R. D. Blackmore - Lorna Doone

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"Put thy finger in, young man, with the old ring on it. But mind thee,
if it be the wrong one, thou shalt never draw it back again."

Laughing at Gwenny's mighty threat, I showed my finger in the opening;
upon which she let me in, and barred the door again like lightning.

"What is the meaning of all this, Gwenny?" I asked, as I slipped
about on the floor, for I could not stand there firmly with my great
snow-shoes on.

"Maning enough, and bad maning too," the Cornish girl made answer. "Us be
shut in here, and starving, and durstn't let anybody in upon us. I wish
thou wer't good to ate, young man: I could manage most of thee."

I was so frightened by her eyes, full of wolfish hunger, that I could
only say "Good God!" having never seen the like before. Then drew I
forth a large piece of bread, which I had brought in case of accidents,
and placed it in her hands. She leaped at it, as a starving dog leaps at
sight of his supper, and she set her teeth in it, and then withheld
it from her lips, with something very like an oath at her own vile
greediness; and then away round the corner with it, no doubt for her
young mistress. I meanwhile was occupied, to the best of my ability, in
taking my snow-shoes off, yet wondering much within myself why Lorna did
not come to me.

But presently I knew the cause, for Gwenny called me, and I ran, and
found my darling quite unable to say so much as, "John, how are you?"
Between the hunger and the cold, and the excitement of my coming, she
had fainted away, and lay back on a chair, as white as the snow around
us. In betwixt her delicate lips, Gwenny was thrusting with all her
strength the hard brown crust of the rye-bread, which she had snatched
from me so.

"Get water, or get snow," I said; "don't you know what fainting is, you
very stupid child?"

"Never heerd on it, in Cornwall," she answered, trusting still to the
bread; "be un the same as bleeding?"

"It will be directly, if you go on squeezing away with that crust so.
Eat a piece: I have got some more. Leave my darling now to me."

Hearing that I had some more, the starving girl could resist no longer,
but tore it in two, and had swallowed half before I had coaxed my Lorna
back to sense, and hope, and joy, and love.

"I never expected to see you again. I had made up my mind to die, John;
and to die without your knowing it."

As I repelled this fearful thought in a manner highly fortifying, the
tender hue flowed back again into her famished cheeks and lips, and a
softer brilliance glistened from the depth of her dark eyes. She gave me
one little shrunken hand, and I could not help a tear for it.

"After all, Mistress Lorna," I said, pretending to be gay, for a smile
might do her good; "you do not love me as Gwenny does; for she even
wanted to eat me."

"And shall, afore I have done, young man," Gwenny answered laughing;
"you come in here with they red chakes, and make us think o' sirloin."

"Eat up your bit of brown bread, Gwenny. It is not good enough for
your mistress. Bless her heart, I have something here such as she never
tasted the like of, being in such appetite. Look here, Lorna; smell it
first. I have had it ever since Twelfth Day, and kept it all the time
for you. Annie made it. That is enough to warrant it good cooking."

And then I showed my great mince-pie in a bag of tissue paper, and I
told them how the mince-meat was made of golden pippins finely shred,
with the undercut of the sirloin, and spice and fruit accordingly and
far beyond my knowledge. But Lorna would not touch a morsel until she
had thanked God for it, and given me the kindest kiss, and put a piece
in Gwenny's mouth.

I have eaten many things myself, with very great enjoyment, and keen
perception of their merits, and some thanks to God for them. But I never
did enjoy a thing, that had found its way between my own lips, half, or
even a quarter as much as I now enjoyed beholding Lorna, sitting
proudly upwards (to show that she was faint no more) entering into
that mince-pie, and moving all her pearls of teeth (inside her little
mouth-place) exactly as I told her. For I was afraid lest she should be
too fast in going through it, and cause herself more damage so, than she
got of nourishment. But I had no need to fear at all, and Lorna could
not help laughing at me for thinking that she had no self-control.

Some creatures require a deal of food (I myself among the number), and
some can do with a very little; making, no doubt, the best of it. And I
have often noticed that the plumpest and most perfect women never eat so
hard and fast as the skinny and three-cornered ones. These last be often
ashamed of it, and eat most when the men be absent. Hence it came to
pass that Lorna, being the loveliest of all maidens, had as much as she
could do to finish her own half of pie; whereas Gwenny Carfax (though
generous more than greedy), ate up hers without winking, after finishing
the brown loaf; and then I begged to know the meaning of this state of
things.

