XII. HOW EVERYBODY GREAT AND SMALL CLIMBED TO THE TOP OF THE DOWNS
As the days went on, echoes of the life and bustle of the town reachedthe ears of the quiet people in Overcombe hollow--exciting and movingthose unimportant natives as a ground-swell moves the weeds in a cave.Travelling-carriages of all kinds and colours climbed and descended theroad that led towards the seaside borough. Some contained thosepersonages of the King's suite who had not kept pace with him in hisjourney from Windsor; others were the coaches of aristocracy, big andlittle, whom news of the King's arrival drew thither for their ownpleasure: so that the highway, as seen from the hills about Overcombe,appeared like an ant-walk--a constant succession of dark spots creepingalong its surface at nearly uniform rates of progress, and all in onedirection.
The traffic and intelligence between camp and town passed in a measureover the villagers' heads. It being summer time the miller was muchoccupied with business, and the trumpet-major was too constantly engagedin marching between the camp and Gloucester Lodge with the rest of thedragoons to bring his friends any news for some days.
At last he sent a message that there was to be a review on the downs bythe King, and that it was fixed for the day following. This informationsoon spread through the village and country round, and next morning thewhole population of Overcombe--except two or three very old men andwomen, a few babies and their nurses, a cripple, and CorporalTullidge--ascended the slope with the crowds from afar, and awaited theevents of the day.
The miller wore his best coat on this occasion, which meant a good deal.An Overcombe man in those days would have a best coat, and keep it as abest coat half his life. The miller's had seen five and twenty summerschiefly through the chinks of a clothes-box, and was not at all shabby asyet, though getting singular. But that could not be helped; common coatsand best coats were distinct species, and never interchangeable. Livingso near the scene of the review he walked up the hill, accompanied byMrs. Garland and Anne as usual.
It was a clear day, with little wind stirring, and the view from thedowns, one of the most extensive in the county, was unclouded. The eyeof any observer who cared for such things swept over the wave-washedtown, and the bay beyond, and the Isle, with its pebble bank, lying onthe sea to the left of these, like a great crouching animal tethered tothe mainland. On the extreme east of the marine horizon, St. Aldhelm'sHead closed the scene, the sea to the southward of that point glaringlike a mirror under the sun. Inland could be seen Badbury Rings, where abeacon had been recently erected; and nearer, Rainbarrow, on Egdon Heath,where another stood: farther to the left Bulbarrow, where there was yetanother. Not far from this came Nettlecombe Tout; to the west, DogberryHill, and Black'on near to the foreground, the beacon thereon being builtof furze faggots thatched with straw, and standing on the spot where themonument now raises its head.
At nine o'clock the troops marched upon the ground--some from the campsin the vicinity, and some from quarters in the different towns roundabout. The approaches to the down were blocked with carriages of alldescriptions, ages, and colours, and with pedestrians of every class. Atten the royal personages were said to be drawing near, and soon after theKing, accompanied by the Dukes of Cambridge and Cumberland, and a coupleof generals, appeared on horseback, wearing a round hat turned up at theside, with a cockade and military feather. (Sensation among the crowd.)Then the Queen and three of the princesses entered the field in a greatcoach drawn by six beautiful cream-coloured horses. Another coach, withfour horses of the same sort, brought the two remaining princesses.(Confused acclamations, 'There's King Jarge!' 'That's Queen Sharlett!''Princess 'Lizabeth!' 'Princesses Sophiar and Meelyer!' etc., from thesurrounding spectators.)
Anne and her party were fortunate enough to secure a position on the topof one of the barrows which rose here and there on the down; and themiller having gallantly constructed a little cairn of flints, he placedthe two women thereon, by which means they were enabled to see over theheads, horses, and coaches of the multitudes below and around. At themarch-past the miller's eye, which had been wandering about for thepurpose, discovered his son in his place by the trumpeters, who had movedforwards in two ranks, and were sounding the march.
'That's John!' he cried to the widow. 'His trumpet-sling is of twocolours, d'ye see; and the others be plain.'
Mrs. Garland too saw him now, and enthusiastically admired him from herhands upwards, and Anne silently did the same. But before the youngwoman's eyes had quite left the trumpet-major they fell upon the figureof Yeoman Festus riding with his troop, and keeping his face at a mediumbetween haughtiness and mere bravery. He certainly looked as soldierlyas any of his own corps, and felt more soldierly than half-a-dozen, asanybody could see by observing him. Anne got behind the miller, in caseFestus should discover her, and, regardless of his monarch, rush upon herin a rage with, 'Why the devil did you run away from me that night--hey,madam?' But she resolved to think no more of him just now, and to stickto Loveday, who was her mother's friend. In this she was helped by thestirring tones which burst from the latter gentleman and his subordinatesfrom time to time.
'Well,' said the miller complacently, 'there's few of more consequence ina regiment than a trumpeter. He's the chap that tells 'em what to do,after all. Hey, Mrs. Garland?'
'So he is, miller,' said she.
'They could no more do without Jack and his men than they could withoutgenerals.'
'Indeed they could not,' said Mrs. Garland again, in a tone of pleasantagreement with any one in Great Britain or Ireland.
