CHAPTER IX.
HIS EXCELLENCY'S JUDGMENT.
If Duke Hamilton had suddenly appeared in the room and surrenderedhimself without terms--a thing beyond doubt unlikely to happen as longas that gallant gentleman had thirty thousand men at his back--thosepresent could scarcely have looked more astonished. Not that they, orthe majority of them at all events, doubted the existence ofwitchcraft. On the contrary; but anything less like the common idea ofa witch than this helpless child it would have been difficult toconceive. Respect for their chief did indeed silence the laughterwhich the man's answer would otherwise have caused, but it could notstill the murmur of amazement and ridicule, or the hum of indignationwhich rose to their lips.
"The man is mad!" cried one by the door, a person privileged.
"Silence!" Cromwell answered sharply. "And do you, sirrah," hecontinued to Simon, "explain yourself at once, or I will find means tolash sense into you. What has the boy done?"
Before Simon could answer Luke interposed. The enthusiast couldrestrain himself no longer.
"What has he done?" he cried. "He has sold himself to do evil andstint not. Why do our horses fail and the wheels of our chariots driveheavily, so that the work is not done, nor the task accomplished?Because of the learning of the Egyptians which he has learned, andbecause of the witchcraft of Jezebel which he has practised, that thepeople may remain in bondage and our leader fall and rise not. Bewarned, O Joshua, and hear reason, O deliverer! It rains, and willrain in the land until----"
"Tie up the knave's mouth, some one!" thundered Cromwell. "And doyou," he continued, addressing Simon, "who seem to have some wit inyour madness, answer me briefly, what has the child done?"
But Simon's answer was destined to be again interrupted; this time bythe arrival of the officer in charge of the prisoners, who came in tolearn whether the General would examine them in the house. Cromwellgave the order, and the men, two in number, were accordingly broughtin and made to stand by the door. This caused a momentary delay andcommotion; but, so great was the interest taken in the child, who hadbeen by this time raised from the floor and relieved of his bonds,that scarcely any one turned to notice them. The moment the stirceased, the General nodded to Simon.
"The boy has a spell," Gridley answered, getting speech at last. "Hehas a charm, and when he rubs it, it rains. He brought the rainyesterday, and brought it again to-day."
"Tush, man!" Cromwell said contemptuously. "You play with me."
"You do not believe me?"
"No, in faith I do not," the General answered darkly.
"Then here is the proof!" the fanatic cried, in a voice of triumph.And he pointed to the wooden cross which lay on the table. "There isthe charm! There, look at it, touch it, handle it; tell me what it is,if you can!"
"A child's toy," Cromwell answered scornfully, as he stepped forwardand without hesitation took up the implement. "Well, man, I see it,"he continued, turning it over in his hand. "What of it? Be brief withyour madness, for I have larger fish to fry to-day. Be brief, I say."
"I will," the Puritan answered, undaunted. And therewith, beginningwith the story of the strange evasion from the closet, he told thetale, so far as he knew it, of Jack's mysterious proceedings andpowers. For a while, Cromwell listened or appeared to listen with halfan ear only, his attention divided between the speaker and a map whichthe obsequious Pownall had placed on the table. But when Simon came tothe boy's singular proceedings on the hillock above the road, anddescribed, with some advantages which his imagination lent thenarrative, the manner of the boy's behavior while the army passedbelow him, Cromwell's attitude underwent a sudden change. He closedthe map with a quick gesture, and for a moment gazed full at the manfrom under his bushy eyebrows.
"Umph! And so you think that caused the storm, Master Numskull?" herapped out, when Simon had come to an end. "Where is this cross?"
It had been passed from hand to hand, but was at once brought back tohim. "Here, Hodgson," he said sharply; "what do you make of it?"
The officer to whom he appealed turned the thing over and over in hishands, but could make nothing of it. Cromwell watched him with asparkle in his eye, and at length snatched it from him. "Chut!"he said--but although he scolded, it was evident he was wellpleased--"you are as big a fool as Master Numskull there! Didst neversee a tally, man?"
"A tally, your excellency?"
"Ay, a tally, a tally, a tally!" replied his excellency, impatiently."A thing, I tell thee, that was known in this England of ours, and inthe exchequer, when rogues were fewer and thy ancestors were hungwithout benefit of clergy! This is a tally if ever I saw one. To takean honest tally for a witch's broomstick? But softly! Said I an_honest_ tally?" he continued, looking suddenly about him, while hisvoice grew hard and stern. "Pownall! count those notches."
The officer obeyed. "There are twenty-three, your excellency," hesaid, when he had accomplished the task.
"And how many troops of horse have gone by to-day?"
"Twenty-three, your excellency," was the answer, given with militarybrevity.