"The meaning is sad enough," said Lorna; "and I see no way out of it. We
are both to be starved until I let them do what they like with me.

"That is to say until you choose to marry Carver Doone, and be slowly
killed by him?"

"Slowly! No, John, quickly. I hate him so intensely, that less than a
week would kill me."

"Not a doubt of that," said Gwenny; "oh, she hates him nicely then; but
not half so much as I do."

I told them that this state of things could be endured no longer, on
which point they agreed with me, but saw no means to help it. For
even if Lorna could make up her mind to come away with me and live at
Plover's Barrows farm, under my good mother's care, as I had urged so
often, behold the snow was all around us, heaped as high as mountains,
and how could any delicate maiden ever get across it?

Then I spoke with a strange tingle upon both sides of my heart, knowing
that this undertaking was a serious one for all, and might burn our farm
down,--

"If I warrant to take you safe, and without much fright or hardship,
Lorna, will you come with me?"

"To be sure I will, dear," said my beauty, with a smile and a glance to
follow it; "I have small alternative, to starve, or go with you, John."

"Gwenny, have you courage for it? Will you come with your young
mistress?"

"Will I stay behind?" cried Gwenny, in a voice that settled it. And so
we began to arrange about it; and I was much excited. It was useless
now to leave it longer; if it could be done at all, it could not be too
quickly done. It was the Counsellor who had ordered, after all other
schemes had failed, that his niece should have no food until she would
obey him. He had strictly watched the house, taking turns with Carver,
to ensure that none came nigh it bearing food or comfort. But this
evening, they had thought it needless to remain on guard; and it
would have been impossible, because themselves were busy offering high
festival to all the valley, in right of their own commandership. And
Gwenny said that nothing made her so nearly mad with appetite as
the account she received from a woman of all the dishes preparing.
Nevertheless she had answered bravely,--

"Go and tell the Counsellor, and go and tell the Carver, who sent you to
spy upon us, that we shall have a finer dish than any set before them."
And so in truth they did, although so little dreaming it; for no Doone
that was ever born, however much of a Carver, might vie with our Annie
for mince-meat.

Now while we sat reflecting much, and talking a good deal more, in spite
of all the cold--for I never was in a hurry to go, when I had Lorna with
me--she said, in her silvery voice, which always led me so along, as if
I were a slave to a beautiful bell,--

"Now, John, we are wasting time, dear. You have praised my hair, till it
curls with pride, and my eyes till you cannot see them, even if they are
brown diamonds which I have heard for the fiftieth time at least; though
I never saw such a jewel. Don't you think it is high time to put on your
snow-shoes, John?"

"Certainly not," I answered, "'till we have settled something more. I was
so cold when I came in; and now I am as warm as a cricket. And so are
you, you lively soul; though you are not upon my hearth yet."

"Remember, John," said Lorna, nestling for a moment to me; "the severity
of the weather makes a great difference between us. And you must never
take advantage."

"I quite understand all that, dear. And the harder it freezes the
better, while that understanding continues. Now do try to be serious."

"I try to be serious! And I have been trying fifty times, and could
not bring you to it, John! Although I am sure the situation, as the
Counsellor says at the beginning of a speech, the situation, to say the
least, is serious enough for anything. Come, Gwenny, imitate him."

Gwenny was famed for her imitation of the Counsellor making a speech;
and she began to shake her hair, and mount upon a footstool; but I
really could not have this, though even Lorna ordered it. The truth
was that my darling maiden was in such wild spirits, at seeing me so
unexpected, and at the prospect of release, and of what she had never
known, quiet life and happiness, that like all warm and loving natures,
she could scarce control herself.

"Come to this frozen window, John, and see them light the stack-fire.
They will little know who looks at them. Now be very good, John. You
stay in that corner, dear, and I will stand on this side; and try to
breathe yourself a peep-hole through the lovely spears and banners. Oh,
you don't know how to do it. I must do it for you. Breathe three times,
like that, and that; and then you rub it with your fingers, before it
has time to freeze again."

