m 
 
 ii
 
 CRADOCK NOWELL 
 
 % Cale of Ijje icin jforest. 
 
 RICHARD DODDRIDGE BLJCKMORE, 
 
 AUTnOB OP " CLARA. VArOHAN,"' 
 
 " You have said : whether wisely or no, let the forest judge." 
 
 As You Like It, Act HI. So. 3 
 
 IN THREE VOLUMES. 
 VOL. L 
 
 LONDON : 
 CHAPMAN AND HALL, 193, PICCADILLY 
 ,S S G 8 T » 1366 
 
 [7'/t« right of Traiislaflon is reserved.^
 
 , . ; . , . '', LOlvDOK . 
 
 PiflVfliT; RT C. wSfl^rfG* BEACtORT HOUSi:, STIfAXD.
 
 
 Co t^e mtcmorn 
 
 OP 
 
 MY DEAR FRIEND 
 
 THOMAS JAMES SCALE, 
 
 THIS WORK 
 
 (in ,which, prom month to month, he took the kindest 
 interest) 
 
 IN gratitude, affection, and affliction, 
 DEDICATED. 
 
 R. r>. B. 
 
 IS- 7 2 91
 
 CRADOOK NOWELL. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 AYiTHix tlie New Forest, and not far from its 
 western boundary, as defined by the second per- 
 ambulation of the good King Edward the First, 
 stands the old mansion of the Nowells, the Hall of 
 Nowelhurst. Not content with mere exemption 
 from all feudal service, their estate claims privi- 
 leges, both by grant and custom. The benefit of 
 !Morefall trees in six Avalks of the forest, the right 
 of digging marl, and turbary^ illimitable, common 
 of pannage, and license of drawing akermast, 
 pastime even of hawking over some parts of the 
 Crown land, — all these will be catalogued as 
 claims quite indefeasible, if the old estates come 
 to the hammer, through the events that form my 
 story. With many of these privileges the Royal 
 ^ Commissioners will deal in a spirit of scant cour- 
 tesy, when the Nowell influence is lost in the 
 neighbourin(r borouijhs : but as vet these claims 
 VOL. I. B
 
 2 CRADOCK NOWELL : 
 
 have not been treated like those of some poor 
 commoners. 
 
 " Pooh, pooh, my man, don't be preposterous : 
 you know, as well as I do, these gipsy freedoms 
 were only allowed to balance the harm the deer 
 did." 
 
 And if the rights of that ancient family are 
 ever called in question, some there are which will 
 require a special Act to abolish them. For Charles 
 the Second, of merry memory (saddened some- 
 what of late years), espied among the maids of 
 honour an uncommonly pretty girl, w^hose name 
 was Frances Nowell. He suddenly remembered, 
 what had hitherto quite escaped him, how old Sir 
 Cradock Nowell — beautiful Fanny's father — had 
 saved him from a pike-thrust during Cromwell's 
 "crowning mercy." In gratitude, of course, for 
 this, he began to pay most warm attentions to the 
 Hampshu'e maiden. He propitiated that ancient 
 knight with the only boon he craved — craved 
 hitherto all in vain — a plenary grant of easements 
 in the neighbourhood of his home. Soon as the 
 charter had received the royal seal and signature^ 
 the old gentleman briskly thrust it away in the folds 
 of his velvet mantle. Then taking the same view of 
 gratitude which his liege and master took, home 
 he went without delay to secm^e his privileges. 
 When the king heard of his departure, without 
 any kissing of hands, he was in lop wise discon- 
 certed ; it was the very thing he had intended. 
 But when he heard that lovely Fanny was gone in 
 the same old rickety coach, even ere he began to
 
 A TALE OF THE NEW FOREST. 3 
 
 •wliisper, and with no leave of the queen, His 
 Majestv swore his ntmost for nearly half an hour. 
 Then having spent his fury, he laughed at the 
 " seiy as he would have called it if the slang had 
 been invented, and turned his royal attention to 
 another of his wife's young maidens. 
 
 Nowelhurst Hall looks too respectable for any 
 loose doings of any sort. It stands well aAvay 
 from the weeping of trees, like \'irtue shy of sen- 
 timent, and therefore has all the Avealth of foliage 
 shed, just where it pleases, around it. From 
 a rising ground the house has sweet view of 
 all the forest changes, and has seen three hun- 
 dred springs wake in glory, and three hundred 
 autinnns waning. Spreading away from it wider, 
 wider, slopes " the Chase," as they call it, with great 
 trees stretching paternal arms in the vain attempt 
 to hold it. For two months of the twelve, when 
 the heather is in blossom, all that chase is a glow- 
 ing reach of amaranth and pui-ple. Then it fades 
 away to pale orange, dim olive, and a rusty brown 
 when Christmas shudders over it ; and so through- 
 out young green and russet, till the July tint 
 comes back again. Oftentimes in the fresh spring 
 morning the blackcocks — " heathpoults" as they 
 call them — lift their necks in the livening heather, 
 swell their ruffing breasts, and crow for their rivals 
 to come and spar with them. Below the chase the 
 whiskers of the curling wood converge into a giant 
 beard, tufted here and there with hues of a vary- 
 ing richness ; but for the main of it, swelling and 
 e2
 
 4 CEADOCK NOWELL : 
 
 waving, crisping, froncling, feathering, coying, and 
 darkening here and there, until it reach the silver 
 mirror of the spreading sea. And the seaman, 
 looking upwards from the Avar-ship bound for 
 India, looking back at his native land, for the last 
 of all times it may be, over brushwood waves, and 
 billows of trees, and the long heave of the gorse- 
 land : " Now, that's the sort of place," he says, as 
 the distant gables glisten ; " the right sort of berth 
 for our jolly old admiral, and me for his butler, 
 please God, when we've licked them Crappos as 
 ought to be." 
 
 South-west of the house, half a mile away, and 
 scattered along the warren, the simple village of 
 Nowelhurst digests its own ideas. In and out the 
 houses stand, endwise, crossways, skewified, any- 
 how except upside down, and some even tending 
 that way. It looks like a game of dominoes, when 
 the leaves of the table have opened and gape 
 betwixt the players. Nevertheless, it is all good 
 English ; for none are bitterly poor there ; in any 
 case of illness, they have the great house to help 
 them, not proudly, but with feeling ; and, more 
 than this, they have -a jDarson who leads instead of 
 driving them. There are two little shops exceed- 
 ingly anxious to under-sell each other, and one 
 mild alehouse conducted strictly upon philosophic 
 principles. Philosophy under pressure, a caviller 
 would call it, for the publican knoAvs, and so do 
 his customers, that if poachers were encouraged 
 there, or any, uproarious doings permitted (ex-
 
 A TALE OF THE NEW EOKEST. 5 
 
 cept ill the -week of the old and new year), 
 down would come his license-board, like a flag 
 hauled in at sunset. 
 
 Pleasant folk, who there do dwell, calling their 
 existence " life," and on the whole enjoying it 
 more than many of us do ; forasmuch as they know 
 then* neighbours far better than themselves, and 
 perceive each cousin's need of trial, and console 
 him when he gets it. Not but what we our- 
 selves partake the first and second advantages, only 
 we miss the fruition of them, by turning oiu' backs 
 on the sufferer. 
 
 Nowelhurst village is not on the main road, but 
 keeps a straggling companionship with a quiet 
 parish highway which requires much encoui-age- 
 ment. This little highway does its best to blink 
 the many difficulties, or, if that may not be, to 
 compi'omise them, and establish a pleasant foot- 
 ing upon its devious wandering course from the 
 Lymington road to Eingwood. Here it goes zig 
 to escape the frown of a hea\y-browed crest of 
 furzery, and then it comes zag when no soul ex- 
 pects it, because a little stream has babbled at it. 
 It even seems to bob and dip, or jump, as the case 
 may be, for fear of prying into an old oak's storey 
 or dusting a piece of grass land. The hard-hearted 
 traveller who lives express, and is bound for the 
 train at Riugwood, curses, too often, up hill and 
 down dale, the quiet lane's inconsistency. What 
 right has any road to do anything but go straight 
 on end to its purpose? What decent road stops 
 
 L^
 
 6 CKADOCK NOWELL : 
 
 for a gossip with flowers — flowers overhanging the 
 steep ascent, or eavesdropping on the rabbit-holes? 
 And as for the beauty of ferns — confound them, 
 they shelter the horse-fly — that horrible forest-fly, 
 whose tickling no civilized horse can endure. 
 Even locusts he has heard of as abounding in the 
 New Forest ; and if a swarm of them comes this 
 very hot weather, good-bye to him, horse and trap, 
 newest patterns, sweet plaid, and chaste things. 
 
 And good-bye to thee, thou bustling " traveller" 
 — whether technically so called or otherwise, — a 
 very good fellow in thy way, but not of nature's 
 pattern. So counter-sunk, so turned in a lathe, 
 so pressed and rolled by steam-power, and then con- 
 densed hydraulically, that the extract of flowers 
 u^Jon thy shirt is but as the oil of machinery. But 
 we who carry no chronometer, neither puff loco- 
 motively — now he is round the corner — let us 
 saunter down this lane beyond the mark-oak and 
 the blacksmith's, even to the sandy rise whence 
 the Hall is seen. The rabbits are peeping forth 
 again, for the dew is spreading quietude : the sun 
 has just finished a good day's work and is off for 
 the western waters. Over the rounded heads and 
 bosses, and then the darker dimples of the many- 
 coloured foliage — many-coloured even now with 
 summer's glory fusing it — over heads and shoul- 
 ders, and breasts of heaving green, floods the lucid 
 amber, trembling at its own beauty — the first 
 acknowledged leniency of the July sun. Now 
 every moment has its difference. Having once
 
 A TALE OF THE NEW FOEEST. 7 
 
 acknowledged that lie may have been too down- 
 right in his ride of triumph, the sun, lilce every 
 generous nature, scatters broadcast his amends. 
 Over holt, and laioU, and lea, and narrow dingle, 
 scooped with shadow wliere the brook is mmpUng, 
 and tlu'ough the breaks of grass and gravel, "where 
 the heather pui'ples, scarcely yet in prune flush, 
 and do^^'n the tall -wood overhanging, mossed and 
 lichened, green and gi'ey, as the grove of Druids — 
 over, through, and under all flows pervading sun- 
 set. Then the birds begin discoursing of the 
 thouo;hts within them — thoughts that are all 
 happiness, and thrill and swell in utterance. 
 Through the voice of the thicket-birds — the mavis, 
 the whinchats, and the warblers — comes the tap 
 of the yaffingale, the sharp, short cry of the 
 honey-])uzzard above the squirrel's cage, and the 
 plaining of the tm'tle-dove. 
 
 But from birds and flowers, winding roads and 
 woods, and waters where the trout are leaping, 
 come we back to the only thing that interests a 
 man much — the life, the doings, and the death of 
 his fellow-men. From this piece of yellow road, 
 where the tree-roots twist and ■wrestle, we can see 
 the great old house, winking out of countless 
 ■NA-indows, deep with sloping shadows, mantlmg 
 back from the clasp of the forest, in a stately, 
 sad reserve. It looks like a house that can endiu'c 
 and not talk about affliction, that could disclose 
 some tales of passion were it not undignified, that 
 remembers many a generation, and is mildly sorry
 
 8 CEADOCK NOWELL : 
 
 for them. Oh ! house of the Nowells, grey with 
 shadow, wrapped in lonely grandeur, cold with the 
 dews of evening and the tone of sylvan nightfall, 
 never through tAventy generations hast thou known 
 a darker fortune than is gathering now around 
 thee, growing through the summer months, deep- 
 ening ere the leaves drop ! All men, we know, 
 are born for trial, to work, to bear, to purify ; but 
 some there are wdioni God has marked for sorrow 
 from their cradle. And strange as it appears to 
 us, whose image is inverted, almost always these 
 are they who seem to lack no probation. The 
 gentle and the large of heart, the meek and un- 
 pretending, yet gifted with a rank of mind that 
 needs no self-assertion, trebly vexed in this way- 
 faring, we doubt not they are blest tenfold in the 
 everlasting equipoise. 
 
 Perhaps it was the July evening that made me 
 dream and moralise ; but now let us gaze from that 
 hill again, under the fringe of avitumn's gold, in the 
 ripeness of October. The rabbits are gone to bed 
 much earlier — comparatively, I mean, with the 
 sun's retirement — because the dew is getting cold, 
 and so has lost its flavour ; and a nest of young 
 weasels is coming abroad, "and really makes it 
 unsafe, my dear," says Mrs. Bunny to her third 
 family, " to keep our long-standing engagements." 
 " Send cards instead," says the timid JNIiss Cony ; 
 " I can write them, mamma, on a polypod." 
 
