R. D. Blackmore - Lorna Doone

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"Coortin' of thy mother, lad?" cried Farmer Snowe, with as much
amazement as if the thing were impossible; "why, who ever hath been
dooin' of it?"

"Yes, courting of my mother, sir. And you know best who comes doing it."

"Wull, wull! What will boys be up to next? Zhud a' thought herzelf wor
the proper judge. No thank 'ee, lad, no need of thy light. Know the wai
to my own door, at laste; and have a raight to goo there." And he shut
me out without so much as offering me a drink of cider.

The next afternoon, when work was over, I had seen to the horses, for
now it was foolish to trust John Fry, because he had so many children,
and his wife had taken to scolding; and just as I was saying to myself
that in five days more my month would be done, and myself free to seek
Lorna, a man came riding up from the ford where the road goes through
the Lynn stream. As soon as I saw that it was not Tom Faggus, I went no
farther to meet him, counting that it must be some traveller bound
for Brendon or Cheriton, and likely enough he would come and beg for a
draught of milk or cider; and then on again, after asking the way.

But instead of that, he stopped at our gate, and stood up from his
saddle, and halloed as if he were somebody; and all the time he was
flourishing a white thing in the air, like the bands our parson weareth.
So I crossed the court-yard to speak with him.

"Service of the King!" he saith; "service of our lord the King! Come
hither, thou great yokel, at risk of fine and imprisonment."

Although not pleased with this, I went to him, as became a loyal man;
quite at my leisure, however, for there is no man born who can hurry me,
though I hasten for any woman.

"Plover Barrows farm!" said he; "God only knows how tired I be. Is there
any where in this cursed county a cursed place called Plover Barrows
farm? For last twenty mile at least they told me 'twere only half a mile
farther, or only just round corner. Now tell me that, and I fain would
thwack thee if thou wert not thrice my size."

"Sir," I replied, "you shall not have the trouble. This is Plover's
Barrows farm, and you are kindly welcome. Sheep's kidneys is for supper,
and the ale got bright from the tapping. But why do you think ill of us?
We like not to be cursed so."

"Nay, I think no ill," he said; "sheep's kidneys is good, uncommon good,
if they do them without burning. But I be so galled in the saddle ten
days, and never a comely meal of it. And when they hear 'King's service'
cried, they give me the worst of everything. All the way down from
London, I had a rogue of a fellow in front of me, eating the fat of
the land before me, and every one bowing down to him. He could go three
miles to my one though he never changed his horse. He might have robbed
me at any minute, if I had been worth the trouble. A red mare he rideth,
strong in the loins, and pointed quite small in the head. I shall live
to see him hanged yet."

All this time he was riding across the straw of our courtyard, getting
his weary legs out of the leathers, and almost afraid to stand yet. A
coarse-grained, hard-faced man he was, some forty years of age or so,
and of middle height and stature. He was dressed in a dark brown riding
suit, none the better for Exmoor mud, but fitting him very differently
from the fashion of our tailors. Across the holsters lay his cloak,
made of some red skin, and shining from the sweating of the horse. As I
looked down on his stiff bright head-piece, small quick eyes and black
needly beard, he seemed to despise me (too much, as I thought) for a
mere ignoramus and country bumpkin.

"Annie, have down the cut ham," I shouted, for my sister was come to the
door by chance, or because of the sound of a horse in the road, "and
cut a few rashers of hung deer's meat. There is a gentleman come to sup,
Annie. And fetch the hops out of the tap with a skewer that it may run
more sparkling."

"I wish I may go to a place never meant for me," said my new friend, now
wiping his mouth with the sleeve of his brown riding coat, "if ever I
fell among such good folk. You are the right sort, and no error therein.
All this shall go in your favour greatly, when I make deposition. At
least, I mean, if it be as good in the eating as in the hearing. 'Tis
a supper quite fit for Tom Faggus himself, the man who hath stolen
my victuals so. And that hung deer's meat, now is it of the red deer
running wild in these parts?"

"To be sure it is, sir," I answered; "where should we get any other?"

"Right, right, you are right, my son. I have heard that the flavour
is marvellous. Some of them came and scared me so, in the fog of the
morning, that I hungered for them ever since. Ha, ha, I saw their
haunches. But the young lady will not forget--art sure she will not
forget it?"