All this she did so beautifully, with her lips put up like cherries, and
her fingers bent half back, as only girls can bend them, and her little
waist thrown out against the white of the snowed-up window, that I made
her do it three times over; and I stopped her every time and let it
freeze again, that so she might be the longer. Now I knew that all her
love was mine, every bit as much as mine was hers; yet I must have her
to show it, dwelling upon every proof, lengthening out all certainty.
Perhaps the jealous heart is loath to own a life worth twice its own. Be
that as it may, I know that we thawed the window nicely.

And then I saw, far down the stream (or rather down the bed of it, for
there was no stream visible), a little form of fire arising, red, and
dark, and flickering. Presently it caught on something, and went upward
boldly; and then it struck into many forks, and then it fell, and rose
again.

"Do you know what all that is, John?" asked Lorna, smiling cleverly at
the manner of my staring.

"How on earth should I know? Papists burn Protestants in the flesh; and
Protestants burn Papists in effigy, as we mock them. Lorna, are they
going to burn any one to-night?"

"No, you dear. I must rid you of these things. I see that you are
bigoted. The Doones are firing Dunkery beacon, to celebrate their new
captain."

"But how could they bring it here through the snow? If they have
sledges, I can do nothing."

"They brought it before the snow began. The moment poor grandfather was
gone, even before his funeral, the young men, having none to check them,
began at once upon it. They had always borne a grudge against it; not
that it ever did them harm; but because it seemed so insolent. 'Can't a
gentleman go home, without a smoke behind him?' I have often heard them
saying. And though they have done it no serious harm, since they threw
the firemen on the fire, many, many years ago, they have often promised
to bring it here for their candle; and now they have done it. Ah, now
look! The tar is kindled."

Though Lorna took it so in joke, I looked upon it very gravely, knowing
that this heavy outrage to the feelings of the neighbourhood would cause
more stir than a hundred sheep stolen, or a score of houses sacked. Not
of course that the beacon was of the smallest use to any one, neither
stopped anybody from stealing, nay, rather it was like the parish knell,
which begins when all is over, and depresses all the survivors; yet
I knew that we valued it, and were proud, and spoke of it as a mighty
institution; and even more than that, our vestry had voted, within
the last two years, seven shillings and six-pence to pay for it, in
proportion with other parishes. And one of the men who attended to
it, or at least who was paid for doing so, was our Jem Slocombe's
grandfather.

However, in spite of all my regrets, the fire went up very merrily,
blazing red and white and yellow, as it leaped on different things.
And the light danced on the snow-drifts with a misty lilac hue. I was
astonished at its burning in such mighty depths of snow; but Gwenny said
that the wicked men had been three days hard at work, clearing, as it
were, a cock-pit, for their fire to have its way. And now they had a
mighty pile, which must have covered five land-yards square, heaped up
to a goodly height, and eager to take fire.

In this I saw great obstacle to what I wished to manage. For when this
pyramid should be kindled thoroughly, and pouring light and blazes
round, would not all the valley be like a white room full of candles?
Thinking thus, I was half inclined to abide my time for another night:
and then my second thoughts convinced me that I would be a fool in this.
For lo, what an opportunity! All the Doones would be drunk, of course,
in about three hours' time, and getting more and more in drink as the
night went on. As for the fire, it must sink in about three hours or
more, and only cast uncertain shadows friendly to my purpose. And then
the outlaws must cower round it, as the cold increased on them, helping
the weight of the liquor; and in their jollity any noise would be
cheered as a false alarm. Most of all, and which decided once for all my
action,--when these wild and reckless villains should be hot with ardent
spirits, what was door, or wall, to stand betwixt them and my Lorna?

This thought quickened me so much that I touched my darling reverently,
and told her in a few short words how I hoped to manage it.

"Sweetest, in two hours' time, I shall be again with you. Keep the bar
up, and have Gwenny ready to answer any one. You are safe while they are
dining, dear, and drinking healths, and all that stuff; and before they
have done with that, I shall be again with you. Have everything you care
to take in a very little compass, and Gwenny must have no baggage. I
shall knock loud, and then wait a little; and then knock twice, very
softly."

With this I folded her in my arms; and she looked frightened at me; not
having perceived her danger; and then I told Gwenny over again what I
had told her mistress: but she only nodded her head and said, "Young
man, go and teach thy grandmother."

