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Woodstock; or, The Cavalier

S >> Sir Walter Scott >> Woodstock; or, The Cavalier




"Hold fast, but worry not," said the old knight.--"Alice, thou art the
queen of wenches! Stand fast here till I run down and secure the
rascal."

"For God's sake, no, my dearest father!" Alice exclaimed; "Joceline will
be up immediately--Hark!--I hear him."

There was indeed a bustle below, and more than one light danced to and
fro in confusion, while those who bore them called to each other, yet
suppressing their voices as they spoke, as men who would only be heard
by those they addressed. The individual who had fallen under the power
of Bevis was most impatient in his situation, and called with least
precaution--"Here, Lee,--Forester--take the dog off, else I must shoot
him."

"If thou dost," said Sir Henry, from the window, "I blow thy brains out
on the spot. Thieves, Joceline, thieves! come up and secure this
ruffian.--Bevis, hold on!"

"Back, Bevis; down, sir!" cried Joceline. "I am coming, I am coming, Sir
Henry--Saint Michael, I shall go distracted!"

A terrible thought suddenly occurred to Alice; could Joceline have
become unfaithful, that he was calling Bevis off the villain, instead of
encouraging the trusty dog to secure him? Her father, meantime, moved
perhaps by some suspicion of the same kind, hastily stepped aside out of
the moonlight, and pulled Alice close to him, so as to be invisible from
without, yet so placed as to hear what should pass. The scuffle between
Bevis and his prisoner seemed to be ended by Joceline's interference,
and there was close whispering for an instant, as of people in
consultation.

"All is quiet now," said one voice; "I will up and prepare the way for
you." And immediately a form presented itself on the outside of the
window, pushed open the lattice, and sprung into the parlour. But almost
ere his step was upon the floor, certainly before he had obtained any
secure footing, the old knight, who stood ready with his rapier drawn,
made a desperate pass, which bore the intruder to the ground. Joceline,
who clambered up next with a dark lantern in his hand, uttered a
dreadful exclamation, when he saw what had happened, crying out, "Lord
in heaven, he has slain his own son!"

"No, no--I tell you no," said the fallen young man, who was indeed young
Albert Lee, the only son of the old knight; "I am not hurt. No noise, on
your lives; get lights instantly." At the same time, he started from the
floor as quickly as he could, under the embarrassment of a cloak and
doublet skewered as it were together by the rapier of the old knight,
whose pass, most fortunately, had been diverted from the body of Albert
by the interruption of his cloak, the blade passing right across his
back, piercing the clothes, while the hilt coming against his side with
the whole force of the lunge, had borne him to the ground.

Joceline all the while enjoined silence to every one, under the
strictest conjurations. "Silence, as you would long live on
earth--silence, as ye would have a place in heaven; be but silent for a
few minutes--all our lives depend on it."

Meantime he procured lights with inexpressible dispatch, and they then
beheld that Sir Henry, on hearing the fatal words, had sunk back on one
of the large chairs, without either motion, colour, or sign of life.

"Oh, brother, how could you come in this manner?" said Alice.

"Ask no questions--Good God! for what am I reserved!" He gazed on his
father as he spoke, who, with clay-cold features rigidly fixed, and his
arms extended in the most absolute helplessness, looked rather the image
of death upon a monument, than a being in whom existence was only
suspended. "Was my life spared," said Albert, raising his hands with a
wild gesture to heaven, "only to witness such a sight as this!"

"We suffer what Heaven permits, young man; we endure our lives while
Heaven continues them. Let me approach." The same clergyman who had read
the prayers at Joceline's hut now came forward. "Get water," he said,
"instantly." And the helpful hand and light foot of Alice, with the
ready-witted tenderness which never stagnates in vain lamentations while
there is any room for hope, provided with incredible celerity all that
the clergyman called for.

"It is but a swoon," he said, on feeling Sir Henry's palm; "a swoon
produced from the instant and unexpected shock. Rouse thee up, Albert; I
promise thee it will be nothing save a syncope--A cup, my dearest Alice,
and a ribbon or a bandage. I must take some blood--some aromatics, too,
if they can be had, my good Alice."

But while Alice procured the cup and bandage, stripped her father's
sleeve, and seemed by intuition even to anticipate every direction of
the reverend doctor, her brother, hearing no word, and seeing no sign of
comfort, stood with both hands clasped and elevated into the air, a
monument of speechless despair. Every feature in his face seemed to
express the thought, "Here lies my father's corpse, and it is I whose
rashness has slain him!"