 Now though the rabbits shirk their duty, we can 
 see the con£i;reo;ation returnma!; down the villao-e 
 from the church, which is over the bridge, towards
 
 A TALE OF THE NEW FOREST. 9 
 
 Lymington, and seems set aside to meditate. In 
 straggling groups, as gossip lumps tliem, or the after- 
 noon sermon disposes, home they straggle, wonder- 
 ing whether the girl has kept the fire up. Kept 
 the fire " blissy" is the bodily form of the house- 
 thought. But all the experienced matrons of the 
 village have got together; and two, who have 
 served as monthly nurses, are ready to pull side- 
 hau" out. There is nothing like science for settino- 
 people hard by the ears and the throat-strings. 
 But we who are up in the forest here can catch no 
 huzz of voices, nor even gather the point of dispute, 
 while they huny on to recount their arguments, 
 and triumph over the virile mind, which, of course, 
 Ivnows nothing about it. 
 
 The question is, when Lady Nowell will give an 
 heir to the name, the house, the village, the estates, 
 worth fifty thousand a year — an heir long time 
 expected, hoped for in vain through six long years, 
 now reasonably looked for. All the matrons have 
 settled that it must be on a Sunday; everybody 
 knows that Sunday is the day for all grand cere- 
 monies. Even Nanny Gammon's pigs But 
 
 why pursue their arguments — the taste of the pre- 
 sent age is so wonderfully nice and delicate. I can 
 only say that the Gammers, who snubbed the 
 Gaffers upon the subject, miscarried by a fortnight, 
 though right enough hebdomadally. They all fixed 
 it for that day fortnight, but it was done while 
 they were predicting. And not even the monthly 
 nm-ses anticipated, no one ever guessed at the con- 
 tingency of — twins.
 
 10 CKADOCK NOWELL 
 
 CHAPTER n. 
 
 " Whishtkew, ^yllishtrew, every bit of me ! 
 Whativer will I do, God knows. The blue ribbon 
 there forenint me, and the blessed infants one to 
 aich side!" 
 
 The good nurse fell against a chest of drawers, 
 as she uttered this loud lament ; the coloui' ebbed 
 from her cherry cheeks, and her sturdy form shook 
 with terror. She had scarcely tm'ned her back, 
 she could swear, upon hdi* precious charges ; and 
 now- only look at the murder of it! Two little 
 cots stood side by side, not more than four feet 
 asunder; and on each cot fast asleep lay a fine 
 baby, some three or four days old. Upon the floor 
 between them was a small rosette of blue ribbon. 
 The infants were slumbering happily ; and breath- 
 ing as calmly as could be. Each queer little dump 
 of a face was nestled into its pillow ; and a small 
 red podge, which was meant for an arm, lay cross- 
 wise upon the flannel. Nothing could look more 
 delicious to the eyes of a fine young woman.
 
 A TALE OF THE NEW FOREST. 11 
 
 Nevertheless, that fine young woman, Mrs. Biddy 
 O'Gaghan, stood gazing from one cot to the other, 
 in hopeless and helpless dismay. Her comely 
 round face was drawn out ^^dtll hon'or, her mouth 
 AA-ide open, and large tears stealing into her broad 
 blue Irish eyes. 
 
 "And the illigant spots upon them, as like as 
 two Blemishing spannels ; nor the blissed saints in 
 heaven, if so be they was tuk to gloiy, afore they 
 do be made hairyticks, cudn't know one from 
 the ither, no more nor the winds from the brazes. 
 And there go the doctor's bell again ! Oh whurra- 
 strew, AvhmTa, whurra!" 
 
 Now Biddy O'Gaghan would scarcely have been 
 head-nurse at Nowelhurst Hall, before she was 
 thuly years old, but for her quick self-reliance. 
 She was not the woman therefore to wring her 
 hands long, and look foolish. Her Irish wit soon 
 suggested so many modes of solution, all so easy, 
 and all so delightfully free from reason, that the 
 only question was how to listen to all at once. 
 First she Avent and bolted carefully both the doors 
 of the nursery. Then, with a look of triumph, 
 she rushed to her yellow workbox, snatched up a 
 roll of narrow tape, some pins, and a pair of 
 scissors, and knelt upon the floor very gingerly, 
 Vvliere the blue ribbon lay. Then, having pinned 
 one end of the tape to the centre of the rosette, 
 and the rosette itself to the carpet, she let the roll 
 run Avith one hand, and ch'ew the tape tight with 
 the other, until it arrived at the nose of the babe
 
 12 CUADOCK NOWELL : 
 
 ensconced in the right-liand cot. There she cut it . 
 off sharply, with a snip that awoke the child, who 
 looked at her contemplatively from a pair of large 
 grey eyes. Leaving him to his meditations, she 
 turned the tape on the pin, and drew it towards the 
 nasal apology of the other infant. The measure 
 would not reach ; it was short by an inch and a 
 half. What clearer proof could be given of the 
 title to knot and pendency? 
 
 But alas for Biddy's triumph ! The infant last, 
 geometrised awoke at that very moment, and lifting 
 his soft fat legs, in order to cry with more comfort, 
 disclosed the awkward fact that his left knee was 
 nearer by three inches to the all-important rosette, 
 than was any part of his brother. Biddy shook 
 anew, as she di'ew the tape to the dimples. What 
 is the legal centre of a human being ? Upon my 
 word, I think I should have measured from the 
 
 6iJ,(f)a\6s. 
 
 Ere fm-ther measurement could be essayed, all 
 the premises were gone utterly ; for the baby upon 
 the right contrived to turn in the flannels, as an 
 unsettled silkworm pupa rolls in his cocoon. And 
 he managed to revolve in the wrong du'ection ; it 
 was his fate through Hfe. Instead of coming to- 
 wai'ds the rosette, as a selfish baby would have done, 
 away he went, with his grey eyes blinking at the 
 handle of the door. Then he put up his lips, like 
 the ring of a limpet, and poked both his little fists 
 into his mouth. 
 
 " Well, I never," cried Bridget ; " that settles it
 
 A TALE OF THE NEW FOEEST. 13 
 
 . altogether. Plase the saints an' he -were a rogne, 
 it's this Avay he'd ha' come over on his blessed little 
 empty belly. My darlin' dumplin' dillikins, it's 
 you as it belongs to, and a fool I must be to doubt 
 of it. Don't I know the bend o' your nose, and the 
 way your purty lips dribbles, then ? And to think 
 I was near a robbing you ! What Avith the sitting 
 up o' nights, and the worry of that carroty spal- 
 peen, and the way as they sends my meals up, 
 Paddy O'Gaghan, as is in glory, wud take me for 
 another man's wife." 
 
 With great relief and strong conviction, ^Irs. 
 O'Gaghan began to stitch the truant rosette upon 
 the cap of the last-mentioned baby, whence (or 
 from that of the other) it had dropped through 
 her own loose carelessness, before they were 
 cuddled away. And Avith that ribbon she stitched 
 upon him the heritage of the old famil}', the name 
 of " Cradock Nowell," borne by the eight last 
 baronets, and the largest estates and foremost rank 
 in all the fair county of Hants. 
 
 '•' Sure an' it won't come off again," said Biddy 
 to the baby, as she laid down her needle, for, like 
 all genuine IrishAA'omen, she des]>ised a thimble ; 
 " and it's meself as is to blame, for not taking a 
 nick on your ear, dear. A big fool I must be only 
 to plait it in afore, and only for thinkin' as it Avud 
 come cross-ways, Avhen you wint to your blissed 
 mammy, dear. And little more you be likely to 
 get there, I'm afeared, me darlin'. An' skeared 
 anvbodv Avould be to hoort so mvich as a hair o'
 
 14 CRADOCK NOWELL : 
 
 your skull, until sucli time as you has any, you 
 little jule of jewels, and I kisses every bit on you, 
 and knows what you be thinking on in the dead 
 hoor of the night. Bless your ticksy-wicksies, and 
 the ground as you shall step on, and the childer 
 as you shall have.'' 
 
 Unprepared as yet to contemplate the pleasui'es 
 of paternity. Master Cradock Nowell elect opened 
 great eyes and great mouth, in the untutored wrath 
 of hunger ; while from the other cot arose a lusty 
 yell, as of one already visited by the injustice of 
 the world. This bitter cry awoke the softness and 
 the faint misgivino;s of the Irishwoman's heart. 
 
 "And the pity of the world it is ye can't both 
 be the eldest. And bedad you should, if Biddy 
 O'Gaghan had the making of the laws. There 
 shan't be any one iver can say as ye haven't had 
 justice, me honey." 
 
 Leaving both the unconscious claimants snugly 
 wrapped and smiling, she called to her assistants, 
 now calmly at tea in an inner room. " ]\Iiss Penny, 
 run down now just, without thinking, and give my 
 compliments, Mrs. O'Gaghan's kind compliments 
 to the housekeeper's room, and would JMrs. Toaster 
 oblige me with her big square scales ? No weights 
 you needn't bring, you know. Only the scales, 
 and be quick with them." 
 
 "And please, ma'am, what shall I say as you 
 wants them for ? " 
 
 " Never you mind, Jane Penny. Wait you till 
 your betters asks of you. And mayn't I weigh my
 
 A TALE OF THE NEW FOREST. 15 
 
 grandfather s silver, without ask you, Jane Penny? 
 And likely you'd rather not, and good reason for 
 that same, I dessay, after the way as I leaves it 
 open." 
 
 Overlooking this innuendo, as well as the slight 
 difficidty of weighing, without weights, imaginary 
 Ijullion, Miss Penny hurried away ; for the wTatli 
 of the niu'se was rising, and it was not a thing to 
 be tampered with. When Jane returned with the 
 beam of justice, and lingered fondly in the door- 
 way to watch its application, the head-nurse sidled 
 her grandly into the little room, and tmnied the 
 key upon her. 
 
 " Go and finish your tea. Miss Penny. No 
 draughts in this room, if you please, miss. Save 
 their little sowls, and divil a hair upon them. 
 Now come here, my tAvo chickabiddies." 
 
 Adjusting the scales on the bed, where at night 
 she lay with the infants warm upon her, she took 
 the two red Imnps-jof innocence in her well-rounded ^^ 
 arms, and laid one in either scale. As she did so. 
 they both looked up and smiled : it reminded them, 
 I suppose, of being laid in their cradles. Blessing 
 them both, and without any nervousness — for to 
 her it could make no difference — she raised by the 
 handle the balance. It was a very nice question — 
 which baby rose first from the countei'pane. So 
 very slight was the difference, that the rosette itself 
 might almost have turned the scale. But there 
 was a perceptible difference, of perhaps about lialf 
 an ounce, and that in favour of the sweet-tempered
 
 16 CKADOCK NOWELL : 
 
 babe who now possessed the ribbon ; and who, as 
 the other rose slowly before him, drew up his OA\ai 
 little toes, and tried prematurely to crow at him. 
 Prematurely, my boy, in many ways. 
 
 No further mistrust was left in the mind of Mrs. 
 O'Gaghan. Henceforth that rosetted infant is like 
 to outweigh and outmeasure his brother, a hundred- 
 fold, a thousandfold, in every balance, l^y every 
 standard, save those of self, and of true love, and 
 perhaps of the kingdom of Heaven.
 
 A TALE OF TEE NEW FOItEST. 17 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 The reason why Mrs. O'Gaghan, generally so 
 prompt and careful, though never very lucid, had 
 neglected hetter precautions in a matter so im- 
 portant, Avas simply and solely this — Lady Nowell, 
 the delicate mother, was dying. It had been 
 known, ever since the birth, that she had scarcely 
 any chance of recovery. And Biddy loved her 
 with all her warm heart, and so did every one in 
 the house who owned a heart that could love. In 
 the great anxiety, all things were upside down. 
 None of the servants knew where to go for orders, 
 and few could act without them ; the housekeeper 
 was all abroad ; house-steward there was none ; 
 head-butler Ilogstaff cried in his pantiy, and wiped 
 his eyes with the leathers ; and, as for the master 
 of them all. Sir Cradock Nowell himself, he rarely 
 left the darkened room, and when he did he could 
 not sec well. 
 
 VOL. I. a
 
 18 CEADOCK NOWELL : 
 
 A sweet frail creature tlie young mother was, 
 wedded too early, as ]iap})eiis here more often than 
 we are aware of. Then disappointed, and grieving 
 still more at her husband's disappointment, she had 
 set her whole heart so long and so vainly upon 
 prospective happiness, that now it was come she had 
 not the strength to do anything more than smile at 
 it. And smile she did, very sweetly, all the time 
 she knew she was dying ; she felt so proud of those 
 two fine hoys, and could not think how she had 
 them. Ever so many times Sir Cradock, hanging 
 fondly over her wan, sweet face, ordered the little 
 wretches away, who would keep on coming to 
 trouble her. But every time she looked up at him 
 with such a feeble glory, and such a dash of 
 humour, — " You've got them at last, and now you 
 don't care a bit about them ; but oh ! please do for 
 my sake ; " every time her fading eyes followed them 
 to the door, so that the loving husband, cold with 
 the shadow of the coming void, had to whisper, 
 ^' Bring them back, put them here between us." 
 
