CAPTAIN JACOBUS
 
 HE REGARDED US WITH A KEEN, FROWNING GLANCE.
 
 CAPTAIN JACOBUS 
 
 BY 
 
 L. COPE CORNFORD 
 
 NEW YORK 
 STONE & KIMBALL 
 
 M DCCC XCVI
 
 COPYRIGHT 1896, BY 
 STONE AND KIMBALL
 
 Contents 
 
 I. THE RIVALS Page 7 
 
 II. CAPTAIN JACOBUS 23 
 
 III. A DEN OF THIEVES 36 
 
 IV. ON THE ROAD 48 
 V. ON THE ROAD THE INN AT 
 
 FARNHAM 67 
 
 VI. ON THE ROAD THE GOLDEN 
 
 FARMER 84 
 
 VII. THE BELL-MAN OF SAINT SEP- 
 ULCHRE'S 98 
 VIII. MR. AND MRS. CUTPURSE 1 1 7 
 IX. I BECOME KING'S MESSENGER 129 
 X. A KING IN EXILE 147 
 XI. THE FRENCH GENTLEMAN WITH 
 
 RED HAIR 165 
 
 XII. I TAKE THE ROAD UPON MY 
 
 OWN ACCOUNT 182 
 
 XIII. How THE ROYALISTS OCCUPIED 
 
 SALISBURY TOWN 194
 
 Contents 
 
 XIV. How CAPTAIN JACOBUS EXE- 
 CUTED THE KING'S COMMISSION 207 
 XV. A QUESTION OF V CONSCIENCE 225 
 XVI. THE EIGHTEENTH OF APRIL 233 
 XVII. THE LAST NOTCH ON THE SCORE 251 
 XVIII. THE INEVITABLE 272
 
 Captain Jacobus 
 
 THE RIVALS 
 
 ONE March morning, in the year of our 
 Lord 1655, I mounted my horse at the 
 door of Langford Manor, and, filled with the 
 blithest anticipations, set forth to Salisbury City. 
 Such an occasion befalls a man but once in his 
 life, and it behooves him to make the most of it. 
 The weather was bright and sunny, with a merry 
 breeze that shook down the yellow catkins upon 
 man and beast as we passed : the countryside 
 appeared to laugh and sing ; and when I entered 
 the venerable city, it greeted me with a spark- 
 ling aspect whereto my eyes seemed newly 
 opened. 
 
 Leaving my horse at the sign of the Sun over 
 against the Conduit, in the High Street, I took 
 7
 
 Captain Jacobus 
 
 my way towards the Market Place, where, just 
 beyond the Poultry Cross, stands the house of 
 Mr. Richard Phelps, at that time Mayor of 
 Salisbury. As luck would have it, I had scarce 
 gone twenty paces from the inn before I saw 
 John Manning advancing down the street. Now 
 of all persons in the world I disliked Mr. Man- 
 ning the worst : and I think he hated me ; but 
 this morning (for the first time) I felt I could 
 perfectly afford to be civil. For hitherto John 
 Manning had always the upper hand of me in a 
 manner of quiet domineering highly irksome to 
 a generous nature. Our respective fathers, serv- 
 ing under the headlong leadership of Sir Harry 
 Bard, were slain on Alresford field while I was 
 still undergoing education at New College, Ox- 
 ford. But young Manning, who was five years 
 my senior, had fought side by side with his father, 
 and had been wounded in the left arm and shoulder, 
 a misfortune of which he was most inordinately 
 vain. Moreover, he was a very proper man, with 
 a silver tongue and a pretty trick of using it ; 
 while I, although greater of body, was a shy and 
 plain youth, with no such mighty talent for conver- 
 sation. Time and again, when I have been sitting
 
 The Rivals 
 
 happily with Barbara, he has entered upon us 
 and put me to the blush with his courtly per- 
 formances, till I was fain to quit the room in the 
 blackest of tempers. 
 
 As he came cocking down the pavement I 
 perceived that Mr. Manning was dressed as if 
 for a festival, in silver-laced silken coat, quilted 
 breeches slashed with crimson, and silken stock- 
 ings of the same color : he wore a silver-hiked 
 walking-sword, and the black love-lock disposed 
 upon his shoulder was tied with a knot of silver- 
 pointed crimson ribbon. 
 
 " Well met, Anthony," cried Manning, stop- 
 ping and holding out his hand. " You shall be 
 the first to wish me joy this fine morning." 
 
 His greeting took me very much aback, for it 
 was precisely the manner of address I had pre- 
 pared in my own mind for Manning. Then it 
 occurred to me that his attentions to Mistress 
 Barbara Phelps had, after all, expressed no more 
 than friendship ; and I shook his proffered hand 
 till the bones cracked, and my gallant had much 
 ado to preserve an unmoved countenance. 
 
 " With all my heart," I said. " And who is 
 the so fortunate lady ? " 
 9
 
 Captain Jacobus 
 
 Manning smiled pleasantly. I may not tell 
 you her name," he replied. " For to say truth, 
 I have won but the father's consent to my court- 
 ship. But I do not despair of the maiden's." 
 
 " Why here is a singular coincidence," I cried. 
 " Give me your good wishes in turn, Manning, 
 for I have the maiden's consent, and I am hoping 
 for the father's." 
 
 Manning's face darkened suddenly. "In- 
 deed ! " said he. " And who is the so fortunate 
 lady?" 
 
 His manner surprised me, and awoke a sus- 
 picion. 
 
 "Well, the afiair is private, at present," I 
 returned. " Nevertheless, I should think you 
 might give a reasonable near guess." 
 
 "I profess myself at a loss," replied Manning, 
 coldly. 
 
 " Why, then I will leave you to think over it 
 at leisure. Give you good-den, Mr. Manning," 
 and I made as if to go. 
 
 But Manning planted himself squarely across 
 my path. 
 
 " And where are you going in such a mighty 
 hurry, Mr. Anthony Langford ?"
 
 The Rivals 
 
 "What is that to you?'* I retorted, losing 
 patience, and attempting to push past him. 
 "Out o' my way ! " 
 
 Manning caught me by the arm. " It is this 
 to me," he said, " that there is just one house in 
 this city which I warn you not to visit, or you 
 and I will fall out. Do not feign to misunder- 
 stand me, Anthony." 
 
 " I shall visit where I please," I said, wrench- 
 ing my arm free. " What nonsense is this ? 
 Stand back, or I draw on you ! " 
 
 I laid my hand on the hilt of my rapier, but 
 Manning seized my wrist. The touch was as a 
 match to powder, and I caught him a buffet on 
 the point of the chin with my left hand. I 
 heard his teeth click together like the snapping 
 of a trap, and he loosed his hold and staggered 
 backwards. I drew sword and stood on guard, 
 expecting of course that Manning would attack 
 me then and there. But seeing the people be- 
 ginning to throng from all sides, my adversary 
 thought better of it, and putting a laced kerchief 
 to his mouth, he came up to me and slipped his 
 arm through mine, as if we had been merely 
 jesting. 
 
 II
 
 Captain Jacobus 
 
 " Put up your blade," he said in a low voice. 
 "Do you want to get us both in jail, you 
 madman ? ' ' 
 
 I had nothing to do but to comply, and we 
 began to walk forward. The crowd followed 
 us a little distance, but seeing there was no more 
 sport to be had, presently dwindled away and left 
 us to march arm-in-arm across the market-place. 
 
 " You forget yourself strangely at times, Mr. 
 Langford," remarked Manning. " But be as- 
 sured that I shall not forget you. And since 
 you will not take advice, I am going to do 
 myself the honor of accompanying you upon 
 your visit." 
 
 With all my heart," I returned. " And I 
 beg you to remark that, for my part, I make no 
 stipulation. It doth not appear to me a dignified 
 proceeding." 
 
 Manning replied nothing, and we arrived in 
 silence at the door of old Richard Phelps's tall, 
 gabled mansion, with the squares of white plaster 
 between the black cross-timbering and project- 
 ing diamond-paned windows. Before Manning 
 could speak I had told the house-wench who 
 ushered us into the long, low room on the first 
 
 12
 
 The Rivals 
 
 floor, to inform Mr. Phelps that Mr. Anthony 
 Langford requested the honor of a few minutes' 
 talk with him. A wood-fire crackled upon the 
 hearth, for the weather was chilly ; and Manning 
 and I stood stiffly side by side with our backs to 
 the high mantelpiece. We were careful that our 
 respective shoulders should not touch, by the 
 fraction of an inch : had they done so, 'neither 
 would have budged a hair's-breadth, and conten- 
 tion might have ensued. So we stood as rigid as 
 a pair of statues until the door opened and Mr. 
 Phelps entered the room. The Mayor was a 
 broad-shouldered, ruddy, bald old gentleman, 
 with twinkling blue eyes and a gray beard. 
 
 " Why, Anthony, my boy, how do you 
 do ? What, back so soon, John ! Oons, what 
 hast done to thy mouth, man ? Thou canst 
 never go a-wooing in that guise. Or perhaps 
 Barbara will help to make it well again, hey ? " 
 and the old man winked genially at me. 
 
 I was resolved to take the lead in this three- 
 cornered interview if I could, and before Man- 
 ning could open his damaged lips I began. 
 
 " Mr. Phelps, I have come upon a personal 
 affair of some delicacy, which I should have 
 13
 
 Captain Jacobus 
 
 preferred to discuss with you in private. But 
 as Mr. Manning has thought fit, for reasons of 
 his own, to force himself upon my company, I 
 can very well say what I have to say before 
 him. I am come, sir, to request your permis- 
 sion to pay my addresses to your daughter, 
 Mistress Barbara," I concluded, with hot cheeks, 
 and lips that had suddenly become parched. 
 
 " I have had the honor to inform Mr. 
 Langford of what passed between us this morn- 
 ing," Manning put in. 
 
 The Mayor comprehended us both in a glance 
 that seemed to betoken some amusement. 
 
 "And so then you fell to fisticuffs, like a 
 pair of school-boys? I am ashamed of you, 
 gentlemen," said he ; and ' Manning flushed 
 darkly. " I will deal plainly with you," he 
 went on. "One at a time is but fair play, 
 Anthony. Had you got up a little more be- 
 times, you would have had the start : now 
 Manning has the advantage. I will have no 
 brawling in my house, and since you cannot 
 agree, you must wait till John has thrown his 
 main. If he fails in his suit, why, you may 
 come to me again. I will favor neither of you 
 H
 
 The Rivals 
 
 by so much as a word. 'T is for Barbara to 
 choose : she shall do as she likes ; and so long as 
 she is happy, you will find her father pleased," 
 concluded this exemplary parent. 
 
 This was what I desired, and a great weight 
 lifted from my mind at his words ; for I had 
 been sore afraid that Mr. Phelps was set upon 
 Manning for a son-in-law. Nevertheless, I did 
 not see why Barbara should be cumbered with 
 Manning's odious courtesies for an indefinite 
 period. 
 
 " Nothing can be fairer, and whatever be- 
 fall, I am much beholden to your kindness," I 
 said. " But how long must I wait my turn, 
 sir?" 
 
 " Nay, that you must ask John Manning," 
 said the old man. 
 
 " Mr. Manning's manner of conversation 
 does not gratify me," I replied. " I had rather 
 ask Mistress Barbara. Your daughter has been 
 acquainted with both Mr. Manning and myself 
 from childhood, and if she hath taken a fancy 
 to either, doubtless her mind is settled." 
 
 Manning must have known himself defeated, 
 but he played a last card. 
 IS
 
 Captain Jacobus 
 
 " Perhaps Mr. Langford has his own reasons 
 for such a supposition," he struck in, and despite 
 all I could do, I felt myself flush. 
 
 Old Phelps looked sharply at me, and his face 
 grew stern. 
 
 " What have you to say to that, Anthony ? " 
 he asked. 
 
 "It is true," said I, "and a breach of 
 proper etiquette, I own. But it only occurred 
 last night. I am instant to repair it, you see, 
 sir." 
 
 "You did very wrong, sir," returned the 
 outraged father, angrily. " Here is a pretty 
 state of affairs. It would serve you right were 
 I to forbid you the house." 
 
 "I demand it," cried Manning. "Your 
 pledge to me admits of no other course, Mr. 
 Phelps." 
 
 "Does it not?" said the old gentleman, who 
 was perhaps glad to find another outlet for his 
 anger. " But I am not accustomed to take 
 orders, John Manning, and I think differ- 
 ently. Come, we will settle this matter off- 
 hand ! " and opening the door he shouted, 
 " Barbara ! " 
 
 16
 
 The Rivals 
 
 Manning, seeing what was to follow, went as 
 white as a clout, and catching up his hat, strode 
 towards the open door. 
 
 " I fear I shall spoil your little plot, but I 
 have no fancy to be made a show of," said he. 
 " I have fallen into a strange mistake, it seems ; 
 but 'tis not too late to amend it. Give your 
 good-den, Mr. Mayor," and before the aston- 
 ished old man could answer, my rival was 
 gone. 
 
 He must have passed Barbara on the stairs, 
 for she entered almost immediately. My be- 
 trothed dwelt ever in my thoughts : and when 
 we were absent from each other, I would please 
 myself by picturing in my mind her look when 
 we should meet again ; and still, when it came 
 to pass, her beauty struck me always newly, in 
 a kind of revelation. So it was upon her en- 
 trance that morning, with her shining hair and 
 blue eyes, apparelled in something checkered 
 and dainty of the same color. 
 
 " Prithee, father, what 's the matter ? " asked 
 Barbara. 
 
 " Matter ! " said Mr. Phelps. " Why, the 
 matter is, that, whereas this morning you had 
 2 17
 
 Captain Jacobus 
 
 a couple of sweethearts, now you have only 
 the one. Will he content ye, my dear ? " 
 
 " We can but try, at all events," said Barbara. 
 
 It was late that night before I found myself 
 riding homeward under the stars. My way lay 
 across the old bridge that spans the river Avon, 
 where a little islet, upon which is built a chapel, 
 stems the mid-stream. The roadway of the 
 bridge passes underneath groined arches which 
 carry the chapel floor : on either side a stair- 
 way rises to an open balcony, which, running 
 right round the building, and fenced by a stone 
 balustrading of foliated open-work, gives access 
 to the interior. The moonlight glittered upon 
 the swirling flood below, and sparkled here and 
 there, amid the elaborate confusion of flying 
 buttresses and pinnacles, upon the tall windows 
 of the chapel. 
 
 Riding at a footpace across the bridge, I had 
 come within a bow's shot of the archway, when a 
 horseman leaped from the black shadow and came 
 charging towards me. I had scarce time to note 
 the glint of steel in his right hand ere he was 
 upon me. Hardly knowing what I did, I slipped 
 from my saddle to avoid his onset. The rider 
 18
 
 The Rivals 
 
 swerved, but I dodged and ran for the chapel, as 
 man and horse collided with my own steed. I 
 heard a mighty clatter of hoofs upon the stones 
 behind me, and my horse galloped past just as I 
 reached the archway. The moment's delay 
 saved me. A dismounted man has little chance 
 against a horseman, and I took no shame to my- 
 self for running away. 
 
 I sprang up the winding steps, and had reached 
 the balcony, when I heard the echoing clang of 
 hoofs. Peering over the coping, I perceived the 
 road on the further side of the chapel to be empty ; 
 my pursuer had therefore dismounted, and was 
 probably at that very moment ascending one or 
 other of the two staircases, pistol in hand. I had 
 not seen his face, for it was masked with a black 
 vizard and muffled, but I could think of no one 
 who bore me such a deadly grudge as this ap- 
 peared to indicate, save Manning. He should 
 find me ready for him this bout, at any rate. I 
 drew my sword (a long Italian rapier), and, taking 
 off my horseman's cloak, wrapped it twice round 
 my left arm, grasping the collar in my hand, 
 allowing a yard or so of the skirt to hang loose. 
 Going to the top of the steps, I listened intently. 
 '9
 
 Captain Jacobus 
 
 There was no sound save the stamping of the 
 impatient horse below and the jingling of his bit, 
 so that Manning must have chosen to escalade the 
 fortress by the opposite stairs. 
 
 I reflected, with some emotion, that my enemy 
 doubtless had pistols, whilst I had none. Never- 
 theless, I had no intention of being stalked like a 
 beast, and treading noiselessly to the angle but- 
 tress, laid my cheek to the stone, and stole a 
 glance round the corner. Sure enough, there 
 was Manning, with a naked rapier in one hand 
 and a long pistol in the other, advancing with 
 the most excessive caution. The moon shone 
 full upon his upturned face, so that I could see 
 the whites of his eyes behind the black mask, 
 and the lips beneath the bristling mustachio curl- 
 ing from the clenched teeth like the snarl of a 
 dog, as he lifted and noiselessly put down first one 
 foot and then the other. 
 
 It was my turn to charge this time, and I 
 dashed out upon him. The suddenness of my 
 onset caused him to shoot wide with his maimed 
 arm, as I had hoped and prayed, and I heard the 
 bullet sing past my head. Manning thereupon 
 thrust at me swiftly, but with an old trick of the
 
 The Rivals 
 
 fencing-school I entangled his blade in my heavy 
 cloak, and catching the hilt with my left hand, 
 tore it from his grasp, at the same time lunging 
 forward till my right foot was behind my adver- 
 sary's back. He was thus at my mercy ; but I 
 had never killed a man at that time, and my 
 blood turned from the deed. I have never ceased 
 to regret my surrender to that womanish impulse. 
 As it was, I girt him round the lower ribs, and 
 began to squeeze the breath out of him. Man- 
 ning sobbed and struggled and swore, but his 
 arms were pinioned, and I was the stronger man. 
 So soon as he was quiet I let him drop, and he lay 
 gasping. Then I picked up his sword and snapped 
 it across my knee : his pistols I stuck in my belt, 
 and stood a paternoster- while to fetch my breath. 
 " Look you, John Manning," I said pres- 
 ently. " We will call quits, and no squares 
 broke. But I have just one word to say. 
 Mark me, if ever I meet you within sight of 
 Salisbury Cathedral spire again, may I be judged 
 by the Four Evangelists, but I will fight you. 
 You had best be packing before daylight, for I 
 am about pretty betimes. I wish you joy, John 
 Manning." 
 
 21
 
 Captain Jacobus 
 
 With that I left him, and started to walk to 
 Langford Manor: but I had not gone far be- 
 fore I came upon my horse, cropping the hedge ; 
 and mounting, I rode home, and so to bed, to 
 dream of Barbara. 
 
 22
 
 II 
 
 CAPTAIN JACOBUS 
 
 NEXT day, and for several days afterwards, I 
 rose very betimes to transact the affairs of 
 my estate with my steward, then rode away hot- 
 foot to Salisbury, to the house of Mayor Phelps. 
 Looking back upon that brief period of felicity, 
 I see a rich procession of sunny hours, musical 
 with the falling chimes of the towering Cathe- 
 dral, during which we found such happiness 
 that I sometimes felt afraid. I could not think 
 that I had earned such fortune, and I doubted 
 whether God would allow it ; and, indeed, after- 
 events put some color on this reasoning. 
 
 My betrothed was an only child : her father, 
 old Richard Phelps, was a master cutler, and 
 (so it was said) had amassed a pretty fortune in 
 his business. How much it was I did not 
 know, and took no pains to discover ; but when 
 we came to discuss marriage settlements, the old 
 23
 
 Captain Jacobus 
 
 man told me he would dower his daughter with 
 three thousand pounds. My own estate of 
 Langford Manor, although much impaired and 
 impoverished during the Civil Wars, was yet 
 sufficient ; and there seemed no reason why we 
 should not marry out of hand. But Barbara, it 
 appeared, had a great equipment of garments 
 to buy or to make ; and although I could never 
 apprehend the force of the argument, some de- 
 lay appeared inevitable. At length, however, 
 the wedding was settled for the 1 8th of April, 
 and, like a schoolboy, I put up a calendar over 
 my bed's head, and scored out a date every 
 morning. And in my voyages to and fro I 
 rode very circumspectly, in case some accident 
 should befall me. 
 
 There was scarce a month to run before the 
 day appointed, when destiny fulfilled my fear- 
 ful expectations at a blow. Riding homeward 
 in the moonlight across country, as I topped the 
 bare down that shelters Langford village I was 
 aware of a horseman galloping along the ridge 
 towards me. Remembering Mr. Manning's 
 former exploit, I drew rein, and, putting my- 
 self in a posture of defence, awaited the rider, 
 24
 
 Captain Jacobus 
 
 who thereupon slackened speed, so that I had 
 time to observe him as he drew near. But the 
 stranger was a smaller man than Manning, 
 bestriding a huge roan horse, and carrying an 
 arquebus slung across his shoulders, besides 
 pistols in his holsters, and a French riding- 
 sword. 
 
 " I have the honor to address Mr. Anthony 
 Langford, of Langford Manor, I believe?" 
 said he, reining up and removing his black 
 montero-cap, with a very courtly gesture. 
 
 " At your service, sir," I replied, saluting 
 him in turn. The stranger had a quick military 
 manner of utterance, and before the words were 
 out of my mouth he continued earnestly : 
 
 " Then will you do me the favor, Mr. 
 Langford, to ride with me a little way ? I 
 have somewhat to say to you. Oh, yes," he 
 added, as I hesitated, " y'are perfectly right : 
 I am a highwayman, 'tis true; but I am not 
 here to rob you, nevertheless. Why, you and 
 I have met before, sir. Have you forgotten 
 Captain Jacobus?" 
 
 I had not ; and now I knew why I remem- 
 bered mistily the square, strong face, with its 
 25
 
 Captain Jacobus 
 
 great jaw and long nose hooking over the curl- 
 ing mustachio. For one night, before my 
 mother died, she and I were driving home- 
 wards in our great family coach over the downs. 
 I was barely in my teens, but I could fence a 
 bit, and shoot at a mark ; and sitting by my 
 mother, with my arm round her waist as the 
 huge vehicle swung and jolted over the ruts, 
 and my little sword between my knees, I felt 
 myself a match for a whole band of robbers. 
 But I must have forgotten my wardship and 
 fallen on sleep, for I awoke with a start, as the 
 coach stopped suddenly, to see the dark figure 
 of a horseman abreast of the window. My 
 mother bade me sit still ; and the highwayman 
 swung himself from his horse and leaned over 
 the sill. 
 
 "Madam," he began, but got no further, 
 for my mother cried out in astonishment. 
 
 "Sir Clipseby Carew ! " she exclaimed. 
 
 "No, not now," he returned. "Captain 
 Jacobus, Alicia, at your service." 
 
 They conversed together for a while in the 
 French tongue, a language of which I had but 
 small understanding; then the Captain kissed 
 26
 
 Captain Jacobus 
 
 my mother's hand, and rode away into the 
 night. When I asked my mother who was 
 the strange man, she told me how Sir Clipseby 
 Carew was an old friend of hers ; and how the 
 Parliament-men had robbed him of his estates, 
 obliging him to change his name and to take 
 to the road for a living, like many another 
 Cavalier at that unhappy time. The incident 
 engraved itself upon my boyish imagination, so 
 that for a long time the Captain used often to 
 ride through the mazes of my dreams ; and 
 ever since, rumors of his exploits had reached 
 my ears from time to time, and kept the re- 
 membrance green. Recalling all this, I was 
 glad enough to put up my pistol, and turning my 
 horse's head, to jog along beside Captain Jacobus. 
 
 " Why, now I remember, and I am glad 
 indeed to renew my acquaintance with Sir 
 Clipseby Carew," I said. 
 
 "'Tis long since I heard the tide," here- 
 turned, twisting his mustache. " But other 
 days are coming, we '11 hope. Will you join 
 us, Mr. Langford, to help regain the King his 
 own ?" 
 
 "Well, I am a King's man, sure enough," I 
 27
 
 Captain Jacobus 
 
 answered. "But the fact is, Captain, I am 
 going to be married. I do not want to meddle 
 in broils and insurrections." 
 
 "You do not?" returned the Captain. 
 "Why, then, what else have you been doing 
 of late, Mr. Langford?" 
 
 " Unless a-preparing for wedlock be an offence 
 against the Protector, I do not know," I said in 
 surprise. 
 
 " You have no hand in the plot, then ? " 
 
 " On the rood, no ! What plot ? " 
 
 " Then why are Crook's dragoons billeted in 
 Langford Manor House?" asked the Captain. 
 " And why are patrols posted along the Salisbury 
 Road to lag you by the heels ? " 
 
 "What!" I cried, reining up. I knew 
 Captain Crook very well by repute for a zealous 
 servant of Ironside's, who patrolled a district of 
 the West Country with a troop of horse. 
 
 "Don't stop, man. We can talk as we're 
 going. Well, I thought you knew naught of it, 
 and that was the reason I stopped you. Your 
 estates are confiscate, young man, and you your- 
 self outlawed, as like as not. I don't know why, 
 but there it is, you see." 
 28
 
 Captain Jacobus 
 
 The blow had fallen, then. I thought of Bar- 
 bara, and our towering hopes toppled into the 
 dust. Then I felt the Captain's hand on my 
 shoulder for a moment, and his rough exhorta- 
 tion rang in my ears. 
 
 " Bear up ! What, man ! worse has hap- 
 pened to better men. We '11 be upsides with 
 the bloody regicides before all's done. Come ! 
 take the road with me, and 'list yourself into Sir 
 John Penruddock's volunteers ; we want men of 
 your inches. This is no time for marrying. 
 Wait until the King is cocking it at Whitehall, 
 and then you can marry as much as you please." 
 
 " I must go to Salisbury first,' ' I cried. 
 
 " Do you desire your sweetheart to behold 
 her lover's head aloft on Chapel Bridge, a-sun- 
 drying on a pike-end ? ' ' inquired the Captain, 
 grimly. " But you may send her a letter by a 
 messenger of mine to-night," he added. 
 
 "But what have I done ? Why should I, as 
 peaceable a citizen as God ever made, be suddenly 
 clapped up for a traitor ? ' ' 
 
 ' How should I know ? ' ' replied the Cap- 
 tain. " The point is, I take it, that so it is, most 
 unmistakably. Hast quarrelled with any one who 
 29
 
 Captain Jacobus 
 
 hath the ear of Cromwell, or that bloody spider 
 Secretary Thurloe, by any chance ? " 
 
 " I have quarrelled with no man, excepting 
 Mr. John Manning, and he is a Royalist and a 
 Catholic." 
 
 "Ah!" said Captain Jacobus; "and how 
 was that ? " 
 
 Whereupon I related the story of our differ- 
 ence, without of course mentioning the lady's 
 name. 
 
 " And you have not fallen across him since ? " 
 inquired Jacobus, when I had finished. 
 
 "No." 
 
 "Well, Mr. Langford, if you get a man stark 
 mad with jealousy under your hand, and then you 
 let him go free (and why you did so passeth my 
 poor imagination), you must not be astonished at 
 disaster. That is all there is to be said. And 
 now to the business in hand, which is the only 
 thing that can help you, or any of us, in this 
 distraught realm." 
 
 There seemed nothing for it but to follow the 
 
 Captain's leading ; and with a heart as heavy as 
 
 lead I resigned myself to fate. As we trotted 
 
 steadily forward, Captain Jacobus told me the 
 
 3
 
 Captain Jacobus 
 
 main outlines of the conspiracy against the Lord 
 Protector then kindling throughout the North 
 and West, in which the tried Cavalier at my side 
 was a principal agent. 
 
 The Earl of Rochester, it appeared, was then 
 in London, living very private, awaiting intelli- 
 gence from Sir Marmaduke Darcy, who was 
 gathering forces in the North, and from Sir John 
 Penruddock and Sir Joseph Wagstaff, who were 
 the West Country leaders. Captain Jacobus had 
 appointed to meet the two latter gentlemen that 
 night, in order to receive their instructions, which 
 he was straightway to carry to Rochester, who 
 was in communication with the King. All 
 things, in our part of the country, were prepared 
 for an immediate rising. It only remained to fix 
 the date, which must be done by the King, who 
 was at that moment lying secretly upon the 
 Flemish coast, ready to cross should occasion 
 so require. 
 
 " That is the complexion of affairs," concluded 
 the Captain. " Now will you join us, Mr. 
 Langfbrd, for good or evil fortune ? And I warn 
 you, I that have seen the beginning and sad end 
 of more than one such hopeful enterprise, 'tis 
 31
 
 Captain Jacobus 
 
 but the spin of a coin betwixt defeat and 
 victory." 
 
 The first shock of my dire misfortune was 
 passing, and I began to feel mighty angry, and a 
 very fervent rebel. 
 
 " Well, I am art and part with you ! " I 
 cried, and we shook hands as we rode. 
 
 So there was I, upon the eve of marriage and the 
 leisurely, pastoral life of a country gentleman, 
 pitchforked into I knew not what hugger-mugger of 
 civil broils, setting my life and Barbara's happi- 
 ness upon the hazard of a cast. Well, it had to 
 be, and I must make the best of it. But I re- 
 solved that I would cut Mr. Manning's throat 
 the next time fortune brought us to meet. 
 
 By this time, after fetching a compass, we had 
 arrived at Wilton, an ancient hamlet about five 
 miles west of Salisbury, where, at the sign of the 
 Orle of Martlets (the cognizance of the Earls of 
 Pembroke), Captain Jacobus had appointed to 
 meet Sir John Penruddock and the gentlemen 
 associated with him. We found the company 
 assembled together in an upper room of the inn, 
 the most of whom were smoking long pipes, with 
 glasses of liquor in front of them upon the shining 
 32
 
 Captain Jacobus 
 
 oaken table. Captain Jacobus introduced me to 
 Colonel Sir John Penruddock, a tall, dark, grave 
 gentleman, with something of a visionary look 
 about him ; and to Major- General Sir Joseph 
 Wagstaff, a red, round, turkey-cock of a man. 
 They bade us be seated and filled our glasses. 
 
 I remarked then, for the first time, what I 
 often had occasion to note afterwards, how the 
 Captain, in some unobtrusive and undefinable 
 way, assumed precedence in whatsoever com- 
 pany he found himself, even among men who 
 had the habit of command. I have since put 
 it down to his magnificent self-confidence, a 
 quality which sets the seal, in the world's eye, 
 upon the charter of man's worth. 
 
 Well, Sir John," began Captain Jacobus, 
 briskly, *' what tidings for his Lordship ?" 
 
 " Tell the Earl of Rochester that we in 
 Wiltshire can put a troop of two hundred horse 
 into the field at a day's notice, and the Hamp- 
 shire people as many. We are only waiting for 
 my Lord to appoint the day and the place." 
 
 " Why, very well," returned the Captain. 
 "I will ride to-night." 
 
 A short conversation ensued, in which it was 
 3 33
 
 Captain Jacobus 
 
 arranged, amongst other matters, that I should 
 ride with the Captain ; whereat, in my consum- 
 ing zeal for action, I was well content. 
 
 "No stopping of coaches full of fine ladies 
 this journey, Captain ! " said Sir Joseph Wag- 
 staff, with a chuckle. He was sitting at ease, 
 with his buff coat flung open and his fine lawn 
 shirt ruffling out like plumage. "I am sorry 
 for you, my excellent friend, but the King's 
 interests before all!" 
 
 " Is the King not interested in ladies, then, 
 my Joseph?" inquired the Captain. 
 
 Sir Joseph was gathering his forces for a 
 reply when Sir John Penruddock, rising, inter- 
 rupted him. 
 
 ' Gentlemen," cried the Colonel, "fill your 
 glasses. A toast before we part. Gentlemen 
 the King ! God bless him, and may he speedily 
 enjoy his own again ! " 
 
 I have drunk the King's health many a time 
 since then, even at his Majesty's own table, 
 but never with such a sudden, youthful flame 
 of loyalty as kindled within me that night. 
 Perhaps, in later and more peaceful days, we 
 have declined somewhat in zeal ; but I re- 
 34
 
 Captain Jacobus 
 
 member how in those dark and troublous times 
 the toast went with a thrill fit to stir a man in 
 his grave. I recall those occasions as clear as 
 a picture ; the ring of fine gentlemen, with 
 brimming glasses uplifted, a single fervent sen- 
 timent in their faces ; and I hear again the ring 
 of the shivered glass. 
 
 The Stuarts are this and that, and when all 
 is said, I do not know that I love the line over- 
 much ; but we have always followed the King, 
 whatsoever he might be. It is bred in the bone 
 of us ; we can do no otherwise.
 
 Ill 
 
 A DEN OF THIEVES 
 
 IT must have been past midnight when we 
 quitted the Orle of Martlets and struck into 
 the road leading towards Grovely Wood, a 
 tract of forest lying about three miles to the 
 northward of Wilton. No sooner had we 
 reached the skirts of the wood than the Cap- 
 tain, quitting the road, plunged into its branchy 
 depths. Save for an occasional patch of star- 
 spangled sky above the bourgeoning tree-tops, 
 there seemed nothing to guide us, for the place 
 was pitch-black ; nevertheless, the Captain held 
 steadily onwards along some sort of rough 
 track. 
 
 " Ye have just seen the top-side of the King's 
 party, Mr. Langford," he remarked. " Now 
 y' are to behold the bottom. His Majesty's 
 business requires some singular instruments, and 
 its execution sometimes takes his servants into 
 strange places." 
 
 36
 
 A Den of Thieves 
 
 As he spoke, there fell upon our ears a con- 
 fused noise of shoutings, and, a few paces further, 
 we descried a red glow, as of a great fire, behind 
 the serried black trees. 
 
 "The clapper-dogeons are in their altitudes, 
 as usual," observed the Captain. " For drink- 
 ing, roaring drunk, hand-to-fist, and raising the 
 Black Spy in general, commend me to the Mul- 
 Sack's crew." 
 
 Before I had time to ask his meaning, we 
 emerged upon a wide, irregular clearing, where 
 stood a dark mass of building, which seemed to 
 be a chapel. A most prodigious din was going 
 on inside; the painted windows glowed upon 
 the night, and a stream of light shone from the 
 open doorway, through which we could see 
 a fantastical crowd of men and women seated 
 about long tables, feasting, gambling, and quar- 
 relling. Two sentries, posted one on each side 
 of the doorway, lay propped against the wall, 
 sound asleep ; a pot of ale stood on one side of 
 each, and on the other, his match smouldered 
 in the grass. Planted in the ground, tipsily 
 askew, in front of them, were their match-lock 
 rests, while the ponderous weapons themselves 
 37
 
 Captain Jacobus 
 
 were leaned against the wall. The red ruins 
 of a huge fire, burning midway between the 
 chapel and the trees, dimly revealed the figures 
 of several horses picketed near by, and the out- 
 lines of some covered wagons beyond. 
 
 At the moment of our arrival there was a 
 sudden increase in the clamor, and the wild 
 figures of two men, twisted together and fight- 
 ing like cats, appeared upon the orange patch 
 of the doorway, swayed to and fro, dropped 
 upon the sward outside, and lay there wrest- 
 ling. Other figures thronged after them, and 
 in a moment the combatants were hidden from 
 view by a howling mob. 
 
 Captain Jacobus dismounted briskly, drew a 
 pistol from his holster, and strode into the 
 crowd, shouldering them to right and left. 
 " Mark ho ! " some one shouted, and the cry 
 was caught up and repeated twice or thrice ; 
 then, with a complete change of accent, " The 
 Captain! Way for the Captain!" Catching 
 his horse by the bridle, and following close 
 upon his heels, I came up to find the Captain 
 slashing the writhing gladiators on the ground 
 across the head and face with his heavy riding- 
 38
 
 A Den of Thieves 
 
 switch, and rating them the while like a couple 
 of curs. 
 
 "Do I pay you to kill each other, you filthy 
 scoundrels," he cried, as the bloody and dis- 
 hevelled ruffians staggered stupidly to their feet. 
 No more of it, or I will have the skin flogged 
 off you by inchmeal. Take the horses to stable, 
 some of you. Come in, Mr. Langford ; " and 
 we stepped across the threshold. 
 
 The place was thronged with a crew of 
 more villainous tatterdemalions than I had ever 
 before clapped eye upon in one place, and the 
 reek of the atmosphere caught my throat. Stuck 
 upon the tables, and in iron wall sconces, there 
 were enough candles burning to lighten a street ; 
 the unsightly reliques of a huge meal littered the 
 trestle-tables that stood along the walls ; and 
 round them was gathered a horrible tribe of 
 beggars and their callets. There was scarce 
 a complete man amongst them ; the most had 
 lost a limb in the late wars, and the rest would 
 lack an eye or an ear, or perhaps a nose ; while 
 as for those among their women who were not 
 old, lean, and hag-like, the boldness of their 
 manner of attire and behavior flushed the blood 
 into my face. 39
 
 Captain Jacobus 
 
 Upon our right hand, almost midway in the 
 wall, an arch opened upon what had doubtless 
 been a private chapel, but was now a kitchen, 
 furnished with a great stone fireplace, about 
 which two or three stout wenches were busy 
 cooking. As we entered, the crowd, falling 
 suddenly silent, made way for us. Right in 
 front, upon the dais where once had stood the 
 altar, an old man sat in a high-backed chair, at 
 a small table, dozing asleep as placid as though 
 he were alone in a wilderness. His face, 
 burnt dark by the weather, was evil and hand- 
 some, and his long white curls flowed upon his 
 shoulders. Immediately above him rose the 
 tall east window, wherein, through the smoke, 
 I dimly discerned the pale figure of our Lord. 
 
 At the jingle of our spurs upon the stones, 
 the ancient arose, and saluting, approached us. 
 
 " What the devil, Mul-Sack ! " cried Cap- 
 tain Jacobus. " Do you keep order no better 
 than this ? Had I been Captain Crook, with a 
 troop of dragoons at my back, you would have 
 been jogging to Tyburn in fetters now." 
 
 "Why, that's the truth, Captain, and 
 where 's the use of denying it ? " returned the 
 40
 
 A Den of Thieves 
 
 other, with a kind of cringing insolence. The 
 rogues are fit to make your heart ache, you 
 know so well as I, Captain. If you please to 
 enter your own room, Captain, the wenches 
 will light a fire and bring the best we have." 
 
 " Quick about it," said the Captain, shortly, 
 and turning his back upon the man Mul-Sack, 
 and going to a door in the north wall, he took 
 a key from his pocket and unlocked it. 
 
 Mul-Sack, crying out some commands in a 
 strange language, plucked a score of candles from 
 the wall and followed, when we found our- 
 selves in a vaulted octagonal chamber, which 
 must once have been the sacristy. Two or 
 three of the wenches bustled in and out with 
 fuel and dishes ; in a few moments a fagot was 
 blazing on the hearth, and a plentiful meal 
 smoking on the table. The Captain unlocked a 
 great chest that stood against the wall, and drew 
 forth bottles of Xeres wine ; and we fell to very 
 heartily, Mul-Sack coming in and out the while, 
 solicitous that we should lack nothing. When 
 we had finished, the table was cleared swiftly, 
 the door shut, and we were left alone. Captain 
 Jacobus, who forgot nothing, dived once more 
 4 1
 
 Captain Jacobus 
 
 into the chest, and placed upon the table paper 
 and ink, pens and sealing-wax. 
 
