Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England
Sir LudarA Story of the Days of the Great Queen Bess
By Talbot Baines Reed________________________________________________________________________For regular readers of Reed's works this will be a surprise. Not amention of a school or its inhabitants! Set in the late sixteenthcentury and couched in slightly archaic English, it narrates theadventures of an apprentice to a printer. But this young lad getscaught up in all sorts of adventures, and is especially drawn to Ludar,a young Irish rebel.
There is a good deal of travelling by sea, and though this soundsconvincing as Reed writes it, there is not much depth in it. In otherwords you do not need a deep knowledge of rigging and seamanship tofollow what is happening, as you do with, for instance, the work ofW.H.G. Kingston.
There is a slightly dream-like feel about this book. We jump from onesituation to the next without, sometimes, being sure how we got there.
Try the book for yourself, and see what you think. NH.________________________________________________________________________SIR LUDARA STORY OF THE DAYS OF THE GREAT QUEEN BESS
BY TALBOT BAINES REED
A STORY OF THE DAYS OF THE GREAT QUEEN BESS.
CHAPTER ONE.
HOW I SAW MY QUEEN.
Every story, whether wise or foolish, grave or gay, must needs have abeginning. How it comes to pass that my story begins on a certain dayin May, in the year of our Lord 1585, I can never, although I am far onin life now, properly explain.
For that was not the day on which I was born. That adventure hadbefallen me eighteen years before, at the parson's little house inFelton Regis. Most people who write their histories have a pride indragging their readers back to the moment when they first hallooeddefiance to this wicked world; but I, since I have clean forgotten theevent, must e'en confess that my story does not begin there. A likeadventure chanced often at the parsonage, and, at nine years of age, Ireigned king absolute over a nursery full of her Majesty's subjects whocalled me brother, and quailed before my nod like Helots before thecrest of a Spartan. But, as I say, all that is neither here nor therein my story.
Nor, in truth, is that grey September day, when, on the tail of acountry hay-cart, I rode tremulously at my dear father's side intoLondon; where, with much pomp and taking of oaths, I was boundapprentice, body and soul, to Master Robert Walgrave, the printer, inthe presence of the worshipful Master, Wardens, and Assistants of theCompany of Stationers, who enriched themselves by 2 shillings 6 pence atmy father's cost, and looked upon me in a hungry way that made metremble in my bones, and long to be out of their sight before theyshould order the bill of fare for their next feast. That was a day inmy life truly, but it was ancient history when my story begins. I hadgrown a big lad since then, and was the king of Clubs without TempleBar, and the terror of all young 'prentices for a mile round, who lookedup with white cheeks when I swaggered by, and ran with their tailsbetween their legs to hide behind counters and doorposts till I was outof sight.
No; nor yet does my story begin even at that sad day--alack!--when Istood by my widowed mother at the open grave of him who had been thepillar of our house and the pride of our lives. "Humphrey, my boy," shehad said as she placed her hand on my arm and led me, like one in adream, from the place, "it is God who has taken--He will surely alsogive. Shall I count all lost, with a stalwart arm like this to leanupon?" Then she kissed me, and I, for very shame, dried my eyes andheld up my head. Ah me! that was but a year before; the world had stillmoved on, the grass covered his grave, and still my story lacked abeginning.
How comes it, then, that this day in May, of all others, should stand uplike a wall, as I look back over my life, and seem to me the beginningof all things? Perhaps this history may show--or, perhaps, he who readsit may come to see that I was right when I said I could not explain it.
It was a great day in London, within and without Temple Bar; and for me,if for no other reason, it was famous, because on that day, for thefirst and last time, I saw the great Queen Elizabeth. About eighto'clock, while I stood, as was my wont, setting types in my master'sshop, I looked from the window (as was also my wont), and spied twofalconers in their green coats, with a trumpeter riding in the midst,ambling citywards. In a moment I dropped my stick (and with it, alack!a pieful of my master's types), and was out, cap and club, in theStrand, shouting till I was hoarse, "God save her Majesty!"
On the instant, from every shop far and near, darted 'prentices andjourneymen, shouting and waving caps--some because they saw me do so,some because they guessed what was afoot, some because they saw, evennow, the flutter of approaching pennons, and caught the winding of theroyal huntsmen's horns along the Strand.
