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CHAPTER XXXII
FEEDING OF THE PIGS
The story told by John Fry that night, and my
conviction of its truth, made me very uneasy,
especially as following upon the warning of Judge
Jeffreys, and the hints received from Jeremy Stickles,
and the outburst of the tanner at Dunster, as well as
sundry tales and rumours, and signs of secret
understanding, seen and heard on market-days, and at
places of entertainment. We knew for certain that at
Taunton, Bridgwater, and even Dulverton, there was much
disaffection towards the King, and regret for the days
of the Puritans. Albeit I had told the truth, and the
pure and simple truth, when, upon my examination, I
had assured his lordship, that to the best of my knowledge
there was nothing of the sort with us.
But now I was beginning to doubt whether I might not
have been mistaken; especially when we heard, as we
did, of arms being landed at Lynmouth, in the dead of
the night, and of the tramp of men having reached some
one's ears, from a hill where a famous echo was. For
it must be plain to any conspirator (without the
example of the Doones) that for the secret muster of
men and the stowing of unlawful arms, and communication
by beacon lights, scarcely a fitter place could be
found than the wilds of Exmoor, with deep ravines
running far inland from an unwatched and mostly a
sheltered sea. For the Channel from Countisbury
Foreland up to Minehead, or even farther, though rocky,
and gusty, and full of currents, is safe from great
rollers and the sweeping power of the south-west
storms, which prevail with us more than all the others,
and make sad work on the opposite coast.
But even supposing it probable that something against
King Charles the Second (or rather against his Roman
advisers, and especially his brother) were now in
preparation amongst us, was it likely that Master
Huckaback, a wealthy man, and a careful one, known
moreover to the Lord Chief Justice, would have anything
to do with it? To this I could make no answer; Uncle
Ben was so close a man, so avaricious, and so
revengeful, that it was quite impossible to say what
course he might pursue, without knowing all the chances
of gain, or rise, or satisfaction to him. That he
hated the Papists I knew full well, though he never
spoke much about them; also that he had followed the
march of Oliver Cromwell's army, but more as a suttler
(people said) than as a real soldier; and that he would
go a long way, and risk a great deal of money, to have
his revenge on the Doones; although their name never
passed his lips during the present visit.
But how was it likely to be as to the Doones
themselves? Which side would they probably take in the
coming movement, if movement indeed it would be? So
far as they had any religion at all, by birth they were
Roman Catholics--so much I knew from Lorna; and indeed
it was well known all around, that a priest had been
fetched more than once to the valley, to soothe some
poor outlaw's departure. On the other hand, they were
not likely to entertain much affection for the son of
the man who had banished them and confiscated their
property. And it was not at all impossible that desperate
men, such as they were, having nothing to lose, but estates
to recover, and not being held by religion much, should
cast away all regard for the birth from which they had
been cast out, and make common cause with a Protestant
rising, for the chance of revenge and replacement.
However I do not mean to say that all these things
occurred to me as clearly as I have set them down; only
that I was in general doubt, and very sad perplexity.
For mother was so warm, and innocent, and kind so to
every one, that knowing some little by this time of the
English constitution, I feared very greatly lest she
should be punished for harbouring malcontents. As well
as possible I knew, that if any poor man came to our
door, and cried, 'Officers are after me; for God's sake
take and hide me,' mother would take him in at once,
and conceal, and feed him, even though he had been very
violent; and, to tell the truth, so would both my
sisters, and so indeed would I do. Whence it will be
clear that we were not the sort of people to be safe
among disturbances.
Before I could quite make up my mind how to act in this
difficulty, and how to get at the rights of it (for I
would not spy after Uncle Reuben, though I felt no
great fear of the Wizard's Slough, and none of the man
with the white night-cap), a difference came again upon
it, and a change of chances. For Uncle Ben went away
as suddenly as he first had come to us, giving no
reason for his departure, neither claiming the pony,
and indeed leaving something behind him of great value
to my mother. For he begged her to see to his young
grand-daughter, until he could find opportunity of
fetching her safely to Dulverton. Mother was overjoyed
at this, as she could not help displaying; and Ruth was
quite as much delighted, although she durst not show
it. For at Dulverton she had to watch and keep such
ward on the victuals, and the in and out of the
shopmen, that it went entirely against her heart, and
she never could enjoy herself. Truly she was an
altered girl from the day she came to us; catching our
unsuspicious manners, and our free goodwill, and hearty
noise of laughing.
