 CHAPTER 62 THE KING MUST NOT BE PRAYED FOR All our neighborhood was surprised that the dunes had not air now attacked, and probably made an end of us. For we lay almost at their mercy now, having only Sergeant Bloxham and three men to protect us, Captain Stickles having been ordered southwards with all his force, except such as might be needful for collecting toll and watching the imports at Linmouth and thence to Porlock. The Sergeant, having now imbibed a taste for writing reports, though his first great effort had done him no good and only offended Stickles, reported weakly from Plover's barrows whenever he could find a messenger. And though we fed not Sergeant Bloxham at our own table, with the best we had, as in the case of Stickles, who represented his majesty, yet we treated him so well that he reported very highly of us, as loyal and true-hearted leges and most devoted to our Lord the King. And indeed he could scarcely have done less when Lizzie wrote great part of his reports and furbished up the rest to such a pitch of luster that Lord Clarendon himself needs scarce have been ashamed of them. And though this cost a great deal of ale and even of strong waters, for Lizzie would have it the duty of a critic to stand treat to the author, and though it was otherwise a plague as giving the maid such heirs of patronage and such pretence to politics, yet there was no stopping it without the risk of mortal offense to both writer and reviewer. Our mother also, while disapproving Lizzie's long stay in the saddle room on a Friday night and a Saturday, and insisting that Betty should be there, was nevertheless as proud as need be that the King should read our Eliza's writings, at least so the innocent soul believed, and we all looked forward to something great as the fruit of all this history. And something great did come of it, though not as we expected, for these reports, or as many of them as were ever opened, stood us in good stead the next year, when we were accused of harboring and comforting guilty rebels. Now the reason why the dunes did not attack us was that they were preparing to meet another and more powerful assault upon their fortress, being assured that their repulse of King's troops could not be looked over when brought before the authorities. And no doubt they were right, for although the conflicts in the government during that summer and autumn had delayed the matter, yet positive orders had been issued that these outlaws and malifactors should at any price be brought to justice, when the sudden death of King Charles II threw all things into confusion and all minds into a panic. We heard of it first in church, on Sunday, the eighth day of February, 1684-5, from a cousin of John Fry, who had ridden over on purpose from Porlock. He came in just before the anthem, splashed and heated from his ride, so that everyone turned and looked at him. He wanted to create a stir, knowing how much would be made of him, and he took the best way to do it. For he let the anthem go by very quietly, or rather I should say very pleasingly, for our choir was exceeding proud of itself, and I sang bass twice as loud as a bowl to beat the clerk with the clarionette. And then, just as Parson Bowden, with the look of pride at his minstrels, was kneeling down to begin the prayer for the King's most excellent majesty, for he never read the litany except upon Easter Sunday, up jumps young Sam Fry and shouts, I forbid that there prior. What? cried the parson, rising slowly and looking for someone to shut the door. Have we a rebel in the congregation? The parson was growing short-sighted now, and knew not Sam Fry at that distance. No, replied Sam, not a wit abashed by the staring of all the parish. No rebel parson, but a man who misliketh popery and murder, that there prior be a prior for the dead. Nay, cried the parson, now recognizing and knowing him to be our John's first cousin, you do not mean to say, Sam, that his gracious majesty is dead. Dead as a stone, poisoned by their papishers, and Sam rubbed his hands with enjoyment at the effect he had produced. Remember where you are, Sam, said parson Bowden solemnly. When did this most sad thing happen? The King is the head of the church, Sam Fry. When did he leave her? Day of four yesterday, twelve o'clock, weren't us quick to hear oven? Can't be, said the minister, the tidings can never have come so soon. Anyhow, he will want it all the more. Let us pray for his gracious majesty. And with that he proceeded as usual, but nobody cried amen for fear of being entangled with popery. But after giving forth his text, our parson said a few words out of book about the many virtues of his majesty, and self-denial and devotion, comparing his pious mirth to the dancing of the patriarch David before the Ark of the Covenant, and he added with some severity that if his flock would not join their pastor, who was much more likely to judge a right in praying for the king, the least they could do on returning home was to pray that the king might not be dead as his enemies had asserted. Now when the service was over, we killed the king and we brought him to life at least fifty times in the churchyard, and Sam Fry was mounted on a high gravestone to tell everyone all he knew of it. But he knew no more than he had told us in the church, as before repeated, upon which we were much disappointed with him, and inclined to disbelieve him, until he happily remembered that his majesty had died in great pain, with blue spots on his breast and black spots all across his back, and these in the form of a cross, by reason of papus having poisoned him. When Sam called this to his remembrance, or to his imagination, he was overwhelmed at once with so many invitations to dinner that he scarce knew which of them to accept, but decided in our favor. Grieving much for the loss of the king, however greatly it might be as the parson had declared it was, while telling us to pray against it, for the royal benefit, I resolved to ride to Porlock myself directly after dinner, and make sure whether he were dead or not. For it was not by any means hard to suppose that Sam Fry, being John's first cousin, might have inherited, either from grandfather or grandmother, some of those gifts which had made our John so famous for mendacity. At Porlock I found that it was too true, and the women of the town were in great distress, for the king had always been popular with them. The men, on the other hand, were forecasting what would be likely to ensue. And I myself was of this number, riding sadly home again. Although bound to the king is churchwarden now, which dignity, next to the parson's in rank, is with us, as it ought to be in every good parish, hereditary. For who can stick to the church like the man whose father stuck to it before him, and who knows all the little ins and great outs which must in these troubleous times come across? But though appointed, at last, by virtue of being best farmer in the parish, as well as by vice of mismanagement on the part of my mother and Nicholas Snow, who had thoroughly mucked up everything, being too quick-headed, yet, while I dwelled with pride upon the fact that I stood in the king's shoes as the manager and promoter of the church of England, and I knew that we must miss his majesty, whose arms were above the commandments, as the leader of our thoughts in church, and handsome upon a guinea, nevertheless I kept on thinking how his death would act on me. And here I saw it many ways. In the first place, troubles must break out, and we had eight and twenty ricks counting grain and straw and hay. Moreover, mother was growing weak about riots and shooting and burning, and she gathered the bedclothes around her ears every night when her feet were tucked up, and prayed not to awake until morning. In the next place, much rebellion, though we would not own it in either sense of the verb to own, was whispering and plucking shirts and making signs among us, and the terror of the dunes helped greatly as a fruitful tree of lawlessness and a good excuse for everybody. And after this, or rather before it, and first of all indeed, if I must state the true order, arose upon me the thought of Lorna and how these things would affect her fate. And indeed I must admit that it had occurred to me sometimes, or been suggested by others, that the Lady Lorna had not behaved altogether kindly since her departure from among us. For although in those days the post, as we call the service of letter-carrying, which now comes within twenty miles of us, did not extend to our part of the world, yet it might have been possible to procure for hire a man who would ride post if Lorna feared to trust the pack-horses or the troopers who went to and fro. Yet no message whatever had reached us, neither any token even of her safety in London. As to this last, however, we had no misgivings, having learned from the orderlies more than once that the wealth and beauty and adventures of young Lady Lorna Dougal were greatly talked of both at court and among the common people. Now riding sadly homewards in the sunset of the early spring, I was more than ever touched with sorrow and a sense of being as it were abandoned. And the weather growing quite beautiful and so mild the trees were budding and the cattle full of happiness. I could not but think of the difference between the world of today and the world of this day twelve months. Then all was howling desolation, all the earth blocked up with snow and all the air with barbs of ice as small as splintered needles, yet glittering in and out like stars and gathering so upon a man, if long he stayed among them, that they began to weigh him down to sleepiness and frozen death. Not a sign of life was moving, nor was any change of view, unless the wild wind struck the crest of some cold drift and bowed it. Now on the other hand all was good. The open palm of spring was laid upon the yielding of the hills, and each particular valley seemed to be the glove for a finger. And although the sun was low and dipping in the western clouds, the gray light of the sea came up and took and taking told the special tone of everything. All this lay upon my heart without a word of thinking, spreading light and shadow there and the soft delight of sadness. Nevertheless I would it were the savage snow around me and the piping of the restless winds and the death of everything, for in those days I had Lorna. Then I thought of promise fair, such as glowed around me where the red rocks held the sun when he was departed, and the distant crags endeavored to retain his memory. But as evening spread across them, shading with a silent fold, all the colors stole away, all remembrance waned and died. So it has been with love, I thought, and with simple truth and warmth. The maid has chosen the glittering stars instead of the plain daylight. Nevertheless I would not give in, although in deep despondency, especially when I passed the place where my dear father had fought in vain, and I tried to see things right and then judge a right about them. This however was more easy to attempt than to achieve, and by the time I came down the hill I was none the wiser. Only I could tell my mother that the king was dead for sure, and she would have tried to cry but for thought of her mourning. There was not a moment for lamenting. All the mourning must be ready, if we cared to beat the snows, in eight and forty hours, and although it was Sunday night, mother, now feeling sure of the thing, sat up with Lizzie, cutting patterns and stitching things on brown paper, and snipping and laying the fashions down, and requesting all opinions, yet when given, scorning them, in so much that I grew weary even of tobacco, which had comforted me since Lorna, and prayed her to go on until the king should be alive again. The thought of that so flurried her, for she never yet could see a joke, that she laid her scissors on the table and said, the Lord forbid, John, after what I have cut up! It would be just like him, I answered with a knowing smile. Mother, you had better stop. Patterns may do very well, but don't cut up any more good stuff. Well, good lack, I am a fool. Three tables pegged with needles. The Lord and his mercy keep his majesty, if ever he hath gotten him. By this device we went to bed, and not another stitch was struck until the troopers had office tidings that the king was truly dead. Hence the snows beat us by a day, and both old Betty and Lizzie laid the blame upon me as usual. Almost before we had put off the mourning, which is loyal subjects we kept for the king three months and a week, rumors