Chapter 71
All next day, Emma Haredale, Dolly, and Miggs, remained cooped uptogether in what had now been their prison for so many days, withoutseeing any person, or hearing any sound but the murmured conversation,in an outer room, of the men who kept watch over them. There appeared tobe more of these fellows than there had been hitherto; and they couldno longer hear the voices of women, which they had before plainlydistinguished. Some new excitement, too, seemed to prevail among them;for there was much stealthy going in and out, and a constant questioningof those who were newly arrived. They had previously been quite recklessin their behaviour; often making a great uproar; quarrelling amongthemselves, fighting, dancing, and singing. They were now very subduedand silent, conversing almost in whispers, and stealing in and out witha soft and stealthy tread, very different from the boisterous tramplingin which their arrivals and departures had hitherto been announced tothe trembling captives.
Whether this change was occasioned by the presence among them of someperson of authority in their ranks, or by any other cause, they wereunable to decide. Sometimes they thought it was in part attributable tothere being a sick man in the chamber, for last night there had been ashuffling of feet, as though a burden were brought in, and afterwards amoaning noise. But they had no means of ascertaining the truth: forany question or entreaty on their parts only provoked a storm ofexecrations, or something worse; and they were too happy to be leftalone, unassailed by threats or admiration, to risk even that comfort,by any voluntary communication with those who held them in durance.
It was sufficiently evident, both to Emma and to the locksmith's poorlittle daughter herself, that she, Dolly, was the great object ofattraction; and that so soon as they should have leisure to indulge inthe softer passion, Hugh and Mr Tappertit would certainly fall to blowsfor her sake; in which latter case, it was not very difficult to seewhose prize she would become. With all her old horror of that manrevived, and deepened into a degree of aversion and abhorrence which nolanguage can describe; with a thousand old recollections and regrets,and causes of distress, anxiety, and fear, besetting her on all sides;poor Dolly Varden--sweet, blooming, buxom Dolly--began to hang her head,and fade, and droop, like a beautiful flower. The colour fled from hercheeks, her courage forsook her, her gentle heart failed. Unmindfulof all her provoking caprices, forgetful of all her conquests andinconstancy, with all her winning little vanities quite gone, shenestled all the livelong day in Emma Haredale's bosom; and, sometimescalling on her dear old grey-haired father, sometimes on her mother, andsometimes even on her old home, pined slowly away, like a poor bird inits cage.
Light hearts, light hearts, that float so gaily on a smooth stream, thatare so sparkling and buoyant in the sunshine--down upon fruit, bloomupon flowers, blush in summer air, life of the winged insect, whosewhole existence is a day--how soon ye sink in troubled water! PoorDolly's heart--a little, gentle, idle, fickle thing; giddy, restless,fluttering; constant to nothing but bright looks, and smiles andlaughter--Dolly's heart was breaking.
Emma had known grief, and could bear it better. She had little comfortto impart, but she could soothe and tend her, and she did so; and Dollyclung to her like a child to its nurse. In endeavouring to inspire herwith some fortitude, she increased her own; and though the nightswere long, and the days dismal, and she felt the wasting influenceof watching and fatigue, and had perhaps a more defined and clearperception of their destitute condition and its worst dangers, sheuttered no complaint. Before the ruffians, in whose power they were, shebore herself so calmly, and with such an appearance, in the midst of allher terror, of a secret conviction that they dared not harm her, thatthere was not a man among them but held her in some degree of dread;and more than one believed she had a weapon hidden in her dress, and wasprepared to use it.
