The Story of Francis Cludde

  CHAPTER VI.

  MASTER CLARENCE.

  We had stood thus for a few moments when a harsh voice, hailing usfrom above, put an end to our several thoughts and forebodings. Welooked up and I saw half a dozen night-capped heads thrust over thebulwarks. A rope ladder came hurtling down at our feet, and a man,nimbly descending, held it tight at the bottom. "Now, madame!" he saidbriskly. They all, I noticed, had the same foreign accent, yet allspoke English; a singularity I did not understand, until I learnedlater that the boat was the _Lions Whelp_, trading between London andCalais, and manned from the latter place.

  Mistress Bertram ascended quickly and steadily, holding the baby inher arms. The other made some demur, lingering at the foot of theladder and looking up as if afraid, until her companion chid hersharply. Then she too went up, but as she passed me--I was holding oneside of the ladder steady--she shot at me from under her hood a lookwhich disturbed me strangely.

  It was the first time I had seen her face, and it was such a face as aman rarely forgets. Not because of its beauty; rather because it was aspeaking face, a strange and expressive one, which the dark wavinghair, swelling in thick clusters upon either temple, seemed toaccentuate. The features were regular, but, the full red lipsexcepted, rather thin than shapely. The nose, too, was prominent. Butthe eyes! The eyes seemed to glorify the dark brilliant thinness ofthe face, and to print it upon the memory. They were dark flashingeyes, and their smile seemed to me perpetually to challenge, to allureand repulse, and even to goad. Sometimes they were gay, more rarelysad, sometimes soft, and again hard as steel. They changed in a momentas one or another approached her. But always at their gayest, therewas a suspicion of weariness and fatigue in their depths. Or so Ithought later.

  Something of this flashed through my mind as I followed her up theside. But once on board I glanced round, forgetting her in the noveltyof my position. The _Whelp_ was decked fore and aft only, theblackness of the hold gaping amidships, spanned by a narrow gangway,which served to connect the two decks. We found ourselves in theforepart, amid coils of rope and windlasses and water-casks;surrounded by half a dozen wild-looking sailors wearing blue knittedfrocks and carrying sheath-knives at their girdles.

  The foremost and biggest of these seemed to be the captain, although,so far as outward appearances went, the only difference between himand his crew lay in a marlin-spike which he wore slung to a thongbeside his knife. When I reached the deck he was telling a long storyto Mistress Bertram, and telling it very slowly. But the drift of it Isoon gathered. While the fog lasted he could not put to sea.

  "Nonsense!" cried my masterful companion, chafing at his slowness ofspeech. "Why not? Would it be dangerous?"

  "Well, madam, it would be dangerous," he answered, more slowly thanever. "Yes, it would be dangerous. And to put to sea in a fog? That isnot seamanship. And your baggage has not arrived."

  "Never mind my baggage!" she answered imperiously. "I have made otherarrangements for it. Two or three things I know came on board lastnight. I want to start--to start at once, do you hear?"

  The captain shook his head, and said sluggishly that it wasimpossible. Spitting on the deck he ground his heel leisurely round ina knothole. "Impossible," he repeated; "it would not be seamanship tostart in a fog. When the fog lifts we will go. 'Twill be all the sameto-morrow. We shall lie at Leigh to-night, whether we go now or gowhen the fog lifts."

  "At Leigh?"

  "That is it, madam."

  "And when will you go from Leigh?" she cried indignantly.

  "Daybreak to-morrow," he answered. "You leave it to me, mistress," hecontinued, in a tone of rough patronage, "and you will see your goodman before you expect it."

  "But, man!" she exclaimed, trembling with impotent rage. "Did notMaster Bertram engage you to bring me across whenever I might beready? Ay, and pay you handsomely for it? Did he not, sirrah?"

  "To be sure, to be sure!" replied the giant unmoved. "Usingseamanship, and not going to sea in a fog, if it please you."

  "It does not please me!" she retorted. "And why stay at Leigh?"

  He looked up at the rigging, then down at the deck. He set his heel inthe knothole, and ground it round again. Then he looked at hisquestioner with a broad smile. "Well, mistress, for a very goodreason. It is there your good man is waiting for you. Only," addedthis careful keeper of a secret, "he bade me not tell any one."

  She uttered a low cry, which might have been an echo of her baby'scooing, and convulsively clasped the child more tightly to her. "He isat Leigh!" she murmured, flushing and trembling, another womanaltogether. Even her voice was wonderfully changed. "He is really atLeigh, you say?"

