Chapter XXX. Of the Swordsman with the Brown Jacket
The sergeant, who was a great raw-boned west-countryman, pushed the gateopen, and we were advancing up the winding pathway, when a stream ofyellow light flooded out from a suddenly opened door, and we saw a darksquat figure dart through it into the inside of the house. At the samemoment there rose up a babel of sounds, followed by two pistol shots,and a roaring, gasping hubbub, with clash of swords and storm of oaths.At this sudden uproar we all three ran at our topmost speed up thepathway and peered in through the open door, where we saw a scene suchas I shall never forget while this old memory of mine can conjure up anypicture of the past.
The room was large and lofty, with long rows of hams and salted meatsdangling from the smoke-browned rafters, as is usual in Somersetshirefarmhouses. A high black clock ticked in a corner, and a rude table,with plates and dishes laid out as for a meal, stood in the centre.Right in front of the door a great fire of wood faggots was blazing, andbefore this, to our unutterable horror, there hung a man head downwards,suspended by a rope which was knotted round his ankles, and which,passing over a hook in a beam, had been made fast to a ring in thefloor. The struggles of this unhappy man had caused the rope to whirlround, so that he was spinning in front of the blaze like a jointof meat. Across the threshold lay a woman, the one whose cries hadattracted us, but her rigid face and twisted body showed that ouraid had come too late to save her from the fate which she had seenimpending. Close by her two swarthy dragoons in the glaring red coats ofthe Royal army lay stretched across each other upon the floor, dark andscowling even in death. In the centre of the room two other dragoonswere cutting and stabbing with their broad-swords at a thick, short,heavy-shouldered man, clad in coarse brown kersey stuff, who sprangabout among the chairs and round the table with a long basket-hiltedrapier in his hand, parrying or dodging their blows with wonderfuladroitness, and every now and then putting in a thrust in return.Hard pressed as he was, his set resolute face, firm mouth, and brightwell-opened eyes spoke of a bold spirit within, while the blood whichdripped from the sleeve of one of his opponents proved that the contestwas not so unequal as it might appear. Even as we gazed he sprang backto avoid a fierce rush of the furious soldiers, and by a quick sharpside stroke he severed the rope by which the victim was hung. The bodyfell with a heavy thud upon the brick floor, while the little swordsmandanced off in a moment into another quarter of the room, still stoppingor avoiding with the utmost ease and skill the shower of blows whichrained upon him.
This strange scene held us spell-bound for a few seconds, but there wasno time for delay, for a slip or trip would prove fatal to the gallantstranger. Rushing into the chamber, sword in hand, we fell upon thedragoons, who, outnumbered as they were, backed into a corner and struckout fiercely, knowing that they need expect no mercy after the devil'swork in which they had been engaged. Holloway, our sergeant of horse,springing furiously in, laid himself open to a thrust which stretchedhim dead upon the ground. Before the dragoon could disengage his weapon,Sir Gervas cut him down, while at the same moment the stranger got pastthe guard of his antagonist, and wounded him mortally in the throat.Of the four red-coats not one escaped alive, while the bodies of oursergeant and of the old couple who had been the first victims increasedthe horror of the scene.
'Poor Holloway is gone,' said I, placing my hand over his heart. 'Whoever saw such a shambles? I feel sick and ill.'
'Here is eau-de-vie, if I mistake not,' cried the stranger, clamberingup on a chair and reaching a bottle from the shelf. 'Good, too, by thesmell. Take a sup, for you are as white as a new-bleached sheet.'
'Honest warfare I can abide, but scenes like this make my blood runcold,' I answered, taking a gulp from the flask. I was a very youngsoldier then, my dears, but I confess that to the end of my campaignsany form of cruelty had the same effect upon me. I give you my word thatwhen I went to London last fall the sight of an overworked, raw-backedcart-horse straining with its load, and flogged for not doing that whichit could not do, gave me greater qualms than did the field of Sedgemoor,or that greater day when ten thousand of the flower of France laystretched before the earthworks of Landen.
'The woman is dead,' said Sir Gervas, 'and the man is also, I fear, pastrecovery. He is not burned, but suffers, I should judge, poor devil!from the rush of blood to the head.'
