CHAPTER V.
STATE POLICY DEALS WITH LITTLE MATTERS AS WELL AS WITH GREAT.
Ursus, alas! had boasted that he had never wept. His reservoir of tearswas full. Such plentitude as is accumulated drop on drop, sorrow onsorrow, through a long existence, is not to be poured out in a moment.Ursus wept alone.
The first tear is a letting out of waters. He wept for Gwynplaine, forDea, for himself, Ursus, for Homo. He wept like a child. He wept like anold man. He wept for everything at which he had ever laughed. He paidoff arrears. Man is never nonsuited when he pleads his right to tears.
The corpse they had just buried was Hardquanonne's; but Ursus could notknow that.
The hours crept on.
Day began to break. The pale clothing of the morning was spread out,dimly creased with shadow, over the bowling-green. The dawn lighted upthe front of the Tadcaster Inn. Master Nicless had not gone to bed,because sometimes the same occurrence produces sleeplessness in many.
Troubles radiate in every direction. Throw a stone in the water, andcount the splashes.
Master Nicless felt himself impeached. It is very disagreeable that suchthings should happen in one's house. Master Nicless, uneasy, andforeseeing misfortunes, meditated. He regretted having received suchpeople into his house. Had he but known that they would end by gettinghim into mischief! But the question was how to get rid of them? He hadgiven Ursus a lease. What a blessing if he could free himself from it!How should he set to work to drive them out?
Suddenly the door of the inn resounded with one of those tumultuousknocks which in England announces "Somebody." The gamut of knockingcorresponds with the ladder of hierarchy.
It was not quite the knock of a lord; but it was the knock of a justice.
The trembling innkeeper half opened his window. There was, indeed, themagistrate. Master Nicless perceived at the door a body of police, fromthe head of which two men detached themselves, one of whom was thejustice of the quorum.
Master Nicless had seen the justice of the quorum that morning, andrecognized him.
He did not know the other, who was a fat gentleman, with awaxen-coloured face, a fashionable wig, and a travelling cloak. Niclesswas much afraid of the first of these persons, the justice of thequorum. Had he been of the court, he would have feared the other most,because it was Barkilphedro.
One of the subordinates knocked at the door again violently.
The innkeeper, with great drops of perspiration on his brow, fromanxiety, opened it.
The justice of the quorum, in the tone of a man who is employed inmatters of police, and who is well acquainted with various shades ofvagrancy, raised his voice, and asked, severely, for
"Master Ursus!"
The host, cap in hand, replied,--
"Your honour; he lives here."
"I know it," said the justice.
"No doubt, your honour."
"Tell him to come down."
"Your honour, he is not here."
"Where is he?"
"I do not know."
"How is that?"
"He has not come in."
"Then he must have gone out very early?"
"No; but he went out very late."
"What vagabonds!" replied the justice.
"Your honour," said Master Nicless, softly, "here he comes."
Ursus, indeed, had just come in sight, round a turn of the wall. He wasreturning to the inn. He had passed nearly the whole night between thejail, where at midday he had seen Gwynplaine, and the cemetery, where atmidnight he had heard the grave filled up. He was pallid with twopallors--that of sorrow and of twilight.
Dawn, which is light in a chrysalis state, leaves even those forms whichare in movement in the uncertainty of night. Ursus, wan and indistinct,walked slowly, like a man in a dream. In the wild distraction producedby agony of mind, he had left the inn with his head bare. He had noteven found out that he had no hat on. His spare, gray locks fluttered inthe wind. His open eyes appeared sightless. Often when awake we areasleep, and as often when asleep we are awake.
Ursus looked like a lunatic.
"Master Ursus," cried the innkeeper, "come; their honours desire tospeak to you."
Master Nicless, in his endeavour to soften matters down, let slip,although he would gladly have omitted, this plural, "theirhonours"--respectful to the group, but mortifying, perhaps, to thechief, confounded therein, to some degree, with his subordinates.
Ursus started like a man falling off a bed, on which he was soundasleep.
"What is the matter?" said he.
He saw the police, and at the head of the police the justice. A freshand rude shock.
But a short time ago, the wapentake, now the justice of the quorum. Heseemed to have been cast from one to the other, as ships by some reefsof which we have read in old stories.
The justice of the quorum made him a sign to enter the tavern. Ursusobeyed.
Govicum, who had just got up, and who was sweeping the room, stopped hiswork, got into a corner behind the tables, put down his broom, and heldhis breath. He plunged his fingers into his hair, and scratched hishead, a symptom which indicated attention to what was about to occur.
The justice of the quorum sat down on a form, before a table.Barkilphedro took a chair. Ursus and Master Nicless remained standing.The police officers, left outside, grouped themselves in front of theclosed door.
The justice of the quorum fixed his eye, full of the law, upon Ursus. Hesaid,--
"You have a wolf."