 Although he knew that she was dying, he could 
 not feel it yet ; the mind admitted that fearful 
 truth, but the heart repulsed it. Further as she 
 sunk, and further yet, from his pleading gaze, the 
 closer to her side he crept, the more he clasped her 
 shadowy hands, and raised. her drooping neck; the 
 fonder grew the entreating words, the wdiispers of 
 the love-time, faint smiles that hoped to win her 
 smile, although they moved in tears. And smile 
 she did once more on earth, through the ashy hue
 
 A TALE OF THE NEW FOEEST. 19 
 
 — the shadow of the soul's wings fluttering — when 
 two fresh Kves, bought Ly her death, were shown 
 for tlie f areweU to her. 
 
 "And if it's wrong, then, she'll make it right," 
 thought the conscientious Biddj. " I can take my 
 oatli on't she knowed the differ from the very first, 
 though nobody else couldn't see it, barring the caps 
 they was Jput in. Now, if only that gossoon will 
 consent to her see them once more, and it can't 
 hmi; the poor darlin' — and the blessing as comes 
 from the death's gaze " 
 
 !Mrs. O'Graghan's doubts were ended by the 
 entrance of the doctor, a spare, short man, Avith a 
 fiery face, red haii', and quick little eyes. He was 
 not more than tliirty years old, but knew his duties 
 thoroughly ; nevertheless, he would not have been 
 there but for the sudden emergency. He was now 
 come to fetch the nurse, having observed that the 
 poor mother's eyes were gleaming feebly, once and 
 again, towards the door that led to the nursery; 
 and at last she had tried to raise her hand, and 
 point in that direction. So in came Biddy, sobbing 
 hard, A\dth a babe on either ann ; and she cm*tseyed 
 cleverly to Sir Cradock without disturbing the equi- 
 poise. But the mother's glance was not judicial, 
 as poor Biddy had expected — her heart and soul 
 were far beyond rosettes, and even titles. Li one 
 long, yearning look, she lingered on her new-born 
 babes, then tm'ned those hazy eyes in fondness to 
 her kneeling husband's, then tried to pray or bless 
 the three, and shivered twice, and died. 
 c2
 
 20 CEADOCK NOWELL : 
 
 For days and weeks Sir Cradock Nowell bore 
 liis life, but did not live. All his clear intellect and 
 strong will, noble plans, and useful labours, all his 
 sense of truth and greatness, lay benumbed and 
 frozen in the cold track of death. He could not 
 bear to see his children, he would not even hear of 
 them ; " they had robbed him of his loved one, 
 and what good were they ? Little red things ; 
 perhaps he would love them when they grew like 
 their mother." Those were not his expressions, for 
 he was proud and shy ; but that was the form his 
 thoughts would take, if they could take any. No 
 Avonder that he, for a time, was lost beyond the 
 verge of reason ; because that blow, which most of 
 all stuns and defeats the upright man, had descended 
 on him — the blow to the sense of justice. This a 
 man of large mind feels often from his fellow-men, 
 never from his Maker. But Sir Cradock was a man 
 of intellect, rather than of mind. To me a large 
 mind seems to be strong intellect quickened with 
 warm heart. Sir Cradock Nowell had plenty of in- 
 tellect, and plenty of heart as well, but he kept the 
 two asunder. So much the better for getting on in 
 the world ; so much the worse for dealing with 
 God. A man so constituted rarely wins, till over- 
 borne by trouble, that only knowledge which falls 
 (like genius) where our Father listeth. So the 
 bereaved man measured justice by the ells and 
 inches of this world. 
 
 And it did seem very hard, that he who had 
 lived for twenty years, from light youth up to the 
 balance age of forty, not only without harming any
 
 A TALE OF THE NEW FOREST. 21 
 
 fellow-mortal, but, upon fair average, to do good 
 in the world — it seemed, I say — it was, thought he 
 — most unjust that such a man could not set his 
 serious heart upon one little treasure without losing 
 it the moment he had learned its value. Now, 
 W'ith pride to spur sad memoiy — bronze spurs to a 
 marble horse — he remembered how his lovely 
 Violet chose him from all others. Gallant suitors 
 crowded round her, for she was rich as well as 
 beautiful ; but she quietly came from out them all 
 for him, a man of twice her age. And he who 
 had cared for none till then, and had begun to look 
 on woman as a stubby-bearded man looks back at 
 the romance of his first lather, he first admired her 
 grace and beauty, then her warmth of heart and 
 wit, then, scorning all analysis, her own sweet self; 
 and loved her. 
 
 A few days after the funeral he was walking 
 sadly up and down in his lonely librar}", caring no 
 whit for his once-loved books, for the news of the 
 day, or his business, and listless to look at anything, 
 even the autumn sunset ; when the door was 
 opened quietly, and shyly through the shadows 
 stole his schoolfellow of yore, his truest friend, 
 John Eosedew. With this gentleman I take a 
 very serious liberty; but he never yet was kno-vvii 
 to resent a liberty taken honestly. That, however, 
 does not justify me. " John Eosedew" I intend 
 to call him, because he likes it best; and so he 
 would though ten times a Bachelor of Divinity, a 
 late Vice-Principal of his college, and the present 
 Hector of Nowelhm'st. Formerly I did my best,
 
 22 CEADOCK NOWELL : 
 
 loviiig well the character, to describe that simple- 
 minded, tender-hearted yeoman, John Iliixtable, 
 of Tossil's Barton, in the county of Devon. Like • 
 his, as like any two of Natm^-e's ever-varied works, 
 were the native grain and staple of the Rev. John 
 Eosedew. Beside those little inborn and indying 
 vai'iations which Nature still insists on, that she 
 may know her sons apart, those two genial Britons 
 differed both in mental and bodily endo\vments, 
 and through education. In spite of that, they 
 were, and are, as like to one another as any two 
 men can be who have no smallness in them. Small 
 men run pretty much of a muclniess ; as the calibre 
 increases, so the divergence multiplies. 
 
 Farmer Huxtable was no fool ; but having once 
 learned to sign his name, he had attained his maxi- 
 mum of literary development ; John KosedeAv, on 
 .the other hand, although a strong and well-built 
 man, who had pvilled a good oar in his day, was 
 not, in bulk and stature, a match for Hercules or 
 Milo. Unpretending, gentle, a lover of the truth, 
 easily content with others, but never with himself, 
 even now, at the age of forty, he had not overcome 
 fthe bashfuhiess and diffidence of a fine and sensi- 
 tive nature. And, first-rate scholar as he was, he 
 would have lost his class at Oxford solely through 
 that shyness, unless a kind examiner, who saw his 
 blushing agony, had tm-ned from some common- 
 place of Sophocles to a glorious passage of Pindar. 
 Then, carried away by the noble poet, John Rose- 
 dew forgot the schools, the audience, even the row
 
 A TALE OF THE NEW FOREST. 23 
 
 of examiners, and gave grand thoughts their grand 
 expression, breathing free as the winds of heaven. 
 Nor till his voice began to falter from the high 
 emotion, and his heart beat fast, though not from 
 shame, and the tears of genius touched by genius 
 were difficult to check, not till then knew he, or 
 guessed, that every eye was fixed upon him, that 
 every heart was thrilling, that even the stiff exa- 
 miners bent forward like eager cliildi'en, and the 
 young men in the gallery could scarcely keep from 
 cheering. Then suddenh*, in the full sweep of 
 magnificence, he stopped, like an eagle shot. 
 
 Now the parson, ruddy cheeked, with a lock of 
 light bro^^^l hair astray upon his forehead, and his 
 pale, blue eyes looking much as if he had just 
 awoke and rubbed them, came shyly and with deep 
 embarrassment into tlie darkening room. For days 
 and days he had thought and thought, but could 
 not at all determine whether, and when, and how, 
 he ought to visit his ancient friend. His own heart 
 fii*st suggested that he ought to go at once, if only 
 to show the bereaved one that still there were some 
 to love him. To this right impulse — and the im- 
 pulse of a heart like this could seldom be a wTong 
 one — rose counter-checks of worldly knowledge, 
 such little as he had. And it seemed to many 
 people strange and unaccountable, that if ]\Ii'. 
 Eosedew piqued himself upon anything whatever, 
 it was not on his learning, his purity, or benevo- 
 lence, it was not on his gentle bearing, or the 
 chivalry of his soul, but on a fine acquirement,
 
 24 CEADOCK NOWELL : 
 
 whereof in all opinions (except, indeed, his own) 
 he possessed no jot or tittle — a strictly-disciplined 
 and astute exjierience of the world. Now this 
 supposed experience told him that it might seem 
 coarse and forward to offer the hard grasp of 
 friendship ere the soft clasp of love was cold; 
 that he, as the clergyman of the parish, would 
 appear to presume upon his office ; that no proud 
 man could ever bear to have his anguish pryed 
 into. These, and many other misgivings and ob- 
 jections, met his eager longings to help his dear old 
 friend. 
 
 Suddenly and to his great relief — for he knew 
 not how to begin, though he felt how and mis- 
 trusted it — the old friend turned upon him from 
 his lonely pacsing, and held out both his hands. 
 Not a word was said by either ; what they meant 
 required no telling, or was told by silence. Long 
 time they sat in the western window, John Rose- 
 dew keeping his eyes from sunset, which did not 
 suit them then. At last he said, in a low voice, 
 avhich it cost him much to find — 
 
 ''What name, dear Cradock, for the younger 
 babe ? Yom' own, of course, for the elder." 
 
 " No name, John, but his sweet mother's ; unless 
 you like to add his uncle's." 
 
 John Eosedew was puzzled lamentably. He 
 could not bear to worry his friend any more upon 
 the subject ; and ^yet it seemed to him sad, false 
 concord, to christen a boy as "Violet." But he 
 argued that, in botanical fact, a violet is male as
 
 A TALE OF THE XEW FOEEST. 25 
 
 well as female, and at. such a time lie could not 
 think of tlnvarting a widower's yearnings. In 
 spite of all his worldly knowledge, it never occurred 
 to his simple mind that poor Sir Cradock meant 
 the lady's maiden surname, which I believe was 
 " Incledon." And yet he had suggestive precedent 
 brought even then before him, for Sir Cradock 
 Nowell's brother bore the name of " Clayton ;' 
 which name John Rosedew added now, and found 
 relief in doing so. 
 
 Thus it came to pass, that the babe without 
 rosette was baptized as "Violet Clayton," while 
 the owner of the bauble received the name of 
 " Cradock" — Cradock Nowell, now the ninth in 
 lineal succession. The father was still too broken 
 down to care about being present ; godfathers and 
 godmothers made all their vows by proxy. Mrs. 
 O'Gaghan held the infants, and one of them 
 cried, and the other laughed. The rosette was 
 there in all its glory, and received a tidy sprinkle ; 
 and the wearer of it was, as usual, the one who 
 took things easily. As the common children said, 
 who came to see the great ones " loustering," the 
 whole affair was rather like a white burying than a 
 baptism. Nevertheless, the tenants and labourers 
 moistened their semi-regenerate clay with many a 
 fontful of good ale, to ensure the success of the 
 ceremony.
 
 26 CEADOOK NO WELL : 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 It is not pleasant to recur, to have a relapse of 
 chronology, neither does it show good management 
 on the part of a ^vriter. Nevertheless, being free 
 of time among these forest by-ways, I mean to let 
 the pig now by the ear unfold his tail, or curl it 
 up, as the weather suits him. And now he runs 
 back for a month or two, traiUng the rope from his 
 left hind-leg. 
 
 Poor Lady Nowell had become a mother, as in- 
 deed we learned from the village gossip, nearly a 
 fortnight before the expected time. Dr. Jellicorse 
 .Buller, a very skilful man, in whom the Hall had 
 long confided, was suddenly called to London, the 
 day before that on wliich we last climbed the hill 
 towards Eingwood. With Su' Cradock's full con- 
 sent, he obeyed the tempting summons. So in the 
 hurry and flutter of that October Sunday, it seemed 
 a most lucky thing to obtain, in a thinly-peopled 
 district, the prompt attendance of any medical 
 man. And but that a gallant regiment then hap-
 
 A TALE OP THE NEW FOEEST. 27 
 
 pened to be on the march from Dorchester to 
 Southampton, there to embark for India, no mascu- 
 line aid ^vovdd have been forthcommg till after the 
 event. But the regimental surgeon, whose name 
 was Eufus Huttoii, did all that human skill could 
 do, and saved the hves of both the infants, but 
 coidd not save the young motlier. Having earned 
 Su* Cradock's lasting gratitude, and Biddy O'Ga- 
 ghan's strong execrations, he was compelled to 
 rejoin his regiment, then actually embarking. 
 