But when a few drops of blood began to follow the lancet--at first
falling singly, and then trickling in a freer stream--when, in
consequence of the application of cold water to the temples, and
aromatics to the nostrils, the old man sighed feebly, and made an effort
to move his limbs, Albert Lee changed his posture, at once to throw
himself at the feet of the clergyman, and kiss, if he would have
permitted him, his shoes and the hem of his raiment.

"Rise, foolish youth," said the good man, with a reproving tone; "must
it be always thus with you? Kneel to Heaven, not to the feeblest of its
agents. You have been saved once again from great danger; would you
deserve Heaven's bounty, remember you have been preserved for other
purposes than you now think on. Begone, you and Joceline--you have a
duty to discharge; and be assured it will go better with your father's
recovery that he see you not for a few minutes. Down--down to the
wilderness, and bring in your attendant."

"Thanks, thanks, a thousand thanks," answered Albert Lee; and, springing
through the lattice, he disappeared as unexpectedly as he had entered.
At the same time Joceline followed him, and by the same road.

Alice, whose fears for her father were now something abated, upon this
new movement among the persons of the scene, could not resist appealing
to her venerable assistant. "Good doctor, answer me but one question.
Was my brother Albert here just now, or have I dreamed all that has
happened for these ten minutes past? Methinks, but for your presence, I
could suppose the whole had passed in my sleep; that horrible
thrust--that death-like, corpse-like old man--that soldier in mute
despair; I must indeed have dreamed."

"If you have dreamed, my sweet Alice," said the doctor, "I wish every
sick-nurse had your property, since you have been attending to our
patient better during your sleep than most of these old dormice can do
when they are most awake. But your dream came through the gate of horn,
my pretty darling, which you must remind me to explain to you at
leisure. Albert has really been here, and will be here again."

"Albert!" repeated Sir Henry, "who names my son?"

"It is I, my kind patron," said the doctor; "permit me to bind up your
arm."

"My wound?--with all my heart, doctor," said Sir Henry, raising himself,
and gathering his recollection by degrees. "I knew of old thou wert
body-curer as well as soul-curer, and served my regiment for surgeon as
well as chaplain.--But where is the rascal I killed?--I never made a
fairer _stramaçon_ in my life. The shell of my rapier struck against his
ribs. So, dead he must be, or my right hand has forgot its cunning."

"Nobody was slain," said the doctor; "we must thank God for that, since
there were none but friends to slay. Here is a good cloak and doublet,
though, wounded in a fashion which will require some skill in
tailor-craft to cure. But I was your last antagonist, and took a little
blood from you, merely to prepare you for the pleasure and surprise of
seeing your son, who, though hunted pretty close, as you may believe,
hath made his way from Worcester hither, where, with Joceline's
assistance, we will care well enough for his safety. It was even for
this reason that I pressed you to accept of your nephew's proposal to
return to the old Lodge, where a hundred men might be concealed, though
a thousand were making search to discover them. Never such a place for
hide-and-seek, as I shall make good when I can find means to publish my
Wonders of Woodstock."

"But, my son--my dear son," said the knight, "shall I not then instantly
see him! and wherefore did you not forewarn me of this joyful event?"

"Because I was uncertain of his motions," said the doctor, "and rather
thought he was bound for the sea-side, and that it would be best to tell
you of his fate when he was safe on board, and in full sail for France.
We had appointed to let you know all when I came hither to-night to join
you. But there is a red-coat in the house whom we care not to trust
farther than we could not help. We dared not, therefore, venture in by
the hall; and so, prowling round the building, Albert informed us, that
an old prank of his, when a boy, consisted of entering by this window. A
lad who was with us would needs make the experiment, as there seemed to
be no light in the chamber, and the moonlight without made us liable to
be detected. His foot slipped, and our friend Bevis came upon us."

"In good truth, you acted simply," said Sir Henry, "to attack a garrison
without a summons. But all this is nothing to my son, Albert--where is
he?--Let me see him."

"But, Sir Henry, wait," said the doctor, "till your restored strength"--

"A plague of my restored strength, man!" answered the knight, as his old
spirit began to awaken within him.--"Dost not remember, that I lay on
Edgehill-field all night, bleeding like a bullock from five several
wounds, and wore my armour within six weeks? and you talk to me of the
few drops of blood that follow such a scratch as a cat's claw might have
made!"

"Nay, if you feel so courageous," said the doctor, "I will fetch your
son--he is not far distant."