It was said that the line that day was three miles long, reaching fromthe high ground on the right of where the people stood to the turnpikeroad on the left. After the review came a sham fight, during whichaction the crowd dispersed more widely over the downs, enabling WidowGarland to get still clearer glimpses of the King, and his handsomecharger, and the head of the Queen, and the elbows and shoulders of theprincesses in the carriages, and fractional parts of General Garth andthe Duke of Cumberland; which sights gave her great gratification. Shetugged at her daughter at every opportunity, exclaiming, 'Now you can seehis feather!' 'There's her hat!' 'There's her Majesty's India muslinshawl!' in a minor form of ecstasy, that made the miller think her moregirlish and animated than her daughter Anne.
In those military manoeuvres the miller followed the fortunes of one man;Anne Garland of two. The spectators, who, unlike our party, had nopersonal interest in the soldiery, saw only troops and battalions in theconcrete, straight lines of red, straight lines of blue, white linesformed of innumerable knee-breeches, black lines formed of many gaiters,coming and going in kaleidoscopic change. Who thought of every point inthe line as an isolated man, each dwelling all to himself in thehermitage of his own mind? One person did, a young man far removed fromthe barrow where the Garlands and Miller Loveday stood. The naturalexpression of his face was somewhat obscured by the bronzing effects ofrough weather, but the lines of his mouth showed that affectionateimpulses were strong within him--perhaps stronger than judgment wellcould regulate. He wore a blue jacket with little brass buttons, and wasplainly a seafaring man.
Meanwhile, in the part of the plain where rose the tumulus on which themiller had established himself, a broad-brimmed tradesman was elbowinghis way along. He saw Mr. Loveday from the base of the barrow, andbeckoned to attract his attention. Loveday went halfway down, and theother came up as near as he could.
'Miller,' said the man, 'a letter has been lying at the post-office foryou for the last three days. If I had known that I should see ye hereI'd have brought it along with me.'
The miller thanked him for the news, and they parted, Loveday returningto the summit. 'What a very strange thing!' he said to Mrs. Garland, whohad looked inquiringly at his face, now very grave. 'That was Budmouthpostmaster, and he says there's a letter for me. Ah, I now call to mindthat there _was_ a letter in the candle three days ago this very night--alarge red one; but foolish-like I thought nothing o't. Who _can_ thatle
tter be from?'
A letter at this time was such an event for hamleteers, even of themiller's respectable standing, that Loveday thenceforward was thrown intoa fit of abstraction which prevented his seeing any more of the shamfight, or the people, or the King. Mrs. Garland imbibed some of hisconcern, and suggested that the letter might come from his son Robert.
'I should naturally have thought that,' said Miller Loveday; 'but hewrote to me only two months ago, and his brother John heard from himwithin the last four weeks, when he was just about starting on anothervoyage. If you'll pardon me, Mrs. Garland, ma'am, I'll see if there'sany Overcombe man here who is going to Budmouth to-day, so that I may getthe letter by night-time. I cannot possibly go myself.'
So Mr. Loveday left them for awhile; and as they were so near home Mrs.Garland did not wait on the barrow for him to come back, but walked aboutwith Anne a little time, until they should be disposed to trot down theslope to their own door. They listened to a man who was offering oneguinea to receive ten in case Buonaparte should be killed in threemonths, and to other entertainments of that nature, which at this timewere not rare. Once during their peregrination the eyes of the sailorbefore-mentioned fell upon Anne; but he glanced over her and passed herunheedingly by. Loveday the elder was at this time on the other side ofthe line, looking for a messenger to the town. At twelve o'clock thereview was over, and the King and his family left the hill. The troopsthen cleared off the field, the spectators followed, and by one o'clockthe downs were again bare.
They still spread their grassy surface to the sun as on that beautifulmorning not, historically speaking, so very long ago; but the King andhis fifteen thousand armed men, the horses, the bands of music, theprincesses, the cream-coloured teams--the gorgeous centre-piece, inshort, to which the downs were but the mere mount or margin--how entirelyhave they all passed and gone!--lying scattered about the world asmilitary and other dust, some at Talavera, Albuera, Salamanca, Vittoria,Toulouse, and Waterloo; some in home churchyards; and a few smallhandfuls in royal vaults.
In the afternoon John Loveday, lightened of his trumpet and trappings,appeared at the old mill-house door, and beheld Anne standing at hers.
'I saw you, Miss Garland,' said the soldier gaily.
'Where was I?' said she, smiling.
'On the top of the big mound--to the right of the King.'
'And I saw you; lots of times,' she rejoined.
Loveday seemed pleased. 'Did you really take the trouble to find me?That was very good of you.'
'Her eyes followed you everywhere,' said Mrs. Garland from an upperwindow.
'Of course I looked at the dragoons most,' said Anne, disconcerted. 'Andwhen I looked at them my eyes naturally fell upon the trumpets. I lookedat the dragoons generally, no more.'
She did not mean to show any vexation to the trumpet-major, but hefancied otherwise, and stood repressed. The situation was relieved bythe arrival of the miller, still looking serious.
'I am very much concerned, John; I did not go to the review for nothing.There's a letter a-waiting for me at Budmouth, and I must get it beforebedtime, or I shan't sleep a wink.'
'I'll go, of course,' said John; 'and perhaps Miss Garland would like tosee what's doing there to-day? Everybody is gone or going; the road islike a fair.'
He spoke pleadingly, but Anne was not won to assent.
'You can drive in the gig; 'twill do Blossom good,' said the miller.
'Let David drive Miss Garland,' said the trumpet-major, not wishing tocoerce her; 'I would just as soon walk.'
Anne joyfully welcomed this arrangement, and a time was fixed for thestart.