 The t-^nns grew fast, and throve amain, imder 
 Mrs. O'Gaghan's motherly care, and shook the 
 deep-rooted country faith, that children brought 
 up by hand are sui*e to be puny weakhugs. Nor 
 was it long till nature reasserted her authority, 
 and claimed her rights of compensation. The 
 father Ijegan to tliink more jmd more, first of 
 his duty towards the dead mother, and then of 
 his duty towards his children ; and ere long 
 affection set to work, and drove duty away till 
 called for, which happened as we shall see pre- 
 sently. By the time those two pretty babies were 
 "busy about then* teeth," Cradock NoweU the 
 .elder was so deep in odontology, that Biddy lier- 
 .'fielf could not ans^^er him, and was afraid to ask 
 any questions. He watched each Httle white 
 cropper, as a girl peers day by day into a starting 
 hyacinth. Then, when they could wall?, tliey fol- 
 lowed daddy everywhere, and die never was liappy 
 without them. It was a pretty tiling to see them 
 toddhng down the long passages, stopping by the
 
 28 CKADOCK NOWELL : 
 
 walls to prattle, crawling at the slippery parts, 
 where the newly-invented tiles shone. And the 
 father Avould dance away backwards from them, 
 forgetting all about the grand servants, clapping 
 his hands to encourage them, and holding an 
 orange as prize for a crawling-race — then whisk 
 away round a corner, and lay his cheek flat to the 
 wainscot, to peep at his sons, and learn which of 
 them was the braver. And in those days, I think, 
 he was proud to find that Cradock Nowell, the 
 heir of the house, was by far the more gallant baby. 
 Which of the two was the prettier, not even sliai-p 
 Biddy could say ; so strongly alike they were, that 
 the palm of beauty belonged to the one who had 
 taken least medicine lately. 
 
 Then, as they turned two years and a half, and 
 could jump with .both feet at once, without the 
 spectator growing sad on the subject of biped defi- 
 ciencies, their father would lie down on the carpet, 
 and make them roll and jump over him. He 
 would watch their little spotted legs with intense 
 appreciation ; and if he got an oral sprinkle from 
 childhood's mid sense of humour, instead of de- 
 pressing him, I declare it quite set him up for the 
 day, sir. And he never bothered himself or them 
 by attempts to forecast their destinies. There 
 they were enjoying themselves, uproariously happy, 
 as proud as Punch of their exploits, and the father 
 a great deal prouder. All three as blest for the 
 moment, as full of life and rapture, as God meant 
 His creatures to be, so often as they are wise 
 
 I
 
 A TALE OF THE NEW FOKEST. 29 
 
 enough ; and, in the name of God, let them 
 be so! 
 
 But then there came a time of spoiling, a time 
 of doing just what they liked, even after their 
 eyes were opening to the light and shadow of right 
 and AATong. If they smiled, or pouted, or even 
 cried — though in that they were very moderate — - 
 in a fashion which descended to them from their 
 darling mother, thereupon great right and law, and 
 even toughest prejudice, fell flat as rolled dough 
 before them. So they toddled about most glo- 
 riously, with a strong sense of owning the 
 universe. 
 
 Next ensued a time of mighty retribution. 
 Astrgea, with her feelings hmt, came down for a 
 slashmg moment. Fond as he was, and far more 
 weak than he ever had been before. Sir Cradock 
 No well was not a fool. He saw it was time to 
 check the license, ere mischief grew irretrievable. 
 Something flagrant occun'ed one day ; both the 
 childi'en were in for it ; they knew as well as pos- 
 sible that they were jolly rogues together, and 
 together in their childish counsel they resolved to 
 stand it out. The rumour was that they had stolen 
 into Mrs. Toaster's choicest cupboard, and hardly 
 left enough to smell at in a two-pound pot of green- 
 gage jam. Anyhow, there they stood, scarlet in 
 face and bright of eye, back to back, with their 
 broad white shoulders, their stm'dy legs set wide 
 apart, and their little heels stamping defiantly. 
 ;Mi-s. Toaster had not the heai't to do anything but
 
 30 CEADOCK NOWELL : 
 
 kiss them, with a number of "O fies!" and thej 
 accepted her kisses indignantly, and wiped their 
 lips \^'ith their pinafores. They knew that they 
 were in the wTong, but they had not tried to con- 
 ceal it, and they meant to brazen it out. They 
 looked such a fine pair of lords of the earth, and 
 vindicated their felony with so grand an air, such 
 high contempt of all justice, that Cookey and 
 Hogstaff, empannelled as jury, said, "Drat the 
 little darlings, let 'em have the other pot, mem !" 
 But as their good star would have it, Mrs. O'Gra- 
 ghan came after them. Upsetting the mere 7iisi 
 2)rius verdict, she marched them off, one in either 
 hand, to the great judge sittuig in banco, Sir Cra- 
 dock himself, in the library. With the sense of 
 heavy wrong upon them, the little hearts began to 
 fail, as they cKmbed "vvith tugs instead of jumps, 
 and no arithmetic of the steps, the narrow flight of 
 stone stairs that led from regions culinary. But 
 they would not shed a tear, not they, nor even say 
 they were sorry, otherwise Biddy (who herself Avas 
 crying) would have let them go with the tap of a 
 battledore. 
 
 Poor little soulsj they got their deserts with very 
 scanty ceremony. When Biddy began to relate 
 their crime, one glance at their father's face was 
 enough; they hung behind, and dropped their 
 eyes, and flushed all under their curling hair. Yet 
 little did they guess the indignity impending. Hog- 
 staff had followed all the way, and so had Mrs. 
 Toaster, to plead for them. Su* Cradock sent them
 
 A TALE OP THE NEW FOEEST. 31 
 
 both, away, and told Biddy to wait outside. Then 
 he led his children to an inner room, and calmly 
 explained his intentions. These were of such a 
 nature that the young offenders gazed at each 
 other in dumb amazement and horror, which very 
 soon grew eloquent as the sentence was being exe- 
 cuted. But the brave little fellows cried more, 
 even then, at the indignity than the pain of it. 
 
 Then the stem father ordered thera out of his 
 sight for the day, and forbade every one to speak 
 to them until the following morning ; and away 
 the twins went, hand in hand, down the cold cruel 
 passage, their long flaxen hair all flowing together, 
 and shaking to the sound of their contrite sobs and 
 heart-pangs. At the corner, by the steward's room, 
 they turned vnth. one accord, and looked back 
 wistfidly at their father. Su* Cradock had been 
 saying to himself, as he rubbed his hands after the 
 exercise — " A capital day's work : what a deal of 
 good it will do them ; the self-willed little rascals !" 
 but the look cast back upon him was so like their 
 mother's when he had done anything to vex her, 
 that away he rushed to his bedroom, and had to 
 wash his face afterwards. 
 
 But, of course, he held to his stern resolve to see 
 them no more that evening, otherwise the lesson 
 would be utterly thrown away. Holding to it as 
 he did,, the effect surpassed all calculation. It was 
 the tm'ning-pohit in their lives. 
 
 " My boy, you know it hurts me a great deal 
 more than you," says the hypocritical usher, who
 
 32 CEADOCK NOWELL : 
 
 rather enjoys the cane-swing. The boy knows It 
 is hypocrisy, and is morally hurt more than phy- 
 sically. But wholly different is the result when 
 the patient knows and feels the deep love of the 
 agent, and cannot help believing that justice has 
 flogged the judge. And hitherto their flesh had 
 been intemerate and inviolable ; the strictest orders 
 had been issued that none should dare to slap 
 them, and all were only too prone to coax and pet 
 the beautiful angels. Little angels: treated so, 
 they would soon have been little devils. As for 
 the warning given last week, they thought it a bit 
 of facetiousness : so now was the time, of all times, 
 to strike temperately, but heavily. 
 
 That night they went to bed before dark, with- 
 out having cared for tea or toast, and Biddy's soft 
 heart ached by the pillow, as they lay in each 
 other's arms, hugged one another, having now 
 none else in the world to love, and sobbed their 
 little troubles off into moaning slumber. 
 
 On the following morning, without any concert 
 or debate, and scarcely asking why, the little 
 things went hand in hand, united more than ever 
 by the recent visitation, as far as the door of their 
 father's bedroom. There they slank behind a 
 curtain ;' and wdien he came out, the rings above 
 fluttered with fear and love and hope. Much as 
 the father's heart was craving, he made believe to 
 walk onward, till Craddy ran out, neck or nothing, 
 and sprang into his arms. 
 
 After this great event, their lives flowed on very
 
 A TALE OF THE NEW FOREST. 33 
 
 happily into boyhood, youth, and manhood. They 
 heartily loved and respected their father ; they 
 could never be enough with John Rosedew; and 
 although they quarrelled and fought sometimes, 
 they languished and drooped immediately when 
 parted from one another. As for Biddy O'Gaghan, 
 now a high woman in the household, her only dif- 
 ficulty was that she never could tell of her two 
 boys which to quote as the more astounding. 
 
 " If you plase, ma'am," she always concluded, 
 " there'll not be so much as the lean of a priest for 
 anybody iver to choose atwane the bootif ul two on 
 them. No more than there was on the day when 
 my bHssed self — mui'der now ! — any more, I manes, 
 nor the differ a peg can find 'twane a murphy and 
 a ])urratie. And a Murphy I must be, to tark, so 
 free as I does, of the things as is above me. Says 
 Patrick O'Geoghegan to meself one day — glory be 
 to his sowl, and a gintleman every bit of him, lave 
 out where he had the small-pux — ' Biddy,' he says, 
 'hould your pratie-trap, or I'll shove these here 
 bellises down it.' And for my good it would have 
 been, as I am thankful to acknowledge that same, 
 though I didn't see it that day, thank the Lord. 
 Ah musha, musha, a true gintleman he were, and 
 lave me out his fellow, ma'am, if iver you comes 
 acrass him." 
 
 But, in spite of Biddy's assertion, there were 
 
 many points of difterence, outward and inward too, 
 
 between Cradock and Clayton Nowell. By tliis 
 
 time the "Violet" was obsolete, except witli Sir 
 
 VOL. I. D
 
 34 CEADOCK NOWELL : 
 
 Cradock, who rather liked it, and with young Crad, 
 who had corrupted it into the endearing " Viley." 
 John Rosedew had done his utmost to extinguish 
 the misnomer, being sensitive on the subject, from 
 his horror of false concord, as attributed to him- 
 self. Although the twins were so much alike in 
 stature, form, and feature that it required care to 
 discern them after the sun was down, no clear- 
 sighted person would miscall them when they both 
 were present, and the light was good. Clayton 
 No well's eyes were brown, Cradock' s a dark grey ; 
 Cradock's hair was one shade darker, and grew 
 more away from his forehead, and the expression 
 of liis gaze came from a longer distance. Clayton 
 always seemed up for bantering ; Cradock anxious 
 to inquire, and to joke about it afterwards, if occa- 
 sion offered. Then Cradock's head inclined, as he 
 walked, a little towards the left shoulder ; Clayton's 
 hmig, almost imperceptibly, somewhat to the right ; 
 and Cradock's hands were hard and dry, Clayton's 
 soft as good French kid. 
 
 And, as regards the inward man, they differed 
 far more widely. Every year their modes of 
 thought, fancies, tastes, and habits, were diverging 
 more decidedly. Clayton sought command and 
 power, and to be admired ; Cradock's chief ambi- 
 tion was to be loved by every one. And so with 
 intellectual matters ; Clayton showed more dash 
 and brilliance, Cradock more true sympathy, and 
 thence more grasp and insight. Clayton loved the 
 thoughts which strike us, Cradock those which
 
 A TALE OF THE NEW FOEEST. 35 
 
 move us subtly. But, as they lived not long to- 
 gether, it is waste of time to finesse between them. 
 Whatever they were, they loved one another, and 
 could not bear to be parted. 
 
 jNIeanwhile, their " Uncle John" as they always 
 called Mr. Rosedew — their uncle only in the spmt 
 — was niu'sing and making much of a little 
 daughter of his o^^^^. Long before Lady Nowell's 
 death, indeed for ten long years before he obtained 
 the living of Nowelhurst, vni\\ the little adjmict 
 of Rushford, he had been engaged to a lady-love 
 much younger than himself, whose name w^as Amy 
 Venn. Not positively engaged, I mean, for he 
 was too shy to pop the question to any one but 
 himself, for more than seven years of the ten. 
 But all that time Amy Venn was loA^ng him, and 
 he was loving her, and each would have felt it a 
 grievous blow, if the other had started sideways. 
 Miss Venn Avas poor, and had none except her 
 widowed mother to look to, and hence the parson 
 was trebly shy of pressing a poor man's suit. He, 
 a very truthful mortal, had pure faith in his Amy, 
 and she had the like in him. So for several years 
 he shmmed the common-room, and laid by all he 
 could from his fellowship, college-appointments, 
 and professorship. But when his old friend Sir 
 Cradock Nowell presented him to the benefice — 
 not a very gorgeous one, but enough for a quiet 
 parson's family — he took a clean white tie at once, 
 vainly strove to knot it grandly, actually got his 
 scout to brush him, and after three glasses of 
 d2
 
 36 CEADOCK NOWELL : 
 
 common-room port, strode away to his Amy at Kid- 
 lington. There he found her trainmg the apricot 
 on the south wall of her mother's cottage, one of 
 the three great apricot-trees that paid the rent so 
 nicely. What a pity they were not peaches ; they 
 would have yielded so fit a simile. But peach- 
 bloom will not thrive at Kidlington, except upon 
 ladies' faces. 
 