of disturbances, of ploddings, and of outbreak began to stir among us. We heard of fighting in Scotland, and buying of ships on the continent, and of arms in Dorset and Somerset, and we kept our beacon in readiness to give signals of a landing, or rather the soldiers did. For we, having trustworthy reports that the king had been to high mass himself in the Abbey of Westminster, making all the bishops go with him, and all the guards in London, and then tortured all the Protestants who dared to wait outside, moreover had received from the pope a flower grown in the Virgin Mary's garden, and warranted to last forever. We, of the moderate party, hearing all this in ten times as much, and having no love for this soured James, such as we had for the lively Charles, were ready to wait for what might happen, rather than care about stopping it. Therefore we listened to rumors gladly, and shook our heads with gravity, and predicted every man something, but scarce any to the same. Nevertheless, in our part, things went on as usual, until the middle of June was nigh. We plowed the ground, and sowed the corn, and tended the cattle, and heeded every one his neighbor's business, as carefully as here to four. And the only thing that moved us much was that Annie had a baby. This being a very fine child with blue eyes, and christened John in compliment to me, and with me for his godfather, it is natural to suppose that I thought a good deal about him. And when mother or Lizzie would ask me, all of a sudden, and treacherously, when the fire flared up at supper time, for we always kept a little wood, just a light in summertime, and enough to make the pot boil, then when they would say to me, John, what are you thinking of? At a word, speak. I would always answer, little John Faggis, and so they made no more of me. But when I was down on Saturday, the 13th of June, at the Blacksmith's Forge by Brendontown, where the Lynn stream runs so close that he dips his horseshoes in it, and where the news is apt to come first of all to our neighborhood except upon a Sunday. While we were talking of the hay crop, and of a great sheepstealer, round the corner came a man upon a piebald horse, looking flagged and weary. But seeing half a dozen of us, young and brisk and hearty, he made a flourish with his horse, and waved a blue flag vehemently, shouting with great glory. Monmouth and the Protestant faith, Monmouth and no popery, Monmouth, the good king's eldest son, down with the poisoning murderer, down with the black usurper, and to the devil with all papists. Why so, thou little varlet, I asked very quietly, for the man was too small to quarrel with. Yet knowing Lorna to be a papist, as we choose to call them, though they might as well call us kingists, after the head of our church, I thought that this scurvy, scampish knave might show them the way to the place he mentioned, unless his courage failed him. Papist yourself be you, said the fellow, not daring to answer much. Then take this and read it. And he handed me a long rigmarole, which he called a declaration. I saw that it was but a heap of lies, and thrust it into the blacksmith's fire, and blew the bellows thrice at it. No one dared attempt to stop me, for my mood had not been sweet of late, and of course they knew my strength. The man rode on with a muttering noise, having won no recruits from us, by force of my example, and he stopped at the ale-house farther down, where the road goes away from the lindstream. Some of us went thither after a time, when our horses were shodden and rasped, for although we might not like the man, we might be glad of his tidings, which seemed to be something wonderful. He had set up his blue flag in the tap room, and was teaching every one. Here Kulmoth Maester Yon Ridd, said the landlady, being well-pleased with the call for beer and cider. Her hath been to Lonnentown, and lived within a mail of me. Arl the news Kulm from them nowadays, instead of from here, as her ought to do. If Yon Ridd say it be true, I will try almost to belave it. Hath the good duke landed, sir? And she looked at me over a foaming cup, and blew the froth off, and put more in. I have no doubt it is true enough, I answered before drinking, and too true, Mistress Pugsley. Many a poor man will die, but none shall die from our parish, nor from Brendan, if I can help it. And I knew that I could help it, for every one in those little places would abide by my advice, not only from the fame of my schooling and long sojourn in London, but also because I had earned repute for being very slow and sure. And with nine people out of ten, this is the very best recommendation, for they think themselves much before you in wit and under no obligation, but rather conferring a favor by doing the thing that you do. Hence, if I cared for influence, which means for the most part making people do one's will without knowing it, my first step toward it would be to be called in common parlance, slow but sure. For the next fortnight, we were daily troubled with conflicting rumors, each man relating what he desired rather than what he had right to believe. We were told that the Duke had been proclaimed King of England in every town of Dorset and of Somerset, that he had won a great battle at Axe Minster and another at Bridport and another somewhere else, that all the Western counties had risen as one man for him and all the militia had joined his ranks, that Taunton and Bridgewater and Bristo were all mad with delight the two former being in his hands and the latter craving to be so. And then on the other hand, we heard that the Duke had been vanquished and put to flight and upon being apprehended had confessed himself an imposter and a papist as bad as the King was. We longed for Colonel Stickles as he always became in time of war, though he fell back to captain and even lieutenant directly the fight was over. For then we should have won trusty news as well as good consideration. But even Sergeant Bloxham much against his will was gone having left his heart with our Lizzie and a collection of all his writings. All the soldiers had been ordered away at full speed for Exeter to join the Duke of Albemarle or if he were gone to follow him. As for us who had fed them so long although not quite for nothing we must take our chance of dunes or any other enemies. Now all these tidings moved me a little not enough to spoil appetite but enough to make things lively and to teach me that look of wisdom which is bread of practice only and the hearing of many lies. Therefore I withheld my judgment fearing to be triumphed over if it should happen to miss the mark. But mother and Lizzie ten times in a day predicted all they could imagine and their prophecies increased in strength according to contradiction. Yet this was not in the proper style for a house like ours which knew the news or at least had known it and still was famous all around for the last advices. Even from Linmouth people sent up to Plover's Barrows to ask how things were going on and it was very grievous to answer that in truth we knew not neither had heard for days and days and our reputation was so great especially since the death of the king had gone abroad from Orr Parish that many inquirers would only wink and lay a finger on the lip as if to say you know well enough but see not fit to tell me. And before the end arrived those people believed that they had been right all along and that we had concealed the truth from them. For I myself became involved God knows how much against my will and my proper judgment in the troubles and the conflict and the cruel work coming afterwards. If ever I had made up my mind to anything in all my life it was at this particular time and as stern and strong as could be I had resolved to let things pass to hear about them gladly to encourage all my friends to talk and myself to express opinion upon each particular point when in the fullness of time no further doubt could be but all my policy went for nothing through a few touches of feeling. One day at the beginning of July I came home from mowing about noon or a little later to fetch some cider for all of us and to eat a morsel of bacon. For mowing was no joke that year the summer being wonderfully wet even for our wet country and the swath falling heavier over the scythe than ever I could remember it. We were drenched with rain almost every day but the mowing must be done somehow and we must trust a God for the haymaking. In the courtyard I saw a little cart with iron brakes underneath it such as fastidious people used to deaden the jolting of the road but few men under a lord or baronet would be so particular. Therefore I wondered who our noble visitor could be but when I entered the kitchen place brushing up my hair for somebody behold it was no one greater than our Annie with my godson in her arms and looking pale and tear-begone. And at first she could not speak to me but presently having sat down a little and received much praise for her baby she smiled and blushed and found her tongue as if she had never gone from us. How natural it all looks again oh I love this old kitchen so. Baby dear only look at it with him pity pity eyes and him tongue out of his mousy but who put the flower riddle up there and look at the pestle and mortar and rust I declare in the patty pans and a book positively a dirty book where the clean skewers ought to hang oh Lizzie Lizzie Lizzie. You may just as well cease lamenting I said for you can't alter Lizzie's nature and you will only make mother uncomfortable and perhaps have a quarrel with Lizzie who is proudest punch of her housekeeping. She cried Annie with all the contempt that could be compressed in a syllable. Well John no doubt you are right about it I will try not to notice things but it is a hard thing after all my care to see everything going to ruin but what can be expected of a girl who knows all the kings of Carthage. There were no kings of Carthage Annie they were called why let me see they were called oh something else. Nevermind what they were called said Annie will they cook our dinner for us but now John I am in such trouble all this talk is make believe. Don't you cry my dear don't cry my darling sister I answered as she dropped into the worn place of the settle and bent above her infant rocking as if both their hearts were one. Don't you know Annie I cannot tell but I know or at least I mean I have heard the men of experience say it is so bad for the baby. Perhaps I know that as well as you do John said Annie looking up at me with a gleam of her old laughing but how can I help crying I am in such trouble. Tell me what it is my dear any grief of yours will vex me greatly but I will try to bear it. Then John it is just this Tom has gone off with the rebels and you must oh you must go after him. End of Chapter 62. Recording by Michelle Harris. Chapter 63 of Lorna Dune. This is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Michelle Harris. Lorna Dune by R.D. Blackmore. Chapter 63. John is worsted by the women. Moved as I was by Annie's tears and gentle style of coaxing and most of all by my love for her I yet declared that I could not go and leave our house in Homestead far less my dear mother and Lizzie at the mercy of the merciless dunes. Is that all your objection John? asked Annie in her quick panting way. Would you go but for that John? Now I said be in no such hurry for while I was gradually yielding I like to pass it through my fingers if my fingers shaped it. There are many things to be thought about in many ways of viewing it. Oh you never can have loved Lorna no wonder you gave her up so. John you can love nobody but your oat ricks and your hay ricks. Sister mine because I rant not neither rave of what I feel can you be so shallow as to dream that I feel nothing? What is your love for Tom Fagus? What is your love for your baby? Pretty darling as he is to compare with such a love as forever dwells with me because I do not pray of it because it is beyond me not only to express but even form to my own heart and thoughts because I do not shape my face and would scorn to play to it as a thing of acting and lay it out before you. Are you fools enough to think? But here I stopped having said more than was usual for me. I am very sorry John. Dear John I am so sorry what a shallow fool I am. I will go seek your husband I said to change the subject for even to Annie I would not lay open all my heart about Lorna but only upon condition that you ensure this house and people from the dunes meanwhile. Even for the sake of Tom I cannot leave all helpless. The oat ricks and the hay