Why, it must at least be a Princess
"Why, it must at least be a Princess."
"Exactly so," I answered; for after that bit of impudence, and her look of contempt at the ceiling, she deserved to be driven to Bedlam by the goads of curiosity; "how clever of you! There is a throne in question, and one of the most ancient in the world. Well, I never should have thought you could hit the mark like that!"
"I won't ask another thing. I would not hear it, if you told me. No, no, not for Joe!" Oh, what would have Tom Erricker have thought, if he had heard the dignified Grace thus indulging in slang? "I am not going to have my head chopped off, for prying into State-secrets. Who is the Prime-minister? He was to have taken Elfrida into supper, the other night, but he didn't. Still I can apply to him, not to have my head chopped off. George, don't attempt to tell me anything more. Self-preservation isHeaven's first law. But I don't see how this parish will be large enough for us. Ha! I see it now. How very stupid of me, that is what the Earl of Melladew is come for. Closeted—is not that the right expression?—closeted with his Royal Highness, Prince George Cranleigh, for some hours! You see that nothing escapes me. But I must be more cautious."
"No hope, sweet child, of putting me into a passion. And if nothing escapes you, why should you ever ask a question?"
This was enough to floor even a girl of the highest abilities, for nearly half a second; and as they seldom give more than that time to their thoughts, a man may almost calculate upon the skedaddle of his sister, unless she has at him again within that period. Not so with his wife, she will stick to her guns, having bigger ones, and knowing how to work them. Grace skedaddled, as consistency required; but with a popgun over her shoulder.
"Alas, that we should have to watch my dear brother! He is so good and soft—they will be sure to take him in."
At this I was exceedingly annoyed. So much so that, if dignity and triumphant reason had allowed, I would even have called her back at once, and challenged her to explain her words; which (as I said before) is the last thing they can do. However, upon second thoughts I found it wiser to leave her to herself, which would be a miserable self; when reflection, which is a liquid operation with every true woman, should have set her straight again.
But, thanks be to the Lord, who has made us real men, and given us power to exert our brains, without pit-pat of the heart to distract them at every pulse! Although I was not in the calmest mood for thinking, because I had never had such a row with Grace before (and she was a darling soul, whenever she let her mind come afterwards), nevertheless my road was clear enough before me. "If I am to be watched," thought I, "and everything is to be put upon a business footing, the sooner I assert myself the better. I have talked rather big perhaps, because she provoked me, and I am bound to have something to show for it. I will strike a stroke at once. I will go and see my Princess."
But, alas, this was easier said than done, like most things in this world of words. When I had put myself into choice apparel, with hat and tie exhibiting my College colours—which we should have carried to the head of the river, if fate had not swept me from the New College boat—and when I had impeached that fate again, for not affording me my brother Harold's face, yet resolving to brazen it out, had appeared inside the lower door of St. Winifred's stronghold (which I knew how to open by the owner's counsel)—instead of finding things in their wonted peace, orderly, picturesque, in statuesque repose, at a glance I descried a very warlike change.
There was Stepan with a long gun, and cartridges enough in the bandoleer on his braided frock to account for all the civic force, as well as half of Aldershot; and behind him a score of fellows no less martial. Both the gigantic dogs were loose, and equally resolute against invasion; even little Allai was in a clump of trees, with a dagger as long as himself in both hands, and his white teeth ground against all Albion.
In the name of wonder, what could be in the wind? Just like my luck of course it was, at a most important moment, to hit upon something far more momentous to the very people I was come to move.
"Good Stepan, I pray thee to communicate unto me the signification of the matters I behold." For I knew that this trusty Caucasian had picked up a bit of our language, and preferred the long bits. He rolled his fine eyes, which were big enough for mill-stones, and in his stillbigger mind revolved the sounds which had vainly reached his ears. "What are you up to now?" I amended my enquiry; and having heard the milk-boy say something to that tune, when they declined so much of heaven in his cans, he bowed his head magnificently, and said, "All right."
This is the first consolation found by a foreigner in our language. It is courteous to ourselves as well, and shows confidence in our country.
"What a fool you are!" I cried, with a Briton's low ingratitude; and then I saw the stately figure of Sûr Imar coming towards me. This king of the mountains looked as calm as if he had been girded with ancestral snow. There was no sort of weapon in his broad white belt, and no menace worse than a hospitable smile upon his large fair countenance. He took me by both hands, with a tenderness for the left, which proved how kind his memory was, and led the way to a seat beneath the ivied wall, and looked at me as if he liked me.