 Three months afterwards, just when all was 
 arranged, and Mrs. Venn was at last persuaded 
 that Hampshire is not all pigs and rheumatism, 
 forests, and swamps, and charcoal, when John, 
 with his voice rather shaky, and a patch of red 
 wdiere his whiskers should have been, had pro- 
 claimed his own banns three times — for he was a 
 very odd fellow in some things, and scorned the 
 " royal road" to wedlock — just at that time, I say, 
 poor Lady Nowell's confinement upset all calcula- 
 tion, and her melancholy death flung a pall on 
 wedding-favours. Not only through respect, but 
 from real sympathy with the faithful friend, John 
 Kosedew and Amy held counsel together, and de- 
 ferred the long-pending bridal. " "Oaa ^loKporepov, 
 Toa-a naKaprepov," said Jolin, who always thought in 
 Greek, except when Latin hindered him ; but few 
 young ladies will admit — and now-a-days they 
 all understand it — that the apophthegm is applied 
 well. 
 
 However, it did come off at last ; John Rosedew, 
 when his banns had been rolling in his mind, in
 
 A TALE OP THE NEW FOBEST. 37 
 
 the form of Greek seuarii, for six months after the 
 first time of out-asking, set to and read them all 
 over again in public ; to revive their efficacy, and 
 to surrebut all let and hindrance. He was accus- 
 tomed now to so many stops, that he felt surprised 
 when nobody rose to interpellate. And so the 
 banns of John Rosedew, bachelor, and Amy Venn, 
 spinster, &c., were read six times in Nowelhurst 
 Church, and six times from the desk at Kidling- 
 ton. And, sooth to say, it was not without 
 significance. 
 
 " Tautte luolis erat to produce our beautiful Amy." 
 
 On the nuptial morning, Sir Cradock, whom 
 they scai'cely expected, gathered up his broken 
 courage, sank his own liap in another's, and was 
 present and tried to enjoy himself. How shy 
 John llosedew Avas, how sly to conceal his blushes, 
 how spry when the bride glanced towards him, 
 and nobody else looked that way — all this very 
 few could help observing ; but they liked him too 
 well to talk of it. Enough that the friend of his 
 youth, thoroughly understanding John, was blessed 
 with so keen a perception of those simple little 
 devices, that at last he did enjoy himself, which he 
 deserved to do for trying. 
 
 When the twins were nearly three years old, 
 Mrs. liosedew'presented John with the very thing 
 he wished for most, an elegant little girl. And 
 here the word " elegant" is used with forethought, 
 
 18729^
 
 38 CEADOCK NOWELL : 
 
 and by prolepsis; though Mrs. O'Gaghan, lent for 
 a time to the Eectory, employed that epithet at the 
 first glance, even while announcing the gender. 
 
 "Muckstraw, then, and she's ilhgant intirely; 
 an' it's hopin' I be as there'll only be two on her, 
 one for each of me darlin' boys. And now cudn't 
 you manage it, doctor dear ? " 
 
 But alas ! the supply was limited, and no dupli- 
 cate ever issued. Lucina saw John Rosedew's 
 pride, and was afraid of changing his character. 
 To all his Oxford friends he announced the fact 
 of his paternity in letters commencing — "Now 
 what do you think, my dear fellow, what do you 
 think of this — the most astounding thing has hap- 
 pened," &c. &c. He thought of it himself so 
 much, that his intellect grew dreamy, and he for- 
 got all about next Sunday's sermon, until he was 
 in the pulpit. And four weeks after that he made 
 another great mistake, which horrified him des- 
 perately, though it gratified the parish. 
 
 It had been arranged between his Amy and 
 himself, that if she felt quite strong enough, she 
 should appear in church on the Sunday afternoon, 
 to offer the due thanksgiving. In the grey old 
 church at Nowelhurst, a certain pew had been set 
 apart, by custom immemorial, for the use of good- 
 wives who felt grateful for their safe deliverance. 
 Here Mrs. Rosedew was to present herself at the 
 proper period, with the aid of Biddy's vigorous 
 arm down the hill from the Rectory. As yet she 
 was too delicate to bear the entire service. The
 
 A TALE OF THE NEW FOKEST. 39 
 
 August afternoon was sultry, and the church doors 
 stood wide open, while the bees among the church- 
 yard thyme drowsed a sleepy sermon. As luck 
 would have it, a recruiting sergeant, toling for the 
 sons of Ytene, finding the road so dusty, and the 
 alehouse barred against him, came sauntering into 
 the church during the second lesson, for a little 
 mild change of air. Espying around him some 
 likely rustics, he stationed himself in the vacant 
 " churching pew," because the door was open, and 
 the position prominent. " All right," thought the 
 rector, who was very short-sighted, " how good of 
 my darling Amy to come ! But I wonder she 
 wears her scarlet cloak to come to chm*ch mth, 
 and in such weather ! But perhaps Dr. Buller 
 ordered it, for fear of her catching cold." So at 
 the proper moment he drew his sui-plice romid 
 him, looked full at the sergeant standing there by 
 the pillar, and commenced majestically, though 
 with a trembling voice — 
 
 "Forasmuch as it hath pleased Almighty God 
 of His goodness to give you safe deliverance, and 
 hath preserved you in the great danger of child- 
 birth, you shall therefore give hearty thanks unto 
 God and say " 
 
 The sergeant looked on very primly, with his 
 padded arms tightly folded, and his head tlu'own 
 back, calling war and victory into his gaze, for the 
 credit of the British army. Then he wondered 
 
 angrily what the those chawbacons could see 
 
 in him to be grinnmg at.
 
 40 CRADOCK NOWELL : 
 
 " I am well pleased," &c., continued John Rose- 
 dew, sonorously ; for he had a magnificent voice, 
 and still refijardino; the sergeant with a look of 
 tender interest. Even Sir Cradock Nowell could 
 scarcely keep his countenance ; but the parson went 
 through the whole of it handsomel}'' and to the 
 purpose, thinking only, throughout it, of God's 
 great mercies to him. So beloved he was already, 
 and so much respected, that none of the congrega- 
 tion had the heart to tell him of his mistake, as he 
 talked with them in the churchyard ; though he 
 thought even then that he must have his bands, as 
 he often had, at the back of his neck. 
 
 But on his way home he overtook an old hobbler, 
 who enjoyed a joke more than a scruple. 
 
 " How are you, Simon Tapscott? How do you 
 do to-day? Glad to see you at chm*ch, Simon," 
 said the parson, holding his hand out, as he always 
 did to his parishioners, unless they had disgraced 
 themselves. 
 
 " Purty vair, measter ; purty vair I be, vor a 
 woald galley baggar as ave bin in the Low Coun- 
 tries, and dwoant know sin from righteousness." 
 This last was a gross perversion of a passage in the 
 sermon which had ruffled ancient Simon. " Can't 
 goo much, howiver, by rason of the rhymatics. 
 Now cud 'e do it to I, measter ? cud 'e do it to I 
 and I'll thraw down bath my critches ? Good ver 
 one sojer, good vor anoother." 
 
 "Do what for you, Simon? Fill your old
 
 A TALE OF THE NEW FOREST. 41 
 
 canteen, or send you a pound of baccy?" asked 
 the parson, mildly chaffing. 
 
 " Noo, noo ; none o' that. There baint noo 
 innard parts grace of the Lord in that. Choorch 
 I handsomely, zame as 'e dwoed that strapping 
 soger now jist." 
 
 " "VVliat, Simon ! Why, Simon, do you know 
 
 what you are saying " But I cannot bear to 
 
 tell of John Rosedew humiliated ; he was humble 
 enough by nature. So fearful was the parson of 
 renewing that recollection within the sacred walls, 
 that no thanks were offered there for the bh'th of 
 sweet Amy Rosedew, save by, or on behalf of, that 
 recruiting sergeant.
 
 42 CEADOCK NOWELL 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 When Cradock and Clayton were ten years old, 
 they witnessed a scene which puzzled them, and 
 dwelt long in then' boyish memories. Job Hog- 
 staff was going to Ringwood, and they followed 
 him down the passage towards the entrance-hall, 
 emphatically repeating the commissions with which 
 they had charged him. Old Job loved them as if 
 they were his grandsons, and would do his utmost 
 to please them, but they could not trust his 
 memory, or even his capacity. 
 
 " Now, Job," cried little Cradock, pulHng at his 
 coat-lappet, "it's no good pretending that you 
 know all, when you won't even stop to listen. I'm 
 sure you'll go and make some great mistake, as 
 you did last Tuesday. Mind you tell Mr. Stride 
 it's for Master Cradock Nowell, and they must be 
 sure to give you a good one, or I shall send it back. 
 Now just tell me what I have told you. I ought 
 to have written it down, but I wasn't sure how to 
 spell ' groove.' "
 
 A TALE OF THE NEW FOEEST. 43 
 
 "Why, Master Crad, I'm to say a long spill, 
 very sharp at the end." 
 
 " Sharp at the point, Job, not blunt at the end 
 like a new black-lead pencil." 
 
 "And whatever you do. Job, don't forget the 
 catgut for my cross-bow, one size larger than last 
 time." 
 
 " Hold yoiu- jaw, Viley, till I've quite finished ; 
 or he'll ask for a top made of catgut." 
 
 Both the boys laughed at this ; you could hear 
 them all down the long passage. Any small folly 
 makes a boy laugh. 
 
 "Well, Master Crad, you must think me a 
 *^muff,' as you call it. And the groove is to go 
 quite up to the spill ; there must be two rings 
 below the crown of it." 
 
 " Below the cro^vn, indeed ! On the fat part, I 
 said three times. Now, Viley, you know you heard 
 me." 
 
 "Well, well," cried Job in despair, "two rings 
 on the fat part, and no knot at all in the wood, 
 and at least six inches round, and, and, well — ^I 
 think that's aU of it, thank the Lord." 
 
 " iVll of it, indeed ! Well, you are a nice fellow ! 
 Didn't I tell you so, Viley ? Wliy, you've left out 
 altogether the most important point of all. Job. The 
 wood must be a clear bright yellow, or else a very rich 
 gold colour, and I'm to pay for it next Tuesday, 
 because I spent my week's money yesterday, as 
 soon as ever I got it, and — oh, Viley ! can't you lend' 
 a fellow sixpence ?"
 
 44 CEADOCK XOWELL : 
 
 " No, not to save my life, sir. Why, Craddy, 
 you know I Avouldn't let you go tick if I could." 
 
 The boys rushed at one another, half in fun and 
 half in affection, and, seizing each other by the belt 
 of the light-plaid tunic, away they went dancing 
 down the hall, while Hogstaff whistled a polka 
 gently, with his old eyes glistening after them. A 
 prettier pair, or better matched, never set young 
 locks afloating. Each put his healthy, clear, bright 
 face on the shoulder of the other, each flung out 
 his short-socked legs, and pointed his dainty feet. 
 You could see their shapely calves jerked up as 
 they went with double action, and the hollow of 
 the back curved in, as they threw asunder reck- 
 lessly, then clasped one another again, and you 
 thought they must both reel over. Sir Cradock 
 Nowell hated trousers, and would not have their 
 hair cropped, because it was like their mother's ; 
 otherwise they would not have looked one quarter 
 so picturesque. 
 
 Before the match Avas fairly finished — for they 
 were used to this sort of thing, and the object 
 always was to see which would give in first — it was 
 cut short most unexpectedly. While they were 
 taking a sharp pirouette down at the end of the 
 hall — and as they whirled round I defy their father 
 to have known the one from the other — the door of 
 the steward's room opened suddenly, and a tall 
 dark woman came out. The twins in full merri- 
 ment dashed up against her, and must have fallen 
 if she had not collared them with strong and bony
 
 A TALE OF THE NEW FOKEST. 45 
 
 arms. Like little gentlemen, as they were, every 
 atom of them, they turned in a moment to apolo- 
 gise, and their clieeks were burning red. They 
 saw a gaunt old woman, wide-shouldered, stern, 
 and forcible, 
 
 " Oo, ah ! a bonnie pan' ye've gat, as I see in all 
 my life lang. But ye'll get no luck o' them. Tak' 
 the word o' threescore year, ye'll never get no luck 
 o' them, you that calls yom*sel' Cray dock No well." 
 