A murmur of intelligence passed round the circle of officers. The clueonce found by Cromwell's sharp eye and strong common sense, the secretbecame an open one, patent to the dullest intellect. When furtherexamination showed that the number of notches on the other arm of thecross corresponded with the number of foot regiments which had passedthat morning, even Simon Gridley began to understand that here was noquestion of the supernatural, but of some human agency equally hostileto the good cause. Only Luke Gridley remained unconvinced. "Bolts andbars could not hold him," he murmured, "nor----"
"We will come to that by-and-by," Cromwell answered. "Let the boystand forward. Where is he?"
Some one thrust Jack forward into the middle of the room, where hestood exposed to the full brunt of Cromwell's formidable gaze. Theshock through which the child had passed had left him dazed and weak;his color came and went, his legs faltered under him, and he trembledperceptibly. But his heart was stout, and his breeding stood him ingood stead at this crisis. Barely understanding what had passed, orthe steps by which his plan had been discovered, on one point he wasstill clear, steadfast, and resolute: and that was, that come whatmight, he would not betray his brother!
But for the moment Cromwell said nothing about that. The question heput to him took all present by surprise. "Who let you out of thecloset, my lad?" he said, in a tone of rough good-nature.
"A man," the boy muttered, with dry lips.
"Was it one of the men in the house? No? Then how did the man get intothe house? Tell us that."
Jack looked about him like a trapped animal. He did not know whichquestions he ought to answer and which he ought to refuse to answer.Confused and terrified by the gaze of so many men and the possessionof a secret, aware only that he must keep back his brother's name andhiding-place, the instinct of a drowning man led him to give up allelse. After a moment's hesitation he muttered: "His wife," pointing toSimon, "went out in the middle of the night. She left the door open,and the man came in."
"Very good," Cromwell answered. "That is clear and explicit. And now,my man," he continued, turning suddenly upon Simon, who stood silentand confounded, "what do you say? More seems to go on in your housethan you wot of. Let the woman stand out."
Gridley the butler, sitting doubled up on the meal chest, where hisbrothers figure sheltered him, almost fell forward with terror. He sawhis crime on the point of being discovered, and all his craven soulwas in alarm. Were attention once drawn to him, were he oncechallenged and bade to stand forth, he knew that no power could savehim. In the absence of evidence he would infallibly betray himself.The dreadful tremors, the sickening apprehension, which he had feltduring the first part of his flight from Pattenhall, when he had thedamning evidences of his crime upon him, returned upon him now, andbitterly, most bitterly, did he regret that he had ever given way totemptation.
He came near to swooning when he heard the
woman called out, for hethought it a hundred chances to one that she would falter, and in amoment weave a rope for his neck. The sweat ran down his face as hestrained his ears to catch--he dared not look--the first syllable ofaccusation.
But Mistress Gridley, though she had had scant notice of the occasion,was of a harder kind. Relieved of ghostly fears, her mind quicklyregained its balance, and instinctively took refuge in the falsenesswhich had become second nature. Her shrewdish face wore a flush as shecame forward, and there was a flicker of secret fear in her eye. Butthe tone in which she denied that she had ever left her house on thenight in question was even and composed, and "As for a man," she addedscornfully, "what man is there within three miles of us?"
"The man who taught this lad to spy!" Cromwell retorted, swiftly andseverely. "That man, woman! Do you know him?"
She could say No to that with a good conscience, and she did so.
Cromwell signed to her stand back. "Very well," he said, "then the boyshall tell us." He turned to Jack, and after glaring at him for amoment, cried in a loud voice: "Hark ye, sirrah! who gave you thiscross? What is his name, and where is he?"
That voice, at which so many men had trembled and were to tremble,made the very marrow in Jack's bones quiver. That fierce red face withits fiery eyes seemed to grow before Jack's gaze until the child sawnothing else save that and a dancing haze which framed it. "Hark ye,sirrah!" He heard the words repeated again and again, and his soulmelted within him for fear. But he remained dumb.
"Come!" Cromwell said grimly when he had thrice bidden him to speak invain. "This is what I expected. But I will find a means to open yourlips. Pownall, bid one of the guard bring a rope!"
A movement in the room seemed to indicate that the order causedemotion of some kind, and Captain Hodgson, a bluff North-countryman,high in the General's favor, stepped forward as if to interpose. Butapparently he thought better of it, and in a moment a rope wasbrought. "Now," Cromwell thundered, "will you speak?"
But Jack, whose white face and straining eyes, as he stood alone inthe middle of the kitchen, a child among men, were pitiful to behold,remained silent. Only one idea, and that was rather an instinct than aconscious determination, remained with him--to shelter Frank.