Ursus answered,--
"Not exactly."
"You have a wolf," continued the justice, emphasizing "wolf" with adecided accent.
Ursus answered,--
"You see--"
And he was silent.
"A misdemeanour!" replied the justice.
Ursus hazarded an excuse,--
"He is my servant."
The justice placed his hand flat on the table, with his fingers spreadout, which is a very fine gesture of authority.
"Merry-andrew! to-morrow, by this hour, you and your wolf must have leftEngland. If not, the wolf will be seized, carried to the registeroffice, and killed."
Ursus thought, "More murder!" but he breathed not a syllable, and wassatisfied with trembling in every limb.
"You hear?" said the justice.
Ursus nodded.
The justice persisted,--
"Killed."
There was silence.
"Strangled, or drowned."
The justice of the quorum watched Ursus.
"And yourself in prison."
Ursus murmured,--
"Your worship!"
"Be off before to-morrow morning; if not, such is the order."
"Your worship!"
"What?"
"Must we leave England, he and I?"
"Yes."
"To-day?"
"To-day."
"What is to be done?"
Master Nicless was happy. The magistrate, whom he had feared, had cometo his aid. The police had acted as auxiliary to him, Nicless. They haddelivered him from "such people." The means he had sought were broughtto him. Ursus, whom he wanted to get rid of, was being driven away bythe police, a superior authority. Nothing to object to. He wasdelighted. He interrupted,--
"Your honour, that man--"
He pointed to Ursus with his finger.
"That man wants to know how he is to leave England to-day. Nothing canbe easier. There are night and day at anchor on the Thames, both on thisand on the other side of London Bridge, vessels that sail to theContinent. They go from England to Denmark, to Holland, to Spain; not toFrance, on account of the war, but everywhere else. To-night severalships will sail, about one o'clock in the morning, which is the hour ofhigh tide, and, amongst others, the _Vograat_ of Rotterdam."
The justice of the quorum made a movement of his shoulder towards Ursus.
"Be it so. Leave by the first ship--by the _Vograat_."
"Your worship," said Ursus.
r /> "Well?"
"Your worship, if I had, as formerly, only my little box on wheels, itmight be done. A boat would contain that; but--"
"But what?"
"But now I have got the Green Box, which is a great caravan drawn by twohorses, and however wide the ship might be, we could not get it intoher."
"What is that to me?" said the justice. "The wolf will be killed."
Ursus shuddered, as if he were grasped by a hand of ice.
"Monsters!" he thought. "Murdering people is their way of settlingmatters."
The innkeeper smiled, and addressed Ursus.
"Master Ursus, you can sell the Green Box."
Ursus looked at Nicless.
"Master Ursus, you have the offer."
"From whom?"
"An offer for the caravan, an offer for the two horses, an offer for thetwo gipsy women, an offer--"
"From whom?" repeated Ursus.
"From the proprietor of the neighbouring circus."
Ursus remembered it.
"It is true."
Master Nicless turned to the justice of the quorum.
"Your honour, the bargain can be completed to-day. The proprietor of thecircus close by wishes to buy the caravan and the horses."
"The proprietor of the circus is right," said the justice, "because hewill soon require them. A caravan and horses will be useful to him. He,too, will depart to-day. The reverend gentlemen of the parish ofSouthwark have complained of the indecent riot in Tarrinzeau field. Thesheriff has taken his measures. To-night there will not be a singlejuggler's booth in the place. There must be an end of all thesescandals. The honourable gentleman who deigns to be here present--"
The justice of the quorum interrupted his speech to salute Barkilphedro,who returned the bow.
"The honourable gentleman who deigns to be present has just arrived fromWindsor. He brings orders. Her Majesty has said, 'It must be sweptaway.'"
Ursus, during his long meditation all night, had not failed to puthimself some questions. After all, he had only seen a bier. Could he besure that it contained Gwynplaine? Other people might have died besidesGwynplaine. A coffin does not announce the name of the corpse, as itpasses by. A funeral had followed the arrest of Gwynplaine. That provednothing. _Post hoc, non propter hoc, etc_. Ursus had begun to doubt.
Hope burns and glimmers over misery like naphtha over water. Itshovering flame ever floats over human sorrow. Ursus had come to thisconclusion, "It is probable that it was Gwynplaine whom they buried, butit is not certain. Who knows? Perhaps Gwynplaine is still alive."
Ursus bowed to the justice.
"Honourable judge, I will go away, we will go away, all will go away, bythe _Vograat_ of Rotterdam, to-day. I will sell the Green Box, thehorses, the trumpets, the gipsies. But I have a comrade, whom I cannotleave behind--Gwynplaine."
"Gwynplaine is dead," said a voice.
Ursus felt a cold sensation, such as is produced by a reptile crawlingover the skin. It was Barkilphedro who had just spoken.