 She was speaking to Sir Cradock, who had fol- 
 lowed her from the steward's room, and who 
 seemed as much put out as a proud man of fifty 
 ever cares to show himself. He made no answer, 
 and the two poor children fell back against a side- 
 bench. 
 
 "I'll no talk o' matters noo. You've a gi'en me 
 my refoosal, and I tak' it once for all. But ye'll 
 be sorry for the day ye did it, Craydock Xowell." 
 
 To the great amazement of Hogstaff, who was 
 more taken aback than any one else. Sir Cradock 
 Nowell, without a word, walked to the ■s^^de front 
 door with ceremony, as if he Avere leading a peeress 
 out. He did not offer his arm to the woman, but 
 neither did he shrink from her ; she gathered her 
 dark face up again from its softening glance at the 
 children, and without another word or look, but 
 sweeping her skirt around her, away she walked 
 down the bi*oad front road, as stiff and as stern as 
 the oak-trees.
 
 46 CEADOCK NOWELL 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 The lapse of years made little difference with 
 the Reverend John Rosedew, except to mellow 
 and enfranchise the heart so free and rich by 
 nature, and to pile fresh stores of knowledge in the 
 mind so stored already. Of coiii'se the parson had 
 his faults. In many a little matter his friends 
 could come down upon him sharply, if minded so 
 to do. But any one so minded would not have 
 been fit to be called John Rosedew's friend. 
 
 His greatest fault was one which sprang from 
 liis own high chivalry. If once he detected a 
 person, whether taught or untaught, in the attempt 
 to deceive or truckle, that person was to him 
 thenceforth a thing to be pitied and prayed for. 
 Large and liberal as his heart was, charitable and 
 even lenient to all other frailties, the presence of a 
 lie in the air was to it as ozone to a test-paper. 
 And then he was always sorry afterwards when he 
 had shown his high disdain. For who could dis-
 
 A TALE OF THE NEW FOEEST. 47 
 
 prove that John Rosedew hhnself might have been 
 a thorough Har, if trained and taught to consider 
 truth a poHceman with his staff drawn ? 
 
 Another fault John Rosedew had — and I do not 
 tell his foibles (as our friends do) to enjoy them — 
 he gave to his books and their bygone ages much 
 of the time which he ought to have spent abroad 
 in his own little parish. But this could not be 
 attributed to any form of self-indulgence. Much 
 as he liked his books, lie liked his flock still better, 
 but never could overcome the idea that they would 
 rather not be bothered. If any one were ailing, 
 if any one were needy, he would throw aside his 
 Theophrastus, and be where he was wanted, ■vvith a 
 mild sweet voice and gentle eyes that crannied 
 not, like a crane's bill, into the family crocks and 
 dustbin. It was a part, and no unpleasant one, 
 of his natural diffidence, that he required a poor 
 man's invitation quite as much as a rich one's, ere 
 ever he crossed the threshold ; unless trouble over- 
 flowed the impluvium. In all the parish of Nowel- 
 hm'st there was scarcely a man or a woman who 
 did not rejoice to see the rector pacing his lei- 
 smx'ly rounds, carrying his elbows a little out, as 
 men with large deltoid muscles do, wearing his old 
 hat far back on his head, so that it seemed to 
 slope away from liim, and smiling quietly to him- 
 self at the children who tugfjed his coat-tails for 
 an orange or a halfpenny. He never could come 
 out but what the m'chins of the village were down 
 upon him as promptly as if he were apple-pie;
 
 48 CRADOCK NO WELL : 
 
 and many of them had the impudence to call him 
 " Uncle John " before his hair was grey. 
 
 Instead of going to school, the boys were ap- 
 prenticed to him in the classics ; and still more 
 pleasantly he taught them to swim, and fish, and 
 row. Of riding he knew but little, except from 
 the treatise of Xenophon, and a paper on the Pele- 
 thronian Lapiths; so they learned it as all other 
 boys do, by dint of crown and hard bumpage. 
 Moreover, Mark Stote, head gamekeeper, took them 
 in hand very early as his pupils in woodcraft and 
 gunnery. To tell the truth, Uncle John objected 
 to this accomplishment ; he thought that the 
 wholesome excitement and exercise of shooting 
 afforded scarcely a vahd reason for the destruction 
 of innocent life. However, he recollected that he 
 had not always thou.ght so — his conversion having 
 been wrought by the shrieks of a wounded hare — 
 neither did he expect to bind all the world AAith 
 his own girdle. Sir Cradock insisted that the 
 young idea should be taught to shoot, and both the 
 young ideas took to it very kindly. 
 
 Perhaps on the whole they were none the worse 
 for the want of public-school training. What 
 they lost thereby in quickness, suspicion, and 
 V effrontery, was more than balanced by tlie gain in 
 purity, simplicity, love of home, and Idndliness. 
 For nature had not gifted them with that vulgar 
 arrogance, for Avhich the best prescription is " cal- 
 citration nine times a day, and clean the boots for 
 kicking you." Every year their father took them
 
 A TALE OF THE NEW FOEEST. 49 
 
 for a month or two to London, to garnish with 
 some coui'tly frilHng the knuckles of his Hamp- 
 shire hams. But they only hated it ; thorough 
 agricoles they were, and well knew their own 
 blessings : and sweet and gladsome was tlie morn- 
 ino; after each return, thouo-h it mio'ht he blowino; 
 a gale of wind, or drizzling through the ash-leaves. 
 And then the headlong rush to see beloved Uncle 
 John. Nature they loved in any form, sylvan, agi*a- 
 rian, human, when that human form was such as they 
 could climb and nestle in. And there was not in 
 the parish, nor in all the forest, any child so rough 
 and dirty, so shock-headed, and such a scamp, that 
 it could not climb into the arms of John Rose- 
 dew's fellow-feeling. 
 
 But I must not dwell on these pleasant days, the 
 father's gloiy, the hopes of the sons, the love of all 
 ^vho came near them, and the blessings of jMrs. 
 O'Gaghan. 
 
 They were now to go to Oxford, and astonish 
 the natives there, by showing that a little Idc, Jiwc, 
 hoc, may come even out of Galilee ; that a youth 
 never drawn through the wire-gauge of Eton, 
 Harrow, or Kugby, may carry still the electric 
 spark, and be taper and well-rounded. Half their 
 learning accrued sub dio, in the manner of the 
 ancients. Uncle John would lead them between 
 the trees and down to some forest dingle, the boy 
 on his right hand construing aloud or parsing 
 veiy slowly, the little spark at his left all glowing 
 to explode at the fu'st mistake. AeltoVetpo? made 
 
 VOL. I. E
 
 50 CEADOCK NOWELL : 
 
 the running, until he tripped and fell mentally, 
 and even then he was set on his legs, unless the 
 other was down upon him ; but in the latter case 
 the yoke-mate leaped into the harness. The 
 stroke-oar on the river that evening was awarded 
 to the one who paced the greatest number of stades 
 in the active voice of expounding. The accuracy, 
 the caution, born of this warm rivalry, became at 
 last so vigilant, that the laoy who won the toss for 
 the right-hand place at starting, was almost sure 
 of the stroke-oar. 
 
 So they passed the matriculation test with con- 
 summate ease, and delighted the college tutor 
 by their clear bold writing. They had not read 
 so much as some men have before entering the 
 University, but all their knowledge was close 
 and firm, and staunch enough for a spring-board. 
 And they wrote most excellent Latin prose, and 
 Greek Averse easily flowing. However, Sir Cradock 
 was very nervous on the eve of their departure for 
 the first term of Oxford residence, and led John 
 Rosedew, in whose classical powers he placed the 
 highest confidence, into his private room, and 
 there begged him, as a real friend, tested now for 
 forty years, to tell him bluntly whether the boys 
 were likely to do him credit. 
 
 " Don't spare me, John, and don't spare them : 
 only let us have no disappointment about it." 
 
 "My dear fellow, my dear fellow !" cried John, 
 tugging at his collar, as he always did when non- 
 plussed, for fear of losing himself ; " how on eartli
 
 A TALE OF THE NEW POKES T. 51 
 
 can I tell? Most likely the men know a great 
 (leal more in the University now than they did 
 ■when I had lectm'es. Plaven't I begged you fifty 
 times to have down a young first-classman ?" 
 
 " Yes, I know you have, John. But I am not 
 quite such a fool, nor so shamelessly ungrateful. 
 To upset the pile of your ten years' labour, and 
 rebuild it upon its apex ! And talk to me of young 
 first-classmen ! Why, you know as well as I do, 
 John, that there is not one of them, however bril- 
 liant, with a tenth part of yom* knowledge. It 
 could never be, any more than a young tree can 
 carry the fruit of an old one. Why, when you 
 took yoiu* o^\^l first-class, they coidd only find one 
 man to put with you, and you have never ceased 
 to read, read, read, ever since you left old Oriel, 
 and chiefly in taste and philology. And such a 
 memory as you have! John, I am ashamed of 
 you. You want to impose upon me." 
 
 And Su" Cradock fixed the parson's eyes with 
 that keen and point-blank gaze, which was especi- 
 ally odious to the shy John Rosedew. 
 
 " I am sure I don't. You cannot mean that," 
 he re})lied, rather waiinly, for, like all hnaginative 
 men, Avhen of a diffident cast, he was desperately 
 matter-of-fact the moment his honom* was played 
 with. His friend began to smile at him, drawing 
 up his grey moustache, and saying, "Yes, John, 
 you are a donkey." 
 
 " I know that I am," said John Kosedew, shutting 
 Ids eyes, as he loved to do when he got on a favoLU'- 
 'e2
 
 52 CRADOCK NOWELL : 
 
 ite topic ; " by the side of those mighty critics of 
 the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries — the Sca- 
 ligers, the Casaubons, the Vossii, the Stephani, — 
 what am I but a starving donkey, without a thistle 
 left for him? But as regards our English critics 
 — at least too many of them — I submit that we 
 have been misled by the superiority of their Latin, 
 and their more slashing style. I doubt whether 
 any of them had a tenth part of the learning, or 
 the sequacity of genius " 
 
 " Come, John, I can't stand this, you know ; and 
 the boys will be down here directly, they are so 
 fond of brown sheny." 
 
 " Well, to return to the subject — I own that I 
 was surprised and hurt when a former Professor of 
 Greek actually confounded the JEolic form of the 
 plusquam perfectum of so common a verb as " 
 
 " Yes, John, I know all about that, and how it 
 spoiled your breakfast. But about the boys, the 
 boys, John?" 
 
 " And again, as to the delicate sub-significance, 
 not the well-known tortuousness of ivapa in com- 
 position, but " 
 
 " Confound it, John. They've got all their 
 things packed. They'll be here in a moment, pre- 
 tending to rollick for our sakes ; and you won't tell 
 me what you think of them." 
 
 "Well, I think there never were two finer 
 fellows to jump a gate since the days of Castor and 
 Pollux. ' Hunc equis, ilium superare pugnis.^ You
 
 A TALE OF THE NEW FOREST. 53 
 
 remember bow you took me down for construing 
 ^pugnis^ \\Tongly, wben we were at Sberborne?" 
 
 " Yes, and bow proud I was, Jobn ! You had 
 been at tbe bead of tbe form for tbree montbs, and 
 none of us could stir you; but you came back 
 again next day in tbe fifth iEneid. But here come 
 tbe villains — now it's all over." 
 
 And so the boys went awa}', and their father 
 could not for his life ascertaui what opinion bis 
 ancient friend bad formed as to tbe chances of their 
 doing something good at Oxford. Simple and 
 straightforward as Mr. Rosedew was, no man ever 
 lived from whom it was harder to force an opinion. 
 He saw matters from so many aspects, everything 
 took so many facets, shifting lights, and playing 
 colom's, from the versatility of liis mmd, that whoso 
 could fix him at such times, and extort his real 
 sentiments, might spin a diamond ring, and shave 
 by it. He had golden hopes about his " nephews," 
 as he often called them, but he would not pronounce 
 those hopes at present, lest the father should be 
 , disappointed. And so tbe boys went up to Oxford, 
 half a moon before the woodcocks came.
 
 54 CEADOCK NOWELL : 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 I DO not mean to write at large upon University- 
 life, because the theme has been out-thesed by men 
 of higher powers. It is a brief Olympic, a Derby 
 premature, wherein to lose or win depends — train- 
 ing, health, ability, and industry being granted — 
 upon the early stoning or late kernelhng of the 
 brain. Without laying claim to much experience, 
 any one may protest that our brains are worked a 
 deal too hard at the time of adolescence. We lose 
 thereby then' vivific powers and their originality. 
 The peach throws off at the critical period all the 
 fruit it cannot ripen ; the vine has no such abjective 
 prudence, and cripples itself by enthusiasm. 
 