"I have been expecting you for many days," he said; and nothing but a little turn of voice just here and there could have led one to suppose that he was not of English birth; "why have you never come to show me whether I am a good physician?"
I gave him all true reasons, that I had been away, and occupied with a number of home cares when at home, and I spoke of my parents in a way which he approved; and then I was led on by his kindness so that I asked whether he was quite at leisure.
"Even more than usual," he answered with a smile. "We have stopped our little operations for the afternoon; because we have been admonished by a kind friend that some little attack upon our place may be expected."
"Well, you are a cool hand!" was almost upon my lips; but a glance at him prevented any personal remark. He was not the sort of man to be dealt with thus. But I resolved at least to be straightforward with him.
"Sûr Imar, I must not come here under false pretences. The fact is simply this, and I wish to tell you first, for no blame can possibly attach to her, and I have not told her of it. But I love your daughter, Dariel."
He looked at me with some surprise, but no sign of resentment; and I met his clear gaze firmly, trying at the same time to look braver than I felt, for he took a long time before he answered.
"Ah, you little know what you are bringing upon yourself. For the sake of your friends you must overcome—you must put it down at once; before it gets stronger, quench it. For the sake of all who love you, and all your hopes in life, you must conquer it, abolish it, annihilate it. You are a man of strong will, if I have any knowledge of the English face." His tone and manner were of friendly advice, rather than of stern forbiddance.
"I know my own mind on this subject," I replied, "and nothing will alter it. Whatever the consequence may be to myself, I shall go on unless there is fear of harming her."
"There is fear of harming her, very great fear of it. Perhaps you have the right to know. That depends upon yourself. Tell me, for I am at a loss to understand, how long this has been, and how it can have happened; for surely it is of short opportunity."
"That is true enough, and too true;" for although it had been going on with me for months, there had not been half the opportunities I longed for; "but it has been growing very rapidly, Sûr Imar, although there have been so few interviews, and the first of them quite a one-sided one. In fact I have had very little chance as yet—one occasion I lost altogether, and I did not make the best of another. Oh, no, I have scarcely had any proper chances yet."
"Be thankful that it is so, my friend. It will be my duty to prevent their increase." Dariel's father smiled at his own words, with a sense of humour which I did not share. "But just have the kindness, for I have the right to know, to tell me how there can have been any interviews at all. My daughter has been brought up in England mainly, and resembles in many points an English young lady, rather than a Lesghian; but——"
"It has never been any fault of hers at all. Altogether my fault, what little fault there has been. But I hope, if you don't encourage me, Sûr Imar, you will take good care not to let anybody else."
"That is rather a surprising demand;" he spoke so gravely that it was my turn to smile at the modesty of my own request. "Because you are prohibited, all the world must be so. But tell me how you fell into this sad mishap."
"That I shall never consider it, Sûr Imar, however hopeless my prospect may be. Already I feel that my life has been exalted, my standard elevated, my character in every way——"
"I am sorry to hurry you, Mr. Cranleigh, in the course of your self-congratulations; but some invasion of our refuge may be expected now at almost any moment. And afterwards there may not be good opportunity of speaking."
Thereupon I told him, as briefly as I could, how my admiration first began, and how it had become entire devotion, in spite of the niggardly occasions it had found, and that now I set before me but one object in the world, and cared not for obstacles, denials, scruples, opinion of others, or perdition of myself—in for it I was, and go through with it I would. Then he stopped me, as if I spoke at random.
"Did you begin it, sir, in this lofty manner? Were all these fine sentiments already in your mind, when you peeped through the hedge at my daughter?"
"Sir, you exaggerate that small proceeding; and I am not a bit ashamed of it now," I replied, "because of the glorious results it has produced."
"I am a little inclined to think that I hear a thumping"—in my heart there was one of the biggest thumpings ever known, as I defied him thus, and he disarmed me in that manner. "Is it the arrival of your Civic Force?"
The Peelers, the Coppers, the Bobbies, there they were, beyond all doubt; and I believe that I shall pay the Police-rate—our tribute to the powers invisible—for the rest of my life without a growl, because of the moment of their knocking at that door.
"Stop, sir," I shouted, as the Prince was marching off, in his leisurely style—for nothing ever made him hurry—"there is one thing I have forgotten. Fasten up the dogs.I was ordered especially to tell you that; otherwise the poor things may be shot."