By this time, the harvest being done, and the thatching
of the ricks made sure against south-western tempests,
and all the reapers being gone, with good money and
thankfulness, I began to burn in spirit for the sight
of Lorna. I had begged my sister Annie to let Sally
Snowe know, once for all, that it was not in my power
to have any thing more to do with her. Of course our
Annie was not to grieve Sally, neither to let it appear
for a moment that I suspected her kind views upon me,
and her strong regard for our dairy: only I thought it
right upon our part not to waste Sally's time any
longer, being a handsome wench as she was, and many
young fellows glad to marry her.
And Annie did this uncommonly well, as she herself told
me afterwards, having taken Sally in the sweetest
manner into her pure confidence, and opened half her
bosom to her, about my very sad love affair. Not that
she let Sally know, of course, who it was, or what it
was; only that she made her understand, without hinting
at any desire of it, that there was no chance now of
having me. Sally changed colour a little at this, and
then went on about a red cow which had passed seven
needles at milking time.
Inasmuch as there are two sorts of month well
recognised by the calendar, to wit the lunar and the
solar, I made bold to regard both my months, in the
absence of any provision, as intended to be strictly
lunar. Therefore upon the very day when the eight
weeks were expiring forth I went in search of Lorna,
taking the pearl ring hopefully, and all the new-laid
eggs I could find, and a dozen and a half of small
trout from our brook. And the pleasure it gave me to
catch those trout, thinking as every one came forth and
danced upon the grass, how much she would enjoy him, is
more than I can now describe, although I well remember
it. And it struck me that after accepting my ring, and
saying how much she loved me, it was possible that my
Queen might invite me even to stay and sup with her:
and so I arranged with dear Annie beforehand, who was
now the greatest comfort to me, to account for my
absence if I should be late.
But alas, I was utterly disappointed; for although I
waited and waited for hours, with an equal amount both
of patience and peril, no Lorna ever appeared at all,
nor even the faintest sign of her. And another thing
occurred as well, which vexed me more than it need have
done, for so small a matter. And this was that my little
offering of the trout and the new-laid eggs was carried
off in the coolest manner by that vile Carver Doone. For
thinking to keep them the fresher and nicer, away from so
much handling, I laid them in a little bed of reeds by the
side of the water, and placed some dog-leaves over them.
And when I had quite forgotten about them, and was watching
from my hiding-place beneath the willow-tree (for I liked
not to enter Lorna's bower, without her permission; except
just to peep that she was not there), and while I was turning
the ring in my pocket, having just seen the new moon, I
became aware of a great man coming eisurely down the valley.
He had a broad-brimmed hat, and a leather jerkin, and heavy
jack-boots to his middle thigh, and what was worst of all
for me, on his shoulder he bore a long carbine. Having
nothing to meet him withal but my staff, and desiring to
avoid disturbance, I retired promptly into the chasm,
keeping the tree betwixt us that he might not descry me,
and watching from behind the jut of a rock, where now I
had scraped myself a neat little hole for the purpose.
Presently the great man reappeared, being now within
fifty yards of me, and the light still good enough, as
he drew nearer for me to descry his features: and
though I am not a judge of men's faces, there was
something in his which turned me cold, as though with a
kind of horror. Not that it was an ugly face; nay,
rather it seemed a handsome one, so far as mere form
and line might go, full of strength, and vigour, and
will, and steadfast resolution. From the short black
hair above the broad forehead, to the long black beard
descending below the curt, bold chin, there was not any
curve or glimpse of weakness or of afterthought.
