Lorna Doone: A Romance of Exmoor
stint in the matter, but had assembled at our house, immediately upon
knowledge of what was to be about London, every man known to be a good
stitcher upon our side of Exmoor. And for three days they had
worked their best, without stint of beer or cider, according to the
constitution of each. The result, so they all declared, was such as to
create admiration, and defy competition in London. And to me it seemed
that they were quite right; though Jeremy Stickles turned up his nose,
and feigned to be deaf in the business.
Now be that matter as you please--for the point is not worth
arguing--certain it is that my appearance was better than it had been
before. For being in the best clothes, one tries to look and to act
(so far as may be) up to the quality of them. Not only for the fear of
soiling them, but that they enlarge a man's perception of his value. And
it strikes me that our sins arise, partly from disdain of others, but
mainly from contempt of self, both working the despite of God. But men
of mind may not be measured by such paltry rule as this.
By dinner-time we arrived at Porlock, and dined with my old friend,
Master Pooke, now growing rich and portly. For though we had plenty of
victuals with us we were not to begin upon them, until all chance of
victualling among our friends was left behind. And during that first day
we had no need to meddle with our store at all; for as had been settled
before we left home, we lay that night at Dunster in the house of
a worthy tanner, first cousin to my mother, who received us very
cordially, and undertook to return old Smiler to his stable at Plover's
Barrows, after one day's rest.
Thence we hired to Bridgwater; and from Bridgwater on to Bristowe,
breaking the journey between the two. But although the whole way was so
new to me, and such a perpetual source of conflict, that the remembrance
still abides with me, as if it were but yesterday, I must not be so long
in telling as it was in travelling, or you will wish me farther;
both because Lorna was nothing there, and also because a man in our
neighbourhood had done the whole of it since my time, and feigns to
think nothing of it. However, one thing, in common justice to a person
who has been traduced, I am bound to mention. And this is, that being
two of us, and myself of such magnitude, we never could have made our
journey without either fight or running, but for the free pass which
dear Annie, by some means (I know not what), had procured from Master
Faggus. And when I let it be known, by some hap, that I was the own
cousin of Tom Faggus, and honoured with his society, there was not
a house upon the road but was proud to entertain me, in spite of my
fellow-traveller, bearing the red badge of the King.
“I will keep this close, my son Jack,” he said, having stripped it off
with a carving-knife; “your flag is the best to fly. The man who starved
me on the way down, the same shall feed me fat going home.”
Therefore we pursued our way, in excellent condition, having thriven
upon the credit of that very popular highwayman, and being surrounded
with regrets that he had left the profession, and sometimes begged to
intercede that he might help the road again. For all the landlords on
the road declared that now small ale was drunk, nor much of spirits
called for, because the farmers need not prime to meet only common
riders, neither were these worth the while to get drunk with afterwards.
Master Stickles himself undertook, as an officer of the King's Justices
to plead this case with Squire Faggus (as everybody called him now), and
to induce him, for the general good, to return to his proper ministry.
It was a long and weary journey, although the roads are wondrous good on
the farther side of Bristowe, and scarcely any man need be bogged, if he
keeps his eyes well open, save, perhaps, in Berkshire. In consequence
of the pass we had, and the vintner's knowledge of it, we only met
two public riders, one of whom made off straightway when he saw my
companion's pistols and the stout carbine I bore; and the other came to
a parley with us, and proved most kind and affable, when he knew
himself in the presence of the cousin of Squire Faggus. “God save you,
gentlemen,” he cried, lifting his hat politely; “many and many a happy
day I have worked this road with him. Such times will never be again.
But commend me to his love and prayers. King my name is, and King my
nature. Say that, and none will harm you.” And so he made off down the
hill, being a perfect gentleman, and a very good horse he was riding.
The night was falling very thick by the time we were come to Tyburn, and
here the King's officer decided that it would be wise to halt, because
the way was unsafe by night across the fields to Charing village. I for
my part was nothing loth, and preferred to see London by daylight.
And after all, it was not worth seeing, but a very hideous and dirty
place, not at all like Exmoor. Some of the shops were very fine, and
the signs above them finer still, so that I was never weary of standing
still to look at them. But in doing this there was no ease; for before
one could begin almost to make out the meaning of them, either some
of the wayfarers would bustle and scowl, and draw their swords, or the
owner, or his apprentice boys, would rush out and catch hold of me,
crying, “Buy, buy, buy! What d'ye lack, what d'ye lack? Buy, buy, buy!”
At first I mistook the meaning of this--for so we pronounce the word
“boy” upon Exmoor--and I answered with some indignation, “Sirrah, I am
no boy now, but a man of one-and-twenty years; and as for lacking, I
lack naught from thee, except what thou hast not--good manners.”