"Dogs must take their chance in a conflict of mankind. But I leave them to you, Mr. Cranleigh." I knew not then that the true Caucasian is never brought up to love animals, and I wondered to find him so unjust. If a man likes to rush into a conflict, well and good. But to let a dog sacrifice himself to loyal feeling, appears to me unrighteous on the master's part. So I ran for my life, and caughtKubanandOrla(who would have rushed point-blank at the muzzle of a cannon), and with much difficulty, and some help, thumped them into their kennels.
Meanwhile the kicking at the upper door, and the shouting of hoarse voices, and the hoisting of coned heads between the ivied battlements, were waxing every moment; and so was the ferocity of the warriors inside, who had not enjoyed a fight, perhaps, ever since they came to England, the country of policemen, who mainly beat white gloves. But the master of the place ordered all his henchmen back, and made them stand their murderous guns against the peaceful ivy.
Then he swang on its pivot the bar of the door, which had been readjusted since Slemmick dashed through, and throwing it wide he stood among the foes, and spoke.
"This is a very great commotion you are raising. Is there law in this land, that such things are allowed?"
We beheld a large force of constables outside, as if much resistance had been expected; and some of the mounted police were present to intercept any runaway. "Sir, there is law in the land; and under it I hold a search-warrant of these premises, with orders to arrest all persons here, in case of certain discoveries. Sergeant, you will see that no one leaves the place, without my permission. Now, sir."
Exhibiting his warrant, the chief officer fixed keen eyes upon Sûr Imar's face, and scanned with stern suspicion the tranquil smile and the very peaceful aspect. "To the mill first! To the mill at once!" he shouted, with some show of temper, being annoyed, as I could see, by the calmness of this reception. "Sir, will you have the kindness to inform me, why the mill is not at work, as usual?"
"It was scarcely worth while, when I expected you, to begin work, and then be interrupted."
"You expected me, sir? What the devil do you mean?" cried the officer, as one in a fury.
"For some little time," Sûr Imar answered, with one of his most majestic bows, "I have looked forward to this pleasure; but until this morning I could not be sure of the hour most convenient to you. But according to a proverb of your country, 'better late than never,' sir. The mill is at your service, and all that it contains. I have also provided some refreshment for your men. Not such as I could wish, but what you call 'rough and ready.'"
"And you have laid it out in the mill! The very place we were to have broken up! Of course, you have had time to clear everything away. It is a farce, sir, a farce, to carry out our orders now."
"It would be that at any time, for you never should have received them. There is in this country, though the constitution is the noblest in the world—which generally means the least corrupt—very imperfect communication between the working departments. Perhaps you will encourage your men to search; while I am proving it needless. That would be of a piece with your other arrangements. That is not your style of business? Nay, but feeding is. I perceive that your men have walked far, good sir. I entreat you to let them recruit their strength. Stepan, bring two more chairs this way. Gentlemen, I hope that you can manage roast-beef cold. If the date had been more definite, we could have shown more hospitality."
"These things are beyond my understanding," said the officer, gazing at his men, who stood strictly at attention, with eyes very right for the great sirloin; "I have never been more astonished in my life. Will you give me your word, sir, that no one shall leave the place? Then I see no good reason against a little refreshment, while you are explaining this strange state of things to me. Members of the Force, all fall to! Ha, what perfect discipline!"
I scarcely know when I have been more pleased, in my little way of regarding things, than I was at that momentto see everybody converted from the track of war, as one might say, to the course, or (as might be considered even better, when the fork takes its place as the knife's better half) the chairs—the comfortable dining-chairs of peace. Gallant as any known soldier on the globe, which can show more varieties of them than of soil or climate, is the true British Peeler in quest of promotion; and these were all picked men, as they soon began to prove; and a warm sense of Providence arose within me, at the privilege of seeing them pitch into the victuals, instead of storming Caucasus.
"I am not intelligent of British manners," quoth Sûr Imar to the chief officer, "as if I had the honour, sir, of belonging to your island. But so far as a foreigner may understand your race, I trust that they will make progress now."
"Like a house on fire," replied the officer, with a bow, and perhaps some inclination to do better with his lips, than discipline as yet encouraged. "Sir, I understood that you were going to show me something."
"Sir, in my native land we have a manner, suggested perhaps by the rigour of the climate, of producing a savoury broil at short notice. Measures to that effect were taken upon your first application at my door; and if you will do me the honour of coming to my room, I would ask for the advantage of your opinion on that subject. I trust that Mr. George Cranleigh will join us."
