CHAPTER XVII.
THE FIRE-ENGINE.
As soon as supper was over in the housekeeper's room, Dorothy sped tothe keep, where she found Caspar at work.
'My lord is not yet from supper, mistress,' he said. 'Will it please youwait while he comes?'
Had it been till midnight, so long as there was a chance of hisappearing, Dorothy would have waited. Caspar did his best to amuse her,and succeeded,--showing her one curious thing after another,--amongstthe rest a watch that seemed to want no winding after being once setagoing, but was in fact wound up a little by every opening of the caseto see the dial. All the while the fire-engine was at work on itsmysterious task, with but now and then a moment's attention from Caspar,a billet of wood or a shovelful of sea-coal on the fire, a pull at acord, or a hint from the hooked rod. The time went rapidly.
Twilight was over, Caspar had lighted his lamp, and the moon had risen,before lord Herbert came.
'I am glad to find you have patience as well as punctuality in thecatalogue of your virtues, mistress Dorothy,' he said as he entered. 'Itoo am punctual, and am therefore sorry to have failed now, but it isnot my fault: I had to attend my father. For his sake pardon me.'
'It were but a small matter, my lord, even had it been uncompelled, tokeep an idle girl waiting.'
'I think not so,' returned lord Herbert. 'But come now, I will explainto you my wonderful fire-engine.'
As he spoke, he took her by the hand, and led her towards it. Thecreature blazed, groaned, and puffed, but there was no motion to be seenabout it save that of the flames through the cracks in the door of thefurnace, neither was there any clanking noise of metal. A great rushingsound somewhere in the distance, that seemed to belong to it, yetappeared too far off to have any connection with it.
'It is a noisy thing,' he said, as they stood before it, 'but when Imake another, it shall do its work that thou wouldst not hear it outsidethe door. Now listen to me for a moment, cousin. Should it come to asiege and I not at Raglan--the wise man will always provide for theworst--Caspar will be wanted everywhere. Now this engine is essential tothe health and comfort, if not to the absolute life of the castle, andthere is no one at present capable of managing it save us two. A verylittle instruction, however, would enable any one to do so: will youundertake it, cousin, in case of need?'
'Make me assured that I can, and I will, my lord,' answered Dorothy.
'A good and sufficing answer,' returned his lordship, with a smile ofsatisfaction. 'First then,' he went on, 'I will show you wherein liesits necessity to the good of the castle. Come with me, cousin Dorothy.'
He led the way from the room, and began to ascend the stair which rosejust outside it. Dorothy followed, winding up through the thickness ofthe wall. And now she could not hear the engine. As she went up,however, certain sounds of it came again, and grew louder till theyseemed close to her ears, then gradually died away and once more ceased.But ever, as they ascended, the rushing sound which had seemed connectedwith it, although so distant, drew nearer and nearer, until, havingsurmounted three of the five lofty stories of the building, they couldscarcely hear each other speak for the roar of water, falling inintermittent jets. At last they came out on the top of the wall, withnothing between them and the moat below but the battlemented parapet,and behold! the mighty tower was roofed with water: a little tarn filledall the space within the surrounding walk. It undulated in the moonlightlike a subsiding storm, and beat the encircling banks. For into itsdepths shot rather than poured a great volume of water from a hugeorifice in the wall, and the roar and the rush were tremendous. It waslike the birth of a river, bounding at once from its mountain rock, andthe sound of its fall indicated the great depth of the water into whichit plunged. Solid indeed must be the walls that sustained the outpush ofsuch a weight of water!
'You see now, cousin, what yon fire-souled slave below is labouring at,'said his lordship. 'His task is to fill this cistern, and that he can ina few hours; and yet, such a slave is he, a child who understands hisfetters and the joints of his bones can guide him at will.'
'But, my lord,' questioned Dorothy, 'is there not water here to supplythe castle for months? And there is the draw-well in the pitched courtbesides.'
'Enough, I grant you,' he replied, 'for the mere necessities of life.But what would come of its pleasures? Would not the beleaguered ladiesmiss the bounty of the marble horse? Whence comes the water he gives sofreely that he needeth not to drink himself? He would thirst indeed butfor my water-commanding fiend below. Or how would the birds fare, werethe fountains on the islands dry in the hot summer? And what would thechildren say if he ceased to spout? And how would my lord's tables fare,with the armed men besetting every gate, the fish-ponds dry, and thefish rotting in the sun? See you, mistress Dorothy? And for thedraw-well, know you not wherein lies the good of a tower stronger thanall the rest? Is it not built for final retreat, the rest of the castlebeing at length in the hands of the enemy? Where then is yourdraw-well?'