  "To be sure!" replied the captain, with a portentous wink and amysterious roll of the head. "He is there safe enough! Safe enough,you may bet your handsome face to a rushlight. And we will be thereto-night."

  She started up with a wild gesture. For a moment she had sat down on acask standing beside her, and forgotten our peril, and the probabilitythat we might never see Leigh at all. Now, I have said, she startedup. "No, no!" she cried, struggling for breath and utterance. "Oh, no!no! Let us go at once. We must start at once!" Her voice washysterical in its sudden anxiety and terror, as the consciousness ofour position rolled back upon her. "Captain! listen, listen!" shepleaded. "Let us start now, and my husband will give you double. Iwill promise you double whatever he said if you will chance the fog."

  I think all who heard her were moved, save the captain only. He rubbedhis head and grinned. Slow and heavy, he saw nothing in her prayersave the freak of a woman wild to get to her man. He did not weigh herpromise at a groat; she was but a woman. And being a foreigner, he didnot perceive a certain air of breeding which might have influenced anative. He was one of those men against whose stupidity Father Careyused to say the gods fight in vain. When he answered good-naturedly,"No, no, mistress, it is impossible. It would not be seamanship," Ifelt that we might as well try to stop the ebbing tide as move himfrom his position.

  The feeling was a maddening one. The special peril which menaced mycompanions I did not know; but I knew they feared pursuit, and I hadevery reason to fear it for myself. Yet at any moment, out of thefog which encircled us so closely that we could barely see the raftbelow--and the shore not at all--might come the tramp of hurrying feetand the stern hail of the law. It was maddening to think of this, andto know that we had only to cast off a rope or two in order to escape;and to know also that we were absolutely helpless.

  I expected that Mistress Bertram, brave as she had shown herself,would burst into a passion of rage or tears. But apparently she hadone hope left. She looked at me.

  I tried to think--to think hard. Alas, I seemed only able to listen.An hour had gone by since we parted from that rascal in the court, andwe might expect him to appear at any moment, vengeful and exultant,with a posse at his back. Yet I tried hard to think; and the fogpresently suggested a possible course. "Look here," I said suddenly,speaking for the first time, "if you do not start until the fog lifts,captain, we may as well breakfast ashore, and return presently."

  "That is as you please," he answered indifferently.

  "What do you think?" I said, turning to my companions with as muchcarelessness as I could command. "Had we not better do that?"

  Mistress Bertram did not understand, but in her despair she obeyed themotion of my hand mechanically, and walked to the side. The youngerwoman followed more slowly, so that I had to speak to her with somecurtness, bidding her make haste; for I was in a fever until we wereclear of the _Whelp_ and the Lion Wharf. It had struck me that, if theship were not to leave at once, we were nowhere in so much danger ason board. At large in the fog we might escape detection for a time.Our pursuers might as well look for a needle in a haystack as seek usthrough it when once we were clear of the wharf. And this was not theend of my idea. But for the present it was enough. Therefore I took upMistress Anne very short. "Come!" I said, "be quick! Let me help you
."

  She obeyed, and I was ashamed of my impatience when at the foot of theladder she thanked me prettily. It was almost with good cheer in myvoice and a rebound of spirits that I explained, as I hurried mycompanions across the raft, what my plan was.

  The moment we were ashore I felt safer. The fog swallowed us up quick,as the Bible says. The very hull of the ship vanished from sightbefore we had gone half a dozen paces. I had never seen a London fogbefore, and to me it seemed portentous and providential; a marvel asgreat as the crimson hail which fell in the London gardens to mark herMajesty's accession.

  Yet after all, without my happy thought, the fog would have availed uslittle. We had scarcely gone a score of yards before the cautioustread of several people hastening down the strand toward the wharfstruck my ear. They were proceeding in silence, and we might not havenoticed their approach if the foremost had not by chance tripped andfallen; whereupon one laughed and another swore. With a warning hand Igrasped my companions' arms, and hurried them forward some paces untilI felt sure that our figures could not be seen through the mist. ThenI halted, and we stood listening, gazing into one another's strainedeyes, while the steps came nearer and nearer, crossed our track andthen with a noisy rush thundered on the wooden raft. My ear caught thejingle of harness and the clank of weapons.

  "It is the watch," I muttered. "Come, and make no noise. What I wantis a little this way. I fancy I saw it as we passed down to thewharf."

  They turned with me, but we had not taken many steps before MistressAnne, who was walking on my left side, stumbled over something. Shetried to save herself, but failed and fell heavily, uttering as shedid so a loud cry. I sprang to her assistance, and even before Iraised her I laid my hand lightly on her mouth. "Hush!" I said softly,"for safety's sake, make no noise. What is the matter?"