 "Write what you have to write, and I'll 
 despatch it forthwith," said he; and sitting 
 down by the fire with his back to me, the Cap- 
 tain lit a long pipe. 
 
 I took my head in my hands and tried to 
 think what I must write to Barbara. Clearly I 
 must tell her the truth of the case, and leave her 
 free to renounce me. 'T was the least and the 
 most I could do : but I knew well enough she 
 would not consent ; and although there was con- 
 solation in the thought, how could I endure that 
 her lot should be bound up with that of a 
 broken man and an outlaw ? True, the present 
 conspiracy might succeed, the King come to his 
 own again, and all be well ; but I owned to my- 
 self I had small hopes of it. There are things 
 in this world must be carried thorough-stitch in 
 spite of one's teeth ; here was one of them ; every 
 word I wrote, I thought of Barbara reading it, 
 and when the letter was done there was no more 
 virtue in me. 
 
 " To Salisbury ? A decas there and a 
 decas back," said the Captain, as I handed 
 42
 
 A Den of Thieves 
 
 him the enclosure. " Have you a couple of 
 crowns ? ' ' 
 
 I gave him the money, and he left the room, 
 to return with Mul-Sack. 
 
 " The letter shall be delivered so soon as 
 the city gates are opened," said the old gentle- 
 man. " I do not know your name, sir, but you 
 seem a mighty proper young gentleman, and 
 't is a pleasure to serve you," he added politely. 
 
 " Sit down, Mul-Sack, help yourself to 
 liquor, and get to business," said Captain Jaco- 
 bus. What of Mr. Armorer ? " 
 
 " Trepanned. And the harmanbacks picqued 
 to kumirle and lodged him in the King's Inn," 
 returned the other. 
 
 The Captain, twisting his mustache, seemed 
 to digest this intelligence, then he turned to 
 me. 
 
 "He wishes to convey," he said, "that 
 Mr. Nicholas Armorer, my lieutenant, has been 
 captured by constables, carried to London, and 
 confined in Newgate. Stow your whids and 
 plant 'em," he added to Mul-Sack. "Tell us 
 how it happened in the King's English." 
 
 "How should I know," said Mul-Sack, 
 43
 
 Captain Jacobus 
 
 coolly. "Mr. Armorer must have had a 
 accident in filching the mails from Thurloe's ex- 
 press from Flanders, and afterwards fallen in 
 with Crook or some of his gans ; for, going out 
 upon the night-sneak, we found the cold meat of 
 Thurloe's rider Kaines with a sword- slash in 
 his throat. We stripped him for what he was 
 worth, which was cursed little, but found no 
 screeves on him. So 'tis a nice question 
 whether Mr. Armorer destroyed the mails be- 
 fore he was taken, or whether the soldiers 
 carried them to Thurloe. Aye, Nick Armorer's 
 gone out on the boman hen once too often, Cap- 
 tain. Here 's to his bilking the nubbing-cheat, 1 
 but I wouldn't lay a groat upon the chance," 
 and the old robber tossed off a tot of French 
 brandy and turned his glass upside-down upon 
 the table. 
 
 The Captain sat ruminating gloomily for a 
 space, Mul-Sack sipping his liquor the while, and 
 casting sidelong glances out of his narrow eyes at 
 his chief. 
 
 "And what of the brothers Dickenson?" 
 inquired Captain Jacobus. 
 
 1 Cheating the gallows. 
 44
 
 A Den of Thieves 
 
 I learned afterwards the details of the auda- 
 cious plot to which this question referred : in- 
 deed (though not without qualms), I assisted later 
 in its development. There were two brothers 
 Dickenson, Mr. Emanuel and Mr. Jedediah, 
 both of whom were goldsmiths, Mr. Emanuel 
 carrying on a great trade in Paul's Churchyard 
 in London, and Mr. Jedediah a solid business in 
 the High Street, Winchester. Mr. Emanuel 
 was a zealous member of the Rump, which 
 appeared to the Captain much more than a justi- 
 fication for robbing the pair. So he forged a 
 letter to Emanuel, purporting to be from the 
 wife of Jedediah, inviting Emanuel to her hus- 
 band's funeral ; while Mul-Sack, who was a 
 person of grossly misused education, indited an- 
 other, precisely similar, to Jedediah, on behalf of 
 Mrs. Emanuel. When the brothers were fairly 
 on their way to each other's obsequies, Mul-Sack 
 was to rob the Winchester shop, while Captain 
 Jacobus rifled the house in Paul's Churchyard. 
 
 "According to the time allowed," said Mul- 
 Sack in answer to the Captain's question, "the 
 letters would be delivered this morning, so that 
 both the fools should have started to-night. They 
 45
 
 Captain Jacobus 
 
 will be sure to travel at night, for fear of you 
 and me, Captain." 
 
 "Why, 'tis very well," said the Captain; 
 " and what next ? " 
 
 " No more that I wot of, save that Noll 's 
 upon the road to-morrow, travelling up from 
 Winchester. I drink to his speedy damnation," 
 said Mul-Sack. 
 
 The Captain appeared quite unmoved at this 
 piece of news. " How many outriders?" he 
 asked, knocking out the ashes of his pipe upon 
 the palm of his hand. 
 
 "Seven." 
 
 " Ah ? " said the Captain. " And now I '11 
 bid you good-night ; for these are ill hours, and 
 we must be stirring betimes. And what think 
 you of Mul-Sack, King of the Beggars, Mr. 
 Langford ? " he continued, when the old man 
 had shut the door behind him. 
 
 I was dazed and bewildered with the stagger- 
 ing sequence of events, and tired as a dog ; but 
 I had somehow acquired an impression that Mul- 
 Sack was a very villanous rascal, and I said so. 
 
 " Y' are right," said the Captain. " A most 
 deadly varlet. But he is supple as a glove with 
 46
 
 A Den of Thieves 
 
 me, and his vagabonds are my secret-service men 
 from Southampton port to London town. John 
 Thurloe thinks he owns a secret service, but mine 
 is worth forty on 't. My pilgrims take what they 
 can get, disobedience is sudden death, and, in the 
 upshot, the King is very well served. Can ye 
 sleep on straw, Mr. Langford ? I know no 
 softer bed ;" and the Captain flung himself on 
 a huge truss of fresh straw that had been laid in 
 readiness, rolled himself in his cloak, and seemed 
 to sleep at once. 
 
 I laid myself down likewise, and in spite of 
 sorrow, my weariness was so sore that I dropped 
 straightway into the profound slumber of youth. 
 
 47
 
 IV 
 
 ON THE ROAD 
 
 TT seemed that I had scarce closed my eyes, 
 J_ when I was awakened by a rough shaking ; 
 and, sitting up, I gazed stupidly at the unfamiliar 
 chamber, grisly with the gray light of dawn which 
 filtered in at the narrow window. For a moment 
 I knew not where I was : then my eyes encoun- 
 tered the Captain's, who was lugging on his long 
 boots, and the memory of my disasters came back 
 upon me at a blow. 
 
 <"Tis boot-and-saddle, Mr. Langford, and 
 brisk about it," said the Captain. "We have 
 six miles to ride to breakfast." 
 
 " I am ready," I answered shortly ; for I 
 felt exceeding sleepy, and not a little miserable. 
 I thought upon the waking that should have 
 been mine, the merry anticipations that were 
 wont to sit upon my pillow ; and I raged as I 
 saw myself torn from happiness, and compelled 
 48
 
 On the Road 
 
 to trot at the heels of this indefatigable con- 
 spirator. Captain Jacobus put away all his 
 effects, and set the room as neat as a parlor, 
 while I dragged on my boots and girt on sword 
 and pistols, Manning's pistols. Then we 
 passed into the body of the chapel, the Captain 
 locking the door of the sacristy behind him. 
 
 The trestles had all been piled against the 
 wall, and the beggars lay huddled like swine 
 upon a thick bed of straw, deep in a drunken 
 slumber. Some were covered with sheep-skins, 
 some with foul old cloaks, while to others, who 
 lay in their rags, sleep gave a new and more 
 gross and filthy look than they wore awake. 
 The place was dim and ashy gray, but a lustrous 
 reflection from the lightening sky without shone 
 from the majestic figure in the eastern window 
 painted by forgotten monks, gazing serenely 
 down upon the sleeping thieves. 
 
 Outside, in the clear air, where brown and 
 ragged continents of cloud were sailing swiftly 
 across a sky as bright as a shield, I drew deep 
 breaths that renewed me like wine ; I began to 
 feel my own man again, and fit for the day's 
 work. The two sentries, awakened, I suppose, 
 4 49
 
 Captain Jacobus 
 
 by the nip of the morning, were playing at putt 
 on the grass. The Captain despatched them to 
 fetch the horses ; and while they were gone we 
 laved head and hands in a clear spring that 
 bubbled up hard by. Mounting, we cleared the 
 wood, and soon we saw the great pillars of 
 Stonehenge heaved black against the sunrise. 
 Leaving them on our left, we descended into 
 the valley and crossed the Avon by the bridge 
 at Amesbury, where we broke our fast and had 
 the horses fed and groomed. 
 
 "And now," said the Captain, "let us con- 
 sider where we stand, Mr. Langford. At 
 present, Captain Crook hath the stronger cards, 
 it appears. To confiscate the Langford estates, 
 and to nab Nick Armorer, with or without old 
 Thurloe's mails, is very well for one week's 
 work ; but it shall turn to his undoing, as he 
 might have said himself. Meanwhile, cut two 
 more notches on his score. Now to Winches- 
 ter to see how squares go with Brother Jedediah, 
 and thence to Farnham, where we lie the night, 
 if the horses can get there, and nothing delays us 
 on the road." 
 
 During the silent ride from Grovely Wood I 
 50
 
 On the Road 
 
 had considered the situation ; I had something to 
 say upon it ; and the sooner it was out the 
 better. 
 
 " Captain Jacobus," I began, " you have 
 taken the kindliest interest in my fortunes, al- 
 though I have no guess why you should have 
 done so ; and I am loth to say what I must ' ' 
 
 I paused to grope for words, while the Cap- 
 tain surveyed me keenly. 
 
 " Speak out, Mr. Langford," he said j and I 
 took heart and continued. 
 
 " Here am I slung into the King's service 
 willy-nilly ; and although I am ready enough to 
 bear my part, you must permit me to distinguish. 
 I will have no hand in your doings on the road, 
 Captain. It doth not take my fancy, going out 
 upon the pad." 
 
 " You would say, a gentleman should not 
 do't?" said the Captain, deliberately. 
 
 *' I did not say so," I retorted rather angrily. 
 
 "Mr. Langford," he returned, "y' are 
 young, and suffer under the sweet illusions proper 
 to youth. You call yourself a King's man of 
 discretionary years, and yet you do not appear 
 to comprehend that the country is down under 
 51
 
 Captain Jacobus 
 
 the bloody paws of usurpers and regicides, who 
 possess no rights in law. Did we plunder Royal- 
 ists, it would be different. But we do but take 
 our own from those who robbed us thereof. A 
 pox of your scruples ! You appear to be curst 
 with a right puritanical conscience, for the thing 
 is as plain as a pike." 
 
 "Nevertheless, I will not do't," I said. 
 
 " You will take your own way, then, as I 
 shall take mine," said Captain Jacobus. " Your 
 zeal of conscience does not extend to me, I 
 presume?" 
 
 "Why, no," I answered, a little out of 
 countenance, "your affairs are no business of 
 mine." 
 
 "No? Had I made the same reflection last 
 night, this notable debate might never have 
 fallen between us. But let that pass. I am 
 glad to hear it, too ; for, to deal plainly with you, 
 Mr. Langford, I do not allow young persons to 
 interfere with my Christian liberty." 
 
 I had no more to say, and although I knew I 
 was in the right, I did not feel so. In the 
 pause that followed, the Captain called for the 
 reckoning. 
 
 52
 
 On the Road 
 
 " Do you travel upon your own charges ? '* 
 he asked, with the imperturbable amenity of 
 manner that was his constant characteristic. " I 
 am sorry to trouble you, but 'tis a question we 
 must settle, for convenience' sake." 
 
 I searched my pockets ; but I had given my 
 last crown to pay the messenger who carried 
 my letter to Barbara, and, with a very red face, 
 I had to own as much. 
 
 "Why, no matter," cried the Captain. 
 " His Majesty lets no man want, if he can 
 help it. Take a few of the King's pistoles 
 for present use," and he pressed upon me a 
 handful of broad pieces. I had no resource but 
 to pocket them, which I did with a strong 
 reluctancy. 
 
 " Be not so bashful, man," said Jacobus. 
 "What! 'tis but a matter of business. Be- 
 sides," he added dryly "there are plenty 
 more where those came from." 
 
 I saw what he meant, of course, and straight- 
 way fell into a black temper. After denouncing 
 highway robbery, I found myself condemned 
 to live upon the proceeds thereof, a doubly 
 false position ; for not only had I never earned 
 53
 
 Captain Jacobus 
 
 them, but it seemed that in future I was to 
 stand by and watch Captain Jacobus doing all 
 the work and taking all the risk, and afterwards 
 to share in the booty. I had yet to learn that 
 a man may sometimes be thrust, against his will, 
 into a false position, where no kicking against 
 the pricks may serve him. So that after leav- 
 ing the inn at Amesbury, I rode many miles 
 in a sulky silence, angry with myself, and 
 cursing the Captain. 
 
 We travelled for the most part across country, 
 over the noiseless, shining downs, a merry wind 
 whistling past our ears, and a vasty cope of pale 
 blue sky about us, until we came out above the 
 ancient city of Winchester lying in the cup of 
 a deep valley, intersected by a silver ribbon of 
 running water. The town was four-square, 
 enclosed within a great wall ; in the midst 
 rose the long back and the squat gray tower 
 of the Cathedral, girt on all quarters with 
 smaller towers and steeples, their vanes a sparkle 
 of gold in the sunlight. The Captain drew rein 
 and turned to me. 
 
 "Mr. Langford," said he, "the moment 
 we set foot within yonder city our lives are in 
 54
 
 On the Road 
 
 jeopardy, for though Royalist at heart, the place 
 is ruled by the other side, since Noll beat down 
 the castle in the name of his God. I am a 
 known man, nor do I choose to disguise myself 
 for a junto of prick-eared burgesses, and I am 
 going to dine and to bait my horse at the George 
 Inn. But if you have no stomach for needless 
 dangers, Mr. Langford, there is no need for 
 your mother's son to fly in the face of them. 
 I have a hundred broad pieces in my saddle- 
 bag. Take them and ride down to Southamp- 
 ton Water yonder, ship across to Flanders, join 
 the Court at Cologne, and take your chance of 
 a place about His Majesty. You will not 
 starve, at any rate, whatever befall." 
 
 I looked at the keen-eyed, alert figure on the 
 big red horse, but could make nothing of the 
 blank vizard of his face. 
 
 " Do you want to be rid of me ? " I asked. 
 
 "No," returned the Captain ; and I believed 
 him. 
 
 " Unless I sell my horse and go to work in 
 the fields, and so quit the King's service, I must 
 still exist upon your bounty, it appears," I said 
 haltingly. 
 
 55
 
 Captain Jacobus 
 
 "Oh, hang your scrupulosity!" cried the 
 Captain. "Have I not told you 'tis His 
 Majesty's wages? Am I not his paymaster? 
 Are you his comptroller of taxes ? Body o' me ! 
 Shalt say hast earned 'em before the week 's out, 
 I Ml warrant ye. Come ! Dine with me at 
 the George, or take this bag of my namesakes 
 and the part of discretion, ship yourself to 
 Flanders, and be done with it." 
 
 " I will dine with you with all my heart, 
 sir," says I. 
 
 "Well, and I thought you looked hungry," 
 says the Captain, with a chuckle ; and with 
 that we paced forward down the hill. 
 
 We entered the city by the West- gate, beside 
 which rose a huge pile of shattered masonry, 
 the remains of the Black Tower which Crom- 
 well, ten years before, had bombarded to make 
 a breach into the Castle ; and, " Noll is a very 
 proper man, and the best soldier in England, 
 with a maggot in his brain which keeps him o' 
 the wrong side," quoth Jacobus, as we passed. 
 The George is a pleasant house, half-way down 
 the High Street, and the master tavern of the 
 place. Captain Jacobus, who was as resolute 
 56
 
 On the Road 
 
 to live upon the marrow of the land, when he 
 was in funds, as he was contented to go pinched 
 on bread and cheese when his Pactolus ran low, 
 ordered a meal of the best. No healthy man 
 can lack hope and a certain dash of happiness 
 so long as he is well fed ; and in spite of my 
 troubles, I felt singularly at peace, with a noble 
 dinner and a pint of generous wine inside me, 
 as we lounged in the doorway giving upon the 
 street. 
 
 And here I was aware of a stout-built, 
 dignified, ill-humored-looking gentleman emer- 
 ging from the throat of a narrow archway upon 
 the opposite side, which led to the Cathedral 
 Close. There was some strong, indefinable 
 quality about the man which held my atten- 
 tion, and I watched him with a lazy interest 
 in his approach. He had a proud, red face, 
 little steely blue eyes under massy brows, and 
 locks of ash-gray hair curling on his shoulders ; 
 and was habited in a plain dark suit of cloth 
 of a puritanical cut, with a broad falling lace 
 collar and cuffs. He made towards us, and 
 had his foot upon the steps, when the Captain, 
 who was leaning against the opposite door-post 
 57
 
 Captain Jacobus 
 
 smoking a cigarro, suddenly caught sight of 
 him. I have never seen so quick and shocking 
 a change in a man's face as passed upon the 
 Captain's at that moment. He went dark red, 
 his eyes enlarged, the veins in his forehead 
 swelled, his mustachios bristled, and he stif- 
 fened all over. The puritanical gentleman with 
 the great nose regarded us both with a keen, 
 frowning glance as he mounted the steps. Now 
 the doorway was not very wide, and there was 
 scant room for a third person to pass ; so that 
 I drew back slightly, expecting the Captain to 
 do likewise. But had his feet been socketed in 
 the floor, Jacobus could not have stood more 
 unremoved. The stranger, in consequence, 
 brushed heavily against him in passing, but 
 went on without a word of apology or so much 
 as a look. The Captain's eyes followed him, 
 much as a leashed terrier stares at a rat, until 
 he had disappeared within. 
 
 "What the devil is the matter?" I said. 
 "Who is that?" 
 
 But Jacobus did not hear me. 
 
 " Now if it were not for that same gentility 
 you prate so much about," said he, " I could 
 58
 
 On the Road 
 
 have dirked the man as he passed. The Lord 
 Protector would have been dead on that door- 
 step, and England herself again. Well, you 
 see I have not done it ; and by God, I think I 
 am a fool ! " 
 
 " The Lord Protector Cromwell ? " I cried 
 in amaze. 
 
 " Did you not know him ? You will, be- 
 fore all 's done. And now I think 't is full time 
 we took the road, Anthony," for the Captain 
 had taken to using me with this friendly familiar- 
 ity since our little conversation on the hill. 
 " Pay you the reckoning, while I see to the 
 nags," and he disappeared toward the stables. 
 
 As we clattered down the High Street, Cap- 
 tain Jacobus, who had explained to me the 
 nature of his designs upon the brothers Dicken- 
 son, called my eyes to a large shop at the corner, 
 where the memorial cross now stands that was 
 set up some ten years later, in the time of the 
 great Pestilence. The shutters were up, and I 
 read upon a handsome swinging sign the legend, 
 " Jedediah Dickenson, Jeweller and Goldsmith." 
 
 "All snug for Mul-Sack," remarked the 
 Captain. 
 
 59
 
 Captain Jacobus 
 
 ' Well, you sail near the wind," I said. 
 
 " To a superficial person. But I give you 
 credit for a better discernment. The King's 
 taxes must be collected somehow." 
 
 We left the town by the East-gate, skirted 
 Saint Giles's hill, and came out upon the Aires- 
 ford road, which goes rising and falling with the 
 bare downs. The sight of Alresford battlefield 
 brought my father's death sharply to remem- 
 brance ; and it struck me as highly probable 
 that his son was riding to a like fate in the 
 same insensate quarrel. A little after we came 
 in sight of Chilton Candover, a tiny village at 
 the junction of the road we were now 
 upon with the main road from Winchester 
 to Reading, which runs direct through Kings- 
 worthy instead of winding about through Aires- 
 ford. I was beginning to wonder why we had 
 fetched a compass, when I espied in front of us, 
 upon the Kingsworthy road, a coach and pair, 
 followed by a knot of outriders, the sun spark- 
 ling upon their steel caps and accoutrements. I 
 glanced at the Captain, who was staring fixedly 
 at the swiftly moving party. He turned his 
 head, and our eyes met. 
 60
 
 On the Road 
 
 "Anthony," he said abruptly, "that is the 
 Protector's coach, and I am going to stop it. 
 What are you going to do?" 
 
 " Under the circumstances, I am coming 
 with you. There are one, two seven out- 
 riders, and Oliver is not the man to go weapon- 
 less himself." 
 
 "Ah, but I have his pistols," said Jacobus, 
 pointing to a brace of petronels strapped to his 
 holsters, which he must have taken from the 
 coach in the stableyard of the George. " There 
 is an alehouse in Chilton Candover, and if the 
 guard stops to drink, why, I hold the brewer's 
 life in the hollow of my hand." 
 
 The low sun shone full into Jacobus's face 
 as he turned towards me in his saddle : his hat 
 was pulled over his eyes, but I could see the 
 muscles of his mouth twitching the while I 
 hesitated. A vision of all that the Protector's 
 death would mean flashed through my mind. 
 It meant Barbara to me, and vengeance of my 
 father's death. For the rest, the King with 
 his own, the Cavaliers restored, England free. 
 Was not the regicide's life already forfeit on a 
 hundred counts ? And a thirst for the blood 
 61
 
 Captain Jacobus 
 
 of that grayhaired, brazen-bowelled rebel in 
 the gilded coach yonder burned within me. I 
 glanced after it, and, sure enough, it was crawl- 
 ing unattended up the hill beyond the village. 
 Then, of a sudden (it sounds a simple thing 
 to say), I saw myself explaining the matter to 
 Barbara, and beheld the look upon her listen- 
 ing face. It could not be done. 
 
 " We cannot shoot a defenceless man, Cap- 
 tain," I said steadily. 
 
 To this day I do not know what Captain 
 Jacobus had originally intended : perhaps he 
 had not made up his mind, and merely took 
 the brace of pistols while he had the chance ; 
 for scarce were the words out of my mouth, 
 when he struck spurs into his horse, leaped the 
 low hedge at the side of the road, and set off at 
 full gallop in a straight line for the Lord Pro- 
 tector's coach. I followed him upon the in- 
 stant, and after cutting off a corner, we came 
 out upon the road again as the coach vanished 
 round a bend between steep banks. Glancing 
 over my shoulder, I caught a glimpse of the 
 group of soldiers clustered about the ale-house, 
 scarce a quarter-mile behind. The Captain 
 62
 
 On the Road 
 
 executed what was doubtless a very familiar 
 manoeuvre. With a cocked pistol in each hand, 
 guiding his horse with his knees, he rode up 
 alongside the coachman, crying, " Stand ! " in 
 a great voice. The startled driver pulled his 
 horses upon their haunches. At the same in- 
 stant a shrill whistle sounded, and the Protector 
 thrust forth head and shoulders, a silver whistle 
 in his teeth. 
 
 ' Ye insolent rogues," said he, in a thick, 
 choleric voice, "what would ye have?" 
 
 A sudden, boyish impulse took me. "Jus- 
 tice ! " I cried. " You have the name of a 
 just man, my Lord Cromwell. Why am I, 
 Anthony Langford, of Langford Manor, that 
 never lifted a finger against the laws, driven 
 out of house and home by a troop of your 
 soldiers?" 
 
 The heavy eyebrows came down over the 
 small sparkling eyes, and the Lord Protector 
 glared at me, then past me at Jacobus. 
 
 "What, Langford of the Plymouth plot! 
 y* are well met. I have heard of you from Mr. 
 Thurloe. And who are you, sir, with the 
 pistols ? " 
 
 63
 
 Captain Jacobus 
 
 Damn you, out of the way, man ! " shouted 
 Jacobus, passionately, wrenching at my bridle. 
 I do not know what he would have done, for 
 at that moment a mighty clatter of hoofs broke 
 upon our ears, and the whole body of outriders 
 came swerving round the corner at full gallop, 
 not fifty paces behind us. 
 
 ' Too late," cried the Captain. '* Come 
 away!" and striking spurs into his horse, he 
 dashed off down the road, and I after him, the 
 dragoons thundering at our heels. We heard a 
 hoarse shout of command, and the soldadoes roar- 
 ing out a summons to surrender : then the ex- 
 plosion of a pistol, and the scream of a bullet over 
 our heads. At that the Captain turned his 
 horse, and we leaped the hedge as two more 
 shots sang past us. A fourth struck my nag on 
 the withers, but did no great harm, for by that 
 time we had got well ahead. The ground was 
 smooth and undulating grass-land, and for a long 
 while we kept neck to neck, and the men behind 
 us in a compact body, umil we crossed a soft 
 place, after which our pursuers began to straggle 
 somewhat. Then up hill and down dale, mile 
 after mile, we rode headlong, hoping fervently 
 ,64
 
 On the Road 
 
 that the breeding of the horses would carry us 
 through until the night fell. Already the sun 
 was dipping below the rim of the hills j we rode 
 in a colored twilight ; and looking back as we 
 topped a rise, I could see but four riders, a mile 
 or so behind. 
 
 But I was a heavy man, and as we breasted 
 the next hill I felt my nag beginning to fail. 
 Still we held on without slackening, until the 
 figures of our pursuers had become mere blurs in 
 the gathering dusk. Suddenly my horse stum- 
 bled, recovered, stumbled again, pitched forward 
 so that I had but just time to save myself, and lay 
 still, the blood pouring from his nostrils. The 
 Captain pulled up. 
 
 "His heart's broke. Mount behind me," 
 he said. 
 
 "I can run," I replied, and with my arm 
 across his crupper we set off again at a vengeance 
 of a pace. We had gone about three miles, I 
 suppose, when I felt the horse give under me, 
 and had but just time to cry a warning before he 
 came heavily to the ground. The Captain was 
 thrown, but got to his feet immediately. The 
 poor beast struggled upon its fore-feet with wild 
 5 65
 
 Captain Jacobus 
 
 eyes, but fell back again with a groan. The 
 Captain peered into the darkness, then laid his 
 ear to the ground. There was no more sign of 
 pursuit. 
 
 I'll risk it," he said, and drawing a pistol, 
 he shot the animal through the head. Then he 
 took off the saddle and bridle, shouldered them, 
 and we marched towards a wood that loomed darkly 
 near by. Once within the shelter of the trees, 
 we flung ourselves down, utterly exhausted. 
 
 66
 
 V 
 
 ON THE ROAD THE INN AT 
 FARNHAM 
 
 AFTER a while the Captain roused himself 
 and sat up. " The next point is, where 
 are we ? " says he, and strolls towards the bor- 
 ders of the wood. I dragged myself to my feet 
 and followed him. As the trees grew more 
 thinly, the ground began upon a sharp descent 
 into a valley, where some lights twinkled, and 
 over against us, on the brow of the opposite hill, 
 we could discern in the steely light of the stars 
 the dim outlines of a range of great buildings. 
 
 " Well, we have reached our bourne in spite 
 of Noll's dragoons," said Jacobus. "It is what 
 I steered for, and Providence hath been kind. 
 Here are we in the skirts of Holt Forest : there 
 is Farnham Castle opposite, and supper stays for 
 us in the vale, at the sign of the Smiling Lion. 
 We must tramp it, my son."
 
 Captain Jacobus 
 
 So saying, we began to pick our way down 
 the hill-side, the Captain, although I offered to 
 relieve him, with his harness on his back, and 
 soon struck upon the high-road. A couple of 
 miles of weary trudging brought us upon the 
 long main street of Farnham, when a horseman, 
 whom we had heard trotting behind, coming 
 level with us, pulled his horse into a walk, and 
 paced slowly past us. Captain Jacobus peered 
 keenly at him, edging nearer to get a better look. 
 Then he dropped back a pace or two. " Jedediah 
 Dickenson, as I live by bread ! " he whispered. 
 About a bow-shoot further on, a good-sized inn 
 stood a piece back from the road, ruddy light 
 bursting from the crevices of the shutters and 
 streaming from the open door. Standing squarely 
 in the doorway, at the top of a little wide flight 
 of steps, a tall man with a gray beard was look- 
 ing forth upon the night. No sooner had the Cap- 
 tain caught sight of this sombre figure than he 
 clutched my arm. 
 
 "And Brother Emanuel too," he exclaimed 
 with an oath. 
 
 A moment later the horseman in front of us 
 stopped as though he had been shot, and bent limply 
 68
 
 On the Road Inn at Farnham 
 
 over his saddle-bow. Jacobus is a quick man by 
 nature and habit ; but never did I see him act 
 more swiftly. 
 
 " Take Jedediah's bridle, turn the nag, and 
 lead him forward," he whispered. "Quick, 
 now ! " 
 
 If ever there was a frightened man in this 
 world it was the Winchester goldsmith. I 
 caught a glimpse of his face as I passed. The 
 white of his skin above his fringe of beard shone 
 upon the darkness like a linen mask : he had 
 dropped his reins, and with both hands gripping 
 his saddle-bow, he was staring fixedly at the 
 graybeard in the doorway. I whipped the horse 
 round, and had much ado to hold him, for Cap- 
 tain Jacobus leapt up suddenly behind the saddle, 
 and crooked his arm about the traveller's throat. 
 
 " Steady, now," I heard him say to his victim, 
 as I led forward at a brisk walk. " Y* are safe 
 if you do not struggle : resist, and y' are a dead 
 man." 
 
 Save for the lights within the houses, the 
 
 street was perfectly dark ; there was no one 
 
 abroad at that late hour, and we gained the 
 
 outskirts of the village unperceived. All at 
 
 69
 
 Captain Jacobus 
 
 once it occurred to me that, after all my fine 
 speeches, here was I art and part in a common 
 piece of toby work, and that for the second 
 time in one day. Upon the first occasion 
 there seemed nothing else to be done, and we 
 had paid dearly for't. Now I had been be- 
 trayed by sheer inadvertence, in the hurry of the 
 moment. I stopped the horse and turned round. 
 The wretched Jedediah was still holding to the 
 pommel of his saddle, Jacobus, who seemed to 
 be kneeling on the crupper, still embraced his 
 neck, and I could dimly catch the outline of 
 the Captain's long nose and mustache over his 
 shoulder in the gloom. 
 
 " Captain," I said, " this is not in the 
 bond." 
 
 "In the King's name ! " returned the Cap- 
 tain, like the snapping of a pistol. " Obey 
 orders, sir ! " 
 
 I had not foreseen this, and there seemed no 
 answer to it, for Captain Jacobus undoubtedly 
 held his Majesty's commission, while I was a 
 sworn volunteer. I resumed my march, there- 
 fore, not without a sneaking satisfaction, for con- 
 science was silenced within, and besides, 't was 
 70
 
 On the Road Inn at Farnham 
 
 excellent sport. After about a quarter of an hour 
 of walk, the Captain, who appeared to have be- 
 come mighty military all of a sudden, cried out 
 to me to halt. Jumping off, he ordered Mr. 
 Jedediah to dismount, which the goldsmith did 
 without a word, in a somewhat dazed and 
 fumbling fashion. Then acting under the Cap- 
 tain's brief commands, after tying the horse to 
 the hedge, I took one arm while he took the 
 other, and we squired our Bale-o' -grace across 
 a field towards a barn that loomed in the dark- 
 ness. Here the Captain stood over him with a 
 pistol while I untied his garters (which were 
 scarfs of black silk, of a richness quite unbefitting 
 his station), wherewith we secured his wrists 
 and ankles. Then we carried him into the 
 barn, which was black-dark and smelled of hay 
 and rats, until we stumbled over a truss and 
 dropped him. 
 
 "I wish you a good-night, Mr. Dickenson," 
 said the Captain, speaking into the darkness, 
 "and a pleasant walk to Winchester, where, if 
 all I have heard be true, y* are sadly wanted ; " 
 and with that we left him, latching to the great 
 door behind us. 
 
 71
 
 Captain Jacobus 
 
 "That was a close throw," the Captain 
 said, as we retraced our steps. "Had it not 
 been for the little accident with Oliver, I should 
 have stopped one or other of them (by your 
 good leave) before they could have met. How- 
 ever, all's well, notwithstanding." 
 
 ' And what will come to Mr. Jedediah ? " 
 I asked. 
 
 " How should I know ? He may die and 
 go to the place appointed to his fellowship, or 
 he may live and go to Winchester. -But I '11 
 wager he doesn't set foot in Farnham to-night, 
 and that's enough for me." 
 
 The Captain would have me ride the nag, 
 and in this wise we regained the village, where, 
 after picking up the saddle, I rode into the 
 stable-yard at the sign of the Smiling Lion, 
 while Jacobus went within to order supper. 
 
 Upon crossing the threshold of the inn some 
 minutes later, after having seen the horse prop- 
 erly cared for, I was stricken to hear the tones 
 of a strong voice, as of a man 'preaching, issuing 
 from the common room, instead of the droning 
 rustical songs customary in such places. Push- 
 ing open the door I walked in. The long, low 
 72
 
 On the Road Inn at Farnham 
 
 room was bright with fire and candle ; three or 
 four country-fellows stood about the great ingle, 
 long pipes in their hands, with blank, amazed 
 faces all turned towards the man who, from be- 
 hind a jack of ale at the head of the table, was 
 speaking with a stern vehemence. In the great, 
 square-shouldered figure with the shaven upper 
 lip and the gray beard I recognized Mr. Eman- 
 uel Dickenson, whom we had seen but now in 
 the doorway, and whom his brother Jedediah 
 had taken for his ghost. Jacobus was sitting 
 sideways on the edge of the table, with his hat 
 set awry, swinging a leg, and staring with a 
 very malapert air at the lecturer, who appeared 
 to be addressing him directly. 
 
 "Art thou a damned heretic or a popish 
 dog?" he was crying, as I entered. " Y* are 
 a whiffling, trumpery fop, by any way of think- 
 ing. What make you, disturbing honest men 
 at their meat in their inn, with your lewd con- 
 versation ? I know ye, who you are. Y' are 
 one of those sons of Belial, those notorious, out- 
 rageous evil livers, the back-stairs gentlemen of 
 the bloody Stuart, who range up and down the 
 country like Satan scouting for a prey, disorder- 
 
 \
 
 Captain Jacobus 
 
 ing God's chosen with your abominable offences. 
 It is insufferable. It is not to be borne. The 
 Lord Protector shall take order upon it. Ye 
 shall hang in chains on Newmarket Heath, my 
 ruffling cavalier canary bird. Mark me " 
 
 "I will," said Jacobus. "Ye .... I" 
 The Captain delivered himself of a single un- 
 surpassable sentence, which cannot be written 
 here, referring to the Parliament of which 
 Emanuel was a member, and, leaning forward, 
 dealt the Puritan a rattling buffet on the mouth. 
 A hoarse shout went up from the bystanders as 
 the big man leaped to his feet and began lug- 
 ging at his rapier. But the Captain was too 
 quick for him. Springing back as nimbly as a 
 goat, he set his shoulder against the end of the 
 table, and seeing what he would be at, I sprang 
 to his side. We ran the long board upon 
 Emanuel like a battering-ram, pinning him 
 against the wall. The edge caught him in the 
 wind, I suppose, as he stumbled back, for he 
 doubled up and fell upon his face among the 
 dirty platters with a mighty crash. At that 
 moment the landlady, a huge woman with a 
 scarlet face, came running in, and comprehend- 
 74
 
 On the Road Inn at Farnham 
 
 ing the state of affairs at a glance, made, open- 
 mouthed, at Jacobus and me. 
 
 "Out with you!" she shouted. "Out 
 with you ! I will have none of your roaring 
 bullies of Cavaliers in my house. Out, I say ! " 
 
 Pressed by this formidable virago, who con- 
 tinued to revile us at the top of her pipe, we 
 had no ohoice but to retreat, and so backed into 
 the hall. My hopes of supper had begun to 
 dwindle dismally, and even Jacobus seemed 
 out-faced for once, when there fell a sudden 
 diversion. 
 
 " Why, what is the matter? " cried a voice 
 from the stairway. 
 
 We all turned round, and there, standing at 
 the lighted stair-foot, was a bright spring beauty 
 of a wench, with a great coronal of red hair ; 
 and meth ought she looked at us very kindly. 
 The landlady turned obsequious in a twinkling, 
 after the manner of her kind. 
 
 " Why, no great matter, Mistress Curie," she 
 began. ' 'T is a shame that you should be so 
 put upon. But these Cavalier gentlemen " 
 
 " Oh, sirs, are you for his Majesty ? " cried 
 the girl with sparkling eyes. 
 75
 
 Captain Jacobus 
 
 Jacobus rose to the occasion, while I was 
 thinking about it : he stepped forward, removing 
 his hat and bowing low. 
 
 < Poor servants of the King we are, at your 
 service, Madam, for I perceive you cannot but 
 be for God and the Cause. We have been 
 upon his Majesty's business all day I care not 
 who hears me I say, upon the King his ser- 
 vice, with neither bite nor sup ; and now we 
 are to be flung into the road, it appears, to make 
 room for a bloody regicide." 
 
 The landlady began a voluble explanation, 
 but the girl broke in on it and silenced her. 
 
 " Gentlemen," said she, " if y' are the King's 
 friends y' are mine also, and it will pleasure Mrs. 
 Beatrice Young and myself greatly if you will 
 sup with us above stairs. We shall expect you 
 in a few minutes." 
 
 So saying, she curtseyed, and turned to go up 
 stairs, carrying the baffled hostess with her. 
 Meanwhile the idlers in the common room had 
 crowded to listen. The Captain suddenly drew 
 a pistol and levelled it. 
 
 " Back, you vermin ! " he said, making a 
 step forward ; and the men hustled back into the 
 76
 
 On the Road Inn at Farnham 
 
 room like sheep, falling over one another. They 
 slammed to the door, and we could hear them 
 bolting it. 
 
