The Yeoman Adventurer
I was ready for him and, stopping with the carving knife half-way through
a fine ham I was slicing, said, as if amazed, "Is what into the fire or
into the fender?"
"The chestnut," said he.
"The chestnut!" I retorted.
"Well, well! I don't blame you for your caution, sir. Sir James Blount
sounded me and I know you know my reply. Whether fire or fender will make
no difference to me, and I wouldn't miss to-day's duck-shoot to make it
either."
"I hope there'll be plenty of birds, and strong on the wing," said I.
This ended all the talk that passed between us on the great event that
had so strangely brought us together. He, the squire of half a dozen
villages, went duck-shooting while the destiny of England was being
settled just outside his own door.
For the second time Nance walked a space by my side to wish me good-bye.
"Nance, my sweet lass," said I, pulling Sultan up, "do you know that
dirty little ale-house near your home?"
"Where the painted woman lives, sir?"
"That very place! Now Swift Nicks is hiding there. Go back and tell the
Squire you can find Swift Nicks for him, and they'll fill your pinner with
guineas. You'll kiss me for a pinnerfull of guineas, won't you?"
"No, sir," said she very decidedly.
"Then kiss me, Nance, because, though we shall never meet again, we've
helped one another when we did meet."
She put her foot on mine, and I lifted her up in my arms and kissed her
red young lips and tear-stained cheeks.
"Good-bye, Nance!"
"Good-bye, sir. God bless you!"
At a bend in the road I turned to look at her again. She was standing
there, looking after me, and waved her bonnet in farewell. I took off my
hat and waved back, and then she was gone from sight.
"She's a good girl is Nance," said I aloud, "and you, curse you, are the
cause of all my troubles"--this to my new hat. My foppery had cost me
dear. What would the Prince say to my failure? What would Margaret say?
There would once more be questionings in her eyes, and the shadow of doubt
on her face.
"Curse you!" I said again to the hat, and then, with a swift, strong
sweep of my arm, sent it spinning into a brook.
Sultan showed his points. He did ten miles in fifty minutes by my watch,
accurate timing and counting from one milestone to another.
At last the broad Trent came in sight and I rattled over Swarkston
bridge, only to be pulled up on the other side by a strong post of
Highlanders. My luck still held, however, for Donald was amongst them,
and, on his explaining who I was, the chief in command let me pass.
Donald trotted by my side for half a mile to give me all the news. The
Prince had lain all night at Derby in the Earl of Exeter's house. There
had been many rumours and wranglings among the chiefs at night, a council
of war was fixed for this morning, and no one knew what it was all about.
There had been great doings overnight in the town, and he, Donald, had
stood guard at the Prince's lodging.
"She dinged 'em a', as I tell't ye she would," he said. "Losh, man, it
was a grand sight to see her an' the bonny Maclachlan gliding ower ta
flure in ta dancin'. They were like twa gowden eagles gliding in the air
ower a ben wi' ta sun shinin' on it. Losh, man, I tell it ye, they're a
bonny, bonny pair. Got pless 'em."
"Good-bye, Donald! I'll push on. Damn Swift Nicks!" I cried, and gave
Sultan such a dig in the flanks that he shot ahead like an arrow from a
bow. I was sorry immediately, but it was more than I could stand.
CHAPTER XX
THE COUNCIL AT DERBY
It was a relief to get into the chock-full streets of the town, where
thinking was impossible and good round cursing indispensable. Even with
its aid in clearing a course for him, Sultan tumbled over a brace of
Highlanders, two of a swarm of Maclachlans and Macdonalds who were
disputing possession of a cutler's shop on the corner of Bag Street. After
their native fashion, they immediately suspended their quarrel to unite
against a common foe, but on a Maclachlan recognizing me as a friend, went
at one another again with infinite zest, and I saw them hard at it as I
turned into the market-square.
Our meagre collection of cannon had been packed here with their
appendancies, and I was threading my way through them to the far side of
the square, where stands Exeter House, and was within a flick of a pebble
of it, when the Colonel ran out, bareheaded and eager, and came up to me.
"You young dog! What's happened?" said he.
"I've lost my hat, sir," I replied.
"Lost your--Damme! I'll have you court-martialled yet before I've done
with you. Off you come! Hello, my precious. Hitch him to the tail of yon
wagon and come along. The Prince saw you from the window. Steady, my
beauty! Come along, Noll! Fancy a town the size of this and not a damned
pinch of Strasburg in it!"
I hurried after him through the hall and up the stairs. Something big was
in hand beyond a doubt, for hall and stairs were thronged with groups of
Highland leaders, and in one set, somewhat apart, I saw Murray and
Ogilvie. The Colonel took no notice of the curious looks that were cast
upon us, particularly me, but, after a word with the chief on duty,
ushered me unceremoniously into the presence.
Charles was taking short turns up and down near the hearth, but stopped
as I bowed before him.
"You've failed me!" he said bitterly.
"I have carried out your Royal Highness's commands exactly, though, to my
deep regret, not punctually, but every hour I am late has been spent under
arrest. In riding on your business, sir, I have ridden up to the foot of
the gallows."
I spoke quietly but crisply, for I would not be girded at unjustly, no,
not by a prince. He took my meaning, and answered generously, "As I knew
you would, Master Wheatman, if need were."
