Lorna Doone: A Romance of Exmoor
Now this good Lord Churchill--for one might call him good, by comparison
with the very bad people around him--granted without any long hesitation
the order for my safe deliverance to the Court of King's Bench at
Westminster; and Stickles, who had to report in London, was empowered to
convey me, and made answerable for producing me. This arrangement would
have been entirely to my liking, although the time of year was bad for
leaving Plover's Barrows so; but no man may quite choose his times,
and on the while I would have been quite content to visit London, if my
mother could be warned that nothing was amiss with me, only a mild, and
as one might say, nominal captivity. And to prevent her anxiety, I did
my best to send a letter through good Sergeant Bloxham, of whom I heard
as quartered with Dumbarton's regiment at Chedzuy. But that regiment was
away in pursuit; and I was forced to entrust my letter to a man who said
that he knew him, and accepted a shilling to see to it.
For fear of any unpleasant change, we set forth at once for London; and
truly thankful may I be that God in His mercy spared me the sight of
the cruel and bloody work with which the whole country reeked and howled
during the next fortnight. I have heard things that set my hair on end,
and made me loathe good meat for days; but I make a point of setting
down only the things which I saw done; and in this particular case, not
many will quarrel with my decision. Enough, therefore, that we rode on
(for Stickles had found me a horse at last) as far as Wells, where we
slept that night; and being joined in the morning by several troopers
and orderlies, we made a slow but safe journey to London, by way of Bath
and Reading.
The sight of London warmed my heart with various emotions, such as a
cordial man must draw from the heart of all humanity. Here there are
quick ways and manners, and the rapid sense of knowledge, and the power
of understanding, ere a word be spoken. Whereas at Oare, you must say a
thing three times, very slowly, before it gets inside the skull of the
good man you are addressing. And yet we are far more clever there than
in any parish for fifteen miles.
But what moved me most, when I saw again the noble oil and tallow of the
London lights, and the dripping torches at almost every corner, and
the handsome signboards, was the thought that here my Lorna lived, and
walked, and took the air, and perhaps thought now and then of the old
days in the good farm-house. Although I would make no approach to her,
any more than she had done to me (upon which grief I have not dwelt, for
fear of seeming selfish), yet there must be some large chance, or the
little chance might be enlarged, of falling in with the maiden somehow,
and learning how her mind was set. If against me, all should be over. I
was not the man to sigh and cry for love, like a Romeo: none should even
guess my grief, except my sister Annie.
But if Lorna loved me still--as in my heart of hearts I hoped--then
would I for no one care, except her own delicious self. Rank and title,
wealth and grandeur, all should go to the winds, before they scared me
from my own true love.
Thinking thus, I went to bed in the centre of London town, and was
bitten so grievously by creatures whose name is “legion,” mad with the
delight of getting a wholesome farmer among them, that verily I was
ashamed to walk in the courtly parts of the town next day, having lumps
upon my face of the size of a pickling walnut. The landlord said that
this was nothing; and that he expected, in two days at the utmost,
a very fresh young Irishman, for whom they would all forsake me.
Nevertheless, I declined to wait, unless he could find me a hayrick to
sleep in; for the insects of grass only tickle. He assured me that no
hayrick could now be found in London; upon which I was forced to leave
him, and with mutual esteem we parted.
The next night I had better luck, being introduced to a decent widow, of
very high Scotch origin. That house was swept and garnished so, that
not a bit was left to eat, for either man or insect. The change of air
having made me hungry, I wanted something after supper; being quite
ready to pay for it, and showing my purse as a symptom. But the face of
Widow MacAlister, when I proposed to have some more food, was a thing to
be drawn (if it could be drawn further) by our new caricaturist.
Therefore I left her also; for liefer would I be eaten myself than have
nothing to eat; and so I came back to my old furrier; the which was
a thoroughly hearty man, and welcomed me to my room again, with two
shillings added to the rent, in the joy of his heart at seeing me. Being
under parole to Master Stickles, I only went out betwixt certain hours;
because I was accounted as liable to be called upon; for what purpose
I knew not, but hoped it might be a good one. I felt it a loss, and
a hindrance to me, that I was so bound to remain at home during the
session of the courts of law; for thereby the chance of ever beholding
Lorna was very greatly contracted, if not altogether annihilated. For
these were the very hours in which the people of fashion, and the high
world, were wont to appear to the rest of mankind, so as to encourage
them. And of course by this time, the Lady Lorna was high among people
of fashion, and was not likely to be seen out of fashionable hours. It
is true that there were some places of expensive entertainment, at which
the better sort of mankind might be seen and studied, in their hours of
relaxation, by those of the lower order, who could pay sufficiently. But
alas, my money was getting low; and the privilege of seeing my betters
was more and more denied to me, as my cash drew shorter. For a man must
have a good coat at least, and the pockets not wholly empty, before he
can look at those whom God has created for his ensample.