Such was their condition when they were joined by Miss Miggs, who gavethem to understand that she too had been taken prisoner because of hercharms, and detailed such feats of resistance she had performed (hervirtue having given her supernatural strength), that they felt it quitea happiness to have her for a champion. Nor was this the only comfortthey derived at first from Miggs's presence and society: for that younglady displayed such resignation and long-suffering, and so much meekendurance, under her trials, and breathed in all her chaste discourse aspirit of such holy confidence and resignation, and devout belief thatall would happen for the best, that Emma felt her courage strengthenedby the bright example; never doubting but that everything she said wastrue, and that she, like them, was torn from all she loved, and agonisedby doubt and apprehension. As to poor Dolly, she was roused, atfirst, by seeing one who came from home; but when she heard under whatcircumstances she had left it, and into whose hands her father hadfallen, she wept more bitterly than ever, and refused all comfort.
Miss Miggs was at some trouble to reprove her for this state of mind,and to entreat her to take example by herself, who, she said, was nowreceiving back, with interest, tenfold the amount of her subscriptionsto the red-brick dwelling-house, in the articles of peace of mind and aquiet conscience. And, while on serious topics, Miss Miggs considered ither duty to try her hand at the conversion of Miss Haredale; for whoseimprovement she launched into a polemical address of some length, in thecourse whereof, she likened herself unto a chosen missionary, and thatyoung lady to a cannibal in darkness. Indeed, she returned so often tothese subjects, and so frequently called upon them to take a lesson fromher,--at the same time vaunting and, as it were, rioting in, her hugeunworthiness, and abundant excess of sin,--that, in the course of ashort time, she became, in that small chamber, rather a nuisance than acomfort, and rendered them, if possible, even more unhappy than they hadbeen before.
The night had now come; and for the first time (for their jailers hadbeen regular in bringing food and candles), they were left in darkness.Any change in their condition in such a place inspired new fears; andwhen some hours had passed, and the gloom was still unbroken, Emma couldno longer repress her alarm.
They listened attentively. There was the same murmuring in the outerroom, and now and then a moan which seemed to be wrung from a person ingreat pain, who made an effort to subdue it, but could not. Even thesemen seemed to be in darkness too; for no light shone through the chinksin the door, nor were they moving, as their custom was, but quite still:the silence being unbroken by so much as the creaking of a board.
At first, Miss Miggs wondered greatly in her own mind who this sickperson might be; but arriving, on second thoughts, at the conclusionthat he was a part of the schemes on foot, and an artful device soon tobe employed with great success, she opined, for Miss Haredale's comfort,that it must be some misguided Papist who had been wounded: and thishappy supposition encouraged her to say, under her breath, 'AllyLooyer!' several times.
'Is it possible,' said Emma, with some indignation, 'that you who haveseen these men committing the outrages you have told us of, and who havefallen into their hands, like us, can exult in their cruelties!'
'Personal considerations, miss,' rejoined Miggs, 'sinks into nothing,afore a noble cause. Ally Looyer! Ally Looyer! Ally Looyer, goodgentlemen!'
It seemed from the shrill pertinacity with which Miss Miggs repeatedthis form of acclamation, that she was calling the same through thekeyhole of the door; but in the profound darkness she could not be seen.
'If the time has come--Heaven knows it may come at any moment--when theyare bent on prosecuting the designs, whatever they may be, with whichthey have brought us here, can you still encourage, and take part withthem?' demanded Emma.
'I thank my goodness-gracious-blessed-stars I can, miss,' returnedMiggs, with increased energy.--'Ally Looyer, good gentlemen!'
Even Dolly, cast down and disappointed as she was, revived at this, andbade Miggs hold her tongue directly.
'WHICH, was you pleased to observe, Miss Varden?' said Miggs, with astrong emphasis on the irrelative pronoun.
Dolly repeated her request.
