw a blackhead of hair lifted, and then a pair of red puff'd cheeks, and a pimplednose with a scar across the bridge of it--all shining in the glare ofthe pan.
"Powers of Heaven!" I gasped; "'tis that bloody villain Luke Settle!"
And springing to my feet, I took a jump over the edge and came sprawlingon top of him. The scoundrel was stooping with his nose close to thepan, and had not time to turn before I lit with a thud on his shoulders,flattening him on the ledge and nearly sending his face on top of thelive coal. 'Twas so sudden that, before he could so much as think, myfingers were about his windpipe, and the both of us struggling flat onthe brink of the precipice. For he had a bull's strength, and heaved andkicked, so that I fully looked, next moment, to be flying over the edgeinto the sea: nor could I loose my grip to get out a pistol, but onlyheld on and worked my fingers in, and thought how he had strangled themastiff that night on the bowling-green, and vowed to serve him the sameif only strength held out.
But now, just as he had almost twisted his neck free, I heard a stone ortwo break away above us, and down came Billy Pottery flying atop of us,and pinned us to the ledge.
'Twas short work now. Within a minute, Captain Luke Settle was turnedon his back, his eyes fairly starting with Billy's clutch on his throat,his mouth wide open and gasping; till I slipp'd the nozzle of my pistolbetween his teeth; and with that he had no more chance, but gave in, andlike a lamb submitted to have his arms truss'd behind him with Billy'sleathern belt, and his legs with his own.
"Now," said I, standing over him, and putting the pistol against histemple, "you and I, Master Turncoat Settle, have some accounts that'twould be well to square. So first tell me, what do you here, and whereis Mistress Delia Killigrew?"
I think that till this moment the bully had no idea his assailants weremore than a chance couple of Cornish troopers. But now seeing the glowof the burning charcoal on my face, he ripped out a horrid blasphemouscurse, and straightway fell to speaking calmly.
"Good sirs, the game is yours, with care. S'lid! but you hold a prettyhand--if only you know how to play it."
"'Tis you shall help me, Captain: but let us be clear about the stakes.For you, 'tis life or death: for me, 'tis to regain Mistress Delia,failing which I shoot you here through the head, and topple you into thesea. You are the Knave of trumps, sir, and I play that card: as mattersnow stand, only the Queen can save you."
"Right: but where be King and Ace?"
"The King is the Cornish army, yonder: the Ace is my pistol here, whichI hold."
"And that's a very pretty comprehension of the game, sir: I play theQueen."
"Where is she?"
For answer, he pointed seaward, where the sloop's lantern lay like afloating star on the black waters.
"What!" cried I. "Mistress Delia in that sloop! And who is with her,pray?"
"Why, Black Dick, to begin with--and Reuben Gedges--and Jeremy Toy."
"All the Knaves left in the pack--God help her!" I muttered, as I look'dout toward the light, and my heart beat heavily. "God help her!" I saidagain, and turning, spied a grin on the Captain's face.
"Under Providence," answered he, "your unworthy servant may suffice. Butwhat is my reward to be?"
"Your neck," said I, "if I can save it when you are led before theCornish captains."
"That's fair enough: so listen. These few months the lady has been shutin Bristol keep, whither, by the advice of our employer, we conveyed herback safe and sound. This same employer--"
"A dirty rogue, whom you may as well call by his name--HannibalTingcomb."
"Right, young sir: a very dirty rogue, and a niggardly:--I hate a meanrascal. Well, fearing her second escape from that prison, and being handin glove with the Parliament men, he gets her on board a sloop bound forthe Virginias, just at the time when he knows the Earl of Stamford is tomarch and crush the Cornishmen. For escort she has the three comrades ofmine that I named: and the captain of the sloop (a fellow that asks noquestions) has orders to cruise along the coast hereabouts till he getsnews of the battle."
"Which you were just now about to give him," cried I, suddenlyenlighten'd.
"Right again. 'Twas a pretty scheme: for--d'ye see?--if all wentwell with the Earl of Stamford, the King's law would be wiped out inCornwall, and Master Tingcomb (with his claims and meritorious services)might snap his thumb thereat. So, in that case, Mistress Delia was to bebrought ashore here and taken to him, to serve as he fancied. But if theday should go against us--as it has--she was to sail to the Virginiaswith the sloop, and there be sold as a slave. Or worse might happen; butI swear that is the worst was ever told me."