'But this tower, large as it is, could not receive those now within thewalls of the castle,' said Dorothy.
'They will be fewer ere its shelter is needful.'
It was his tone quite as much as the words that drove a sudden sicknessto the heart of the girl: for one moment she knew what siege and battlemeant. But she recovered herself with a strong effort, and escaped fromthe thought by another question.
'And whence comes all this water, my lord?' she said, for she was onewho would ask until she knew all that concerned her.
'Have you not chanced to observe a well in my workshop below, on theleft-hand side of the door, not far from the great chest?'
'I have observed it, my lord.'
'That is a very deep well, with a powerful spring. Large pipes lead fromall but the very bottom of that to my fire-engine. The fuller the well,the more rapid the flow into the cistern, for the shallower the water,the more labour falls to my giant. He is finding it harder work now. Butyou see the cistern is nearly full.'
'Forgive me, my lord, if I am troubling you,' said Dorothy, about to askanother question.
'I delight in the questions of the docile,' said his lordship. 'They arethe little children of wisdom. There! that might be out of the book ofEcclesiasticus,' he added, with a merry laugh. 'I might pass that off onDr. Bayly for my father's: he hath already begun to gather my father'ssayings into a book, as I have discovered. But, prithee, cousin, let notmy father know of it.'
'Fear not me, my lord,' returned Dorothy. 'Having no secrets of my ownto house, it were evil indeed to turn my friends' out of doors.'
'Why, that also would do for Dr. Bayly! Well said, Dorothy! Now for thynext question.'
'It is this, my lord: having such a well in your foundations, whence theneed of such a cistern on your roof? I mean now as regards the provisionof the keep itself in case of ultimate resort.'
'In coming to deal with a place of such strength as this,' replied hislordship, '--I mean the keep whereon we now stand, not the castle,which, alas! hath many weak points--the enemy would assuredly change thesiege into a blockade; that is, he would try to starve instead of fireus out; and, procuring information sufficiently to the point, would belike enough to dig deep and cut the water-veins which supply that well;and thereafter all would depend on the cistern. From the momenttherefore when the first signs of siege appear, it will be wisdom andduty on the part of the person in charge to keep it constantlyfull--full as a cup to the health of the king. I trust however that suchwill be the good success of his majesty's arms that the worst will onlyhave to be provided against, not encountered.--But there is more in ityet. Come hither, cousin. Look down through this battlement upon themoat. You see the moon in it? No? That is because it is covered so thickwith weeds. When you go down, mark how low it is. There is littledefence in the moat that a boy might wade through. I have allowed it toget shallow in order to try upon its sides a new cement I have latelydiscovered; but weeks and weeks have passed, and I have never found theleisure, and now I
am sure I never shall until this rebellion iscrushed. It is time I filled it. Pray look down upon it, cousin. Insummer it will be full of the loveliest white water-lilies, though nowyou can see nothing but green weeds.'
He had left her side and gone a few paces away, but kept on speaking.
'One strange thing I can tell you about them, cousin--the roots of thatwhitest of flowers make a fine black dye! What apophthegm founded uponthat, thinkest thou, my father would drop for Dr Bayly?'
'You perplex me much, my lord,' said Dorothy. 'I cannot at all perceiveyour lordship's drift.'
'Lay a hand on each side of the battlement where you now stand; leanthrough it and look down. Hold fast and fear nothing.' Dorothy did asshe was desired, and thus supported gazed upon the moat below, where itlay a mere ditch at the foot of the lofty wall.
'My lord, I see nothing,' she said, turning to him, as she thought; buthe had vanished.
Again she looked at the moat, and then her eyes wandered away over thecastle. The two courts and their many roofs, even those of all thetowers, except only the lofty watch-tower on the western side, lay barebeneath her, in bright moonlight, flecked and blotted with shadows, allwondrous in shape and black as Erebus.
Suddenly, she knew not whence, arose a frightful roaring, a hollowbellowing, a pent-up rumbling. Seized by a vague terror, she clung tothe parapet and trembled. But even the great wall beneath her, solid asthe earth itself, seemed to tremble under her feet, as with some inwardcommotion or dismay. The next moment the water in the moat appeared torush swiftly upwards, in wild uproar, fiercely confused, and coveredwith foam and spray. To her bewildered eyes, it seemed to heap itselfup, wave upon furious wave, to reach the spot where she stood, greedy toengulf her. For an instant she fancied the storming billows pouring overthe edge of the battlement, and started back in such momentary agony aswe suffer in dreams. Then, by a sudden rectification of her vision, sheperceived that what she saw was in reality a multitude of fountain jetsrushing high towards their parent-cistern, but far-failing ere theyreached it. The roar of their onset was mingled with the despairingtumult of their defeat, and both with the deep tumble and wallowingsplash of the water from the fire-engine, which grew louder and louderas the surface of the water in the reservoir sank. The uproar ceased assuddenly as it had commenced, but the moat mirrored a thousand moons inthe agitated waters which had overwhelmed its mantle of weeds.