'If that be all it may well be cured, 'remarked the stranger; and takinga small knife from his pocket, he rolled up the old man's sleeve andopened one of his veins. At first only a few sluggish black drops oozedfrom the wound, but presently the blood began to flow more freely, andthe injured man showed signs of returning sense.
'He will live,' said the little swordsman, putting his lancet back inhis pocket. 'And now, who may you be to whom I owe this interferencewhich shortened the affair, though mayhap the result would have been thesame had you left us to settle it amongst ourselves?'
'We are from Monmouth's army,' I answered. 'He lies at Bridgewater, andwe are scouting and seeking supplies.'
'And who are you?' asked Sir Gervas. 'And how came you into thisruffle? S'bud, you are a game little rooster to fight four such greatcockerels!'
'My name is Hector Marot,' the man answered, cleaning out his emptypistols and very carefully reloading them. 'As to who I am, it is amatter of small moment. Suffice it that I have helped to lessen Kirk'shorse by four of his rogues. Mark their faces, so dusky and sun-driedeven in death. These men have learned warfare fighting against theheathen in Africa, and now they practise on poor harmless English folkthe devil's tricks which they have picked up amongst the savages. TheLord help Monmouth's men should they be beaten! These vermin are more tobe feared than hangman's cord or headsman's axe.'
'But how did you chance upon the spot at the very nick of time?' Iasked.
'Why, marry, I was jogging down the road on my mare when I heard theclatter of hoofs behind me, and concealing myself in a field, as aprudent man would while the country is in its present state, I saw thesefour rogues gallop past. They made their way up to the farmhousehere, and presently from cries and other tokens I knew what manner ofhell-fire business they had on hand. On that I left my mare in the fieldand ran up, when I saw them through the casement, tricing the good manup in front of his fire to make him confess where his wealth lay hidden,though indeed it is my own belief that neither he nor any other farmerin these parts hath any wealth left to hide, after two armies have beenquartered in turn upon them. Finding that his mouth remained closed,they ran him up, as you saw, and would assuredly have toasted him like asnipe, had I not stepped in and winged two of them with my barkers. Theothers set upon me, but I pinked one through the forearm, and shoulddoubtless have given a good account of both of them but for yourincoming.'
'Right gallantly done!' I exclaimed. 'But where have I heard your namebefore, Mr. Hector Marot?'
'Nay,' he answered, with a sharp, sidelong look, 'I cannot tell that.'
'It is familiar to mine ear,' said I.
He shrugged his broad shoulders, and continued to look to the primingof his pistols, with a half-defiant and half-uneasy expression. He wasa very sturdy, deep-chested man, with a stern, square-jawed face, and awhite seam across his bronzed forehead as from a slash with a knife. Hewore a gold-edged riding-cap, a jacket of brown sad-coloured stuff muchstained by the weather, a pair of high rusty jack-boots, and a smallbob-wig.
Sir Gervas, who had been staring very hard at the man, suddenly gave astart, and slapped his hand against his leg.
'Of course!' he cried. 'Sink me, if I could remember where I had seenyour face, but now it comes back to me very clearly.'
The man glanced doggedly from under his bent brows at each of usin turn. 'It seems that I have fallen among acquaintances,' he saidgruffly; 'yet I have no memory of ye. Methinks, young sirs, that yourfancy doth play ye false.'
'Not a whit,' the Baronet answered quietly, and, bending forward, hewhispered a few words into the man's ear, which caused him to springfrom his seat and take a c
ouple of quick strides forward, as though toescape from the house.
'Nay, nay!' cried Sir Gervas, springing between him and the door, 'youshall not run away from us. Pshaw, man! never lay your hand upon yoursword. We have had bloody work enough for one night. Besides, we wouldnot harm you.'
'What mean ye, then? What would ye have?' he asked, glancing about likesome fierce wild beast in a trap.
'I have a most kindly feeling to you, man, after this night's work,'cried Sir Gervas. 'What is it to me how ye pick up a living, as long asyou are a true man at heart? Let me perish if I ever forget a face whichI have once seen, and your bonne mine, with the trade-mark upon yourforehead, is especially hard to overlook.'
