CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE.
IN COUNCIL OF WAR.
The man who had succeeded Colonel Essex in the governorship of Bristolwas well, even enthusiastically, affected to the Parliamentary cause.Beyond that, he was altogether unfitted for the trust reposed in him. Alawyer before becoming soldier, he better understood the marshalling ofarguments than armies, and, though a man of grave, serious thought, hispassionate temper gave offence to friends as foes, oft thwarting hisbest intentions. Fortunately he had around him men of greater militarycapacity and experience, by whose counsels he was, to some extent,controlled--officers who had seen service in the Low Countries, Sweden,and Germany--among them Sir Richard Walwyn.
How the knight came to be in Bristol--Eustace Trevor too--may needmaking known. At the breaking out of hostilities, when blood began toflow, the Dean Foresters were, in a way, taken by surprise, and for atime overpowered. In addition to their old enemy, Sir John Wintour,threatening them on the south, they had to contend with the strong andwell-disciplined force of Lord Herbert on the west; while Harry Lingen,a man of more capability than either--as a partisan leader unsurpassed--had commenced harassing them from the Herefordshire side.
Seeing he would be unable to hold ground against such odds, Sir Richard,who had hastily got together a body of horse, withdrew it from theForest, and joined the main force of the Parliament, which confrontedthat of the King. At the time the two armies were manoeuvring inWorcestershire, Warwick, and Salop, every day expecting to come intocollision, which they did soon after at Edgehill--a drawn battle, withfeats of daring on both sides, and on both displays of abject cowardice.
The men commanded by Sir Richard Walwyn were not chargeable with thislast; instead, on that day distinguishable by the first, havingperformed prodigies of valour. Since then he and his Foresters hadshown themselves on other fields, and done other gallant deeds, till thetroop of horse, with the "big sergeant," had become a name of terror tothe Royalist soldiers. Even Rupert's pick Cavaliers would have shiedencounter with it, unless they knew themselves in the proportion of twoto one.
By the drift of events, this small but efficient body became part of thegarrison of Bristol--disagreeable duty to the Foresters, but forced uponthem by the chances of war.
So in Bristol we now find them, with their commanding officer SirRichard, their "big sergeant" Rob Wilde, and for one of their captainsthe ex-gentleman-usher, Eustace Trevor. To explain his presence thereand position it needs but referring back to his words spoken in thathour when Lunsford was hammering at the door of Hollymead House.
Reverting to the new governor, we must give him the credit of endeavourto do his best--that at least. Entering upon the office full of hopeand spirit, he was correspondingly vigorous in the execution of itsduties. And as there had been no time for his enthusiasm to get cool,or his vigour to become relaxed, before that 7th of March--but a fewdays after Essex had been clapped under arrest--Fiennes was in the veryblush of energetic activity. Not dining, wining, and dancing, as hispredecessor would have been, in the company of gay Cavaliers, andlight-hearted, as light-headed ladies; but within one of the receptionrooms of the castle, holding counsel with half-a-score of grave men--chiefly commanding officers of the troops that composed the garrison ofthe city.
All were impressed with the seriousness of the situation, feelingthemselves, if not actually besieged, likely soon to be. From without,reports were pouring in, daily, hourly, of reverses sustained by theParliamentarians. The capture and massacre at Cirencester, thesurrendering of Malmesbury, Tewkesbury, and Devizes, with theabandonment of Sudley and Berkeley Castles,--all adverse events,following in quick succession as the blows of a hammer,--were enough toalarm the new governor and the men in consultation with him.
The more, from their belief that in all likelihood Bristol would be thenext point aimed at by the now victorious Royalists. For they knew itwas the quarry these would most like to stoop at and kill. Ever sincethe commencement of hostilities, it and Gloucester had been very thornsin the side of the Royalist party; both cities being storehouses of warmaterial, and other effects conducive to the supply of its sinews. Butchiefly the great seaport, at once door of entry and key to the richSevern Valley--with its towns and villages up to Shrewsbury--while alsocommanding the commerce and intercourse with South Wales.