 The twins were entered at Merton, and'^iad the 
 luck to obtain adjoining garrets. Sir Cradock had 
 begun to show a decided preference for Clayton, as 
 he grew year by year more and more like his 
 mother. But this was not the only reason why he 
 would not listen to some fool's suggestion, that
 
 A TALE OP THE NEW FOREST. OD 
 
 Cradock, the heir to the property, shoukl be ranked 
 as a " gentleman-commoner." That stupid distinc- 
 tion he left for men "who requu'e self-assertion, 
 admiring as he did the sense and spirit of that 
 Master, well known in his day, who, to some golden 
 cad insisting that his son should be entered in that 
 college as a gentleman-commoner, angrily replied, 
 '' Sir, all my commoners are gentlemen." 
 
 But the brothers were very soon parted. Clay- 
 ton got sleeved in a scholar's go-svn, while Cradock 
 still fluttered the leading-strings. ^^ Et timicce 
 mamcas-^jon effeminate Viley!" said Cradock, 
 admiring hugely, when liis twin ran up to show 
 himself off, after winning a Corpus scholarship; 
 " and the governor won't allow me a chance of a 
 parasol for my elbows." Sir Cradock, a most 
 determined man, and a very odd one to deal \\'ith, 
 had forbidden his elder son to stand for any 
 scholarship, except those few which are of the 
 University corporate. " A youth of your expecta- 
 tions," he exclaimed, with a certain bitterness, for 
 he often repined in secret that Clayton was not the 
 heir, " a boy placed as you are, must not compete 
 for a poor young lad's viaticum. You may go in 
 for a University scholarship, though of coiu'se you 
 will never get one; an examination does good, I 
 have heard, to the unsuccessful candidates. But 
 don't let me hear about it, not even if, by some 
 accident, you should be the lucky one." Craddy 
 was deeply hurt ; he had long perceived his father's 
 partiality for the son more dashing, yet more
 
 56 CEADOCK NO WELL : 
 
 effeminate, more pretentious, and less persistent. 
 So Cradock set his heart upon winning Craven, 
 Hertford, or Ireland, and never even alluding to it 
 in the presence of his father. Hence it will be 
 evident that the youth was proud and sensitive. 
 
 " Amy amata, peramata a 7ne," cried the parson to 
 his daughter, now a lovely girl of sixteen, straight, 
 slender, and well-poised ; " how glad and proud we 
 ought to be of Clayton's great success !" 
 
 "Pa, dear, he would never have got it, I am 
 quite certain of that, if Cradock had been allowed 
 to go in; and I think it is most unfau", shamefully 
 unjust, that because he is the eldest son he is never 
 to have any honour." And Amy coloured bril- 
 liantly at the warmth of her own championship; 
 but her father could not see it. 
 
 "So I am inclined to think" — John Kosedew 
 was never positive, except upon great occasions — 
 " perhaps I should say perpend, if I were fond of 
 hybrid English. I don't mean about the unfair- 
 ness. Amy ; for I think I should do the same if I 
 were in Sir Cradock's place. I mean that our 
 Crad would have got it, instead of Clayton, with 
 health and fortune favouring. But it stands upon 
 a razor's edge, eVl ^vpovs la-TaTai. dK/x^y. You can 
 construe that, Amy?" 
 
 " Yes, pa, when you tell me the English. How 
 the green is coming out on the fir-trees ! So faint 
 and yet so bright. Oh, papa, what Greek sub- 
 significance, as you sometimes call it, is equal to 
 that composition?"
 
 A TALE OF THE NEW FOEEST. 57 
 
 ^' Well, my poppet, I am so short-sighted, I 
 would much rather have a triply composite 
 verb " 
 
 "Than three good kisses from me, daddy? 
 AVell, there they are, at any rate, because I know 
 you are disappointed." And the child, herself 
 more bitterly disappointed, as becomes a hot 
 ])artisan, ran away to sit under a sprawling larch, 
 just getting new nails on its fingers, for the spring 
 Avas awaking early. 
 
 It was not more than a week after this, and not 
 very far from All-Fools'-day, when Clayton, directly 
 after chapel, imshed into Cradock's garret, hot, 
 breathless, and unphilosophical. Cradock, calm 
 and thoughtful, as he usually was, poked his head 
 through the open slide of the dusthole called a 
 scout's room, and brought out three willow-pattern 
 plates, a little too retentive of the human impress, 
 and an extra knife and fork, dark-browed at the 
 tip of the handle. Then he turned up a corner of 
 tablecloth, where it cherished sombre memories of 
 a tearful teapot, and set the mustard-pot to control 
 it. Nor long before he doubled the coffee in the 
 strainer of the biggin, and shouted " Corker ! " 
 thrice, far as human voice would gravitate, down 
 the well of the staircase. Meanwhile Master 
 Clayton stood fidgeting, and doffed not his 
 scholarly toga. Corker, the scout, a short fat 
 man, came up the stairs with dignity and indigna- 
 tion contending. He was amazed that any fresh- 
 man "should have the cheek to holler so." Mr.
 
 58 CEADOCK NOWELL : 
 
 Nowell was such a quiet young man, that tlie scout 
 looked for some apology. " Corker, a commons of 
 bread and butter, and a cold fowl and some tongue. 
 Be quick now, before the buttery closes. And, as 
 I see I am putting you out in your morning work, 
 get a quart of ale at your dinner-time." " Yes, sir, 
 to be sure, sir; I wish all the gentlemen was as 
 thoughtful." 
 
 "No, Craddy, never mind that," cried his bro- 
 ther, reddening richly, for Clayton was fair as a 
 lady, " I only want to speak to you about — well, 
 perhaps, you know what it is I have come for. Is 
 that fellow gone from the door ? " 
 
 "I am sure I don't know. Go and look your- 
 self. But, dear Viley, what is the matter ? " 
 
 *'0h, Cradock, you can so oblige me, and it 
 can't matter much to you. But to me, with no- 
 thing to look to, it does make such a difference." 
 
 Cradock never could bear to hear this — that his 
 own twin-brother should talk, as he often did, so 
 much in the pauper strain. And all the while 
 Clayton was sure of 50,000^. under their mother's 
 settlement. But Crad was full of wild generosity, 
 and had made up his mind to share Nowelhurst, if 
 he could do so, with his brother. He began to 
 pull Clayton's gown off; he would have blacked 
 his shoes if requested. He always thought himself 
 Viley's prime minister. 
 
 "Whatever it is, my boy, Viley, you know I 
 will do it for you, if it is only fan' and honour- 
 able."
 
 A TALE OF THE NEW FOEEST. 59 
 
 " Oh, it is no great thing. I was sure you would 
 do it for me. To do just a little bit under your 
 best in this hot scrimmage for the Ireland. I am 
 not much afraid of any man, Crad, except you, 
 and Brown, of Balliol." 
 
 " Viley, I am very sorry that you have asked 
 me such a thing. Even if it were in other ways 
 straightforward, I could not do it, for the sake of 
 the father, and Uncle John, and little Amy." 
 
 "Don't you know that the governor doesn't 
 want you to get it? You are talldng nonsense, 
 Cradock, downright nonsense, to cover your own 
 selfishness. And that frizzle-headed Amy, in- 
 deed!" 
 
 " I would rather talk nonsense than fraud, Clay- 
 ton. And I can't help telling you that what you 
 say about my father may be true, but is not 
 brotherly ; and yom: proposal does yovi very little 
 honoiu' ; and I never could have thought it of you ; 
 and I will do my very utmost. And as for Amy, 
 indeed, she is too good for you to speak of — and — 
 
 and " He was highly wroth at the sneer about 
 
 Amy's hair, which he admired beyond all reason, 
 as indeed he did every bit of her, but without 
 letting any one know it. He leaned upon the 
 table, with his thumb well into the mustard-pot. 
 This was the first real quan'el with the brother he 
 loved so much ; and it felt like a skewer poked 
 into his heart. 
 
 "Well, elder brother by about two seconds," 
 cried Clayton, twitching his plaits up well upon
 
 60 CEADOCK NOWELL : 
 
 his coat-collar, " I'll do all I can to beat you. And 
 I hope Brown Avill have it, not you. There's the 
 cash for my commons. I know you can't afford 
 it, until you get a scholarship." 
 
 Clayton flung half-a-crown upon the table, and 
 went down the stairs with a heavy tramp, knock- 
 ing over a dish with the college arms on, wherein 
 Corker was bringing the fowl and the tongue. 
 Corker got all the benefit of the hospitable doings, 
 and made a tidy dinner out of it, for Cradock 
 could eat no breakfast. It was the first time bitter 
 words had passed between the brothers since the 
 little ferments of childhood, which are nothing 
 more than sweetwort the moment they settle down. 
 And he doubted himself ; he doubted whether 
 he had not been selfish about it. 
 
 It was the third day of the examination, and 
 when he appeared at ten o'clock among the forty 
 competitors, he was vexed anew to see that Clayton 
 had removed to a table at the other end of the 
 room, so as not to be even near him. The piece 
 of Greek prose which he wrote that morning dis- 
 satisfied him entu'ely ; and then again he rejoiced 
 at the thought that Viley need not be afraid of 
 him. He had never believed in his chance of suc- 
 cess, and went in for the scholarship to please 
 others and learn the nature of the examination. 
 Next year he might have a fairer prospect; this 
 year — as all the University knew — Brown, of 
 Balliol, was sure of it. 
 
 Nevertheless, by the afternoon he was in good
 
 A TALE OF THE NEW FOREST. 61 
 
 spirits again, and found a mixed paper which suited 
 him as if Uncle John had set it. One of the 
 examiners had been, some twenty years ago, a 
 pupil of John Rosedew, and tliis, of course, was a 
 great advantage to any successor alumnus ; though 
 neither of them knew the other. It is pleasant to 
 see how the old ideas germinate and assimilate, as 
 the olive and the baobab do, after the fires of many 
 summers. 
 
 Clayton, a placable youth (even when he was 
 quite in the wTong, as in the present instance), 
 came to Craddy's rooms that evening, begged him 
 not to apologise for his expressions of the morning, 
 and compared notes with him upon the doings of 
 the day. 
 
 "Bless you, Crad," he cried, after a glass of 
 first-rate brown sherry — not the vile molassied 
 stuff, thick as the sack of Falstaff, but the genuine 
 thing, with the light and shade of brown olives in 
 the sunset, and not to be procured, of course, from 
 any Oxonian wine-dealer ; — " oh, Crad, if we could 
 only wallop that Brown, of Balliol, between us, I 
 should not care much which it was. He has 
 booked it for such a certainty, and does look so 
 cocky about it. Did you see the style he walked 
 off, before hall, arm in arm with a INIaster of Arts, 
 and spouting his own iambics ? " 
 
 "First-rate ones, I dare say, Viley. Have a 
 pipe, old fellow. After all, it doesn't matter much. 
 Folk who have never been in them think a deal 
 the most of these tliino;s. The wine-merchant
 
 Q2 CEADOCK NOWELL : 
 
 laughs at beeswing ; and so, I suppose, it is ^^'itll all 
 trades." Cradock was not by any means prone to 
 the discourse sententious ; and the present lapse 
 was due, no doubt, to the reaction ensuing upon 
 his later scene with Viley, wherein each had pro- 
 mised heartily to hold fast by the brotherhood. 
 
 On the following Saturday morning, John Eose- 
 dew's face flushed puce-colour as he opened his 
 letters at breakfast-time. " Hurrah ! Amy, dar- 
 ling; hurrah, my child! Terque quatei'que, et 
 novies evoe ! Eat all the breakfast, melimel ; I 
 won't tell you till I come back." 
 
 " Oh, won't you, indeed ? " cried Amy, with her 
 back against the door and her arms in mock grim- 
 ness folded. " I rather think you will, papa ; unless 
 you have made up your mind to choke me. And 
 you are half way towards it ah'eady." 
 
 John saw that peculiar swell of her throat which 
 had frightened him so often — her dear mother had 
 died of bronchitis, and he knew nothing of medical 
 subjects — and so he allayed her excitement at 
 once, gave her over to Miss Eudoxia, who was late 
 in her bedroom as usual, and then set off at his 
 utmost speed to tell his old friend, Sir Cradock. 
 And a fine tm'u of speed he still could show, 
 though the whiskers under his college-cap (stuck 
 on anyhow in the hurry) were as white as the 
 breast of a martin quivering mider the eaves. 
 Since he lost his wife he had never cared to walk 
 fast, subsiding into three miles an hour, as thought- 
 ful and placid men will do, when they begin to thumb
 
 A TALE OF THE NEW FOEEST. 63 
 
 their waistcoats. But now through the waking life 
 of "the Chase," where the broAvn fern-stalks bent 
 over the Ammon horn of the lifting frond, and 
 the fescue (jrass was beadincj rough with dew 
 already, here and among the rabbit-holes, nimbly 
 dodging the undermine, ran as hard as a boy 
 of twelve, the man of threescore, John Rosedew. 
 Without stopping to knock as usual, he bui'st in 
 upon Sir Cradock, now sitting all alone at his simple, 
 old-fashioned breakfast. Classical and theological 
 training are not locomotive, as we all know to 
 our cost; and the rector stood gasping ever so 
 long, with both hands pressed to his side. 
 