The Queen was coming!
I went mad that day with loyalty. I kicked my fellows for not shoutinglouder, and such as shouted not at all, I made to shout in a way theyleast expected. Through the open door of Master Straw's, thehorologer's, I spied his two 'prentices, deaf to all the clamour, baselygorging a hasty pudding behind the bench.
"What!" shouted I, bursting in upon them, and seizing each by hiscropped head, "what, ye gluttonous pair of porkers, is this the way youwelcome her Majesty into our duchy? Is this a time for greasy puddingand smacking of lips? Come outside and shout, or I'll brain you withyour own spoons."
Whereupon, forgetting what I did, I dipped the white face of each in hisown mess, and dragged them forth, where, to do them justice, theyshouted and howled as loud as any one.
And now the Strand overflowed from end to end with loyal citizens. Fromthe windows above, the faces of the city madams beamed, and the whitenecks of their daughters craned; while behind, with half an eye on usclubs below, peeped, on tiptoe, the maids. At each shop-door stood thegrave forms of our masters, thinking, perhaps, of a lost day's profits,and setting the cost thereof against the blessings of her Majesty'shappy reign. At the roadside, beggar, scholar, yokel, knight, and noblejostled in a motley throng. But the sight of all that crowd was the'prentices, who swarmed out into the road, and raised our shouts abovethe clanging of Saint Clement's bells and the trumpets of the Royalservants. 'Twas no pageant we had come out to see. Giants, and whales,and bottomless pits, and salvage men, and the like we could see to ourhearts' content on Lord Mayor's Day; and the gilded barges and smokingcannon on the river's side. But it was not every day her Majesty ambledthrough the city on her hunting horse, and passed our way with hergallants for a day's sport in Epping woods.
As for me, I had no eyes or throat for any but that queenly woman, asshe cantered boldly on her white palfrey, a pace or more ahead of herglittering courtiers. Had any one said to me that Elizabeth was thatday neither young nor lovely--had anyone even dared to whisper that shewas not divine--I would have brained him with my club where he stood.For a moment her head turned my way, she waved her hand--it had a littlewhip in it--and her lips moved to some words. Then as I rent the airwith a "God save your Majesty!" she was past.
At Temple Bar, the Lord Mayor and Sheriffs, arrayed for the hunt, withbuglers and dogs attending, stood across the way, and with mightyceremony and palaver admitted her to the City. Woe betide them, for alltheir gold collars and maces, had they kept her out!
But the halt, short as it was, served our purpose. For there was nomore going back to work on a day like this.
"To the front, clubs, and lead the way," shouted I, with what voice wasleft me.
It was enough for the lads without Temple Bar. They closed on me with acheer, and followed me at the run, past the gaping Court ushers, pastthe royal jockeys, past the Queen herself (Heaven bless her!) past LordMayor, Sheriffs, and yapping beagles, through the echoing gates ofTemple Bar, till we stood at the head of the procession, and longed,with a mighty longing, that someone might
dispute the way with us.
But we had no work for our clubs that morning. As we moved forward, ourbody, like a growing snowball, was swelled by the 'prentices of eachward, shouting as lustily as we, "Make way!" and hurling defiance, likeus, on all the Queen's foes by land and by sea. Even the gay sparks ofthe Temple gave us no handle for a sally, for they shouted with the bestof us.
And so, down Fleet Street and in at the Ludgate, past the square towerof Saint Paul's, and along merry Cheap, we passed; our numbers swellingat every step, till it seemed as if all London was out escorting herMajesty through the city. As you passed below Bow Church you couldscarcely hear the clanging of the bells for the shouting of the people.
At the New Exchange there was like to be a battle at last. For the'prentices, of the Bridge had heard the uproar from afar, and swarmeddown upon us in a flood, so that had we not held our own stoutly, weshould have been driven back upon the royal huntress herself.
"Stand, if you be men, and fall in after us!" I shouted.
"Ho! ho!" answered they; "since when was the printer's devil outside theBar made mayor of our town? Follow you us."