The noble panelled room in which we were was set out with a long table
and many chairs. At the head of the table a mean-looking man was busily
writing. At the window two other men stood in earnest conversation, and
these, as I learned later, were the Irishmen, Sir Thomas Sheridan and
Colonel O'Sullivan.
"Leave your dispatch, Mr. Secretary, and come hither. And you, too,
gentlemen!" said Charles.
So, with the Prince sitting near the fire and the four leaders ranged
behind him, I stood and told my tale, cutting out all that was meaningless
from their point of view. As I had expected, there was no mistaking its
effect on him. I had indeed, come back empty-handed. Yet he pulled himself
together and said lightly, "Well, gentlemen, if the men of the Midlands
are not for me, they are certainly not against me."
"That is a strong point in your favour, sir," said O'Sullivan.
"When I've thrashed the Duke and got into London," said Charles, buoyed
up at once by any straw of comfort, "they'll be round me like wasps round
a honey-pot. I wasn't clear last night, but Master Wheatman has decided
me. I ride into London in Highland dress."
"I applaud the decision of Your Royal Highness," said the foxy secretary.
"It is a merited compliment to your brave clansmen." He afterwards ratted
and so helped to hang some of the best of them.
"Now for your dispatch to the Marquis," said Charles, going towards the
secretary's papers. "There's time to look at it before Murray and his
supports arrive." O'Sullivan walked softly to one of the windows
overlooking the square, and we followed him.
"Faith, Colonel," said he. "The game's up if we go on."
"It is," said the Colonel, tapping at his box. "Damn this rappee, Oliver.
I'd as lief sniff at sawdust."
"But if the Prince wants to go on, I back him up," added O'Sullivan.
"So do I," said Sir Thomas.
"So do I," echoed the Colonel, "but, damme, I shall tell him the precise
truth about the military aspect of the situation. One's my duty as a
soldier just as much as the other. I haven't the least objection to dying,
but be damned if I want my reputation to die with me. The most you can say
of rappee, Oliver, is that it's better than nothing."
"That's just what I've been thinking, sir," said I, with equal gravity,
"about my old hat."
"You're keeping that story for Margaret, you young dog, but she's bound
to tell me. I was out of bed till two o'clock this morning, listening to
her clatter about getting married quick, and walls of Troy, and ham and
eggs. She nearly prated the top of my head off, and did not kiss me
good-night till I'd told her for the seventeenth time that there was no
need to worry about you. Seventeen times"--a vigorous sniff and a merry
twinkle--"I counted 'em."
It was obvious nonsense, but it pained me.
"It was very kind of her, sir," I said at last.
"Humph!" said he, and turned to talk with the Irishmen. I kept a sharp
look out on the square below, hoping for a glimpse of Margaret, paying no
heed to the earnest conversation buzzing in my ear. Princes and dominions,
and marches and battles, were nothing to me as I stood there fighting for
mastery over myself.
I was pulled back from these slippery tracks of thought by the Colonel,
who gripped my arm and whispered, "Here they come, Oliver."
I looked to the door and saw the chiefs filing into the room, led by
Murray, with the greater ones immediately behind him and the others in due
degree, till the room was fairly crowded. Charles continued his colloguing
with Mr. Secretary while they disposed themselves according to their rank
in council, though the Duke of Perth was pleased to take his stand on the
hearth among some of the smaller sort. Sir Thomas Sheridan and Colonel
O'Sullivan left us and seated themselves nearer the Prince, and when they
had done so, and while there was still some noisy settling down to be
done, I whispered to the Colonel, "Oughtn't I to go out now, sir?"
"I'm for going on to London," said he, grinning at me with his eyes,
though he kept the face of a wooden image. "And first thing we do, Oliver,
we'll lead a desperate attack, you and I, on a tobacco-man's. Damme!
There's wagon-loads of Strasburg in London!"
"Suppose I start off now, sir, and mark down one or two of the primest."
"Suppose you stay where you are, lad," he replied. "You're here by
rights: first, because the Prince asked ye here and has not dismissed you,
and you never leave the presence of royalty till royalty kicks you out;
secondly"--pausing to take a pinch of rappee that would have lifted the
roof of my head off--"because you can't have less sense than some of these
chatterers. Council of war! Mob of parliament-men!"
Thus it came about that, thanks to Swift Nicks, I was present at the
great council which was to decide the fate of the Stuarts. I pushed behind
the Colonel, so that I could now and again steal a peep for Margaret. Just
at the last minute, with Charles lifting his eyes up to begin, the door
opened again to admit Maclachlan, red with the haste he had been making.
It made me grit my teeth to see him, for I knew why he was so hot. He had
been fluttering around Margaret, and so had lost count of time. Then I
stopped my gritting and started grinning. Much Margaret would think of a
man who neglected his soldiering to dangle at her apron-strings!
His Royal Highness, after his usual habit, opened the Council by stating
his own opinion.
"I have called you together, gentlemen," he said, "to consider our next
step. The question is: Shall we march west, cut the Duke's forces in two,
and so beat him, or, shall we take advantage of the fact that we are
nearer London than he is, press on, and take possession of the Capital? I
am strongly for the second plan."
"Damme, sir! Well put!" said the Colonel under his breath. And indeed it
was so well put that the chiefs looked rather hopelessly at one another,
for this was by no means the alternative that they had in mind. It was to