Richard Carvel — Complete

  CHAPTER XXIV. CASTLE YARD

  But I did not go direct to the Star and Garter. No, I lacked the courageto say to John Paul: "You have trusted me, and this is how I haverewarded your faith." And the thought that Dorothy's father, of allmen, had served me thus, after what I had gone through, filled me witha bitterness I had never before conceived. And when my brain becameclearer I reflected that Mr. Manners had had ample time to learn of mydisappearance from Maryland, and that his action had been one of design,and of cold blood. But I gave to Dorothy or her mother no part in it.Mr. Manners never had had cause to hate me, and the only reason I couldassign was connected with his Grace of Chartersea, which I dismissed asabsurd.

  A few drops of rain warned me to seek shelter. I knew not where I was,nor how long I had been walking the streets at a furious pace. But ahuckster told me I was in Chelsea; and kindly directed me back to PallMall. The usual bunch of chairmen was around the hotel entrance, butI noticed a couple of men at the door, of sharp features and unkemptdress, and heard a laugh as I went in. My head swam as I stumbled up thestairs and fumbled at the knob, when I heard voices raised inside, andthe door was suddenly and violently thrown open. Across the sill stood abig, rough-looking man with his hands on his hips.

  "Oho! Here be the other fine bird a-homing, I'll warrant," he cried.

  The place was full. I caught sight of Davenport, the tailor, with awry face, talking against the noise; of Banks, the man I had hired,resplendent in my livery. One of the hotel servants was in thecorner perspiring over John Paul's chests, and beside him stood a mandisdainfully turning over with his foot the contents, as they werethrown on the floor. I saw him kick the precious vellum-hole waistcoatacross the room in wrath and disgust, and heard him shout above therest: "The lot of them would not bring a guinea from any Jew in St.Martin's Lane!"

  In the other corner, by the writing-desk, stood the hatter and thehaberdasher with their heads together. And in the very centre of theconfusion was the captain himself. He was drest in his new clothesDavenport had brought, and surprised me by his changed appearance, andlooked as fine a gentleman as any I have ever seen. His face lightedwith relief at sight of me.

  "Now may I tell these rogues begone, Richard?" he cried. And turningto the man confronting me, he added, "This gentleman will settle theirbeggarly accounts."

  Then I knew we had to do with bailiffs, and my heart failed me.

  "Likely," laughed the big man; "I'll stake my oath he has not a groat topay their beggarly accounts, as year honour is pleased to call them."

  They ceased jabbering and straightened to attention, awaiting my reply.But I forgot them all, and thought only of the captain, and of thetrouble I had brought him. He began to show some consternation as I wentup to him.

  "My dear friend," I said, vainly trying to steady my voice, "I beg, Ipray that you will not lose faith in me,--that you will not think anydeceit of mine has brought you to these straits. Mr. Dix did not knowme, and has had no word from my grandfather of my disappearance. And Mr.Manners, whom I thought my friend, spurned me in the street before theDuke of Chartersea."

  And no longer master of myself, I sat down at the table and hid my face,shaken by great sobs, to think that this was my return for his kindness.

  "What," I heard him cry, "Mr. Manners spurned you, Richard! By allthe law in Coke and Littleton, he shall answer for it to me. Yourfairweather fowl shall have the chance to run me through!"

  I sat up in bewilderment, doubting my senses.

  "You believe me, captain," I said, overcome by the man's faith; "youbelieve me when I tell you that one I have known from childhood refusedto recognize me to-day?"

  He raised me in his arms as tenderly as a woman might.

  "And the whole world denied you, lad, I would not. I believe you--" andhe repeated it again and again, unable to get farther.

  And if his words brought tears to my eyes, my strength came with them.

  "Then I care not," I replied; "I only to live to reward you."

  "Mr. Manners shall answer for it to me!" cried John Paul again, and madea pace toward the door.