'Suppose I be the same? What then?' the man asked sullenly.
'There is no suppose in the matter. I could swear to you. But I wouldnot, lad--not if I caught you red-handed. You must know, Clarke, sincethere is none to overhear us, that in the old days I was a Justice ofthe Peace in Surrey, and that our friend here was brought up before meon a charge of riding somewhat late o' night, and of being plaguey shortwith travellers. You will understand me. He was referred to assizes, butgot away in the meanwhile, and so saved his neck. Right glad I am ofit, for you will agree with me that he is too proper a man to give atight-rope dance at Tyburn.'
'And I remember well now where I have heard your name,' said I. 'Wereyou not a captive in the Duke of Beaufort's prison at Badminton, and didyou not succeed in escaping from the old Boteler dungeon?'
'Nay, gentlemen,' he replied, seating himself on the edge of the table,and carelessly swinging his legs, 'since ye know so much it would befolly for me to attempt to deceive ye. I am indeed the same Hector Marotwho hath made his name a terror on the great Western road, and who hathseen the inside of more prisons than any man in the south. With truth,however, I can say that though I have been ten years upon the roads, Ihave never yet taken a groat from the poor, or injured any man who didnot wish to injure me. On the contrary, I have often risked life andlimb to save those who were in trouble.'
'We can bear you out in that,' I answered, 'for if these four red-coatdevils have paid the price of their crimes, it is your doing rather thanours.'
'Nay, I can take little credit for that,' our new acquaintance answered.'Indeed, I had other scores to settle with Colonel Kirke's horse, andwas but too glad to have this breather with them.'
Whilst we were talking the men whom we had left with the horses had comeup, together with some of the neighbouring farmers and cottagers, whowere aghast at the scene of slaughter, and much troubled in their mindsover the vengeance which might be exacted by the Royal troops next day.
'For Christ's zake, zur,' cried one of them, an old ruddy-facedcountryman, 'move the bodies o' these soldier rogues into the road, andlet it zeem as how they have perished in a chance fight wi' your owntroopers loike. Should it be known as they have met their end withina varmhouse, there will not be a thatch left unlighted over t' wholecountry side; as it is, us can scarce keep these murthering Tangiersdevils from oor throats.'
'His request is in reason,' said the highwayman bluntly. 'We have noright to have our fun, and then go our way leaving others to pay thescore.'
'Well, hark ye,' said Sir Gervas, turning to the group of frightenedrustics. 'I'll strike a bargain with ye over the matter. We have comeout for supplies, and can scarce go back empty-handed. If ye will amongye provide us with a cart, filling it with such breadstuffs and greensas ye may, with a dozen bullocks as well, we shall not only screen ye inthis matter, but I shall promise payment at fair market rates if ye willcome to the Protestant camp for the money.'
'I'll spare the bullocks,' quoth the old man whom we had rescued, whowas now sufficiently recovered to sit up. 'Zince my poor dame is foullymurthered it matters little to me what becomes o' the stock. I shallzee her laid in Durston graveyard, and shall then vollow you to t' camp,where I shall die happy if I can but rid the earth o' one more o' theseincarnate devils.'
'You say well, gaffer!' cried Hector Marot; 'you show the true spirit.Methinks I see an old birding-piece on yonder hooks, which, with a braceof slugs in it and a bold man behind it, might bring down one of thesefine birds for all their gay feathers.'
'Her's been a true mate to me for more'n thirty year,' said the old man,the tears coursing down his wrinkled cheeks. 'Thirty zeed-toimes andthirty harvests we've worked together. But this is a zeed-toime whichshall have a harvest o' blood if my right hand can compass it.'
'If you go to t' wars, Gaffer Swain, we'll look to your homestead,'said the farmer who had spoken before. 'As to t' greenstuffs as thisgentleman asks for he shall have not one wainload but three, if he willbut gi' us half-an-hour to fill them up. If he does not tak them t'others will, so we had raither that they go to the good cause. Here,Miles, do you wak the labourers, and zee that they throw the potatostore wi' the spinach and the dried meats into the waggons wi' allspeed.'