Nothing playful, nothing pleasant, nothing with a track
of smiles; nothing which a friend could like, and laugh
at him for having. And yet he might have been a good
man (for I have known very good men so fortified by
their own strange ideas of God): I say that he might
have seemed a good man, but for the cold and cruel
hankering of his steel-blue eyes.
Now let no one suppose for a minute that I saw all this
in a moment; for I am very slow, and take a long time
to digest things; only I like to set down, and have
done with it, all the results of my knowledge, though
they be not manifold. But what I said to myself, just
then, was no more than this: 'What a fellow to have
Lorna!' Having my sense of right so outraged (although,
of course, I would never allow her to go so far as
that), I almost longed that he might thrust his head in
to look after me. For there I was, with my ash staff
clubbed, ready to have at him, and not ill inclined to
do so; if only he would come where strength, not
firearms, must decide it. However, he suspected
nothing of my dangerous neighbourhood, but walked his
round like a sentinel, and turned at the brink of the
water.
Then as he marched back again, along the margin of the
stream, he espied my little hoard, covered up with
dog-leaves. He saw that the leaves were upside down,
and this of course drew his attention. I saw him
stoop, and lay bare the fish, and the eggs set a little
way from them and in my simple heart, I thought that
now he knew all about me. But to my surprise, he
seemed well-pleased; and his harsh short laughter came
to me without echo,--
'Ha, ha! Charlie boy! Fisherman Charlie, have I caught
thee setting bait for Lorna? Now, I understand thy
fishings, and the robbing of Counsellor's hen roost.
May I never have good roasting, if I have it not
to-night and roast thee, Charlie, afterwards!'
With this he calmly packed up my fish, and all the best
of dear Annie's eggs; and went away chuckling
steadfastly, to his home, if one may call it so. But I
was so thoroughly grieved and mortified by this most
impudent robbery, that I started forth from my rocky
screen with the intention of pursuing him, until my better sense
arrested me, barely in time to escape his eyes. For I
said to myself, that even supposing I could contend
unarmed with him, it would be the greatest folly in the
world to have my secret access known, and perhaps a
fatal barrier placed between Lorna and myself, and I
knew not what trouble brought upon her, all for the
sake of a few eggs and fishes. It was better to bear
this trifling loss, however ignominious and goading to
the spirit, than to risk my love and Lorna's welfare, and
perhaps be shot into the bargain. And I think that all
will agree with me, that I acted for the wisest, in
withdrawing to my shelter, though deprived of eggs and
fishes.
Having waited (as I said) until there was no chance
whatever of my love appearing, I hastened homeward very
sadly; and the wind of early autumn moaned across the
moorland. All the beauty of the harvest, all the
gaiety was gone, and the early fall of dusk was like a
weight upon me. Nevertheless, I went every evening
thenceforward for a fortnight; hoping, every time in
vain to find my hope and comfort. And meanwhile, what
perplexed me most was that the signals were replaced,
in order as agreed upon, so that Lorna could scarcely
be restrained by any rigour.
One time I had a narrow chance of being shot and
settled with; and it befell me thus. I was waiting
very carelessly, being now a little desperate, at the
entrance to the glen, instead of watching through my
sight-hole, as the proper practice was. Suddenly a
ball went by me, with a whizz and whistle, passing
through my hat and sweeping it away all folded up. My
soft hat fluttered far down the stream, before I had
time to go after it, and with the help of both wind and
water, was fifty yards gone in a moment. At this I had
just enough mind left to shrink back very suddenly, and
lurk very still and closely; for I knew what a narrow
escape it had been, as I heard the bullet, hard set by
the powder, sing mournfully down the chasm, like a
drone banished out of the hive. And as I peered
through my little cranny, I saw a wreath of smoke still
floating where the thickness was of the withy-bed; and
presently Carver Doone came forth, having stopped to
reload his piece perhaps, and ran very swiftly to the
entrance to see what he had shot.