  "Oh!" she moaned, making no effort to rise, "my ankle! my ankle! I amsure I have broken it."

  I muttered my dismay, while Mistress Bertram, stooping anxiously,examined the injured limb. "Can you stand?" she asked.

  But it was no time for questioning, and I put her aside. The troopwhich had passed were within easy hearing, and if there should be oneamong them familiar with the girl's voice, we might be pounced upon,fog or no fog. I felt that it was no time for ceremony, and pickedMistress Anne up in my arms, whispering to the elder woman: "Go onahead! I think I see the boat. It is straight before you."

  Luckily I was right, it was the boat; and so far well. But at themoment I spoke I heard a sudden outcry behind us, and knew the huntwas up. I plunged forward with my burden, recklessly and blindly,through mud and over obstacles. The wherry for which I was making wasmoored in the water a few feet from the edge. I had remarked it idlyand without purpose as we came down to the wharf, and had even noticedthat the oars were lying in it. Now, if we could reach it and startdown the river for Leigh, we might by possibility gain that place, andmeet Mistress Bertram's husband.

  At any late, nothing in the world seemed so desirable to me at themoment as the shelter of that boat. I plunged through the mud, andwaded desperately through the water to it, Mistress Bertram scarce awhit behind me. I reached it, but reached it only as the foremostpursuer caught sight of us. I heard his shout of triumph, and somehowI bundled my burden into the boat--I remember that she clung about myneck in fear, and I had to loosen her hands roughly. But I did loosenthem--in time. With one stroke of my hunting-knife, I severed therope, and pushing off the boat with all my strength, sprang into it asit floated away--and was in time. But one second's delay would haveundone us. Two men were already in the water up to their knees, andtheir very breath was hot on my face as we swung out into the stream.

  Fortunately, I had had experience of boats on the Avon, at Bidford andStratford, and could pull a good oar. For a moment indeed the wherryrolled and dipped as I snatched up the sculls; but I quickly got herin hand, and, bending to my work, sent her spinning through the mist,every stroke I pulled increasing the distance between us and our nowunseen foes. Happily we were below London Bridge, and had not thatdangerous passage to make. The river, too, was nearly clear of craft,and though once and again in the Pool a huge hulk loomed suddenlyacross our bows, and then faded behind us into the mist like somemonstrous phantom, and so told of a danger narrowly escaped, I thoughtit best to run all risks, and go ahead as long as the tide should ebb.

  It was strange how suddenly we had passed from storm into calm.Mistress Anne had bound her ankle with a handkerchief, and bravelymade light of the hurt; and now the two women sat crouching in thestern watching me, their heads together, their faces pale. The misthad closed round us, and we were alone again, gliding over the bosomof the great river that runs down to the sea. I was oddly struck bythe strange current of life which for a week had tossed me from oneadventure to another, only to bring me into contact at length withthese two, and sweep me into the unknown whirlpool of their fortunes.

  Who were they? A merchant's wife and her sister flying from BishopBonner's inquisition? I thought it likely. Their cloaks and hoodsindeed, and all that I could see of their clothes, fell below such acondition; but probably they were worn as a disguise. Their speechrose as much above it, but I knew that of late many merchant's wiveshad become scholars, and might pass in noblemen's houses; even as inthose days when London waxed fat, and set up and threw downgovernments, every alderman had come to ride in mail.

  No doubt the women, watching me in anxious silence, were as curiousabout me. I still bore the stains of country travel. I was unwashen,unkempt, my doublet was torn, the cloak I had cast at my feet was thevery wreck of a cloak. Yet I read no distrust in their looks. Theelder's brave eyes seemed ever thanking me. I never saw her lips movesilently that they did not shape "Well done!" And though I caughtMistress Anne scanning me once or twice with an expression I could illinterpret, a smile took its place the moment her gaze met mine.

  We had passed, but were still in sight of, Greenwich Palace--as theytold me--when the mist rose suddenly like a curtain rolled away, andthe cold, bright February sun, shining out, disclosed the sparklingriver with the green hills rising on our right hand. Here and there onits surface a small boat such as our own moved to and fro, and in thedistant Pool from which we had come rose a little forest of masts. Ihung on the oars a moment, and my eyes were drawn to a two-mastedvessel which, nearly half a mile below us, was drifting down, gentlyheeling over with the current as the crew got up the sails. "I wonderwhither she is bound," I said thoughtfully, "and whether they wouldtake us on board by any chance."