"Mr. Cranleigh! Is this Sir Harold Cranleigh's son?" the officer enquired, and a very gentlemanlike expression, which had been dawning on his austere features, became established there for the rest of the day. "After you, sir. After you!" with a bow that did credit to the Force, he protested; and soon he held his own in a spirited discussion upon the most effective form discovered for a carving-knife.
"Well, sir, what report am I to make?" he asked, in a very proper frame of mind, when now there was little left, and still less wanted; "according to instructions, made strict search of suspected premises, encountered no resistance, found nothing in contravention of the law, but excellent dinner prepared for us. Embraced the opportunity, according to precept and example of superiorofficers; found no occasion to take any one in charge, and know no more than we knew before."
"You shall know more than you knew before. You shall not return without perfect satisfaction as to the question which brought you here. You have exhibited the common-sense, the self-restraint, and the consideration which English officials alone display. You perceived that it would be what you call a farce, to search the suspected premises, when you found that your visit was expected. But the gendarmery of any other country would have wreaked their anger and disappointment upon the suspected objects. They would have shattered my machinery, sir; and that would have been a heavy blow to me. I have naturally been indignant at the low suspicions entertained of me. Otherwise I would have routed them, by referring your chiefs to the Foreign Office. One word there would have saved all this trouble. But now you shall understand this mighty secret; and so shall Mr. Cranleigh, if he cares to know it."
With these words our kind host left the table, and crossed the room to a large cupboard, which he unlocked, and took from it a box containing things that jingled. This box he placed between us with the cover off, and we saw a quantity of small metallic objects, of very queer forms and various construction, like pieces of a Chinese puzzle. Sûr Imar stood regarding us with a smile; for he saw that neither of us was a whit the wiser.
"Those are the products of my mill," he said; "no very portentous secret; but it might be fatal to my object, if my little scheme were to find its way prematurely into the public Press. Therefore, I will ask you, Mr. Officer, not to enter this in your report, though you are at liberty to mention it in confidence to your chief. Mr. Cranleigh, I am sure, will not speak of it at all, if I put it to him so. Now, what do you call these little things?"
"Couldn't guess to save my life," the officer replied, as he fingered one or two; "artificial insects, spiders, tadpoles, shrimps, or dragon-flies—no, that won't do; I give it up, Sir Imar."
"I know what it is," I said, not by any stroke of genius, but through my brother's workshop; "it is all of it type,of some queer sort, but what the metal is I have not the least idea."
"Type it is, as you perceive. But to what language it belongs, I doubt whether even the British Museum could tell you. For the very simple reason that nothing has been printed in that language yet. It is type of the Lesghian alphabet, the first that has ever been cut, or cast, or in any other manner fashioned. Our language is a very fine one, infinitely the finest of all the forms of speech in the long tract of mountains. But nothing in it has been printed yet. We are obliged to have recourse to Arabic, if we desire to publish anything. And not only that, but the children even of our noblest families have not the least idea—Officer, I see that you are pressed for time; but if you had leisure to see me work this press, not with those castings, but the larger form, the capitals in fact, the coarse capitals, which we turned out first,—for we had to feel our way,—I am almost sure that you would agree with me—"
"I am sure that I should, sir. No doubt about that. I never saw anything so beautiful in my life. But we have exceeded our time, Sir Imar. Thank you—well, I will taste a toss of that liqueur. Upon my word, you know the right thing all round! Sir Imar, your best health! Trappistine is not a patch on it. Beg pardon, Sir Imar, for having hit your gate so hard. I am not quite a literary man myself, but am able to allow for all in that way situated. Good-bye, Sir Imar, and if any one encroaches upon the freedom of the Press, for the folk about here are not like us, just one line to Scotland Yard—a cigar, sir? Yes, it will enable me to think. And I shall take that young fellow's horse back to the station."
Sûr Imar sat down, while I went to see them off; and outside the upper door they gave three cheers. "Wonderful old chap! Grand old cock!" the officer said to me as I offered him a light; "English Aristocracy not a patch upon him for cooking a dinner or for languages. But as mad as a March hare; what a pity! Don't he know what is good, though? Mr. Cranleigh, attend to me. A man who can do French things to satisfy an Englishman—that's what I call international, and no mistake!"
Before I went away, which I was obliged to do without even a glimpse of Dariel, her father very kindly put this question to me, "Do you really wish to know more, my friend, of the scheme which has brought me to this lonely valley, and kept me occupied here so long, in the hope that I may be of service to the race which has trusted and loved me, but received from me as yet no better reward than disaster and war? You are eager to be told? Then if you can come on Saturday, when the work of the day has been accomplished, you shall hear, not of that alone, but of things which have befallen me, from which you will perceive most clearly that the greater the distance preserved henceforth between Mr. Cranleigh and all Caucasians, the better it will be for his welfare and that of all his relations."