The last gleam was extinguished. No more doubt now. Gwynplaine was dead.A person in authority must know. This one looked ill-favoured enough todo so.
Ursus bowed to him.
Master Nicless was a good-hearted man enough, but a dreadful coward.Once terrified, he became a brute. The greatest cruelty is that inspiredby fear.
He growled out,--
"This simplifies matters."
And he indulged, standing behind Ursus, in rubbing his hands, apeculiarity of the selfish, signifying, "I am well out of it," andsuggestive of Pontius Pilate washing his hands.
Ursus, overwhelmed, bent down his head.
The sentence on Gwynplaine had been executed--death. His sentence waspronounced--exile. Nothing remained but to obey. He felt as in a dream.
Some one touched his arm. It was the other person, who was with thejustice of the quorum. Ursus shuddered.
The voice which had said, "Gwynplaine is dead," whispered in his ear,--
"Here are ten guineas, sent you by one who wishes you well."
And Barkilphedro placed a little purse on a table before Ursus. We mustnot forget the casket that Barkilphedro had taken with him.
Ten guineas out of two thousand! It was all that Barkilphedro could makeup his mind to part with. In all conscience it was enough. If he hadgiven more, he would have lost. He had taken the trouble of finding outa lord; and having sunk the shaft, it was but fair that the firstproceeds of the mine should belong to him. Those who see meanness in theact are right, but they would be wrong to feel astonished. Barkilphedroloved money, especially money which was stolen. An envious man is anavaricious one. Barkilphedro was not without his faults. The commissionof crimes does not preclude the possession of vices. Tigers have theirlice.
Besides, he belonged to the school of Bacon.
Barkilphedro turned towards the justice of the quorum, and said tohim,--
"Sir, be so good as to conclude this matter. I am in haste. A carriageand horses belonging to her Majesty await me. I must go full gallop toWindsor, for I must be there within two hours' time. I have intelligenceto give, and orders to take."
The justice of the quorum arose.
He went to the door, which was only latched, opened it, and, lookingsilently towards the police, beckoned to them authoritatively. Theyentered with that silence which heralds severity of action.
Master Nicless, satisfied with the rapid _denouement_ which cut shorthis difficulties, charmed to be out of the entangled skein, was afraid,when he saw the muster of officers, that they were going to apprehendUrsus in his house. Two arrests, one after the other, made in hishouse--first that of Gwynplaine, then that of Ursus--might be injuriousto the inn. Customers dislike police raids.
Here then was a time for a respectful appeal, suppliant and generous.Master Nicless turned toward the justice of the quorum a smiling face,in which confidence was tempered by respect.
"Your honour, I venture to observe to your honour that these honourablegentlemen, the police officers, might be dispensed with, now that thewolf is about to be carried away from England, and that this man, Ursus,makes no resistance; and since your honour's orders are being punctuallycarried out, your honour will consider that the respectable business ofthe police, so necessary to the good of the kingdom, does great harm toan establishment, and that my house is innocent. The merry-andrews ofthe Green Box having been swept away, as her Majesty says, there is nolonger any criminal here, as I do not suppose that the blind girl andthe two women are criminals; therefore, I implore your honour to deignto shorten your august visit, and to dismiss these worthy gentlemen whohave just entered, because there is nothing for them to do in my house;and, if your honour will permit me to prove the justice of my speechunder the form of a humble question, I will prove the inutility of theserevered gentlemen's presence by asking your honour, if the man, Ursus,obeys orders and departs, who there can be to arrest here?"
"Yourself," said the justice.
A man does not argue with a sword which runs him through and through.Master Nicless subsided--he cared not on what, on a table, on a form, onanything that happened to be there--prostrate.
The justice raised his voice, so that if there were people outside, theymight hear.
"Master Nicless Plumptree, keeper of this tavern, this is the last pointto be settled. This mountebank and the wolf are vagabonds. They aredriven away. But the person most in fault is yourself. It is in yourhouse, and with your consent, that the law has been violated; and you, aman licensed, invested with a public responsibility, have establishedthe scandal here. Master Nicless, your licence is taken away; you mustpay the penalty, and go to prison."
The policemen surrounded the innkeeper.
The justice continued, pointing out Govicum,--
"Arrest that boy as an accomplice." The hand of an officer fell upon thecollar of Govicum, who looked at him inquisitively. The boy was not muchalarmed, scarcely understanding the occurrence; having already observedmany things
out of the way, he wondered if this were the end of thecomedy.
The justice of the quorum forced his hat down on his head, crossed hishands on his stomach, which is the height of majesty, and added,--
"It is decided, Master Nicless; you are to be taken to prison, and putinto jail, you and the boy; and this house, the Tadcaster Inn, is toremain shut up, condemned and closed. For the sake of example. Uponwhich, you will follow us."
BOOK THE SEVENTH.
_THE TITANESS._