It was not a time for bandying words. From behind us came a shout,"Pass on, pass on; room for the Queen!" And at the word we chargedforward, shoulder to shoulder, and brushed those unmannerly mercers andbarber-surgeons aside as a torrent the nettles that grow on its bank.Let them follow as they list. The Queen went hunting to-day, and wasnot to be kept standing for a score of London Bridges, if we knew it.
After that we passed shouting up the Cornhill, and so on to the Bishop'sGate, where at length we halted and made a lane in our midst for herMajesty to ride through.
Never, I think, did monarch ride down a prouder road than that, walledfour-deep for the length of two furlongs by youths who would fain havespilt their blood twice over to do her service, and who, since that wasdenied them, flung their shouts to heaven as she passed, and waved theircaps club-high. I think, in truth, she needed no telling what kind ofroad it was, for as she cantered by her face was flushed and joyous, herhead was erect, and the hand she waved clenched on the little whip, asthough she grasped her people's hand. Then in a moment she was gone.
Thus for the first and only time did I set eyes on the great maidenQueen; and when all was over, and the clattering hoofs and yelpinghounds and winding horns were lost in the distance, I came to myself andfound I was both hungry and athirst.
The crowd melted away. Some returned the way they had come: some slunkback to their deserted shops: I to Finsbury Fields. For I accounted ita crime that day to work--I would as soon have set up types on LordMayor's Day. This day belonged to her Majesty, and I would e'en spendit in her service, wrestling and leaping in the meadows, and training mybody to deeds of valour against her foes.
So I called on my clubs to follow me, and they came, and many besides;for those who might not see the Queen hunt might see her loyal citizensjump; and on a day like this it was odds if the nimblest 'prentices inall London were not there to make good sport.
Therefore we straggled in a long crowd to Moorgate--man and maid, nobleand 'prentice, alderman and oyster-woman, jesting and scolding as wejostled one another in the narrow way, and rejoicing when at length webroke free into the pleasant meadows and smelt the sweetness of theearly hay.
Already I spied sport, for there before us swaggered the mercers''prentices of London Bridge, ready to settle scores for the affront theyhad received at the New Exchange.
"Ho! ho!" quoth I, with vast content, "'tis time we had dinner, my lads,if it comes to that."
So we besieged the booths, and fortified ourselves with beef and ale,and felt ready for anything that might happen.
'Twas no battle after all; for, as ill-luck would have it, just as wefaced them and bade them come on, the alderman of the Bridge Ward rodeup.
"What! a shame on you to mar a day like this with your boyish wrangles!Is there no wrestling-ring, or shooting-butts, or leaping-fence whereyou can vent your rivalry, without flying at one another's throats likecurs? Call you that loyalty? Have we no enemies better worth ourmettle than fellow-Englishmen?"
This speech abashed us a little, and the captain of the Bridge'prentices said, sulkily:
"I care not to break their heads, worship; there's little to be got outof that. Come, lads, we can find better sport in the juggler's booth."
"His worship came in a good hour for you," cried we. "Thank him you canslink away on your own legs this time, and need no one to drag you feetforemost off the Fields."
"Come, come," said the good alderman, "away with such foolish talk.Let's see a match struck up. I myself will give a new long-bow and asheaf of arrows to the best jumper of you all. What say you? Thehighest leap and the broadest? Ho, there!" added he, calling a servantto him; "bid them clear a space for a match 'twixt the gallant'prentices of the Bridge and the gallant 'prentices without Temple Bar.Come, boys; were I forty years younger I'd put you to it to distance me.But my jumping days are gone by, and I am but a judge."
Then we gave him a cheer, the bluff old boy; and, forgetting all ourquarrel in the thought of the long-bow and arrows, we trooped at hishorse's tail to the open space, and doffed our coats in readiness forthe contest.
A great crowd stood round to see us jump. The scene remains in mymind's eye even now. 'Prentices, bare-headed, squatted cross-legged onthe grass, bandying their noisy jests, and finding a laugh for everybodyand everything. Behind them stood a motley throng of sightseers, men,women, and children, for the most part citizens, but interspersed hereand there with gay groups of gentlefolk, and even some who wore thebright trappings of the Court. Behind them the beggars and pickpocketsplied their arduous calling; and in the rear of all, at a littledistance, wandered the horses of the gentles, cropping the fresh grass,with no eye to the achievements of Temple Bar or London Bridge. Beyondthem soared the windmills and the hills of Isledon and Hoxton.