 " Now, if Emanuel has any stomach left for 
 a fight (which I misdoubt me) they will stay 
 his eviting the room for fear of me without," 
 remarked the Captain. " Let us go make a 
 toilet." 
 
 A house-wench showed us to a room, where 
 we did our best to remove the dust and the 
 blood-stains of the day's work. 
 
 " Why, what a thing it is," observed Jacobus, 
 surveying me when we were ready, " to go 
 about with a guileless, innocent, boyish face like 
 yours, my son ! For all the years I 've been 
 upon the road, never till now have I been bid 
 to supper by a lady of any reputation." 
 
 We found Mistress Curie and her companion, 
 a short, black-eyed, ruddy young lady, with a 
 saucy bit of a nose, in a panelled chamber where 
 a brisk fire burned on the hearth and a plentiful 
 meal was smoking on the table. 
 
 "My cousin, Mrs. Beatrice Young," said 
 Mistress Curie, leading the dark young lady for- 
 ward. ' Since I have no one to present me, I 
 77
 
 Captain Jacobus 
 
 must e'en do the office for myself. Mrs. Maria- 
 bellah Curie, gentlemen," said she, curtseying. 
 
 " This is my friend, Mr. Anthony Langford, 
 of Langford Manor ; and my name is " said 
 the Captain, bowing " is Jacobus, of the 
 King's Highway." 
 
 "And are you the great Captain Jacobus," 
 exclaimed Mrs. Mariabellah, "who stopped my 
 father' s coach after his deprivation by the Round- 
 heads, and gave him a bag of broad-pieces ? 
 Oh, this is better and better ! " 
 
 " And are you then the daughter of Bishop 
 Curie of Winchester ? " asked Jacobus. 
 
 "The very same," cried she; "and Mrs. 
 Beatrice here is daughter to the Dean. But 
 come, let us fall to with the appetite befitting 
 those of the good party. Why,' ' continued this 
 lively young woman, when we had sat down, 
 " had it not been for you, Captain, we two 
 should never have dared to take the road with 
 none but a little foot-page to guard us. But we 
 knew you kept the highway and would endure 
 no rivals ; and, indeed, we hoped to meet you, 
 for after all the stories we have heard in our 
 sleepy, quiet little village, you cannot think how 
 78
 
 On the Road Inn at Farnham 
 
 I have longed to behold a real Cavalier ! And 
 a highwayman, too ! Oh, brave ! A glass of 
 wine with you, Captain, and with you, sir." 
 
 And she drank to us both, one after the other, 
 with the prettiest grace imaginable ; and demure 
 Mrs. Beatrice, blushing and twinkling, followed 
 the lead she set. 
 
 The ladies made us extraordinary good cheer, 
 seasoning it with fine courtly speeches ; but as 
 for me, I was so deadly famished, that, with the 
 best will in the world, I could scarce find fitting 
 answers : my wits drowsed, and even the Cap- 
 tain's tongue lagged somewhat. You are to 
 remember we had been some fifteen hours in the 
 saddle, and in the time had each of us ridden a 
 horse to death, besides enduring other fatiguing 
 adventures. I think that Mrs. Mariabellah must 
 have perceived our condition, for she presently 
 took the whole burden of talk upon herself, 
 entertaining us with the story of her father the 
 Bishop's misfortune, when the Parliament ousted 
 him from his see in the year 1 646, so that he 
 must retire to his sister's house at the tiny hamlet 
 of Soberton, where he died a year or so later. 
 And Mrs. Beatrice's father, the Dean, had a 
 79
 
 Captain Jacobus 
 
 similar history ; for when Ironsides marched 
 into Winchester with his New Model at his 
 back, the head of the Cathedral was forced to 
 beat a swift retreat to his living at Over Wallop. 
 But even thence Puritan malice pursued him, for 
 Cromwell, hot from the sack of Basing House, 
 descended upon Over Wallop, plundered the ill- 
 starred old gentleman of his chief possessions, and 
 set a scab of an Independent tinker over his head. 
 
 " So you will understand we bear no love to 
 the powers that be," cried Mrs. Mariabellah. 
 " I would even love to behold an English Barthol- 
 omew-Massacre. There have we been for years 
 and years and years, cooped up in the country, see- 
 ing no one, hearing nothing, living a life so deadly 
 dull I marvel the beasts of the field can suffer it. 
 At last I said we would take advantage of an old 
 pledge and go visit my father's brother at Guild- 
 ford, and see something of life if we could before 
 we were old and ugly, let me die if I would not ! 
 So here we are, you see." 
 
 "I make you my compliments," said the 
 Captain. " I drink your health in a bumper, 
 Madam, and yours, Mrs. Beatrice. Fill up, 
 Anthony." 
 
 80
 
 On the Road Inn at Farnham 
 
 When at length the cloth was drawn, and the 
 rich hues of burnt claret glowed in the mahogany, 
 " Prithee," said Mrs. Mariabellah, " tell us of 
 adventures." So, turn about, we told the tale 
 of that day' s exploits ; and I vow I would have 
 undergone our toils and perils twice over to gain 
 such a pretty pair of listeners. The wine was 
 heady and exhilarating, the audience rarely quick- 
 ening to the intellectuals ; and although I have 
 forgotten every word we said, I am persuaded 
 that we magnified each other's deeds to most 
 heroical proportions, and that we shone like 
 demi-gods in the eyes of those two innocent and 
 enraptured maidens. 
 
 " And so you have only one horse between 
 you. Oh, what an iniquity ! " cried Mrs. Maria- 
 bellah, when we were done with our tale. 
 
 " Well, I dare say we shall not go wanting 
 one long," remarked the Captain. 
 
 " You shall not indeed," said Mrs. Beatrice. 
 " Why, how lucky, Mary, that we brought a 
 led horse in case of accident. He is yours from 
 this moment, Captain. Take him for the King ! " 
 
 The Captain rose and made a very grand bow. 
 " Madam," he replied, " y* are too generous ; 
 6 81
 
 Captain Jacobus 
 
 I cannot accept such a gift. But an if you can 
 spare the nag, I will buy him very gratefully for 
 the King, for his Majesty's business is pressing." 
 
 But the ladies would not hear of it ; and so 
 we argued the matter back and forth. 
 
 "Just because we are women," said Mrs. 
 Mariabellah, " we are not allowed to do aught 
 for the King, forsooth ! " 
 
 " Why, very well," said Jacobus. " If you 
 will not sell, and the King's noblesse forbids him 
 to accept, we can but decide the issue by the 
 cards. I will stake my horse against yours, at 
 hazard, primero, quinze, all-fours, or what you 
 will." 
 
 The maidens agreed, and calling for a new 
 pack, down we sat to hazard. The end of it 
 was, the Captain won ; and thus he got his occa- 
 sion for a speech, the hope of which I knew 
 very well had been at the bottom of his finicking. 
 
 "Ladies," said he, "you have this night 
 done the King, aye, and the nation, a service per- 
 haps greater than you know. 'T is not the first 
 time the issues of a kingdom have turned upon 
 a lady's gift. Be assured, his Majesty shall hear 
 of it." 
 
 82
 
 On the Road Inn at Farnham 
 
 The Royalist ladies flushed bright for sheer 
 pleasure ; and the scene, along with many an- 
 other, remains upon my memory, nor will dis- 
 limn with time. There is the ruddy light shining 
 and flickering upon the black panelling ; there is 
 the glowing wine and the litter of painted cards ; 
 with the two gay and beautiful girls in their fine 
 glistering attire, curtseying side by side, with a 
 grace that is half mockery and half earnest, to 
 the Captain, who, a good deal flushed, with 
 one hand at his heart, stands making a low-leg 
 like a courtier.
 
 VI 
 
 ON THE ROAD THE GOLDEN 
 FARMER 
 
 IT was late the next morning ere we awoke, 
 although we had laid our plans to start at 
 sunrise and to escort the two ladies so far as 
 Guildford. When we came downstairs the land- 
 lady (a changed and gracious being) informed 
 us that they were already gone near half an 
 hour. Mr. Dickenson, she added, had de- 
 parted over night, "holding a bloody clout to 's 
 jaw." 
 
 We will breakfast at Guildford, Anthony," 
 said Jacobus. 
 
 I had to agree with a good grace, though I 
 disliked exceedingly this custom the Captain 
 had of always breaking his fast some ten miles 
 farther on ; it was nothing but sheer, senseless, 
 superfluous energy on his part, a mere lust for 
 factitious virtue. We found the horse the 
 Captain had won, in the stable next our own 
 84
 
 On the Road The Golden Farmer 
 
 nag, or rather Mr. Jedediah's, a big-boned 
 gray gelding, a very serviceable beast. A lock 
 of his mane was knotted with scarlet ribbon. 
 I untied this ladies' favor, and a slip of paper 
 fell out, upon which these words were written 
 in a fair hand : 
 
 " Ladies-errant seek other-guess heroes 
 Than laggardly, slug-a-bed Cavalieros." 
 
 I tossed the script to the Captain. 
 
 " What ! a love-letter so soon ! " said he. 
 "Very pretty," he added, reading it. "But 
 wait till they 're stopped by some scoundrel 
 foot-pad out upon the shark, and they '11 pipe to 
 a different tune, I '11 warrant ; for they 're out- 
 side my policies now." 
 
 I mounted the gray, and the Captain the 
 goldsmith's bayard, and we rode slowly up the 
 long slope to the ridge of the Hog's Back, along 
 which the road runs straight as a pike the whole 
 ten miles from Farnham to Guildford, bordered 
 on either side by a wide strip of velvet turf, and 
 enclosed with tall, luxuriant hedges. The east 
 wind had changed during the night, and an 
 odorous western gale blew at our backs, driving 
 85
 
 Captain Jacobus 
 
 great armadas of gray cloud overhead, whose 
 shadows swept across the fair plains lying be- 
 low, seen as we cantered along the wet grass 
 through gaps in the flitting hedgerows ; now 
 and again a plump of rain would fall, like a 
 shower of needles in the glints of sunshine. 
 We had been riding thus for half an hour, per- 
 haps, when we came in sight of a black dot 
 where the lines of the road ran into the sky. 
 
 "There they are," said the Captain; and, 
 setting spurs to our horses, we presently made 
 out that the group was standing still, and con- 
 sisted of four persons upon horseback, two of 
 whom were ladies, and the third their groom ; 
 but who was the fourth ? 
 
 "The laggards will be in time yet," said 
 Jacobus, urging his horse to its utmost speed. 
 As we drew nearer, I observed that the stranger, 
 whose back was towards us, appeared to be 
 delivering a speech ; I could see the sparkle where 
 the sun struck the pistol in his right hand as he 
 gesticulated. I suppose Mrs. Mariabellah and 
 Mrs. Beatrice found his eloquence something 
 tedious, for, seeing our approach, they uttered a 
 cry of delight and waved their kerchiefs ; but 
 86
 
 On the Road The Golden Farmer 
 
 the speaker merely glanced over his shoulder 
 and went on with his oration. 
 
 "'Tis the Golden Farmer, as God's-my- 
 life ! " cried the Captain, pulling his horse into 
 a walk. " We must hear him out, Anthony, 
 for unless you shoot him dead, there 's no stop- 
 ping him. The man talks like a mill-race, or a 
 whole college of doctors. He would perish 
 else. He only robs because it gives him such 
 singular good opportunities of compelling an 
 audience." 
 
 The orator was a burly, great-headed, gray- 
 haired man with thick lips ; half his face was 
 hidden by a black mask, behind which his 
 yellow eyes rolled as he harangued ; the ladies 
 and the lacquey, under the awe of his pistol, 
 were ranged in front of him, like children before 
 a schoolmaster. 
 
 " Hark you ! are ye not mad toads, to use such 
 arguments to me ? I know your sex too well, 
 Madam, to suffer myself to be prevailed upon 
 by any painted Mrs. Bitchington among ye," 
 shouted the Golden Farmer, in what appeared 
 to be a peroration. " What talk of the King to 
 me ! Give me leave to tell ye, madonnas, that 
 8?
 
 Captain Jacobus 
 
 I am king here, and that I have. a household to 
 support at the public charges as well as his 
 Majesty. I collect my dues from all that pass, 
 and why should you, who would fling away all 
 your rhino upon mirrors, apricoke paste, French 
 essences, and such like vain trifles, rob an honest 
 freebooter upon his lawful occasions ? No, no, 
 you jades ; this haughty spirit, this hyperbolical 
 cant, this sham poverty, will not serve you here. 
 A plague on you ! Untie your purse-strings 
 quickly, or else I shall send you from the land 
 of the living. Do you think I have no other- 
 guess customers, that you keep me waiting upon 
 you all the morning?" concluded this out- 
 rageous ruffian, levelling his pistol. 
 
 The ladies cried out. My gorge rose at the 
 man's vile insolence ; and I closed in upon him 
 on the one flank, pistol in hand, and caught his 
 wrist, as the Captain did the same on the 
 other. 
 
 "I have never heard you speak better," said 
 Jacobus. " But upon this occasion there will 
 be no contributions." 
 
 " Curse you ! " shouted the Golden Farmer, 
 struggling, "what do you here?"
 
 On the Road The Golden Farmer 
 
 "Bing avast, my bene-cove, bing avast," re- 
 turned the Captain, using the thieves' lingo. " I 
 bit the blow in the darkmans, and the doxies 
 are my booty." 1 
 
 " Tip me my snack, or I '11 whiddle," 2 cried 
 the other. 
 
 "Not a doit. Give me your word to picque 
 peaceably, or, by God, you go below for 
 orders ! " and the Captain put his pistol to the 
 Golden Farmer's head. 
 
 " I '11 picque, 't is all boman," 8 said the free- 
 booter, sullenly ; whereupon we released him, 
 and without another word, striking spurs into 
 his horse, he wheeled and rode away. 
 
 " There goes a very dangerous companion," 
 remarked Jacobus. " And y' are the first con- 
 gregation that ever listened to his silver discourses 
 without paying for the treat in gold." 
 
 He put his horse in motion, and we began to 
 ride forward, four abreast, the white-faced little 
 lacquey falling behind. 
 
 1 " Be off, my friend, be off. I robbed the girls 
 last night, and the booty is mine." 
 
 2 " Give me my share, or I will inform upon you." 
 
 3 " I '11 go, 't is all square." 
 
 89
 
 Captain Jacobus 
 
 "We are infinitely beholden to you, gen- 
 tlemen," cried Mrs. Mariabellah, who appeared 
 somewhat changed and pale in the morning 
 light, methought, while Mrs. Beatrice, though 
 rosy as ever, wore a scared look about her dark 
 eyes. 
 
 " We have a thousand apologies to make, on 
 our part, for our laggard appearance," I said. 
 
 "Had I conceived of such a possibility," 
 said the Captain, " I would never have gone to 
 bed." 
 
 "And I should never have got up," said 
 Mrs. Beatrice. 
 
 " Pardon me," returned Jacobus, " your fair 
 cousin would have compelled you, for I know 
 she had sworn to prove the force of her bright 
 eyes upon an armed desperado." 
 
 "Y'are impertinent, sir," said Mistress 
 Curie, reddening. 
 
 " Is 't not the truth, then, Madam ? I am 
 no courtier ; I cannot embroider my sayings ; I 
 speak but for your welfare. Did you not say 
 to yourself, or even, perhaps, to prudent Mrs. 
 Beatrice, here, ' Now let us adventure, and see 
 if one of these self-same robbers of the road will 
 90
 
 On the Road The Golden Farmer 
 
 out-face a pretty damsel ! ' and therewithal you 
 slip off like a couple of convent school-girls, 
 whilst two poor gentlemen are trying to get a 
 little piece of rest from the arduous fatigues in- 
 cident to his Majesty's service. 'T was scarce 
 kind, I think. Moreover, you run the risks of 
 dangers you know nothing of. No, no, Madam, 
 you cannot play Una without the Lion, in these 
 tristful days," concluded the Captain, with an 
 obvious relish. 
 
 I cursed Jacobus in my heart, for Mrs. Bea- 
 trice shot an appealing glance at me, and I could 
 see that both girls were over-wrought and trem- 
 bling from stress of the danger they had just 
 escaped. They spurred a little in advance of 
 us ; and thus the Captain, plucking at his mus- 
 tache according to his habit when disturbed in 
 mind, fell into step side by side with me. 
 
 " Fay ce que voudras is a privilege at all 
 times to be reserved for ladies, Captain," I re- 
 marked sufficiently loud for them to hear. 
 
 He looked at me doubtfully, then his face 
 cleared. Jacobus was one of those natural phi- 
 losophers whose ignorance of women embodies 
 itself in a single simple theorem ; and hence, in 
 9 1
 
 Captain Jacobus 
 
 his relations with ladies, he frequently walked 
 upon the brink of catastrophes wherefrom not 
 even his excellent intentions could always save 
 him. 
 
 " Why, 't is very well said, Anthony," he 
 returned cheerily. " And if a man be per- 
 mitted to stave off evil consequence, 't is all he 
 can expect; he may sing Nunc dimittis upon it, 
 and go his way." 
 
 We rode along in silence ; and gazing at the 
 two graceful figures in front, moving to beat of 
 hoofs through the blowing, changeful, shining 
 landscape, I marvelled to find myself as cold as 
 though I were before a picture. A year ago or 
 thereabouts I would have played the lover, or at 
 least dallied somewhat with the part ; now my 
 mind reached back with a strong recoil to a blue- 
 eyed damsel sitting lonely in a gray city leagues 
 behind us, and I found that I cared not the 
 toss of a coin whether or no I was ever to see 
 those two pretty ladies again. When they were 
 come to the top of the long hill that descends 
 upon the tail of Guildford town they turned to 
 await us, the wind fluttering their gay riding- 
 dresses, and playing daintily with strayling locks. 
 92
 
 On the Road The Golden Farmer 
 
 The cloud was quite dispelled from a pair of 
 flushed and kindly faces. 
 
 "Gentlemen," said Mrs. Mariabellah, "'tis 
 very sad, but I think it will be proper for us 
 to part here, though not, let us ever hope for 
 always. How can we thank you for your 
 valor ? ' ' 
 
 While she was speaking, the Captain had 
 taken a couple of Jacobuses from his pocket ; 
 holding them on his saddle-bow he graved some- 
 thing upon each with the point of his dagger. 
 He had been making of a little speech, and 
 arranging a situation, as we came along, I could 
 see, and now his time had come. 
 
 " Alas," said he, " 't is ever the way of this 
 floating world that we cannot be where we 
 would : sometimes we are fast a-bed when we 
 should be in the saddle ; and again, the King 
 his service haleth us willy-nilly from delight. 
 But since so it must be, set the crown upon 
 your favorable kindness, I beseech you, ladies, 
 and accept a token that should safe-guard you 
 upon all the West Country roads, until the King 
 comes home." And with his best air, dismount- 
 ing, he gave a broad-piece to each lady, kissing, 
 93 

 
 Captain Jacobus 
 
 as he did so, the hand she stretched forth to 
 receive it. 
 
 " And when that day comes, as it will swiftly, 
 I vow there will be no more gallant gentleman, 
 no, not even the King his Majesty, restored to 
 place and honor, than Captain Jacobus," cried 
 Mrs. Mariabellah. 
 
 I was standing at Mrs. Beatrice's knee; and 
 thinking, I suppose, that I might feel a little cast 
 into the shadow by the Captain's glittering per- 
 formances, she glanced at me with a sudden 
 kindly look. I thought it mighty pretty of the 
 maiden, and I took her hand and saluted her. 
 
 "Madam," I said, "I pray you remember 
 always I am your faithful and willing friend to 
 serve you." 
 
 "And you, Mr. Langford," said she, 
 'y* have gained two friends. Forget it not." 
 
 I made my adieux to Mrs. Mariabellah, who 
 spoke with equal courtesy ; but I could see her 
 mind was possessed by Jacobus. Then the two 
 ladies turned and rode away down the hill, fol- 
 lowed by the little groom, to whom the Captain 
 tossed a crown. We stood watching the lessen- 
 ing figures until they came to a turn in the road, 
 94
 
 On the Road The Golden Farmer 
 
 when they looked back and flashed a kerchief 5n 
 the sunshine. 
 
 ' ' Youthful and fair and ignorant and good, 
 upon what a singular world those perilous eyes 
 look out ! " quoth the Captain, as we remounted. 
 "I marvel what it must be like, Anthony. 
 Well, your fair lady is a pretty toy, indeed. I 
 bless God for her ! But she is a sad hindrance 
 to business ; and I shall eat the bigger breakfast 
 that we are no longer cumbered." 
 
 I knew better than to say what I thought, 
 and we pursued our way in silence into the old 
 steep town of Guildford, where we put up at the 
 White Kart. When we were fairly on the road 
 again, I reflected that there were thirty profitable 
 miles of road to London, and plainly foresaw 
 further difficulties with my pragmatical conscience. 
 But although now and again big, ruddy, well-liking 
 farmers would be jogging to meet us, or a coach 
 with outriders would lumber by, Jacobus rode all 
 day as peaceably as he had been a simple citizen. 
 The dusk was gathering, and the broad river 
 glassed a red sunset as we passed the Lord Pro- 
 tector's palace of Hampton Court, and the dark 
 had fallen by the time we were climbing the hill 
 95
 
 Captain Jacobus 
 
 to Putney Heath. The wind, which had been 
 waxing steadily all day, roared in the thickets 
 through which the road ascended, and the bat- 
 tered crescent of the moon in wane shone in fly- 
 ing gleams between serried and swiftly marching 
 regiments of cloud. In one of these flashes I saw 
 a horseman spurring past us, wrapped in a great 
 furred cloak. A moment afterwards I heard the 
 Captain's voice above the wind and the thrashing 
 of the branches, shouting in my ear. 
 
 " I think your nag hath cast a shoe. See to 't 
 before we go farther." 
 
 I dismounted instantly, and felt the beast's feet, 
 to find him securely shod. As I raised myself to 
 climb into the saddle again, there came another 
 gleam of moonlight, and I glanced about for the 
 Captain. A bow's shoot further along the road 
 I saw two black figures motionless amid the toss- 
 ing silver landscape ; Jacobus stood with levelled 
 pistol, while the rider in the furred cloak seemed 
 to be groping in his saddle-bags ; and beyond, a 
 man hanged high upon a gibbet swang limply 
 to and fro, chin to breast and toes to earth. 
 Down the wind came an odious, heart-heaving 
 waft, and a clinking of chains. The night shut 
 96
 
 On the Road The Golden Farmer 
 
 close again like a curtain : after discreetly waiting 
 a few moments, I rode slowly forwards ; and 
 presently discovered the Captain at my side. We 
 exchanged no word until we had passed beneath 
 the dead man, when the Captain cried a saluta- 
 tion to him. 
 
 " He was a generous cully while he lived," 
 said Jacobus. " And now, 'twixt hawk and 
 buzzard, he is food for the hoody-crows." 
 
 " May I never come to say the same at your 
 gallows' -foot, Captain," said I. 
 
 " Amen ! " rejoined Jacobus, piously. 
 
 Soon after, turning to the right, we rode 
 through Wandsworth, westwards to Lambeth, 
 where the murdered Archbishop's Palace loomed 
 across the marsh-flats, thence to London Bridge ; 
 and so, for the first time in my life I set foot in 
 London Town. I do not know to what I had 
 looked forward; but the narrow, dim-lighted streets 
 and the close air struck me with a sense of outrage 
 and indecency. After winding through a maze 
 of mean and noisome lanes and alleys, we came out 
 upon a long thoroughfare, which, so the Captain 
 informed me, was Fleet Street, where was the Globe 
 Tavern, and there we drew rein for the night. 
 7 97
 
 VII 
 
 THE BELL-MAN OF SAINT 
 SEPULCHRE'S 
 
 SO soon as we had supped, the unwearying 
 Jacobus announced that he must pay a visit 
 to a certain lady of his acquaintance, and would 
 have me to accompany him. Accordingly we 
 repaired to a house but two doors off, which was 
 lighted up as if for a festival. 
 
 " Captain," I said, "what place is this ? " 
 " The home of a gaudy temptation, boy, the 
 vestibule to ruined fortunes : a magical palace 
 where time is not, for a man may live a lifetime 
 in a moment, and Adam's curse is abrogated, in 
 virtue of a handful of painted cards. Didst never 
 take a fit o* the cards, Anthony ? But of course 
 you would not do 't," said the Captain, attempt- 
 ing the ironical. 
 
 " 'T is a nice business to indulge on the left 
 hand, without punishing on the right, as the 
 proverb goes," I returned. 
 98
 
 The Bell-Man of Saint Sepulchre's 
 
 *' Come," said Jacobus, "try to forget, once 
 again, that y' are no Bible-mad evangelist, and to 
 remember that we are about King's business. I 
 desire you to take particular heed of the con- 
 versation : there cannot be too many checks on 
 the bridle of this sort of cattle." 
 
 There was no need to knock, for lounging in 
 the doorway was a slatternly down-at-heel wench 
 who greeted Jacobus in terms of familiarity. 
 
 " You will find Mrs. Moll at her accompts," 
 she added, and the Captain, who seemed to 
 know the place, walked upstairs to the first-floor, 
 where there were doors in front and upon the 
 left hand. A great noise of talk, laughter, and 
 the clink of glasses came from behind the door 
 in front ; but it was upon the other that Jacobus 
 knocked twice in a particular manner. A voice 
 cried out to us to enter, and upon opening the 
 door we found ourselves in a panelled room of 
 moderate size and good proportion. Lights 
 burned upon the high wooden mantel, and a sole 
 candle stood upon the polished table at the side of 
 the fire, illuminating the face of one who sat 
 smoking a long clay pipe, behind a great brass- 
 bound ledger which lay open next a bottle and a 
 99
 
 Captain Jacobus 
 
 half empty glass. At first I could not determine 
 whether the singular monster who rose as we 
 entered were male or female, Michael or Dia- 
 bolus : for the sleek countenance was that of a 
 sly, good-humored, evil woman ; while the 
 doublet and slashed gaskins might have served 
 the turn of a needy sloven of a gentleman : but 
 the Captain's greeting informed me. 
 
 " Give you good-den, Mrs. Mary. This 
 gentleman, my friend, and I would be glad of a 
 piece of a talk with you upon certain affairs." 
 
 " With all my heart, Captain," responded 
 Moll Cutpurse, in a voice har-sh yet insinuating, 
 which put me mind of a snail crawling upon a 
 window-pane. " Y' are ever welcome to my 
 poor house. Methought you would to Rumvile, 1 
 so soon as I heard that poor Mr. Armorer would 
 be shoving the tumbles from the Checquers 2 to 
 Tyburn.' ' 
 
 " Is the date appointed ? " asked Jacobus. 
 
 "The day after to-morrow, I have sure 
 news. Such a mighty pretty, civil young 
 gentleman, too, and such a way with the wenches 
 
 1 London. 
 
 2 Whipped at the cart's tail from Newgate.
 
 The Bell-Man of Saint Sepulchre's 
 
 as he hath. Well, well ! Holborn Hill is the 
 road to glory for such as we, Captain, be it 
 soon or be it late. But sit ye down, gentlemen, 
 draw to the fire, and what will ye drink now ? ' ' 
 
 "A cup of Rosa Solis for me," answered 
 the Captain. 
 
 I had no mind to drink in neighborly fashion 
 in such a house, but a glance from Jacobus told 
 me it were best for us ; and, as civilly as I could, 
 I said I would have the same. Mrs. Cutpurse 
 rose, and crossing the room with her man's 
 stride, she flung aside a heavy curtain which 
 hung on the wall to the right of the door by 
 which we had entered, disclosing a leaded case- 
 ment brightly painted with a curious, lewd 
 design, which gave upon the room beyond. As 
 the woman opened the window a broken torrent 
 of talk and shrill laughter flowed upon our ears, 
 mingled with the crazy notes of a song. Mrs. 
 Cutpurse leaned over the sill and called for the 
 liquor, and, moving a pace, I looked over her 
 shoulder, seized with an eager curiosity. A 
 company of gallants sat about the lighted tables : 
 many were playing at cards, entirely sunk in a 
 watchful absorption ; while others, flushed and
 
 Captain Jacobus 
 
 disordered, were drinking and noisily singing. 
 One uplifted gentleman, with a foot upon the 
 table and a wine-glass held askew in his shaking 
 hand so that the liquor spilled, was chanting a 
 song of the Rump with a very scandalous bob 
 to it. 
 
 ' Will you not join my merry company as- 
 sembled, my pretty gentleman, while I discuss 
 with the sober Captain?" asked Mrs. Moll, 
 turning to me with a leer, and ran on in her 
 horrible voice, that rasped upon me like a 
 finger-nail on silk, in force to cajole me. But I 
 answered very shortly, turning my back broad 
 upon her; and the liquor being brought, she 
 hasped the window, drew the curtain, and with- 
 out any more words sat down again at the table, 
 facing the Captain ; while I drew a chair to 
 the fire on the opposite side of the hearth. 
 
 " At your service, Captain," said Mrs. Cut- 
 purse, cheerily, with unruffled composure. 
 " You want a gob of money, as usual, I take 
 it. Well, now, and what is the sum ? " 
 
 "Mrs. Cutpurse, I should explain to you 
 Mr. Langford, keeps her moneys at the charges 
 of the Commonwealth," said the Captain.
 
 The Bell-Man of Saint Sepulchre's 
 
 'T is the only privilege, perhaps, she shares 
 with Oliver, as the similarity of their hand of 
 write is the single point of likeness between 
 them. But the last, it is true, Mrs. Cutpurse 
 shares with every one who have skill to write 
 at all." 
 
 Indeed, this female iniquity was so accom- 
 plished a forgeress that upon several occasions 
 the Commonwealth Treasury honored her 
 drafts for large sums, supposing them to be 
 genuine j until at length Cromwell was forced 
 to invent a private mark. 
 
 Captain Jacobus then proceeded to unfold 
 his proposal : which was, that Mrs. Cutpurse 
 should repair on the morrow to Wallingford 
 House with a forged warrant for a thousand 
 pounds, and that during the night following, 
 the Captain should bring to her ample security 
 for that amount in what form did not trans- 
 pire and exchange it for the money. Mrs. 
 Cutpurse put questions and made conditions 
 with the acerb shrewdness of a scrivener ; and 
 that business was speedily despatched. The 
 Captain then went on to disclose the details of 
 a scheme to be carried through during the 
 103
 
 Captain Jacobus 
 
 next four-and-twenty hours, in which Mrs. 
 Cutpurse was to bear a main part. Mean- 
 while, I sat back in the shadow, taking careful 
 heed of their talk. The devil' s-din in the next 
 chamber went on, with now and again a ring 
 of broken glass, a cascade of tipsy laughter, or a 
 swinging song with a roaring chorus. I found 
 time between-whiles to marvel at the romanti- 
 cal volutions of circumstance : at this hour I 
 should have been riding homewards across 
 Salisbury Downs, my head full of sunbright, 
 happy memories ; and the field of dark and 
 rolling hills, domed with the sparkling sky, 
 rose before me. I recalled the thymy scent of 
 the night-wind breathing in my face ; and look- 
 ing round the close chamber, which seemed to 
 copy the vicious aspect of its owner, a sense of 
 intolerable sickness took me, and I got suddenly 
 to my feet. 
 
 At the same moment the Captain came to an 
 end and rose also. We made our way out of 
 the house by a narrow back stairway which led 
 us into an alley as dark as pitch. I could dis- 
 cern nothing but a confusion of roofs against a 
 jagged piece of sky, where the stars were wink- 
 104
 
 The Bell-Man of Saint Sepulchre's 
 
 ing. But the Captain went confidently for- 
 ward, and two or three sharp turns brought us 
 into Fleet Street, which was dimly lighted at 
 long intervals by oil-lamps slung on chains be- 
 twixt the houses. The place was deserted save 
 for a few prowling shadows, and in the distance, 
 the glimmering lanterns of the watch. The 
 clock of Saint Dunstan's was clanging twelve as 
 we reached the door of our tavern ; and upon 
 the last reverberation followed the far-away 
 scream of a woman, a confused shouting, and 
 the clash of steel. 
 
 " Alsatians serenading," quoth Jacobus, 
 " down in Whitefriars yonder. You would 
 not hold our friend Mrs. Cutpurse in all points 
 as the fruit of the Holy Seed, perhaps; but 
 were I to take you to houses I wot of in 
 Alsatia, you would think her bagnio a conventi- 
 cle, by comparison. But come in to bed, my 
 young friend. I shall to sleep like a dog, till 
 nature wakes me ; and I would counsel you to 
 the same, for it's little enough sleep you '11 get 
 presently." 
 
 But I lay long awake that night, for I was 
 over- weary. The liquor I had drunk had set 
 105
 
 Captain Jacobus 
 
 my brain clear as a lighted room, wherein I 
 acted over and over again the scenes of the past 
 three days ; and when at last I fell on sleep a 
 little before dawn, the scream of the woman 
 rang in my dreams, and I seemed to see her 
 fleeing through narrow mazes, pursued by ruf- 
 fians ; and try as I might, I could never come 
 up to her, nor see her face. 
 
 It was high noon before we rose next day ; 
 and after a great and choice meal we set forth 
 into the streets. Here I speedily grew discom- 
 fortably angry with the jostling tide of way- 
 farers, who made nothing of elbowing a man 
 into the kennel without so much as a word; 
 while the horrible clamor of the flat-capped 
 'prentices crying their masters' wares upon the 
 pavement filled my ears ; and the warm fetid 
 smell of the place, like that of a swamp, nau- 
 seated me to the gizzard. We passed down 
 Fleet Street and up Ludgate Hill to Paul's. 
 At the corner of the Churchyard the Captain 
 showed me, as he had done at Winchester by 
 Brother Jedediah, the low-browed house and 
 close-shuttered shop of Brother Emanuel, and 
 his gilded sign decently draped in black sarcenet. 
 1 06
 
 The Bell-Man of Saint Sepulchre's 
 
 Walking in Paul's for awhile, we found it 
 crowded with bargaining merchants, bustling 
 cits, gallants and their lasses, more like a cried 
 fair than a temple of God. Thence we took 
 our way down Blow-Bladder Street to Newgate 
 Prison, a part of which, as it served for the 
 City gate-house, stood on either side of the road. 
 The buildings were tall and narrow, with a 
 great door in the centre, and a single tier of 
 plain barred windows rising on each side. A 
 little beyond is Giltspur Street, which, branch- 
 ing into two on either side of a pile of buildings 
 at its junction with Newgate Street, turns off 
 towards Smithfield. The church of Saint Sepul- 
 chre stands at the further corner. These partic- 
 ulars, together with the relative positions of the 
 adjacent streets and side alleys, I must learn by 
 heart, in view of the night's work ; and to this 
 end we paced about and about, backwards and 
 forwards, until I had the tract of huddled houses 
 bounded by the Fleet Prison and Paul's on the 
 west and east respectively, Fleet Street on the 
 south, and Smithfield on the north, clear as a 
 map in my head. By that time it had fallen 
 dusk, and we returned to the Globe Tavern to 
 107
 
 Captain Jacobus 
 
 dine. As we sat at meat Captain Jacobus im- 
 pressed upon me the order for the night's enter- 
 prise with great particularity. The first thing to 
 do was to get speech of the condemned highway- 
 man, Mr. Nicholas Armorer, who (it will be 
 remembered) had been taken by Cromwell's 
 patrol immediately after having slain Mr. Secre- 
 tary Thurloe's express from the Low Coun- 
 tries. Now the success of the Penruddock plot 
 depended upon the Government's ignorance 
 thereof; if Armorer had destroyed the mails 
 before he was overpowered, all was so far well ; 
 but if, on the other hand, they had fallen into 
 the hands of his captors, the whole plan of 
 operations must be altered. The prisoner, and 
 the prisoner alone, could give us this most 
 necessary news ; and if the Captain succeeded 
 in winning to him, Jacobus would at the same 
 time convey a parcel of weapons with which he 
 might make good his escape. To this end 
 Jacobus intended to personate the Bell-Man of 
 Saint Sepulchre's, who administered the consola- 
 tions of religion to all condemned criminals the 
 night before their execution. 
 
 For a certain Mrs. Elizabeth Elliott, whose 
 108
 
 The Bell-Man of Saint Sepulchre's 
 
 son, having been condemned to death and at 
 the last moment reprieved by the King's 
 clemency, dying some few years since, had in 
 gratitude bequeathed a sum of money to the 
 Parish of Saint Sepulchre's, to the intent that 
 they should find a man forever, who, betwixt the 
 hours of eleven and twelve the night before the 
 prisoner's execution, should go under Newgate, 
 giving warning of his presence by the solemn 
 ringing of a hand-bell. He was then to put 
 them in mind of their imminent end by the 
 reading of certain prayers and pious exhortations. 
 Now Mrs. Moll Cutpurse had undertaken to 
 entice the Bell-Man into her house that even- 
 ing ; the Captain would take from him his 
 book of devotions, and habit himself in the 
 great blue cloak with silver buttons in which 
 the Bell-Man officiated. My part in the plot 
 was, briefly, to withdraw the crowd from about 
 the Captain in order to secure him a few 
 moments of solitude wherein to accomplish his 
 design. I must then return to the house of 
 Mrs. Cutpurse and there await Jacobus, who, 
 it seemed, had another business in hand. When 
 I learned the details, I owned to myself the 
 109
 
 Captain Jacobus 
 
 design wore a singukrly desperate aspect ; but 
 there was no question of thievery this time ; 
 and I promised myself, at the least, some pleas- 
 urable excitement. Nor was I in any sense 
 disappointed in that expectation. 
 
 The dinner eaten, we primed our pistols 
 afresh, and, fully armed, masked, and cloaked, 
 made a circuit and entered the bagnio by the 
 privy door. We found the lady flauntingly 
 apparelled in purple Lucca velvet, much bedecked 
 and bejewelled; and I misliked her more than 
 ever. Dressed as a man she appeared merely 
 monstrous, but clothed as a woman she seemed 
 to insult her sex. She led us straightway into a 
 little apartment that opened off the room in 
 which she had entertained us the night before ; 
 and there, all fallen together in a great chair by 
 the fire, a huge, gross man with a tangle of red 
 hair lay in a slumber so profound that, had he 
 been dead, he could have been no more insen- 
 sible of our approach. A black-jack stood on 
 the floor at his side, empty ; and a faint, pungent 
 odor hung in the air. 
 
 "He drinks a mighty potation," remarked 
 Mrs. Moll, " and after the way I mixed it, I'll 
 no
 
 The Bell-Man of Saint Sepulchre's 
 
 warrant him to slumber through the trumpet- 
 blast of the great Archangel." 
 