'Ho, gracious me!' cried Mig
gs, with hysterical derision. 'Ho, graciousme! Yes, to be sure I will. Ho yes! I am a abject slave, and atoiling, moiling, constant-working, always-being-found-fault-with,never-giving-satisfactions, nor-having-no-time-to-clean-oneself,potter's wessel--an't I, miss! Ho yes! My situations is lowly, and mycapacities is limited, and my duties is to humble myself afore thebase degenerating daughters of their blessed mothers as is--fit tokeep companies with holy saints but is born to persecutions fromwicked relations--and to demean myself before them as is no better thanInfidels--an't it, miss! Ho yes! My only becoming occupations is to helpyoung flaunting pagins to brush and comb and titiwate theirselves intowhitening and suppulchres, and leave the young men to think that therean't a bit of padding in it nor no pinching ins nor fillings out norpomatums nor deceits nor earthly wanities--an't it, miss! Yes, to besure it is--ho yes!'
Having delivered these ironical passages with a most wonderfulvolubility, and with a shrillness perfectly deafening (especially whenshe jerked out the interjections), Miss Miggs, from mere habit, and notbecause weeping was at all appropriate to the occasion, which was one oftriumph, concluded by bursting into a flood of tears, and calling in animpassioned manner on the name of Simmuns.
What Emma Haredale and Dolly would have done, or how long Miss Miggs,now that she had hoisted her true colours, would have gone on wavingthem before their astonished senses, it is impossible to tell. Nor isit necessary to speculate on these matters, for a startling interruptionoccurred at that moment, which took their whole attention by storm.
This was a violent knocking at the door of the house, and then itssudden bursting open; which was immediately succeeded by a scuffle inthe room without, and the clash of weapons. Transported with the hopethat rescue had at length arrived, Emma and Dolly shrieked aloud forhelp; nor were their shrieks unanswered; for after a hurried interval, aman, bearing in one hand a drawn sword, and in the other a taper, rushedinto the chamber where they were confined.
It was some check upon their transport to find in this person an entirestranger, but they appealed to him, nevertheless, and besought him, inimpassioned language, to restore them to their friends.
'For what other purpose am I here?' he answered, closing the door, andstanding with his back against it. 'With what object have I made my wayto this place, through difficulty and danger, but to preserve you?'
With a joy for which it was impossible to find adequate expression, theyembraced each other, and thanked Heaven for this most timely aid. Theirdeliverer stepped forward for a moment to put the light upon the table,and immediately returning to his former position against the door, baredhis head, and looked on smilingly.
'You have news of my uncle, sir?' said Emma, turning hastily towardshim.
'And of my father and mother?' added Dolly.
'Yes,' he said. 'Good news.'
'They are alive and unhurt?' they both cried at once.
'Yes, and unhurt,' he rejoined.
'And close at hand?'
'I did not say close at hand,' he answered smoothly; 'they are at nogreat distance. YOUR friends, sweet one,' he added, addressing Dolly,'are within a few hours' journey. You will be restored to them, I hope,to-night.'
'My uncle, sir--' faltered Emma.
'Your uncle, dear Miss Haredale, happily--I say happily, because he hassucceeded where many of our creed have failed, and is safe--has crossedthe sea, and is out of Britain.'
'I thank God for it,' said Emma, faintly.
'You say well. You have reason to be thankful: greater reason than it ispossible for you, who have seen but one night of these cruel outrages,to imagine.'
'Does he desire,' said Emma, 'that I should follow him?'
'Do you ask if he desires it?' cried the stranger in surprise. 'IF hedesires it! But you do not know the danger of remaining in England,the difficulty of escape, or the price hundreds would pay to secure themeans, when you make that inquiry. Pardon me. I had forgotten that youcould not, being prisoner here.'
'I gather, sir,' said Emma, after a moment's pause, 'from what you hintat, but fear to tell me, that I have witnessed but the beginning, andthe least, of the violence to which we are exposed, and that it has notyet slackened in its fury?'
He shrugged his shoulders, shook his head, lifted up his hands; and withthe same smooth smile, which was not a pleasant one to see, cast hiseyes upon the ground, and remained silent.
'You may venture, sir, to speak plain,' said Emma, 'and to tell me theworst. We have undergone some preparation for it.'