It was a scene familiar to me, for I had often taken it in before; andyet for a while to-day it seemed new, and my eye, as I waited at thepost, wandered here and there to detect what it could be which made allseem so strange. After a while I discovered that, wherever else theyroamed, my glances returned always to one bright spot, close by wherestood a maiden.
It seemed to me I had never known what beauty meant till I looked onher. She was tall, and dressed more simply than many a citizen's wife,and yet her air was that of a goddess. Every movement of her head borethe signs of queenliness; and yet in every feature of her face lurked asweetness irresistible. At first sight, as you saw her, tall, erect,with her short clustering hair and fearless eyes of blue, you would havebeen tempted to suppose her a boy in disguise. Yet if you looked amoment longer, the woman in her shone out in every step and gesture.Her cheeks glowed with health and maidenly modesty; and her eyes, thatflashed on you one moment almost defiantly, dropped the next in coynessand delicious confusion.
She stood there, conspicuous and radiant amid the jostling crowd, yetwholly heedless of the glances and whispers and perplexity she drewforth. As for me, I scarcely knew where I was, and when the aldermancried, "Make ready, now," I obeyed him as a man in a dream.
But I recovered myself of a sudden when presently I saw the captain ofthe Bridge 'prentices, who was a shorter man than I, leap over the baras high as his own shoulders, and heard the triumphal shouts of hisfellows. After him, one by one, came the picked men of either side, butat each leap the bar sprung into the air, and the champions retiredworsted from the contest.
Then came my turn. I dared to dart a hurried glance where stood theonly onlooker whose applause I coveted. And she turned her head towardsme.
So I took my run and cleared the bar.
"A match! a match!" cried the crowd, closing in a step; "a match betweenWill Peake and Humphrey Dexter."
"And take my sword and cloak," shouted a Bridge boy, who owned neither,"if Will Peake do not over-jump the printer's devil's head."
This made me
angry. Not that I cared for the gibe; but because Idisliked that one there should hear me called by so graceless a name.
Well, we jumped once more; but this time I dared not look anywhere, butstraight before me. Yet I cleared the bar.
Whereupon the Bridge boys vaunted themselves more soberly, and he whohad offered his cloak and sword now offered only his belt.
"Set the bar two points higher," I cried, "and clear me that, WillPeake, if you can."
At that our lads rent the air with shouts, and Will Peake pulled a longface. For the bar now stood level with his eyes, though it only reachedmy chin.
It fell out as I hoped. He jumped, and the bar sprang six yards intothe air as he missed it.
Then our 'prentices made up for the silence of those of the Bridge; andthis time the gamester offered not so much as a shoe lace.
For all that, I must clear the bar, if I was to make good my challenge;and I drew a long breath as I stood a moment and glanced round.
Yes. Her eyes of blue were on me, her lips were the least bit parted,and a glow of expectation was in her cheeks.
So I took my run and cleared the bar, with an inch to spare.
Then, as I heard nothing of the shouts which yet deafened me, and durstnot so much as raise my eyes, the cheery alderman's voice cried:
"So Master Dexter hath won the high jump. See if he also win the broad.Clear away there, and stand back, good people, to give our brave ladsfair play."
When I took courage at last to look up, I saw a sight which made theblood in my veins tingle.
She stood still where she was; but next to her had squeezed himself asmirking gallant, bravely bedizened, who looked round impudently intoher face, and whispered something in her ear.
To me it seemed as if at first she was heedless of his presence, then,hearing him, she turned upon him a startled gaze, and, flushing angrily,moved a scornful pace away.
This I saw, while the alderman was saying--
"The first leap is yours, Master Dexter. See you set us a good lead."
I leapt, scarcely thinking what I did, and leapt badly; for though oneby one the others failed to reach it, Will Peake reached it, and lit inmy very footprints.
"A match again!" cried everyone, "and a close match, too!"