 The Captain doffed his hat, and, picking up 
 the Bell-Man's blue camlet cloak from behind 
 the door, put it on and pulled the hood over his 
 head. Searching in the lining, he presently 
 drew forth a thin volume bound in brown 
 leather, and conned it swiftly through. 
 
 There is a cursedly scant measure of the 
 farrago," said he. "You must be mighty 
 quick, Anthony, or I shall have to spin prayers 
 out of my head like an Independent. This is a 
 job would have better suited the Golden 
 Farmer." 
 
 Upon leaving the house, we found awaiting 
 us at the door the Bell-Man's open cart, to 
 which a big black mule was harnessed. A 
 'prentice-lad stood at the brute's head, and a 
 number of idlers had gathered round. I took 
 the reins, the Captain tossed the boy a coin, and 
 climbing into the cart, we set off towards Saint 
 Sepulchre's upon Snow Hill. The mule went 
 at a funeral pace ; and finding that no persuasion 
 prevailed upon it, I desisted therefrom, supposing 
 that the beast was trained to the proper custom. 
 in
 
 Captain Jacobus 
 
 The crowd increased momentarily, and began to 
 surround us, until by the time we descried the 
 swinging lanterns of the Watch at the corner by 
 the church, the multitude must have numbered 
 some two or three hundred. Many in the 
 procession carried links ; so that the red gleam 
 flitted from casement to casement of the houses 
 on either hand, lit strongly and struck into 
 vividness faces here and there among the throng, 
 while a world of shadows danced overhead, amid 
 the smoke and glare. At Saint Sepulchre's, the 
 Watch, with shouldered bills, brown or bright, 
 fell in among the crowd j and in this order we 
 arrived at Newgate. 
 
 Stopping the cart in the middle of the road, 
 I jumped down and began to work my way 
 through the throng, which strove to press close. 
 The glare of the torches flickered upon the 
 grisly walls and tiers of black barred windows ; 
 looking back, I saw the Captain rise to his feet 
 and open his book. 
 
 "Gentlemen, are you awake ? " he cried, in 
 a great voice, scanning the grim fronts of the 
 prison to left and right. 
 
 I had but time to catch an answering cry 
 
 112
 
 CLIMBING INTO THE CART, WE SET OFF TOWARDS 
 ST. SEPULCHRE'S.
 
 The Bell-Man of Saint Sepulchre's 
 
 from within the condemned hold, when I was 
 clear of the press, and running hot-foot back to 
 Giltspur Street. Reaching the back of the 
 square of houses on either side of which Gilt- 
 spur Street branches into Newgate Street, I 
 paused, and looked about ; for it was in this 
 place, well within hearing of Newgate, that I 
 purposed to raise a hue-and-cry. The street 
 was deadly quiet, so that my footsteps made an 
 extraordinary commotion ; and so far as I could 
 discern by the faint starlight and the glimmer of 
 a lamp at a little distance, not so much as a cat 
 was stirring. Stepping out into the roadway, 
 which here formed a small open space of triangu- 
 lar shape, I opened my mouth and shouted 
 " Fire, ho ! Fire ! " 
 
 The word had an effect, immediate and un- 
 expected. From the shadows a figure detached 
 itself and came swiftly towards me. As it drew 
 nearer, I made out the form of a man something 
 smaller and slighter built than myself ; the face 
 under the broad hat was closely muffled. 
 
 "Where is the fire, sir?" inquired the 
 stranger, eagerly, peering about at the dark and 
 silent houses. 
 
 8 113
 
 Captain Jacobus 
 
 This was a difficulty I had not anticipated. 
 " Why, here, sir," I answered. " Do you not 
 see it ? Help me to raise the alarm, then. 
 There is no time to be lost ; " and I was fetch- 
 ing my breath for another alarum when the 
 stranger clapped a hand upon my mouth. 
 
 " Y* are mad, or jesting," he said, angrily. 
 ' There is no fire. And I want the street kept 
 quiet." 
 
 "And I want it raised," I returned, pinion- 
 ing him. " Leave me be, my little man, or I 
 will break you in pieces." 
 
 My gallant struggled furiously, and dealing 
 him a kick that sent him headlong, I began to 
 halloo at the top of my pipe. In another mo- 
 ment casements were flung open, night-capped 
 heads bobbed out, and voices from all quarters 
 took up the cry. My gentleman picked him- 
 self from the kennel and ran upon me with 
 naked blade. 
 
 " Look, then ! " I cried ; and, obeying my 
 outstretched arm, he stopped and turned, then, 
 with an inarticulate cry, dashed forward. 
 
 For at that very instant, to my extreme 
 amazement, I spied a light tongue of flame 
 114
 
 The Bell-Man of Saint Sepulchre's 
 
 amid a spiral of smoke upon the thatched roof 
 of the house opposite to me, then another and 
 another, and before I could move, the place 
 was burning like a torch. My task was accom- 
 plished, with a vengeance ; the crowd came 
 pouring through the narrow streets on either 
 side the central block in the midst of which 
 my house was blazing. I felt as if I had set 
 light to it myself, and fought my way towards 
 the flames with intent to do what I might to 
 extinguish them. Half-way through the crowd 
 I met my young gallant carrying a wench in 
 his arms, the people making way for him. 
 
 f< O you ! " he cried, stopping. " I think 
 you must be a witch or the Devil. I have 
 been watching the place all night, and how 
 could it have caught fire ? Make way, sir. 
 You shall not stop me ! " 
 
 I never saw a boy so mad with excitement, 
 and as I stepped aside to let him pass I noted 
 that the girl was fully dressed as if for riding. 
 Then my imminent appointment with the Cap- 
 tain coming to mind, I freed myself from the 
 roaring mobile and took my way back to Fleet 
 Street. As I walked my head cooled, and it
 
 Captain Jacobus 
 
 broke upon my understanding that had it not 
 been for the singular chance of the conflagration 
 (an accident, perhaps, of the young lady's 
 vigil), I had come extraordinary near to up- 
 setting a deeply-schemed plan of elopement. 
 
 116
 
 VIII 
 
 MR. AND MRS. CUTPURSE 
 
 LOATH as I was to enter the gambling den, 
 I feared to loiter in the street ; and find- 
 ing the privy door upon the latch, I mounted 
 the dark stairs to the room we had but lately 
 left. Mrs. Moll was sitting at ease by the fire, 
 pipe in mouth, a glass of schnapps at her elbow, 
 and greeted me with her customary offensive 
 conplaisance. 
 
 "I am glad, indeed, to see you safe and 
 sound, Mr. Langford. And how have you 
 sped, sir, and what will you drink while you 
 tell me ? Canary, Rhenish, Xeres, burnt claret, 
 sack, Rosa Soils What you will ?" 
 
 "Nothing, I thank you/' I said, for although 
 I was mighty dry, the remembrance of Mrs. 
 Cutpurse's hospitality to the Bell-Man stuck in 
 my throat. 
 
 117
 
 Captain Jacobus 
 
 ' Well, indeed, y' are a queer cove of a 
 young gentleman as ever I saw in the world. 
 Ye will not drink, nor, I dare swear, would ye 
 dice. Pray, sir, how do you live ? Nay, 
 never look black. Take no note of an old 
 woman's quirks, but sit ye down, and tell me, 
 an ye will, how go matters." 
 
 In a few words I related the night's adven- 
 tures so far as I knew them. Mrs. Cutpurse 
 heard me with infinite glee. 
 
 " Mr. Armorer will ' scape the gallows yet,' " 
 she cried. "Jacobus is a clever rogue. He 
 maketh an ill enemy ; I would never cross him 
 by my will. And why ? Because I am honest ? 
 No, for I am not honest, 'tis a dull commod- 
 ity, honesty, and one I could never find any use 
 for. But I am afraid of him, Mr. Langford ; 
 and fear is a stout bond for square dealing." 
 
 I muttered a civil word in reply ; this trifling 
 encouragement was enough for Mrs. Cutpurse, 
 who, being perhaps a little disguised in liquor, 
 began a manner of talk the like of which I had 
 never heard. A kind of poisonous magic dwelt 
 in her tongue ; so that as this brazen school- 
 mistress of sin with the cunning eye held dis- 
 118
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Cutpurse 
 
 course, life and the world as she conceived of 
 them passed before me like scenes in a play- 
 house : gross, tragical, outrageous, and farcical 
 by turns ; always blindly base, yet intertwist- 
 ing throughout this monstrous web of passion, 
 avarice, and mis-doing, a thread of natural, hu- 
 man kindliness and shrewd good-humor. I 
 could see that Mrs. Moll was one of your born 
 praters ; set a piece of listening intelligence in 
 front of her, and she asked no more ; the wo- 
 man was sublimely happy, and would talk until 
 her head was clean empty. The matter of her 
 discourse cannot be put down here ; but it fas- 
 cinated me, so that I did not hear the latch lift, 
 and only a sense of some one looking at me 
 caused me to turn my head, to catch a glimpse 
 of a man just disappearing out of the door. 
 Swift as he was, I had time to recognize the 
 burly figure and white locks of Mul-Sack. 
 
 "What is it?" demanded Mrs. Cutpurse, 
 whose back was towards the door, turning 
 quickly as she spoke. 
 
 " 'T is nothing," I said. " I but fancied I 
 heard the door open," for the stealthy de- 
 meanor of the King of the Beggars aroused my 
 suspicions. 119
 
 Captain Jacobus 
 
 "I heard nothing," Mary said. "What 
 could it have been ? " and rising, she went to 
 the door, opened it, put her head into the 
 passage, then closed it again, returned to the 
 hearth, and stood looking keenly down at me. 
 
 "There is no one there," said she. "Per- 
 haps your fancy plays you tricks at times, Mr. 
 Langford ? " 
 
 "Why often," I replied, sleepily, and 
 yawned. At this moment a distant rumble of 
 wheels broke upon our ears, grew rapidly louder, 
 and was presently mingled with a clatter of 
 galloping hoofs. "The Captain at last," cried 
 Mrs. Cutpurse, and ran down the stairs, where 
 I could hear her unbarring the door. The 
 sounds ceased abruptly, a hasty foot pounded on 
 the stair, and the Captain, red with hurry, burst 
 into the room, a bulky sack upon his shoulder. 
 
 " The Bell-Man, ' ' he cried, dumping his 
 burden on the table. " Quick, man, out with 
 him, neck and heels. The Watch are upon us 
 hot-foot." 
 
 Snatching a candle, I flung open the door of 
 the inner room, while the Captain tore off the 
 blue camlet cloak. The Bell-Man was still 
 
 120
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Cutpurse 
 
 slugging in a dog-sleep, just as we had left him. 
 I took his shoulders, Jacobus took his heels, and 
 we bundled him down stairs, hove him into the 
 cart, and flung his cloak upon him in a breath- 
 less hurry. Mrs. Moll, who had been standing 
 at the mule's head, whipped into the house, and 
 as the Captain dealt the beast a sounding kick 
 which started it at a gallop, I heard the door 
 slam and the clank of iron bars falling into their 
 sockets. 
 
 We turned to find ourselves locked out. At 
 the bottom of the street a clump of lanterns and 
 glinting weapons was advancing at a round pace. 
 There was small time for consideration ; in 
 three minutes, or less, a dozen of the Watch 
 armed with six-foot bills would be upon us. 
 
 " Bilked, are we ! " cried Jacobus, with an 
 oath. " Round to the back ! " 
 
 " Did you know that Mul-Sack was in the 
 house," I asked him, as we ran. 
 
 "Who?" exclaimed the Captain. 
 
 "Mul-Sack. I saw him." 
 
 We gained the dark archway leading to the 
 network of alleys that gave upon the back door 
 of the bagnio. Peering out, we had the pleas- 
 
 121
 
 Captain Jacobus 
 
 ure of beholding the whole body of Watchmen 
 till past the end of the street, and heard them 
 clamping into the distance. 
 
 "That's serious," said Jacobus. "I can 
 check and bridle the man, or his villanous wife. 
 But the two together no, I don't like it, 
 Anthony." 
 
 "His wife?" 
 
 "Ay, Mr. and Mrs. Cutpurse, or Mr. and 
 Mrs. Mul-Sack, which you will, and plenty of 
 choice beside. But now to try the other door. 
 There 's a thousand pounds' worth of spoils in 
 their clutches, and I doubt me of treasons and 
 stratagems." 
 
 Upon trying the latch, we found it fast. A 
 casement clinked open above our heads, and, 
 looking up, the Captain had but just time to 
 clutch my arm and step swiftly aside, before a 
 bucketful of scalding water descended upon the 
 spot where we had been standing. With an 
 oath, Jacobus drew a pistol and snapped it ; and 
 although the spark fell upon damp powder, the 
 window shut sharply. 
 
 " We will get in, by God," whispered Jaco- 
 bus, as he reprimed his weapons. Fire at
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Cutpurse 
 
 the lock with both your pistols, then charge the 
 door." 
 
 I looked hastily to my priming, then, stand- 
 ing close against the door, presented my weapons. 
 Jacobus did the same with one of his, holding 
 the other in reserve. He gave the word ; there 
 was a flash and shattering explosion ; the door 
 went down before our united weight, and we 
 were inside. At the same moment a dark 
 figure appeared upon the stairhead above. Jaco- 
 bus fired on the instant, and the man tumbled 
 forward with a scream, his pistol exploding in 
 his hand. As we dashed up the stair, the door 
 of Mrs. Cutpurse' s room shut to, and we heard 
 the bolts click. 
 
 "Down with it," cried Jacobus. 
 
 I ran at the door, which burst inwards, trip- 
 ping over the fallen man in my^ hurry, so that I 
 tumbled headlong into the room amid a ruin of 
 woodwork. Jacobus trampled right over me, 
 and I picked myself up to find him strenuously 
 engaged with Mrs. Moll, who was wielding a 
 long rapier with the utmost fury and a great deal 
 of dexterity. 
 
 "Disarm her with a cloak," cried Jacobus. 
 123
 
 Captain Jacobus 
 
 Flinging my mantle across the blades, I pinioned 
 the lady from behind ; and it was all I could do 
 to restrain her passionate struggles without maim- 
 ing her. But Jacobus slipped off his belt, and 
 we tied her wrists with a garter, and buckled her 
 into a chair, where she began to vociferate curses 
 with diabolical fluency. Victory was ours, but 
 there was scant leisure for contemplation. The 
 other inmates of the house would raise a hue-and- 
 cry in another moment ; already we heard a 
 bustle and the noise of opening doors above 
 stairs. The Captain caught up his sack from 
 the table and ran out of the house ; and, seeing a 
 stout leathern valise beside it, upon a sudden 
 impulse I tucked it under my arm and followed. 
 Mul-Sack lay where he had fallen, and the stairs 
 were slippery with his blood. 
 
 " The black, arrant, filthy scoundrels ! " said 
 the Captain, as we twisted and turned through 
 by-ways. " They would 'a robbed his Majesty' 
 of my hardly-earned gains without so much as a 
 God-a-mercy. What have you there, boy ? " 
 "I don't know 'tis cursedly neavy." 
 " Well, we must lug our burdens yet awhile. 
 God send we meet not the rascals of the Watch." 
 124
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Cutpurse 
 
 So sewn as the Captain judged us out of danger 
 of pursuit, we slackened pace to a brisk walk, 
 setting our course to arrive at the back premises 
 of the Globe Tavern. I told Jacobus of my 
 adventure. 
 
 "Well, I would not tell that story too often," 
 said he. " You might not always receive 
 credence. Truth is a fantastical divinity. But 
 y' are an admirable scarefire ! The street cleared 
 in a twinkling, just as I reached the benediction. 
 I could see Nick's face plain behind the bars of 
 a window ten or twelve feet up, cheek by jowl 
 with a scab of jailer." 
 
 " * In case the prisoner hath any doubts on 
 his sinful soul, of which I may resolve him,' I 
 cried, ' I will come within convenient earshot ; ' 
 and with that drove the pulpit right under the 
 call. 
 
 "Quick as lightning Nick stretched his 
 hands through the bars, manacled as they were, 
 as low as he could reach, and standing on rip- 
 toe I gave him a naked girdle-knife. Listen- 
 ing, I heard certain graveyard sounds within ; 
 and forth looks Nick again. 
 
 " ' I 've killed him,' says he. 
 125 

 
 Captain Jacobus 
 
 " Where are the Flanders despatches ? ' I 
 asked. 
 
 " ' Gone to the four winds,' he answered. 
 
 "Whereupon I gave him pistols and a file 
 and sundry articles, and left him with my bless- 
 ing to work his way out of the Checquers as best 
 he might, and drove softly away to Paul's 
 Churchyard. I spare your feelings, my young 
 friend, I will not tell you what I did under the 
 shadow of Paul's. The business ('t was King's 
 business) I carried thorough-stitch without a let, 
 until the Watch came loitering round the corner 
 of Paternoster Row just as the Bell-Man was fill- 
 ing his pulpit. There would have been no cause 
 to alarm had not that devil of a mule refused to 
 budge. For all I could do he stood immovable 
 as a statue, till I drew sword and goaded him 
 like an ox ; and then he shot off like a culverin, 
 and near tore the heart out of me with pulling. 
 I thought we should have gone to hei. without a 
 stop ; but the fiend halted himself of his own 
 accord at Mrs. Moll's. I suppose the drouthy 
 Bell- Man had taught him the habit. And, after 
 all, lifelekins ! we were woundy near losing the 
 whole pack. I would I had known King Mul- 
 126
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Cutpurse 
 
 Sack was on the night sneak. Well, set the 
 scars against the booty and cry quits," concluded 
 Jacobus. 
 
 " And is he, then, Mrs. Moll's husband ? " 
 I asked. 
 
 "Ay," returned the Captain. "They 
 were married over the broom. I was at the 
 wedding, and gave the bride away, while the 
 Patrico joined their hands across a headless 
 fowl, and the groomsman poured a gage of 
 nun-booze over the bridegroom's head. And 
 this evening the pair would have robbed and 
 murdered me ! Save a thief from the gallows 
 and he'll cut your throat, Anthony," quoted 
 Jacobus, irrelevantly. 
 
 By this time we had reached the gates of 
 the Globe stable-yard ; as we had settled the 
 score over-night, we had nothing to do but to 
 rouse the ostler and get our nags saddled. In 
 a few moments we found ourselves once more 
 horsed and on the road, with the plunder gained 
 by the night's adventures securely strapped 
 upon the crupper. We were to proceed 
 straightway, said the Captain, to the Earl of 
 Rochester, who had his lodging very private 
 127
 
 Captain Jacobus 
 
 near Whitehall. As we paced slowly and 
 cautiously along back streets, I turned to reflec- 
 tion upon the events of that turbulent night ; 
 the remembrance of old Mul-Sack prone upon 
 his face stuck mightily in my head ; and like a 
 sword-prick out of the dark, it flashed upon me 
 that yet a third time I had been art and part in 
 an outrageous robbery. And again, I could 
 not, for the life of me see how I could have 
 done other than I did. There seemed a 
 perverse fate in it ; and I resolved to clear my 
 mind of incipient repentance, and transferred, in 
 my accompt with Heaven, the sin to the close- 
 written debit of Cromwell. 
 
 Moreover, I had come to sojourn in places, 
 and to taste of experiences, extremely foreign 
 to the principles of my father's son. I had 
 made acquaintance with the reverse of the coin, 
 the other side of the image God has stamped 
 upon the mixed metal of humanity, and ob- 
 served, with some surprise, and some reserva- 
 tions, the stirring within me of new and catholic 
 sympathies. 
 
 128
 
 IX 
 
 I BECOME KING'S MESSENGER 
 
 IT must have been near three of the clock 
 in the morning when we drew rein at the 
 door of a mansion that stood midway down a 
 narrow street giving upon the river, as I could 
 discern by the tremulous reflections of the stars 
 upon a moving gray bank between the black 
 cliffs of building. Dismounting, we secured 
 our horses to the wrought iron- work that supported 
 the extinguisher-cap for links. The Captain 
 knocked upon the panel, at first softly, then 
 with more insistence. A window opened over- 
 head, and stepping back, we perceived the head 
 and shoulders of a man in a night-cap, covering 
 us with a petronel. 
 
 " Who be you?" he demanded, with a 
 broad south-country accent, " disturbing decent 
 folk in their beds." 
 
 9 I2 9
 
 Captain Jacobus 
 
 ' Let me in, George Penderel," said the 
 Captain. 
 
 "There be no one of that name here," re- 
 turned the other, hastily. " Who be you, I 
 arx again before I fires." 
 
 " You have met with a Mr. William Jones, 
 I believe, George," said the Captain. " Well, 
 I bear a message for him. Open, in the name 
 of Mr. William Jones ! " 
 
 I learned afterwards that this George Penderel 
 was a Royalist trooper, one of those who were 
 art and part at the King's escape after Worcester 
 fight, his Majesty travelling at that juncture 
 under the name of William Jones. The Cap- 
 tain's conjuration was singularly effectual. Mr. 
 Penderel retired instantly from the window; 
 and within a minute we heard him unbarring 
 the door. It was presently opened, and a 
 little, broad man with a big nose, a military 
 cloak wrapped about his naked body, appeared 
 on the threshold, holding a rushlight above his 
 head. 
 
 "Give ye good-den, Captain," said he, 
 saluting. 
 
 I have to speak with his lordship, George," 
 130
 
 I become King's Messenger 
 
 said Jacobus. " You had best announce me, 
 while we bring in the horses." 
 
 Saluting once more, the trooper turned to 
 obey, leaving the rushlight on the floor. By 
 the time we had brought the horses into the 
 square stone hall, where the noise of their 
 tramplings was enough to rouse the parish, 
 Penderel returned, saying that the Earl would see 
 us on the instant, and, carrying our booty with 
 us, we followed the retainer up a broad stair- 
 case to a huge shadowy apartment hung with 
 dark tapestry, which seemed to suck up the 
 light of the many candles. The embers of a 
 wood-fire flickered in the chimney by the side 
 whereof stood a great bed with gold-embroidered 
 hangings, and wherein lay my Lord of Roches- 
 ter, his jolly, red face aglow among the white 
 napery. 
 
 " What, Jacobus, my night-hawk, and with 
 a King's ransom on 's back, as I live by bread ! 
 Naught less shall indemnify for the breakage 
 of my beauty-sleep, I promise ye," said the 
 Earl, in a lazy, drawling fashion of his own. 
 
 " Y* are too curious of yourself, my Lord 
 Wilmot," returned the Captain, depositing his
 
 Captain Jacobus 
 
 burden on the table before the fire, and 
 signing me to do the same. " But let that 
 pass, and suffer me to present to you my very 
 worthy copesmate, Mr. Anthony Langford, of 
 Langford." 
 
 The Earl shook me heartily by the hand, 
 with a courteous rejoinder ; " Y' are heartily 
 welcome, gentlemen," quoth he. "'Tis 
 a poor place to receive you in, I fear, but 
 the best a landless lord and a man proscribed 
 may offer at this time. Draw to the fire 
 prithee, Jack, put on another log there 
 is liquor on the table. Fill your glass, Mr. 
 Langford I thank you, yes, if you will be so 
 good. The King, Mr. Langford," and the 
 Earl and I clinked glasses. 
 
 "And now to business, my lord," began 
 Jacobus. 
 
 " Ay," returned Rochester, " certainly. 
 But I must tell you, Captain walking adown 
 Giltspur Street yesternoon, I met as pretty a 
 nymph as ever I saw in the world. She hath 
 meeting eyebrows and a sloe-black eye you 
 know the kind of quean, Jack. I shall walk 
 there to-morrow, and the day after, and every 
 132
 
 I become King's Messenger 
 
 day until I meet with her again. Come with 
 me in the morning, my bold freebooter." 
 
 "Y* are but a mad lord," answered the 
 Captain. "Do you take me for Cheffinch? 1 
 A pox on ye ! Here is a kingdom set upon 
 the hazard, and you think of naught but spring- 
 ing a hen o' the game. Come ! I have not 
 been hunting and waiting like a dog for many 
 weeks, to be toying with your wanton humors. 
 I tell you, every minute I sit here as good as 
 turns a new thread upon my halter." 
 
 " That is because y' are so partial to blood 
 and wounds, Jack," drawled Rochester, with 
 unruffled composure. " Stand and deliver, is 
 your notion of entertainment ; mine is another- 
 guess theory. Body o' me ! a man must do 
 something to disperse the vapors in this hag- 
 rid city, he would die of sheer psalmody else. 
 Why, the place reeks of Nonconformity ; it 
 drones like a vast conventicle. Well, to busi- 
 ness then, curse ye. What news from the 
 West?" 
 
 Whereupon the Captain put him briefly 
 into possession of affairs, telling him, however, 
 
 1 A creature of the King's. 
 133
 
 Captain Jacobus 
 
 no more of our adventures than he was necessi- 
 tated. Meanwhile, I had leisure to observe his 
 lordship, who was a full-faced, handsome man, 
 with the look of a born amorist. He it was 
 (so I have heard), who during his flight with 
 the King after Worcester, would never put on 
 any habit of disguise, saying, " he should look so 
 frightfully in it." 
 
 "And what hast got in the bag there?" 
 inquired the Earl, when the tale was ended. 
 "Ye may rest easy," he added, as the Captain 
 rose, and going to the door, shot the bolt ; " the 
 house is empty, save for George the faithful." 
 So Jacobus unloosed the sack, and displayed 
 upon the table a treasure of gold and silver plate, 
 and jewelled gew-gaws, enough to ransom a 
 city. 
 
 " 'Sblood ! " quoth the Earl, sitting up in 
 bed. "And where did that pretty treasure 
 come from ? " 
 
 The Captain maintained a discreet silence ; 
 and, having turned the sack bottom up, he be- 
 gan to unstrap my valise. I looked on with a 
 keen curiosity, but saying nothing. Throw- 
 ing back the lid, Jacobus took out, one by one, 
 '34
 
 I become King's Messenger 
 
 ten full-stuffed leather bags, and set them heavily 
 down a-row. The figures ^100 were branded 
 upon each, and, untying one, he took out a 
 handful of his yellow namesakes. " A thous- 
 and pound in coin of the realm," said he. So 
 we had not only ransacked Brother Emanuel's 
 shop in Paul's, but plundered the coffers of the 
 Commonwealth and stripped Mrs. Moll of her 
 profits at a blow. 
 
 " Odso ! and where from, once more ? " 
 asked the delighted Rochester. 
 
 " Well, my lord, the history, in brief, is as 
 follows," answered Jacobus, sitting down and 
 filling his glass. "I happened to have a small 
 matter of family plate to sell the gear, in fact, 
 you see before you. 'T is the old story ; what 
 cavalier but has flung his plate-chest, spoons, 
 and tankards into the deeps of Neptune after 
 the rest of his goods for the love of his Gracious 
 Majesty ? But no more of that. Therefore, 
 I say, I sought out a gripe of my acquaintance 
 and bade him give me the price in gold. This 
 he agreed to do, but as it came about the 
 villain sought to play booty and failed. 
 Whereupon I took a hand and succeeded." 
 35
 
 Captain Jacobus 
 
 Jacobus lay back in his chair, pressing the 
 tips of his stretched fingers lightly together, and 
 gravely regarded the Earl. Their eyes met. 
 Both men smiled. 
 
 "I make you my compliments, Jack," said 
 Rochester. " Y' are as arrant a thief and as 
 bold a liar as any in the three kingdoms. 'Oons, ( 
 but we will dine to-morrow, Jack. I know an 
 ordinary ' ' 
 
 "So do I, my lord," interrupted the Cap- 
 tain ; " and the night the King dines in White- 
 hall you and I will drink drunk hand to fist, an 
 his Majesty invite us not, and unless my head be 
 garnishing Temple Bar." 
 
 " Y' are perfectly right, Jack," answered 
 Rochester, no jot abashed. * Shall I give you 
 full acquittal for value received on behalf of my 
 Lord Treasurer, who is at this time taking the air 
 of the Low Countries for the good of his health ? ' ' 
 
 "So, please you, before we part," returned 
 Jacobus, gravely. " And, now, who is to 
 carry mails to the King, my lord ? The matter 
 is urgent." 
 
 "Whomsoever you please, Captain," re- 
 plied the easy Earl. 
 
 136
 
 I become King's Messenger 
 
 " Mr. Langford, will you?" said Jacobus. So 
 it was settled ; and I doubt not that the Captain 
 had this errand in his eye for me from the first. 
 
 "The Silver Spray sails from New Key 
 to Flushing with the morning tide," said 
 Rochester. The master, Captain Powel 
 Revel, who is a trusty rascal, was with me 
 yesterday." 
 
 "That will do excellent well," said the 
 Captain. Thereupon the Earl, bidding us to 
 excuse him, rose and dressed himself, and sat 
 down with Jacobus to write despatches to the 
 King. By the time they had finished, the sun 
 was shooting golden shafts through the crevices 
 of the shutters, and we descended to a room 
 beneath, where was spread an ample collation 
 flanked with toasts and tankards, of which the 
 Earl partook full as heartily as we. Then I 
 was given a hundred broad pieces for my pecul- 
 iar expenses, and entrusted with two hundred 
 for the King, and the mail, which was enclosed 
 in silk and sealed. My instructions were, upon 
 landing at Flushing to repair at once to the sign 
 of the City of Rouen, where I should find Sir 
 John Mennes and Mr. John Nicholas, who 
 137
 
 Captain Jacobus 
 
 would introduce me to his Majesty ; when I 
 was to answer any questions the King might be 
 pleased to ask me, to receive his instructions, 
 particularly as to the date of the Penruddock 
 rising, and to return without delay to the port 
 of Lyme Regis in Dorsetshire, where I should 
 meet Captain Jacobus at a place appointed. 
 Taking leave of the buxom Earl, upon whose 
 shoulders, methought, the cares of state sat ex- 
 traordinary lightly, I set out on foot, carrying 
 Mrs. Cutpurse's valise and accompanied by the 
 Captain. 
 
 The streets sparkled in the sunshine, and a 
 brisk wind ruffled the awnings over the shops, 
 where the noisy 'prentices were busied setting 
 forth their wares. After purchasing a few 
 clothes and necessaries for I had ridden all 
 this time with no more than I stood in we 
 proceeded by devious ways to the New Key 
 hard by London Bridge. The river bubbled 
 and swirled under the arches, reaching away 
 like a magical arm into enticing distance between 
 clumps of shipping whose tall masts and webs of 
 rigging rose above the houses. Wherries 
 manned by watermen in gay colored jerkins 
 138
 
 I become King's Messenger 
 
 plied swiftly to and fro across the shining stream, 
 and my heart rose blithely to the adventure. 
 The Silver Spray, a bluff-bowed, two-masted 
 craft, was moored against the wharf; the most 
 of her crew were climbing and clinging aloft, 
 engaged upon some business which appeared 
 to me extremely perilous, to which they were 
 directed by a small, stout man with a fringe of 
 black whisker encircling a face like a walnut, who 
 stood shouting on deck. We went aboard at 
 once, and Jacobus, going up to the officer, 
 whispered a word or two in his ear, whereupon 
 he led us down into a tiny cabin. Jacobus 
 made me known to Captain Powel Revel, and 
 a bargain for shipping me as passenger to Flush- 
 ing was speedily struck. Captain Revel was in 
 his Majesty's pay, and although his ship passed 
 for a merchant bottom he did little but carry 
 the King's servants to and from the Low Coun- 
 tries, a traffic which the Parliament winked at, 
 Thurloe trusting wholly to his secret service for 
 discovery of treason. The business over, Cap- 
 tain Revel warned Jacobus that he must set sail 
 forthwith to save the tide, and we all three 
 went upon deck. 
 
 139
 
 Captain Jacobus 
 
 "Give you good-den, Anthony," said Cap- 
 tain Jacobus, grasping my hand. "We meet 
 again at Lyme." He turned away, leaped 
 ashore, and with a wave of his hand vanished 
 into the press. The moorings were cast off, 
 the ship swung into the current and began to 
 travel, the water rippling under her fore-foot. 
 I leaned upon the bulwarks, looking after Jaco- 
 bus, oppressed with a sudden sense of loss. 
 Labor and peril shared forge stronger ties than 
 those of kindred, and although I had known the 
 Captain for less than a week I was parting from 
 a friend, a friend, moreover, whose life was 
 forfeit on a hundred counts, for whom a very 
 trifling misadventure meant the rope and the 
 triple tree, so that the chance of seeing him once 
 more appeared pitifully slender. 
 
 But my dolorous meditations were speedily 
 interrupted. Scarce was the ship fairly under 
 way ere there arose a shouting and a bustling on 
 the wharf, and a skiff manned by a couple of 
 water-men, and carrying two passengers, a man 
 and a woman, put off after us in a mighty hurry. 
 Captain Revel thereupon lay to, and the skiff 
 drawing rapidly alongside, the strangers were 
 140
 
 I become King's Messenger 
 
 haled aboard. Both were masked and muffled 
 in cloaks. The man, stepping forward, caught 
 the wrathful Captain by the arm and spoke 
 privily to him. It was none of my business, 
 and I walked forward to be out of earshot ; and 
 presently the three disappeared below. When 
 the Captain returned alone upon deck, he 
 vouchsafed me no explanation, nor, although I 
 was curious in the matter, did I question him, 
 reflecting that I was certain to meet the un- 
 known at the next repast. But when dinner- 
 time came the Captain, his mate, and myself 
 were the only persons assembled in the poop 
 cabin. Scarce a word was uttered during the 
 collation indeed, Captain Revel was one of 
 the silentest men I have ever known. He 
 manifested a positive distaste for conversation. 
 There was a tincture of barbarism, too, in the 
 tarpaulin way of living and being. More than 
 once I observed the Captain to clean his knife 
 upon the hair of his mate, who sat beside 
 him, an outrage of which the man took no 
 sort of notice, while it put me in a fever lest 
 the Captain, in a moment of forgetfulness, should 
 raise his whittle upon his passenger. I was glad 
 141
 
 Captain Jacobus 
 
 to find myself once more upon deck, where I 
 took great delight in the quiet, bird-like motion 
 of the ship, and the continual alluring change of 
 the landscape on either strand. A shipman's 
 life was a brave business indeed, methought. 
 Soon the sun and the wind and the talking 
 water wrought a drowsiness upon me. I be- 
 thought me that I had a night's rest to make up, 
 and, settling myself against a coil of rope, fell 
 speedily dead asleep. 
 
 Before I awoke I was aware of a horrible 
 queasy sensation in my inner parts, and opened 
 my eyes upon a darkening steel-blue sky, pricked 
 here and there with a star. The ship was 
 heaving and rolling under me, and a cold wind 
 searched my very marrow. Sitting up with a 
 deadly shudder, my eyes encountered the fierce 
 gaze of a little gentleman reclining miserably 
 against the bulwarks a few feet from me. His 
 face, in spite of its green pallor, I seemed to 
 recollect, as in a dream ; and when he spoke it 
 came back to me. 
 
 " Ay, Master Scarefire, would you follow 
 me ? " he said, in weak angry accents. " So 
 soon as we land, I challenge you to fight me, 
 sir." 
 
 142
 
 I become King's Messenger 
 
 I would have laughed, but I was far past 
 mirth ; for here was my eloping gallant from 
 Giltspur Street again. 
 
 "Put an end to me now," I said. "Run 
 me through and I will thank you." 
 
 My gentleman groaned and swore. " I can- 
 not lift a hand," he said, and turned over on 
 his face. 
 
 Thereafter followed a night of horror ; and 
 it was not until noon next day that we began to 
 get the better of our disorder. By that time we 
 had come in sight of land ; a long ridge of yel- 
 low sand-bank, beyond a plain of dancing sea, 
 shot with flying colors, and dashed with foam, 
 against a sky of pearl. We had both eaten 
 something, and drank a toss of aqua vitae, and 
 had come again upon deck. It seemed a sense- 
 less thing to quarrel ; and at the risk of a serious 
 tumble I crossed to where my angry gallant 
 leaned sulking over the weather tafrrail, and laid 
 a hand upon his shoulder. 
 
 "Come," I said. "I am sorry I struck 
 you t' other night. Are you for Caesar ? I 
 can see that you are. Well, I was employed 
 on King's business, although I own it did not 
 look like it. Will you shake hands ? " 
 H3
 
 Captain Jacobus 
 
 The boy looked at me a moment, then held 
 out his hand. 
 
 "Sir," said he, "I accept your apology. 
 We will say no more." 
 
 "And how is the young lady?" I inquired. 
 " I trust she is not greatly indisposed." 
 
 "But she is, she is," he said very ruefully. 
 " I do not know what I shall do with her." 
 
 I consoled the disconsolate lover so well as I 
 might. " And when are you to be married ? ' ' 
 I asked, hoping to distract his thoughts from 
 anxiety. 
 
 " 'T is scarce your business, is it ? But 
 doubtless you mean kindly," said the boy, with 
 his chin in his hands. " Perhaps we shall not 
 marry. Think of the risk." 
 
 " You should have thought on it before," 1 
 said, coldly. 
 
 He looked at me sidelong. " After all, you 
 know," he said lazily, "what is the ceremony? 
 A form of words, and a guinea for the parson. 
 I have often thought its quality over-rated." 
 
 I was shocked at such sentiments from the 
 mouth of a pretty, smooth-faced boy, and took 
 occasion to read him a homily upon the subject. 
 144
 
 I become King's Messenger 
 
 I talked for a good while, having nothing else to 
 do, but before I had said all that was in my 
 mind, my companion glanced round, and I saw 
 a new expression flit into his face. 
 
 " It may relieve your benevolent but prag- 
 matical conscience, dear sir, to know that we 
 were fast married in Saint Sepulchre's Church 
 yestermorn," said he. "Let me present you 
 to my wife." 
 
 I swallowed my discomfiture, and turned to 
 behold " the wench with the meeting eye- 
 brows and the sloe-black eyes!" The Earl's 
 words ran through my head as a mighty pretty 
 figure of a maiden came balancing delicately to- 
 wards us. She greeted me very kindly, and we 
 grew mighty friendly. They told me much of 
 their story : how that the bridegroom, Mr. 
 Richard Humphreyville by name, was a Cava- 
 lier gentleman and a Roman Catholic, to whom 
 the bride's Puritan parents had refused consent 
 of marriage ; and how they determined to cheat 
 the Devil, and to seek their fortune at the Court 
 in exile at Cologne, whither they were immedi- 
 ately bound. In return with the unthinking 
 confidence of youth I related something of 
 10 145
 
 Captain Jacobus 
 
 my own misfortunes, my quarrel with Man- 
 ning, and the subsequent confiscation of my 
 estates. My introduction to the pair had been 
 something of the strangest ; but when we drew 
 into Flushing Harbor, we parted on the kindli- 
 est terms imaginable. Should he discover an 
 opportunity of advancing my fortunes at the 
 Court, said the gentleman who the day before 
 had sought my blood, he would do all a man 
 might to serve me. Darkly he hinted at the 
 great personages with whom he had influential 
 relations ; and with the most cordial salutations 
 this pleasing and singular couple went their 
 ways, and I saw them no more. 
 