"God knows 'tis vile enough," said I, scarce able to refrain fromblowing his brains out. "So you were to follow the Earl's army, and workthe signals. Which are they?" For a quick resolve had come into my head,and I was casting about to put it into execution.
"A green light if we won: if not, a red light, to warn the sloop away."
I picked up the packet that had dropp'd from his hand when first Isprang upon him. It was burst abroad, and a brown powder trickling fromit about the ledge.
"This was the red light--to be sprinkled on the burning charcoal, Isuppose?"
The fellow nodded. At the same moment, Billy (who as yet had not spokea word, and of course, understood nothing) thrust into my hand anotherpacket that he had found stuck in a corner against the rock.
"Now tell me--in case the rebels won, where was the landing to be made?"
"In the cove below here--where the road leads down."
"Aye, the road where the wagon stood."
Captain Luke Settle blink'd his eyes at this: but nodded after a moment.
"And how many would escort her?"
He caught my drift and laughed softly---
"Be damn'd, sir, but I begin to love you, for you play the game veryproper and soundly. Reuben, Jeremy, and Black Dick alone are in theplot; so why should more escort her? For the skipper and crew have theirown business to look after."
"Then, Master Settle, tho' it be a sore trial to you, those three Knavesyou must give me, or I play my Ace," and I pressed the ring of my pistolsharply against his ear as a reminder.
"With all my heart, young sir, you shall have them," says he briskly.
"And this is 'honor among thieves,'" thought I: "You would sell yourcomrade as you sold your King:" but only said, "If you cry out, or speakone word to warn them--"
Before I could get my sentence out, Billy Pottery broke in with a voicelike a trumpet--
"As folks go, Jack, I be a humorous man. But sittin' here, an' ponderin'this way an' that, I says, in my deaf an' afflicted style, 'Why notshoot the ugly rogue, if mirth, indeed, be your object?' For to waittill an uglier comes to this untravel'd spot is superfluity."
How to explain matters to Billy was more than I could tell: but in amoment he himself supplied the means. For the rocks here were of somekind of slate, very hard, but scaly: and finding two pieces, a large anda small, he handed them to me, bawling that I was to write therewith. Sogiving him my pistol, I made shift to scribble a few words. Seeing hiseyes twinkle as he read, I stood up.
The charcoal by this time was a glowing mass of red: and threw so cleara light on us that I feared the crew on board the sloop might seeour forms and suspect their misadventure. But the lantern still hungsteadily: so signing to Billy to drag our prisoner behind a tamariskbush, I open'd the second packet, and poured some of the powder into myhand.
It was composed of tiny crystals, yellow and flaky: and holding it,for a moment I was possessed with a horrid fear that this might be thesignal to warn the sloop away. I flung a look at the Captain: who readmy thoughts on the instant.
"Never fear, young sir: am no such hero as to sell my life for thattag-rag. Only make haste, for y
our deaf friend has a cursed ugly way offumbling his pistol."
So taking heart, I tore the packet wide, and shook out the powder on thecoals.
Instantly there came a dense choking vapor, and a vivid green flare thatturned the rocks, the sky, and our faces to a ghastly brilliance. Fortwo minutes, at least, this unnatural light lasted. As soon as it diedaway and the fumes clear'd, I look'd seaward.
The lantern on the sloop was moving in answer to the signal. Three timesit was lifted and lower'd: and then in the stillness I heard voicescalling, and soon after the regular splash of oars.
There was no time to be lost. Pulling the Captain to his feet, wescrambled up the gully, and out at the top, and across the fields asfast as our legs would take us. Molly came to my call and trotted besideme--the Captain following some paces behind, and Billy last, to keep asafe watch on his movements.
At the gate, however, where we turned into the road, I tethered themare, lest the sound of her hoofs should betray us: and down towardthe sea we pelted, till almost at the foot of the hill I pull'd up andlisten'd, the others following my example.
We could hear the sound of oars plain above the wash of waves on thebeach. I look'd about me. On either side the road was now bank'd by tallhills, with clusters of bracken and furze bushes lying darkly ontheir slopes. Behind one of these clusters I station'd Billy with theCaptain's long sword, and a pistol that I by signs forbade him to fireunless in extremity. Then, retiring some forty paces up the road, I hidthe Captain and myself on the other side.
Hardly were we thus disposed, before I heard the sound of a boatgrounding on the beach below, and the murmur of voices; and then thenoise of feet trampling the shingle. Upon which I ordered my prisoner togive a hail, which he did readily.
