CHAPTER XXXII.
_How we fought a most bloody battle with Simon, the constable, andothers._
For some time we spoke never a word, Dawson and I,--he with his headlying on his arm, I seated in a chair with my hands hanging down by myside, quite stunned by the blow that had fallen upon us. At length,raising his head, his eyes puffed, and his face bedaubed with tears, hesays:
"Han't you a word of comfort, Kit, for a broken-hearted man?"
I stammered a few words that had more sound than sense; but indeed Ineeded consolation myself, seeing my own responsibility for bringingthis misfortune upon Moll, and being most heartily ashamed of my roguerynow 'twas discovered.
"You don't think he'll be too hard on poor Moll, tell me that, Kit?"
"Aye, he'll forgive her," says I, "sooner than us, or we ourselves."
"And you don't think he'll be for ever a-casting it in her teeth thather father's a--a drunken vagabond, eh?"
"Nay; I believe he is too good a man for that."
"Then," says he, standing up, "I'll go and tell him the whole story, andyou shall come with me to bear me out."
"To-morrow will be time enough," says I, flinching from this office;"'tis late now."
"No matter for that. Time enough to sleep when we've settled thisbusiness. We'll not leave poor Moll to bear all the punishment of ourgetting. Mr. Godwin shall know what an innocent, simple child she waswhen we pushed her into this knavery, and how we dared not tell her ofour purpose lest she should draw back. He shall know how she was ever anobedient, docile, artless girl, yielding always to my guidance; and youcan stretch a point, Kit, to say you have ever known me for aheadstrong, masterful sort of a fellow, who would take denial from none,but must have my own way in all things. I'll take all the blame on myown shoulders, as I should have done at first, but I was so staggered bythis fall."
"Well," says I, "if you will have it so--"
"I will," says he, stoutly. "And now give me a bucket of water that Imay souse my head, and wear a brave look. I would have him think theworst of me that he may feel the kinder to poor Moll. And I'll make whatatonement I can," adds he, as I led him into my bed-chamber. "If hedesire it, I will promise never to see Moll again; nay, I will offer totake the king's bounty, and go a-sailoring; and so, betwixt sickness andthe Dutch, there'll be an end of Jack Dawson in a very short space."
When he had ducked his head in a bowl of water, and got our cloaks fromthe room below, we went to the door, and there, to my dismay, I foundthe lock fast and the key which I had left in its socket gone.
"What's amiss, Kit?" asks Dawson, perceiving my consternation.
"The key, the key!" says I, holding the candle here and there to seek iton the floor, then, giving up my search as it struck me that Mr. Godwinand Moll could not have left the house had the door been locked on theinside; "I do believe we are locked in and made prisoners," says I.
"Why, sure, this is not Mr. Godwin's doing!" cries he.
"'Tis Simon," says I, with conviction, seeing him again in my mind,standing behind Mr. Godwin, with wicked triumph in his face.
"Is there no other door but this one?" asks Dawson.
"There is one at the back, but I have never yet opened that, for lack ofa key." And now setting one thing against another, and recalling how Ihad before found the door open, when I felt sure I had locked it fast,the truth appeared to me; namely, that Simon had that key and did get inthe back way, going out by the front on that former occasion in hasteupon some sudden alarm.
"Is there never a window we can slip through?" asks Jack.
"Only those above stairs; the lower are all barred."
"A fig for his bars. Does he think we have neither hands nor wits to behindered by this silly woman's trick?"
"'Tis no silly trick. He's not the man to do an idle thing. There'smischief in this."
"What mischief can he do us more than he has done?--for I see his handin our misfortune. What mischief, I say?--out with it, man, for yourlooks betray a fear of something worse."
"Faith, Jack, I dread he has gone to fetch help and will lodge us ingaol for this business."
"Gaol!" cries he, in a passion of desperation. "Why, this will undo Mollfor ever. Her husband can never forgive her putting such shame upon him.Rouse yourself, man, from your stupor. Get me something in the shape ofa hammer, for God's sake, that we may burst our way from this accursedtrap."