 146
 
 X 
 
 A KING IN EXILE 
 
 BEFORE quitting the harbor, I turned to see 
 "the last of my sea-sorrow," to filch a 
 pretty phrase of Mr. Shakespeare's. The Silver 
 Spray lay moored against the weed-encrusted 
 timbers of the rude landing-stage, her red sails 
 furled, her ropes and spars graven upon the 
 bright sky. But she was shorn of glamour in 
 my regard ; the mystery of deep-sea voyaging 
 had resolved itself (for the time) into experience 
 so shocking that I shuddered to recall it, and I 
 bade farewell to the Silver Spray as to a sentient 
 being whose acquaintance was more disastrous 
 than desirable. 
 
 It was about five in the evening when I left 
 the quays to discover the tavern of the sign of 
 the City of Rouen. The low sun shone full in 
 my eyes, so that I discerned the ornamented, 
 step-gabled buildings, and the strange figures and 
 H7
 
 Captain Jacobus 
 
 taking costumes of the Dutch people through a 
 kind of magical splendor; the new, foreign 
 taste of the air struck mighty agreeably upon my 
 senses, and I walked along in a pleasant dream. 
 The Earl of Rochester had directed me precisely 
 to the inn, and I presently came upon it in a 
 square market-place, planted with trees and gay 
 with the awnings of the hucksters' booths. The 
 City of Rouen was a tall building of carven 
 stone, with a projecting porch upheld by cary- 
 atid demons, very fantastically wrought ; over 
 the portal was a stone cartouch bearing the 
 cognizance cut in basso-rilievo, the towers and 
 ramparts of an ancient Gothic city as if beheld 
 from above, the lines all awry according to the 
 manner of old pictures. Two or three rosy, 
 buxom nymphs, very bravely apparelled in black 
 velvet bodices embroidered with gold and silver, 
 gay flowered shirts, and winged white caps set 
 with bright coins, were chattering and laughing 
 about the entrance. One stepped forward with 
 a courtesy, and addressed me in the Dutch lan- 
 guage, to which I replied in English, desiring to 
 be taken to Sir John Mennes and Mr. Nicholas. 
 My damsel caught at the names, and led me up 
 148
 
 A King in Exile 
 
 a wide stone stair to an upper room, where I 
 found the gentlemen at dinner. They rose to 
 greet me as I entered ; and when salutations had 
 passed, invited me to join them. 
 
 Sir John was a trim-built, blue-eyed man of 
 thirty-five or so, with a yellow mustache and 
 hair thinning somewhat on the top ; Mr. Nicho- 
 las, son to the King's secretary, was a tall, 
 grave, clean-shaven young man of an austere 
 demeanor. 
 
 " We are mightily glad to see you, Mr. 
 Langford," said Sir John. "And you bring us 
 good news, I doubt not." 
 
 "So far as it goes," I answered, "for the 
 pinch is yet to come ; ' ' and I told them the 
 posture of affairs. 
 
 "Why the devil," broke out Sir John, "is 
 Oliver not pistolled long since ? For the life o' 
 me, I cannot understand it. Here is a scurvy 
 militia-captain grinding the whole country under 
 his heel, all the people hating him like witch- 
 craft, Royalists, Anabaptists, Fifth Monarchy 
 men, Republicans, and Catholics, all his sworn 
 enemies, yet not a man of them can come at 
 him ! " 
 
 149
 
 Captain Jacobus. 
 
 " His time is not yet come, as he might say 
 himself," quoth Nicholas. 
 
 "Another thing," cried Sir John, with a 
 scowling vehemence, his head upon one side, 
 which I found to be his habit, " why is the 
 King so backward in the plots for his own 
 restoration ? You would say he did not care, 
 almost. There 's not a man about the Court 
 that is n't neck-deep and fever-hot in cabal- 
 lings and red conspiracies except the King ! 
 Then one party out-plots another party, and 
 so they come to blows, and, six days out of 
 seven, the whole place is by the ears. Of 
 course, it must be so, unless his Majesty takes 
 hold. And why does he not? This business 
 of Penruddock's is the first he has stirred in ; 
 and that only as an excuse to get away from 
 Cologne for awhile, I do verily believe," con- 
 cluded Sir John, with a salvo of oaths. 
 
 " 'T is a better politician than us all, never 
 doubt that, Sir John," said Nicholas. 
 
 " Well, it seems mighty odd to me," re- 
 turned the other. 
 
 Whereupon, over the wine, we plunged into 
 a lengthy argument, which, like all such dis- 
 150
 
 A King in Exile 
 
 putations, led nowhither, and left us a trifle 
 heated and self-important. As for me, when I 
 went to bed that night, rejoicing in down pil- 
 lows and fine lavender-scented linen, I was in 
 some conceit with myself. I felt that I was 
 playing no small part in the world, moving 
 amid great destinies. I was a person to be 
 reckoned with, a man of momentous experience, 
 strangely removed from the unsophisticated boy 
 who used to ride to and fro from Langford to 
 Salisbury a long time ago. Then the remem- 
 brance, never lulled for long, of one sitting 
 desolate in that city awoke within me, and my 
 savory imaginings turned bitter as ashes in my 
 mouth. 
 
 By sunrise the next morning I was riding out 
 of Flushing, my valise strapped upon the crup- 
 per. Sir John Mennes rode with me. Mr. 
 Nicholas, who stayed at the City of Rouen to 
 be at hand in case further tidings should arrive, 
 lent me his horse. Our way lay along the 
 dikes, the sea upon the one hand and on the 
 other the fair, pied plain stretching away as flat 
 as a table to a wind-bent fringe of poplars. 
 Under the vast gray hollow of the sky the
 
 Captain Jacobus 
 
 colors of the fishing-boats on the gray sea, and 
 the hues of the spring landscape, bore a fresh- 
 ness like wet paint, very alluring to the eye, 
 and such as I have never seen in England. 
 About half-way to Middelburgh we stopped to 
 drink a tankard of excellent ale at a little, pretty 
 inn, standing solitary and half-hidden among the 
 sand-dunes, with a bloom like a peach upon its 
 ancient stonework and steep-tiled roofs. As we 
 rode to the door I glanced up by chance and 
 caught a glimpse of a face peering from an upper 
 window. It was gone in a twinkling, and be- 
 fore I could distinguish the features. I thought 
 little of it at the time, but the afterclap brought 
 the circumstance to mind. 
 
 Within an hour after quitting the wayside 
 inn we were riding along the humming quays of 
 Middelburgh. A carillon from the Abbey tower 
 that over-lapped the roofs rose and fell in a 
 silver fountain of cadences ; great bluff galleons 
 were lading and unlading with all manner of 
 merchandise ; the street was thronged with the 
 alert cheery Hogan-Mogans ; and methought I 
 had never beheld a town so clean, thriving, and 
 sumptuous. Stopping presently at a tall house 
 152
 
 A King in Exile 
 
 of rich appearance Sir John dismounted and, 
 giving me his bridle, knocked upon the door. 
 He was admitted by a serving-man bearing the 
 Ormond badge, and I was left to endure some 
 of the longest minutes of my existence. For I, 
 Anthony Langford, was about to hold audience 
 face to face with the King his Majesty : the 
 thought seemed to dissolve my inwards ; my 
 vision blurred, and I could hear my heart 
 beating. 
 
 When Sir John at last returned with the 
 lackey, who took the horses, he must have 
 apprehended my distress. 
 
 What, man ! " he cried. " Take heart of 
 grace. His Majesty is a very pleasant gentle- 
 man ; he waits for you now. . . . Y* are for- 
 getting your mails, are you not ? " 
 
 In truth, I think I had forgotten my own 
 name ; but so soon as we had fairly entered the 
 room where was the King, my composure re- 
 turned to me in some measure. I saw a stately 
 gentleman with great dark eyes under black 
 arching brows, and a wide, full-lipped mouth ; 
 his expression was at once melancholy and 
 whimsical. Sir John Mennes presented me to 
 153
 
 Captain Jacobus 
 
 his Majesty, who greeted me with a smiling 
 manner of easy courtesy, giving me his hand 
 to kiss. 
 
 "I do remember your father, Mr. Langford," 
 said the King. " He unhappily lost his life in 
 the King, my father' s, service in the affair 
 at Alresford, was it not ? And his son, it seems, 
 is bent upon treading that same perilous path of 
 loyalty !" 
 
 "'Tis the road to honor, sire," I answered. 
 
 "And to red herrings in exile, by your 
 leave, Mr. Langford ; to present pinching and a 
 future dark and problematical," returned the 
 King, cheerfully. " Well, sir, to the business 
 in hand. Is all in readiness for the date 
 appointed ? ' ' 
 
 " The date ? What date, sire ? " I stammered, 
 taken aback. 
 
 "The eighteenth of April, man. Did not 
 my express reach my Lord of Rochester ? ' ' asked 
 his Majesty, with some impatience. 
 
 The words struck upon my hearing like a knell ; 
 
 my wedding-day had been fixed for that day j 
 
 and murmuring in my confusion that I had not 
 
 heard doubtless ' t was all contained in the 
 
 154
 
 A King in Exile 
 
 mails I had the honor to bring unstrapped my 
 valise, set the bags of gold upon the table, and, 
 kneeling, presented the Earl of Rochester's 
 despatch. The King broke the seal and hastily 
 perused the letter. 
 
 " Ah, the bowls run their old bias, I do 
 perceive ! Contrary winds messenger de- 
 layed plans disordered," said his Majesty, 
 looking up and addressing Sir John Mennes and 
 another gentleman (the Marquis of Ormond, as 
 I discovered afterwards), who seemed to be in 
 attendance upon the King. 
 
 The Marquis swore blasphemously, and 
 began a question ; but the King held up his 
 slender, jewelled hand, and continued reading. 
 His Majesty was leaning against the stone 
 mullion of the great window, the casement of 
 which stood open ; beyond his dark profile rose 
 a far prospect of sea, melting into pearly mist 
 and studded with slanting red sails ; and a fancy 
 came across me, that Charles II., loitering 
 thus upon the shore of the dividing main, stood 
 but at a pause in his destinies ; and that some 
 day, be it soon or be it late, he should embark 
 upon a flowing tide, and carry sail till the cord- 
 155
 
 Captain Jacobus 
 
 age cracked in a fair wind that should bear him 
 to a golden restoration. 
 
 " And so you have been riding with Captain 
 Jacobus, Mr. Langford," said the King, when 
 he had finished the mail. " You shall tell me 
 of your adventures over a bottle before we part. 
 Odso ! The King's gentlemen spend merrier 
 days than his long-suffering Majesty. If I were 
 to take the road and wreak a little private 
 vengeance on the Roundheads, there would be a 
 pretty hue- and-cry, and God's vicegerent would 
 be cut off incontinent in his prime of man- 
 hood ! . . . Do you know aught of a certain 
 Mr. John Manning, Mr. Langford ? " asked his 
 Majesty, suddenly, to my surprise. 
 
 "I know him well, sire," I answered. 
 
 " And where is he now ? " asked the King, 
 looking at me. 
 
 I replied that I knew naught of his move- 
 ments, save that he had left Salisbury some 
 weeks since. 
 
 "Why did he leave ?" asked the King. 
 
 I hesitated. "Well, the truth of it is, we 
 had a little disagreement, sire," I said. 
 
 "About what?" persisted his Majesty, 
 curiously. 156
 
 A King in Exile 
 
 "A piece of a lawsuit," said I. 
 
 "A piece of a ?" repeated the King, 
 with an indescribable accent. " Why, very 
 well, Mr. Langford," he went on. "You 
 must forgive me this particularity ; for the 
 truth of it is this Manning has much to do with 
 the business in hand. You would say he is a 
 loyal gentleman ? ' ' 
 
 "I know of naught to the contrary, sire," 
 I answered ; and no more did I ; nor had I 
 right to formulate my vague suspicions. 
 
 "The matter, then, stands thus," the King 
 went on. " You must be well aware, Mr. 
 Langford, that our exchequer, in these unhappy 
 times, is totally empty. In fact, sir, there is 
 no exchequer ; and the privy purse would be 
 in an ill way had you not been so good, I see, 
 as to act convoy to supplies. Now, my Lord 
 Wilmot tells me that our incomparable Jacobus 
 has placed in his hands a large sum (I cannot 
 at all imagine how he came by it ; you shall 
 enlighten me presently, Mr. Langford) ; yet 
 there are the troops of the north as well as those 
 of the south to pay, and this cannot suffice. 
 Whereupon Mr. Manning obligingly comes to 
 157
 
 Captain Jacobus 
 
 our assistance with this magical prescrip- 
 tion," and the King took a folded paper from 
 his breast and handed it to me. Upon the 
 inside of the paper were three impressions of an 
 antique head in white wax. "Each of these 
 seals, saith Manning, represents one thousand 
 broad pieces," pursued his Majesty, "which 
 will immediately be given to any person pre- 
 senting the token at a certain house in Salisbury, 
 upon the condition that the city is first in the 
 hands of the Royalists. The house in question 
 correct me if I am wrong, Marquis the 
 house in question stands three doors from the 
 Poultry Cross in the market-place, upon the left 
 hand looking north. Why, man, what has 
 taken thee ? " demanded my royal instructor, 
 breaking off. 
 
 For I stood bewildered; the King had de- 
 scribed the place of Mayor Phelps's abode. It 
 was indeed possible that Mr. Phelps, wealthy, 
 Royalist at heart, and cognizant of the projected 
 rising, had, in my absence, planned such a 
 scheme with Manning ; yet I could not think 
 it likely ; and it flashed across me, adding to 
 my confusion, that the sum named coincided 
 158
 
 A King in Exile 
 
 with the amount of Barbara's dowry. But, 
 again, supposing that Manning were playing for 
 his own hand, it outwent my wit to imagine 
 how such method could serve his end ; and yet 
 the affair smelled of treason. 
 
 I looked up helplessly. The King was 
 whistling a dance tune through his teeth, with 
 his eyes upon my face. 
 
 "If you have aught in your mind, Mr. 
 Langford," said he, gravely, prithee speak it 
 out. 'Tis a matter that concerns the State;" 
 and I straightway resolved to tell the whole 
 truth. 
 
 " I crave your pardon, sire. I know the 
 house, which is that of Mr. Phelps, Mayor of 
 the city, a stanch man and well affected to 
 your Majesty. I would put my hand in the 
 fire for Richard Phelps, yet I own I have a 
 doubt upon the matter, for the last time I saw 
 Mr. Manning, when we were both upon a visit 
 to the house, he parted from Mr. Phelps in 
 anger ; and soon afterwards he quitted Salis- 
 bury, nor have I seen him since although, of 
 course, he might have returned since my own 
 departure from the city." 
 '59
 
 Captain Jacobus 
 
 " And the quarrel with this worthy Mr. 
 Phelps of whom you speak was that upon a 
 piece of a ay, a piece of a lawsuit, also?" 
 asked his Majesty, gently. 
 
 I felt my ears grow hot ; but there was no 
 help for it ; I had to clear the hedge. 
 
 " The plain truth of it is, sire, Mr. Manning 
 and myself were both suitors for the hand of 
 Mr. Phelps's daughter ; and she preferred 
 for all I know the worser man. Mr. Man- 
 ning, as was very natural, felt himself a little 
 slighted ; there were some hasty words passed, 
 and that is the whole of the matter." 
 
 His Majesty chuckled, and the two gentle- 
 men laughed outright. 
 
 " I thought we should arrive at the lady 
 before we had done," observed the King. "I 
 begin to have a glimmering of the case. Mr. 
 Langford, prithee proceed." 
 
 " There is no more to say, your Majesty, 
 save that soon after the Parliament confiscated 
 my estates and would have laid me by the heels, 
 had not Captain Jacobus warned me. Then I 
 took the road with the Captain, listed myself 
 as volunteer under Colonel Penruddock, and 
 1 60
 
 A King in Exile 
 
 and so here I am, your Majesty," I concluded 
 lamely. 
 
 "Ay, ay," said the King, kindly. "Well, 
 better days will come, man. As to this Man- 
 ning where is Mr. Manning at this time, 
 Sir John?" 
 
 " Two days agone he came spurring to the 
 City of Rouen," replied Sir John Mennes. 
 ' He would have pulled the house about our 
 ears, because we would not tell him where to 
 find your Majesty. He took it very much 
 upon the huff at last, and rode off swearing 
 hotly that were your Majesty this side o' the 
 water he would unearth you at last. ' His 
 father's blood boiled within him,' quoth he, 
 ' and kept him from sleep,' to think on such a 
 campaign going forward without him," added 
 Sir John, dryly. 
 
 The King shrugged his shoulders, with a 
 whimsical twist of countenance. 
 
 " My friends are so zealous," said he. 
 n Never monarch had such friends, I do verily 
 believe," and, taking his chin in his hands, his 
 Majesty appeared to muse. 
 
 "Well, gentlemen," said he, after a pause, 
 ii 161
 
 Captain Jacobus 
 
 we must e'en hazard it, and the event will be 
 as it must. You will take this paper with the 
 three seals, Mr. Langford, to Colonel Penrud- 
 dock no, stay ! to Captain Jacobus. } T is 
 an adventure to fit Jacobus. Tell the Captain 
 what to do with it, but say nothing to Penrud- 
 dock, nor to any one. Then, if the treasure 
 resolve itself into a mare's-nest, no one will be 
 disappointed, and I '11 warrant Jacobus will not 
 be a loser in the transaction ; while if there are 
 three thousand pounds to be gained, Jacobus is 
 the man for the job. Salisbury, then, is the 
 point of attack ; you are to carry my commands 
 to Colonel Sir John Penruddock and Sir Joseph 
 Wagstaff to march upon Salisbury immediately, 
 and thence advance on London. Or, if it is 
 better in their judgment to make further inroads 
 upon the West-country before approaching Lon- 
 don, let them do so. That must depend upon 
 Sir Marmaduke Darcy and the North-country- 
 men, of whom Rochester will doubtless send us 
 tidings. Now, have you the message perfectly 
 in your mind, Mr. Langford ? " 
 
 "Perfecdy, sire." 
 
 " You will then embark this afternoon upon 
 162
 
 A King in Exile 
 
 the Saint Gabriel, a little ship belonging to 
 my friend Mr. Francis Mansel, of Lyme Regis ; 
 and upon landing at that port, ride post to head- 
 quarters. As to Captain Jacobus " 
 
 " I am to meet the Captain at Lyme, an it 
 please your Majesty." 
 
 " Why, very well, then there is a piece of 
 business well concluded," said the King, briskly, 
 with an air of relief, so that I wondered, with 
 Sir John Mennes, at his Majesty's indifferent 
 demeanor, when the gain of a kingdom hung in 
 the balance. 
 
 His Majesty then graciously invited Sir John 
 and myself to a collation, and going before us 
 into a room below-stairs giving on the garden, 
 presented us to his host and hostess. The 
 master of the house was a round, bald-headed 
 Dutchman, with a benign countenance and 
 bristling, up-brushed mustachios ; his wife was 
 an English lady, very grandly dressed and very 
 demure, to whom his Majesty, methought, 
 paid somewhat marked attention. When the 
 cloth was drawn, and my lady, with a courtesy, 
 gone from the room, we took our wine into the 
 garden, a trim enclosure with red and yellow 
 163
 
 Captain Jacobus 
 
 sanded walks and fantastical patches of tulips 
 guarded by full-blown leaden Cupids with 
 bended bows. 
 
 Here the King made me rehearse the tale of 
 my adventures, whereat his Majesty was mighty 
 entertained. So soon as I had come to an end, 
 't was time for me to start. As I knelt to take 
 my leave, the jovial King rocking a little on 
 his feet, for the Dutchman's French wine was 
 very potent took a ribbon from his doublet 
 from which a gold ring depended, and placed it 
 round my neck. 
 
 "If time and chance decree that we meet 
 not again, although I hope we may, Mr. Lang- 
 ford, this trinket may remind you of a merry 
 meeting," said the King. " A good voyage to 
 you, sir." 
 
 164
 
 XI 
 
 THE FRENCH GENTLEMAN WITH 
 RED HAIR 
 
 THE gray of the morning had turned to gold 
 in the afternoon ; and upon quitting the 
 King's lodging, accompanied by Sir John Mennes, 
 I walked along the plangent quays between the 
 tall, shining houses and the glittering sea in a 
 glory of sunlight, my head humming with ex- 
 citement and the wine. The Saint Ga^rie/wns 
 a fore-and-aft rigged craft with foremast and 
 mizzen, which lay by the wharf at the King's 
 disposal in case of need ; we boarded her, and 
 took order for my passage ; and, the master 
 informing us that we could not sail until the 
 ebb two hours hence, Sir John and I went 
 ashore again to pass the time. My companion, 
 I remember, entertained me with many witty 
 and not over-delicate stories, which I forgot so 
 soon as he had uttered them ; and it seemed but 
 a few minutes (in my dazed and happy condi- 
 16$
 
 Captain Jacobus 
 
 tion), before I was aboard again, the sails draw- 
 ing, and Sir John Mennes, perilously near the 
 quay-edge, waving his plumed hat, and shouting 
 ribald farewells. 
 
 The vessel slipped smoothly through the 
 water before a soldier's wind ; and I was watch- 
 ing the houses and spires shrinking, until, with 
 the setting sun flashing upon the windows, the 
 city looked like a jewelled toy dropped upon the 
 sandbank, when I became aware that I was not 
 the only passenger aboard. A tall man in a 
 slouched hat, a good deal muffled about the neck, 
 stood by the cook's galley, smoking a cigarro, 
 the scent of which is extremely nauseating to an 
 unstable sailor, and first drew my notice. He 
 was clean-shaven, and tanned as black as a 
 gipsy, with dark eyes and red hair, an odd 
 combination that took my fancy. My gentle- 
 man was staring at me, as I at him ; and I 
 thought it only civil to cross the deck and 
 salute him. 
 
 " Give you good-den, sir," I said, bowing as 
 well as I could for the ship. 
 
 The stranger shook his head, smiled, re- 
 moved his hat with a large gesture, and said 
 1 66 

 
 The French Gentleman 
 
 something in French, of which language I have 
 no skill. There was clearly no more to be 
 done; so with another congee, I left the French- 
 man to himself; and the breeze freshening as 
 the sun went down, sickness came heavily upon 
 me, and I went and lay down in my bunk. 
 All that night the pains of hell gat hold upon 
 me, and I lay on my back, groaning, helpless, 
 and in total darkness. It must have been close 
 on midnight, when a last horror came upon me. 
 I felt light cold touches as of fingers, or rats' 
 feet, passing over my face and breast ; but I 
 could not lift hand or foot in my defence ; and 
 so far gone was I, that 1 suffered the terror with 
 a kind of indifference. Presently the visitation 
 ceased ; and when morning came, and I revived 
 somewhat, I put it down to rats, or a trick of 
 imagination, and thought no more of it. At 
 any rate, if it was the Frenchman, or a thief of 
 any sort, he had taken nothing from my pocket ; 
 for the paper with the three seals, and the 
 King's gift were safe where I had placed 
 them. 
 
 All that day and night, and the day following, 
 we fled before a favorable wind ; but the pitch- 
 167
 
 Captain Jacobus 
 
 ing of that little cock -boat wrought such sore dis- 
 ruption in my inwards that I held no further 
 commerce with the red-haired stranger, and 
 little enough with any one, being glad to roll 
 myself in my cloak, and snatch a dog-sleep in 
 the sun, whenever I felt a little better ; but I 
 contracted a violent hatred of the man, for that 
 he would be always smoking his cursed cigarro 
 to windward of me. 
 
 Upon the evening of the second day, we 
 moved alongside the Cobb of Lyme (for so the 
 natives name the curving harbor wall), and, 
 taking my valise in hand, I set out directly for 
 Lyme Regis Church, where Captain Jacobus 
 had appointed to meet me. The blunt gray 
 building was plain to see from the Cobb, stand- 
 ing above the stepped roofs of the houses, where 
 they climbed the hill-side, the checkered fields 
 behind, green and brown, rising into the pale 
 sky. At first the solid ground seemed to heave 
 beneath my feet as I walked, but presently sub- 
 sided somewhat. I was glad to be ashore 
 again, tramping the solid earth, with the breeze 
 from landward blowing country odors in my 
 face. Upon entering the churchyard, I marked 
 168 
 
 i
 
 The French Gentleman 
 
 the figure of the Captain perched on a great 
 square tombstone, gazing out to sea, where was 
 a conflagration of sunset like the burning of a 
 city. His back was towards me, and the smoke 
 of his pipe floated in thin whorls about him. 
 
 Treading softly among the long grass and the 
 graves, I clapped a hand upon his shoulder. 
 
 " In the King's name! " I cried. 
 
 Jacobus leaped to his feet with an oath, and 
 attempted instantly to cover his surprise in 
 hearty greetings. 
 
 "I have been," he said when they were 
 done, " awaiting you in this accursed graveyard 
 two days and a night, Anthony," and I thought 
 he looked mighty weary about the eyes; "all 
 alone among the dead mariners, till I began to 
 think I was dead myself without knowing it. 
 And the wind crying in my ears the while 
 something I could never put words to ; and the 
 sea awash below, and the gulls calling and fly- 
 ing close, and looking into my eyes. . . . And 
 if I fell asleep in the sun there was always a 
 stirring and a rustling, and when I awoke some- 
 thing gray and thin I could never rightly see 
 flitting behind the tombs. And in the night 
 169
 
 Captain Jacobus 
 
 ... I tell you, boy, I believe the drowned 
 men come up out o' the deep o' nights in 
 troops. Why should they not? Answer me 
 that. Dead is not dead not as we think. 
 'Sblood ! Anthony, these buried mariners are 
 not dead enough for me," said Jacobus, stamp- 
 ing on the ground so that his spur rang. " An- 
 other night, and I should ha' talked with them 
 face to face." 
 
 Of all men in the world I should least have 
 suspected the Captain of a superstitious seizure. 
 He spoke quite simply and quietly, looking 
 gravely at me the while, although a certain 
 terror lay evidently behind his words, and a 
 foolish shiver ran down my back as I listened. 
 
 "Why the devil, then," I cried, "do you 
 hold tryst in graveyards ? Faith ! next time 
 you shall sail the salt seas, and I will abide 
 among the tombs. It may be unhealthy, but, 
 body o' me ! 'tis the Garden of Eden compared 
 with the belly of a ship. For God's sake, 
 man, come and dine. I have had no food for 
 two days and nights." 
 
 " Why, you look a trifle gaunt and tallowy," 
 observed Jacobus, with a sudden return to his 
 170
 
 The French Gentleman 
 
 wonted manner. " I can pick a bit myself. 
 Come down to the Blue Garland." 
 
 Arm-in-arm we turned our backs upon the 
 bleak shadows of the windy graveyard, and 
 marched down the steep street in the shrewd 
 spring twilight to the principal inn, where 
 Jacobus, quite himself again, ordered everything 
 in the house to be prepared instantly. Then I 
 recounted all that had befallen since we parted. 
 The Captain listened with the most lively 
 attention, interjecting questions and caustic 
 observations. 
 
 " Y* have done very well, my son," he ob- 
 served, when I had concluded. Ye have 
 made his Majesty your friend, and, mark me, 
 the King will be a trump card presently. We 
 may not win this round, nor the next ; but 
 meanwhile, remember, Oliver ripens fast for 
 hell. As to your friend Manning, I like him 
 not, Anthony. He is too sweet and plausible 
 a gentleman ; people are not made so. Charlie 
 Stuart did very right to send the seals to me. 
 To-morrow at sun-up, then, I will ride to 
 Colonel Penruddock at Compton Chamberlain, 
 while you strike out for the Hampshire contin- 
 171
 
 Captain Jacobus 
 
 gent ; both regiments to muster at Salisbury two 
 days hence, on second April." 
 
 "Why, the Chief Justice and four judges 
 will be on circuit in the city, now I bethink 
 me," I said. 
 
 "So much the worse for them," remarked 
 Jacobus, "and the better for us. 'Twill show 
 the country we care naught for rebel adminis- 
 trations. My Lord Protector will be vastly 
 pleased when he hears of his five right worship- 
 ful justices all a-row kicking heels in hemp." 
 
 We were sitting over our wine by this time ; 
 and although there remained no trace in the 
 Captain's bearing of his singular lapse in the 
 churchyard, yet there lurked something of a 
 question in his glance, a tincture of doubt in his 
 manner. I knew what he would be at ; a man 
 of his mould would sooner be torn in pieces 
 than stoop to explain or to condone his own 
 momentary weakness ; while vanity pricked him 
 to discover whether I thought the less of him 
 for such an exhibition ; and I cast about how 
 to ease his mind. 
 
 " You were speaking of spiritual visitations 
 but now," I began, at a pause in the con- 
 172
 
 The French Gentleman 
 
 versation, and Jacobus looked up suspiciously. 
 ' Well, I do not rate myself a coward, but I 
 suffered an experience on ship-board that sucked 
 me out the very dregs of courage. I do not 
 shame to say it, and yet it was a very trifling 
 affair, when all 's told. I suppose there is no 
 man ever lived that terror has not gripped his 
 entrails, at one time or another. Do you not 
 think so yourself, Captain ? ' ' 
 
 "Why, yes," said Jacobus, indifferently, 
 " and what kind of a demon laid his claws upon 
 you, Anthony ?" 
 
 I told him of the prying fingers that touched 
 me when I lay sick and helpless in my berth ; 
 and he said it was a strange thing ; and there- 
 upon passed to discussion of our plan of action. 
 But I noted that he regarded me now with a 
 restful eye. 
 
 It was arranged that if, directly upon my 
 arrival at Salisbury, Penruddock's force held the 
 city, I should proceed to the house of Mayor 
 Phelps ; and that if Jacobus were not there, I 
 should seek him in the Beggars' Chapel in 
 Grovely Wood. If Penruddock had not ar- 
 rived before me, I was still to proceed to 
 173
 
 Captain Jacobus 
 
 Mayor Phelps's where, if I did not find the 
 Captain, I was to await him. Jacobus had 
 brought my gray gelding, the gift of pretty 
 Mrs. Beatrix, and stabled him with his own 
 horse. The mention of the nags reminded 
 him that we should go and see how they did 
 before we went to bed ; and he hallo' d for a 
 lantern. The landlord, a blue-faced, corpulous 
 person, brought it himself. 
 
 "Does this gentleman sleep here, to-night, 
 sir ? " he inquired of the Captain. 
 
 "What do you mean by that?" returned 
 Jacobus, sharply. " Did I not bespeak a room 
 for Mr. Langford three days agone ? ' ' 
 
 "Mr. Langford," said the man, staring 
 angrily at me. "Which is Mr. Langford, 
 then ? Are there two Mr. Langfords ? Or 
 have I been made a fool of?" 
 
 " Go to," said Jacobus. " Y' are drunk. 
 This is Mr. Langford, sot. What the devil are 
 you talking about ?" 
 
 A ridiculous bewilderment crept upon the 
 landlord's shaggy visage. "Why, then, I 
 have been made a fool," said he, helplessly. 
 "And the nag gone too. As God's-my-life,
 
 The French Gentleman 
 
 'twas no fault of mine, sirs. The gentleman 
 looked a gentleman, sure enough, and " 
 
 "Just tell the story, if you please," said 
 Jacobus, sternly. He was sitting upon the table, 
 swinging a leg, according to his habit. The 
 bulky landlord stood quaking before him like 
 a school-boy at fault, the great horn stable- 
 lantern, smokily alight, dangling from his finger. 
 
 "I am telling you, sir," said the miserable 
 man. "'Twas just this way, sirs," looking 
 appealingly at me, "just this way, as I was 
 saying. Just about sun-down ay, scarce a 
 half-an-hour afore ye come in yourselves, sirs 
 in marches a great gentleman hot-foot. ' Has 
 a gentleman left a horse here for Mr. Langford ? ' 
 says he. ' Are you Mr. Langford ? ' I asked 
 of him, and he stares at me fierce. ' Of course,' 
 he says. ' My service to you, sir,' I says, ' Mr. 
 Simeon ' [the name the Captain had adopted for 
 the nonce] brought a led horse along wi' him, 
 'tis in stable now. Belike 'tis the nag your 
 honor means.' ' What is the beast like ? ' he 
 asked. A gray gelding,' I tells him. ' That 's 
 my horse,' quo' he. Saddle him quick 's you 
 can. Mr. Simeon is awaiting me, is he not,' 
 175
 
 Captain Jacobus 
 
 says he. ' Surely,' I says, ' and I expect him 
 to come in every next moment,' says I, 'for's 
 dinner.' 'Do you so?' says he, 'well, 'tis 
 a mighty pity I cannot wait. Present my 
 compliments to Mr. Simeon, and belike he and 
 I will meet in Salisbury,' says he, and by that 
 time the gelding was brought round, and my 
 gentleman tosses Tom ostler a crown, vaults 
 into saddle, drives spurs in, and off at a cruel 
 hard gallop over t* cobbles." 
 
 I broke into a laugh as the man paused with 
 dropped jaw, gazing timorously at Jacobus, who 
 was gnawing his moustachios. 
 
 " And why did you not tell me all this 
 before, sirrah?" demanded the Captain, so 
 fiercely that the man gave back a step. 
 
 "God forgive me," he whined, "it went 
 clean out o' my head." 
 
 " What was the man like ? Describe him!" 
 said Jacobus. 
 
 " I marked not what he wore," said the 
 man, " but a' had black eyes and red hair, I 
 will swear to 't." 
 
 I exclaimed in surprise, but the Captain went 
 on without a pause. 
 
 176
 
 The French Gentleman 
 
 "Look you, dolt," said he, "you tell me 
 there is a nag of mine gone from your stables ; 
 well, then, you must make good the loss, and 
 that before to-morrow morning. I have no 
 more to say than that," and getting leisurely 
 from the table, Jacobus turned his back to the 
 culprit, and spread his fingers to the fire. 
 
 " Come now, y' are unreasonable, Mr. 
 Simeon," said the landlord, sullenly. " 'T is 
 all as I have told you. 'T was no fault o' 
 mine. Anything I can do to convenience the 
 gentleman I will, such as lending him a mount 
 for a stage or so. But to buy another nag 
 and 'twixt now and sun-up! It can't be done, 
 sirs, and more," he added, encouraged by his 
 own words, "I will not do't. How do I 
 know the red-haired gentleman and yourself are 
 not acquaint ? " 
 
 I do not know whether the Captain, finding 
 his will opposed, acted merely from force of 
 habit, forgetting his disguise for he was pos- 
 ing as Mr. Gabriel Simeon, wool-stapler or 
 whether his passion for effect overcame all other 
 considerations. However it was, at the inn- 
 keeper's last words he turned sharply upon 
 12 177
 
 Captain Jacobus 
 
 him, lugging out a pistol, and levelled it at his 
 head. 
 
 "Take the door, Anthony," said Jacobus; 
 and I crossed the room and leaned against the 
 panel. I was thus behind the landlord, so that 
 he could not see me wrestling with laughter. 
 
 " Now then, Master Nick-and-Froth," went 
 on the Captain, falling into his professional 
 manner, " I have no time to waste, and (if 
 you will believe me) no more have you. 
 Half-a-minute is not a long time wherein to 
 make ready for death, is it ? especially for a 
 man of your habits. And yet, sirrah, 't is all 
 you possess unless you give me an undertaking 
 to furnish me a good nag before sunrise. I will 
 take forty broad pieces for a bond, meanwhile. 
 Come ! I will count the seconds for you : One, 
 two! " 
 
 "Sirs! sirs !" cried the man, "will ye do 
 murder ? " and I could see the water start 
 and glisten on his temple. 
 
 " Seven, eight, nine, ten ! One moment, 
 
 Innkeeper. Y' are thinking I would not dare 
 
 to shoot you. Do not so deceive yourself. 
 
 Let me tell you, my friend, that I am a King's 
 
 178
 
 The French Gentleman 
 
 man, while you, I take it, are a bloody Round- 
 head, and I would make no more of killing you 
 than you would of sticking a pig. To resume : 
 Eleven, twelve," and Jacobus counted up to 
 twenty-five, cocking his pistol on the word, 
 when the fellow cried out, with a high, strang- 
 ling vociferation : 
 
 " I will do it," he said ; and as the Captain 
 lowered his weapon, sobbed out a stream of 
 curses. 
 
 " 'T is like the letting of blood it relieves 
 the heart and veins, and I make a rule to allow 
 it," observed Jacobus to me, as if in apology. 
 " Now I will take the forty pieces, if you 
 please," said he, advancing towards the inn- 
 keeper. 
 
 The light ran coldly down the pistol-barrel ; 
 the man turned with an obedient start, and, 
 still carrying the lantern, shambled before us 
 into his private den, where he counted out the 
 money in a sullen silence. 
 
 The Captain repaid him the amount of the 
 reckoning, and, after seeing that the Captain's 
 horse was cared for, we sat down to finish the 
 bottle. 
 
 179
 
 Captain Jacobus 
 
 " The scurvy rogue," said Jacobus ; " 't is 
 amazing how few persons can perceive their 
 manifest obligations save in the throat of a 
 pistol-barrel. And what do you think of our 
 red-haired horse-monger, Mr. Langford ? " 
 
 "I think his name is Manning," I said, 
 rather shamefacedly. 
 
 "O! do you so?" cried Jacobus. "Y'have 
 a most uncommon penetration. I make you 
 my compliments." 
 
 " You are to remember," I expostulated, 
 " that the first time I saw him I had but just 
 come from his Majesty's table ; and the rest of 
 the voyage I was sick as a dog." 
 
 " You were disguised in liquor and he was 
 disguised in a wig, as it were," said the Cap- 
 tain, grinning at his jest. "Now I will read 
 ye your ghostly riddle, Mr. Langford. The 
 spirit's name was Manning too ; and Manning 
 picked your pockets to see if you had the three 
 seals. Manning is brewing a plot, boy, and 
 doubtless thinks himself mighty clever at it. 
 Well, I will have my spoon in the broth before 
 all 's done. And if you had but quietly put 
 your iron through the gentleman upon a certain 
 1 80
 
 The French Gentleman 
 
 occasion, ye had saved a world of trouble. For 
 a youth of parts, I sometimes think y' are a 
 fool, Anthony." 
 
 Indeed, I thought so too. Manning had 
 outwitted me, and was even now galloping 
 to Salisbury upon no one knew what devil's 
 errand ; and I believed him capable of the 
 worst crimes. 'T was doubtless his face I saw 
 at the window of the inn 'twixt Flushing and 
 Middleburgh ; he had tracked me like a dog, 
 and, dolt that I was, I could have stabbed 
 myself. 
 