ricks which are my only love they are welcome to make cinders of but I will not have mother treated so nor even little Lizzie although you scorn your sister so. Oh John I do think you are the hardest as well as the softest of all the men I know not even a woman's bitter word but what you pay her out for. Will you never understand that we are not like you John? We say all sorts of spiteful things without a bit of meaning. John for God's sake fetch Tom home and then revile me as you please and I will kneel and thank you. I will not promise to fetch him home I answered being ashamed of myself for having lost command so but I will promise to do my best if we can only hit on a plan for leaving mother harmless. Annie thought for a little while trying to gather her smooth clear brow into maternal wrinkles and then she looked at her child and said I will risk it for daddy's sake darling you precious soul for daddy's sake I asked her what she was going to risk she would not tell me but took up her hand and saw to my cider cans and bacon and went from corner to cupboard exactly as if she had never been married only without an apron on and then she said now to your mowers John and make the most of this fine afternoon kiss your godson before you go and I being used to obey her in little things of that sort kissed the baby and took my cans and went back to my side again by the time I came home it was dark night and pouring again with a foggy rain such as we have in July even more than in January being soaked all through and through and with water quelching in my boots like a pump with a bad bucket I was only too glad to find Annie's bright face and quick figure flitting in and out the firelight instead of Lizzie sitting grandly with a feast of literature and not a drop of gravy mother was in the corner also with her cheery colored ribbons glistening very nice by candlelight looking at Annie now and then with memories of her babyhood and then at her having a baby yet half afraid of praising her much for fear of that young Lizzie but Lizzie showed no jealousy she truly loved our Annie now that she was gone from us and she wanted to know all sorts of things and she adored the baby therefore Annie was allowed to attend to me as she used to do now John you must start the first thing in the morning she said when the others had left the room but somehow she stuck to the baby to fetch me back my rebel according to your promise not so I replied misliking the job all I promised was to go if this house were assured against any onslaught of the dunes just so and here is that assurance with these words she drew forth a paper and laid it on my knee with triumph enjoying my amazement this as you may suppose was great not only at the document but also at her possession of it for in truth it was no less than a formal undertaking on the part of the dunes not to attack Plover's Barrow's farm or molest any of the inmates or carry off any chattels during the absence of John Rid upon a special errand this document was signed not only by the counselor but by many other dunes whether Carver's name was there I could not say for certain as of course he would not sign it under his name of Carver and I had never heard Lorna say to what if any he had been baptized in the face of such a deed as this I could no longer refuse to go and having received my promise Annie told me as was only fair how she had procured that paper it was both a clever and courageous act and would have seemed to me at first sight far beyond Annie's power but none may gauge a woman's power when her love and faith are moved the first thing Annie had done was this she made herself look ugly this was not an easy thing but she had learned a great deal from her husband upon the subject of disguises it hurt her feelings not a little to make so sad a fright of herself but what could it matter if she lost Tom she must be a far greater fright in earnest than now she was in seeming and then she left her child asleep under Betty Muxworthy's tendons for Betty took to that child as if there had never had been a child before and away she went in her own spring cart as the name of that engine proved to be without a word to anyone except the old man who had driven her from mall and parish that morning and who coolly took one of our best horses without by your leave to anyone Annie made the old man drive her with an easy reach of the doon gate whose position she knew well enough from all our talk about it and there she made the old man stay until she should return to him then with her calmly figure hidden by a dirty old woman's cloak and her fair young face defaced by patches and by liniments so that none might covet her she addressed the young man at the gate in a cracked and trembling voice and they were scarcely civil to the old hag as they called her she said that she bore important tidings for sir counselor himself and must be conducted to him to him accordingly she was led without even any hoodwinking for she had spectacles over her eyes and made believe not to see ten yards she found sir counselor at home and when the rest were out of sight threw off all disguise to him flashing forth as a lovely young woman from all her wraps and disfigurements she flung her patches on the floor amid the old man's laughter and let her tucked up hair come down and then went up and kissed him worthy and reverend counselor I have a favor to ask she began so I should think from your proceedings the old man interrupted I if I were half my age if you were I would not sue so but most excellent counselor you owe me some amends you know for the way in which you robbed me beyond a doubt I do my dear you have put it rather strongly and it might offend some people nevertheless I own my debt having so fair a creditor and do you remember how you slept and how much we made of you and would have seen you home sir only you did not wish it and for excellent reasons child my best escort was in my cloak after we made the cream to rise the unholy spell my pretty child has it injured you yes I fear it has said Annie or whence can all my ill luck come and here she showed some signs of crying knowing that counselor hated it you shall not have ill luck my dear I have heard all about your marriage to a very noble highwayman I you made a mistake in that you were worthy of a doon my child your frying was a blessing meant for those who can appreciate my husband can appreciate she answered very proudly but what I wish to know is this will you try to help me the counselor answered that he would do so if her needs were moderate whereupon she opened her meaning to him and told of all her anxieties considering that Lorna was gone and her necklace in his possession and that I against whom alone of us the dunes could bear any malice would be out of the way all the while the old man readily undertook that our house should not be assaulted nor our property molested until my return and to the promptitude of his pledge two things perhaps contributed namely that he knew not how we were stripped of all defenders and that some of his own forces were away in the rebel camp for as I learned thereafter the dunes being now in direct feud with the present government and sure to be crushed if that prevailed had resolved to drop all religious questions and cast in their lot with monmouth and the turbulent youths being long restrained from their wanted outlet for vehemence by the troopers in the neighborhood were only too glad to rush forth upon any promise of blows and excitement however any knew little of this but took the counselor's pledge as a mark of a special favor in her behalf which it may have been to some extent and thanked him for it most heartily and felt that he had earned the necklace while he like an ancient gentleman had disclaimed all obligation and sent her under an escort safe to her own cart again but Annie, repassing the sentinels with her youth restored and blooming with the flush of triumph went up to them very gravely and said the old hag wishes you good evening gentlemen and so made her best curtsy now look at it as I would there was no excuse left for me after the promise given dear Annie had not only cheated the dunes but also had gotten the best of me by a pledge to a thing impossible and I bitterly said I am not like Lorna a pledge once given I keep it I will not have a word against Lorna cried Annie I will answer for her truth as surely as I would for my own or yours John and with that she vanquished me but when my poor mother heard that I was committed by word of honor to a wild goose chase among the rebels after that run a gate tom faggis she simply stared and would not believe it for lately I had joked with her in a little style of jerks as people do and out of sorts and she not understanding this and knowing jokes to be out of my power would only look and sigh and toss and hope that I meant nothing at last however we convinced her that I was in earnest and must be off in the early morning and leave John Frye with the hay crop then mother was ready to fall upon Annie as not content with disgracing us by wetting a man of new honesty if indeed of any but laying traps to catch her brother and entangle him perhaps to his death for the sake of a worthless fellow and felon she was going to say as by the shape of her lips I knew but I laid my hand upon dear mother slips because what must be must be and if mother and daughter stayed at home better in love than in quarreling right early in the morning I was off without word to anyone knowing that mother and sister mine had cried each her good self to sleep relenting when the light was out and sorry for hard words and thoughts and yet too much alike in nature to understand each other therefore I took good kickums who although with one eye spoiled was worth ten sweet tempered horses to a man who knew how to manage him and being well charged both with bacon and powder forth I set on my wild goose chase for this I claim no bravery I cared but little what came of it save for mother's sake and Annie's and the keeping of the farm and discomfort sure of the snows and lamenting of Lorna at my death if die I must in a lonesome manner not found out till afterwards and bleaching bones left to weep over however I had a little kettle and a pound and a half of tobacco and two dirty pipes and a clean one also a bit of clothes for change also a brisket of hung venison and four loaves of farmhouse bread and of the upper side of bacon a stone and a half it might be not to mention diverse small things for campaigning which may come in handily when no one else has gotten them we went away in Mary's style my horse being ready for anything and I only glad of a bit of change after months of working and brooding with no content to crown the work no hope to hatch the brooding or without hatching to reckon it who could tell but what Lorna might be discovered or at any rate heard of before the end of this campaign if campaign it could be called of a man who went to fight nobody only to redeem a runnigate and vexed as I was about the hay and the hunchbacked ricks John was sure to make which spoiled the look of a farmyard still even this was better than to have the mose and houses fired as I had nightly expected and been worn out with the worry of it yet there was one thing rather unfavorable to my present enterprise namely that I knew nothing of the country I was bound to nor even in what part of it my business might be supposed to lie for beside the uncertainty caused by the conflict of reports it was likely that king monmouth's army would be moving from place to place according to the prospect of supplies and of reinforcements however there would arise more chance of getting news as I went on and my road being towards the east and south dolverton would not lie so very far aside of it but what it might be worth a visit both to collect the latest tidings and to consult the maps and plans in uncle ruben's parlor therefore I drew the offhand rain at the crossroad on the hills and made for the town expecting perhaps to have breakfast with master huckaback and ruth to help and encourage us this little maiden was now become a very great favorite with me having long outgrown no doubt her childish fancies and follies such as my mother and annie had planted under her soft brown hair it had been my duty as well as my true interest for uncle ben was more and more testy as he went on gold digging to ride the other now and again to inquire what the doctor thought of her not that her wounds were long in healing but that people can scarcely be too careful and too inquisitive after