"You may trust her to forget nothing, sir, that may tempt a guest to his
comfort."

"In faith, then, I will leave my horse in your hands, and be off for
it. Half the pleasure of the mouth is in the nose beforehand. But stay,
almost I forgot my business, in the hurry which thy tongue hath spread
through my lately despairing belly. Hungry I am, and sore of body, from
my heels right upward, and sorest in front of my doublet, yet may I not
rest nor bite barley-bread, until I have seen and touched John Ridd. God
grant that he be not far away; I must eat my saddle, if it be so."

"Have no fear, good sir," I answered; "you have seen and touched John
Ridd. I am he, and not one likely to go beneath a bushel."

"It would take a large bushel to hold thee, John Ridd. In the name of
the King, His Majesty, Charles the Second, these presents!"

He touched me with the white thing which I had first seen him waving,
and which I now beheld to be sheepskin, such as they call parchment.
It was tied across with cord, and fastened down in every corner
with unsightly dabs of wax. By order of the messenger (for I was
over-frightened now to think of doing anything), I broke enough of seals
to keep an Easter ghost from rising; and there I saw my name in large;
God grant such another shock may never befall me in my old age.

"Read, my son; read, thou great fool, if indeed thou canst read," said
the officer to encourage me; "there is nothing to kill thee, boy, and
my supper will be spoiling. Stare not at me so, thou fool; thou art big
enough to eat me; read, read, read."

[Illustration: 190.jpg Read, Read Read!]

"If you please, sir, what is your name?" I asked; though why I asked him
I know not, except from fear of witchcraft.

"Jeremy Stickles is my name, lad, nothing more than a poor apparitor of
the worshipful Court of King's Bench. And at this moment a starving one,
and no supper for me unless thou wilt read."

Being compelled in this way, I read pretty nigh as follows; not that I
give the whole of it, but only the gist and the emphasis,--

"To our good subject, John Ridd, etc."--describing me ever so much
better than I knew myself--"by these presents, greeting. These are to
require thee, in the name of our lord the King, to appear in person
before the Right Worshipful, the Justices of His Majesty's Bench at
Westminster, laying aside all thine own business, and there to deliver
such evidence as is within thy cognisance, touching certain matters
whereby the peace of our said lord the King, and the well-being of this
realm, is, are, or otherwise may be impeached, impugned, imperilled, or
otherwise detrimented. As witness these presents." And then there were
four seals, and then a signature I could not make out, only that it
began with a J, and ended with some other writing, done almost in a
circle. Underneath was added in a different handwriting "Charges will be
borne. The matter is full urgent."

The messenger watched me, while I read so much as I could read of it;
and he seemed well pleased with my surprise, because he had expected it.
Then, not knowing what else to do, I looked again at the cover, and
on the top of it I saw, "Ride, Ride, Ride! On His Gracious Majesty's
business; spur and spare not."

It may be supposed by all who know me, that I was taken hereupon with
such a giddiness in my head and noisiness in my ears, that I was forced
to hold by the crook driven in below the thatch for holding of the
hay-rakes. There was scarcely any sense left in me, only that the thing
was come by power of Mother Melldrum, because I despised her warning,
and had again sought Lorna. But the officer was grieved for me, and the
danger to his supper.

"My son, be not afraid," he said; "we are not going to skin thee. Only
thou tell all the truth, and it shall be--but never mind, I will tell
thee all about it, and how to come out harmless, if I find thy victuals
good, and no delay in serving them."

"We do our best, sir, without bargain," said I, "to please our
visitors."

But when my mother saw that parchment (for we could not keep it from
her) she fell away into her favourite bed of stock gilly-flowers, which
she had been tending; and when we brought her round again, did nothing
but exclaim against the wickedness of the age and people. "It was
useless to tell her; she knew what it was, and so should all the parish
know. The King had heard what her son was, how sober, and quiet, and
diligent, and the strongest young man in England; and being himself such
a reprobate--God forgive her for saying so--he could never rest till
he got poor Johnny, and made him as dissolute as himself. And if he did
that"--here mother went off into a fit of crying; and Annie minded her
face, while Lizzie saw that her gown was in comely order.

But the character of the King improved, when Master Jeremy Stickles
(being really moved by the look of it, and no bad man after all) laid it
clearly before my mother that the King on his throne was unhappy, until
he had seen John Ridd. That the fame of John had gone so far, and his
size, and all his virtues--that verily by the God who made him, the King
was overcome with it.