 "Let us start to-night, for God's sake, Cap- 
 tain," I said ; but Jacobus would not hear of it. 
 
 " You do not know what is in front of you, 
 lad. Sleep you must, or you cannot go through 
 with it. Y' are thinking of the girl, I know 
 very well ; but content you, she hath her 
 father, hath she not ? At any rate, we could 
 never overtake the man. Besides, y' have no 
 horse. A lover's imagination is ever prophe- 
 sying evil falsely. Go. to bed and to sleep, 
 man." 
 
 And so I did ; for since we could not ride, 
 I found myself deadly wearied. 
 181
 
 XII 
 
 I TAKE THE ROAD UPON MY OWN 
 ACCOUNT 
 
 SURE enough, next morning the ostler 
 brought to the door a handsome roan 
 mare, fully equipped. Upon putting her 
 through her paces and looking her over, Jacobus 
 and I, both professed horse-copers, found her 
 to all appearance sound ; and after returning 
 the amount of his bond to the landlord, we set 
 forth. We rode along the coast together so far 
 as Charmouth, where our roads parted ; Jacobus 
 travelling northeast by Sherborne and Frome to 
 Compton Chamberlayn, in Wiltshire, while my 
 route lay further south through Bridport, Dor- 
 chester, Blandford, and Cranborne Chase to 
 Fordingbridge, in Hampshire, where dwelt Mr. 
 William Jenkins, Captain of the Hampshire 
 contingent. Jacobus had near upon seven 
 182
 
 I take the Road 
 
 leagues further to ride than I, while Compton 
 Chamberlayn lay three hours further from Salis- 
 bury, where both regiments were to muster at 
 five in the morning of April the second, than 
 Fordingbridge ; but the Captain reckoned by 
 means of incessant riding, frequent change of 
 horses, and his knowledge of the country, to 
 accomplish his journey in the time. The 
 allowance of another day could have caused no 
 jot of harm ; while (as events fell out) the 
 time gained might have saved many a loyal life. 
 But the Captain was never content, unless he 
 were doing just a little trifle more than any 
 other man was satisfied in accomplishing. 
 
 After I had parted from Jacobus, the mare 
 stumbled badly twice or thrice during the next 
 few miles, but I thought little of it, rode easy, 
 and stopped at Bridport to bait her and to 
 drink a tankard of October. By the time we 
 were well out on the Dorset Downs, under the 
 shoulder of Shipton Beacon, the nag began to 
 trip again ; I dismounted, and examined her 
 hocks, which were swollen and tender, and 
 which must have been bandaged for a week 
 before to have reduced them to the normal 
 183
 
 Captain Jacobus 
 
 condition in which they seemed that morning. 
 There was nothing for it but to push on ; and 
 on we went. But presently, going down hill, 
 the mare stumbled again and fell heavily, pitch- 
 ing me into the road. I came down upon my 
 head, which seemed to explode like a shell at 
 the concussion. I do not know how long I lay 
 there ; but when I sat up the ground heaved in 
 billows, the sky was dark and rained stars. 
 After drinking a little Hollands from my flask I 
 felt better, though my head ached infernally, 
 and my right arm was bruised and swollen from 
 shoulder to elbow. Coming a little more to 
 myself, a horrible pang seized me ; I staggered 
 to my feet and looked round. 
 
 There was no mare to be seen ; she was 
 clean gone, with forty broad pieces in the 
 saddle-bags, and my pistols Manning's pistols 
 in the holsters. Doubtless that devilish nag 
 was far on the road to Lyme by now. Mine 
 host of the Blue Garland was avenged. I was 
 sick as a dog, and every bone rebelled ; but the 
 urgency of my errand burned within me, and, 
 hardly knowing what I did, I set my face to 
 the east and began to plod forward. My 
 184
 
 I take the Road 
 
 mind grew clearer as I walked, and I began to 
 consider the situation. A horse I must have ; 
 for, although 'twas barely possible to tramp 
 the distance in the time, a mistake in the direc- 
 tion, or a few hours' rain (for already the 
 roads were soft), would defeat me, and I dared 
 not risk it. Searching my pockets, I found (I 
 remember accurately) three Jacobuses, a crown, 
 seven shillings, and a groat. Certainly I could 
 not buy a horse with those remunerations. 
 
 When necessity sets the grip upon a man, 
 'tis wonderful how it changes his opinion of 
 the Ten Commandments. He perceives in a 
 wink the margin of that absolute document, 
 close written with a great number of valuable 
 saving clauses, hitherto unnoted. And, after 
 trudging valley and upland for some three hours, 
 I had resolved, like iron, the first reasonable 
 good nag I met should somehow change owners. 
 
 'T was already falling dusk on those desolate 
 wolds when I was aware of a horseman ap- 
 proaching on a bright bay stallion. As he drew 
 near, I hailed him. 
 
 "Give you good-den, sir," I said; "I 
 would have a word with you." 
 185
 
 Captain Jacobus 
 
 Seeing, I suppose, that I had not the air of 
 a common foot-pad, the man drew rein with- 
 out, however, giving himself the trouble to 
 return my salutation. He was a big, sulky- 
 looking farmer fellow, plainly clad in gray 
 homespun, with an uphill nose and a monstrous 
 jowl like a bull-dog, and he carried a stout holly 
 stoff. 
 
 " Will you sell me your horse ? ' ' 
 
 "I will not, certainly," he returned in surly 
 accents. " Is that all you wanted ? Out o' 
 my way ! ' ' 
 
 I caught his bridle with my left hand. 
 "Sir," I said, "I am about an errand of life 
 and death. A horse I must have. What is 
 your price ?" 
 
 He considered a moment. " Forty broad 
 pieces, down on the nail," said he. 
 
 " Meet me at the Poultry Cross in Salisbury 
 the day after to-morrow, and I will give you 
 sixty." 
 
 " Belike!" said the farmer, his great face 
 flushing. "And who are you, my fine sir, 
 with the bloody coxcomb ? " 
 
 " That is my business," quoth I. 
 1 86
 
 I take the Road 
 
 "I can tell thee, nevertheless. Thou 'rt a 
 mountebank tricked up, or a ruffling bloody 
 Cavalier " and I saw that he had cropped his 
 locks, which a Royalist yeoman would not do. 
 " Take hand from my rein, man, or I will break 
 the rest o' thy head for thee. Snick up! " 
 
 He raised his cudgel ; I drew a dag l from 
 my belt, grasping it by the barrel, for 'twas 
 unloaded. For a moment we watched each 
 other warily ; then my yeoman struck at me, at 
 the same time spurring his horse, which reared, 
 for I held the bridle fast. With a quick motion 
 of the head I avoided his blow, which fell upon 
 my left shoulder, that was defended by the 
 leather pauldron of my buff coat, and I brought 
 down the pistol-butt upon my antagonist's right 
 wrist with all the force I could muster in my 
 maimed arm. The stroke rang as though I had 
 beaten a billet of wood to flinders, and the man 
 dropped his cudgel with a snarl like a baited 
 bear. Still holding the rein, I stooped swiftly 
 to pick it up, and the plunging of the frightened 
 nag gave me enough to do to reach it. As I 
 rose with the staff In my hand, the farmer 
 1 A small pistol. 
 187
 
 Captain Jacobus 
 
 caught me a swinging buffet on the side of the 
 head. I was near stunned, and lost control of 
 my anger. You are to remember that while the 
 nag meant no more than salable horse-flesh to 
 the churl, it meant the world to me. I struck 
 at the rider's head. He warded the blow with 
 his left arm ; I beat it down, and brought the 
 holly with a goodly thwack upon his pate. 
 The big man swayed sideways and fell bodily 
 upon me, bearing me to the ground. 'T was 
 all I could do to loose his boots from the stir- 
 rups and to prevent the nag kicking us both to 
 death. So soon as I had quieted the horse, I 
 bent over the prostrate yeoman and explored his 
 head. The skull was whole, so doubtless he 
 would recover; and, settling him in as easy a 
 posture as I could, I mounted the bay and 
 spurred forward. 
 
 By this time the sun had vanished, and white 
 mists crawled in the valleys ; and presently I 
 saw the lights of Dorchester town twinkling 
 through the haze. Fearing lest a hue-and-cry 
 should be raised before morning, I avoided the 
 town and pushed on through the gathering dark- 
 ness. The day's misadventures began to press 
 1 88
 
 I take the Road 
 
 sore upon me : red-hot hammers beat within 
 my head ; my arm ached to agony from the 
 violence I had used ; and I heard strange sounds 
 and beheld flitting visions of strange sights. 
 Sometimes I would hear bells chiming, and 
 methought they were the bells of Salisbury and 
 I was riding thither ; then I would see Barbara 
 in a room alone with Manning in his red hair, 
 and hear her cry aloud for help. At that I 
 would start to my senses, gather up the reins, 
 and stare into the dark ; then again dreams and 
 stupor would steal upon me. I seemed to have 
 been riding in pain and darkness since the day I 
 was born ; when at last my trusty nag ambled 
 into a village nestling at the base of a great 
 hill, and called, as I learned in the morning, 
 Troy Town. The lighted windows aroused 
 me, and I had sense enough to steer into the 
 stable-yard of the Inn, where I had no sooner 
 dismounted, than I swooned upon the stones. 
 The people of the house must have carried me 
 within-doors and hapt me up in bed : for there 
 I was when I awoke, with a comely white- 
 haired old dame bathing my temples. She gave 
 me something mighty comforting to drink, and 
 189
 
 Captain Jacobus 
 
 bade me to sleep ; whereupon I sank straight- 
 way into a dreamless slumber. 
 
 'T was broad daylight when I woke again, 
 feeling stiff and sore indeed, but well enough 
 and mighty hungry so potent a medicament 
 is youth. When I appeared downstairs my 
 hostess cried out as though I had been a ghost, and 
 would have it I must to bed again. But upon 
 beholding the breakfast I consumed, she thought 
 better of it, and after bandaging my head and 
 arm afresh with some wonderful decoction of 
 herbs and simples, and reiterating a hundred wise 
 cautions, she let me go. My hostess of Troy 
 Town tavern was a kindly, winsome old lady, 
 in her clean lilac gown and great white cap ; 
 one of those whose simple nature is all to do 
 good to others ; and who, methinks, in this 
 rude world's march, are too often shoved aside 
 and trampled on. 
 
 The nag I had won by force of arms was a 
 good nag, strong, steady, and handsome ; and 
 in the saddle-bags I found thirty-three broad 
 pieces, some loose silver and copper, three little 
 soiled linen bags containing samples of corn and 
 a new whip-lash. My friend the Roundhead 
 190
 
 I take the Road 
 
 yeoman must have prospered in Dorchester mar- 
 ket the day before. As for me, now I came to 
 think of it by morning light, I had committed a 
 common highway robbery ; there was the plain 
 fact. Anthony Langford of Langford Manor 
 was no better than a thief and a robber. 
 
 Hitherto I had regarded my friend Captain 
 Jacobus with a moral reservation ; he was this 
 and that, and 't was excellent well, but there 
 was a flaw in the crystal of his honor. Now 
 I began to perceive he entertained precisely that 
 opinion of myself; and (it appeared) with the 
 better reason, and the greater forbearance. I 
 recalled my heady speech the day we halted 
 above Winchester city, glittering beneath us in 
 the valley. I thought myself something heroi- 
 cal at the time, and yet I had but figured as a 
 pragmatical whipster blown up with swelling 
 conceits. Well, there seemed no certitude in 
 morals, and for the first time it began to dawn 
 upon my raw intelligence that life is not a rou- 
 tine to be smoothly undertaken by the aid of 
 maxims, as your cook by recipe makes kick- 
 shaws and pigeon-pasty, but a delicate, chancy 
 business requiring an alert habit of diplomacy. 
 191
 
 Captain Jacobus 
 
 My luck was surely out for the time ; for a 
 thick rain and mist driving before an east wind 
 soaked me to the skin ; there was no sun to 
 steer by ; and the road, at best a mere cart-rut, 
 perplexed me continually by its divergences. 
 So it was that after riding endlong over hill and 
 heath all day, I came at dusk upon a desolate 
 table-land where the wind blew salt, and the 
 fog, rolling clear, unveiled a great plain of 
 waters beyond the trending coast-line some two 
 miles distant. Nearer hand, beside the sullen 
 gleam of a river, the wet roofs of a town shone 
 in the fading light. I had travelled in a circle 
 and come to the sea again. There was nothing 
 for it but to go down into the town and lodge 
 there for the night. I found the place to be 
 Wareham, near by Poole Harbor, and thus, 
 instead of arriving at Fordingbridge as I had 
 reckoned, I was still, upon a reasonable near 
 guess, some thirty miles distant. Moreover, the 
 nag was wearied out, and I myself could no 
 longer sit upright in the saddle. The Hamp- 
 shire troop would be late at the muster, for all I 
 could do ; 't was the woundiest hinderance, but 
 the lot I must bear, in spite of my teeth. 
 192
 
 I take the Road 
 
 Next morning I was on the road again long 
 ere sunrise, taking the ostler of mine Inn to 
 guide me so far as Woolbridge ; and so I 
 arrived at Fordingbridge and the house of Mr. 
 Will Jenkins at ten in the forenoon, five hours 
 after the whole troop should have kept tryst at 
 Salisbury. Mr. Jenkins despatched half-a-dozen 
 riders hot-foot to the gentlemen concerned in 
 the conspiracy, who were billeted with their 
 followers in the manor and farm-houses of the 
 neighborhood ; while his wife and a bevy of 
 comely daughters made me great cheer, pressing 
 to stay and be healed of my bruises, or at least 
 to await the riding of the troop. But I had 
 scarce patience to eat some bread and meat, and 
 drink a stoup of wine ; and borrowing a fresh 
 horse, I struck spurs in and rode off at top 
 speed for Salisbury. 
 
 13 193
 
 XIII 
 
 HOW THE ROYALISTS OCCUPIED 
 SALISBURY TOWN 
 
 MY road lay along the familiar banks of 
 Avon, and through my own estate and 
 village of Langford. As I rode up the street the 
 desperate clatter of hoofs brought women to 
 their cottage-doors ; and more than one fellow, 
 recognizing me, waved his cap and cried out a 
 greeting. 
 
 A wild clangor of bells came faintly down 
 wind ; and coming in sight of Salisbury Cathe- 
 dral, pale against the lowering gray sky, I dis- 
 cerned, above the battlement where the steeple 
 springs from the tower, a black speck like a fly 
 crawl out upon the yellow stonework, and 
 unfurl a speckle of gold and scarlet that twinkled 
 in the wind. Methought I saw a pygmy arm 
 flung up (no bigger than a bristle), and I knew 
 194
 
 Occupying of Salisbury Town 
 
 the man was cheering the Royal Standard. The 
 city was won, then. A frenzy of excitement 
 seized me ; I remember rising in my stirrups, 
 waving my hat and holloing till the wood and 
 water rang. The pealing clamor of the great 
 bells swelled momently louder until the whole 
 air was filled with clashing tintinabulations ; and 
 presently horse and man galloped across the 
 Chapel Bridge where John Manning had lain in 
 ambush for me, and where (curse him) I had 
 let him go free. 
 
 The city was in a mighty turmoil. The 
 houses seemed to have emptied into the streets, 
 which were thronged with a shouting tide of 
 cits, shopmen, 'prentices, and idle fellows, setting 
 towards the Market Place. Here and there a 
 Royalist trooper in steel cap, back and breast, 
 with a couple or more led horses jibbing at his 
 elbow (conveyed without doubt from the nearest 
 stable) would be thrusting his way through the 
 press with oaths and the butt of his arquebus. 
 Not a shop was open, and many of them were 
 being fortified and barricadoed by the fat bur- 
 gesses and greasy tradesfolk with doors wrenched 
 off their hinges, floor-boards, and ends of timber. 
 '95
 
 Captain Jacobus 
 
 They sweated at the work like men possessed ; 
 so hot was their hurry that (although I noted it 
 not at the time) I recollect my memory of one 
 such engineer, his puffy face all crimson, who, 
 smiting at tenpenny nails with a great hammer, 
 struck his fingers till a red stain came out upon 
 the white wood, yet he never blenched nor 
 paused. 
 
 Across the top of the High Street, at its 
 entrance into the Market-place, a double file 
 of cavalry was posted to keep the mobile back. 
 Upon giving the word, "A Roland," one 
 returned the counter, " For Oliver," the ranks 
 opened, closed behind me, and I found myself 
 in the Market-place. A squadron of cavalry 
 was drawn up in the form of a hollow square, 
 in the midst of which stood a knot of gentlemen 
 on horseback conferring together, amongst whom 
 I perceived Sir John Penruddock and Sir Joseph 
 WagstafF. Except for the troopers, the Market- 
 place was empty, files being stationed at the 
 entering in of the streets. The windows of all 
 the houses were white with faces and alive with 
 gazing eyes ; the roofs and gables were moving 
 with spectators ; a gray, still sky brooded over 
 196
 
 Occupying of Salisbury Town 
 
 all, so that the motley of colors were singularly 
 distinct, and save for the incessant tumult of the 
 bells overhead, there reigned an ominous silence. 
 I would have pushed through the horsemen to 
 Sir John Penruddock, to inform him of the 
 speedy arrival of the Hampshire troop ; but a 
 major near by, hearing a commotion, turned 
 with an oath and commanded order ; and at that 
 moment the ranks on the further side of the 
 square opened out, I caught a flash of moving 
 scarlet, and the two judges, in their robes of red 
 trimmed with ermine, and the sheriff in his 
 furred gown, marched into the midst of the 
 Market-place, conducted by a couple of troopers 
 on either hand with swords drawn, and halted 
 in front of the group of gentlemen. Sir Joseph 
 Wagstaff put his horse a pace forward, and 
 made a speech, of which I could only catch a 
 word here and there. But the pealing of the 
 bells suddenly ceasing, he raised his voice, so that 
 the words echoed. 
 
 "And so, my lords, and you, Mr. Sheriff, 
 are condemned by the King his Majesty, against 
 whom y' are taken in rebellion, seditiously ad- 
 ministering rebel ordinances upon the bodies of 
 197
 
 Captain Jacobus 
 
 his loyal and faithful subjects, to be hanged by 
 the neck until ye be dead, and may God have 
 mercy on your souls." 
 
 He ceased, and a kind of tremor ran through 
 the multitude. Then the Lord Chief Justice 
 Rolles stepped forward, with his parchment of 
 commission unfurled in his hand, and began to 
 speak. I could not hear his words ; but before 
 he had done, Sir John Penruddock spurred up 
 to Sir Joseph Wagstaff, and rounded him eagerly 
 in the ear. The rest of the gentlemen crowded 
 round, and they conversed together, the two 
 bearded men in scarlet looking quietly on, with 
 no sign of trepidation. In a little Sir John Pen- 
 ruddock put his horse toward them, and cried 
 out in a great voice, 
 
 " My lords, upon due consideration of your 
 plea for mercy, ye are reprieved for this time. 
 For you, Mr. Sheriff, y' are arrested." 
 
 The sheriff, who was standing a little back, 
 hurried forward and fell on his knees before the 
 knight, with clasped hands upraised, crying 
 aloud for mercy in a weeping voice. 
 
 " God-'a-mercy, Sir John," cried one of 
 the gentlemen, " hang all or none ! Truss up 
 198
 
 Occupying of Salisbury Town 
 
 the pitiful knave, and bring him along for a 
 hostage." 
 
 At a word from Sir Joseph two of the troopers 
 who had been guarding the judges took the 
 wretched sheriff by the elbows, jerked him to 
 his feet, and bound his arms behind him. I 
 heard the men round me swearing freely. 
 " This is no way to set about the business," 
 quoth one, " to condemn one minute and pardon 
 the next." And, indeed, I was much of the 
 same opinion. 
 
 The judges, after exchanging a few words 
 with the officers, delivered up their commissions 
 and turned to depart, the gentlemen raising their 
 hats to them, and the ranks opening out again to 
 let them through. The people at the windows 
 and upon the house-tops set up a great shout, 
 but whether for joy or anger I could not tell. 
 As the troops began to move and to re-form I 
 spurred through the press to Sir John Pen- 
 ruddock. 
 
 "Mr. Langford, I think," said he, saluting 
 me. "Where are the Hampshiremen, sir ? " 
 
 I explained the delay as best I could, but he 
 scarce heard me out. 
 
 199
 
 Captain Jacobus 
 
 " 'T is no matter," he said. " We have done 
 very well without them, you see. The city 
 surrendered at discretion. We march down 
 West, whither they may follow at their leisure. 
 Give you good-den, Mr. Langford," and, rais- 
 ing his hat, he turned away. Sir John was 
 plainly a good deal elated, but (had he only 
 known it) no man had ever less reason in this 
 world. 
 
 Making my way to the Poultry Cross, I gave 
 my horse to a trooper, and, with beating heart, 
 went up to the door of Mayor Phelps's house. 
 I knocked in vain, and finding the door upon 
 the latch, I entered the hall. Methought as I 
 crossed the threshold that I heard a noise of 
 hammering, as of some one cleaving wood ; but 
 no sooner had I closed the door behind me than 
 the sound ceased. I stood quiet and listened ; 
 there was nothing to be heard save the tick-tack 
 of the tall clock in the corner. I hurried from 
 room to room, but all were empty ; the door of 
 Barbara's chamber stood open, and I went in 
 softly, with a sense of profanation. 'Twas all 
 in confusion, cupboards and chests standing open, 
 clothes and dainty gear tossed upon the bed and
 
 Occupying of Salisbury Town 
 
 upon the floor, where I spied a pair of tiny, 
 red-heeled shoon, and put them in my pocket. 
 Pausing to weigh this strange condition of affairs, 
 I heard the knocking sounds re-commence down- 
 stairs. I descended swiftly to the hall, but 
 before I had reached the stair-foot all was once 
 more still. 
 
 The hall was a long, sombre room, with a 
 wide, diamond-paned window looking on the 
 street at one end, and a massive staircase ascend- 
 ing at the other. Dim portraits of men in 
 armor, and demure ladies in ruff and stomacher 
 (for the Phelpses came of a good lineage) were 
 framed in the brown panelling that lined the 
 walls from oaken floor to oak-beamed ceiling. 
 As I stood gazing in absence of mind at the 
 profile of a helmed warrior whose picture was 
 next to the great stone fireplace, I suddenly 
 beheld his eyeball move, a shining speck in the 
 gloom. My skin crept upon me, and I glanced 
 fearfully round at the shadows that lurked in the 
 corners ; then I looked again. The dead 
 Elizabethan was gazing in front of him under 
 painted lids. My brain was tricking me again, 
 I supposed ; and small wonder, for my battered 
 
 201
 
 Captain Jacobus 
 
 head ached sorely whenever I had time to think 
 about it. I drew a step nearer, staring at the 
 picture ; when my heart gave a bursting leap, 
 for a voice issued from the wall. 
 
 "I fear I must put you to the trouble of 
 releasing me, Mr. Langford," it said, in muffled 
 tones. " Touch the spring, and undo the bolts, 
 if you please.*' 
 
 I had no notion there was a secret chamber, 
 or priest's hole, in that place ; and marvelling 
 greatly, sought for the spring. The voice con- 
 tinued to direct me ; and at length a massy steel 
 lever shot back, the whole picture opened out- 
 wards like a door, and who should step over 
 the wainscot but Manning, with his high look 
 and superior air, and neatly tied love-lock, just 
 as I had last beheld him under that roof. 
 
 " Give you good-den, Mr. Langford," said 
 he, politely. " I am sorry to have put you to so 
 much trouble. But I made no doubt you knew 
 the secrets of this house at least so well as I,'* 
 said Manning, with sarcasm. 
 
 There were a good many questions which I 
 should have liked Manning to resolve for me: 
 Had he aught to do with the deprivation of my 
 202
 
 Occupying of Salisbury Town 
 
 estate, and what was the Plymouth Plot ? Why 
 had he spied upon me from the window of the 
 inn among the Flemish sand-dunes ? Why had 
 he pried into my pockets that night upon the 
 Saint Gabriel, masquerading in the French lan- 
 guage and a wig ? Why had he stolen my 
 horse from the Blue Garland ? How dared he ? 
 Where were the three seals, and the three thou- 
 sand pounds? And where Jacobus? Above 
 all, where was Barbara ? Why was the house 
 empty, while he was bolted into the priest's 
 hole ? And again, what the devil was he doing 
 there, after my warning, and challenge on the 
 Chapel Bridge? 
 
 Manning stood gazing insolently at me, 
 hand on hip, as I ran these things over in my 
 mind ; and looking at him, it came upon me 
 that the only proposition in the world I could 
 make to such a fellow was the last on the cata- 
 logue. I accordingly propounded it ; and so it 
 was that I never got solutions to any of my 
 problems from Manning. 
 
 '* My privy business, I have the honor to 
 presume," answered Manning. 
 
 "Well, you remember what I told you?" 
 said I. 203
 
 Captain Jacobus 
 
 "I recollect me perfectly of your singular 
 courtesy," returned Manning. " 'Sblood, how 
 much longer will you dilly-dally about this busi- 
 ness ?" he shouted, in sudden insane fury. 
 " Must I spit in your face, you dog, to make 
 you fight?" and therewith he caught me a 
 buffet on my wounded head, that struck like a 
 bolt of fire. 
 
 Half blinded with the pain, I drew upon him ; 
 our rapiers hissed from the scabbards at the same 
 instant ; and we set-to like a couple of bulls. 
 I used both hands, to ease my maimed arm that 
 was mighty sore and stiff, holding the blade just 
 over the hilts with my left gauntlet, as one does 
 at the end of a long fencing bout. Manning 
 fought with the light of the window in his eyes, 
 so that I had a small advantage ; and my arm 
 growing easier and my head clearer, I began to 
 press him hard. The sweat glistened on his 
 forehead, and he panted aloud ; but he was a 
 stanch fighter, full as good at tricks of fence as 
 I, and in far better trim ; and I began to 
 wonder how long I could hold out. I had 
 pricked him once or twice, and my foot had 
 near slipped in my own blood ; the sparks were 
 204
 
 Occupying of Salisbury Town 
 
 flying, and the room ringing like a stithy, when 
 a door clapped, and in another moment our 
 blades were stricken up by old Richard Phelps, 
 with a half-pike he must have snatched from 
 the wall as he entered. Instantly Manning 
 slipped behind the Mayor, and ran out of the 
 house, slamming the door in my face. Next 
 moment I was out and after him, to see him 
 with a dash of his sword cut down the trooper 
 who held my horse, leap upon the nag's back, 
 drive spurs in, and away, the people running 
 this way and that at the rattle of the hoofs. 
 Pursuing him hot-foot, the bloody rapier naked 
 in my hand, I kept him in sight until we cleared 
 the streets, where troopers were still straggling 
 out after Sir John Penruddock's main body. 
 But I was already spent; and scarce a bow- 
 shoot from the walls, I was fain to stop and 
 lean upon my sword for breath. In a pater- 
 noster-while, a big dragoon with a couple of led 
 horses in his fist, drew rein beside me. 
 
 " What, man ! Hast been in a fray, and 
 gotten the worst o't, by'r Lady. Art for 
 Caesar ? What will ye give me for Roland, 
 then ? " 
 
 205
 
 Captain Jacobus 
 
 Oliver," I said, gasping. 
 Right so. Why, then, get astride the 
 nag." 
 
 I laid hold of the animal, but had not the 
 trooper dismounted to help me, I could not 
 have climbed upon his back. We rode together 
 to Wilton, where we halted at the Orle of 
 Martlets. Giving the man a crown to drink 
 my health, he brought me out a tasse of wine, 
 which revived me somewhat, and I rode on 
 alone into Grovely Wood, where by good 
 fortune I stumbled upon the track to the thieves' 
 chapel. By this time I was become so horribly 
 ill that methought I should never live to get 
 there, and rode in agony, lying on my horse's 
 neck. As we came out upon the clearing 
 where stood the chapel, I beheld the figure of 
 Barbara standing on the threshold, and heard 
 her voice, and saw her run towards me, and 
 rolled senseless at her feet. 
 
 206
 
 XIV 
 
 HOW CAPTAIN JACOBUS EXECUTED 
 THE KING'S COMMISSION 
 
 WAS a week since the capture of the 
 city. I was basking in the sun on mat- 
 tress and pillows, on the grass outside the 
 Beggars' Chapel, occupying the very place of 
 one of those sentries whom Jacobus and I, little 
 more than three weeks agone, had found asleep, 
 his match smouldering beside him ; while the 
 Captain himself lay in the place of the other 
 rascal, smoking a cigarro, his hat over his eyes ; 
 and Barbara sat above me in an orange-tawny 
 velvet chair. At a little distance, beyond the 
 bubbling stream, stood the covered wagon of 
 the half-dozen Egyptians whom the Captain 
 had retained for servants ; the swarthy people 
 in their bright garments were gathered about a 
 crackling wood fire, above which, amid the 
 curling blue smoke, hung a pot upon a tripod. 
 207
 
 Captain Jacobus 
 
 Beyond, the forest closed us in, dressed in its 
 spring bravery ; between the rough trunks, 
 hyacinths hid the ground like a blue mist ; 
 overhead, fragile, tiny clouds voyaged upon the 
 blue before a westerly gale ; while now and 
 again the jolly sun would veil his face behind 
 the mounded purple wrack. 
 
 The Captain had dispersed the rest of the 
 beggars and gypsies north, east, south, and 
 west ; had caused the chapel to be cleansed 
 from floor to roof-tree, and to be strewn with 
 fresh rushes ; had transformed his room of the 
 sacristy into a sleeping-chamber for Barbara and 
 her nurse ; and had built a partition of branches 
 in the body of the place for my benefit ; while 
 Jacobus himself commonly watched me by 
 night, and slept as he could by day. He had 
 gone down to Salisbury upon the night of my 
 arrival, and informed Mr. Phelps of matters ; 
 the old man had ridden up twice or thrice, 
 laden with cordials and dainties for the sick 
 man ; but Barbara had declined to return with 
 her father, or to admit an apothecary ; saying 
 that her business was to nurse me until I was 
 whole, and that she was a better doctor than 
 208
 
 The King's Commission 
 
 any barber-surgeon of them all. Meanwhile, 
 for the last three days, I had slept almost con- 
 tinuously ; and now, as I lay in the blessed 
 sunlight, save for a certain languor and stiffness, 
 I felt a whole man once more. Therefore, I 
 requested the dozing Captain to give me the 
 news, and a full relation of his adventures 
 in the house of Mayor Phelps. Jacobus con- 
 sulted my physician with a look, who nodded 
 permission. 
 
 "Fair and softly, boy," said he; "what 
 made you a day late at Fordingbridge ? " 
 
 " I lost my horse first, then my head, and 
 last my way," I replied. 
 
 "All that?" remarked Jacobus. "Well, 
 you found your way again, I take it, and you 
 seem to have regained a kind of headpiece, if 
 a little the worse for wear. But how did you 
 get a horse ? Or did you walk ? Y' had time 
 enough ? " 
 
 The Captain's tone was scarcely flattering; 
 but put it every way I had not shone in my 
 exploits, and 'twas foolish to take offence. 
 
 "There are plenty of nags upon the road," 
 I said, mildly. 
 
 14 209
 
 Captain Jacobus 
 
 Jacobus did not move so much as an eyelid. 
 There was an appreciable pause, and when he 
 spoke, requesting me to tell my story, he did 
 not betray the slightest sense of what was im- 
 plied by my admission. I briefly related my 
 misfortunes. When I came to Manning's 
 escape, Jacobus swore blasphemously until he 
 caught the look upon Mrs. Barbara's face. 
 
 "I crave your pardon, mistress," said he; 
 "but I left the man for Anthony to kill, and 
 he *s let him go. I would 'a' cut his throat 
 else." 
 
 "I do not like such talk," said Barbara, 
 soberly. 
 
 " What of Penruddock ? " I asked, for neither 
 had I any great desire to discuss Mr. Manning. 
 
 ''Colonel Penruddock and the best part of 
 his troop are lodged in Exeter Jail," said 
 Jacobus, evenly. 
 
 "What!" I cried. "Is the plot at an 
 end, then?" My gilded expectations trembled 
 like a house of cards. 
 
 "Plot ! " returned Jacobus, savagely, " 'twas 
 a schoolboy's freak 'twas the King of France 
 with forty thousand men 'twas anything you
 
 The King's Commission 
 
 please. Colonel John and Major Joseph, with not 
 forty hundred, not four hundred, as God 's my 
 life, go out to conquer a kingdom of soldiers ! 
 They take Salisbury without a blow struck on 
 either side ; and had they laid down any sort 
 of plan whatsoever had they even waited for 
 your damned Hampshiremen, or marched on 
 London, things might have gone better ; the 
 country might have taken fire, and at any rate 
 nothing could have fallen out worse. But, 
 having captured the city by five in the morning, 
 they desert it by two in the afternoon, without 
 leaving so much as a corporal's guard for garri- 
 son. They do not even hang the bloody judges. 
 Whereupon all things resume their course as 
 though the soldiers had never set foot in the 
 town. Why did they so at all ? What, 'a 
 God's name, did they think they were doing ! 
 Well, as I say, Sir John and Sir Joseph sound 
 tuckets, march away down west towards Bland- 
 ford with drums beating and colors flying for 
 some two or three hours, when who should they 
 meet but our old friend Captain Crook with his 
 patrol of dragoons. The Royalist horses were 
 wearied out, the army could neither fight nor fly ; 
 
 211 

 
 Captain Jacobus 
 
 whereupon Crook promises free pardon on the 
 word of a gentleman to all who yield peaceably ; 
 and the end of it was that Sir John and the most 
 of them gave up their arms, while Sir Joseph 
 and the rest, having, I suppose, some glimmer- 
 ings of sense, got away on foot into hiding. 
 Next day Crook drives the whole posse like 
 sheep into Exeter Jail, where they are now 
 awaiting the butcher. The Hampshire gentle- 
 men, finding Salisbury empty, swept, and gar- 
 nished, rode quietly home again, like wise men. 
 So ends the Penruddock Plot for the glorious 
 restoration of our sovereign lord the king," 
 Jacobus ended, getting up and striding across 
 the grass to relight his cigarro at the gypsies' 
 fire. 
 
 Barbara laid her hand on mine for a moment. 
 For myself I had scant reason to complain, but 
 I was dreadfully oppressed. 
 
 " They will not dare to hang them ? " I said, 
 when Jacobus returned. 
 
 " Will they not ? " said he. " Is there any 
 horrible crime Oliver will shirk? And these 
 men were taken red-handed in rebellion. A 
 promise ! What is a. promise to a Puritan ? 
 
 212
 
 The King's Commission 
 
 They have changed the code of gentlemen for 
 the Book of Leviticus." 
 
 The rarity seemed to have gone out of the 
 sunshine, and we sat in silence. Presently 
 Jacobus, perhaps to divert my thoughts, took 
 up the tale of his adventures. 
 
 " We entered the city about five of the clock 
 on the morning of April zd, as I have said, 
 a troop of horse about two hundred strong, all 
 as arranged. First we rode to the jail, and 
 threatened to carry the place by assault unless 
 they opened the gates, which they did. Where- 
 upon we entered and turned all the prisoners 
 loose into the streets. Some of my own beggar- 
 spies were among 'em. Then we dispersed in 
 bands to requisition all the horses in the town. 
 I took a hand in that also, and 'twas excellent 
 sport. These little risings fail invariably, but 
 they are admirable fooling while they last. After 
 that I went to breakfast with the officers at the 
 sign of the Sun over against the Conduit, where 
 master inn-keeper could find naught good enough 
 to set before us ; I never beheld a man so in- 
 stantly obsequious. Before we had done there 
 comes one running to say that the Mayor and 
 213
 
 Captain Jacobus 
 
 Aldermen were assembled in the Town Hall, 
 whither the Colonel and Sir Joseph went imme- 
 diately. I stayed till I had finished breakfast, 
 when I thought it a suitable time to present the 
 paper of seals at the house of Mayor Phelps, so 
 rode leisurely up High Street and across the 
 Market-place. All the troopers gentlemen, 
 yeomen, and churls were carousing on every 
 side ; the cits welcomed 'em like brothers ; and 
 ale was flowing like a festival. A parcel of 
 madcaps had set the bells going ; altogether, 
 't was like the capture of a city in a play-house. 
 I had my own affairs to mind, or, body o' me, 
 I would have shown the Colonel another-guess 
 way to set about the business. 
 
 "Well, I left my horse with the soberest 
 soldado I could see, found the house, and knocked 
 upon the panel. 'T was opened at once by a 
 tall, black-avised gallant, whom I surmised to 
 be Manning himself, as I had expected. 
 
 "'Give you good-den, Mr. Manning,' I 
 said, to make sure. 
 
 " ' Y' have my name very pat,' said he. ' I 
 have not the honor of knowing you, I think.' 
 
 *' ' Here is that may serve for recommenda- 
 214
 
 The King's Commission 
 
 tion,' I said, and showed him the paper of 
 seals. 
 
 " He put out his hand to take it, but I stowed 
 it back in my pocket. 
 
 " ' Come in, sir, and welcome,' said he, and 
 led me into a little business-looking cabinet at 
 the back of the hall, and shut the door. There 
 was a leash of tankards on the table, and after 
 pledging each other, we sat down. For all his 
 easy manner, I could see that the fellow sus- 
 pected me bitterly, fearing, I suppose, that you 
 had penetrated his disguise, and had informed 
 me of his doings. 
 
 " ' Is not your name Simeon, sir ? ' said Mr. 
 Manning, looking at me. 
 
 " < Why, no,' I said. ' My name is Jacobus, 
 Captain Jacobus. You have never heard it 
 before, perhaps ? ' 
 
 " ' Indeed,' says my gentleman, with a bow, 
 ''tis a title I have long been familiar with. 
 But y' are a little trifle like a certain Mr. 
 Simeon I did once know, at the first glance. 
 Well, I have three thousand pounds to deliver 
 to you, sir ; and I am glad to confide the moneys 
 to such experienced hands,' says he. But 
 215 

 
 Captain Jacobus 
 
 prithee, Captain, how go matters in the 
 town ? ' 
 
 " I shrugged my shoulders and pulled a long 
 face, for I wanted to see what he would be at. 
 
 "'Well enough,' I said. "Tis not 
 very difficult to march a troop of horse into an 
 unarmed country place.' 
 
 " ' You think, then, the event is doubtful,* 
 he asked. 
 