'Then we had best set about our part of the contract,' said HectorMarot. With the aid of our troopers he carried out the four dragoons andour dead sergeant, and laid them on the ground some way down the lane,leading the horses all round and between their bodies, so as to tramplethe earth, and bear out the idea of a cavalry skirmish. While this wasdoing, some of the labourers had washed down the brick floor of thekitchen and removed all traces of the tragedy. The murdered woman hadbeen carried up to her own chamber, so that nothing was left to recallwhat had occurred, save the unhappy farmer, who sat moodily in the sameplace, with his chin resting upon his stringy work-worn hands, staringout in front of him with a stony, empty gaze, unconscious apparently ofall that was going on around him.
The loading of the waggons had been quickly accomplished, and the littledrove of oxen gathered from a neighbouring field. We were just startingupon our return journey when a young countryman rode up, with the newsthat a troop of the Royal Horse were between the camp and ourselves.This was grave tidings, for we were but seven all told, and our pace wasnecessarily slow whilst we were hampered with the supplies.
'How about Hooker?' I suggested. 'Should we not send after him and givehim warning?'
'I'll goo at once,' said the countryman. 'I'm bound to zee him if he beon the Athelney road.' So saying he set spurs to his horse and gallopedoff through the darkness.
'While we have such volunteer scouts as this,' I remarked, 'it is easyto see which side the country folk have in their hearts. Hooker hathstill the better part of two troops with him, so surely he can hold hisown. But how are we to make our way back?'
'Zounds, Clarke! let us extemporise a fortress,' suggested Sir Gervas.'We could hold this farmhouse against all comers until Hooker returns,and then join our forces to his. Now would our redoubtable Colonel be inhis glory, to have a chance of devising cross-fires, and flanking-fires,with all the other refinements of a well-conducted leaguer.'
'Nay,' I answered, 'after leaving Major Hooker in a somewhat cavalierfashion, it would be a bitter thing to have to ask his help now thatthere is danger.'
'Ho, ho!' cried the Baronet. 'It does not take a very deep lead-lineto come to the bottom of your stoical philosophy, friend Micah. For allyour cold-blooded stolidity you are keen enough where pride or honour isconcerned. Shall we then ride onwards, and chance it? I'll lay an evencrown that we never as much as see a red coat.'
'If you will take my advice, gentlemen,' said the highwayman, trottingup upon a beautiful bay mare, 'I should say that your best course is toallow me to act as guide to you as far as the camp. It will be strangeif I cannot find roads which shall baffle these blundering soldiers.'
'A very wise and seasonable proposition,' cried Sir Gervas. 'MasterMarot, a pinch from my snuff-box, which is ever a covenant of friendshipwith its owner. Adslidikins, man! though our acquaintance at presentis limited to my having nearly hanged you on one occasion, yet I havea kindly feeling towards you, though I wish you had some more savourytrade.'
'So do many who ride o' night,' Marot answered, with a chuckle. 'But wehad b
est start, for the east is whitening, and it will be daylight erewe come to Bridgewater.'
Leaving the ill-omened farmhouse behind us we set off with all militaryprecautions, Marot riding with me some distance in front, while two ofthe troopers covered the rear. It was still very dark, though a thingrey line on the horizon showed that the dawn was not far off. In spiteof the gloom, however, our new acquaintance guided us without a moment'shalt or hesitation through a network of lanes and bypaths, across fieldsand over bogs, where the waggons were sometimes up to their axles inbog, and sometimes were groaning and straining over rocks and stones. Sofrequent were our turnings, and so often did we change the direction ofour advance, that I feared more than once that our guide was at fault;yet, when at last the first rays of the sun brightened the landscape wesaw the steeple of Bridgewater parish church shooting up right in frontof us.
'Zounds, man! you must have something of the cat in you to pick your wayso in the dark,' cried Sir Gervas, riding up to us. 'I am right glad tosee the town, for my poor waggons have been creaking and straining untilmy ears are weary with listening for the snap of the axle-bar. MasterMarot, we owe you something for this.'