But here Dolly interposed, and entreated her not to hear the worst, butthe best; and besought the gentleman to tell them the best, and tokeep the remainder of his news until they were safe among their friendsagain.
'It is told in three words,' he said, glancing at the locksmith'sdaughter with a look of some displeasure. 'The people have risen, to aman, against us; the streets are filled with soldiers, who supportthem and do their bidding. We have no protection but from above, and nosafety but in flight; and that is a poor resource; for we are watched onevery hand, and detained here, both by force and fraud. Miss Haredale,I cannot bear--believe me, that I cannot bear--by speaking of myself,or what I have done, or am prepared to do, to seem to vaunt my servicesbefore you. But, having powerful Protestant connections, and having mywhole wealth embarked with theirs in shipping and commerce, I happilypossessed the means of saving your uncle. I have the means of savingyou; and in redemption of my sacred promise, made to him, I am here;pledged not to leave you until I have placed you in his arms. Thetreachery or penitence of one of the men about you, led to the discoveryof your place of confinement; and that I have forced my way here, swordin hand, you see.'
'You bring,' said Emma, faltering, 'some note or token from my uncle?'
'No, he doesn't,' cried Dolly, pointing at him earnestly; 'now I am surehe doesn't. Don't go with him for the world!'
'Hush, pretty fool--be silent,' he replied, frowning angrily upon her.'No, Miss Haredale, I have no letter, nor any token of any kind; forwhile I sympathise with you, and such as you, on whom misfortune soheavy and so undeserved has fallen, I value my life. I carry, therefore,no writing which, found upon me, would lead to its certain loss. Inever thought of bringing any other token, nor did Mr Haredale think ofentrusting me with one--possibly because he had good experience of myfaith and honesty, and owed his life to me.'
There was a reproof conveyed in these words, which to a nature likeEmma Haredale's, was well addressed. But Dolly, who was differentlyconstituted, was by no means touched by it, and still conjured her, inall the terms of affection and attachment she could think of, not to belured away.
'Time presses,' said their visitor, who, although he sought to expressthe deepest interest, had something cold and even in his speech, thatgrated on the ear; 'and danger surrounds us. If I have exposed myself toit, in vain, let it be so; but if you and he should ever meet again, dome justice. If you decide to remain (as I think you do), remember, MissHaredale, that I left you with a solemn caution, and acquitting myselfof all the consequences to which you expose yourself.'
'Stay, sir!' cried Emma--'one moment, I beg you. Cannot we'--and she drewDolly closer to her--'cannot we go together?'
'The task of conveying one female in safety through such scenes as wemust encounter, to say nothing of attracting the attention of those whocrowd the streets,' he answered, 'is enough. I have said that she willbe restored to her friends to-night. If you accept the service I tender,Miss Haredale, she shall be instantly placed in safe conduct, and thatpromise redeemed. Do you decide to remain? People of all ranks andcreeds are flying from the town, which is sacked from end to end. Let mebe of use in some quarter. Do you stay, or go?'
'Dolly,' said Emma, in a hurried manner, 'my dear girl, this is our lasthope. If we part now, it is only that we may meet again in happiness andhonour. I will trust to this gentleman.'
'No no-no!' cried Dolly, clinging to her. 'Pray, pray, do not!'
'You hear,' said Emma, 'that to-night--only to-
night--within a fewhours--think of that!--you will be among those who would die of grief tolose you, and who are now plunged in the deepest misery for your sake.Pray for me, dear girl, as I will for you; and never forget the manyquiet hours we have passed together. Say one "God bless you!" Say thatat parting!'
But Dolly could say nothing; no, not when Emma kissed her cheek ahundred times, and covered it with tears, could she do more than hangupon her neck, and sob, and clasp, and hold her tight.
'We have time for no more of this,' cried the man, unclenching herhands, and pushing her roughly off, as he drew Emma Haredale towards thedoor: 'Now! Quick, outside there! are you ready?'