 "'Come,' I returned, 'you and I, dear 
 sir, are men of the great world. We are about 
 a matter of some moment, and I will be open 
 with you. Is it probable that a handful of raw 
 cavalry can upset a kingdom guarded by the 
 finest army in the world ? ' 
 
 " Mr. Manning was visibly discomposed. 
 *'Tis then a question,' said he, 'whether 
 or no this great sum of money would not be 
 better laid by a while until a more promising 
 occasion ? ' 
 
 " ' 'T is a question, certainly,' I said ; for 
 I began to perceive his drift. 
 
 " ' It might be well,' pursued my conspira- 
 tor, eying me, ' to bestow it meanwhile in 
 some safe hiding-place : doubtless you know of 
 such, Captain ?' 216
 
 The King's Commission 
 
 " 'It might, truly,' I said. 'But is it not 
 safe where it now is ? ' 
 
 "'No, by no means,' said Manning, with 
 conviction. ' And the sooner you and I get 
 to shifting the gold the better,' says he, get- 
 ring up. 
 
 " ' 'Tis in the house, then ?' I said. 
 
 " ' That you will see,' he answered ; and 
 by that I knew it was. 
 
 " ' There is just a point, Mr. Manning,' I 
 observed. ' This money, properly expended 
 now, might it not work the success of the plot 
 which we know must otherwise fail ? ' 
 
 " He seemed to reflect a moment, then shook 
 his head. 
 
 " ' The chance is so inconsiderable,' said 
 he, ' it is not worth the risk.' 
 
 " 'Faith, but I think it is worth it,' said I. 
 
 " ' That is for me to decide, by your leave, 
 Captain,' said Manning, blackening. 
 
 " Then I smoked his trick. Had the Cava- 
 liers been in a fair way to success, he would 
 have given me the money in pure speculation, 
 hoping to be rewarded hereafter by the king 
 with a good place about the Court. But as, on 
 217
 
 Captain Jacobus 
 
 the contrary, they seemed in the way to fail, his 
 game was to nab the gett himself. He could 
 not transport the treasure alone, and so I was to 
 assist him to get knocked on the head from 
 behind for my pains, belike ! The money, 
 then, was not his own ; therefore it belonged 
 to Mr. Phelps ; and I had next to discover 
 whether Mr. Phelps had designed this gift for 
 his Majesty, or Manning was robbing him. So 
 I pulled out a pistol and covered Mr. Manning. 
 
 " ' Put forth hand to sword or pistol and I 
 will break the bone of your arm with a bullet,' 
 I said. I am tired of this talk. Come, sir ! 
 I bear the king's commission ; and in that ser- 
 vice I have toppled a many more pretty gentle- 
 men into the dust and the dark than you have 
 ever passed the time o' day with. There is 
 better company than you are accustomed to 
 keep, belike, waiting for you on the other side 
 Styx. As God's my life, ye shall join them 
 ere I count five, sith you do not straightway 
 deliver me up three thousand pounds, peaceably 
 and without treachery.' 
 
 "I began to count, one, two, but my gentle- 
 man was nothing dismayed, and had the impu- 
 218
 
 The King's Commission 
 
 dence to grin at me. Your Manning is a 
 courageous chuff, and 't is pity he is so double- 
 minded and unsteadfast. 
 
 " ' Easy, Captain,' says he. Easy with 
 the firelock, they are ill engines for mounte- 
 banks to handle. Y' are not upon the king's 
 highway, nor am I a fool of a burgess to be 
 scared by your windy violence. If you shot 
 me, you would never find the treasure, o' my 
 word.' 
 
 " ' Three,' said I. ' You forget, sir, 
 I could ask Mr. Phelps.' 
 
 "'You could so,' says Manning, 'and 
 sith the Mayor is a bitter Roundhead, I leave 
 you to imagine the response you would get.' 
 
 " ' So y' are about spoiling the Egyptians, 
 is 't not so ? I do begin to perceive a kindred 
 spirit in you,' I said. 
 
 " ' Put down your pistol, then,' said Man- 
 ning ; and so I did, for it had served my 
 turn. 
 
 " ' Come, Mr. Manning,' I said, ' time 
 
 wastes, let us understand one another without 
 
 more ado. Had the king been on his way to 
 
 Whitehall, the matter would have worn a dif- 
 
 219
 
 Captain Jacobus 
 
 ferent complexion, I take it ; but as his Majesty 
 is fast in Holland, and extremely likely to stay 
 there, we need not discuss that aspect of the 
 problem. As it is, you want the gold for your- 
 self, I know that. Why, therefore, deny it ? 
 Moreover, as you cannot steal it without help, 
 you hoped I should have assisted you blindfold. 
 That will not come to pass ; but I will assist 
 you upon conditions. ' 
 
 " Manning looked at me, and I saw that I 
 had hit him. 
 
 " ' You make a strange mistake, Captain 
 Jacobus,' says he, biting his finger. ' 'T is a 
 natural suspicion for a gentleman of your habit, 
 or I should think you meant to insult me. We 
 cannot all be highwaymen. These moneys 
 belong to the king, sir.' 
 
 " Ay, sir,' I said, ' and so doth this realm 
 of England ; but he hath it not in his pocket 
 any the more for that. I know what y' are 
 drumbling at. Y' are thinking I am hand and 
 glove with young Langford, because I carry the 
 three seals that he had from the king. I sup- 
 pose ye guessed he had them, as king's messen- 
 ger ; and it is true I took them from him. I 
 220
 
 The King's Commission 
 
 keep the roads of the West Country as y* are 
 aware ; and I stopped the gallant on his way 
 hither from Lyme Regis, and made him turn 
 me out his pockets for a jest, for I take 
 nothing, only from Roundheads. The three 
 seals took my fancy ; they smelled of gold to 
 me ; but my gallant would tell me naught about 
 them, till I bound the boy to a tree and tied 
 a piece of lighted match betwixt his fingers, 
 when he found his tongue. He held you in 
 some suspicion of treachery, it seemed, which 
 methought would be the better for me ; there- 
 fore I took the adventure on myself, and let 
 little Langford go on his errand. But we had 
 best be quick, for he is but ridden to Fording- 
 bridge to warn the Hampshiremen, and will 
 doubtless be here presently.' 
 
 " Manning swallowed that invention of my 
 Minerva like a common gull. 
 
 " ' You said upon conditions ? ' quoth 
 he. 
 
 " < Half,' I said. 
 
 " But Manning could not stomach that, and 
 huffed, swore, looked big, and blustered. 
 
 " ' Well,' said I, I thank God I can earn 
 
 221
 
 Captain Jacobus 
 
 my livelihood without picking the pockets of 
 honest burgesses. Give you good-den, Mr. 
 Manning,' and I made as if to go. 
 
 " At that he altered his note, and presently 
 agreed ; and we went into the hall, where he 
 pressed the spring, opened the panelling, and 
 entered the priest's hole. 'T was a tiny square 
 stone chamber, with a round window high up 
 to the left ; on the right a flight of steps led up 
 to a fireplace, where was a space big enough for 
 a man to sit with comfort ; and a little door 
 opened therefrom, I supposed into the chimney 
 of the hall fireplace. The panel door was 
 stoutly barred and thicknessed ; a space was cut 
 out behind the face of the portrait, and a little 
 slip of canvas moved on a pin, so that a man 
 could lay his cheek at the back of the thin board 
 and peer through the eyehole. 'T was a sweet 
 place wherein to stow money-bags ; and well it 
 was for Master Phelps that he hath you to his 
 son-in-law, Anthony ! Manning went up the 
 steps, kneeled down, and began to grope on the 
 stones. I whipped out of the chamber and 
 shut-to the panel quietly ; but he must 'a' heard 
 the bolt click, for he flung himself against the 
 
 222
 
 The King's Commission 
 
 wood, crying out. Had he thought instead of 
 the door in the chimney, 'a might have escaped ; 
 but I climbed swiftly up and drew bolts on the 
 hither side, and a mighty sooty job it was. 
 Well, there was my clever conspirator fast 
 by the heels till you came to turn him out and 
 cut off his head, Anthony. I am sorry you 
 left it on his shoulders. ' T was your quarrel, 
 and I thought you would like to end it yourself, 
 else I would have killed him. Then I bethought 
 me of Mrs. Barbara, and walked upstairs to 
 search for her, whereupon I heard a little noise 
 of sobbing behind a locked door, upon which I 
 knocked. ' Who 's there ? ' asked some one, in 
 a weeping voice. ' I come from Mr. Langford,' 
 I said. ' My name is Jacobus.' Mrs. Bar- 
 bara opened at once ; and when she saw me, she 
 smiled through her tears," said Jacobus send- 
 mentally. 
 
 " You were a figure to make the cat laugh, 
 with your fine lendings and your soot," said 
 Mrs. Barbara. " But I was glad to see you, 
 too. I was afraid for my father, for I made 
 sure there was fighting in the town. And Mr. 
 Manning was not the pleasantest house-mate." 
 223
 
 Captain Jacobus 
 
 " All things considered," pursued Jacobus, " I 
 thought 't was safest to take Mrs. Barbara from 
 harm's way until matters were settled in the 
 city. Besides, Manning was in the house, and 
 when you came, there must have been blood- 
 shed. So Mrs. Barbara packed her valise while 
 I got her a palfrey ; and, taking her nurse be- 
 hind me, we sought refuge in my private sanct- 
 uary. So endeth the adventure of the three 
 seals ; " and he tossed me the paper. It lies 
 before me now as I write, torn and discolored, 
 one antique head cracked across the cheek. 
 
 " Captain," I said, " I am inexpressibly be- 
 holden to you," and I reached him my hand. 
 
 He shook it negligently. " I doubt me if 
 the king would make quite the same observation," 
 said Jacobus. 
 
 224
 
 XV 
 
 A QUESTION OF CONSCIENCE 
 
 THE next day came one of the Captain's 
 beggar-spies with news, saying that a 
 general jail delivery would be holden at Exeter 
 on April 1 8th, when Sir John Penruddock and 
 his following would be put upon their trial ; 
 and that Chief Justice Rolles had returned to 
 London, instead of proceeding to Exeter. We 
 learned afterwards that he refused to sit in judg- 
 ment upon the men who had spared his life j 
 whereupon Cromwell deprived him of office, 
 and sent down a new commission of oyer and 
 terminer. There was never any weakness of 
 sentiment about the Lord Protector's dealings. 
 
 " I fear *t is a hanging matter," said Jacobus ; 
 " but whatever may befall, I shall ride down 
 and see th' affair through to the end. Also 
 I have a score to settle with Captain Crook. 
 What say you ? Shall we take the road 
 again ?" 
 
 15 225
 
 Captain Jacobus 
 
 " I am with you," said I. 
 
 It was therefore settled that we should start 
 on the morning of the I4th April, three days 
 hence, which would allow four days' easy 
 travelling for the distance. 
 
 There are halcyon pauses in life's march, 
 when one steps aside out of the dust into a piece 
 of Eden, and lets the world go roaring by 
 a while unheeded ; when the fights and follies of 
 the past drop from us like Christian's pack o* 
 sins j when the unsure and dark future is for- 
 gotten. Thus it befell with us for three sun- 
 shiny days at the Beggars' Chapel. But upon 
 the eve of my departure, having prepared my 
 equipage for the morrow, I sought Barbara with 
 a heavy heart, leaving the Captain polishing his 
 pistols and whistling, gay as a bird, 
 
 " No man sings a merrier note, 
 
 Than he that cannot change a groat," 
 
 chanted Jacobus ; but I did not think so. 
 
 I found Barbara a little way in the forest, 
 
 where a bank, matted with creeping blue 
 
 flowers, hove out above a valley ; beyond the 
 
 tall trees on the opposite ridge the evening sky 
 
 226
 
 A Question of Conscience 
 
 was painted in scarlet and gold, and, overhead, 
 great rose-colored clouds melted into the 
 blue. 
 
 "Barbara," I said, "this will never do. 
 Alas ! you and I must part, my dear. To- 
 morrow I ride down to the west (for I am a 
 sworn volunteer) where my life is in jeopardy 
 every hour ; and after I must seek my fortune 
 overseas ; for I doubt not that what the Cap- 
 tain says is true, that, after this outbreak of the 
 Royalists, the Protector will put in force the 
 most stringent and oppressive ordinances against 
 the Cavaliers. I will come back to you if I 
 live, my dear; but meanwhile I do not hold 
 you bound to me by so much as a word ; y' are 
 free as air. For I cannot ask you to marry 
 me." 
 
 I had conned this speech with much care, 
 and it pained me a good deal to deliver it; 
 altogether, I felt very solemn and grieved. 
 Therefore I was greatly taken aback when Bar- 
 bara laughed in my glum face. 
 
 " You men think yourselves so mighty wise 
 and heroical ! " said she. " I would have you 
 to know, sir, that I am an heiress, and can marry 
 227
 
 Captain Jacobus 
 
 whom I please. What if I chose to marry you, 
 Mr. Anthony Langford ? ' ' 
 
 "I shall ha veto say you nay," I said, turning 
 aside. " It would not be fitting. You know I 
 could not do 't." 
 
 " Oh, you have the finest feelings in the 
 world, and the most delicate scruples, I know 
 that very well," retorted Barbara, totally un- 
 impressed by my dignified attitude. *-* But sup- 
 posing you were to think of some one beside 
 your noble self, sir, for once, just for a 
 singular novelty." 
 
 "Do I not?" said I. 
 
 " No, sir, you do not," said she. " Oh, you 
 men ! For a finikin convention, a fantastical 
 whim of honor, you would sacrifice not only 
 yourselves, which would be the less important, 
 but others, no matter who or what. How does 
 it signify which of us hath moneys ? 'tis the 
 weariest commonplace ! Do you suppose a 
 woman sacrifices nothing to take a man's earn- 
 ings ? You say we have no notion of honor ; 
 well, at least we own a conscience ; wherein, 
 meseemeth, we enjoy a somewhat singular 
 advantage." 
 
 228
 
 A Question of Conscience 
 
 I knew not what to answer, being torn asun- 
 der and bewildered. 
 
 " I would not ask you twice, were you the 
 Great Chan ! " said Barbara, gently, in a little. 
 
 There was that in her voice which broke 
 down my resistance. The fortress capitulated ; 
 the besieger took possession once and forever. 
 
 "Listen to me," said Barbara, presently, 
 I have a plan. We will go to Virginia and 
 buy an estate with my dowry. Make no mis- 
 take, my pragmatical gallant, you shall lead no 
 rose-leaf existence. When we are rich, and 
 if there be a Restoration, we will come home 
 and live at Langford Manor." 
 
 We opened the matter that evening to Jacobus, 
 the crafty in counsel. 
 
 " I think y' are well advised," quoth our 
 Odysseus. *' Faith, I see not what else ye can 
 do, unless ye take to the road like me. And 
 as for that, I doubt if thou wouldst ever make a 
 great hand at it. You will fight and bully 
 when y' are stirred up to 't ; but ye take a most 
 prodigious pole and the devil of a lot of stirring. 
 The root of the matter is not in you. Ye do 
 not love the hard living and hard riding, the 
 229
 
 Captain Jacobus 
 
 continual jeopardy, the staggering turns of for- 
 tune , when a man may be carousing with a 
 king's ransom in his pockets one day, and the 
 next fleeing for his life like a fox. Why, look 
 you," pursued Jacobus, warming, " y' are hunted 
 out of house and land, and yet ye have no lust 
 to hunt the hunters. Y' are out of law, ye have 
 naught to lose, and all Christendom lies open 
 before you, Roundheads, fat with ill-gotten gains, 
 jogging to and fro on every road, and swarming 
 in every town. Yet the prospect leaves you 
 cold. 'Tis incredible. 'Slife, the Parliament 
 did to me what the Protector hath done to you, 
 before I was your age ; and the Puritan crew 
 have been paying for't ever since, year in and 
 year out, in blood and gold ; the price is not 
 paid yet ; and so long as I can sit a horse, I go 
 a-questing to fill up the measure that is never 
 filled. Ay, did my own mother stand in the 
 way, I would ride over her face ! " 
 
 He gnawed his mustachios and fell silent. I 
 had never seen him so moved ; doubtless my 
 case had brought the remembrance of his own 
 wrongs freshly to mind, when he lost more than 
 house and lands. Barbara looked across in the 
 230
 
 A Question of Conscience 
 
 firelight, at the dark, lined visage ; Jacobus 
 caught her glance, his face changed, and pres- 
 ently we fell to discussing how our project 
 might best be effected. It was finally arranged 
 that Barbara (whom her father had appointed to 
 fetch in the morning) should return to Salisbury 
 to make her preparations, while we rode to Exe- 
 ter ; thence, as it was unsafe to show our faces 
 in Salisbury, we were to ride to the village of 
 Over Wallop in Hampshire, which lay on the 
 road from Salisbury to Southampton, where Mrs. 
 Mariabellah Curie dwelt with Mrs. Beatrice and 
 Dean Young. There Barbara and Mr. Phelps 
 would meet us ; the Dean should perform the 
 marriage ; and after we would travel to South- 
 ampton and take ship thence to Virginia. 
 
 " But will Mr. Phelps agree to this pretty 
 scheme ? " I asked Barbara. 
 
 "Do you think I cannot manage my own 
 father ? " quoth she. " Besides, he will marry 
 again, so soon as I am gone, and I shall not be 
 missed. He hath had a very fine woman in 
 his eye (to use his own phrase) this ever so 
 long." 
 
 So, while the most of my fellow-Cavaliers lay 
 231 

 
 Captain Jacobus 
 
 bound in prison in fear of death, and a hundred 
 families were suffering the cruel torture of sus- 
 pense, destiny seemed shaping my way to happi- 
 ness supreme. But the shadow of others' 
 misfortunes darkened my own fair prospects ; 
 why should some be taken and others left ? and 
 that which befell them might befall us, some 
 day. 
 
 " Y* have won a most admirable lass, boy," 
 quoth the Captain, when Barbara had gone to 
 bed. " A most sweet and praiseworthy wench, 
 Anthony," said he, shaking his head. 
 
 That was true ; and after all, what did the 
 rest matter ? 
 
 232
 
 XVI 
 
 THE EIGHTEENTH OF APRIL 
 
 A STROLOGERS have told us that the des- 
 -1A. tinies of man are interwoven with the course 
 of the stars ; a thing at once difficult to believe 
 and hard to disbelieve. Certainly there have been 
 fateful times and days, whose recurrence has 
 been rare as the slow unalterable revolution of 
 the zodiac. Even Cromwell himself, who was 
 so firmly persuaded (in his more perfervid 
 moments) that he was no more than the tool of 
 a lively and interfering Providence, wrought all 
 his greatest deeds on his lucky date of the third 
 September ; whereon also he was born, and 
 whereon he died. 
 
 In the same manner, it seemed to me that the 
 eighteenth of April was certainly charged with 
 evil significations. 'T was the date King Charles 
 had first fixed for the Penruddock rising ; and 
 his messenger, baffled by wind and wave, only 
 233
 
 Captain Jacobus 
 
 arrived in time to disorder all arrangements. 
 Now, upon that very day, the leader of the 
 insurrection and the most of his party were put 
 on trial of their life. And in my own case, no 
 sooner had my wedding been devised for the 
 same day, than dire misfortune fell upon me ; 
 and at the time I should have stood at the altar 
 rails (I scarce could think of it) there was I 
 wedged cheek by jowl with that wild freebooter 
 Jacobus, in the dense crowd that packed to 
 bursting the Guildhall at Exeter. 
 
 The Guildhall was an arched chamber, great 
 and wide ; the brackets at the springing of the 
 arches were carved into caryatides from the 
 bestiaries ; and at intervals along the cornice 
 were stuck painted armorial shields. Across the 
 upper end ran the dais, where Judge Nicholas, 
 in scarlet and ermine, sat in his great chair to 
 judge the men who had but yesterday spared his 
 life (for Nicholas had been the fellow of Chief 
 Justice Rolles at Salisbury); on either side of 
 him were seated some gentlemen of the county, 
 among whom was Steel the Recorder. Below, 
 upon the Counsels' benches, between the dais 
 and the prisoners' dock, sat Attorney- General 
 234
 
 The Eighteenth of April 
 
 Prideaux and Sergeant Glyn. In the dock stood 
 Sir John Penruddock and twenty or thirty of his 
 following, among whom I recognized some of 
 my own men, laborers on my estate. 
 
 The commission of oyer and terminer having 
 been read, and the usual formalities concluded, 
 the Attorney- General stood up to read the in- 
 dictment of high treason. The prisoners were 
 then asked to plead guilty or not guilty. Where- 
 upon Penruddock, who was spokesman through- 
 out, disputed the legality of the indictment 
 itself, and demanded counsel to conduct his 
 case. This request was refused him, and he 
 was again required to plead, on pain of having 
 sentence passed then and there. "If I plead, 
 shall I have counsel allowed me ? ' ' asked Penrud- 
 dock. The Court makes no bargains," returned 
 the Attorney- General. The rest of the prison- 
 ers here persuaded Penruddock to plead not 
 guilty, which he did, and again demanded 
 counsel, which was again refused him. 
 
 " Sir," said Penruddock, " durus est bic sermo, 
 't is no more than I expected from you ; but 
 rather than I will be taken off unheard, I will 
 make my own defence as well as I can." 
 235
 
 Captain Jacobus 
 
 We also had come with sad enough expecta- 
 tions ; they began to be confirmed ; and thence- 
 forward, throughout the whole five hours occu- 
 pied by the trial, we endured the spectacle of a 
 brave man foredoomed, but fighting to the 
 last. 
 
 The jurors were then called ; there were five- 
 and-thirty of them, out of whom Penruddock 
 challenged twenty-four. Thus the jury entered 
 their gallery a man short ; and it was character- 
 istic of the whole proceedings that the irregularity 
 was considered too trifling to remark upon. All 
 the prisoners except Penruddock were then 
 marched out, leaving the Colonel to take his trial 
 alone. The jurors being sworn, the indictment 
 was read out once more, and Penruddock was 
 asked if he had any exception to make, where- 
 upon he repeated his former plea, that the prose- 
 cution was illegal in toto composito. This was his 
 impregnable defence throughout ; just as his sacred 
 Majesty Charles First confronted the regicides 
 with the unanswerable proposition that there 
 was no law in existence under which he, the 
 King, might be arraigned. " There can be no 
 treason against a Protector," said Penruddock. 
 236
 
 The Eighteenth of April 
 
 The validity of the plea was again denied by 
 Recorder Steel, who was moved by sheer malice 
 to take part in the case, for his legal status did 
 not entitle him to address the prisoner ; and 
 Sergeant Glyn, a tall, sharped-faced man with 
 slanting eyebrows, rose and said : " Sir, you are 
 peremptory ; you strike at the government ; you 
 will fare never a whit the better for this speech. 
 Speak as to any particular exception you have to 
 this indictment." 
 
 Penruddock replied that the enactments con- 
 cerning high treason referred to the King, for 
 whom, and not against whom, he had acted ; 
 if there were any statute authorizing his indict- 
 ment, he requested to have it read. The At- 
 torney-General answered that Penruddock had 
 not behaved himself in such a manner as to 
 incline the Court to grant favors. At that, 
 Penruddock demanded it as his right, and upon 
 this being refused him, renewed his request on 
 behalf of the jury. 
 
 Sir, the jury ought to be satisfied with what 
 hath been already said, and so might you too," 
 said the Attorney- General. 
 
 Sir, I thank you," returned Penruddock, 
 237
 
 Captain Jacobus 
 
 "you now tell what I must trust to ; " and, 
 indeed, it was plain enough. 
 
 The Attorney-General, a dark, bullying 
 fellow, with a red curved nose, then made a 
 large speech, aggravating the offence, falsely 
 stating that Penruddock had been four years in 
 France, when he held a correspondency with 
 the King his master, whom Mr. Prideaux sacri- 
 legiously described as a debauched, lewd young 
 man ; that Penruddock had endeavored to en- 
 gage the nation in another bloody war ; and 
 that if he had not been timely prevented, he had 
 thus destroyed the jurors and their whole fami- 
 lies. At this point the prisoner interrupted the 
 glib counsel for the government. 
 
 " Mr. Attorney," said he, " you have been 
 heretofore of counsel for me ; you then made 
 my case better than indeed it was j I see you 
 have the faculty to make men to believe falsehoods 
 to be truth too." 
 
 " Sir," retorted Prideaux, truculently, "you 
 interrupt me ; you said but now you were a 
 gentleman ! ' ' 
 
 " I have been thought worthy heretofore to 
 sit on the bench, though now I am at the bar," 
 238
 
 The Eighteenth of April 
 
 returned Penruddock, and allowed the Attor- 
 ney-General to complete his bitter, nonsensical 
 speech, and to call witnesses. 
 
 Then Penruddock spoke again. " Sir, you 
 have put me in a bear's skin, now you will bait 
 me with a witness." He turned half round, 
 scanning the faces of the silent crowd in the 
 body of the Court ; then, raising his arm with a 
 sudden, imperious gesture, Penruddock cried out 
 in a great voice : " But I see the face of a gen- 
 tleman here in Court I mean Captain Crook 
 whose conscience can tell him, that I had 
 articles from him which ought to have kept me 
 from hence ! " 
 
 A little to the left of where we were sitting, 
 Crook rose in his place ; a huge, heavy-shouldered 
 black-avized man ; his face went the color of 
 clay, and his glass-green eyes glistened like a 
 cat's eyes in the dark, as he stared at his accuser. 
 Every head craned to look at him ; there was a 
 rustle and motion as those behind stood up, 
 then, for a full minute, a breathing silence. 
 Penruddock leaned back against the rail of the 
 dock, his dark face frowning and smiling at the 
 forsworn captain of dragoons, who stood dumb 
 239
 
 Captain Jacobus 
 
 as a beast before him. Twice Crook essayed 
 to speak; then he put his hand to his throat 
 and sat down without uttering a word. A 
 murmur went up from the people, as Penrud- 
 dock turned his shoulder and looked at Judge 
 Nicholas. He had won his case in that mo- 
 ment, had not the jury been packed, and had 
 not Cromwell sent down his lawyers with 
 orders to hang the malignants. But the craven 
 judge held down his head over his notes ; when 
 Penruddock appealed to him he answered never 
 a word. 'Twas a pitiful exhibition; a straw 
 mammet would have administered as much 
 justice, with infinitely more dignity. 
 
 Jacobus at my side crossed over his right 
 hand and clasped the hilt of his rapier, bowing 
 forward a moment ; then he sat upright again 
 with a composed countenance. Some days 
 afterwards I asked him what it was he did ; and 
 Jacobus told me that he then took an oath upon 
 the holy Iron, swearing by God and the Mother 
 of God to slay Crook before the week was out. 
 Most persons, I suppose, would have been con- 
 tent to make a quiet resolution to cut the Cap- 
 tain's throat at a good opportunity without this 
 240
 
 The Eighteenth of April 
 
 splendid formality ; but Jacobus liked to order 
 his little affairs with all the pomp obtainable. 
 
 The Attorney-General then called, as witness, 
 Dove, the lachrymose Sheriff of Salisbury, who 
 did no more than complain that Penruddock's 
 men had handled him with violence, one of 
 them " running him through the side with a cara- 
 bine " an impossible feat. Other witnesses 
 having been called, some of whose evidence 
 went against the prosecution, proving that Pen- 
 ruddock, besides proclaiming the King, had like- 
 wise proclaimed the Protestant religion and privi- 
 lege of Parliament, the Attorney-General made 
 a second speech, in which he directed the jury 
 to bring in the prisoner guilty. 
 
 Penruddock then began to address the jury in 
 his own defence ; if Captain Crook, said he, 
 had never promised him pardon in exchange for 
 his surrender (upon which supposition the 
 Court was proceeding), why had Crook, in 
 Penruddock's presence, recounted the circum- 
 stance to his commanding officer, Major Butler 
 of Salisbury, adding that he had refused money 
 offered him by Penruddock to fulfil his condi- 
 tions. For Penruddock, finding Captain Crook 
 16 241
 
 Captain Jacobus 
 
 unsteadfast and mercenary, had proffered him a 
 bribe of five hundred pounds, which was doubt- 
 less what Crook had at first intended he should 
 do, but, in the event, found it more profitable to 
 forego. Immediately upon his refusal, some of 
 the troopers, having gotten wind of the affair, 
 mutinied, and were disbanded " for defending 
 these conditions of ours," said Penruddock. 
 " But let that pass, and henceforward, instead of 
 life, liberty, and estate, which were the articles 
 agreed upon, let drawing, hanging, and quarter- 
 ing bear the denomination of Captain Crook's 
 articles ! " 
 
 There was a brief noise of applause at the 
 back of the Court ; and, turning, we perceived 
 it arose from a knot of red-coated troopers ; 
 doubtless the honest soldiers in question. Pen- 
 ruddock then went on to enlarge upon his origi- 
 nal plea with an excellent eloquence. 
 
 " There can be no treason but against the 
 King ; the law knows no such person as a Pro- 
 tector. . . . Gentlemen, look upon me, I am 
 the image of my Creator, and that stamp of His 
 which is my visage is not to be defaced, with- 
 out an account given, wherefore it was. . . . 
 242
 
 The Eighteenth of April 
 
 The law which I am now tried by is no law 
 but what is cut out by the point of a rebellious 
 sword j and the sheets in which they are re- 
 corded, being varnished with the moisture of 
 an eloquent tongue, if you look not well to 't, 
 may chance to serve for some of your shrouds. 
 . . . You can at most make but a riot of 
 this," he concluded. " Consider of it, and the 
 Lord direct you for the best." 
 
 The jury then left the Court ; soon after 
 they were gone, the great clock of the Cathedral 
 chimed three-quarters past four, and, after an 
 interval incredibly tedious, they entered again as 
 it tolled five, and gave the verdict, guilty. 
 
 " The Lord forgive you," said Sir John 
 Penruddock, solemnly, "for you know not 
 what you do." 
 
 The mockery was over ; all rose to leave 
 the Court. It is a matter of history how that 
 on the Monday following, Sergeant Glyn sen- 
 tenced almost all the prisoners to death ; that 
 some were afterwards reprieved and sold in Bar- 
 badoes, while three or four were acquitted ; and 
 how Sir John Penruddock and Sir Hugh Grove 
 were beheaded at Exeter on May i6th 
 following. 243
 
 Captain Jacobus 
 
 Jacobus and I pressed through the dispersing 
 crowd, and about half-way down the High Street 
 fell into step one on either side of Captain 
 Crook. Jacobus rounded him in the ear. 
 
 " Crook, y' are a damned villain," said he, 
 in a low voice. " Do not raise your voice nor 
 attempt to escape, or we will stab you out of 
 hand. I challenge you to a fair duello. I have 
 no time for punctilios and preliminaries, nor, I 
 take leave to say, are you so much the gentleman 
 as to stand upon so much ceremony. Settle your 
 weapons here and now, and appoint a place of 
 meeting for to-night or to-morrow betimes." 
 
 Crook turned a dusky visage quickly upon us 
 in turn ; but, perceiving that resistance was dan- 
 gerous, he merely quickened his pace. 
 
 "What the devil is this insolence?" he 
 demanded. "And who are ye ?" 
 
 "That is nothing to the purpose," quoth 
 Jacobus. " 'T is sufficient for you to know 
 that I am a man that hath taken a fancy to fight 
 you, will-ye, nill-ye." 
 
 " Am T to take up the quarrel of every com- 
 mon stabber ? I would have you to know I 
 fight but with gentlemen, sir," said Crook. 
 244
 
 The Eighteenth of April 
 
 " Y* are but a poor liar," returned Jacobus. 
 " Ye trepan honest gentlemen to their death 
 with your bloody treacheries and false Articles. 
 Y' are more forsworn than any pitiful shilling 
 perjurer at Westminster, Crook of Woodstock. 
 Come, sirrah, I have no time to waste upon 
 such dogs as you ! Where shall I soil my sword 
 with your vitals ? What spot of earth shall I 
 defile with your blood ? " 
 
 The man was quivering with rage ; but it 
 would have required a brave man to free himself 
 from two such assailants : and Crook, I take it, 
 was a coward in grain. 
 
 "I will not answer you," said he, with a 
 great assumption of dignity. " Ye may send 
 me a cartel and ye will, as one gentleman to 
 another, to my quarters at Rougemont yonder ; 
 or ye two foot-pads may come seek me, and since 
 y' are so fain, ye may try conclusions with the 
 whole corporal's guard. 'T is my last word." 
 
 "Why, very well," returned Jacobus, indif- 
 ferently. " Go and hide in thy Castle. 'T is 
 pity your great general Fairfax broke the port- 
 cullis in his godly zeal ; you should ha' slept 
 the sounder else." 
 
 245
 
 Captain Jacobus 
 
 We had reached the foot of the long hill at 
 the top of which stands the ruined Castle of 
 Rougemont, where, however, there was still 
 accommodation for Captain Crook and a corpo- 
 ral's guard. Jacobus stopped, whereupon Crook 
 set off at a very lively pace of walk. We 
 walked slowly across the road to a side street ; 
 but no sooner were we round the corner than 
 we ran like hares, doubling and twisting back 
 to our inn. "For," said Jacobus, " no sooner 
 is our gentleman in his Castle than he will send 
 his soldadoes to catch us." But if he did, we 
 saw nothing of them. 
 
 "Ye will ride to-morrow betimes, of course, 
 Anthony," said Jacobus, as we sat gloomily 
 over our wine that evening. " There is no 
 more for you to do here. . The play is played 
 out." 
 
 "Why, what are. you going to do?" I 
 inquired. 
 
 "I have my affair with Crook to settle," 
 replied Jacobus. " But that is a piece of busi- 
 ness I can best perform alone." 
 
 " For how many men do you take yourself? " 
 I said. " Crook will never go out wanting 
 246
 
 The Eighteenth of April 
 
 half-a-dozen dragoons at his heels. Are you 
 going to carry Rougemont Castle by yourself? " 
 
 Jacobus was plainly nonplussed ; and for my 
 part, I could not imagine how the two of us 
 were to accomplish his purpose, much less how 
 he could perform it by himself; for that Crook 
 would not fight was certain. 
 
 "For God's sake," cried Jacobus, angrily, 
 " go and get married, and leave me to mind my 
 business." 
 
 "If I have a mind to stay in this city," I 
 returned, " it is not you who shall hinder me. 
 I take an interest in its scenery and the curiosi- 
 ties. Come ! I am not going. Now we can 
 debate with a quiet mind. It appears to me 
 that y* have proposed the impossible. But I 
 raise no exceptions, not I." 
 
 The Captain looked at me from under his 
 brows, pulled his mustachios, and relapsed into 
 silence. 
 
 "Without a mighty hard push for 't, we 
 shall be no more than accessory to our own 
 ruin," he went on, presently. "After the 
 mortification we put upon the excellent Crook, 
 he will be raising the devil's own hue-and-cry 
 247
 
 Captain Jacobus 
 
 after us ; the town constable will be set upon 
 our track ; and Crook himself, belike, is even 
 now searching the streets with a lantern, like 
 the heathen philosopher of the ancients, and 
 with a handful of dragoons to help him. We 
 are caught in a trap ; 't is two against a city ; and 
 the odds strike me as cruel disproportionate." 
 
 " Well, we have no time to recruit a regi- 
 ment," I said. " Before the bottle is out, 
 Crook may be bursting the doors upon us," 
 and an ugly presage flitted across my mind. I 
 saw the row of the condemned on Tyburn 
 Hill, writhing in the noose ; while the hang- 
 man, aloft on the crossbar, stamped on their 
 shoulders, until, one by one, they dangled 
 motionless and limp. 
 
 " I could do with less than a regiment," said 
 Jacobus. Give me but a file of Haslerigg's 
 Lobsters, or Lunsford's Horse, and I would 
 sweep the streets with Crook's dragoons, 'twixt 
 prime and noonsong. By God," he cried, 
 slapping his hand on the table, " I have it ! 
 The disbanded troopers ! Y* heard what Pen- 
 ruddock said in Court." 
 
 "What then?" I asked; and Jacobus pro- 
 248
 
 The Eighteenth of April 
 
 ceeded to expound a project ; 't was but a des- 
 perate chance ; but we were driven to such a 
 pinch, that we took speedy resolution upon it. 
 
 "Once more, Anthony," said Jacobus, ris- 
 ing to buckle on sword and pistols, I ask you, 
 a' God's name, to take horse and get you 
 gone. Y' are merely foolish to remain ; 't is 
 no more than the indulgence of a freak, when 
 all's said. As for vengeance, until Noll and 
 the regicides are drawn quick and hanged, there 
 can be no useful vengeance. For me, I set not 
 my life at a groat's value, save for the pleasur- 
 able excitement of risking it. But here are you, 
 with a sweetheart awaiting you, and a long life 
 afore ye ; 't is murdering posterity to fling it 
 away. And conceive with what face I should 
 carry tidings of your death to fair Mrs. Bar- 
 bara ! No, no, take horse and be wise, 
 Anthony." 
 
 " Were she here, she would bid me go with 
 you," I answered. 
 
 ' I would not make too sure of that, neither," 
 said Jacobus, with a grin ; and although my 
 sentiment had the right sound to 't, upon a 
 second consideration, I had my doubts also. 
 249
 
 Captain Jacobus 
 
 " Well, I am not going, at any rate, as I 
 said before," quoth I. 
 
 The Captain, seeing that my mind was set, 
 desisted from further argument ; and, armed and 
 muffled, we set forth to discover the disbanded 
 troopers. 
 
 250
 
 XVII 
 THE LAST NOTCH ON THE SCORE 
 
 WE must have visited a round dozen of 
 alehouses without finding the men we 
 sought ; passing from the windy and dark streets 
 into the bright tap-rooms where a crew of me- 
 chanics and 'prentices loudly debated the day's 
 events over pipe and ale-cup. The tavern talk 
 ran always down the same gutter ; hatred of the 
 Protector's bloody Army, and the Protector's 
 bloody scriveners ; and at the same time, con- 
 demnation of Penruddock for attempting to up- 
 set the orderly state of the country, under which 
 trade so prospered. 
 
 "The cowardly shop-folk," said Jacobus, 
 " they would see every yeoman and gentleman 
 in the country put to death before they stirred 
 a finger, unless their money-bags were in danger. 
 Comes me your Puritan, with pike and shot, 
 bellowing religion ; and straightway, by your 
 251
 
 Captain Jacobus 
 
 leave, they are all good Puritans ; and you shall 
 see, when the King returns, they will be light- 
 ing bonfires in every street for pure joy ; and 
 Geneva gown and bands may pack to sour 
 Scotland, where they be ever welcome." 
 
 As he spoke, we entered an alehouse in a by- 
 street, and spying through an open door that 
 led from the tap-room into a little parlor beyond 
 a group of men in scarlet seated round a table, 
 we went in upon them. 
 