[Illustration: 378.jpg Tailpiece]

CHAPTER XLIV

BROUGHT HOME AT LAST

[Illustration: 379.jpg Illustrated Capital]

To my great delight I found that the weather, not often friendly to
lovers, and lately seeming so hostile, had in the most important matter
done me a signal service. For when I had promised to take my love from
the power of those wretches, the only way of escape apparent lay
through the main Doone-gate. For though I might climb the cliffs myself,
especially with the snow to aid me, I durst not try to fetch Lorna up
them, even if she were not half-starved, as well as partly frozen;
and as for Gwenny's door, as we called it (that is to say, the little
entrance from the wooded hollow), it was snowed up long ago to the level
of the hills around. Therefore I was at my wit's end how to get them
out; the passage by the Doone-gate being long, and dark, and difficult,
and leading to such a weary circuit among the snowy moors and hills.

But now, being homeward-bound by the shortest possible track, I slipped
along between the bonfire and the boundary cliffs, where I found a caved
way of snow behind a sort of avalanche: so that if the Doones had been
keeping watch (which they were not doing, but revelling), they could
scarcely have discovered me. And when I came to my old ascent, where I
had often scaled the cliff and made across the mountains, it struck me
that I would just have a look at my first and painful entrance, to wit,
the water-slide. I never for a moment imagined that this could help me
now; for I never had dared to descend it, even in the finest weather;
still I had a curiosity to know what my old friend was like, with so
much snow upon him. But, to my very great surprise, there was scarcely
any snow there at all, though plenty curling high overhead from the
cliff, like bolsters over it. Probably the sweeping of the north-east
wind up the narrow chasm had kept the showers from blocking it,
although the water had no power under the bitter grip of frost. All my
water-slide was now less a slide than path of ice; furrowed where the
waters ran over fluted ridges; seamed where wind had tossed and combed
them, even while congealing; and crossed with little steps wherever the
freezing torrent lingered. And here and there the ice was fibred with
the trail of sludge-weed, slanting from the side, and matted, so as to
make resting-place.

Lo it was easy track and channel, as if for the very purpose made, down
which I could guide my sledge with Lorna sitting in it. There were only
two things to be feared; one lest the rolls of snow above should fall in
and bury us; the other lest we should rush too fast, and so be carried
headlong into the black whirlpool at the bottom, the middle of which was
still unfrozen, and looking more horrible by the contrast. Against this
danger I made provision, by fixing a stout bar across; but of the other
we must take our chance, and trust ourselves to Providence.

I hastened home at my utmost speed, and told my mother for God's sake
to keep the house up till my return, and to have plenty of fire blazing,
and plenty of water boiling, and food enough hot for a dozen people, and
the best bed aired with the warming-pan. Dear mother smiled softly at my
excitement, though her own was not much less, I am sure, and enhanced by
sore anxiety. Then I gave very strict directions to Annie, and praised
her a little, and kissed her; and I even endeavoured to flatter Eliza,
lest she should be disagreeable.

After this I took some brandy, both within and about me; the former,
because I had sharp work to do; and the latter in fear of whatever might
happen, in such great cold, to my comrades. Also I carried some other
provisions, grieving much at their coldness: and then I went to the
upper linhay, and took our new light pony-sledd, which had been made
almost as much for pleasure as for business; though God only knows how
our girls could have found any pleasure in bumping along so. On the
snow, however, it ran as sweetly as if it had been made for it; yet I
durst not take the pony with it; in the first place, because his hoofs
would break through the ever-shifting surface of the light and piling
snow; and secondly, because these ponies, coming from the forest, have a
dreadful trick of neighing, and most of all in frosty weather.

Therefore I girded my own body with a dozen turns of hay-rope, twisting
both the ends in under at the bottom of my breast, and winding the hay
on the skew a little, that the hempen thong might not slip between, and
so cut me in the drawing. I put a good piece of spare rope in the sledd,
and the cross-seat with the back to it, which was stuffed with our
own wool, as well as two or three fur coats; and then, just as I was
starting, out came Annie, in spite of the cold, panting for fear of
missing me, and with nothing on her head, but a lanthorn in one hand.

"Oh, John, here is the most wonderful thing! Mother has never shown it
before; and I can't think how she could make up her mind. She had
gotten it in a great well of a cupboard, with camphor, and spirits, and
lavender. Lizzie says it is a most magnificent sealskin cloak, worth
fifty pounds, or a farthing."

"At any rate it is soft and warm," said I, very calmly flinging it into
the bottom of the sledd. "Tell mother I will put it over Lorna's feet."