  Mistress Bertram shook her head. "I have no money," she answeredsadly. "I fear we must go on to Leigh, if it be any way possible. Youare tired, and no wonder. But what is it?" with a sudden change ofvoice. "What is the matter?"

  I had flashed out the oars with a single touch, and begun to pull asfast as I could down the stream. No doubt my face, too, proclaimed mydiscovery and awoke her fears. "Look behind!" I muttered between myset teeth.

  She turned, and on the instant uttered a low cry. A wherry like ourown, but even lighter--in my first glance up the river I had notnoticed it--had stolen nearer to us, and yet nearer, and now throwingaside disguise was in hot pursuit of us. There were three men onboard, two rowing and one steering. When they saw that we haddiscovered them they hailed us in a loud voice, and I heard thesteersman's feet rattle on the boards, as he cried to his men to giveway, and stamped in very eagerness. My only reply was to take a longerstroke, and, pulling hard, to sweep away from them.

  But presently my first strength died away, and the work began to tellupon me, and little by little they overhauled us. Not that I gave upat once for that. They were still some sixty yards behind, and for afew minutes at any rate I might put off capture. In that timesomething might happen. At the worst they were only three to one, andtheir boat looked light and cranky and easy to upset.

  So I pulled on, savagely straining at the oars. But my chest heavedand my arms ached more and more with each stroke. The banks slid byus; we turned one bend, then anot
her, though I saw nothing of them. Isaw only the pursuing boat, on which my eyes were fixed, heard onlythe measured rattle of the oars in the rowlocks. A minute, twominutes, three minutes passed. They had not gained on us, but thewater was beginning to waver before my eyes, their boat seemedfloating in the air, there was a pulsation in my ears louder than thatof the oars, I struggled and yet I flagged. My knees trembled. Theirboat shot nearer now, nearer and nearer, so that I could read thesmile of triumph on the steersman's dark face and hear his cry ofexultation. Nearer! and then with a cry I dropped the oars.

  "Quick!" I panted to my companions. "Change places with me! So!"Trembling and out of breath as I was, I crawled between the women andgained the stern sheets of the boat. As I passed Mistress Bertram sheclutched my arm. Her eyes, as they met mine, flashed fire, her lipswere white. "The man steering!" she hissed between her teeth. "Leavethe others. He is Clarence, and I fear him!"

  I nodded; but still, as the hostile boat bore swiftly down upon us, Icast a glance round to see if there were any help at hand. I saw nosign of any. I saw only the pale blue sky overhead, and the streamflowing swiftly under the boat. I drew my sword. The case was onerather for despair than courage. The women were in my charge, and if Idid not acquit myself like a man now, when should I do so? Bah! itwould soon be over.

  There was an instant's confusion in the other boat, as the crew ceasedrowing, and, seeing my attitude and not liking it, changed theirseats. To my joy the man, who had hitherto been steering, flung acurse at the others and came forward to bear the brunt of theencounter. He was a tall, sinewy man, past middle age, with aclean-shaven face, a dark complexion, and cruel eyes. So he was MasterClarence! Well, he had the air of a swordsman and a soldier. Itrembled for the women.

  "Surrender, you fool!" he cried to me harshly. "In the Queen'sname--do you hear? What do you in this company?"

  I answered nothing, for I was out of breath. But softly, my eyes onhis, I drew out with my left hand my hunting-knife. If I could beataside his sword, I would spring upon him and drive the knife home withthat hand. So, standing erect in bow and stern we faced one another,the man and the boy, the flush of rage and exertion on my cheek, adark shade on his. And silently the boats drew together.

  Thought is quick, quicker than anything else in the world I suppose,for in some drawn-out second before the boats came together I had timeto wonder where I had seen his face before, and to rack my memory. Iknew no Master Clarence, yet I had seen this man somewhere. Anothersecond, and away with thought! He was crouching for a spring. I drewback a little, then lunged--lunged with heart and hand. Our swordscrossed and whistled--just crossed--and even as I saw his eyes gleambehind his point, the shock of the two boats coming together flung usboth backward and apart. A moment we reeled, staggering and throwingout wild hands. I strove hard to recover myself, nay, I almost did so;then I caught my foot in Mistress Anne's cloak, which she had left inher place, and fell heavily back into the boat.

  I was up in a moment--on my knees at least--and unhurt. But anotherwas before me. As I stooped half-risen, I saw one moment a dark shadowabove me, and the next a sheet of flame shone before my eyes, and atremendous shock swept all away. I fell senseless into the bottom ofthe boat, knowing nothing of what had happened to me.