So saying, he left the apartment, making a sign to Alice to remain, in
case any symptoms of her father's weakness should return.

It was fortunate, perhaps, that Sir Henry never seemed to recollect the
precise nature of the alarm, which had at once, and effectually as the
shock of the thunderbolt, for the moment suspended his faculties.
Something he said more than once of being certain he had done mischief
with that _stramaçon_, as he called it; but his mind did not recur to
that danger, as having been incurred by his son. Alice, glad to see that
her father appeared to have forgotten a circumstance so fearful, (as men
often forget the blow, or other sudden cause, which has thrown them into
a swoon,) readily excused herself from throwing much light on the
matter, by pleading the general confusion. And in a few minutes, Albert
cut off all farther enquiry, by entering the room, followed by the
doctor, and throwing himself alternately into the arms of his father and
of his sister.

* * * * *

CHAPTER THE TWENTIETH.


The boy is--hark ye, sirrah--what's your name?--
Oh, Jacob--ay, I recollect--the same.
CRABBE.

The affectionate relatives were united as those who, meeting under great
adversity, feel still the happiness of sharing it in common. They
embraced again and again, and gave way to those expansions of the heart,
which at once express and relieve the pressure of mental agitation. At
length the tide of emotion began to subside; and Sir Henry, still
holding his recovered son by the hand, resumed the command of his
feelings which he usually practised.

"So you have seen the last of our battles, Albert," he said, "and the
King's colours have fallen for ever before the rebels."

"It is but even so," said the young man--"the last cast of the die was
thrown, and, alas! lost at Worcester; and Cromwell's fortune carried it
there, as it has wherever he has shown himself."

"Well--it can but be for a time--it can but be for a time," answered his
father; "the devil is potent, they say, in raising and gratifying
favourites, but he can grant but short leases.--And the King--the King,
Albert--the King--in my ear--close, close!"

"Our last news were confident that he had escaped from Bristol."

"Thank God for that--thank God for that!" said the knight. "Where didst
thou leave him?"

"Our men were almost all cut to pieces at the bridge," Albert replied;
"but I followed his Majesty with about five hundred other officers and
gentlemen, who were resolved to die around him, until as our numbers and
appearance drew the whole pursuit after us, it pleased his Majesty to
dismiss us, with many thanks and words of comfort to us in general, and
some kind expressions to most of us in especial. He sent his royal
greeting to you, sir, in particular, and said more than becomes me to
repeat."

"Nay, I will hear it every word, boy," said Sir Henry; "is not the
certainty that thou hast discharged thy duty, and that King Charles owns
it, enough to console me for all we have lost and suffered, and wouldst
thou stint me of it from a false shamefacedness?--I will have it out of
thee, were it drawn from thee with cords!"

"It shall need no such compulsion," said the young man--"It was his
Majesty's pleasure to bid me tell Sir Henry Lee, in his name, that if
his son could not go before his father in the race of loyalty, he was at
least following him closely, and would soon move side by side."

"Said he so?" answered the knight--"Old Victor Lee will look down with
pride on thee, Albert!--But I forget--you must be weary and hungry."

"Even so," said Albert; "but these are things which of late I have been
in the habit of enduring for safety's sake."

"Joceline!--what ho, Joceline!"

The under-keeper entered, and received orders to get supper prepared
directly.

"My son and Dr. Rochecliffe are half starving," said the knight. "And
there is a lad, too, below," said Joceline; "a page, he says, of Colonel
Albert's, whose belly rings cupboard too, and that to no common tune;
for I think he could eat a horse, as the Yorkshireman says, behind the
saddle. He had better eat at the sideboard; for he has devoured a whole
loaf of bread and butter, as fast as Phoebe could cut it, and it has not
staid his stomach for a minute--and truly I think you had better keep
him under your own eyes, for the steward beneath might ask him
troublesome questions if he went below--And then he is impatient, as all
your gentlemen pages are, and is saucy among the women."

"Whom is it he talks of?--what page hast thou got, Albert, that bears
himself so ill?" said Sir Henry.

"The son of a dear friend, a noble lord of Scotland, who followed the
great Montrose's banner--afterwards joined the King in Scotland, and
came with him as far as Worcester. He was wounded the day before the
battle, and conjured me to take this youth under my charge, which I did,
something unwillingly; but I could not refuse a father, perhaps on his
death-bed, pleading for the safety of an only son."