a great horse bite and she always let me look at the arm as I had been first doctor and she held it up in a graceful manner curving at the elbow and with a sweep of white roundness going to a risk the size of my thumb or so and without any thimble top standing forth such as even our anne had but gradually all I could see above the elbow where the bite had been was very clear transparent skin with very firm sweet flesh below and three little blue marks as far as sundar is the prongs of a toasting fork and no deeper than where twig has chafed the peel of a wax and apple and then I used to say in fun as the children do shall I kiss it to make it well dear now rooth looked very grave indeed upon hearing of this my enterprise and crying said she could almost cry for the sake of my dear mother did I know the risks and chances not of the battlefield alone but of the havoc afterwards the swearing away of innocent lives and the hurdle in the hanging and if I would please not to laugh which was so unkind of me had I never heard of imprisonments and torturing with the cruel boot and selling into slavery where the sun in the lash outvide one another and cutting a man to pieces I replied that of all these things I had heard and would take a special care to steer me free of all of them my duty was all that I wish to do and none could harm me for doing that and I begged my cousin to give me good speed instead of talking dolefully upon this she changed her manner wholly becoming so lively and cheerful that I was convinced of her indifference and surprised even more than gratified go and earn your spurs cousin read she said you are strong enough for anything which side is to have the benefit of your doughty arm have I not told you rooth I answered not being fond of this kind of talk more suitable for Lizzie that I do not mean to join either side that is to say until until as the common proverb goes you know which way the cat will jump old john read old john read nothing of the sort said i would hurry you are in i'm for the king of course but not enough to fight for him only enough to vote I suppose or drink his health or shout for him I can't make you out today cousin rooth you are nearly as bad as Lizzie you do not say any better things but you seem to mean them no cousin think not so of me is far more likely that I say them without meaning them anyhow is not like you and I know not what I can have done in any way to vex you dear me nothing cousin read you never do anything to vex me then I hope I shall do something now rooth when I say goodbye God knows if we ever shall meet again rooth but I hope we may to be sure we shall she answered in her brightest manner try not to look wretched John you are as happy as a maypole and you as a rose in May I said and pretty nearly as pretty give my love to uncle Ben and I trust him to keep on the winning side of that you need have no misgivings never yet has he failed of it now cousin read why go you not you hurried me so at breakfast time my only reason for waiting rooth is that you have not kissed me as you are almost bound to do for the last time perhaps of seeing me oh if that is all just fetch the stool and I will do my best cousin I pray you be not so vexatious you always used to do it nicely without any stool rooth ah but you are grown since then and become a famous man John read and a member of the nobility go your way and win your spurs I want no lip service being at the end of my wits I did even as she ordered me at least I had no spurs to win because there were big ones on my boots paid for in the Easter bill and made by a famous saddler so as never to clog with marsh weed but prick as hard as any horse in reason could desire and kickums never wanted spurs but always went tail foremost if anybody offered them for his consideration end of chapter sixty three recording by michelle Harris chapter sixty four of lorna dune this is a liberal box recording all liberal box recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit liberal box dot org recording by michelle harris lorna dune by rd blackmore chapter sixty four slaughter in the marshes we rattled away at a merry pace out of the town of delverton my horse being gaily fed and myself quite fit again for going of course i was puzzled about cousin rooth for her behavior was not at all such as i had expected and indeed i had hoped for a far more loving and moving farewell than i got from her but i said to myself it is useless ever to count upon what a woman will do and i think that i must have vexed her almost as much as she vexed me and now to see what comes of it so i put my horse across the moorland and he threw his chest out bravely now if i tried to set down at length all the things that happened to me upon this adventure every in and out and up and down and to and fro that occupied me together with the things i saw and the things i heard of however much the wiser people might applaud my narrative it is likely enough that idle readers might exclaim what ails this man knows he not that men of parts and of real understanding have told us all we care to hear of that miserable business let him keep to his farm and his bacon and his wrestling and constant feeding fearing to meet with such rebuffs which after my death would vex me i will try to set down only what is needful for my story and the clearing of my character and the good name of our parish but the manner in which i was bandied about by false information from pillar to post or at other times driven quite out of my way by the presence of the king soldiers may be known by the names of the following towns to which i was sent in succession bath, frome, wells, windcanton, glastonberry, shepton, bradford, axbridge, summerton, and bridgewater this last place i reached on a sunday night the fourth or fifth of july i think or it might be the sixth for that matter in as much as i had been too much worried to get the day of the month at church only i know that my horse and myself were glad to come to a decent place where meat and corn could be had for money and being quite weary of wondering about we hope to rest there a little of this however we found no chance for the town was full of the good duke's soldiers if men may be called so the half of whom had never been drilled nor had fired a gun and it was rumored among them that the popish army as they called it was to be attacked that very night and with god's assistance beaten however by this time i had been taught to pay little attention to rumors and having sought vainly for tom faggis among these poor rustic warriors i took to my hostel and went to bed being as weary as weary can be falling asleep immediately i took heed of nothing although the town was all alive and lights had come glancing as i lay down and shouts making echo all around my room but all i did was to bolt the door not an inch would i budge unless the house and even my bed were on fire and so for several hours i lay in the depth of the deepest slumber without even a dream on its surface until i was roused and awakened at last by a pushing and pulling and pinching and a plucking of hair out by the roots and at length being able to open mine eyes i saw the old landlady with a candle heavily wandering at me can't you let me alone i grumbled i have paid for my bed mistress and i won't get up for anyone would to god young man she answered shaking me as hard as ever that the popish soldiers may sleep this night only half as strong as thou dust fire on the fire on the get up and go fight we can hear the battle already and a man of thy size must stop a cannon i would rather stop a bed said i what have i to do with fighting i am for king james if any then thou mayest even stop a bed the old woman muttered sulkily i would never have labored half an hour to awake a papisher but harken you one thing young man some reset thou art by thy brogue or at least by thy understanding of it no summer that made will look at the in spite of my size and stature unless thou strike us a blow this night i lack no summer that made mistress i have a fairer than your brown things and for her alone would i strike a blow at this the old woman gave me up as being beyond correction and it vexed me a little that my great fame had not reached so far as bridgewater when i thought that it went to bristo those people in east summer set know nothing about wrestling devon is the headquarters of the art and devon is the county of my chief love how be it my vanity was moved by this slurp on it for i had told her my name was john ridd when i had a gallon of ale with her air ever i came upstairs and she had nodded in such a manner that i thought she knew both name and fame and here was i not only shaken pinched in with many hairs pulled out in the midst of my first good sleep for a week but also abused and taken amiss and which vexed me most of all unknown now there is nothing like vanity to keep a man awake at night however he be weary and most of all when he believes that he is doing something great this time if never done before yet other people will not see except what they may laugh at and so be far above him and sleep themselves the happier therefore their sleep robs his own for all things play so in and out with the godly and ungodly ever moving in a balance as they have done in my time almost every year or two all things have such nice reply of produce to the call for it and such a spread across the world giving here and taking there yet on the whole pretty even that happily sleep itself has but a certain stock and keeps in hand and sells to flattered which can pay that which flatten vanity cannot pay and will not sue for be that as it may i was by this time wide awake though much agreed at feeling so and through the open window heard the distant role of musketry and the beating of drums with a quick rub a dub and the come around the corner of trumpet call and perhaps tom faggis might be there and shot at any moment and my dear and he left a poor widow and my godson jack and orphan without a tooth to help him therefore i reviled myself for all my heavy laziness and partly through good honest will and partly through the stings of pride and yet a little perhaps by virtue of the young man's love of riot up by a rose and dressed myself and woke kick comes who was snoring and set out to see the worst of it the sleepy hustler scratched his pole and could not tell me which way to take what odds to him who was king or pope so long as he paid his way and got a bit of bacon on sunday and what i pleased to remember that i had roused him up at night and the quality always made a point of paying four times over for a man's loss of his beauty sleep i reply that his loss of beauty sleep was rather improving to a man of so high complexion and that i being none of the quality must pay half quality prices and so i gave him double fee as became a good farmer and he was glad to be quit of kick comes as i saw by the turn of his eye while going out at the archway all this was done by land thorn light although the moon was high and bold and in the northern heaven flags and ribbons of a jostling pattern such as we often have in autumn but in july very rarely of these master dryden has spoken somewhere in his courtly manner but of him i think so little because by fashion preferred to shakespeare that i cannot remember the passage neither is it a credit to him therefore i was guided mainly by the sound of guns and trumpets in writing out of the narrow ways and into the open marshes and thus i might have found my road in spite of all the spread of water in the glaze of moonshine but that as i followed sound far from hedge or causeway fog like a chestnut tree in blossom touched with moonlight met me now fog is a thing that i understand and can do with well enough where i know the country but here i had never been before it was nothing to our x more fogs not to be compared with them and all the time one could see the moon which we cannot do in our fogs nor even the sun for a week together yet the gleam of water always makes the fog more difficult like a curtain on a mirror none can tell the boundaries and here we had broad water patches in and out inlaid on land like mother of pearl in brown shittum wood to a wild duck born in bread there it would almost be a puzzle to find her own nest amongst us what chance then had i in kickums both unused to marsh and mere each time when we thought that we must be right now at last by track or passage and approaching the conflict with the sounds of it waxing near suddenly a break of water would be laid before us with the moon looking mildly over