  "Not so fast, not so fast, captain, or admiral, or whatever you are,"said the bailiff, stepping in his way, for he was used to such scenes;"as God reigns, the owners of all these fierce titles be fire-eaters,who would spit you if you spilt snuff upon 'em. Come, come, gentlemen,your swords, and we shall see the sights o' London."

  This was the signal for another uproar, the tailor shrieking that JohnPaul must take off the suit, and Banks the livery; asking the man in thecorner by the sea-chests (who proved to be the landlord) who was to payhim for his work and his lost cloth. And the landlord shook his fistat us and shouted back, who was to pay him his four pounds odd, whichincluded two ten-shilling dinners and a flask of his best wine? Theother tradesmen seized what was theirs and made off with remarksappropriate to the occasion. And when John Paul and my man were divestedof their plumes, we were marched downstairs and out through a jeeringline of people to a hackney coach.

  "Now, sirs, whereaway?" said the bailiff when we were got in beside oneof his men, and burning with the shame of it; "to the prison? Or I has avery pleasant hotel for gentlemen in Castle Yard."

  The frightful stories my dear grandfather had told me of the Fleet cameflooding into my head, and I shuddered and turned sick. I glanced atJohn Paul.

  "A guinea will not go far in a sponging-house," said he, and thebailiff's man laughed.

  The bailiff gave a direction we did not hear, and we drove off. Heproved a bluff fellow with a bloat yet not unkindly humour, and despitehis calling seemed to have something that was human in him. Hepassed many a joke on that pitiful journey in an attempt to break ourdespondency, urging us not to be downcast, and reminding us that thelast gentleman he had taken from Pall Mall was in over a thousandpounds, and that our amount was a bagatelle. And when we had gonethrough Temple Bar, instead of keeping on down Fleet Street, we joltedinto Chancery Lane. This roused me.

  "My friend has warned you that he has no money," I said, "and no morehave I."

  The bailiff regarded me shrewdly.

  "Ay," he replied, "I know. But I has seen many stripes o' men in mytime, my masters, and I know them to trust, and them whose silver I mustfeel or send to the Fleet."

  I told him unreservedly my case, and that he must take his chance ofbeing paid; that I could not hear from America for three months atleast. He listened without much show of attention, shaking his head fromside to side.

  "If you ever cheated a man, or the admiral here either, then I beginover again," he broke in with decision; "it is the fine sparks from theclubs I has to watch. You'll not worry, sir, about me. Take my oath I'llget interest out of you on my money."

  Unwilling as we both were to be beholden to a bailiff, the alternativeof the Fleet was too terrible to be thought of. And so we alighted afterhim with a shiver at the sight of the ugly, grimy face of the house, andthe dirty windows all barred with double iron. In answer to a knock wewere presently admitted by a turnkey to a vestibule as black as a tomb,and the heavy outer door was locked behind us. Then, as the man cursedand groped for the keyhole of the inner door, despair laid hold of me.

  Once inside, in the half light of a narrow hallway, a variety of noisesgreeted our ears,--laughter from above and below, interspersed withoaths; the click of billiard balls, and the occasional hammering ofa pack of cards on a bare table before the shuffle. The air was closealmost to suffocation, and out of the coffee room, into which I glanced,came a heavy cloud of tobacco smoke.

  "Why, my masters, why so glum?" said the bailiff; "my inn is not such abad place, and you'll find ample good company here, I promise you."

  And he led us into a dingy antechamber littered with papers, on everyone of which, I daresay, was written a tragedy. Then he inscribedour names, ages, descriptions, and the like in a great book, when wefollowed him up three flights to a low room under the eaves, having butone small window, and bare of furniture save two narrow cots for beds, a
broken chair, and a cracked mirror. He explained that cash boarders gotbetter, and added that we might be happy we were not in the Fleet.

  "We dine at two here, gentlemen, and sup at eight. This is not the Starand Garter," said he as he left us.

  It was the captain who spoke first, though he swallowed twice before thewords came out.