 Sure enough, there were three of the troop- 
 ers we had observed in the Court-house : one, 
 a great ox of a man, with a brick-red counte- 
 nance, purple-jowled with shaving ; another, 
 stalwart and long-limbed, with a dark eye as 
 alert as a fowl's ; and the third, a lean man 
 with a great hooked nose, a brown goat' s-beard, 
 and something of a fanatical air. 
 
 "God save you and all of us," said Jacobus. 
 "Are ye of Captain Crook's company mine 
 old acquaintance, Bully Crook?" 
 
 The Captain spoke with a kind of patient 
 
 heartiness ; he had assumed, in a twinkling, the 
 
 voice and manner proper to the part he was to 
 
 play, that of a peaceable, quiet, country gen tle- 
 
 252
 
 The Last Notch on the Score 
 
 man living for his crops and his beeves, yet 
 meekly willing, at a word, to sacrifice all for 
 friendship's sake. 
 
 "Once upon a time, but now no longer so," 
 quoth the big trooper, in deep, rumbling tones, 
 slapping his pewter ale-pot upside down. 
 
 "What!" cried Jacobus, lighting up like a 
 candle. "Are ye then among those noble 
 hearts of whom Sir John Penruddock did speak 
 in Court to-day ? who for conscience' sake, did 
 risk a halter ; who rather chose the reproach of 
 Egypt than the praise of iniquity ? " 
 
 "That was it," said the dark-eyed man, in 
 a dry voice, looking at us with a face of wood. 
 
 " Landlord ! ' ' cried Jacobus, kindling into a 
 sort of gentle ecstasy, " a jack of ale for these 
 gentlemen. I am proud to make your acquain- 
 tance, friends ; I would have you to shake my 
 hand. Right so ! when I said damned Crook 
 was mine acquaintance, you must not take it he 
 was ever my friend. No, no. For, truly, he 
 is mine enemy. See now, sirs, what a fortu- 
 nate conjunction is here ! Behold how the 
 hand of God bringeth honest men together at a 
 pinch ! Although I am of the contrary party, I 
 253
 
 Captain Jacobus 
 
 say so ; y* are honest men, and I care not to 
 cloak my principles ; for I, have I not gotten 
 me religion ? The King, say I, for God surely 
 made him ; but Bishops, away with them ! 
 Give me your Bishop, and I will spit in his 
 face. But let that pass. What have I to do 
 with Crook, or he with me, saith 'a ? Why 
 now, I will tell you. Heard ye what Penrud- 
 dock said in his speech, how that Crook, after 
 refusing moneys proffered him to carry out his 
 articles, put a pistol to Penruddock's head and 
 threatened to shoot him, did not the noble Colo- 
 nel promise to betray a certain Royalist into 
 his clutches ? But noble Sir John stood fast ; 
 and word was brought to me of the incident 
 for I was the Royalist in question, friends all ; 
 and for that I am well-to-do, did Crook covet 
 to get me in his clutches. Ay, I have moneys ; 
 the Lord hath prospered me : why should I 
 deny it ? " And Jacobus, with a simple, smil- 
 ing, open countenance, slapped his pockets till 
 the coins jingled. The men had taken their 
 pipes in their hands and were regarding him with 
 grave attention. 
 
 " And what dost here, sir, in the very tents 
 254
 
 The Last Notch on the Score 
 
 o' the Amalekites, as a man may say ? " growled 
 the big trooper. 
 
 "Canst ask?" returned Jacobus, "when 
 mine old friend and comrade John Penruddock 
 standeth in peril of his life," the Captain's 
 voice declined upon a sob, and he brushed his 
 sleeve across his eyes. " 'T is but little I may do, 
 belike ; but here I stand upon the chance of it, in 
 spite of the devil Crook. He did espy me 
 to-day, and would have taken and laid me in 
 ward, but that he had no soldiers with him j 
 yet he threatened me, and meseemeth 'tis very 
 like I shall presently figure in the dock, cheek 
 by jowl with the rebels, I, John Blechynder, 
 than whom the Lord Protector hath no more 
 peaceable subject, and my nephew here beside 
 me, " Jacobus put his hand on my shoulder 
 '* in the very blossom and May-day of his 
 youth, all that Crook may dip his dirty hand in 
 my coffers. For we will not leave poor Pen- 
 ruddock while we may render him the least 
 particle of service. What ! Are we not his 
 friends ? Hath he not hazarded his life for 
 us?" and a freshet of emotion again over- 
 whelmed this noble spirit. 
 255
 
 Captain Jacobus 
 
 The troopers seemed somewhat at a loss ; 
 they stared at us in silence ; when the big 
 trooper's glance, wandering for a moment, lit on 
 the black-jack, and, filling his cup from it, he 
 passed it on. 
 
 "Your excellent good health, sirs," said 
 he ; the others followed him, and we drank to 
 them in turn ; after which we seemed to stand 
 upon a better footing of understanding. 
 
 " Had I but half-a-score tall men such as 
 you at my back," quoth Jacobus, "I would 
 not care for vermin such as Crook that much," 
 and he snapped his fingers and leaned back, 
 smiling. 
 
 The three men exchanged glances ; and the 
 fanatic-looking trooper clasped his bony hands 
 loosely before him on the table, opened wide 
 his great pale-blue eyes, and, gazing into vacancy, 
 began to speak. His comrades watched him 
 with an evident admiration. 
 
 " For lifting ourselves into your service, sir, 
 to deal plainly with you, f t is mainly a matter 
 of wages. Doth God take care for oxen ? Yea, 
 truly, as saith Holy Writ ; yet until His king- 
 dom on earth be established, His saints must 
 256
 
 The Last Notch on the Score 
 
 still shift for themselves. For that you look 
 for a king, excellent sir, f are so far in the 
 right, so do we ; y' are but wrong in that ye 
 fix your hopes on the Young Man Charles, who 
 is but a lewd person, a notorious evil-liver, 
 whom may God confound. Yea, verily, there 
 is but one Reign to look for, the Reign of the 
 saints on earth, the thousand years of triumph, 
 the Fifth Monarchy, the absolute dominion of 
 God ! " He spread his arms abroad and his 
 voice rose. Pope and kaiser, priest and king, 
 shall bow down, bow down, shall crouch and 
 fawn beneath the iron rod. Corruption and 
 darkness shall flee away, and the whole earth 
 shall be clothed in the light of the morning. 
 The noise of wars shall be utterly silenced, and 
 the crying of the poor and needy be no 
 more heard in the land. The strongholds and 
 high places of cruelty shall be laid even with 
 the dust, and grass shall grow upon their bat- 
 tlements. To bring these things to pass we 
 labor mightily : we take the sword ; we lie 
 dogging at our prayers until our eyes be dim ; 
 we serve mammon for righteousness' sake. Yea, 
 for this did we not choose to serve under Crook ; 
 17 257
 
 Captain Jacobus 
 
 and did he not cajole us with lying promises, 
 saying that he himself was a Fifth Monarchy 
 man, and that he used his commission but as a 
 means to hasten the coming of the kingdom ? 
 hoping, without doubt, to cut out some deal of 
 wealth for himself by means of our swords. 
 'Twas naught to us whether the malignant Pen- 
 ruddock lived or died : but there were moneys 
 to be gotten from him ; he did offer Crook 
 five hundred pounds for liberty ; yet did Crook 
 start aside like a broken bow, preferring the 
 favor of Cromwell before the glory of the Lord. 
 Wherefore did we admonish this glazing Judas, 
 using great plainness of speech in the matter ; 
 but he, being stiff-necked and utterly delivered 
 to Satan, broke out into a mighty heat of anger, 
 commanding our dismissal. How long, O 
 Lord ! " The preacher twisted his fingers in 
 his beard, turning up his eyes. "Silver and 
 gold must go to the foundations of the city of 
 the kingdom," he went on, in a high monotone. 
 *' Her walls shall be of precious stones, and her 
 towers of rubies. The wise and learned shall 
 dwell therein; to them shall come all the 
 nations of the earth for wisdom. But we be 
 258
 
 The Last Notch on the Score 
 
 unlearned and ignorant men, fit only to wield 
 the sword ; what can we do save hew there- 
 with the corner-stones for the habitations of the 
 just ? . . . Pay us, therefore, and we will serve 
 you ; even as the builders of the Temple wrought 
 with sword on hip." 
 
 The man paused and wiped his forehead ; 
 for he had been speaking with a vehemence that 
 made the glasses ring. In the momentary 
 silence that followed, there came a clatter of 
 hoofs and jingling of bridles in the street, and 
 we heard the outer door flung open. 
 
 Jacobus leaped to his feet. "Crook, by 
 God ! " he cried. The big trooper heaved him- 
 self up, and opened the door as the latch clicked. 
 Jacobus and I whipped against the wall, whence 
 we could espy Crook through the crack of the 
 door. 
 
 " What, Gilroy ! " said he. "Stand aside, 
 sirrah, stand aside, or I will put a bullet in your 
 head. I am about searching the house." 
 
 Gilroy, who was girt with a great broad- 
 sword, drew it with such suddenness that Crook 
 leapt back a pace to avoid a blow. 
 
 " Out o' this, Beelzebub," thundered the 
 259
 
 Captain Jacobus 
 
 trooper. "Or, by the Twelve Tribes of Israel, 
 I will chop you into gobbets ! Y' are no better 
 than a dead man, Crook ! Call your men," 
 he bellowed. " Call 'em in, man, and behold 
 and see if they will draw sword on brethren-in- 
 the-Lord." 
 
 We heard the outer door clap, and the tram- 
 ple of retreating hoofs. Gilroy rolled in again, 
 shutting the door upon the astonished folk in 
 the tap-room, filled his tankard, drank it off, 
 and regarded the Captain with a grin. 
 
 " How now ? " said he. 
 
 "'Sblood," said Jacobus, "mighty well 
 done;" and, taking out a fistful of coin, he 
 bestowed it on Gilroy ; and, spreading a hand- 
 ful of gold-pieces on the table, " Handsel," 
 said he. "A crown J a day for every day I 
 do remain in Exeter, and a jacobus each at 
 parting, to serve me as body-guard. What say 
 you ? Shall we strike a bargain ? " 
 
 The country gentleman, having served his 
 turn, had vanished in a twinkling ; and Jacobus, 
 himself again, upright, alert, with a valiant eye 
 
 1 The regulation pay of a trooper was two 
 shillings per diem. 
 
 260
 
 The Last Notch on the Score 
 
 and the port of a commander, stood in his place. 
 The men stiffened to attention as if upon parade, 
 and saluted. 
 
 "Why, very well," said Jacobus. "Let 
 me know your names." 
 
 The preacher gave his name as Robert War- 
 renwel] ; the burly Gilroy was christened 
 Joshua ; while the third man was known as 
 Skillard the Rider. The Captain ordered them 
 to hire horses (Skillard, it seemed, possessed a 
 nag of his own), and to present themselves at 
 our inn at nine of the clock the next morning. 
 
 When we returned thither, we found the 
 lights out, the shutters up, and the door barred ; 
 but, upon knocking, the landlord himself opened 
 instantly to us. After locking and bolting the 
 door again, with the most particular care, he 
 took the candle in his shaking hand, and sur- 
 veyed us. The hoary, fat old man looked as 
 though he had seen a spirit : his lips were trem- 
 bling, his cheeks fallen in, and his eyes wild. 
 
 "What the devil ails the man?" asked 
 Jacobus. 
 
 "Zurs, zurs," said the innkeeper, "who be 
 ye to bring a old honest man's house into dis- 
 261
 
 Captain Jacobus 
 
 repute, and his life into danger! 'Twas ill 
 done, zurs, 't was ill done. I had sooner than 
 forty pounds I had never set eyes on ye. Life- 
 lekins ! Have I lived through the civil broils 
 to be hanged on account of two bloody rebel- 
 lious Cavaliers," he wailed. 
 
 " Come, come, sirrah, keep a civil tongue, 
 and explain matters," said Jacobus, sitting down 
 on the table. 
 
 "Explain! 'Tis for you to explain, I 
 d' think," returned the old man, querulously. 
 " No zooner do you be gone out o' house to- 
 night, than a half-a-company o' dragoons, or 
 thereabout, cometh tinking o' horsebarck down 
 street, and 'a stampeth in and arxes for landlord. 
 ' I be he,' says I, whereon Captain putteth 
 pistol to my head and saith he, ' Hast a couple 
 of Cavaliers lodging here?' says he, ''Tis a 
 hanging matter, I warn ye,' says he ; ' for they 
 be two bloody conspirators against Government.' 
 'Swouns, not I,' I says. ' Whutt be loike, 
 then,' I arxed him. A middle-sized man wi' 
 a long nose and a devilish countenance,' 'a saith, 
 ' and a girt yoong man above sax feet o' stature, 
 wi' a red face and no be-ard,' says he. ' Swounz, 
 262
 
 The Last Notch on the Score 
 
 Captain/ I says. I do believe that two zuch 
 did coom in to drink a toss o' Hollands about 
 five o' th* clock, and out again,' says I. ' Which 
 wai did they goo,' arxed he. 'I marked them 
 not,' I zed; whereat he cursed me up and 
 down, and trampled all over houze, he and his 
 soldiers. 'If y' 'ave lied,' 'a saith, 'you shall 
 swing for 't, by God. Give me a cup of Rhen- 
 ish,' and 'a drank it down and went away, and 
 never paid a groat. Zurs, get you gone, I d' 
 beg and pray of ye ; and the Lord forgive ye 
 that ye ever coom anigh a old man as never did 
 ye any harm." 
 
 "What, man !" cried Jacobus, "pluck up 
 heart. Y' are not hanged yet, nor never will 
 be, I '11 wager. Y' have done the best day's 
 work as ever in your life ; y' have saved the 
 lives of two o' the King his Majesty's most pre- 
 cious subjects, and ye shall not lose by that. 
 Content you : we will ride betimes to-morrow. 
 Now reckon up the score, and set a price on 
 thy alarums." 
 
 Something pacified, the innkeeper ciphered 
 out the score in chalk upon the panelling ; and 
 Jacobus (who must have made mighty profita- 
 263
 
 Captain Jacobus 
 
 ble use of his time during my absence overseas) 
 paid him double. 
 
 " God save you," said our host, completely 
 consoled and beaming. "By'r Lady, y' are 
 two of the prettiest civil gentlemen as ever I 
 served o' my life. Hark ye, zurs," said he, 
 creasing his face into innumerable wrinkles, " I 
 would, wi' all my heart, the King, God bless 
 him, were to come home again, and the bloody 
 Army and their General at the black devil. 
 Zed I to Captain, ' Swouns, not I,' I says," 
 and the old man was taken with a fit of chuck- 
 ling ; and, going upstairs ahead of us to light us 
 to our chamber, he kept repeating, with an in- 
 finite zest, fragments of his momentous conver- 
 sation with the baffled Crook. " ' Hast a couple 
 o' bloody Cavaliers lodging here ? ' arxed he. 
 ' Swouns, not I,' says I ; " and when our host 
 closed the door behind him, we could hear him 
 chuckling still as he stumped down the passage. 
 
 The morrow was to bring forth the last of 
 my adventures with Jacobus, a final pitch of 
 the dice with Fortune ; before the sun had set 
 we should have cut ourselves free of the coils of 
 conspiracy, or another's sword should have 
 264
 
 The Last Notch on the Score 
 
 freed us entirely from earthly doings. The 
 thought of it ran in my dreams all night, with a 
 clash and sparkle of swords ; and now the 
 balance dipt one way and now another. Once 
 Jacobus and I, our enemy slain behind us, and 
 trouble at an end, would be riding swiftly 
 through the mellow dark towards a golden dawn- 
 ing ; and again, I would be smitten with 
 a sharp stroke, taste the agony of death, and 
 be suddenly filled with the despair of loss 
 irrevocable. 
 
 But I awoke with the chiming of bells in my 
 ears; 'twas no more than the Cathedral clock 
 striking ; nevertheless, I took it as a good omen, 
 and sprang up, fit to face the world. 
 
 Jacobus was slumbering on his pallet like a 
 child. Under the magic touch of sleep, a sub- 
 tle change had passed upon his face ; something 
 had gone from it ; and, instead, something of 
 the man's inner spirit that smouldered beneath 
 the rough fabric of robbery, fighting, and antic 
 mummery of which his life was made up, peered 
 forth. I stood a paternoster-while perusing the 
 time-scarred countenance, but I had no eyes to 
 decipher it. Had I not been my mother's son, 
 265
 
 Captain Jacobus 
 
 perhaps I had not perceived so much as I did. 
 I wondered idly whether there lived the woman 
 who could have read that inscrutable gallant, 
 crafty, generous riddle Jacobus the Highway- 
 man, Sir Clipsely Carew the Cavalier. I know 
 now that such an one there was j and that she 
 was dead. 
 
 Unwilling to arouse Jacobus, I leaned my 
 elbows on the sill, thrusting head and shoulders 
 out of the open casement. Our room was a 
 garret chamber, and the window commanded 
 an ascending field of roofs, brown thatch, or red, 
 shining tiles, with the smoke drifting and curl- 
 ing from the chimneys ; beyond the huddled 
 houses rose the great, broken rampart of Rouge- 
 mont Castle, over which white clouds came 
 lifting in ranks, with now and again a flying 
 wisp of gray vapor like a puff of smoke. The 
 wind bore odors of the country mist, with a 
 briny tincture from the sea ; and, presently, 
 there came the thin shrilling of a trumpet. 
 Captain Crook, in Rougemont Castle, was 
 sounding boot-and-saddle. 
 
 A few minutes later, armed and equipped, 
 we were devouring a hasty breakfast ; and, before 
 266
 
 The Last Notch on the Score 
 
 we had finished, hoofs rang in the street, and 
 our whole army drew up at the door. We 
 contemplated the troopers through the window, 
 sitting in the saddle like statues, carbine on thigh, 
 and toes turned in ; perfectly equipped in bright 
 steel cap, gorget, back and breast, great boots 
 and winking spurs ; the horses groomed to a 
 marvel, the sun gleaming upon glossy haunch 
 and shoulder. 
 
 " Had I a hundred times as many, there 
 would be doings," quoth Jacobus, with his 
 mouth full of pasty. 
 
 The landlord, fidgety already as a hen with 
 ducklings, could scarce contain himself at sight 
 of this new portent, and saw us forth with beni- 
 sons, and, I doubt not, the most pious inward 
 thanksgivings. 
 
 Jacobus took his place on the right front, as 
 Captain ; while I rode upon the left, in the 
 senior corporal's position. 
 
 "Rank entire. Right wheel. Forward," 
 shouted the commanding officer ; and we paced, 
 jingling, down the street and wheeled into the 
 High Street. 
 
 From the Castle on the hill-top sounded the 
 267
 
 Captain Jacobus 
 
 Tuequet (warning for a march) ; a minute 
 later, from out the shadow of the Archway 
 issued a flash of steel and scarlet ; and a knot 
 of horsemen, with a black-bearded man at their 
 head, came riding down the hill towards us. 
 Jacobus halted instantly. Fortune, in hastening 
 the event, was already befriending us. We 
 were abreast of the court-house, I remember, 
 with its arched and columned front designed in 
 the Italian manner. The people in the street 
 began to stop and stare, but took us, of course, 
 for Crook's own troopers. So, doubtless, did 
 Crook himself; for, until he and his four men 
 were well within pistol-shot, he did not appear 
 to remark us. Then I saw his face change 
 suddenly. Crying "halt," and reining up 
 his horse, he whipped out a pistol and fired. 
 Jacobus swerved, and the ball struck upon the 
 plated breast of Joshua Gilroy, and glanced off. 
 
 " What, ho ! brethren," roared the trooper. 
 "Wouldst see old Gilroy murdered. Seize 
 the traitor, brothers." 
 
 But before the words were out of his mouth, 
 Jacobus had flung his pistol in Crook's face and 
 was charging down upon him with naked blade 
 268
 
 The Last Notch on the Score 
 
 uplifted. Swift as his assailant, Crook had 
 drawn his sword ready to strike, but the fury of 
 the onset caused his horse to rear, and his blow 
 fell harmless. With a level sweep of his sword 
 Jacobus cut deep into the dragoon's neck, just 
 above the stiff collar of the buff coat, and the 
 man swayed and toppled sideways. I spurred 
 up to Jacobus' side, and for a moment we 
 both fought desperately with Crook's troopers. 
 But our own soldadoes pushed into the fray, 
 shouting to their comrades to desist, and dealing 
 great blows with the flat of their broadswords. 
 There was a mighty din and confusion, and 
 holloing and running together of people ; and 
 our assailants began to give back. Perhaps they 
 were not entirely desirous of taking us ; at any 
 rate, although blows were falling like hail, I 
 saw no one hurt ; and Gilroy and Skillard were 
 grinning broadly above the chin-strap. Jacobus 
 backed his horse out of the press ; I followed 
 instantly, and, wheeling, we struck spurs in and 
 galloped full tilt down the street and out of the 
 East Gate. 
 
 The wind whistled past our ears, and the 
 horses settled into their stride ; we thought we 
 269
 
 Captain Jacobus 
 
 were clean escaped ; when we heard the drum 
 of hoofs behind us. Looking back, we saw 
 Skillard the Rider, on his huge bay stallion, 
 gaining on us at every step ; I have never seen 
 such a devil of a nag as he rode that day. 
 There was no use in racing, and we drew rein 
 in the little village of Heavitree, and stopped at 
 the alehouse. Skillard came up at a full gallop, 
 pulled his lathering horse on its haunches, and 
 saluted. Methought the situation was a trifle 
 difficult. 
 
 " y have a good nag," remarked Jacobus. 
 " Will you sell him ? " 
 
 "Not I, sir, by your good leave," returned 
 the Rider. " You see he is mighty useful on 
 occasions." 
 
 " And why the devil are the other men not 
 here ? " demanded Jacobus, fiercely. 
 
 "They await orders, Captain," returned 
 Skillard, eying him. " This is a pretty busi- 
 ness. There will be a noise." 
 
 'Sblood," said Jacobus. " The orders are, 
 Dismiss. I have slain your backsliding murder- 
 ing Captain, you see ; wherefore go to, go 
 rejoin your company. Y' have done very well, 
 270
 
 The Last Notch on the Score 
 
 for a parcel of bloody Roundheads. Here is 
 wages, all as agreed, is it not so ? With a piece 
 or so for liquor. Give you good- den, till we 
 meet again, as may befall, for I am often on 
 the road." 
 
 The man, still staring, murmured a word of 
 thanks, took the money with an air of great 
 dubiety, and saluted mechanically as we rode 
 away. Looking back, we saw that he had 
 wheeled his horse, and was still gazing after us, 
 the sun beating down on his mailed figure, and 
 the steam from his horse going up in a cloud 
 about him. 
 
 271
 
 XVIII 
 
 THE INEVITABLE 
 
 on a Friday that Jacobus and I 
 JL quitted Exeter, and by Monday evening 
 at sunset we were riding into Over Wallop vil- 
 lage, having travelled by way of Winchester, 
 where (borrowing moneys from Jacobus) I had 
 gotten me wedding attire, and the ring, which 
 the Captain, with his customary gratuitous ef- 
 frontery, insisted on purchasing from Mr. Jede- 
 diah Dickenson. 
 
 The village lay among meadows and groves 
 in a fair and rich country ; the rooks were lei- 
 surely sailing and cawing above the trees ; the 
 bells were chiming to evensong ; the light air 
 enfolded the place like a dream ; and, after the 
 grief and the turmoil, ' t was like the entrance 
 into a charmed land. Dismounting in the 
 Rose Garland, we exchanged buff coat and 
 272
 
 The Inevitable 
 
 boots for doublet and buckled shoon ; and, our 
 host informing us that 'twas a Saint's Day, 
 and that as his reverence the Dean would be 
 reading prayers even now, doubtless his house- 
 hold would be at the church, we set off thither. 
 The city had lately risen, it seemed, upon 
 Cromwell's Independent, and kicked him forth 
 to hammer his spiritual pots elsewhere, so that 
 the Dean once more enjoyed his living. The 
 weather-stained, tiny church, with lichened 
 roof and square tower night-capped with red 
 tiles, stood upon a knoll, secluded among trees ; 
 a clump of yews, on either side the path, rooted 
 among the bones that lay beneath the crowded, 
 bricky tombs, interlaced their branches and 
 made a dusky vestibule to the little porch, so 
 low that we must doff our hats and stoop. 
 
 We entered and sat down near the door. 
 Barbara, with Mrs. Mariabellah Curie and Mrs. 
 Beatrice, kneeled at the bench fronting the chan- 
 cel ; an upright, little, white-haired clergyman 
 in surplice and scarlet hood was reading evening 
 prayers ; there was no one else in the building. 
 As we crossed the threshold, Barbara turned 
 her head and looked at me a moment across the 
 18 273
 
 Captain Jacobus 
 
 golden dimness that filled the place, and a fancy 
 came into my head that her swift glance was 
 the division, thin and trenchant as a sword, set 
 between the old life and the new. The par- 
 son's voice ran musically in my ears, and I fell 
 into a muse ; Jacobus, to whom the forms of 
 devotion represented an etiquette due to Church 
 and King to be strictly performed upon occa- 
 sion, kneeling devoutly resolute beside me. 
 
 I beheld, with a sort of pitying contempt, 
 the long, stupid, happy, ignorant years of the 
 youth who, wrapt in sweet illusion, walked 
 gayly up and down a pleasance, dreaming that 
 its pleached hedges circumscribed the world ; 
 until within the past month, when fate, forcing 
 a sword into his hand, had flung him neck and 
 heels into the world's actual, calamitous battle- 
 field, where death winds always in and out, and 
 the crying of the wounded mingles with call of 
 tucket and roll of drum, to reckon, for the 
 first time, the price ambition pays, and to 
 count himself singularly fortunate if he might 
 no more than guard his honor unchipped through- 
 out the mele. The future stretched before 
 me in the image of the uncharted sea upon 
 274
 
 The Inevitable 
 
 which we were about to set sail, that broke so 
 immeasurably far away upon the shores of a 
 perilous wilderness, whither I was bound with 
 one beside whose welfare I weighed my own 
 as a grain of dust ; for a single freezing moment 
 I contemplated the whole possibilities of that 
 appalling enterprise, then took hold upon it 
 with what hope and resolution I could muster ; 
 and the benediction brought my meditations to a 
 fit conclusion. 
 
 Our greetings over, we all went to sup at the 
 Vicarage, where we found Mr. Phelps, rosy, 
 jolly, and bursting with good humor. We 
 made the oddest party : the three prettiest 
 ladies, I vow and swear, to bless God for, in 
 all broad England ; a Dean, a Highwayman, a 
 Mayor, and an outlawed Cavalier ; neverthe- 
 less, 'twas the pleasantest and the most festivous 
 meeting in the world. The Dean and his 
 ladies made us mighty good cheer; we ex- 
 changed the tale of our adventures ; and the 
 long evening went by like a peal of bells. 
 When we were about to take our leave, Jacobus 
 produced two small leathern caskets from his 
 doublet, and, holding them in his hand, deliv- 
 275
 
 Captain Jacobus 
 
 ered himself of the following romantical state- 
 ment. 
 
 " My excellent friend and comrade, Mr. 
 Anthony Langford, hath of purpose omitted 
 one particular in his relation of the conversa- 
 tion he was privileged to hold with His Most 
 Sacred Majesty the King," began Jacobus, with 
 such an air that the ancient, tapestried room 
 became at once transformed as it were into a 
 Royal antechamber ; while we ourselves felt 
 that we were actors in a state ceremonial. The 
 ladies rose and courtesied, the very moment the 
 Dean and his worship the Mayor stood up. I 
 looked at the orator in some astonishment, for I 
 had omitted nothing in my recital, nothing, 
 that is, that was meet for ladies' ear ; but, 
 catching the slightest contraction of his eyelid, 
 I composed my face to an intelligent gravity. 
 "Our Royal Master," went on Jacobus, with 
 solemn relish, " hath never forgot the slightest 
 service rendered to him by the least among his 
 subjects ; yet hath he a spirit so rare and kindly, 
 and withal of such subtle discrimination, that oft 
 he alloweth a loyal deed to go unrecompensed, 
 thus bestowing upon the doer the high privilege 
 276
 
 The Inevitable 
 
 of serving him with a zeal unalloyed by merce- 
 nary considerations. Thus, when Mr. Langford 
 had the honor to recount to His Majesty the 
 generosity of Mrs. Mariabellah Curie and Mrs. 
 Beatrice Young in coming to the relief of his 
 messengers in their extremity, with the gift of 
 a horse, a service that might although it 
 did not that might, I swear, have gained a 
 kingdom, the King, I say, charged Mr. 
 Langford with the following message. ' Tell 
 Captain Jacobus,' saith His Majesty, ' to seek 
 out these ladies, and to say to them that their 
 sovereign in exile lieth under an infinite obliga- 
 tion to them, that 'tis his saddest misfortune to 
 behold his loving subjects' devotion unrequited, 
 and his chiefest consolation that they are proud 
 and fain to serve him for nought. Request the 
 Captain, also,' so went the message, ( request 
 the Captain to convey to Mrs. Mariabellah 
 Curie and to Mrs. Beatrice Young these trinkets 
 ' " Jacobus opened the cases, and took from 
 each a jewelled bracelet " and to inform them 
 that the King craves their acceptance of these 
 trifles, as a token that, at least, His Majesty is 
 
 277
 
 Captain Jacobus 
 
 not all ungrateful,' " and Jacobus clasped a brace- 
 let on each white wrist. 
 
 The ladies flushed and exclaimed with pleas- 
 ure, and kissed the Captain heartily on both 
 cheeks ; which, indeed, he deserved, for ' t was 
 a neat device for providing the bridesmaids' 
 presents in a manner most pleasing to them ; a 
 matter which had exercised me sorely, for in 
 my miserable destitution I could afford none. 
 Certainly the Captain enjoyed exceptional op- 
 portunities ; for when the girls handed me the 
 trinkets to admire, I discerned the maker* s name 
 graven inside, J. Dickenson, Winchester. 
 
 " Madam," went on the Captain, turning to 
 Barbara with a profound bow, " 't is not the 
 usage for a wedding-guest to come empty-handed 
 to the marriage ; I crave your pardon for so 
 doing ; but the gift I had the honor to design 
 for you is something cumbrous, so that for con- 
 venience' sake I did despatch it to the care of 
 Mr. Phelps's agent in Southampton." 
 
 Whereupon Barbara kissed Jacobus also ; and 
 soon after he and I repaired to our inn. When 
 we came to open the heavy iron chest on ship- 
 board, we found it stuffed full of silver-gilt and 
 278
 
 The Inevitable 
 
 silver plate, a gift fit for a princess, all 
 marked J. Dickenson, Winchester ; whence I 
 concluded that 't was Mul-Sack's booty, which 
 the Captain had somehow discovered and confis- 
 cated. ' T was a sweet revenge upon me, although 
 at first I marvelled that a King's officer should 
 utilize his privileges for private benefaction ; but 
 presently concluded that the Captain had set it 
 down as no more than a just remuneration for 
 my services. For long I scrupled to tell my 
 wife the history of her wedding-present ; and 
 when I did so, she thought it an excellent jest, 
 which (I remember) surprised me at the 
 time. 
 
 During the evening Mr. Phelps handed me a 
 letter, superscribed to myself, which, he said, 
 had come with his own mails from Flanders. 
 As it elucidated more than one mysterious mat- 
 ter, I read the epistle aloud ; and here sub- 
 join it. 
 
 COLOGNE, AT THE SIGN OF A PEACOCK IN A CIRCLE. 
 
 Eleventh April, 1655. 
 
 SIR, This is to inform you, at the King's 
 desire, as I knew your address (though I would 
 279
 
 Captain Jacobus 
 
 willingly have written of my own intention) of 
 certain singular disclosures which have lately 
 come to light at the Court of our Royal Master 
 here in Cologne, in case a knowledge of the par- 
 ticulars thereof may stead you towards the regaining 
 of your estate, that was so treacherously lost, of 
 which you did tell me when we had the happi- 
 ness to converse together on shipboard. Your 
 false friend, Mr. Manning, of whom you spoke, 
 whom all here set down as no more than a prag- 
 matical empty busy-body, hath been, it now 
 appears, playing the common spy since the day 
 of his arrival. He came hither at first and with 
 a letter of introduction from Dr. Earles, his uncle, 
 and prating much of his friendship with my Lord 
 of Pembroke, endeavoring to insinuate himself 
 to become the King' s Privado by every day taking 
 him the "Duernal" to read, which he regularly 
 received from London ; and in this he so far suc- 
 ceeded that His Majesty, from regarding him 
 simply as his " Paper-boy " (as he said), presently 
 allowed Mr. Manning to mix himself in the un- 
 happy Penruddock business. Upon hearing of 
 the latter' s sad conclusion, the King returned 
 immediately to Cologne ; and, a day or two later, 
 Manning, who had been absent no one knew 
 where, also returned thither. But, in the mean- 
 
 280
 
 The Inevitable 
 
 time, the King had received a letter from the 
 Earl of Pembroke, in answer to one of his, say- 
 ing that Manning was a loose person of no repu- 
 tation whom he had discharged from his service. 
 Whereupon His Majesty's suspicions were 
 awakened } and hearing moreover that Manning 
 received letters continually from Antwerp, and 
 had letters of credit upon a merchant there, he 
 despatched a trusty messenger to intercept his 
 mails. Thus, no sooner had Manning returned 
 with his accustomed confidence, than this man 
 came to the King bringing the mails of three 
 posts, which, being opened, were found to con- 
 tain letters and instructions from Cromwell and 
 Thurloe to Manning, and fabulous disclosures of 
 imaginary plots from Manning to the govern- 
 ment, with requests for more money. For a 
 thousand crowns Manning offered to put them in 
 possession at last of the whole of the particulars of 
 what he was pleased to call the Plymouth Plot, of 
 which, said he, he spoke when he was last in Lon- 
 don, which we found in the later of the three mails. 
 'T was a sweet design for the surprise and taking 
 of Plymouth ; a vessel with five hundred men was 
 to come to certain creek, and, upon sign given, 
 such a place in the town should be seized upon by 
 some, whilst others should possess both fort and 
 
 281
 
 Captain Jacobus 
 
 island. At the same time were to arrive and 
 I am come at last to what concerns you, dear 
 sir gentlemen at the head of land forces 
 of volunteers, Sir Hugh Pollard from Devonshire, 
 Colonel Arundel and others from Cornwall, and 
 Mr. Anthony Langford from Wiltshire "of 
 which dangerous and subtle malignant I did warn 
 your Excellency at our last meeting " This 
 ingenious rascal, Manning, who, I profess, is a most 
 accomplished scribbler, did even describe the coun- 
 cil held by the King when this famous plot was 
 resolved upon, touching smartly upon His Maj- 
 esty's gestures and behavior. Upon this the King 
 did send two of his servants to seize upon the 
 caballer's person and papers, who took him in 
 Flagrante Delicto, in his chamber writing post- 
 dated letters, with his cipher before him, and 
 put him in ward, where he now is. He loudly 
 declares his innocency, saying that he saw no 
 harm in writing particular relations of what never 
 happened ; that, in fact, he was doing the King a 
 service, in that he turned the attention of the 
 government from the true course of events. 
 
 I hope the discovery of this man's double fal- 
 sity may chance to avail you with the brewer ; 
 and if it should fall out so, I am heartily glad to 
 have been of service to you 5 but I fear me that 
 
 282
 
 The Inevitable 
 
 Noll is little likely to relinquish what he hath once 
 clawed hold of. 
 
 For myself and my wife (who desireth to be 
 heartily remembered to you) we are certainly dwell- 
 ing amongst persons of sense and quality, and 
 should, I do suppose, count ourselves happy; yet life 
 is at present one long Duello, for these gentlemen 
 of the Court, from my Lord of Rochester I 
 
 dare not say the K g to the vile Cheffinch, 
 
 all cherish the same singular delusion, that a 
 man's wife is every one's property but his own. 
 I am, sir, 
 
 Your most obedient and willing friend to 
 serve you, 
 
 RICHARD HUMPHREYVILLE. 
 
 But the " singular disclosures " came too 
 late to be of service ; for, after the Penruddock 
 affair, Cromwell would use scant courtesy to 
 Cavaliers for some time to come. 
 
 The next morning we were married. *T was 
 a day of sunshine and chiming bells and 
 emotion, of flowers and farewells. Jacobus 
 was to ride with us to Southampton ; and, so 
 soon as the service was over, we three took 
 horse at the churchyard gate. All the village 
 283
 
 Captain Jacobus 
 
 was gathered together in holiday attire ; and, 
 looking back, we saw the bright, motley crowd 
 waving their hats, and listened to the noise of 
 cheering that mingled with the gay clamor of 
 the bells. In the shadow of the lich-gate stood 
 the Dean in his robes, and the sturdy, gray- 
 bearded figure of the Mayor, gazing after us, and 
 the two ladies, fluttering kerchiefs. 
 
 Three hours or so of riding brought us out 
 upon the downs above Southampton town, with 
 its thicket of ships' masts fringing the edge of 
 the broad, sparkling water. Jacobus reined up, 
 and, dismounting, went up to Barbara, hat in 
 hand, with a bow. 
 
 "Farewell, Mrs. Langford," said he ; and 
 I think the new sound of the title gratified both 
 wife and husband. ' I wish you all prosper- 
 ity." He would have kissed her hand, but she 
 gave him her cheek. 
 
 "Come down and sup with us, man," said 
 I, " or at least crush a bottle before we part." 
 
 " Not I," returned the Captain, mounting 
 his nag. I have business toward. The free- 
 booter bids you adieu, my son." 
 
 "Jacobus,'* I said, *y* have done me very 
 284
 
 The Inevitable 
 
 much kindness. Tell me, why did you so? 
 Are my manners and conversation so engaging ? 
 I should like to think it." 
 
 " Do not flatter yourself," he answered. 
 I have only to remember that I am an old 
 friend of your family, as it were. I knew your 
 mother ere she was married." His glance left 
 mine, rested upon Barbara for the fraction 
 of a second, and came back again. I looked 
 aside, for 'twas like spying on a man's secret 
 unawares. 
 
 Jacobus held out his hand ; I grasped it, and 
 we parted in silence ; for I could not think upon 
 the words I wanted. So my wife and I rode 
 forward ; and when I looked back, Jacobus was 
 gone. 
 
 285
 
 PRINTED BY JOHN WILSON AND SON AT 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY PRESS IN CAMBRIDGE 
 
 DURING MAY M DCCC XCVI. FOR 
 
 STONE AND KIMBALL 
 
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