"Tie him up!" said Cromwell, in a hard voice. "Sergeant," hecontinued, "take two files and the boy outside, and if he does notspeak in five minutes, string him up." No one spoke or interposed, andthe child, half led and half carried by the burly sergeant, had almostreached the threshold, when a voice close by exclaimed suddenly:"Enough, you cowards! Shame on you! Let the child go!"
"Who spoke?" Cromwell cried, wheeling round from the map he wasscanning.
"The man you want!" was the reckless answer. "Take him, and let thechild go!"
There was a brief commotion at the door, which ended in one of theprisoners being thrust forward until he stood face to face with theGeneral. "So, so!" said Cromwell, eyeing him with a frown. "Who areyou?"
"I have told you!" the man answered flippantly, though theperspiration stood in beads on his brow, and behind that brave facewhich he showed the crowd was a human soul sick with fear of thatwhich all men fear. "I am the man you want. The boy is my brother, andI told him what to do. He is a mere baby."
For the speaker was Frank Patten. There was a stir among the officersround the door, but Cromwell remained unmoved. "Where was this fellowtaken?" he asked, looking him over critically.
"Between here and Settle, your excellency," Hodgson answered. "Thescoutmaster found him loitering on the road and seized him onsuspicion."
"He is a zealous man," Cromwell answered. "Let a note of it be made,Pownall. For you, fellow," he continued, addressing the prisoner, "saywhat you have to say. Your time is short."
"I have only one thing to say," the young man answered coldly--and fewamong the many who admired his self-control marked the tiny pulsebeating madly in his cheek. "There is some gold plate hidden hard by.My brother knows where it is. It was stolen by that craven houndyonder, and buried by night by that lying shrew there. Perhaps the manwho recovers it will have a care of the child until something fall outfor him. That is all."
"Wait!" said Cromwell. "Let that man stand out. Is this the man?"
But Gridley the butler saved Frank the trouble of answering. With amoan of terror he flung himself on his knees on the floor, and withtears flowing down his pale, fat face, uttered such abject entreatiesfor mercy as shamed the very men who heard them. Punishment had indeedfallen on the wretched creature, for while he lay there, now excusinghimself and now accusing the woman--who stood by, dark andunrepentant, her face full of impotent spite--he tasted the bitternessof death a dozen times over.
"Faugh!" Cromwell exclaimed at last, spurning him from him with hisbooted foot; "take him away. Let him run the gauntlet of whateverregiment is first in quarters to-night! And see they lay on roundly,Hodgson. For this lying woman, your wife, man----"
"She is no longer wife of mine!" the Puritan answered, so grimly thatmore than one shuddered. "She shall cross my threshold once, and neveragain. She has sinned; let her starve."
General Cromwell shrugged his shoulders and stood a moment in thought.Then he turned to Patten. "For you," he said harshly, "you are asoldier, and know your sentence. You can have an hour's grace.Sergeant Joyce, retain four files, and see the sentence carried out.Or stay, I will reduce it to writing. The boy may be with him."
The voices of the General's staff, as they mounted and rode brisklyaway at his heels, had long died away, and only the sobbing of thechild as he lay in Frank's arms broke the silence of the ill-fatedhouse. The guards left in charge, grave stalwart men, not withoutbowels of compassion, had retired outside the door and left the two topass these last moments together; with an intimation that when thehour was up they would call their prisoner. All things, even the rayof golden light which presently pierced the window, as if to warnFrank to look his last on the sun, combined to heighten the stillnessand peace, if not the solemn resignation, of this last hour. But alas,the approach of death withers life itself. The young man's bloodcurdled and stood at the thought of it, so that at last the momentsslowly passing in that silence grew intolerable. An hour? It seemed tohim that he had sat with the child in his arms for thrice that time.When would they come?
He grew so desperate at last that he set the boy down, and with aparting passionate embrace hurried to the door; the sooner it was overnow, the better. Desperately he opened the door and stepped out intothe daylight.
For a moment after he had done so he stood confounded, staring abouthim with wild eyes. Before him lay the moorland, half in sunshine,half in shadow. Above him the clouds had parted, and the infiniteexpanse of heaven lay open to his view. But nowhere was a livingcreature in sight. The troop-horses, whose bits he had heard jinglinga few minutes before, were gone; the troopers had melted into thinair!
He bent his head and peered at it.--Page 190.]
He clapped his hand to his forehead, and stood awhile battling tocontrol himself. Was this a trick? If not--and then his eye,travelling dizzily round, lit on a piece of paper which some one hadnailed to the outside of the door with a knife. He bent his head, andpeered at it, and read:
"_To Sergeant Joyce.--Half an hour after my departure you will let theprisoner, Francis Patten, go free. And this shall be your authority_.
"_Oliver Cromwell, Lieutenant-General_."
THE END.
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