'You see now,' said lord Herbert, rejoining her while still she gazed,'how necessary the cistern is to the keep? Without it, the few poorsprings in the moat would but sustain it as you saw it. From here I canfill it to the brim.'
'I see,' answered Dorothy. 'But would not a simple overflow serve,carried from the well through the wall?'
'It would, were there no other advantages with which this modeharmonised. I must mention one thing more--which I was almostforgetting, and which I cannot well show you to-night--namely, that Ican use this water not only as a means of defence in the moat, but as anengine of offence also against any one setting unlawful or hostile footupon the stone bridge over it. I can, when I please, turn that bridge,the same by which you cross to come here, into a rushing aqueduct, andwith a torrent of water sweep from it a whole company of invaders.'
'But would they not have only to wait until the cistern was empty?'
'As soon and so long as the bridge is clear, the outflow ceases. Onesweep, and my water-broom would stop, and the rubbish lie sprawlingunder the arch, or half-way over the court. And more still,' he addedwith emphasis: 'I COULD make it boiling!'
'But your lordship would not?' faltered Dorothy.
'That might depend,' he answered with a smile. Then changing his tone inabsolute and impressive seriousness, 'But this is all nothing butchild's play,' he said, 'compared with what is involved in the matter ofthis reservoir. The real origin of it was its needfulness to theperfecting of my fire-engine.'
'Pardon me, my lord, but it seems to me that without the cistern therewould be no need for the engine. How should you want or how could youuse the unhandsome thing? Then how should the cistern be necessary tothe engine?'
'Handsome is that handsome does,' returned his lordship. 'Truly, cousinDorothy, you speak well, but you must learn to hear better. I did notsay that the cistern existed for the sake of the engine, but for thesake of the perfecting of the engine. Cousin Dorothy, I will give youthe largest possible proof of my confidence in you, by not onlyexplaining to you the working of my fire-engine, but acquaintingyou--only you must not betray me!'
'I, in my turn,' said Dorothy, 'will give your lordship, if not thestrongest, yet a very strong proof of my confidence: I promise to keepyour secret before knowing what it is.'
'Thanks, cousin. Listen then: That engine is a mingling of discovery andinvention such as hath never had its equal since first the mechanicalpowers were brought to the light. For this shall be as a soul to animatethose, all and each--lever, screw, pulley, wheel, and axle--what youwill. No engine of mightiest force ever for defence or assault invented,let it be by Archimedes himself, but could by my fire-engine be renderedtenfold more mighty for safety or for destruction, although as yet Ihave applied it only to the blissful operation of lifting water, thusremoving the curse of it where it is a curse, and carrying it where theparched soil cries for its help to unfold the treasures of its thirstybosom. My fire-engine shall yet uplift the nation of England above theheads of all richest and most powerful nations on the face of the wholeearth. For when the troubles of this rebellion are over, which press soheavily on his majesty and all loyal subjects, compelling even apeaceful man like myself to forsake invention for war, and the workman'sfrock which I love, for the armour which I love not, when peace shallsmile again on the country, and I shall have time to perfect the work ofmy hands, I shall present it to my royal master, a magical supremacy ofpower, which shall for ever raise him and his royal progeny above alluse or need of subsidies, ship-money, benevolences, or taxes of whateversort or name, to rule his kingdom as independent of his subjects inreality as he is in right; for this water-commanding engine, which Godhath given me to make, shall be the source of such wealth as noaccountant can calculate. For herewith may marsh-land be thoroughlydrained, or dry land perfectly watered; great cities kept sweet andwholesome; mines rid of the water gathering from springs therein, so ashe may enrich himself withal; houses be served plentifully on everystage; and gardens in the dryest summer beautified and comforted withfountains. Which engine when I found that it was in the power of myhands to do, as well as of my heart to conceive that it might be done, Idid kneel down and give humble thanks from the bottom of my heart to theomnipotent God whose mercies are fathomless, for his vouchsafing me aninsight into so great a secret of nature and so beneficial to allmankind as this my engine.'