"Lorna's feet! Oh, you great fool," cried Annie, for the first time
reviling me; "over her shoulders; and be proud, you very stupid John."

"It is not good enough for her feet," I answered, with strong emphasis;
"but don't tell mother I said so, Annie. Only thank her very kindly."

With that I drew my traces hard, and set my ashen staff into the snow,
and struck out with my best foot foremost (the best one at snow-shoes, I
mean), and the sledd came after me as lightly as a dog might follow; and
Annie, with the lanthorn, seemed to be left behind and waiting like a
pretty lamp-post.

The full moon rose as bright behind me as a paten of pure silver,
casting on the snow long shadows of the few things left above, burdened
rock, and shaggy foreland, and the labouring trees. In the great white
desolation, distance was a mocking vision; hills looked nigh, and
valleys far; when hills were far and valleys nigh. And the misty breath
of frost, piercing through the ribs of rock, striking to the pith of
trees, creeping to the heart of man, lay along the hollow places, like a
serpent sloughing. Even as my own gaunt shadow (travestied as if I were
the moonlight's daddy-longlegs), went before me down the slope; even
I, the shadow's master, who had tried in vain to cough, when coughing
brought good liquorice, felt a pressure on my bosom, and a husking in my
throat.

However, I went on quietly, and at a very tidy speed; being only too
thankful that the snow had ceased, and no wind as yet arisen. And from
the ring of low white vapour girding all the verge of sky, and from the
rosy blue above, and the shafts of starlight set upon a quivering bow,
as well as from the moon itself and the light behind it, having learned
the signs of frost from its bitter twinges, I knew that we should have
a night as keen as ever England felt. Nevertheless, I had work enough to
keep me warm if I managed it. The question was, could I contrive to save
my darling from it?

Daring not to risk my sledd by any fall from the valley-cliffs, I
dragged it very carefully up the steep incline of ice, through the
narrow chasm, and so to the very brink and verge where first I had seen
my Lorna, in the fishing days of boyhood. As I then had a trident fork,
for sticking of the loaches, so I now had a strong ash stake, to lay
across from rock to rock, and break the speed of descending. With this I
moored the sledd quite safe, at the very lip of the chasm, where all was
now substantial ice, green and black in the moonlight; and then I set
off up the valley, skirting along one side of it.

The stack-fire still was burning strongly, but with more of heat than
blaze; and many of the younger Doones were playing on the verge of it,
the children making rings of fire, and their mothers watching them. All
the grave and reverend warriors having heard of rheumatism, were inside
of log and stone, in the two lowest houses, with enough of candles
burning to make our list of sheep come short.

All these I passed, without the smallest risk or difficulty, walking up
the channel of drift which I spoke of once before. And then I crossed,
with more of care, and to the door of Lorna's house, and made the sign,
and listened, after taking my snow-shoes off.

But no one came, as I expected, neither could I espy a light. And I
seemed to hear a faint low sound, like the moaning of the snow-wind.
Then I knocked again more loudly, with a knocking at my heart: and
receiving no answer, set all my power at once against the door. In a
moment it flew inwards, and I glided along the passage with my feet
still slippery. There in Lorna's room I saw, by the moonlight flowing
in, a sight which drove me beyond sense.

[Illustration: 383.jpg Set all my power against the door]

Lorna was behind a chair, crouching in the corner, with her hands up,
and a crucifix, or something that looked like it. In the middle of the
room lay Gwenny Carfax, stupid, yet with one hand clutching the ankle of
a struggling man. Another man stood above my Lorna, trying to draw the
chair away. In a moment I had him round the waist, and he went out of
the window with a mighty crash of glass; luckily for him that window had
no bars like some of them. Then I took the other man by the neck; and he
could not plead for mercy. I bore him out of the house as lightly as I
would bear a baby, yet squeezing his throat a little more than I fain
would do to an infant. By the bright moonlight I saw that I carried
Marwood de Whichehalse. For his father's sake I spared him, and because
he had been my schoolfellow; but with every muscle of my body strung
with indignation, I cast him, like a skittle, from me into a snowdrift,
which closed over him. Then I looked for the other fellow, tossed
through Lorna's window, and found him lying stunned and bleeding,
neither able to groan yet. Charleworth Doone, if his gushing blood did
not much mislead me.