CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN.
A CITY OF REFUGE.
Of the Foresters who figure in our tale, Rob Wilde, Jerky Jack, andWinny were not the only ones who had found their way into Bristol. Mostof Sir Richard Walwyn's troopers were Foresters. But the master ofHollymead was himself there, with his daughters, their maid Gwenthian,and others of the family servants.
Why he had exchanged his Forest home for a residence in town--that, too,in a city under military occupation, threatened with siege and all itsinconveniences--has been already in part explained. With thecommencement of hostilities country life became unsafe, more especiallyfor people of quality and those who had anything to lose. Parties ofarmed men penetrated into the most remote districts, demandingcontributions and levying them--at first in the name of the King.Naturally, this aroused the spirit of retaliation, and dictatedreprisals; so that in time both sides became more or less blamable for_filibusterism_. The weight of evidence, however, shows that, as arule, the Parliamentarian officers did all in their power to restrain,while those of the Royalist army not only encouraged but gloried in it--themselves taking a hand. A Prince had set them the lesson, makingrobbery fashionable, and they were neither backward nor slow inprofiting by it.
As a sample of the spirit in which the Cavaliers made war, thus wroteSir John, afterwards Lord Byron--the same truculent ruffian alreadyalluded to, commanding a body of the King's horse--"_I put them all tothe sword, which I find to be the best way to proceed with these kind ofpeople, for mercy to them is cruelty_."
The gallant defenders of Barthomley Church were "these kind of people,"whom this monster, ungrammatical as inhuman, had massacred to a man!
Fighting under such faith, no wonder the _lex talionis_ soon displayeditself on both sides, and in bitterest, most relentless form. Not onlyhad the main routes of travel become unsafe, but sequestered countryroads; while the sanctity of private houses was invaded, and womensubjected to insult, oft even to the disregarding of their honour. Thiswas conspicuously the case in the districts where the Cavaliers hadcontrol, no decent woman daring to show herself abroad. Even high-bornladies feared encountering them, if having father or brother on theParliamentary side. Some dames, however, who favoured their side, werebold and free enough with them; and a very incarnation of femaleshamelessness was the strumpet following of Rupert.
As known, Ambrose Powell had at first thought of fortifying Hollymead,and holding it with his servants, retainers, and such of the Forestersas he could rally around him; of whom he had reason to believe manywould respond to his call. The _haw-haw_ around the house wassuggestive of his doing so--itself an outer line of defence, which couldbe easily strengthened. It but needed a parapet of _gabions_, or_fascines_, to render it unassailable, save in the face of a scathingfire. And he had the wherewith to deliver this, having long expectedthe coming storm, and stored up materials to meet it. One of thechambers of Hollymead House was a very armoury and ordnance room, fullof the best weapons of the time, which his great wealth had enabled himto provide--muskets of the _snap-hans_ fire, pistols, pikes, andhalberds. They but wanted putting into hands capable of makingefficient use of them.
And he himself had but waited for Sir Richard Walwyn's advice, as towhether he should attempt holding Hollymead, or abandon it. He knew hemust do one or the other. His partisanship, long since proclaimed andknown beyond the borders of the Forest, with the echoes returning, soadmonished him.
"Could it be held, think you?" he asked of the soldier knight, on theevening of his arrival with Eustace Trevor--Sir Richard and his hostalone closeted in conversation.
"Impossible!" was the answer, backed up by convincing reasons. "Were ita structure of stone, I might say Yes, easily enough; with a forcenumerous enough to garrison it. But those wooden beams, and roofs dryas tinder--they'd be set ablaze by the first arrow sent at them."
The reader may fancy Sir Richard's allusion to arrows was a figure ofspeech, or anachronism. It was neither. For this primitive weapon,almost universal among savage men, was not then obsolete, or out of thehands of the civilised. In the army of Essex--the Lord Generalhimself--was a corps of bowmen; and others elsewhere. The belief in thebent yew stick and feathered shaft, that had gained for England suchrenown at Cressy and Agincourt, was still strong in the days of her moreglorious struggle--the Great Rebellion.
But it was not to shafts of this kind the knight had reference; instead,arrows projected from muskets and arquebusses for setting fire toassailed forts and houses--a species of ordnance which then formed partof the equipment of every well-appointed _corps d'armee_.
With the master of Hollymead the argument was conclusive. He saw hishouse could not be held, with any hope of successful defence, ifattacked by a force strong and determined. And that such would comeagainst it he had been as good as sure, ever since that hour whenReginald Trevor placed in his hands the letter of Loan by Privy Seal--altogether sure, when Lunsford, later, came to make the levy itself.
Only a day or two longer had he remained in it, to pack up his plate,with other cherished penates, and have them transmitted to a place ofsafety--to Gloucester--the nearest city promising asylum to the harriedpartisans of the Parliament--going thither himself with his family.
He had, however, made but short stay there. The seaport of Bristolbeyond was a "city of refuge" more to his mind, because of a house in itthat offered him hospitality--a sister's--and under its roof he and hiswere sojourning on that night of dread danger, averted almost as soon asapprehended.
Nor in that crisis was the refugee from Dean Forest himself inactive.When men stood gazing with eyes full of keen apprehension at thefire-glare over Durdham Down, Ambrose Powell was moving briskly throughBristol's streets, urging its citizens to arm and defend it. Along withhim a clergyman, who added his appeal with eloquent tongue andpassionate speech. He was Tombes, of Leominster, who had been mobbed inthat town of woolstaplers, and driven out of it by drunken roughs; nodoubt the progenitors of those who in the late Parliamentary election inlike manner dishonoured themselves.
To Darwin's transmutation and improvement theory, the human animals ofLeominster seem to be an exception; especially as regards theimprovement, for its Jingo cur of to-day is rather a falling off fromthe quality of his prototype--the Cavalier wolf of the Great war time.