Sore trouble had I to keep close quarters, from the
slipperiness of the stone beneath me with the water
sliding over it. My foe came quite to the verge of the
fall, where the river began to comb over; and there he
stopped for a minute or two, on the utmost edge of dry
land, upon the very spot indeed where I had fallen
senseless when I clomb it in my boyhood. I could hear
him breathing hard and grunting, as in doubt and
discontent, for he stood within a yard of me, and I
kept my right fist ready for him, if he should discover
me. Then at the foot of the waterslide, my black hat
suddenly appeared, tossing in white foam, and
fluttering like a raven wounded. Now I had doubted
which hat to take, when I left home that day; till I
thought that the black became me best, and might seem
kinder to Lorna.
'Have I killed thee, old bird, at last?' my enemy cried
in triumph; ''tis the third time I have shot at thee,
and thou wast beginning to mock me. No more of thy
cursed croaking now, to wake me in the morning. Ha,
ha! there are not many who get three chances from
Carver Doone; and none ever go beyond it.'
I laughed within myself at this, as he strode away in
his triumph; for was not this his third chance of me,
and he no whit the wiser? And then I thought that
perhaps the chance might some day be on the other side.
For to tell the truth, I was heartily tired of lurking
and playing bo-peep so long; to which nothing could
have reconciled me, except my fear for Lorna. And here
I saw was a man of strength fit for me to encounter,
such as I had never met, but would be glad to meet
with; having found no man of late who needed not my
mercy at wrestling, or at single-stick. And growing
more and more uneasy, as I found no Lorna, I would have
tried to force the Doone Glen from the upper end, and
take my chance of getting back, but for Annie and her
prayers.
Now that same night I think it was, or at any rate the
next one, that I noticed Betty Muxworthy going on most
strangely. She made the queerest signs to me, when
nobody was looking, and laid her fingers on her lips,
and pointed over her shoulder. But I took little heed
of her, being in a kind of dudgeon, and oppressed with
evil luck; believing too that all she wanted was to
have some little grumble about some petty grievance.
But presently she poked me with the heel of a
fire-bundle, and passing close to my ear whispered, so
that none else could hear her, 'Larna Doo-un.'
By these words I was so startled, that I turned round
and stared at her; but she pretended not to know it,
and began with all her might to scour an empty crock
with a besom.
'Oh, Betty, let me help you! That work is much too hard
for you,' I cried with a sudden chivalry, which only
won rude answer.
'Zeed me adooing of thic, every naight last ten year,
Jan, wiout vindin' out how hard it wor. But if zo bee
thee wants to help, carr peg's bucket for me. Massy,
if I ain't forgotten to fade the pegs till now.'
Favouring me with another wink, to which I now paid the
keenest heed, Betty went and fetched the lanthorn from
the hook inside the door. Then when she had kindled
it, not allowing me any time to ask what she was after,
she went outside, and pointed to the great bock of
wash, and riddlings, and brown hulkage (for we ground
our own corn always), and though she knew that Bill
Dadds and Jem Slocombe had full work to carry it on a
pole (with another to help to sling it), she said to me
as quietly as a maiden might ask one to carry a glove,
'Jan Ridd, carr thic thing for me.'
So I carried it for her, without any words; wondering
what she was up to next, and whether she had ever heard
of being too hard on the willing horse. And when we
came to hog-pound, she turned upon me suddenly, with
the lanthorn she was bearing, and saw that I had the
bock by one hand very easily.
'Jan Ridd,' she said, 'there be no other man in England
cud a' dood it. Now thee shalt have Larna.'
While I was wondering how my chance of having Lorna
could depend upon my power to carry pig's wash, and how
Betty could have any voice in the matter (which seemed
to depend upon her decision), and in short, while I was
all abroad as to her knowledge and everything, the
pigs, who had been fast asleep and dreaming in their
emptiness, awoke with one accord at the goodness of the
smell around them. They had resigned themselves, as
even pigs do, to a kind of fast, hoping to break their
fast more sweetly on the morrow morning. But now they
tumbled out all headlong, pigs below and pigs above,
pigs point-blank and pigs across, pigs courant and pigs
rampant, but all alike prepared to eat, and all in good
cadence squeaking.