'Is this your own particular district?' I asked, 'or have you a likeknowledge of every part of the south?'
'My range,' said he, lighting his short, black pipe, 'is from Kent toCornwall, though never north of the Thames or Bristol Channel. Throughthat district there is no road which is not familiar to me, nor as muchas a break in the hedge which I could not find in blackest midnight. Itis my calling. But the trade is not what it was. If I had a son I shouldnot bring him up to it. It hath been spoiled by the armed guards tothe mail-coaches, and by the accursed goldsmiths, who have opened theirbanks and so taken the hard money into their strong boxes, giving outinstead slips of paper, which are as useless to us as an old newsletter.I give ye my word that only a week gone last Friday I stopped a graziercoming from Blandford fair, and I took seven hundred guineas off him inthese paper cheques, as they call them--enough, had it been in gold, tohave lasted me for a three month rouse. Truly the country is coming to apretty pass when such trash as that is allowed to take the place of theKing's coinage.'
'Why should you persevere in such a trade?' said I. 'Your own knowledgemust tell you that it can only lead to ruin and the gallows. Have youever known one who has thriven at it?'
'That have I,' he answered readily. 'There was Kingston Jones, whoworked Hounslow for many a year. He took ten thousand yellow boys onone job, and, like a wise man, he vowed never to risk his neck again.He went into Cheshire, with some tale of having newly arrived from theIndies, bought an estate, and is now a flourishing country gentleman ofgood repute, and a Justice of the Peace into the bargain. Zounds, man!to see him on the bench, condemning some poor devil for stealing a dozeneggs, is as good as a comedy in the playhouse.'
'Nay! but,' I persisted, 'you are a man, judging from what we have seenof your courage and skill in the use of your weapons, who would gainspeedy preferment in any army. Surely it were better to use your giftsto the gaining of honour and credit, than to make them a stepping-stoneto disgrace and the gallows?'
'For the gallows I care not a clipped shilling,' the highwaymananswered, sending up thick blue curls of smoke into the morning air. 'Wehave all to pay nature's debt, and whether I do it in my boots or on afeather bed, in one year or in ten, matters as little to me as to anysoldier among you. As to disgrace, it is a matter of opinion. I seeno shame myself in taking a toll upon the wealth of the rich, since Ifreely expose my own skin in the doing of it.'
'There is a right and there is a wrong,' I answered, 'which no wordscan do away with, and it is a dangerous and unprofitable trick to jugglewith them.'
'Besides, even if what you have said were true as to property,' SirGervas remarked, 'it would not hold you excused for that recklessness ofhuman life which your trade begets.'
'Nay! it is but hunting, save that your quarry may at any time turnround upon you, and become in turn the hunter. It is, as you say, adangerous game, but two can play at it, and each has an equal chance.There is no loading of the dice, or throwing of fulhams. Now it was buta few days back that, riding down the high-road, I perceived three jollyfarmers at full gallop across the fields with a leash of dogs yelping infront of them, and all in pursuit of one little harmless bunny. It wasa bare and unpeopled countryside on the border of Exmoor, so I bethoughtme that I could not employ my leisure better than by chasing thechasers. Odd's wouns! it was a proper hunt. Away went my gentlemen,whooping like madmen, with their coat skirts flapping in the breeze,chivying on the dogs, and having a rare morning's sport. They nevermarked the quiet horseman who rode behind them, and who without a"yoick!" or "hark-a-way!" was relishing his chase with the loudest ofthem. It needed but a posse of peace officers at my heels to make up abrave string of us, catch-who-catch-can, like the game the lads play onthe village green.'
'And what came of it?' I asked, for our new acquaintance was laughingsilently to himself.
'Well, my three friends ran down their hare, and pulled out theirflasks, as men who had done a good stroke of work. They were stillhobnobbing and laughing over the slaughtered bunny, and one haddismounted to cut off its ears as the prize of their chase, when I cameup at a hand-gallop. "Good-morrow, gentlemen," said I, "we have had raresport." They looked at me blankly enough, I promise you, and one ofthem asked me what the devil I did there, and how I dared to join in aprivate sport. "Nay, I was not chasing your hare, gentlemen," said I."What then, fellow?" asked one of them. "Why, marry, I was chasing you,"I answered, "and a better run I have not had for years." With that Ilugged out my persuaders, and made the thing clear in a few words, andI'll warrant you would have laughed could you have seen their faces asthey slowly dragged the fat leather purses from their fobs. Seventy-onepounds was my prize that morning, which was better worth riding for thana hare's ears.'
