River Legends; Or, Father Thames and Father Rhine
black owl of the castle. Not long, however, did he remain in the shape
in which his audience {216}were most accustomed to behold him. Throwing
back the head-dress and feathery cloak which begirt him, the figure of
a noble youth stood before the astonished witches. His head was thrown
back in contemptuous scorn, his eyes flashed with the indignation which
virtue always experiences in the presence of vice; he stretched forth
his hand, in which was grasped an ash stick, carefully peeled, so that
it shone fresh and white, and this he waved gently in the air as he
spoke in clear and sounding accents--“Vile hags!” he exclaimed; and as
he uttered the words, Dame Stokes, Mother Wandle, and Groody Tickleback
fell on their knees, whining and moaning in piteous tones--“Vile hags!
once more have ye presumed to tempt your fate by plotting and scheming
the destruction of my mannikins. The warning which ye had previously
received seems to have produced no effect whatever upon ye, and ye will
now have to endure the punishment ye have so well earned!”
As he spoke the old women grovelled on the earth at his feet, and
mumbled forth in low and beseeching accents, “Oh, sir! _please_ let us
off this time; just this once; it is the first time--we’ll never, never,
do it again. _Please_ ‘give us first fault’!”
This expression, always well known among witches, and intended to
express the forgiveness of an offence because of its being on that
occasion committed for the first time, appeared greatly to increase the
anger of the person addressed.
“First fault!” he exclaimed, indignantly, “why, how dare you utter such
a falsehood? You have been complained of a dozen times at least by my
mannikins, and I {217}have only spared you hitherto from a hope that you
might reform, and give up your evil practices. You have not only made
yourselves the pest of the whole place for a long time past, but you
have now for the second time projected an attack upon the castle which I
specially protect. First fault indeed! Two of you were well flogged
the other day, and there is now nothing for it but to send you away
altogether.”
At these words the wretched creatures burst into a howl of anguish, upon
which the young man waved his hand, and a burst of sound arose from
the invisible band, in which the tones of the bagpipe were distinctly
audible, and which completely drowned the cries of the miserable
witches. As soon as the latter and the music had ceased together, the
young man continued to speak in a voice as stern as clear--
“I have hesitated,” he said, “as to the precise punishment which I
should inflict upon each of you, for indeed I hardly know of any which
is sufficiently severe for the crimes which you have committed. I had
thought, indeed, of transforming you into shapes different from your
own, but still possessing human form, and causing you to experience in
them the greatest trouble and misery to which human life is subject. I
have still a great mind to do so. I am very much disposed to make one of
you a leader in the world of fashion, the second a Member of Parliament,
and the third the Head Master of a Public School, which is under the
control of a Governing Body.”
At this point such a dreadful shriek broke simultaneously from the three
witches, that the squirrels were obliged to be called in and ordered to
pelt them with nuts, {218}until they again crouched trembling but silent
on the ground before their judge.
“But,” continued he, without noticing the interruption, “it shall never
be said of me that I was guilty of unnecessary cruelty. There _are_,
I must own, punishments too severe even for crimes such as yours,
and among such these might possibly be included. As I am a great and
powerful, so am I a merciful fairy, and I shall not award you one iota
of suffering more than is your due. Dame Stokes of Datchet, though bad
enough, you are in some respects the best of the three. You have at
least, as a rule, preserved your natural form; and could you but have
persuaded yourself to give up that abominable, not to say ridiculous,
habit of riding on a broomstick, you might have passed through life with
all the ordinary comforts of an English peasant, and ended your days
in respectability and the parish workhouse. Since, however, you have
persisted in using as a horse that which was intended as a harmless
and useful domestic implement, you must pay the penalty of your
indiscretion. You will be changed into a donkey, and as such may remain
in your native place.”
Dame Stokes was just commencing a loud howl at the news of her impending
fate, when a gaily attired young mannikin stepped before the fairy,
and, making a low obeisance, craved leave to speak, which was at once
graciously accorded.
“Noble master,” said he, “if a poor mannikin may put in a word, is this
sentence one which requires any transformation at all? A person who,
being able to ride on anything else, chooses a broomstick, must
already be such {219}a donkey as to render a further change in the same
direction quite unnecessary.”
The great fairy smiled.
“Your words are true, my child,” he replied, “in one sense, but they
only tend to confirm the wisdom of my sentence. A donkey in thought and
action is not always a donkey in shape. Were it otherwise, the world
would be much more largely populated by those worthy and industrious
animals. It is no terrible fate to which I condemn the aged Stokes.
She will forthwith enter upon an existence in which she may render no
inconsiderable service to mortals, who, whilst they despise, will not
scruple to use her; and should she, as is highly probable, at any period
of time, become the property of an itinerant vendor of brooms, she will
have every chance of acquiring a further knowledge of the purposes to
which a broomstick may be properly applied.”