  "Come, Richard, come, laddie," he said, "'tis no so bad it micht-na bewaur. We'll mak the maist o' it."

  "I care not for myself, Captain Paul," I replied, marvelling the more athim, "but to think that I have landed you here, that this is my returnfor your sacrifice."

  "Hoots! How was ye to foresee Mr. Manners was a blellum?" And he brokeinto threats which, if Mr. Marmaduke had heard and comprehended, wouldhave driven him into the seventh state of fear. "Have you no otherfriends in London?" he asked, regaining his English.

  I shook my head. Then came--a question I dreaded.

  "And Mr. Manners's family?"

  "I would rather remain here for life," I said, "than to them now."

  For pride is often selfish, my dears, and I did not reflect that if Iremained, the captain would remain likewise.

  "Are they all like Mr. Manners?"

  "That they are not," I returned with more heat than was necessary; "hiswife is goodness itself, and his daughter--" Words failed me, and Ireddened.

  "Ah, he has a daughter, you say," said the captain, casting asignificant look at me and beginning to pace the little room. He waskeener than I thought, this John Paul.

  If it were not so painful a task, my dears, I would give you here somenotion of what a London sponging-house was in the last century. Comynhas heard me tell of it, and I have seen Bess cry over the story.Gaming was the king-vice of that age, and it filled these placesto overflowing. Heaven help a man who came into the world with thatpropensity in the early days of King George the Third. Many, alas,acquired it before they were come to years of discretion. Next me, atthe long table where we were all thrown in together,--all who could notpay for private meals,--sat a poor fellow who had flung away a patrimonyof three thousand a year. Another had even mortgaged to a Jew hisprospects on the death of his mother, and had been seized by thebailiffs outside of St. James's palace, coming to Castle Yard directfrom his Majesty's levee. Yet another, with such a look of dead hopein his eyes as haunts me yet, would talk to us by the hour of theDevonshire house where he was born, of the green valley and the peacefulstream, and of the old tower-room, caressed by trees, where Queen Besshad once lain under the carved oak rafters. Here he had taken his youngwife, and they used to sit together, so he said, in the sunny oriel overthe water, and he had sworn to give up the cards. That was but threeyears since, and then all had gone across the green cloth in one madnight in St. James's Street. Their friends had deserted them, and thepoor little woman was lodged in Holborn near by, and came every morningwith some little dainty to the bailiff's, for her liege lord who had soused her. He pressed me to share a fowl with him one day, but it wouldhave choked me. God knows where she got the money to buy it. I saw heronce hanging on his neck in the hall, he trying to shield her from theimpudent gaze of his fellow-lodgers.

  But some of them lived like lords in luxury, with never a seemingregret; and had apartments on the first floor, and had their tea andpaper in bed, and lounged out the morning in a flowered nightgown, andthe rest of the day in a laced coat. These drank the bailiff's best portand champagne, and had nothing better than a frown or haughty look forus, when we passed them at the landing. Whence the piper was paid I knewnot, and the bailiff cared not. But the bulk of the poor gentlemen werea merry crew withal, and had their wit and their wine at table, and kneweach other's histories (and soon enough ours) by heart. They betted awaythe week at billiards or whist or picquet or loo, and sometimes measuredswords for diversion, tho' this pastime the bailiff was greatly setagainst; as calculated to deprive him of a lodger.

  Although we had no money for gaming, and little for wine or tobacco, thecaptain and I were received very heartily into the fraternity. Afterone afternoon of despondency we both voted it the worst of bad policyto remain aloof and nurse our misfortune, and spent our first eveningin making acquaintances over a deal of very thin "debtor's claret." Itossed long that night on the hard cot, listening to the scurrying ratsamong the roof-timbers. They ran like the thoughts in my brain. Andbefore I slept I prayed again and again that God would put it in mypower to reward him whom charity for a friendless foundling had broughtto a debtor's prison.

  Not so much as a single complaint or reproach had passed his lips!