it and the northern lights behind us dancing down the lines of fog it was an awful thing i say and to this day i remember it to hear the sounds of raging fight and the yells of raving slayers in the howls of poor men stricken hard and shattered from wrath to wailing then suddenly the dead low hush as of a soul departing and spirits kneeling over it through the vapor of the earth and white breath of the water and beneath the pale round moon bowing as the drift went by all this rush and pause of fear passed or lingered on my path at last when i almost disparate of escaping from this tangle of spongy banks and of hazy creeks and reed fringe my horse heard the name of a fellow horse and was only too glad to answer it upon which the other having lost its rider came up and picked his ears at us and gazed through the fog very steadfastly therefore i encouraged him with a soft and genial whistle and kickums did his best to tempt him with a snort of inquiry however nothing would suit that nag except to enjoy his new freedom and he capered away with his tail set on high and the stirrup irons clashing under him therefore as he might know the way and appeared to have been in the battle we followed him very carefully and he led us to a little hamlet called as i found afterwards west zealand or zealand so named perhaps from its situation amid this inland sea here the king's troops had been quite lately and their fires were still burning but the men themselves had been summoned away by the night attack of the rebels hence i procured for my guide a young man who knew the district thoroughly and who led me by many intricate ways to the rear of the rebel army we came upon a broad open more striped with sullen water courses shagged with sedge and yellow iris and in the drier part with bill berries for by this time it was four o'clock in the summer sun rising wanley showed us all the ghastly scene would that i had never been there often in the lonely hours even now it haunts me would far more that the pittiest thing had never been done in england flying men flung back from dreams of victory and honor only glad to have the luck of life and limbs to fly with mud be draggled foul with slime wreaking both with sweat and blood which they could not stop to wipe cursing with their pumped out lungs every stick that hindered them or gory puddle that slipped the step scarcely able to leap over the corpses that had dragged to die and to see how the corpses lay some as fair as death in sleep with the smile of placid valor and of noble manhood hovering yet on the silent lips these had bloodless hands put upwards widest wax and firm's death clasped as on a monument in prayer for dear ones left behind or in high thanksgiving and of these men there was nothing in their broad blue eyes to fear but others were of different sort simple fellows unused to pain accustomed to the bill hook perhaps or rasp of the knuckles in a quick set hedge or making some to do at breakfast over a thumb cut in sharpening a scythe and expecting their wives to make more to do yet here lay these poor chaps dead dead after a deal of pain with little mind to bear it and a soul they had never thought of gone their god only knows wither but to mercy we may trust upon these things i cannot dwell and none i trial would ask me only if a plain man saw what i saw that morning he if god had blessed him with the heart that is in most of us must have sickened of all desire to be great among mankind seeing me writing to the front where the work of death went on among the men of true english pluck which when move no farther moves the fugitives called out to me in half a dozen dialects to make no utter fool of myself for the great guns were come and the fight was over all the rest was slaughter our loupe with moon mow shouted one big fellow a minor of the men dip hills whose weapon was a pickaxe knows to fight no more when the haym young man again upon this i stopped my horse desiring not to be shot for nothing and eager to aid some poor sick people who tried to lift their arms to me and this i did to the best of my power though void of skill in the business and more inclined to weep with them than to check their weeping while i was giving a drop of cordial from my flask to one poor fellow who sat up while his life was ebbing and with slow insistence urged me when his broken voice would come to tell his wife whose name i knew not something about an apple tree and a golden guinea stored in it to divide among six children in the midst of this i felt warm lips laid against my cheek quite softly and then a little push and behold it was a horse leaning over me i rose in haste and there stood winnie looking at me with beseeching eyes enough to melt a heart of stone then seeing my attention fixed she turned her head and glance back sadly toward the place of battle and gave a little whistful nay and then looked me full in the face again as much as to say do you understand while she scraped with one hoof impatiently if ever a horse tried hard to speak it was winnie at that moment i went to her side and padded her but that was not what she wanted then i offered to leap into the empty saddle but neither did that seem good to her for she ran away toward the part of the field at which she had been glancing back and then turned round and shook her mane in treating me to follow her upon this i learned from the dying man where to find his apple tree and promised to add another guinea to the one in store for his children and so commending him to god i mounted my own horse again and to winnie's great delight professed myself at her service with her ringing silvery nay such as no other horse of all i ever knew could equal she at once proclaimed her triumph and told her master or meant to tell of death should not have closed his ears that she was coming to his aid and bringing one who might be trusted of the higher race that kill a cannon bullet fired low and plowing the marsh slowly met poor winnie front to front and she being as quick as thought lowered her nose to sniff at it it might be a message from her master for it made a mournful noise but luckily for winnie's life a rise of wet ground took the ball even under her very nose and there it cut a splashy groove missing her off hind foot by an inch and scattering black mud over her it frightened me much more than winnie of that i am quite certain because though i am firm enough when it comes to a real tussle and the heart of a fellow warms up and tells him that he must go through with it yet i never did approve of making a cold pie of death therefore with those reckless cannons brazen mouth and bellowing two furlongs off or it might be more and the more the merrier i would have given that year's hay crop for a bit of a hill or a thicket of oaks or almost even a badger's earth people will call me a coward for this especially when i had made up my mind that life was not worth having without any sign of lorna nevertheless i cannot help it those were my feelings and i set them down because they made a mark on me at glendon i had fought even against cannon with some spirit and fury but now i saw nothing to fight about rather in every poor doubled corpse a good reason for not fighting so in cold blood riding on and yet a shame that a man should shrink where a horse went bravely i cast a bitter blame upon the reckless ways of winnie nearly all were scattered now of the noble countrymen armed with scythe or pickaxe blacksmith's hammer or fold pitcher who had stood their ground for hours against blazing musketry from men whom they could not get at by reason of the water dike and then against the deadly cannon dragged by the bishops horses to slaughter his own sheep of these sturdy englishmen noble in their want of sense scarce one out of four remain for the cowards to shoot down cross the rain they shouted out cross the rain and come within rage but the other mongrel britain's with a mongrel at their head found it pleasanter to shoot men who could not shoot in answer then to meet the chance of mischief from strong arms and stronger hearts the last scene of this pittiest play was acting just as i wrote up broad daylight an upstanding son winnowing fog from the eastern hills and spreading the moors with freshness all along the dykes they shone glistened on the willow trunks and touched the banks with a hoary gray but alas those banks were touched more deeply with a gory red and strewn with fallen trunks more woeful than the wreck of trees while howling cursing yelling and the loathsome reek of carnage drowned the scent of the newmoan hay and the carol of the lark then the cavalry of the king with their horses at full speed dashed from either side upon the helpless mob of countrymen a few pikes feebly leveled met them but they shot the pikemen drew swords and helter skelter leaped into the shattered and scattering mass right and left they hacked and hewed i could hear the snapping of sighs beneath them and see the flash of their sweeping swords how it must end was plain enough even to one like myself who had never beheld such a battle before but when he led me away to the left and as i could not help the people neither stop the slaughter but found the cannon bullets coming very rudely nigh me i was only too glad to follow her end of chapter sixty-four recording by michelle harris chapter sixty-five of lorna dune this is a libra vox recording all libra vox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit libra vox dot org recording by michelle harris lorna dune by rd blackmore chapter sixty-five falling among lambs that faithful creature whom i began to admire as if she were my own which is no little thing for a man to say of another man's horse stopped in front of a low-black shed such as we call a lynn hay and here she uttered a little greeting in a subdued and softened voice hoping to obtain an answer such as her master was want to give in a cheery manner receiving no reply she entered and i who could scarce keep up with her poor kick comes being weary leap from his back and followed there i found her sniffing gently but with great emotion at the body of tom faggis a corpse poor tom appeared to be if ever there was one in this world and i turned away and felt unable to keep all together from weeping but the mayor either could not understand or else would not believe it she reached her long neck fourth and felt him with her under lip passing it over his skin as softly as a mother would do to an infant and then she looked up at me again as much as to say he is all right upon this i took courage and handled poor tom which being young i had feared at first to do he grown very feebly as i raised him up and there was the wound a great savage one whether from pike thrust or musket ball gaping and welling in his right side from which a piece seemed to be torn away i bounded up with some of my linen so far as i knew how just to staunch the flow of blood until we could get a doctor then i gave him a little weak brandy and water which he drank with the greatest eagerness and made sign to me for more of it but not knowing how far it was right to give cordial under the circumstances i handed him unmixed water that time thinking that he was too far gone to perceive the difference but herein i wronged tom faggis for he shook his head and frowned at me even at the door of death he would not drink what adam drank by whom came death into the world so i gave him a little more odiv and he took it most submissively after that he seemed better and a little color came into his cheeks and he looked at winnie and knew her and would have her nose in his clammy hand though i thought it not good for either of them with the stay of my arm he sat upright and faintly looked about him as if at the end of a violent dream too much for his power of mind then he managed to whisper is winnie hurt as sound as a roach i answered then so am i said he put me upon her back john she and i died together surprised as i was at this fatalism for so it appeared to me of which he had often shown symptoms before but i took them for mere levity now i knew not what to do for it seemed to me a murderous thing to set such a man on horseback where he must surely bleed to death even if he could keep the saddle but he told me with many breaks and pauses that unless i obeyed his orders he would tear off all my bandages and accept no further aid from me while i was yet hesitating a storm of horse at full gallop went by tearing, swearing, bearing away all the country before them only a little pollard hedge kept us from their bloodshot eyes now is the time said my cousin