He spoke, and as he concluded, a change at once came over the figure
and appearance of Dame Stokes. Great ears sprung up on each side of her
head, which became at once altered and elongated into that of a donkey;
her body followed the example; a huge tail appeared in the usual
place allotted to such appendages, and in another moment she stood, a
veritable ass, before the assembled throng.
Then the young man turned to the terrified Mother Wandle, and sternly
addressed her in her turn.
“You,” he said, “though not so bad as the third, are worse than the
first of your party. Not content with your own shape (which I will,
however, own was not prepossessing), you have gone about the country
in disguise, and have, moreover, disgraced the family of bats (many of
{220}whom are honest and owl-fearing creatures) by-assuming the shape of
one of them, and in this form perpetrating your wicked deeds. Now one of
two things must be true. Either you were _not_ by rights a bat, and
had therefore no right to the shape of one, or, being a bat, you had no
business to disgrace the family. In either case you are equally guilty,
and your punishment must be proportionately severe. Since you have
evinced, by the most practical means within your power, the undoubted
preference which you cherish for the form of a bat, a bat you shall
remain for ever, and, once for all, quit that human shape which you have
so foolishly despised. Henceforth be your life that of the animal whom
you have loved to imitate in your midnight flittings. Behind shutters,
under eaves, beneath old boards and barn-sides be hidden, wretch, from
the face of the sun, and only come forth when the shades of evening
steal over the face of the earth. Shun the gaze of mankind, whom you
have only lived to annoy, and rank for the rest of your existence
amongst the most lowly and feeble of animals.”
He spoke, and, as in the case of Dame Stokes, the form and figure
of Mother Wandle changed even as he ceased speaking, and a huge and
unsightly bat occupied the place of the old woman, whilst a murmur
of applause and approval was uttered by all who witnessed the
transformation.
Then the owl-fairy turned upon the wretched Goody Tickleback, who stood
in gloomy silence awaiting the doom which she full well knew her crimes
had deserved, but which was not likely to be one whit more palatable on
that account.
“Vile {221}and degraded creature,” exclaimed the fairy, regarding the
object of his address with a stern and angry countenance, “you have
at last been brought to account for your numerous crimes, which exceed
those of your companions in guilt, and have rightly made you detested
by every one to whom you are known. You have gone on for a long time in
your nefarious course, unchecked by any consideration for those
innocent beings against whom your evil practices have been directed, and
undeterred either by the pangs of that remorse, which must at times have
overshadowed even such a hardened soul as yours, or by the fear of that
punishment which, though long deferred, was certain to arrive at last.
In your life you have exhibited the ferocity of a tiger, the cruelty of
an hyæna, and the craft of a serpent. A serpent therefore you shall
be for the future, and as you have, like the rest of your fraternity,
always entertained a great horror of water, you shall be consigned for
ever to that element, and become a sea-serpent for the rest of your
existence.”
A wild yell broke from Goody Tickleback as these words left the lips
of the royal fairy, and she burst forth into a desperate cry for a
mitigation of so terrible a sentence..
“Oh no! oh no!” she shrieked aloud in the madness of her despair; “not
that, not that, for mercy’s sake! anything but that! Make me a stone, or
a stick, or a good birch-rod if you will, great fairy. I promise I will
act up to my name, and tickle with good-will every back that comes under
me, if you will only make me this instead of a horrible snake. Oh do! oh
do! oh don’t----”
And {222}she ended her speech with a yell more awful than before as she
felt the dreadful transformation which had been awarded begin slowly but
surely to steal over her decrepit frame.
The fairy smiled coldly.
“Cruel to the last,” he observed. “The vile hag would be made an
instrument of torture in an inanimate shape, since she may no longer
torment people in her original form. But it may not be. The doom has
been pronounced, and already begins to take effect.”
Even as he spoke, the form of the old woman gradually changed into
that of an enormous sea-serpent, and her yells culminated in a fearful
hissing, from which the legions of valiant birds instinctively recoiled.
A scaly monster of the deep occupied the place--and rather more than the
place--lately filled by old Goody Tickle-back, and the last of the three
witches had now received her allotted punishment. The owl-fairy then
struck the ground sharply three times with his ashen stick, and each of
the three culprits departed different ways. The donkey stretched out its
tail, erected its ears, elevated its head, and gave vent to sundry of
those loud and discordant noises by which creatures of that particular
species are distinguished from other four-footed beasts. Then, looking
around once more, it slowly set off at a trot, which presently became
a galop; and, passing through the ranks of the bird and mannikin army,
which divided for its passage, took the direction of Datchet, and
hastened thither as fast as it could lay legs to the ground.
I will not follow the adventures of the poor beast any longer, though
I may as well tell you, Brother. Rhine, that {223}I know for a fact she
lingered in the same neighbourhood for a very long time. Indeed, not
many weeks since, whilst walking upon Dorney Common, I heard cries as
of an animal in distress, and, looking round, beheld a seller of brooms
vehemently belabouring a half-starved ass with a broomstick. The poor