'Did they not raise the country on your track?' I asked.
'Nay! When Brown Alice is given her head she flies faster than the news.Rumour spreads quick, but the good mare's stride is quicker still.'
'And here we are within our own outposts,' quoth Sir Gervas. 'Now, minehonest friend--for honest you have been to us, whatever others maysay of you--will you not come with us, and strike in for a good cause?Zounds, man! you have many an ill deed to atone for, I'll warrant.Why not add one good one to your account, by risking your life for thereformed faith?'
'Not I,' the highwayman answered, reining up his horse. 'My own skin isnothing, but why should I risk my mare in such a fool's quarrel? Shouldshe come to harm in the ruffle, where could I get such another? Besides,it matters nothing to her whether Papist or Protestant sits on thethrone of England--does it, my beauty?'
'But you might chance to gain preferment,' I said. 'Our Colonel, DecimusSaxon, is one who loves a good swordsman, and his word hath power withKing Monmouth and the council.'
'Nay, nay!' cried Hector Marot gruffly. 'Let every man stick to his owntrade. Kirke's Horse I am ever ready to have a brush with, for a partyof them hung old blind Jim Houston of Milverton, who was a friend ofmine. I have sent seven of the red-handed rogues to their last accountfor it, and might work through the whole regiment had I time. But I willnot fight against King James, nor will I risk the mare, so let me hearno more of it. And now I must leave ye, for I have much to do. Farewellto you!'
'Farewell, farewell!' we cried, pressing his brown horny hands; 'ourthanks to you for your guidance.' Raising his hat, he shook his bridleand galloped off down the road in a rolling cloud of dust.
'Rat me, if I ever say a word against the thieves again!' said SirGervas. 'I never saw a man wield sword more deftly in my life, and hemust be a rare hand with a pistol to bring those two tall fellows downwith two shots. But look over there, Clarke! Can you not see bodies ofred-coats?'
'Surely I can,' I answered, gazing out over the broad, reedy,dead-coloured plain, which extended from the other side of the windingParret to the distant Polden Hills.
'I can see them over yonder in thedirection of Westonzoyland, as bright as the poppies among corn.'
'There are more upon the left, near Chedzoy,' quoth Sir Gervas. 'One,two, three, and one yonder, and two others behind--six regiments of footin all. Methinks I see the breastplates of horse over there, and somesign of ordnance too. Faith! Monmouth must fight now, if he ever hopesto feel the gold rim upon his temples. The whole of King James's armyhath closed upon him.'
'We must get back to our command, then,' I answered. 'If I mistake not,I see the flutter of our standards in the market-place.' We spurred ourweary steeds forward, and made our way with our little party and thesupplies which we had collected, until we found ourselves back inour quarters, where we were hailed by the lusty cheers of our hungrycomrades. Before noon the drove of bullocks had been changed into jointsand steaks, while our green stuff and other victuals had helped tofurnish the last dinner which many of our men were ever destined to eat.Major Hooker came in shortly after with a good store of provisions, butin no very good case, for he had had a skirmish with the dragoons, andhad lost eight or ten of his men. He bore a complaint straightway to thecouncil concerning the manner in which we had deserted him; but greatevents were coming fast upon us now, and there was small time to inquireinto petty matters of discipline. For myself, I freely confess, lookingback on it, that as a soldier he was entirely in the right, and thatfrom a strict military point of view our conduct was not to be excused.Yet I trust, my dears, even now, when years have weighed me down, thatthe scream of a woman in distress would be a signal which would draw meto her aid while these old limbs could bear me. For the duty whichwe owe to the weak overrides all other duties and is superior to allcircumstances, and I for one cannot see why the coat of the soldiershould harden the heart of the man.