With all her devotion to the king, and all her hatred and contempt ofthe parliament and the puritans, Dorothy could not help a doubt whethersuch independence might be altogether good either for the king himselfor the people thus subjected to his will. But the farther doubt did notoccur to her whether a pre-eminence gained chiefly by wealth was one tobe on any grounds desired for the nation, or, setting that aside, wasone which carried a single element favourable to perpetuity.
All this time they had been standing on the top of the keep, with themoonlight around them, and in their ears the noise of the water flowingfrom the dungeon well into the sky-roofed cistern. But now it came indiminished flow.
'It is the earth that fails in giving, not my engine in taking,' saidlord Herbert as he turned to lead the way down the winding stair. Everas they went, the noise of the water grew fainter and the noise of theengine grew louder, but just as they stepped from the stair, it gave afailing stroke or two, and ceased. A dense white cloud met them as theyentered the vault.
'Stopped for the night, Caspar?' said his lordship.
'Yes, my lord; the well is nearly out.'
'Let it sleep,' returned his master; 'like a man's heart it will fill inthe night. Thank God for the night and
darkness and sleep, in which goodthings draw nigh like God's thieves, and steal themselves in--water intowells, and peace and hope and courage into the minds of men. Is it notso, my cousin?'
Dorothy did not answer in words, but she looked up in his face with areverence in her eyes that showed she understood him. And this was oneof the idolatrous catholics! It was neither the first nor the last ofmany lessons she had to receive, in order to learn that a man may beright although the creed for which he is and ought to be ready to die,may contain much that is wrong. Alas! that so few, even of such men,ever reflect, that it is the element common to all the creeds whichgives its central value to each.
'I cannot show you the working of the engine to-night,' said lordHerbert. 'Caspar has decreed otherwise.'
'I can soon set her agoing again, my lord,' said Caspar.
'No, no. We must to the powder-mill, Caspar. Mistress Dorothy will comeagain to-morrow, and you must yourself explain to her the working andmanagement of it, for I shall be away. And do not fear to trust mycousin, Caspar, although she be a soft-handed lady. Let her have thebrute's halter in her own hold.'
Filled with gratitude for the trust he reposed in her, Dorothy took herleave, and the two workmen immediately abandoned their shop for thenight, leaving the door wide open behind them to let out the vapours ofthe fire-engine, in the confidence that no unlicensed foot would dare tocross the threshold, and betook themselves to the powder-mill, wherethey continued at work the greater part of the night.
His lordship was unfavourable to the storing of powder because of thedanger, seeing they could, on his calculation, from the materials lyingready for mixing, in one week prepare enough to keep all the ordnance onthe castle walls busy for two. But indeed he had not such a high opinionof gunpowder but that he believed engines for projection, more powerfulas well as less expensive, could be constructed, after the fashion ofballista or catapult, by the use of a mode he had discovered ofimmeasurably increasing the strength of springs, so that stones of ahundredweight might be thrown into a city from a quarter of a mile'sdistance without any noise audible to those within. It was this devicehe was brooding over when Dorothy came upon him by the arblast. Nor didthe conviction arise from any prejudice against fire-arms, for he had,among many other wonderful things of the sort, in cannons, sakers,harquebusses, muskets, musquetoons, and all kinds, invented a pistol todischarge a dozen times with one loading, and without so much as newpriming being once requisite, or the possessor having to change it outof one hand into the other, or stop his horse.
One who had happened to see lord Herbert as he went about within hisfather's walls, busy yet unhasting, earnest yet cheerful, rapid in allhis movements yet perfectly composed, would hardly have imagined that aday at a time, or perhaps two, was all he was now able to spend there,days which were to him as breathing-holes in the ice to the winteredfishes. For not merely did he give himself to the enlisting of largenumbers of men, but commanded both horse and foot, meeting all expensesfrom his own pocket, or with the assistance of his father. A few monthsbefore the period at which my story has arrived, he had in eight daysraised six regiments, fortified Monmouth and Chepstow, and garrisonedhalf-a-dozen smaller but yet important places. About a hundred noblemenand gentlemen whom he had enrolled as a troop of life-guards, hefurnished with the horses and arms which they were unable to providewith sufficient haste for themselves. So prominent indeed were hisservices on behalf of the king, that his father was uneasy because ofthe jealousy and hate it would certainly rouse in the minds of some ofhis majesty's well-wishers--a just presentiment, as his son had too goodreason to acknowledge after he had spent a million of money, besides thelabour and thought and dangerous endeavour of years, in the king'sservice.