Now it is useless for me to trouble anybody, even if anybody would be troubled, with all the wild thoughts that came into my head, and all the sad things that would not let my heart alone, as I went with this burden of doubt to bear. It must not be supposed for a moment, because I have chanced not to touch upon the matter, that I had cast away all sense of duty to my relatives in this adventure. The home, and the farm, and the welfare of the family had not been impaired by a single penny, through what some might call the distraction of my mind. Only let every one attend to business, as I had never failed to do all this time, and what a different place the world would be! And as for disturbing my father and mother, with any description of what had happened to myself, whenthe chances were that all of it would come to nothing—that would indeed have been a wicked thing to do, in spite of all their preference for Harold.
So clear was I from doubt upon that score, and all my proceedings had been so blameless, ever since that casual "peep through the hedge,"—as Dariel's father called it,—that instead of any squeamishness or self-reproach, I had two points to dwell upon of maltreatment to myself. Why had I been sent to London on a special errand, and then deprived of all chance of completing it? And again, had I been told of that hateful Prince Hafer, and purposely goaded into just wrath against him, simply that I might break forth into rude behaviour, and so be dismissed as a savage, who could not control himself before a lady?
That supposition was too wretched to be borne with, not for the low esteem of me it implied, but rather on account of the paltriness imputed to the highest, and noblest, and loveliest of her sex. Against all that my truer mind revolted, and my own experience did the like. But men have a trick of saying such small things about women (when the feminine back is turned), partly because they think it lofty so to speak, and partly because of the poets and sages who have set them this example, and partly (a very small part, let us hope) in right of their own experience. And these things come into a man's lower mind, when depression sinks it in the mud-deposits of the heart.
"Halloa, George Cranleigh! What a blue study you must be in! Don't I carry a light at my fore-peak? And if you can't see it you might smell it."
It was rather dark as I came near home, after that interview with the police, and the trees at the back of the Hall were thick; but I might have seen Stoneman and his cigar, if I had been at all on the lookout. "Come in," he went on; "I waylaid you because I want a chat with you most uncommonly, and they told me at your den that you were gone this way. Fishing again? No rod this time! But perhaps you leave it at some farmhouse." This man had his little faults; and among them was a trick of suggesting a handy fib, and then smashing it, if adopted; the which is not a friendly trick. "Not been fishing, eh? Something better, I daresay. Well, come in here; I want toshow you something good, and the wonderful fellow who does it."
This was as dark as the sky itself to me. But I followed him, for he was a leading man; and in little matters I submit my steps to theirs. Verily, on this occasion I did not walk amiss. For when we were in Jackson Stoneman's little crib, such as any man of nous, with a big roof over his head, is fain to keep for his own better moments, there was something which no magnificence can bring home into the simple human breast. Who is the most delightful writer of our race, since Heaven took Shakespeare away in hot haste, when his hand was too close on the Tree of Life? The answer, although so long in coming, comes louder, as every year adds to the echo—"William Makepeace Thackeray."
That man of vast brain, with the fresh heart of a child, would have been pleased to see what I beheld; and his tender touch only could have touched it off. A bright fire was burning in a low, plain grate, there was not a whiff of smoke throughout it, and in front of the red clear glow, at a distance nicely calculated, stood a beautiful machine with its back to us. Kneeling on the rug was a long-sided man, so intent on his work that he never heard the door, with a silver spoon (once apostolic perhaps) in his right hand, and a long slender crook in his left. What he was tending could not be seen as yet; but a glorious fragrance held possession of the air, and wafted a divine afflatus to any heart not utterly insensible. Sûr Imar's broil was not a patch upon it.
"Ach! it is to spoil everyting dat you are here." The artist frowned and grunted, without getting up, as Stoneman introduced me. "My name is Hopmann; but dese bairds, what will dere names be, if I interrupt?"
Peeping in over the lid of the alcove, which had an enamel lining, I saw four partridges hung skilfully from hooks, with a swivel to each; so that every bird might revolve with zeal, or pause with proper feeling, as his sense of perfection and of duty bade him. While in the tray beneath them, some clear brown gravy was simmering, with a beaded eddy where the basting trickled. In and out among them, the silver spoon was gliding most skilfullyand impartially, administering a drip to each, as sweetly and fairly as their own dear mother did it, in their happy nest. But instead of their dear mother, alas, it was not even an Englishman who was tending them, but a German doctor with a very red face, gazing most severely at them through big silver spectacles. "Not you look! Not you come near!" this gentleman cried, as he gave me a push, in return for the bow I offered him.