Rupert, now at the head of a considerable body of troops, held all theopen country from the Severn up to Oxford, raiding over and ravaging itat will. But the rumour had got ground that he meant soon to engage insomething more than mere skirmishing warfare, by making a dash atBristol, either to attempt taking that city by assault, or laying siegeto it.
The assemblage of officers at the Castle was in consequence of thisrumour, which had just reached the Governor's ears, and he had hastilycalled them together to have their views and advice upon what steps hadbest be taken in the contingency--should it occur.
But, as already made known, something more than the enemy without calledfor their consideration. The egg of treason, which had been hatchingunder Essex's too lenient rule, was not an addled one. The vile birdwas still vigorous within it, threatening to break the shell. A gleamof warmth and hope, the touch of a helping hand, and it would burstforth full fledged, ready to tear with beak and talons.
On this night Nathaniel Fiennes was unusually excited; angry at thedifficult task left him by his predecessor, just as might the Earl ofRipon be with Lord Lytton, that ass in lion's skin--now politicallydefunct--for demising him the legacy of Afghanistan.
But the lawyer-soldier, however worried and over-weighted, was noteither dismayed or discouraged. After listening to what his fellowcounsellors had to say, and giving his own views, he exclaimed inconclusion, and determinedly:
"Before our enemies enter Bristol they'll have to pass over my deadbody!"
"And mine, too!" "And mine!" were echoes of like patriotic resolve.
All emphatic, though not all sincere; for the loudest of them came fromthe lips of a man who least meant what he said. Even then, ColonelLangrish was contemplating the treason he afterwards perpetrated.
No one present so quietly declared himself as Sir Richard Walwyn. A manmore of deeds than words, such pompous proclamation was averse to hisnature, and pompous, so far as regarded Fiennes, it afterwards proved.For the enemy _did_ enter Bristol, not over his dead body, nor evenfiercely fighting with him, but by surrender, facile, and so much likebeing criminal, that the lawyer-soldier was himself cast into prison,not by foes, but those hitherto his friends; afterwards tried for hislife, and let off as the son of Lord Saye and Sele, though without leaveto play at soldiering any more. But we anticipate.
Returning to the conference in the Castle, it had well-nigh reachedconclusion, when the usher in charge of the door entered to announce aparty seeking audience of the Governor, to whom alone the communicationwas made.
"Who are they?" demanded Fiennes.
"I don't know, your Excellency. They're still outside the gate. Theguard-corporal brought the message--he's at the door."
"Bring him in!"
The abrupt order was with promptness executed; and in twenty secondsafter, the corporal of the castle guard stood before the Governor,saluting in military style.
"Who are these wishing to speak with me?" asked the latter.
"I only know one of them, your Excellency," returned the corporal."That's Sergeant Wilde, of the Forest of Dean troop--Sir RichardWalwyn's. The other two are a short man and a tall woman--very tall sheis. The man has a wooden leg."
"If I'm not mistaken, Colonel Fiennes," interposed Sir Richard, who,standing by, overheard what the corporal had said, "I know all theparty. And as my sergeant, Wilde, appears to be one of them, I'llanswer for the honesty of their purpose in seeking an interview withyou, whatever it be."
"Let them be brought in?" commanded the Governor--"all three."
At which the guard-corporal, once more saluting, made "about face," andwith the usher disappeared from the room.
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"Who are they, Sir Richard?" asked the Governor, as the door was againclosed.
"By the description," answered the knight, "I identify the short man andthe very tall woman as cadgers, who follow their humble calling aroundthe Forest of Dean; despite the reversed proportions in stature, beingbrother and sister."
"But what, think you, can they be wanting with me?"
"That I can't say, your Excellency. Though likely something of graveconcern, or Rob Wilde wouldn't be with them as their introducer. Heisn't the man to intrude, without serious purpose."
Their dialogue was interrupted by sounds in the hallway outside; ascraping and shuffling of heavily-shod feet, with something thatresembled the strokes of a wooden mallet upon the stone flags,administered in regular repetition. It was no mystery, however, eitherto the Governor or the knight, both already aware that they were to seea man with a wooden leg.
Which they did, as the door was again pushed open, and the usher enteredfor the third time, conducting in Jerky Jack and his sister, thesergeant bringing up the rear.