Then mother lay back in her garden chair, and smiled upon the whole of
us, and most of all on Jeremy; looking only shyly on me, and speaking
through some break of tears. "His Majesty shall have my John; His
Majesty is very good: but only for a fortnight. I want no titles for
him. Johnny is enough for me; and Master John for the working men."

Now though my mother was so willing that I should go to London,
expecting great promotion and high glory for me, I myself was deeply
gone into the pit of sorrow. For what would Lorna think of me? Here was
the long month just expired, after worlds of waiting; there would be her
lovely self, peeping softly down the glen, and fearing to encourage me;
yet there would be nobody else, and what an insult to her! Dwelling upon
this, and seeing no chance of escape from it, I could not find one wink
of sleep; though Jeremy Stickles (who slept close by) snored loud enough
to spare me some. For I felt myself to be, as it were, in a place of
some importance; in a situation of trust, I may say; and bound not to
depart from it. For who could tell what the King might have to say to
me about the Doones--and I felt that they were at the bottom of this
strange appearance--or what His Majesty might think, if after receiving
a message from him (trusty under so many seals) I were to violate
his faith in me as a churchwarden's son, and falsely spread his words
abroad?

Perhaps I was not wise in building such a wall of scruples.
Nevertheless, all that was there, and weighed upon me heavily. And at
last I made up my mind to this, that even Lorna must not know the reason
of my going, neither anything about it; but that she might know I was
gone a long way from home, and perhaps be sorry for it. Now how was I to
let her know even that much of the matter, without breaking compact?

Puzzling on this, I fell asleep, after the proper time to get up; nor
was I to be seen at breakfast time; and mother (being quite strange to
that) was very uneasy about it. But Master Stickles assured her that the
King's writ often had that effect, and the symptom was a good one.

"Now, Master Stickles, when must we start?" I asked him, as he lounged
in the yard gazing at our turkey poults picking and running in the sun
to the tune of their father's gobble. "Your horse was greatly foundered,
sir, and is hardly fit for the road to-day; and Smiler was sledding
yesterday all up the higher Cleve; and none of the rest can carry me."

"In a few more years," replied the King's officer, contemplating me with
much satisfaction; "'twill be a cruelty to any horse to put thee on his
back, John."

Master Stickles, by this time, was quite familiar with us, calling
me "Jack," and Eliza "Lizzie," and what I liked the least of all, our
pretty Annie "Nancy."

"That will be as God pleases, sir," I answered him, rather sharply; "and
the horse that suffers will not be thine. But I wish to know when we
must start upon our long travel to London town. I perceive that the
matter is of great despatch and urgency."

"To be sure, so it is, my son. But I see a yearling turkey there, him
I mean with the hop in his walk, who (if I know aught of fowls) would
roast well to-morrow. Thy mother must have preparation: it is no more
than reasonable. Now, have that turkey killed to-night (for his fatness
makes me long for him), and we will have him for dinner to-morrow, with,
perhaps, one of his brethren; and a few more collops of red deer's flesh
for supper, and then on the Friday morning, with the grace of God, we
will set our faces to the road, upon His Majesty's business."

"Nay, but good sir," I asked with some trembling, so eager was I to see
Lorna; "if His Majesty's business will keep till Friday, may it not keep
until Monday? We have a litter of sucking-pigs, excellently choice and
white, six weeks old, come Friday. There be too many for the sow, and
one of them needeth roasting. Think you not it would be a pity to leave
the women to carve it?"

"My son Jack," replied Master Stickles, "never was I in such quarters
yet: and God forbid that I should be so unthankful to Him as to hurry
away. And now I think on it, Friday is not a day upon which pious people
love to commence an enterprise. I will choose the young pig to-morrow at
noon, at which time they are wont to gambol; and we will celebrate his
birthday by carving him on Friday. After that we will gird our loins,
and set forth early on Saturday."

Now this was little better to me than if we had set forth at once.
Sunday being the very first day upon which it would be honourable for me
to enter Glen Doone. But though I tried every possible means with Master
Jeremy Stickles, offering him the choice for dinner of every beast
that was on the farm, he durst not put off our departure later than the
Saturday. And nothing else but love of us and of our hospitality would
have so persuaded him to remain with us till then. Therefore now my only
chance of seeing Lorna, before I went, lay in watching from the cliff
and espying her, or a signal from her.