"Come in here, George," said Stoneman, with a wink at me. "Let him alone, and I will tell you all about him. He is the best fellow that ever lived; but you will never get it out of his head that almost everything we do is wrong."
"Everyting, everyting! Not almost, but everyting the Englishman do wrong," the Herr Doctor shouted, as Stoneman led me into the next room, where a snug supper-table was set out for the three of us.
"Rather a queer customer, isn't he?" said my host; "but I have known him more than ten years now, and got ten times as fond of him every year. He is the kindest-hearted fellow I ever came across; and there is scarcely anything he cannot do. He is well-known in London; he might be Professor of this, that, and the other. But he has not a particle of ambition, though he values his profession mightily. He is fond of money, of course; but chiefly for the sake of his widowed mother, and two sisters whom he supports. You know that old Chalker of Cobstone Hill went the way of all flesh last month, leaving a large practice, all abroad. Well, I persuaded Hopmann to take to it, for they were paying him shamefully in London, for a lot of work at one of the hospitals. He has only been here about a fortnight yet, but he is sure to get on; he must get on; nothing comes amiss to him. And I want you to help him, wherever you can: you need have no fear, he is quite tip-top—too good a great deal for a country practice. But he would never do in London; he is too honest—sees through any humbug in a moment, and would tell the patient so, though he were of the Royal family. But you should see Hopmann with some old woman, who will never say 'thank you,' or pay him sixpence. That is what I admire in a man; and that tellsfor him too in the end, you may be sure. But come along, he is calling us, and he will be in a fury, if we let all his beautiful cookery spoil. All right, Hopmann, hop along, old fellow. A metal dish apiece for us, piping hot."
"And ze last baird, he stay here and keep hot himself! And he become ze property of ze first gent zat is ready. Now, Mr. Cranleigh, you tell truth! You never taste bartrich before. For why? Because you cannot cook them in this land. You take away everyting that gives what you call ze flavour, that penetrates ze whole system of ze baird. Ach! I will cook again for you, you shall see. Shackson is not half so wise."
I was fortunate enough to please him, and not in words alone, for the effect of my bit of lunch had quite worn off. In a very short time (as happens now and then when two men widely different in their main lines meet) our little corners, which are the clinging points, had fitted very nicely into one another; and I longed to know more of the man, because I knew so much of him already. For who cares to get nearer to a man who keeps his distance?
"Hopmann is a queer fellow in his way, but in a very good sort of a way," said Jackson Stoneman, as we two filled our pipes, and he lit his half-a-crown cigar, which I would not have smoked for half-a-crown; "I am glad to see you enter into each other's merits. Now, will you fall in with a little plan which I have conceived for the good of us all? My German friend is an excellent shot. He can knock a bird over, as well as he can cook it. He was out with us on the first, when George Cranleigh would not come. Two or three swells were inclined to laugh, but he very soon turned the laugh on them. Garrod said that he never saw such a hand, which was not very graceful to the man who pays his wages. I have not yet found anything that Hopmann cannot do."
"Shackson, there are two tings vot he cannot do. He cannot ride very well ze horse, and he cannot listen to his own braises."
"Never mind, he will very soon learn both accomplishments, and then he will be absolutely perfect. But we have a little campaign in view for the day after to-morrow. We have only been round the outskirts yet, we have nottouched the best part of the shooting. Herr Doctor, will you come with your 16-bore, that wiped the eye of several of our thundering twelves, and show us straight powder on Thursday?"
"I vill only come on ze onderstandings of before—that all ze bairds I do shoot shall belong to me, to take home."
"You shall carry off, and cook with their trails in, every blessed bird you knock over. And now about you, George. I have never seen you shoot, but I hear you are very good. Are you afraid to try your hand against this mighty German?"
This put me a little on my mettle, as was meant. Not that I ever cared to shoot in competition; for that, as with fishing or any other friendly sport, to my mind kills the enjoyment. Moreover I had refused Stoneman's invitation, from a sort of pride—a very false pride it might be—about walking by his leave upon land that had been ours. And I had taken no certificate this year.
"I'll tell you what I'll do," I said. "I won't bring my gun, for I have taken no licence, and I would not shoot without. But I'll come and work the dogs for you; they know me as well as they know Garrod, and I shall enjoy it quite as much."