tom so far as i could make out his words on their heels i am safe john if i have only winnie under me winnie and i died together seeing this strong bent of his mind stronger than any pains of death i even did what his feeble eyes sometimes implored and sometimes commanded with a strong sash from his own hot-neck bound and twisted tight as wax around his damaged waist i set him upon winnie's back and placed his trembling feet in stirrups with a band from one to another under the good mayor's body so that no swerve could throw him out and then i said lean forward tom it will stop your hurt from bleeding he leaned almost on the neck of the mayor which as i knew must close the wound and the light of his eyes was quite different and the pain of his forehead unstrung itself as if he felt the unduly readiness of her volatile paces under him god bless you john i am safe he whispered fearing to open his lungs much who can come near my winnie mayor a mile of her gallop is ten years of life look out for yourself john ridd he sucked his lips in the mayor went off as easy and swift as a swallow well thought i as i looked at kickums ignobley cropping up a bit of grass i have done a very good thing no doubt and ought to be thankful to god for the chance but as for getting away unharmed with all these scoundrels about me and only a foundered horse to trust in good and spiteful as he is upon the whole i began to think that i have made a fool of myself according to my habit no wonder tom said look out for yourself i shall look out from a prison window or perhaps even out of a halter and then what will learn to think of me being in this wistful mood i resolved to abide a while even where fate had thrown me for my horse required good rest no doubt and was taking it even while he cropped with his hind legs far away stretched out and his four legs gathered under him and his muzzle on the molehills so that he had five supportings from his mother earth moreover the lin-hae itself was full of very ancient cow dung than which there is no balmier and more maiden soporific hence i resolved upon the whole though grieving about breakfast to light a pipe and go to sleep or at least until the hot sun should arouse the flies i may have slept three hours or four or it might be even five for i never counted time while sleeping when a shaking more rude than the old landlady's brought me back to the world again i looked up with a mighty yawn and saw twenty or so of foot soldiers this lin-hae is not yours i said when they had quite aroused me with tongue and hand and even sword prick what business have you here good fellows business bad for you said one and will lead you to the gallows do you wish to know the way out again i asked very quietly as being no braggadocio we will show thee the way out said one and the way out of the world said another but not the way to heaven said one chap most unlikely to know it and thereupon they all fell wagging like a bed of clover leaves in the morning at their own choice humor will you pile your arms outside i said and try a bit of fair play with me for i disliked these men sincerely and was feigned to teach them a lesson they were so un-christian in appearance having faces of a coffee-color and dirty beards half over them moreover their dress was outrageous and their address still worse however i had wiser let them alone as will appear afterwards these savage-looking fellows laughed at the idea of my having any chance against some twenty of them but i knew that the place was in my favor for my part of it had been fenced off for weaning a calf most likely so that only two could come at me at once and i must be very much out of training if i could not manage two of them therefore i laid aside my carbine and the two horse pistols and they with many coarse jokes at me went a little way outside and set their weapons against the wall and turned up their coat sleeves jauntily and then began to hesitate go you first bob i heard them say you are the biggest man of us and dick the wrestler along of you us will back you up boy i'll warrant i'll draw the badger said bob and not a tooth will i leave him but mine for the honor of kirk slams every man stands me a glass of gin then he and another man made a rush and the others came double-quick march on their heels but as bob ran at me most stupidly not even knowing how to place his hands i caught him with my knuckles at the back of his neck and with all the sway of my right arm sent him over the heads of his comrades meanwhile dick the wrestler had grappled me expecting to show off his art of which indeed he had some small knowledge but being quite of the lightweights in a second he was flying after his companion bob now these two men were hurt so badly the light one having knocked his head against the lintel of the outer gate that the rest had no desire to encounter the like misfortune so they hung back whispering and before they had made up their minds i rushed into the midst of them the suddenness and the weight of my onset took them wholly by surprise and for once in their lives perhaps kirk slams were worthy of their name like a flock of sheep at a dog's attack they fell away hustling one another and my only difficulty was not to tumble over them i had taken my carbine out with me having a fondness for it but the two horse pistols i left behind and therefore felt good title to take two from the magazine of the lambs and with these and my carbine i leaped upon kickums who is now quite glad of a gallop again and i bade adieu to that mongrel lot yet they had the meanest to shoot at me thanking god for my deliverance in as much as those men would have strung me up from a pollard ash without trial as i heard them tell one another and saw the tree they had settled upon i ventured to go rather fast on my way with doubt and uneasiness urging me and now my way was home again nobody could say but what i had done my duty and rescued tom if he could be rescued from the mischief into which his own perverseness and love of change rather than deep religious convictions to which are any ascribed his outbreak had led or seemed likely to lead him and how proud would my mother be and all well there was nobody else to be proud of me now but while thinking these things and desiring my breakfast beyond any power of describing and even beyond my remembrance i fell into another fold of lambs from which there was no exit these like true crusaders met me swaggering very heartily and with their barrels of cider set like so many cannon across the road over against a small hostel we have won the victory my lord king and we mean to enjoy it down from my horse and have a stop of cider that big rebel no rebel am i my name is john rid i belong to the side of the king and i want some breakfast these fellows were truly hospitable that much will i say for them being accustomed to arab ways they could toss a grill or fritter or the inner meaning of an egg into any form they pleased calmly and very good to eat and it led me to think of any so i made the rarest breakfast any man might hope for after all his troubles and getting on with these brown fellows better than could be expected i crave permission to light a pipe if not disagreeable hearing this they roared at me with the superior laughter and asked me whether or not i knew the tobacco leaf from the chickweed and when i was forced to answer no not having gone into the subject but being content with anything brown they clapped me on the back and swore they had never seen anyone like me upon the whole this please me much for i do not wish to be taken always as of the common pattern and so we smoked admirable tobacco for they would not have any of mine though very courteous concerning it and i was beginning to understand a little of what they told me when up came those confounded lambs who had shown more tail than head to me in the lynn hay as i mentioned now these men upset everything having been among wrestlers so much as my duty compelled me to be and having learned the necessity of the rest which follows the conflict and the right of discussion which all people have to pay their six pence to enter and how they have true this right and their wisdom upon the man who is labored until he forgets all the work he did and begins to think that they did it having some knowledge of this sort of thing and the flux of mind swimming in liquor i foresaw a brawl as plainly as if it were bare street in barn staple and a brawl there was without any air except of the men who hit their friends and those who defended their enemies my partners in breakfast and beer cans swore that i was no prisoner but the best and most loyal subject and the finest hearted fellow they had ever the luck to meet with whereas the men from the lynn hay swore that i was a rebel miscreant and have me they would with the ropes and ready in spite of every violent language who had got drunk at my expense been misled by my strong word lies while this fight was going on and it's mere current shows perhaps that my conversation in those days was not entirely despicable else why should my new friends fight for me when i had paid for the ale and therefore one the wrong tense of gratitude it was in my power at any moment to take course and go and this would have been my wisest plan and a very great saving of money but somehow i felt as if it would be a mean thing to slip off so even while i was hesitating and the men were breaking each other's heads a superior officer wrote up with his sword drawn and his face on fire what my lambs my lambs he cried smiting with the flat of his sword is this how you waste my time in my purse when you ought to be catching a hundred prisoners worth ten pounds apiece to me who is this young fellow we have here speak up sir what art thou and how much will thy good mother pay for thee my mother will pay not for me i answered while the lambs fell back and glowered at one another so please your worship i am no rebel but an honest farmer and well-proved of loyalty haha a farmer art thou those fellows always pay the best good farmer come to yon bearing tree thou shalt make it fruitful colonel kerrk made a sign to his men and before i could think of resistance stout new ropes were flung around me and with three men on either side i was led along very painfully and now i saw and repented deeply of my careless folly in stopping with those boon companions instead of being far away but the newness of their manners to me and their mode of regarding the world differing so much from mine own as well as the flavor of their tobacco had made me quite forget my duty to the farm and to myself yet me thought they would be tender to me after all our speeches how then was i disappointed when the men who had drunk my beer drew on those grievous ropes twice as hard as the men i had been at strife with yet this may have been from no ill will but simply that having fallen under suspicion of laxity they were compelled in self-defense now to be overzealous nevertheless however pure and godly might be their motives i beheld myself in a grievous case and likely to get the worst of it for the face of the colonel was hard and stern as a block of bogwood oak and though the men might pity me and think me unjustly executed yet they must obey their orders or themselves be put to death therefore i addressed myself to the colonel in a most ingratiating manner begging him not to sully the glory of his victory and dwelling upon my pure innocence and even good service to our lord the king but colonel kirk only gave command that i should be smitten in the mouth which office bob whom i had flung so hard out of the linhe performed with great zeal and efficiency but being aware of the coming smack i thrust forth a pair of teeth upon which the knuckles of my good friend made a melancholy shipwreck it is not in my power to tell half the thoughts that moved me when we came to the fatal tree and saw two men hanging there already as innocent perhaps as i was and henceforth entirely harmless though ordered by the colonel to look steadfastly upon them i could not bear to do so upon which he called me a paltry coward and promised my breeches to any man who would spit upon my countenance this vile thing bob being angered perhaps by the smarting wound of his knuckles bravely stepped forward to do for me trusting no doubt to the rope i was led with but unluckily as it proved for him my right arm was free for a moment and therewith i dealt him such a blow that he never spank again for this thing i have often grieved but the provocation was very sore to the pride of a young man and i trust