The only things that pleased me much, were the river Thames, and the
hall and church of Westminster, where there are brave things to be seen,
and braver still to think about. But whenever I wandered in the streets,
what with the noise the people made, the number of the coaches, the
running of the footmen, the swaggering of great courtiers, and the
thrusting aside of everybody, many and many a time I longed to be back
among the sheep again, for fear of losing temper. They were welcome to
the wall for me, as I took care to tell them, for I could stand without
the wall, which perhaps was more than they could do. Though I said this
with the best intention, meaning no discourtesy, some of them were vexed
at it; and one young lord, being flushed with drink, drew his sword and
made at me. But I struck it up with my holly stick, so that it flew on
the roof of a house, then I took him by the belt with one hand, and laid
him in the kennel. This caused some little disturbance; but none of the
rest saw fit to try how the matter might be with them.
Now this being the year of our Lord 1683, more than nine years and a
half since the death of my father, and the beginning of this history,
all London was in a great ferment about the dispute between the Court of
the King and the City. The King, or rather perhaps his party (for they
said that His Majesty cared for little except to have plenty of money
and spend it), was quite resolved to be supreme in the appointment of
the chief officers of the corporation. But the citizens maintained that
(under their charter) this right lay entirely with themselves; upon
which a writ was issued against them for forfeiture of their charter;
and the question was now being tried in the court of His Majesty's
bench.
This seemed to occupy all the attention of the judges, and my case
(which had appeared so urgent) was put off from time to time, while
the Court and the City contended. And so hot was the conflict and hate
between them, that a sheriff had been fined by the King in 100,000
pounds, and a former lord mayor had even been sentenced to the pillory,
because he would not swear falsely. Hence the courtiers and the citizens
scarce could meet in the streets with patience, or without railing and
frequent blows.
Now although I heard so much of this matter, for nothing else was talked
of, and it seeming to me more important even than the churchwardenship
of Oare, I could not for the life of me tell which side I should take
to. For all my sense of position, and of confidence reposed in me, and
of my father's opinions, lay heavily in one scale, while all my reason
and my heart went down plump against injustice, and seemed to win the
other scale. Even so my father had been, at the breaking out of the
civil war, when he was less than my age now, and even less skilled in
politics; and my mother told me after this, when she saw how I myself
was doubting, and vexed with myself for doing so, that my father used
to thank God often that he had not been called upon to take one side or
other, but might remain obscure and quiet. And yet he always considered
himself to be a good, sound Royalist.
But now as I stayed there, only desirous to be heard and to get away,
and scarcely even guessing yet what was wanted of me (for even Jeremy
Stickles knew not, or pretended not to know), things came to a dreadful
pass between the King and all the people who dared to have an opinion.
For about the middle of June, the judges gave their sentence, that the
City of London had forfeited its charter, and that its franchise should
be taken into the hands of the King. Scarcely was this judgment forth,
and all men hotly talking of it, when a far worse thing befell. News of
some great conspiracy was spread at every corner, and that a man in the
malting business had tried to take up the brewer's work, and lop the
King and the Duke of York. Everybody was shocked at this, for the King
himself was not disliked so much as his advisers; but everybody was more
than shocked, grieved indeed to the heart with pain, at hearing that
Lord William Russell and Mr. Algernon Sidney had been seized and sent to
the Tower of London, upon a charge of high treason.
Having no knowledge of these great men, nor of the matter how far it was
true, I had not very much to say about either of them or it; but this
silence was not shared (although the ignorance may have been) by the
hundreds of people around me. Such a commotion was astir, such universal
sense of wrong, and stern resolve to right it, that each man grasped his
fellow's hand, and led him into the vintner's. Even I, although at that
time given to excess in temperance, and afraid of the name of cordials,
was hard set (I do assure you) not to be drunk at intervals without
coarse discourtesy.
However, that (as Betty Muxworthy used to say, when argued down, and
ready to take the mop for it) is neither here nor there. I have naught
to do with great history and am sorry for those who have to write it;
because they are sure to have both friends and enemies in it, and cannot
act as they would towards them, without damage to their own consciences.
But as great events draw little ones, and the rattle of the churn
decides the uncertainty of the flies, so this movement of the town, and
eloquence, and passion had more than I guessed at the time, to do with
my own little fortunes. For in the first place it was fixed (perhaps
from down right contumely, because the citizens loved him so) that Lord
Russell should be tried neither at Westminster nor at Lincoln's Inn, but
at the Court of Old Bailey, within the precincts of the city. This kept
me hanging on much longer; because although the good nobleman was to be
tried by the Court of Common Pleas, yet the officers of King's Bench, to
whom I daily applied myself, were in counsel with their fellows, and put
me off from day to day.
Now I had heard of the law's delays, which the greatest of all great
poets (knowing much of the law himself, as indeed of everything) has
specially mentioned, when not expected, among the many ills of life. But