"Thou hadst deserved an halter, hadst thou hesitated" said Sir Henry;
"the smallest tree can always give some shelter,--and it pleases me to
think the old stock of Lee is not so totally prostrate, but it may yet
be a refuge for the distressed. Fetch the youth in;--he is of noble
blood, and these are no times of ceremony--he shall sit with us at the
same table, page though he be; and if you have not schooled him
handsomely in his manners, he may not be the worse of some lessons from
me."

"You will excuse his national drawling accent, sir?" said Albert,
"though I know you like it not."

"I have small cause, Albert," answered the knight--"small cause.--Who
stirred up these disunions?--the Scots. Who strengthened the hands of
Parliament, when their cause was well nigh ruined?--the Scots again. Who
delivered up the King, their countryman, who had flung himself upon.
their protection?--the Scots again. But this lad's father, you say, has
fought on the part of the noble Montrose; and such a man as the great
Marquis may make amends for the degeneracy of a whole nation."

"Nay, father," said Albert, "and I must add, that though this lad is
uncouth and wayward, and, as you will see, something wilful, yet the
King has not a more zealous friend in England; and, when occasion
offered, he fought stoutly, too, in his defence--I marvel he comes not."

"He hath taken the bath" said Joceline, "and nothing less would serve
than that he should have it immediately--the supper, he said, might be
got ready in the meantime; and he commands all about him as if he were
in his father's old castle, where he might have called long enough, I
warrant, without any one to hear him."

"Indeed?" said Sir Henry, "this must be a forward chick of the game, to
crow so early.--What is his name?"

"His name?--it escapes me every hour, it is so hard a one," said
Albert--"Kerneguy is his name--Louis Kerneguy; his father was Lord
Killstewers, of Kincardineshire."

"Kerneguy, and Killstewers, and Kin--what d'ye call it?--Truly," said
the knight, "these northern men's names and titles smack of their
origin--they sound like a north-west wind, rumbling and roaring among
heather and rocks."

"It is but the asperities of the Celtic and Saxon dialects," said Dr.
Rochecliffe, "which, according to Verstegan, still linger in those
northern parts of the island.--But peace--here comes supper, and Master
Louis Kerneguy."

Supper entered accordingly, borne in by Joceline and Phoebe, and after
it, leaning on a huge knotty stick, and having his nose in the air like
a questing hound--for his attention was apparently more fixed on the
good provisions that went before him, than any thing else--came Master
Kerneguy, and seated himself, without much ceremony, at the lower end of
the table.

He was a tall, rawboned lad, with a shock head of hair, fiery red, like
many of his country, while the harshness of his national features was
increased by the contrast of his complexion, turned almost black by the
exposure to all sorts of weather, which, in that skulking and rambling
mode of life, the fugitive royalists had been obliged to encounter. His
address was by no means prepossessing, being a mixture of awkwardness
and forwardness, and showing in a remarkable degree, how a want of easy
address may be consistent with an admirable stock of assurance. His face
intimated having received some recent scratches, and the care of Dr.
Rochecliffe had decorated it with a number of patches, which even
enhanced its natural plainness. Yet the eyes were brilliant and
expressive, and, amid his ugliness--for it amounted to that degree of
irregularity--the face was not deficient in some lines which expressed
both sagacity and resolution.

The dress of Albert himself was far beneath his quality, as the son of
Sir Henry Lee, and commander of a regiment in the royal service; but
that of his page was still more dilapidated. A disastrous green jerkin,
which had been changed to a hundred hues by sun and rain, so that the
original could scarce be discovered, huge clouterly shoes, leathern
breeches--such as were worn by hedgers--coarse grey worsted stockings,
were the attire of the honourable youth, whose limping gait, while it
added to the ungainliness of his manner, showed, at the same time, the
extent of his sufferings. His appearance bordered so much upon what is
vulgarly called the queer, that even with Alice it would have excited
some sense of ridicule, had not compassion been predominant.

The grace was said, and the young squire of Ditchley, as well as Dr.
Rochecliffe, made an excellent figure at a meal, the like of which, in
quality and abundance, did not seem to have lately fallen to their
share. But their feats were child's-play to those of the Scottish youth.
Far from betraying any symptoms of the bread and butter with which he
had attempted to close the orifice of his stomach, his appetite appeared
to have been sharpened by a nine-days' fast; and the knight was disposed
to think that the very genius of famine himself, come forth from his
native regions of the north, was in the act of honouring him with a
visit, while, as if afraid of losing a moment's exertion, Master
Kerneguy never looked either to right or left, or spoke a single word to
any at table.