This, however, I did in vain, until my eyes were weary and often would
delude themselves with hope of what they ached for. But though I lay
hidden behind the trees upon the crest of the stony fall, and waited
so quiet that the rabbits and squirrels played around me, and even the
keen-eyed weasel took me for a trunk of wood--it was all as one; no cast
of colour changed the white stone, whose whiteness now was hateful to
me; nor did wreath or skirt of maiden break the loneliness of the vale.

[Illustration: 194.jpg Tailpiece]

CHAPTER XXIV

A SAFE PASS FOR KING'S MESSENGER

[Illustration: 195.jpg Illustrated Capital]

A journey to London seemed to us in those bygone days as hazardous and
dark an adventure as could be forced on any man. I mean, of course,
a poor man; for to a great nobleman, with ever so many outriders,
attendants, and retainers, the risk was not so great, unless the
highwaymen knew of their coming beforehand, and so combined against
them. To a poor man, however, the risk was not so much from those
gentlemen of the road as from the more ignoble footpads, and the
landlords of the lesser hostels, and the loose unguarded soldiers, over
and above the pitfalls and the quagmires of the way; so that it was hard
to settle, at the first outgoing whether a man were wise to pray more
for his neck or for his head.

But nowadays it is very different. Not that highway-men are scarce, in
this the reign of our good Queen Anne; for in truth they thrive as
well as ever, albeit they deserve it not, being less upright and
courteous--but that the roads are much improved, and the growing use
of stage-waggons (some of which will travel as much as forty miles in a
summer day) has turned our ancient ideas of distance almost upside down;
and I doubt whether God be pleased with our flying so fast away from
Him. However, that is not my business; nor does it lie in my mouth to
speak very strongly upon the subject, seeing how much I myself have done
towards making of roads upon Exmoor.

To return to my story (and, in truth, I lose that road too often), it
would have taken ten King's messengers to get me away from Plover's
Barrows without one goodbye to Lorna, but for my sense of the trust
and reliance which His Majesty had reposed in me. And now I felt most
bitterly how the very arrangements which seemed so wise, and indeed
ingenious, may by the force of events become our most fatal obstacles.
For lo! I was blocked entirely from going to see Lorna; whereas
we should have fixed it so that I as well might have the power of
signalling my necessity.

It was too late now to think of that; and so I made up my mind at last
to keep my honour on both sides, both to the King and to the maiden,
although I might lose everything except a heavy heart for it. And
indeed, more hearts than mine were heavy; for when it came to the tug of
parting, my mother was like, and so was Annie, to break down altogether.
But I bade them be of good cheer, and smiled in the briskest manner upon
them, and said that I should be back next week as one of His Majesty's
greatest captains, and told them not to fear me then. Upon which they
smiled at the idea of ever being afraid of me, whatever dress I might
have on; and so I kissed my hand once more, and rode away very bravely.
But bless your heart, I could no more have done so than flown all the
way to London if Jeremy Stickles had not been there.

And not to take too much credit to myself in this matter, I must confess
that when we were come to the turn in the road where the moor begins,
and whence you see the last of the yard, and the ricks and the poultry
round them and can (by knowing the place) obtain a glance of the kitchen
window under the walnut-tree, it went so hard with me just here that I
even made pretence of a stone in ancient Smiler's shoe, to dismount, and
to bend my head awhile. Then, knowing that those I had left behind would
be watching to see the last of me, and might have false hopes of my
coming back, I mounted again with all possible courage, and rode after
Jeremy Stickles.

[Illustration: 197.jpg Jeremy kept me in jokes]

Jeremy, seeing how much I was down, did his best to keep me up with
jokes, and tales, and light discourse, until, before we had ridden a
league, I began to long to see the things he was describing. The air,
the weather, and the thoughts of going to a wondrous place, added to
the fine company--at least so Jeremy said it was--of a man who knew all
London, made me feel that I should be ungracious not to laugh a little.
And being very simple then I laughed no more a little, but something
quite considerable (though free from consideration) at the strange
things Master Stickles told me, and his strange way of telling them.
And so we became very excellent friends, for he was much pleased with my
laughing.