Hence, and from many other causes--part of which was my own pride--it
happened that I abode in London betwixt a month and five weeks' time,
ere ever I saw Lorna. It seemed unfit that I should go, and waylay
her, and spy on her, and say (or mean to say), “Lo, here is your poor
faithful farmer, a man who is unworthy of you, by means of his common
birth; and yet who dares to crawl across your path, that you may pity
him. For God's sake show a little pity, though you may not feel it.”
Such behaviour might be comely in a love-lorn boy, a page to some grand
princess; but I, John Ridd, would never stoop to the lowering of love
so.
Nevertheless I heard of Lorna, from my worthy furrier, almost every day,
and with a fine exaggeration. This honest man was one of those who in
virtue of their trade, and nicety of behaviour, are admitted into noble
life, to take measurements, and show patterns. And while so doing,
they contrive to acquire what is to the English mind at once the most
important and most interesting of all knowledge,--the science of being
able to talk about the titled people. So my furrier (whose name was
Ramsack), having to make robes for peers, and cloaks for their wives and
otherwise, knew the great folk, sham or real, as well as he knew a fox
or skunk from a wolverine skin.
And when, with some fencing and foils of inquiry, I hinted about Lady
Lorna Dugal, the old man's face became so pleasant that I knew her birth
must be wondrous high. At this my own countenance fell, I suppose,--for
the better she was born, the harder she would be to marry--and mistaking
my object, he took me up:--
“Perhaps you think, Master Ridd, that because her ladyship, Lady Lorna
Dugal, is of Scottish origin, therefore her birth is not as high as of
our English nobility. If you think so you are wrong, sir. She comes
not of the sandy Scotch race, with high cheek-bones, and raw
shoulder-blades, who set up pillars in their courtyards. But she comes
of the very best Scotch blood, descended from the Norsemen. Her mother
was of the very noblest race, the Lords of Lorne; higher even than the
great Argyle, who has lately made a sad mistake, and paid for it most
sadly. And her father was descended from the King Dugal, who fought
against Alexander the Great. No, no, Master Ridd; none of your
promiscuous blood, such as runs in the veins of half our modern
peerage.”
“Why should you trouble yourself about it, Master Ramsack?” I replied:
“let them all go their own ways: and let us all look up to them, whether
they come by hook or crook.”
“Not at all, not at all, my lad. That is not the way to regard it. We
look up at the well-born men, and side-ways at the base-born.”
“Then we are all base-born ourselves. I will look up to no man, except
for what himself has done.”
“Come, Master Ridd, you might be lashed from Newgate to Tyburn and back
again, once a week, for a twelvemonth, if some people heard you. Keep
your tongue more close, young man; or here you lodge no longer; albeit
I love your company, which smells to me of the hayfield. Ah, I have not
seen a hayfield for nine-and-twenty years, John Ridd. The cursed moths
keep me at home, every day of the summer.”
“Spread your furs on the haycocks,” I answered very boldly: “the indoor
moth cannot abide the presence of the outdoor ones.”
“Is it so?” he answered: “I never thought of that before. And yet I
have known such strange things happen in the way of fur, that I can
well believe it. If you only knew, John, the way in which they lay their
eggs, and how they work tail-foremost--”
“Tell me nothing of the kind,” I replied, with equal confidence: “they
cannot work tail-foremost; and they have no tails to work with.” For I
knew a little about grubs, and the ignorance concerning them, which
we have no right to put up with. However, not to go into that (for the
argument lasted a fortnight; and then was only come so far as to begin
again), Master Ramsack soon convinced me of the things I knew already;
the excellence of Lorna's birth, as well as her lofty place at Court,
and beauty, and wealth, and elegance. But all these only made me sigh,
and wish that I were born to them.
From Master Ramsack I discovered that the nobleman to whose charge Lady
Lorna had been committed, by the Court of Chancery, was Earl Brandir
of Lochawe, her poor mother's uncle. For the Countess of Dugal was
daughter, and only child, of the last Lord Lorne, whose sister had
married Sir Ensor Doone; while he himself had married the sister of
Earl Brandir. This nobleman had a country house near the village of
Kensington; and here his niece dwelled with him, when she was not in
attendance on Her Majesty the Queen, who had taken a liking to her.
Now since the King had begun to attend the celebration of mass, in the
chapel at Whitehall--and not at Westminster Abbey, as our gossips had
averred--he had given order that the doors should be thrown open, so
that all who could make interest to get into the antechamber, might see
this form of worship. Master Ramsack told me that Lorna was there almost
every Sunday; their Majesties being most anxious to have the presence
of all the nobility of the Catholic persuasion, so as to make a goodly
show. And the worthy furrier, having influence with the door-keepers,
kindly obtained admittance for me, one Sunday, into the antechamber.
Here I took care to be in waiting, before the Royal procession entered;
but being unknown, and of no high rank, I was not allowed to stand
forward among the better people, but ordered back into a corner very
dark and dismal; the verger remarking, with a grin, that I could see
over all other heads, and must not set my own so high. Being frightened
to find myself among so many people of great rank and gorgeous apparel,
I blushed at the notice drawn upon me by this uncourteous fellow; and
silently fell back into the corner by the hangings.