'Ay!' cried a loud voice, which made him start. 'Quite ready! Stand backhere, for your lives!'
And in an instant he was felled like an ox in the butcher'sshambles--struck down as though a block of marble had fallen from theroof and crushed him--and cheerful light, and beaming faces came pouringin--and Emma was clasped in her uncle's embrace, and Dolly, with ashriek that pierced the air, fell into the arms of her father andmother.
What fainting there was, what laughing, what crying, what sobbing, whatsmiling, how much questioning, no answering, all talking together, allbeside themselves with joy; what kissing, congratulating, embracing,shaking of hands, and falling into all these raptures, over and over andover again; no language can describe.
At length, and after a long time, the old locksmith went up and fairlyhugged two strangers, who had stood apart and left them to themselves;and then they saw--whom? Yes, Edward Chester and Joseph Willet.
'See here!' cried the locksmith. 'See here! where would any of us havebeen without these two? Oh, Mr Edward, Mr Edward--oh, Joe, Joe, howlight, and yet how full, you have made my old heart to-night!'
'It was Mr Edward that knocked him down, sir,' said Joe: 'I longed to doit, but I gave it up to him. Come, you brave and honest gentleman! Getyour senses together, for you haven't long to lie here.'
He had his foot upon the breast of their sham deliverer, in the absenceof a spare arm; and gave him a gentle roll as he spoke. Gashford, forit was no other, crouching yet malignant, raised his scowling face, likesin subdued, and pleaded to be gently used.
'I have access to all my lord's papers, Mr Haredale,' he said, in asubmissive voice: Mr Haredale keeping his back towards him, and not oncelooking round: 'there are very important documents among them. There area great many in secret drawers, and distributed in various places, knownonly to my lord and me. I can give some very valuable information, andrender important assistance to any inquiry. You will have to answer it,if I receive ill usage.
'Pah!' cried Joe, in deep disgust. 'Get up, man; you're waited for,outside. Get up, do you hear?'
Gashford slowly rose; and picking up his hat, and looking with a baffledmalevolence, yet with an air of despicable humility, all round the room,crawled out.
'And now, gentlemen,' said Joe, who seemed to be the spokesman of theparty, for all the rest were silent; 'the sooner we get back to theBlack Lion, the better, perhaps.'
Mr Haredale nodded assent, and drawing his niece's arm through his,and taking one of her hands between his own, passed out straightway;followed by the locksmith, Mrs Varden, and Dolly--who would scarcelyhave presented a sufficient surface for all the hugs and caresses theybestowed upon her though she had been a dozen Dollys. Edward Chester andJoe followed.
And did Dolly never once look behind--not once? Was there not one littlefleeting glimpse of the dark eyelash, almost resting on her flushedcheek, and of the downcast sparkling eye it shaded? Joe thought therewas--and he is not likely to have been mistaken; for there were not manyeyes like Dolly's, that's the truth.
The outer room through which they had to pass, was full of men; amongthem, Mr Dennis in safe keeping; and there, had been since yesterday,lying in hiding behind a wooden screen which was now thrown down,Simon Tappertit, the recreant 'prentice, burnt and bruised, and with agun-shot wound in his body; and his legs--his perfect legs, the prideand glory of his life, the comfort of his existence--crushed intoshapeless ugliness. Wondering no longer at the moans they had heard,Dolly kept closer to her father, and shuddered at the sight; but neitherbruises, burns, nor gun-shot wound, nor all the torture of his shatteredlimbs, sent half so keen a pang to Simon's breast, as Dolly passing out,with Joe for her preserver.
A coach was ready at the door, and Dolly found herself safe and wholeinside, between her father and mother, with Emma Haredale and her uncle,quite real, sitting opposite. But there was no Joe, no Edward; and theyhad said nothing. They had only bowed once, and kept at a distance. Dearheart! what a long way it was to the Black Lion!