The Yeoman Adventurer
"Of a certainty," retorted the Colonel, "Margaret and one of your pipers
would be enough if we only had the townspeople to consider. There's no
game much easier than walking into a lion's den when the lion isn't there,
but it's pure foolishness to play the game till you're sure he's not at
home."
"Lion! What's to do here wi' lions?" asked Maclachlan.
"As I'm only a volunteer," answered the Colonel, "and not yet a man of
authority under the Prince's commission, which you are, I must ask your
leave to explain that our getting into Leek is a military problem. I grant
ye it's a little problem, since it wouldn't matter a pinch of snuff if we
marched in and every one of us was promptly hanged in the market-place.
But I undertook to make Oliver here a soldier, and, damme, what you want
to do isn't soldiership, and he'll only learn soldiership by mastering the
little problems first."
"Like sums at school," said I, whereat Margaret laughed aloud.
"Damme, you young rascal," stormed the Colonel, "if I'd got my commission
in my pocket, I'd put you under arrest for impertinence."
"With great respect, sir," I answered, "I beg to say that I understand
that, at a council of war, the youngest officer gives his opinion first."
"That's bowled you over, dad," said Margaret cheerfully.
"Damme, I'll bowl you off to Chester to-night," he retorted. "As sure as
a gun's a gun, you'll ruin Oliver. Stop grinning like an ape, sir, at that
jade's tricks, and listen to me."
"I'm thinking, sir," said Maclachlan, "that in my present responsible
position I would greatly value your observations on the matter in hand."
This was a clever remark so far as the Colonel was concerned, for he
would have talked to a viper about soldiering, but Maclachlan did not see,
and I did, the delicate little mouth that Margaret made.
"My observations are simply these," said the Colonel: "We do not know
where Murray is, we do not know where the Prince is, and we do not know
where the Duke of Devonshire is. Any one of them may be in Leek."
"And who may be the Duke of Devonshire?" asked the chief. "I've never
heard of him."
"One of Geordie's dandiprats, who has got together a big force of militia
at Derby, and who, if he's any pluck, may have forestalled us all by
marching to Leek."
"It's sair awkward," said Maclachlan, completely taken aback by the news.
"It is so," said the Colonel, "and seeing that Oliver knows the rules and
procedures of courts martial, he shall deliver his judgment first."
"Sir," said I, bowing low, "I would, with respect, suggest...."
I got no further, for Donald, who was within a yard of my elbow, suddenly
bounded into the air and let off a most astonishing yell. Then he ran up
and down, like a foxhound after a lost scent, gabbling away in Gaelic. The
clansmen put their hands to their ears, and their ears to the wind,
listening intently, whereon Donald ceased his capering and chattering, and
called out to us, "Ta pipes! Ta Prunce! Ta pipes! Ta Prunce!"
"Whist, ye auld fule," said the chief. "Ye're enough to deafen a clap of
thunder."
"I'm telling it ye, ta pipes! ta Prunce!" he babbled, and then fell
still, and we all listened.
The clansmen must have had ears like the bucks of their own mountains. I
could hear nothing but the soft sough of the breeze as it swept o'er the
rank grass of the moorlands, but they, Maclachlan as madly as any of them,
yelled their slogan, and the pipers filled their bags and blew fit to
burst. Like was calling to like across the wilds.
Margaret glowed with enthusiasm, and the Colonel's eyes sparkled as he
handed me the box for the customary pinch--a courtesy, I found by later
experience, he conferred on very few. Indeed, in my new trouble, the
kindness and affection of the Colonel were becoming my best stand-by.
"The great game's afoot, Oliver," he said.
"And we'll play it to the end, sir."
"Good lad," said he.
"Donald, ye auld skaicher," said Maclachlan, "get your bairns agait. The
Maclachlans are going to be last, where they should be first, at the
intaking of a town, but the Prince, God bless him, will think me balm in
Gilead when he sees the reinforcements I bring."
He was in high feather, and it interested me to watch in another the
tonic effect of Margaret's presence. I took no advantage of my capacity as
her body-servant, but leaped into my saddle and sat the sorrel like a
wooden image as he dodged about to get her horsed again and ready for the
road. He was, indeed, fit to serve a queen; the Highland fashion
marvellously well set off the clean, strong lines of his body, and the
single eagle's feather in his bonnet was the right sign to be waving over
him. The top-dog spirit was fast oozing out of me, and I sat there sourly
dusting the skirts of my poor country-tailor-made coat.
The men were lined up on the rough moorland track, Donald at their head,
and the two pipers filling their bags and fingering their chanters behind
him. Maclachlan took Margaret's rein and began to lead her mare up the
slope of the path, but the Colonel called to him and diverted his
attention, and she stopped beside me.
"Oliver," she said, "you must let me have your coat for half an hour when
we are settled in the town, so that I can mend it. The holes in it make me
shiver every time I see them."
"You are very kind, madam," said I, still dusting away, lest she should
see how my hand trembled.
"Oliver!"
She forced me to look at her now, she spoke so peremptorily, and when the
blue eyes met mine they were so clear and intent that I feared she might
read my secret.
"Smile!"
Smile! I was to smile, was I? And when our Kate got the news at the
Hanyards, the smile would die out of her eyes for ever, for Jack, dear,
splendid Jack, was the weft that had been woven into the warp of her being.
"I do not smile to order, madam," said I.