"But Hopmann has taken no licence, either. As if any one would dare to ask you about that, for shooting round here! I should like to see them ask him even, when he is with me."
"For me it is to my conscience so,"—the German had a great gift of winking both eyes, through his spectacles, with rapid alternation; "I am not a subject of this realm. I make game of ze Game-laws."
However, I was not to be persuaded; and when the day came, there were guns enough without mine, and far too many, as it seemed to me, for a free beat and small enclosure. Luckily there was no covert-shooting yet; but one or two of the dogs had most narrow escapes, and I was obliged to interfere sometimes, and declare that I would walk them all back to kennel, unless the men tried to be more careful. One dog was my own, a very handsome lemon-and-white setter-bitch, who dropped to shot almost before you could see the smoke; and yet somebody put ashot through her ear, though I did not find it out till afterwards, or home she would have gone, whatever they might think at losing the best of the bunch, as one might say.
For there were six guns, sometimes close together,—a dangerous affair for a country like that, even when every man knows his neighbour, and each is an experienced and careful shot; most Cockneyfied too, for the look of the thing; and I had a great mind to keep away from them. But Stoneman would not hear of that; he had invited Lord Melladew, so he said, purely as a compliment to me, and how could I refuse to come with him? To this I could make no reply, being taken up with my own affairs to such a degree that I was not at home concerning other people's doings. The young Earl of Melladew was staying at the "Bell,"—which used to be called the "Cranleigh Arms," until we went down in the world,—and there he had his valet, and artistic outfit, and all his large ideas, in the long room with the magnificent view, where our tenant used to dry his onions. Now I am the very last to say a word against people who have gone up in life, by merits which have been denied to us. The first peer had proved himself a fine man of business, and made an exemplary fortune by lucrative Army-contracts during the Crimean war. If he compressed some dead cows in his hay, and compelled his old sheep-dogs to serve their time still by posthumous fidelity in the form of mutton,—as war correspondents on very short commons were ungrateful enough at that time to aver,—all those and greater errors he had redeemed by having a grandson as unlike him as possible.
This young nobleman (for so he might be called) had many very excellent and amiable points. He was gentle, generous, and upright, more eager to please than is altogether safe, except in a very rustic neighbourhood; and even less conceited and affected in his manners than a young man of good looks, fair position, and literary tendencies ought to be, for his friends to consider him natural. Everybody in our village said that without Farmer Jarge to certify it, they never could have taken his Lordship for a Lord; though, considering the Boards, and the Hyænas this and that, and the Parson that couldn't turn his coat-tails up till a secondary motion put him into his own chair in theVestry, there was no call for any one to feel surprise if the great folk came down, and made the little ones go up. Lord Melladew also was enthusiastic as to the delights of country-life, and the glories of British industry; and this helped him much with my sister, who never could understand why we should be starved by foreign produce, when the land, and the people, and the sky above our heads were exactly the same as she could remember always, and there was as much to pay for everything as ever.
But our young nobleman proved most clearly, with an elegant sonnet in the "Cobham Comet," entitled "Sit down to your own desserts," that prosperity was to return to our land, and the Frenchman and Belgian be blown away by volleys of grape and apple shot from the bulwark of Britain at Farmer Bandilow's farm. Half a million fruit-trees would be planted in October, and ten million bushels of apples, melons, peaches, plums, grapes, pine-apples, apricots, pears, &c., would confront the poor foreigner next August if he dared to attempt a landing.
My father was scarcely so sanguine, but said, "Let them have their try, George, if rich people find the money. Things can be no worse, and some poor fellows may find employment for the winter. Perhaps Mr. Stoneman will take it up."
Stoneman, however, instead of doing that, showed an unaccountable contempt and bitterness, not only towards the scheme itself, but all who took any share in it. There seemed to be something in the matter that touched him far more closely than any question of agriculture. Was it Lord Melladew's long sojourn at the "Bell," and his frequent visits at our cottage? Even now, with this young man his guest for the day, and behaving most inoffensively, the grim stockbroker marched on in such a manner, that I thought it my duty to remonstrate. "You haven't shot him yet," I said, as we stood behind the others, "because it is not dark enough. But if he gets peppered in the dusk, I shall know whose pot it came from."
Stoneman gave me a grin, and behaved a little better, and did his best to be polite at luncheon-time, and after the narrow shaves of the morning things went on more carefully; for the men who knew nothing about a gun had nowlearned to be afraid of it. Until, with the sun getting low behind a wood, we came to a bit of gorse-land having a steep fall towards a valley, favourite harbour for a fox, in the days when my chief business was such pleasant sport and jollity. There were narrow rides cut through the furze down hill, and across them tussocks of welted fern, and strigs of moots that cropped up again, after the fuelling had been cleared.