'Tak smarl boocket, and bale un out; wad 'e waste sich
stoof as thic here be?' So Betty set me to feed the
pigs, while she held the lanthorn; and knowing what she
was, I saw that she would not tell me another word
until all the pigs were served. And in truth no man
could well look at them, and delay to serve them, they
were all expressing appetite in so forcible a manner;
some running to and fro, and rubbing, and squealing as
if from starvation, some rushing down to the oaken
troughs, and poking each other away from them; and the
kindest of all putting up their fore-feet on the
top-rail on the hog-pound, and blinking their little
eyes, and grunting prettily to coax us; as who would
say, 'I trust you now; you will be kind, I know, and
give me the first and the very best of it.'
'Oppen ge-at now, wull 'e, Jan? Maind, young sow wi'
the baible back arlway hath first toorn of it, 'cos I
brought her up on my lap, I did. Zuck, zuck, zuck! How
her stickth her tail up; do me good to zee un! Now
thiccy trough, thee zany, and tak thee girt legs out o'
the wai. Wish they wud gie thee a good baite, mak thee
hop a bit vaster, I reckon. Hit that there girt
ozebird over's back wi' the broomstick, he be robbing
of my young zow. Choog, choog, choog! and a drap more
left in the dripping-pail.'
'Come now, Betty,' I said, when all the pigs were at it
sucking, swilling, munching, guzzling, thrusting, and
ousting, and spilling the food upon the backs of their
brethren (as great men do with their charity), 'come
now, Betty, how much longer am I to wait for your
message? Surely I am as good as a pig.'
'Dunno as thee be, Jan. No straikiness in thy bakkon.
And now I come to think of it, Jan, thee zed, a wake
agone last Vriday, as how I had got a girt be-ard.
Wull 'e stick to that now, Maister Jan?'
'No, no, Betty, certainly not; I made a mistake about
it. I should have said a becoming mustachio, such as
you may well be proud of.'
'Then thee be a laiar, Jan Ridd. Zay so, laike a man,
lad.'
'Not exactly that, Betty; but I made a great mistake;
and I humbly ask your pardon; and if such a thing as a
crown-piece, Betty'--
'No fai, no fai!' said Betty, however she put it into
her pocket; 'now tak my advice, Jan; thee marry Zally
Snowe.'
'Not with all England for her dowry. Oh, Betty, you
know better.'
'Ah's me! I know much worse, Jan. Break thy poor
mother's heart it will. And to think of arl the
danger! Dost love Larna now so much?'
'With all the strength of my heart and soul. I will
have her, or I will die, Betty.'
'Wull. Thee will die in either case. But it baint for
me to argify. And do her love thee too, Jan?'
'I hope she does, Betty I hope she does. What do you
think about it?'
'Ah, then I may hold my tongue to it. Knaw what boys
and maidens be, as well as I knew young pegs. I myzell
been o' that zort one taime every bit so well as you
be.' And Betty held the lanthorn up, and defied me to
deny it; and the light through the horn showed a gleam
in her eyes, such as I had never seer there before.
'No odds, no odds about that,' she continued; 'mak a
fool of myzell to spake of it. Arl gone into
churchyard. But it be a lucky foolery for thee, my
boy, I can tull 'ee. For I love to see the love in
thee. Coom'th over me as the spring do, though I be
naigh three score. Now, Jan, I will tell thee one
thing, can't abear to zee thee vretting so. Hould thee
head down, same as they pegs do.'
So I bent my head quite close to her; and she whispered
in my ear, 'Goo of a marning, thee girt soft. Her
can't get out of an avening now, her hath zent word to
me, to tull 'ee.'
In the glory of my delight at this, I bestowed upon
Betty a chaste salute, with all the pigs for witnesses;
and she took it not amiss, considering how long she had
been out of practice. But then she fell back, like a
broom on its handle, and stared at me, feigning anger.
'Oh fai, oh fai! Lunnon impudence, I doubt. I vear
thee hast gone on zadly, Jan.'
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