She flicked the mare sharply and cantered up to the level, whither
Maclachlan raced after her with the speed of a hound.
CHAPTER XVI
BONNIE PRINCE CHARLIE
On our way into the town a thing happened which greatly shook me, being,
as I was, nothing in the world but a small farmer who had never seen the
wars. At a point where the rough road cut across a fold in the moorlands
we saw, half a mile to our right, a herd of cattle being lashed and
chivvied away to the remoter crannies among the hills by a throng of
sweating hinds and fanners. Had it happened our way, thought I broodily,
Joe and I would be there among the like, saving our own stock from the
marauders. Donald looked at them longingly, but our haste brooked no
delay, and besides, as he put it to me later, "It's a puir town, but,
after a' said, better than a wheen lousy cattle, for I've come by a fine
pair o' progues for a twa-three bawbees."
Leek was as full of Highlanders as a wasp-cake is of maggots, and still
they were swarming in. Donald and the clansmen, indifferent to the crush
and hubbub, clave a way for us to the market-place, where, on the
Colonel's advice, they were dismissed to beat for billets. I then took
charge and led my companions across to the "Angel," where the throng was
so dense that they might have been giving the ale away.
To get the horses stabled and baited was easy enough, for few of the
Highlanders rode south, although it was different going north again. Then,
leading my companions into the yard, I pushed into the inn and, by good
hap, lighted on the host, nearly out of his five wits with trying to
understand one word of English in a score of Gaelic.
"Hello, surry!" said I.
"Gom!" said he, "Staffordsheer at last."
"I've heard a lot about Leek ale," said I. "Draw me a mug of it!"
He brought it in a trice, and his face beamed with honest pride as he
said, holding it up between my eyes and the light, "What do you think o'
that for colour and nap? Damn my bones! None of your London rot-gut,
master, but honest Staffordsheer ale. Damme, you can fairly chew the malt
in it."
"I'll bet you a guinea I've drunk better," said I, with the aleyard at my
lips.
"I'd bet on my own ale," said he, "if the 'Angel' was full of devils let
alone petticoats. An', as between friends, y'r 'onour, win or lose, dunna
tell my missus you've 'ad better ale than ourn."
I drank off his ale and said judiciously, "No, I haven't. That's the best
ale I've ever drunk," and handed him his guinea.
"This'n's a bit of fat along with the lean," said he, spinning the guinea
up in the air, and, countrywise, spitting on it for luck. "Be there owt I
can do for y'r, sir? A gentleman as knows good ale when he drinks it
shudna be neglected for a lot of bare-legged savages that 'anna as much
judgment in beer as a sow 'as in draff." He leaned towards me and added in
a whisper, "I'm giving 'em bouse I wudna wesh my mare's fetlocks in, an'
they're neckin' it as if it was my rale October."
"It was thundery in the summer," said I gravely, whereat he grinned
intelligently.
"Y'r 'onour's up to snuff," said he. "Be there owt I can do for y'r, sir?"
"Fetch the missus," said I, "and we'll talk."
The hostess came. Her cheeks were brown as her own ale, and we talked,
nineteen to the dozen, for at least ten minutes.
In the end I snapped up the best parlour overlooking the square for
Margaret's use, and bedrooms for each of us, paying a substantial
bargain-penny, for Mistress Waynflete had handed me back the bag of gold
Master Freake had given me. It would be necessary, I found, to oust two or
three bare-knees who had marked them for their own, but that could easily
be done, if, as was unlikely to be the case, they were sober enough at
night to crawl bedwards. These arrangements made, I pushed out and fetched
in Margaret, who was very grateful for what I had done, and went off to
her room, while we three men took our stand on the bricked causeway and
watched the doings in the square.
We saw two or three battalions swing into the square from the
Macclesfield road, and the Colonel scanned them keenly, and, as I thought,
anxiously. Even to my untrained eye they were a mixed lot; the bulk of
them, to be sure, were stout, active, well-armed fighting men, who marched
in fair order, six or eight abreast; but there were numbers of oldish men
and boys among them, and many were but indifferently armed.
"What do you number all told?" asked the Colonel.
Maclachlan answered in French. There was now no mistaking the gravity in
the Colonel's face, and he took snuff so thoughtfully that, for the first
time, he forgot me.
"Excuse me, my dear lad," said he, recovering himself and thrusting out
the box towards me. "I hope there's a tobacco-man in the town who sells
right Strasburg. I'm running out, and rappee and Brazil are mere rubbish
to the cultivated palate." Then, looking around the square, he added
cheerily, "Quite a show for the townsmen!"
Just in front of us, standing on the edge of the gutter, was a little,
ancient, distinguished dame, who had been watching the scene with quick,
avid eyes. She turned her fierce, scornful face up to the Colonel, and
said, "Yes, sir! You are right. It's a show, just a show, for the
townsmen. Yet I remember that, thirty years ago, the fathers of these
spiritless curs were as eager for the cause as is the eagle for his
quarry."
"So, madam," said the Colonel very gently.
"So, indeed," she returned. "But now, in their accursed grubbing for
money, they have rooted up every finer instinct, and they think only of
their tradings in silks with the Court ladies of London. Better a fine
gown sold to godless Caroline than a stout blow struck for God-anointed
James."
She was beyond doubt a lady of quality, but fallen on poverty and now,
worst of all to her, on evil, faithless days. As she stopped, short of