Not wishing to thrust myself more forward than need be in this
narrative, I have scarcely thought it becoming or right to speak of my
own adornments. But now, what with the brave clothes I had on, and the
better ones still that were packed up in the bag behind the saddle,
it is almost beyond me to forbear saying that I must have looked very
pleasing. And many a time I wished, going along, that Lorna could only
be here and there, watching behind a furze-bush, looking at me, and
wondering how much my clothes had cost. For mother would have no
stint in the matter, but had assembled at our house, immediately upon
knowledge of what was to be about London, every man known to be a good
stitcher upon our side of Exmoor. And for three days they had
worked their best, without stint of beer or cider, according to the
constitution of each. The result, so they all declared, was such as to
create admiration, and defy competition in London. And to me it seemed
that they were quite right; though Jeremy Stickles turned up his nose,
and feigned to be deaf in the business.

Now be that matter as you please--for the point is not worth
arguing--certain it is that my appearance was better than it had been
before. For being in the best clothes, one tries to look and to act
(so far as may be) up to the quality of them. Not only for the fear of
soiling them, but that they enlarge a man's perception of his value. And
it strikes me that our sins arise, partly from disdain of others, but
mainly from contempt of self, both working the despite of God. But men
of mind may not be measured by such paltry rule as this.

By dinner-time we arrived at Porlock, and dined with my old friend,
Master Pooke, now growing rich and portly. For though we had plenty of
victuals with us we were not to begin upon them, until all chance of
victualling among our friends was left behind. And during that first day
we had no need to meddle with our store at all; for as had been settled
before we left home, we lay that night at Dunster in the house of
a worthy tanner, first cousin to my mother, who received us very
cordially, and undertook to return old Smiler to his stable at Plover's
Barrows, after one day's rest.

Thence we hired to Bridgwater; and from Bridgwater on to Bristowe,
breaking the journey between the two. But although the whole way was so
new to me, and such a perpetual source of conflict, that the remembrance
still abides with me, as if it were but yesterday, I must not be so long
in telling as it was in travelling, or you will wish me farther;
both because Lorna was nothing there, and also because a man in our
neighbourhood had done the whole of it since my time, and feigns to
think nothing of it. However, one thing, in common justice to a person
who has been traduced, I am bound to mention. And this is, that being
two of us, and myself of such magnitude, we never could have made our
journey without either fight or running, but for the free pass which
dear Annie, by some means (I know not what), had procured from Master
Faggus. And when I let it be known, by some hap, that I was the own
cousin of Tom Faggus, and honoured with his society, there was not
a house upon the road but was proud to entertain me, in spite of my
fellow-traveller, bearing the red badge of the King.

"I will keep this close, my son Jack," he said, having stripped it off
with a carving-knife; "your flag is the best to fly. The man who starved
me on the way down, the same shall feed me fat going home."

Therefore we pursued our way, in excellent condition, having thriven
upon the credit of that very popular highwayman, and being surrounded
with regrets that he had left the profession, and sometimes begged to
intercede that he might help the road again. For all the landlords on
the road declared that now small ale was drunk, nor much of spirits
called for, because the farmers need not prime to meet only common
riders, neither were these worth the while to get drunk with afterwards.
Master Stickles himself undertook, as an officer of the King's Justices
to plead this case with Squire Faggus (as everybody called him now), and
to induce him, for the general good, to return to his proper ministry.

It was a long and weary journey, although the roads are wondrous good on
the farther side of Bristowe, and scarcely any man need be bogged, if he
keeps his eyes well open, save, perhaps, in Berkshire. In consequence
of the pass we had, and the vintner's knowledge of it, we only met
two public riders, one of whom made off straightway when he saw my
companion's pistols and the stout carbine I bore; and the other came to
a parley with us, and proved most kind and affable, when he knew
himself in the presence of the cousin of Squire Faggus. "God save you,
gentlemen," he cried, lifting his hat politely; "many and many a happy
day I have worked this road with him. Such times will never be again.
But commend me to his love and prayers. King my name is, and King my
nature. Say that, and none will harm you." And so he made off down the
hill, being a perfect gentleman, and a very good horse he was riding.

The night was falling very thick by the time we were come to Tyburn, and
here the King's officer decided that it would be wise to halt, because
the way was unsafe by night across the fields to Charing village. I for
my part was nothing loth, and preferred to see London by daylight.