"I am glad to see that you have brought a good appetite for our country
fare, young gentleman," said Sir Henry.

"Bread of gude, sir!" said the page, "an ye'll find flesh, I'se find
appetite conforming, ony day o' the year. But the truth is, sir, that
the appeteezement has been coming on for three days or four, and the
meat in this southland of yours has been scarce, and hard to come by;
so, sir, I'm making up for lost time, as the piper of Sligo said, when
he eat a hail side o' mutton."

"You have been country-bred, young man," said the knight, who, like
others of his time, held the reins of discipline rather tight over the
rising generation; "at least, to judge from the youths of Scotland whom
I have seen at his late Majesty's court in former days; they had less
appetite, and more--more"--As he sought the qualifying phrase, which
might supply the place of "good manners," his guest closed the sentence
in his own way--"And more meat, it may be--the better luck theirs."

Sir Henry stared and was silent. His son seemed to think it time to
interpose--"My dear father," he said, "think how many years have run
since the Thirty-eight, when the Scottish troubles first began, and I am
sure that you will not wonder that, while the Barons of Scotland have
been, for one cause or other, perpetually in the field, the education of
their children at home must have been much neglected, and that young men
of my friend's age know better how to use a broadsword, or to toss a
pike, than the decent ceremonials of society."

"The reason is a sufficient one," said the knight, "and, since thou
sayest thy follower Kernigo can fight, we'll not let him lack victuals,
a God's name.--See, he looks angrily still at yonder cold loin of
mutton--for God's sake put it all on his plate!"

"I can bide the bit and the buffet," said the honourable Master
Kerneguy--"a hungry tike ne'er minds a blaud with a rough bane."

"Now, God ha'e mercy, Albert, but if this be the son of a Scots peer,"
said Sir Henry to his son, in a low tone of voice, "I would not be the
English ploughman who would change manners with him for his ancient
blood, and his nobility, and his estate to boot, an he has one.--He has
eaten, as I am a Christian, near four pounds of solid butcher's meat,
and with the grace of a wolf tugging at the carcass of a dead horse.--
Oh, he is about to drink at last--Soh!--he wipes his mouth, though,--and
dips his fingers in the ewer--and dries them, I profess, with the
napkin!--there is some grace in him, after all."

"Here is wussing all your vera gude healths!" said the youth of quality,
and took a draught in proportion to the solids which he had sent before;
he then flung his knife and fork awkwardly on the trencher, which he
pushed back towards the centre of the table, extended his feet beneath
it till they rested on their heels, folded his arms on his
well-replenished stomach, and, lolling back in his chair, looked much as
if he was about to whistle himself asleep.

"Soh!" said the knight--"the honourable Master Kernigo hath laid down
his arms.--Withdraw these things, and give us our glasses--Fill them
around, Joceline; and if the devil or the whole Parliament were within
hearing, let them hear Henry Lee of Ditchley drink a health to King
Charles, and confusion to his enemies!"

"Amen!" said a voice from behind the door.

All the company looked at each other in astonishment, at a response so
little expected. It was followed by a solemn and peculiar tap, such as a
kind of freemasonry had introduced among royalists, and by which they
were accustomed to make themselves and their principles known to each
other, when they met by accident.

"There is no danger," said Albert, knowing the sign--"it is a
friend;--yet I wish he had been at a greater distance just now."

"And why, my son, should you wish the absence of one true man, who may,
perhaps, wish to share our abundance, on one of those rare occasions
when we have superfluity at our disposal?--Go, Joceline, see who
knocks--and, if a safe man, admit him."

"And if otherwise," said Joceline, "methinks I shall be able to prevent
his troubling the good company."

"No violence, Joceline, on your life," said Albert Lee; and Alice
echoed, "For God's sake, no violence!"

"No unnecessary violence at least," said the good knight; "for if the
time demands it, I will have it seen that I am master of my own house."
Joceline Joliffe nodded assent to all parties, and went on tiptoe to
exchange one or two other mysterious symbols and knocks, ere he opened
the door. It, may be here remarked, that this species of secret
association, with its signals of union, existed among the more dissolute
and desperate class of cavaliers, men habituated to the dissipated life
which they had been accustomed to in an ill-disciplined army, where
everything like order and regularity was too apt to be accounted a badge
of puritanism. These were the "roaring boys" who met in hedge alehouses,
and when they had by any chance obtained a little money or a little
credit, determined to create a counter-revolution by declaring their
sittings permanent, and proclaimed, in the words of one of their
choicest ditties,--

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