"Why, this is the place where the yellow bunnies live," said Stoneman, as he opened a gate for us, and we stood on the crest of the furzy slope. "I know a man, and a clever fellow too, who has offered a guinea apiece for them. He has given up business, and set up his staff in a wild part of Wales; and there he is going in for a breed of these yellow rabbits. He has got a big name for the fur, and expects to cut out Chinchilla with it. I have heard of our golden bunnies lots of times, and seen some of them once or twice. Shall we get a sample for him, and then offer him live bunnies, if he jumps at it?"
All agreed cheerfully to this, and the dogs were taken up, while the men, peeping down the steep ridges, got a shot or two at any of the coney race who might be dining carelessly. Then, as all of these proved to be of the common grey sort, Garrod's boy was sent home for a couple of rough terriers, to run the furze thickets, while the guns should watch the rides, for two or three yellow fellows had skipped away unscathed.
That boy took a long time in carrying out his message, and when he came back with his father behind him, the dusk of September was settling in the valley, while a wisp of silvery vapour stole along the brown halberds of the gorse, and the russet clumps of bramble. But the hillside now was ringing with the merry yelps of dogs, or the squeak of some puppy in a tangled grip, while the low covert ruffled, or was channelled here and there, with the sway of some resolute terrier hot in chase.
This holiday had been a rare enjoyment to me, though crossed with anxiety now and then, among so many barrels governed less by experience than excitement. Most of all, as I said, about Lord Melladew, who strode along so poetically, clad in green velveteen, beautifully made, butterminating unluckily in very smart buff gaiters short and spruce—concerning him I had prayed all day that he were safe back in the onion loft. Not that he carried a gun to his own disadvantage as the reckless do, neither did he fire at random, but was well content, in the manner of the public, to shout according to the hit or miss.
"Shut up all," I called out sharply; "too dark, too dark! I expect to see at least a dog shot, every moment."
A dog indeed! If I had said a man, and that man a live Earl—for bang, bang, went the guns, just as if I had never spoken, and four or five puffs of smoke, as if the hillside were on fire, rose from the avenues poor bunny had to cross. "Yellow! Did you see, Shorje? yellow as ze gold is!" The German doctor shouted as he pointed down a ride. "Shackson shot too, but ze rabbit is to me. I will have ze guinea. Ach, mein Gott!"
Instead of a rabbit giving the last kick of death, what did we see half-way down the slope but two buff coneys flying ever so much faster than any coney ever flew before, each flashing in front of each other, as if father fox were after both of them. "I am blowed if it isn't my Lord," cried Garrod; "the foreigner have shot him morshial!"
"Vat you know, ze clods-having-to-hop-by-night-as-well-as-by-day fe-loe? But keep your business, good fe-loe. If I have put ze shot in, I can pull him out again. You shall see."
Guns were laid aside, and the doctor left there (for he seemed to make nothing of peppering a lord, in comparison with basting partridges), and down the steep pitch we raced after the Earl, who with a long start was going like the wind. Do all we might, we could not get near him, until he was brought up by a heavy post and rail, where the Dorking road winds along the bottom. There he struck his chest, and in spite of being winded, did no small credit to his lungs, by a power of shrieks that rent the valley.
"What a coward!" cried Stoneman, who had kept up with me, though we both had "gone croppers" once or twice. "He is all there for holloaing, at any rate!"
But the worst of the business was yet to come. As we drew a pull of breath, before rushing to the rescue, weheard a sudden clatter in the road below, then we saw a wild dash of something dark, and a woman lay on her back under a low tree. I leaped the rail fence, to which the Earl was still clinging, and there lay my sister Grace, in her riding-habit, while the sound of the runaway pony's hoofs came clanging round the corner.
I lifted my darling sister Grace, and set her against the hedge-bank, and my heart went out of me, as I knelt and whispered to her. If it had been even Dariel, could my terror have been so terrible? I pulled her riding-gloves off, and found a penny in them, the change the dear frugal soul had taken from the last turnpike gate she paid. And then when I saw her sweet kind face as white as a shroud, and the bright eyes closed, and the long black lashes that I used to vow she dyed—when I wanted to put her in a passion—lying upon the waxen cheeks, without caring a dump what any other chap might think, I lifted up my voice and wept.