I bethought me of an axe for splitting wood, that lay in the kitchen,and fetching it quickly, I put it in his hand. Bidding me stand aside,he let fly at the door like a madman. The splinters flew, but the doorheld good; and when he stayed a moment to take a new grip on his axe, Iheard a clamour of voices outside--Simon's, higher than the rest,crying, "My new door, that cost me seven and eightpence!"
"The lock, the lock!" says I. "Strike that off."
Down came the axe, striking a spark of fire from the lock, which fellwith a clatter at the next blow; but ere we had time to open the door,Simon and his party, entering by the back door, forced us to turn forour defence. Perceiving Dawson armed with an axe, however, these fellowspaused, and the leader, whom I recognised for the constable of ourparish, carrying a staff in one hand and a lanthorn in t'other, cried tous in the king's name to surrender ourselves.
"Take us, if you can," cries Dawson; "and the Lord have mercy on thefirst who comes within my reach!"
Deftly enough, old Simon, snatching the fellow's cap who stood next him,flings it at the candle that stands flaring on the floor, and justlesthe constable's lanthorn from his hand, so that in a moment we were allin darkness. Taking us at this disadvantage (for Dawson dared not layabout him with his axe, for fear of hitting me by misadventure), therascals closed at once; and a most bloody, desperate fight ensued. For,after the first onslaught, in which Dawson (dropping his axe, as beinguseless at such close quarters) and I grappled each our man, the rest,knowing not friend from foe in the obscurity, and urged on by fear, fellupon each other,--this one striking out at the first he met, and thatgiving as good as he had taken,--and so all fell a-mauling andbelabouring with such lust of vengeance that presently the whole placewas of an uproar with the din of cursing, howling, and hard blows. Formy own lot I had old Simon to deal with, as I knew at once by the cold,greasy feel of his leathern jerkin, he being enraged to make me hisprisoner for the ill I had done him. Hooking his horny fingers about mythroat, he clung to me like any wildcat; but stumbling, shortly, overtwo who were rolling on the floor, we went down both with a crack, andwith such violence that he, being undermost, was stunned by the fall.Then, my blood boiling at this treatment, I got astride of him, androasted his ribs royally, and with more force than ever I had conceivedmyself to be possessed of. And, growing beside myself with this passionof war, I do think I should have pounded him into a pulp, but that twoother combatants, falling across me with their whole weight, knocked allthe wind out of my body, oppressing me so grievously, that 'twas as muchas I could do to draw myself out of the fray, and get a gasp of breathagain.
About this time the uproar began to subside, for those who had got theworst of the battle thought it advisable to sneak out of the house forsafety, and those who had fared better, fearing a reverse of fortune,counted they had done enough for this bout, and so also withdrew.
"Are you living, Kit?" asks Dawson, then.
"Aye," says I, as valiantly as you please, "and ready to fight anotherhalf-dozen such rascals," but pulling the broken door open, all thesame, to get out the easier, in case they returned.
"Why, then, let's go," says he, "unless any is minded to have us stay."
No one responding to this challenge, we made ado to find a couple ofhats and cloaks for our use and sallied out.
"Which way do we turn?" asks Dawson, as we come into the road.
"Whither would you go, Jack?"
"Why, to warn Moll of her danger, to be sure."
I apprehended no danger to her, and believed her husband would defendher in any case better than we could, but D
awson would have it we shouldwarn them, and so we turned towards the Court. And now upon examinationwe found we had come very well out of this fight; for save that thewound in Dawson's hand had been opened afresh, we were neither much theworse.
"But let us set our best foot foremost, Jack," says I, "for I do thinkwe have done more mischief to-night than any we have before, and I shallnot be greatly surprised if we are called to account for the death ofold Simon or some of his hirelings."
"I know not how that may be," says he, "but I must answer for knockingof somebody's teeth out."