"Ahoy, Dick! Ahoy, Reuben Gedges!"
In a moment or two came the answer--
"Ahoy, there, Captain--here we be!"
"Fetch along the cargo!" shouted Captain Settle, on my prompting.
"Where be you?"
"Up the road, here--waiting!"
"One minute, then--wait one minute, Captain!"
I heard the boat push'd off, some _Good-nights_ call'd, and then (withtender anguish) the voice of my Delia lifted in entreaty. As I guess'd,she was beseeching the sailors to take her back to the sloop, nor leaveher to these villains. There follow'd an oath or two growl'd out, ashort scrimmage, and at last, above the splash of the retreating boat,came the tramp of heavy feet on the road below.
So fired was I at the sound of Delia's voice, that 'twas with much adoI kept quiet behind the bush. Yet I had wit enough left to look to thepriming of my pistol, and also to bid the Captain shout again. As hedid so, a light shone out down the road, and round the corner came a manbearing a lantern.
"Can't be quicker, Captain," he called: "the jade struggles so that Dickand Jeremy ha' their hands full."
Sure enough, after him there came in view two stooping forms that boremy dear maid between them--one by the feet, the other by the shoulders.I ground my teeth to see it, for she writhed sorely. On they came,however, until not more than ten paces off; and then that traitor, LukeSettle, rose up behind our bush.
"Set her here, boys," said he, "and tie her pretty ankles."
"Well met, Captain!" said the fellow with the lantern--ReubenGedges--stepping forward; "Give us your hand!"
He was holding out his own, when I sprang up, set the pistol closeto his chest, and fired. His scream mingled with the roar of it, anddropping the lantern, he threw up his hands and tumbled in a heap. Atthe same moment, out went the light, and the other rascals, droppingDelia, turn'd to run, crying, "Sold--sold!"
But behind them came now a shout from Billy, and a crashing blow thatalmost severed Black Dick's arm at the shoulder: and at the same instantI was on Master Toy's collar, and had him down in the dust. Kneeling onhis chest, with my sword point at his throat, I had leisure to glance atBilly, who in the dark, seem'd to be sitting on the head of his disabledvictim. And then I felt a touch on my shoulder, and a dear face peer'dinto mine.
"Is it Jack--my sweet Jack?"
"To be sure," said I: "and if you but reach out your hand, I will kissit, for all that I'm busy with this rogue."
"Nay, Jack, I'll kiss thee on the cheek--so! Dear lad, I am sofrighten'd, and yet could laugh for joy!"
But now I caught the sound of galloping on the road above, and shouts,and then more galloping; and down came a troop of horsemen that werelike to have ridden over us, had I not shouted lustily.
"Who, in the fiend's name is here?" shouted the foremost, pulling in hishorse with a scramble.
"Honest men and rebels together," I answered; "but light the lanternthat you will find handy by, and you shall know one from t'other."
By the time 'twas found and lit, there was a dozen of Col. John Digby'sdragoons about us: and before the two villains were bound, comes a halfdozen more, leading in Captain Settle, that had taken to his heels atthe first blow and climb'd the hill, all tied as he was about the hands,and was caught in his endeavor to clamber on Molly's back. So he andBlack Dick and Jeremy Toy were strapp'd up: but Reuben Gedges we lefton the road for a corpse. Yet he did not die (though shot through thelung), but recovered--heaven knows how: and I myself had the pleasure tosee him hanged at Tyburn, in the second year of his late Majesty's mostblessed Restoration, for stopping the Bishop of Salisbury's coach, inMaidenhead Thicket, and robbing the Bishop himself, with much addedcontumely.
But as we were ready to start, and I was holding Delia steady on Molly'sback, up comes Billy and bawls in my ear---
"There's a second horse, if wanted, that I spied tether'd under a hedgeyounder"--and he pointed to the field where we had first found CaptainSettle--"in color a sad black, an' harness'd like as if he came from acart."
I look'd at the Captain, who in the light of the lantern blink'd again."Thou bloody villain!" muttered I, for now I read the tragedy of thewagon beside the road, and knew how Master Settle had provided a horsefor his own escape.
But hereupon the word was given, and we started up the hill, I walkingby Delia's stirrup and listening to her talk as if we had never beenparted--yet with a tenderer joy, having by loss of it learn'd toappraise my happiness aright.