that god has forgiven me at the sound inside of that bitter stroke the other men drew back and colonel kirk now black in the face with fury and vexation gave orders for to shoot me cast me into the ditch hard by the men raised their pieces and pointed at me waiting for the word to fire and i being quite overcome by the hurry of these events and quite unprepared to die yet could only think all upside down about lorna and my mother and wonder what each would say to it i spread my hands before my eyes not being so brave as some men and hoping in some foolish way to cover my heart with my elbows i heard the breath of all around as if my skull were a sounding board and knew even how the different men were fingering their triggers and a cold sweat broke all over me as the colonel prolonging his enjoyment began slowly to say fire but while he was yet dwelling on the f the hoops of a horse dashed out on the road and horse and horseman flung themselves betwixt me and the gun muzzles so narrowly was i saved that one man could not check his trigger his musket went off and the ball struck the horse on the withers and scared him exceedingly he began to lash out with his heels all around and the colonel was glad to keep clear of him and the men made excuse to lower their guns not really wishing to shoot me how now captain stickles cried kirk the more angry because he had shown his cowardice dare you sir to come betwixt me in my lawful prisoner nay harken one moment colonel replied my old friend jeremy and his damaged voice was the sweetest sound i had heard for many a day for your own sake harken he looks so full of momentous tidings that colonel kirk made a sign to his men not to shoot me till further orders and then he went aside with stickles so that in spite of all my anxiety i could not catch what passed between them but i fancied that the name of the lord chief justice jeffreys was spoken more than once and with emphasis and deference then i leave him in your hands captain stickles said kirk at last so that all might hear him and though the news was good for me the smile of baffled malice made his dark face look most hideous and i shall hold you answerable for the custody of this prisoner colonel kirk i will answer for him master stickles replied with a grave bow and one hand on his breast john ridd you are my prisoner follow me john ridd upon that those precious lambs flocked away leaving the rope still around me and some were glad and some were sorry not to see me swinging being free of my arms again i touched my hat to colonel kirk as became his rank and experience but he did not condescend to return my short salutation having aspired in the distance a prisoner out of whom he might make money i rung the hand of jeremy stickles for his truth and goodness and he almost wept for since his wound he had been a weakened man as he answered turn for turn john you saved my life from the dunes and by the mercy of god i have saved you from a far worse company let your sister annie know it end of chapter sixty-five recording by michelle harris chapter sixty-six of lorna dune this is a libra vox recording all libra vox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit libra vox dot org lorna dune by rd blackmore chapter sixty-six suitable devotion now kickums was not like winnie any more than a man is like a woman and so he had not followed my fortunes except at his own distance no doubt but what he felt a certain interest in me but his interest was not devotion and man might go his way and be hanged rather than horse would meet hardship therefore seeing things to be bad and his master involved in trouble what did this horse do but start for the ease and comfort of plover's barrows in the plentiful ration of oats abiding in his own manger for this i do not blame him it is the manner of mankind but i could not help being very uneasy at the thought of my mother's discomfort and worry when she should spy this good horse coming home without any master or writer and i almost hope that he might be caught although he was worth at least twenty pounds by some of the king's troopers rather than find his way home and spread distress among our people yet knowing his nature i doubted if any could catch or catching would keep him jeremy stickles assured me as we took the road to bridge water that the only chance for my life if i still refused to fly was to obtain an order forthwith from my dispatch to london as a suspected person indeed but not found an open rebellion and believed to be under the patronage of the great lord jeffreys four said he in a few hours time you would fall into the hands of lord fever sham who has won this fight without seeing it and who has returned to bed again to have his breakfast more comfortably now he may not be quite so savage perhaps is colonel kirk nor find so much sport and gibbeting but he is equally pitiless and his price no doubt would be higher i will pay no price whatever i answered neither will i fly an hour gone i would have fled for the sake of my mother in the farm but now that i have been taken prisoner and my name is known if i fly the farm is forfeited and my mother and sister must starve moreover i have done no harm i have born no weapons against the king nor desired the success of his enemies i like not that the son of abona roba should be king of england neither do i count the papers any worse than we are if they have ought to try me for i will stand my trial then to london i must go my son there's no such thing as trial here we hang the good folk without it which saves them much anxiety but quick and nice step good john i have influence with lord tertill and we must contrive to see him air the foreigner falls to work again lord tertill is a man of sense and imprisons nothing but his money we were lucky enough to find this nobleman who is since become so famous by his foreign victories he received us with great civility and looked at me with much interest being a tall and fine young man himself but not to compare with me in size although far better favored i liked his face well enough but thought there was something false about it he put me a few keen questions such as a man not a shirt of honesty might have found hard to answer and he stood in a very upright attitude making the most of his figure i saw nothing to be proud of at the moment in this interview but since the great duke of marlboro rose to the top of glory i've tried to remember more about him than my conscience quite backs up how should i know that this man would be foremost of our kingdom in five and twenty years or so and not knowing why should i heed him except for my own pocket nevertheless i have been so cross-questioned far worse than by young lord tertill about his grace the duke of marlboro and what he said to me and what i said then and how his grace replied to that and whether he smiled like another man or screwed up his lips like a button as our parish taylor said of him and whether i knew from the turn of his nose that no frenchman could stand before him all these inquiries have worried me so ever since the battle of blenheim that if taylors would only print upon waistcoats i would give double price for a vest wearing this inscription no information can be given about the duke of marlboro now this good lord tertill for one might call him good by comparison with the very bad people around him granted without any long hesitation the order for my safe deliverance to the court of kings bench at westminster and stickles who had to report in london was empowered to convey me and made answerable for producing me this arrangement would have been entirely to my liking although the time of year was bad for leaving clovers barrow so but no man may quite choose his times and on the while i would have been quite content to visit london if my mother could be warned that nothing was amiss with me only a mild and as one might say nominal captivity and to prevent her anxiety i did my best to send a letter through good sergeant blockson of whom i heard as quartered with dumbarton's regiment at chadzoo but that regiment was away in pursuit and i was forced to entrust my letter to a man who said that he knew him and accepted a shilling to see to it for fear of any unpleasant change we set forth at once for london and truly thankful may i be that god in his mercy spared me the sight of the cruel and bloody work with which the whole country reeked and howled during the next fortnight i've heard things that set my hair on end and made me loathe good meat for days but i made a point of setting down only the things which i saw done and in this particular case not many will quarrel with my decision enough therefore that we wrote on for stickles had found me a horse at last as far as wells where we slept at night and being joined in the morning by several troopers and orderlies we made a slow but safe journey to london by way of bath and reading the side of london warmed my heart with various emotions such as a cordial man must draw from the heart of all humanity here there are quick ways and manners and the rapid sense of knowledge and the power of understanding error would be spoken whereas it or you must say a thing three times very slowly before it gets inside the skull of the good man you are dressing and yet we are far more clever there than in any parish for fifteen miles but what moved me most when i saw again the noble oil and tallow of the london lights and the dripping torches at almost every corner and the handsome signboards was the thought that here my lorna lived and walked and took the air and perhaps thought now and then of the old days in the good farmhouse although i would make no approach to her any more than she had done to me upon which grief i have not dwelt for fear of seeming selfish yet there must be some large chance or the little chance might be enlarged of falling in with the maiden somehow and learning how her mind was set if against me all should be over i was not the man to sigh and cry for love like a Romeo none should even guess my grief except my sister Annie but if lorna still loved me as in my heart of hearts i hoped then would i for no one care except her own delicious self rank and title wealth and grandeur all should go to the winds before they scared me from my own true love thinking thus i went to bed in the center of london town and was bitten so grievously by creatures whose name is legion mad with the delight of getting a wholesome farmer among them that verily i was ashamed to walk in the courtly paths of the town next day having lumps upon my face the size of a pickling walnut the landlord said that this was nothing and that he expected in two days at the most a very fresh young Irishman for whom they would all forsake me nevertheless i declined to wait unless he could find me a hayrick to sleep in for the insects of grass only tickle he assured me that no hayrick could now be found in London upon which i was forced to leave him and with mutual steam we parted the next night i had better luck being introduced to a decent widow a very high scotch origin that house was swept and garnished so that not a bit was left to eat for either man or insect the change of air having made me hungry i wanted something after supper being quite ready to pay for it and showing my purse as a symptom but the face of widow McAllister when i proposed to have some more food was the thing to be drawn if it could be drawn further by our new caricaturist therefore i left her also for leafer would i be eaten myself than have nothing to eat and so i came back to my old furrier the witch was a thoroughly hearty man and welcomed me to my room again with two shillings added to the rent in the joy of his heart at seeing me being under parole to master stickles i only went out between certain hours because i was accounted as liable to be called upon for what purpose i knew not but hoped it might be a good one i felt at a loss and hindrance to me that i was so bound to remain at home during the sessions of the courts of law for thereby the chance of ever beholding lorna was very greatly contracted if not altogether annihilated for these were the very hours in which the people of fashion in the high world were want to appear to the rest of mankind so as to encourage them and of course by this time the lady lorna was high among people of fashion and was not likely to be seen out of fashionable hours it is true that there were some places of expensive entertainment at which the better sort of mankind might be seen and studied in their hours of relaxation by those of the lower order who