The gallant had made up to her again, and was tormenting her sweet earonce more with his whispers. She stood rigid like a statue with hereyes before her, showing only by the heaving of her bosom that she wasaware of his unwelcome presence.
"You keep us waiting, lad," cried the alderman. "Jump, unless you meanto yield the victory to your adversary."
I jumped, listlessly again, and again alighted within an inch of myformer distance. And once again, Will Peake landed in my very hoof-marks.
"A mortal match!" cried the crowd.
"One leap more," said the alderman, "and if that does not decide--"
He was there still, and, worse than before, had caught the little handthat hung at her side in his. The colour had gone from her face. I sawthat she bit her lips, and for one moment her eyes looked up appealinglyand, so it seemed to me, met mine.
Then with my heart swelling big within me, I walked to the starting-point, and ran for my last leap.
It was with all my might that I jumped now, and I cleared two good feetbeyond my former distance; so that the onlookers could scarcely shoutfor amazement.
But I waited neither for their shouts nor for Will's jump, for I knew hecould not reach me. With beating heart, and fingers digging into thepalms of my hands, I walked straight to where she stood, pale andtrembling. Her right hand was still his prisoner, and his cursed lipswere still at her ear. But not for long.
Before he was aware, I had seized him with a grip which made him howl;and next moment he was reeling and staggering a dozen yards away in themidst of the enclosure. It all happened so quickly that even she seemedscarcely to know of her deliverance, till she saw him draw his sword andlook round for me.
Then, to draw the combat away from her, I went on to meet him with myclub; and before his first onset was done, his sword flew over his headin two pieces. It was an old trick, and cost nothing to a 'prenticeoutside Temple Bar. And while he looked round, bewildered, after hisweapon, I took him by the nape of his neck and the cloth of hisbreeches, and walked with him to the pond hard by, where I left him, andso was well rid of him.
By this time the Fields were in an uproar. So intent had all been onthe leaping, to see if Will Peake would equal my jump (which, Heavenhelp him! he could not do), that the gallant was swinging over the pondbefore anyone understood what was afoot. Then they broke up the ringand closed in on us, so that I, having dropped my burden amidst theduck-weed, was fain to lose myself among the crowd and give one and allthe slip.
I thought I had done so, for while all stood gaping and jeering as theyfished out the sputtering hero from his pea-green bath, I sauntered backunheeded to the place where last I had seen her for whose sake all thepother arose. At first I feared she had fled, but on looking I spiedher in company with an elderly woman, who soothed and chid her in turn,and began to hurry her from the place.
But when she saw me, she brushed the old servant aside, and with a blushbeckoned me to her. Shall I ever forget the vision of her, as she stoodthere, stately and beautiful, with hand outstretched, smiling on me withmingled pity for my shyness and gratitude for my service?
"My brave friend," said she, and her voice fell like music on my ears,"I have nothing but my poor thanks to give thee, but they are thine."
The crimson now came to my cheeks, for it hurt me to hear her talk ofpayment.
"I would gladly do it all again," said I.
"Nay," she laughed, "once is enough surely, at least for me."
Then I wished the ground might swallow me, for I deemed she thought me afool.
"She would come," put in the old servant in an accent which, though Ihad never heard it before, I took to be Scotch or Irish; "I told hermyself what to expect among a crowd of rude, rascally City sparks, thatdon't know a lady when they see her, and when they do, don't know how tobehave themselves. It serves her right, say I, and it's myself will seeshe frolics no more, I warrant you--a low, unmannerly pack of curs, witha plague on all of you."
"Never heed my old nurse," said the young lady, sweetly; "she and I wereparted in the crowd, and but for you, brave lad, I might have rued myfolly in coming hither more than I do. Thanks once more, and farewell.Come, Judy--thank good Master Dexter for taking better care of me thanever you did, and then come away."
I stood like a mule gaping after them as they went, unable to stir orsay a word till they were lost to view. Then as I turned came a shoutat my ears: "There he stands!--there stands the villain! Seize him andhold him fast. He shall learn what it is to assault a captain of theQueen's guard."
Ho! ho! There were a round dozen of them, and one on horseback. But Iknew of two dozen better than they within call.
So I shouted, "Clubs, clubs, to the rescue!" and began to lay about me.