could pay sufficiently but alas my money was getting low and the privilege of seeing my betters was more and more denied to me as my cash drew shorter for a man must have a good coat at least and the pockets not wholly empty before he can look at those whom god has created for his in sample hence and for many other causes part of which was my own pride it happened that I abode in London betwixt a month and five weeks time ere ever I saw lorna it seemed unfit that I should go and waylay her and spy on her and say or mean to say low here is your poor faithful farmer a man who is unworthy of you by means of his common birth and yet who dares to crawl across your path that you may pity him for god's sake show a little pity though you may not feel it such behavior might be comely in a love Lorne boy a page to some grand princess but I John rid would never stoop to the lowering of love so nevertheless I heard of Lorna from my worthy furrier almost every day and with a fine exaggeration this honest man was one of those who in virtue of their trade and nicety of behavior are admitted into noble life to take measurements and show patterns and while so doing they contrive to acquire what is to the English mind at once the most important and most interesting of all knowledge the science of being able to talk about the titled people so my furrier whose name was ram sack having to make robes for peers and cloaks for their wives and otherwise knew the great folk Shamor real as well as he knew a fox or a skunk from a Wolverine skin and when with some fencing and foils of inquiry I hinted about lady Dorna Dugal the old man's face became so pleasant that I knew her birth must be wondrous high at this my own countenance fell I suppose for the better she was born the harder she would be to marry and mistaking my object he took me up perhaps you think master rid that because her ladyship lady Lorna Dugal is of Scottish origin therefore her birth is not as high as of our English nobility if you think so you are wrong sir she comes not of the sandy Scotch race with high cheekbones and raw shoulder blades who set up pillars in their courtyards but she comes of the very best Scotch blood descended from the Norsemen her mother was of the very noblest race the Lords of Lorne higher even than the great Argyle who has lately made a sad mistake and paid for it most sadly and her father was descended from the king Dugal who fought against Alexander the Great no no master rid none of your promiscuous blood such as runs in the veins of half our modern peerage why should you trouble yourself about it master Ramsack I replied let them all go their own ways and let us all look up to them whether they come by hook or crook not at all not at all my lad that is not the way to regard it we look up at the well-born men and sideways at the baseborn then we are all baseborn ourselves I will look up to no man except for what himself has done come master rid you might be lashed from Newgate to Tibern and back again once a week for a twelve month if some people heard you keep your tongue more close young man or here you lodge no longer albeit I love your company which smells to me of the hayfield ah I have not seen a hayfield for nine and twenty years John Rid the cursed moths keep me at home every day of the summer spread your furs on the hay cocks I answered very boldly the indoor moth cannot abide the presence of the outdoor ones is it so he answered I never thought of that before and yet I have known such strange things happen in the way of fur that I can well believe it if you only knew John the way in which they lay their eggs and how they work tail foremost tell me nothing of the kind I replied with equal confidence they cannot work tail foremost and they have no tails to work with for I knew a little about grubs and the ignorance concerning them which we have no right to put up with however not to go into that for the argument lasted a fortnight and then was only come so far as to begin again master ramsack soon convinced me of the things I already knew the excellence of lorna's birth as well as her lofty place at the court and beauty and wealth and elegance but all these only made me sigh and wish that I were born to them for master ramsack I discovered that the nobleman to whose charge lady lorna had been committed by the court of chancery was earl brandier of locha her poor mother's uncle for the countess of digal was a daughter and only child of the last lord lorne whose sister had married sir enzer dune while he himself had married the sister of earl brandier this nobleman had a country house near the village of Kensington and here his niece dwelled with him when she was not in attendance on her majesty the queen who had taken a liking to her now since the king had begun to attend the celebration of mass in the chapel at whitehall and not at Westminster abbey as our gossips had a bird he had given order that the door should be thrown open so that all who could make interest to get into the antechamber might see this form of worship master ramsack told me that lorna was there almost every Sunday their majesties being most anxious to have the presence of all the nobility of the Catholic persuasion so as to make a goodly show and the worthy furrier having influence with the doorkeepers kindly obtained admittance for me one Sunday into the antechamber here I took care to be in waiting before the royal procession entered but being unknown and of no high rank I was not allowed to stand forward among the better people but ordered back into a corner very dark and dismal the verger remarking with a grin that I could see over all the heads and must not set my own so high being frightened to find myself among so many people of great rank and gorgeous apparel I blushed at the notice drawn upon me by this uncourteous fellow and silently fell back into the corner by the hangings you may suppose that my heart beat high when the king and queen appeared and entered followed by the Duke of Norfolk bearing the sort of state and by several other noblemen and people of repute then the doors of the chapel were thrown wide open and though I could only see a little being in the corner so I thought that it was beautiful bowers of rich silk were there and plenty of metal shining and polished wood with lovely carving flowers too of the noblest kind and candles made by somebody who had learned how to clarify tallow this last thing amazed me more than all for our dips will never come clear melt the mutton fat how you will and me thought that this hanging of flowers about was a pretty thing for if a man can worship God best of all beneath a tree as the natural instinct is surely when by fault of climate the tree would be too apt to drip the very best make believe is to have enough and to spare flowers which to the dwellers in London seem to have grown on the tree denied them be that as it may when the king and queen cross the threshold a mighty flourish of trumpets arose and a waving of banners the knights of the garter whoever they be were to attend that day in state and some went in and some stayed out and it made me think of the difference betwixt the use and the weather's for the use will go wherever you lead them but the weather's will not having strong opinions and meaning to abide by them and one man I noticed was of the weather's to it the Duke of Norfolk who stopped outside with the sword of state like a beetle with a wrapping rod this is taken more to tell than the time it happened in for after all the men were gone in some to this side some to that according to their feelings a number of ladies beautifully dressed being of the queen's retinue began to enter and were stared at three times as much as the men had been and indeed they were worth looking at which men never are to my ideas when they trick themselves with googos but none was so well worth eye service as my own beloved Lorna she entered modestly and shyly with her eyes upon the ground knowing the rudeness of the gallants and the large sum she was priced at her dress was of the purest white very sweet and simple without a line of ornament for she herself adorned it the way she walked and touched her skirt rather than seem to hold it up with a white hand beaming one red rose this and her stately supple neck and the flowing of her hair would show at a distance of a hundred yards that she could be none but Lorna dune Lorna dune of my early love in the days when she blushed for her name before me by reason of dishonesty but now the lady Lorna dug all as far beyond reproach as above my poor affection all my heart and all my mind gathered themselves upon her would she see me or would she pass was their instinct in our love by some strange chance she saw me or was it through our destiny while with eyes kept seduously on the marble floor to shun the weight of admiration thrust too boldly on them while with shy quick steps she passed someone perhaps with purpose trod on the skirt of her clear white dress with a quickness taught her by many a scene of danger she looked up and her eyes met mine as I gazed upon her steadfastly yearningly yet with some reproach and more of pride and humility she made me one of the courtly bows which I do so much detest yet even that was sweet and graceful when my Lorna did it but the color of her pure clear cheeks was nearly as deep as that of my own when she went on for the religious work and the shining of her eyes was owing to an unpaid debt of tears upon the whole I was satisfied Lorna had seen me and had not according to the phrase of the high world then even tried to cut me whether this low phrase is born of their own stupid meanness or whether it comes of necessity exercise on a man without money I know not and I care not but one thing I know right well any man who cuts a man except for vice or meanness should be quartered without quarter all these proud thoughts rose within me as the lovely form of Lorna went inside and was no more seen and then I felt how coarse I was how apt to think strong thoughts and so on without brains to bear me out even as a hen's egg laid without enough of lime and looking only a poor jelly nevertheless I waited on as my usual manner is for to be beaten while running away is ten times worse than to face it out and take it and have done with it so at least I have always found because of reproach of conscience and all the things those clever people carried on inside at large made me long for our person Bowden that he might know how to act while I stored up in my memory enough to keep our person going through six pipes on a Saturday night to have it as right as could be the next day a lean man with a yellow beard too thin for a good Catholic which religion always fattens came up to me working sideways in the manner of a female crab this is not to my liking I said if I thou hast speak plainly while they make that horrible noise inside nothing had this man to say but with many sighs because I was not of the proper faith he took my reprobate hand to save me and with several religious tears looked up at me and winked with one eye although the skin of my palms was thick I felt a little suggestion there as of a gentle leaf in spring fearing to seem too forward I paid the man and he went happy for the standard of heretical silver is pure than that of the Catholics then I lifted up my little billet and in that dark corner read it with a strong rainbow of colors coming from the angled light and in my eyes there was enough to make rainbow of strongest sun as my anger clouded off not that it began so well but then in my heart I knew air three lines were through me that I was with all heart loved and beyond that who may need the darling of my life went on as if I were of her own rank even better than she was and she dotted her eyes and crossed her teas as if I were at least a school master all of it was done in pencil but as plain as plain could be in my coffin it shall lie with my ring and something else therefore I will not expose it to every man who buys this book and happily thinks that he has bought me to the bottom of my heart enough for men of gentle birth who are never inquisitive that my love told me in her letter just to come and see her I ran away and could not stop to behold even her at the moment would have dashed my fancies joy yet my brain was so amiss that I must do something therefore to the river Thames with all speed I hurried and keeping all my best clothes on endued for the sake of Lorna into the quiet stream I leaped and swam as far as London Bridge and ate nobler dinner afterwards. End of Chapter 66