 " Why, John ; quick, quick ! You frighten 
 me. Is your house on fire ?" 
 
 '• Old fellow — old fellow ; such news ! Shake 
 hands — ever since the chmia forestcv ; shake hands 
 again. Oh, I feel rather sick ; pray excuse me ; 
 
 <jj/co Kara) (TTpe<peTai. 
 
 " Wliat is it, John ? Do be quick. I must send 
 for j\Ii's. O'Gaghau and the stomach-pump." Biddy 
 was now the licensed doctoress of the household, 
 and did little harm with her simples, if she failed 
 of doing good. 
 
 " Tunes there ? Open it ; look. University 
 news ! Crad and Clayton." 
 
 Wondering, smiling, placidly anxious. Sir Cra- 
 dock tore open the paper, and found, after tiurning 
 a great many corners, the University news. Then 
 he read out with a trembling voice, after glancing 
 over it silently :
 
 64 CEADOCK NOWELL : 
 
 " The Ireland scliolarsliip lias been awarded to 
 Cradock Nowell, of Merton College. Proximo 
 accessit Clayton Nowell, scholar of Corpus Christi. 
 Unless we are misinformed, these gentlemen are 
 twin-brothers." 
 
 " Griutie, griutie, grunt, 
 Oos he arl tew blunt ; 
 Naw oose Hampshire hogs, 
 But to zhow the way in bogs." 
 
 So John Rosedew quoted in the fulness of his 
 glory from an old New Forest rhyme. John's 
 delight transcended everything, because he had 
 never expected it. He had taken his own degree 
 ere ever the Ireland was heard of ; but three pupils 
 of his had Avon it while he was still in residence. 
 Of that he had not thought much. But now to 
 win it by proxy in his extreme old age, as he began 
 to consider it, and from all the crack public school- 
 men, and with his own pet alumni, whom no one 
 else had taught anything — such an Ossa upon Pe- 
 lion, such an Olympus on Ossa — no wonder that the 
 snow of his whiskers shook and the dew trembled 
 under his eyelids. 
 
 Sir Cradock, on the other hand, had never a 
 word to say, but turned his head like one who waits 
 for a storm of dust to go by. 
 
 " Why, Cradock, old friend, what on earth is 
 the matter? You don't seem at all delighted." 
 
 " Yes, I am, of course, John ; as delighted as I 
 ought to be. But I wish it had been Viley ; he 
 wants it so much more, and he is so like his 
 mother."
 
 A TALE OF THE NEW FOEEST. G5 
 
 " So is Cracl ; every bit as much ; an enlarged 
 and grander portrait. Can't you see the difference 
 between a hirge heart and a mere good one? 
 Will no one ever appreciate my noble and simple 
 Craddy?" 
 
 John Eosedew spoke warmly, and was sorry 
 before the breath from his lips was cold. Not 
 that he had no right to say it, but because he felt 
 that he had done far more harm than good. 
 
 VOL. I.
 
 6*6 CEADOCK NOWELL : 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 HoNOUES flash in the summer sun, as green 
 corn does in the morning ; then they gleam mature 
 and mellow at the time of reaping ; they are 
 bagged, perhaps by a woman's arm, with a cut 
 " below the knees ;" set on their butt for a man to 
 sit under while eating his bread and cheese ; then 
 they wither, and are tossed into chaff by a contu- 
 melious steam-engine with a leathern strap in- 
 flexible. 
 
 Cradock's " Ireland " has gone by, and another 
 has succeeded it, and this has fallen, as most things 
 fall, to the sap of perseverance, steel-tipped with 
 hard self-confidence — this Ireland has fallen to the 
 lot of Brown Balliolensis. Clayton would not go 
 in for it ; his pride, or rather vanity, would not 
 allow him to do so. Was he going to take Cra- 
 dock's leavings, and be a year behind him, when 
 he was only two minutes younger? However, 
 he went in for the Hertford, and, what was a great
 
 A TALE OF THE NEW FOEEST. G? 
 
 deal more, lie got it ; for Cradock would not stand ; 
 and, even if he had, perhaps the result A\ould 
 have been the same. Viley had made up his mind 
 to win it, and worked very hard indeed ; and so 
 won it very easily. Cradock could usually beat 
 him in Greek, but not so often in Latin. And 
 Clayton wrote the prettiest, most tripping, co- 
 quettish, neat-ankled hendecasyllables that ever 
 whisked roguishly round a corner, wondering 
 where Catullus was. 
 
 Ah I light-hearted poet, sensitively sensuous, 
 yet withal deep-hearted, Avith a vein of golden phi- 
 losophy, and a pensive tenderness, now-a-days we 
 overlook thee. Horace is more fashionable, more 
 suited to a flippant age, because he has no passion. 
 
 Early on a sunripe evening in the month of 
 June, " when the sun was shifting the shadows of 
 the hills, and doffed the jaded oxen's yoke, distri- 
 buting the lovetime from his waning chariot,'" a 
 forest dell, soft, clear, and calm, was listening to 
 its thrushes. And more tlian at the throstle's flute, 
 or flageolet of the blackbird, oaks and chestnuts 
 pricked their ears at the voice of a gliding maiden. 
 Where the young fern was pluming itself, arching, 
 lifting, ruffling in filigi'ee, light perspective, and 
 depth of Gothic tracery, freaked by the nip of 
 fairy fingers, tremulous as a coral grove in a crystal 
 luuler-ciuTent, the shyer fronds still nestling home, 
 uncertain of the world as yet, and coiled like 
 catherine-wheels of green ; where the cranesbill 
 pushed like Zedekiah, and the succory reared its 
 f2
 
 68 CRADOCK NOWELL : 
 
 sky-blue windmill (open for business till 8 p.m.) ; 
 where the violet now was rolled up in the seed-pod, 
 like a stylite millipede, and the great bindweed, in 
 its crenate horn, piped and fluted spirally, had for- 
 gotten the noonday flaunt : here, and over the 
 nibbled sward, where the crisp dew was not risen 
 yet, here came wandering the lightest foot that 
 ever passed, but shook not, the moss-bed of the 
 glow-worm. Under the rigorous oaks (so corded, 
 seamed, and wenned with humps of grey), the 
 stately, sleek, mouse-coloured beech, the dappled, 
 nioss-beridden ash, and the birch-tree peeling sil- 
 verly, beneath the murmuring congress of the sun- 
 proof leaves; and again in the open breaks and 
 alleys, where light and shade went see-saw ; by and 
 through and under all, feeling for and with every 
 one, glanced, and gleamed, and glistened, and lis- 
 tened the loveliest being where all was love, the 
 pet in the nest of nature. 
 
 Of all the beauty in that sweet dell, where the 
 foot of man came scarcely once in a year ; of all 
 the largesse of earth and heaven ; of all the gi'ace 
 which is Nature's gratitude to her heavenly Father : 
 there was not one, from the lily-bell to the wild rose 
 and the heather-sprig, fit for a man to put in his 
 bosom, and look at Amy Ilosedew. 
 
 It is told of a certain good man's child, whose 
 lineage still is cherished, tliat when she was asked 
 by her father (half-bantering, half in earnest) to 
 tell him the reason why everybody loved her so, she 
 .cast down her eyes with a puzzled air, then opened
 
 A TALE or THE NEW FOREST. 69 
 
 them wide, as a cliild does to the sunrise of some 
 great truth — -" Fatlier, perhaps it is because I love 
 everybody so." Lucan has it in a neater form : 
 " amorem qmeris amando." And that was Amy 
 Rosedew's secret, by herself uncbeamed of — lovely, 
 because she could not help loving all our God has 
 made. And of all tlie fair things He has made, 
 and pronounced to be very good, since sunshine 
 first began to gleam, to glow, and to fade away, 
 what home has beauty found so bright, so rich in 
 varied elegance, so playfully receptive of the light 
 shed through creation — the light of the Maker's 
 smile — as a young maiden, pure of heart, natural, 
 true, and trusting ? 
 
 She came to the brink of a forest pool, and 
 looked at herself in the water. Not that she 
 thought more than she could help of the outward 
 thing called " Amy," but that she wondered how 
 her old favourites, Cradock and Clayton Nowell, 
 would esteem her face and style of dress now she 
 Avas turned seventeen. Most likely they had seen 
 ever so many girls, both at Oxford and in London, 
 compared with whom poor Amy was but a rustic 
 Phidyle, just fit to pick sticks in the New Forest. 
 
 The crystal mirror gave her back even the 
 sliade on her own sweet face, which fell from the 
 cloud of that simple thought ; for she stood where 
 the westering sunshine failed to touch the water, 
 but flushed with rich relief of gold the pm'ity of 
 lier figure. Every sapling, dappled hazel, slough- 
 ing birch, or glabrous maple, glistened with the
 
 70 CEADOCK NOWELL : 
 
 plumes of light, and every leaf was twinkling. 
 The columns of the larger trees stood like metal 
 cylinders, whereon the level gleam rules a streak, 
 and glints away round the rounding. Elbows, 
 arms, and old erabracings, backed with a body- 
 ground of green, laced with sunset's golden bodkin, 
 ever shifting every eyelet, — ^iDranch, and bough, 
 and trunk, and leaves, ruffling and twisting, or 
 staunch and grand, they seemed but a colonnade 
 and arch, for the sun to peep through at the 
 maiden, and tell of her on the calm waters. 
 
 Floating, fleeting, shimmering there, in a frame 
 of stately summer flags, vivid upon the crystal 
 shade, and twinkling every now and then to the 
 plash of a distant moorhen, or the dip of a swal- 
 low's wing, lay her graceful image, wondering in 
 soft reply to her play of wonder. She took off 
 her light chip hat, and laughed ; lo ! the courteous 
 picture did the same. She offered, with a mincing 
 air, her little frail of wood-strawberries ; and the 
 shadowy Amy put them back with the prettiest 
 grace ever dreamed of. Then she cast the spark- 
 ling nioht of her tresses down the white shoulders 
 and over her breast; and the other Amy was 
 looking at her through a ripple of cloudiness, with 
 the lissom waist retiring. She smoothed her hair 
 like a scarf around her, withdrew her chin on the 
 curving neck, and bowed the shapely forehead, 
 well pleased to see thus the foreshortening undone, 
 and the pure, bright oval shown as in a glass.
 
 A TALE OP THE NEW FOREST. 71 
 
 Then, frightened almost at the lustrous depth of 
 her large gi'ey eyes, deep-fringed with black, she 
 thought of things all beyond herself, and woke, 
 from Nature's innocent joy in her own brief luck 
 of beauty, to the bashful consciousness, the down 
 of a maiden's dreamings. Bridling next at her 
 mirrored face, with a sudden sense of humom*, all 
 the time she watched the red lips, and the glimmer 
 of pearls between them, " Amy," she cried, " now, 
 after this, don't come to me for a character, unless 
 you want one, you pretty dear, for conceit and 
 self-admiration." 
 
 So saying, she tossed her light head at herself, 
 and looked round throuo-h her flickerino; cloudlets. 
 What did she see? What made the dark water 
 flame upon the instant with a richer glow than 
 smiset ? The delicate cheeks, the fair forehead 
 and neck, even the pearly slope of the shoulders, 
 were flooded with deepest carmine. Her pride fell 
 flat, as the cistus stamen at a touch droops away on 
 the petal. Then she shrank back into a flowering 
 broom, and cowered among the spikelets, and dared 
 not move to wipe away the tears she was so mad 
 vdih. Oh ! the wretched abasement earned by a 
 sweet little bit of vanity ! 
 
 How she hated herself, and the light, and the 
 water, her senseless habit of thinking aloud, above 
 all, her despicable fancy that she was growing — 
 what nonsense ! — such a pretty girl ! Thencefoi-th 
 and for ever, she felt quite sure, she never could
 
 72 CEADOCK NOWELL : 
 
 look in a glass again, unless it were just for a 
 moment, to put her hair to rights, when she got 
 home. 
 
 " To think of my hair all down my neck, and 
 the way I had tm'ued in the gathers !" — the poor 
 little thing had been making experiments how she 
 would look in a low-necked dress — " Oh ! that was 
 the worst thino; of all. I might have laughed at 
 
 o O O 
 
 it but for that. And now I am sure I can never 
 even peep at his face again. Whatever will he 
 think of me, and what would my papa say ?" 
 
 After crying until she began to laugh, she re- 
 solved to go straight home, and confess all her 
 crime to Aunt Eudoxia, John Rosedew's maiden 
 sister, who had come to live with him when he lost 
 his wife, three dreary years agone. So Amy 
 rolled up her long haii' anyhow, without a bit of 
 pride in it, shrank away and examined herself, to 
 be sure that all was right, and, after one peep, 
 came bravely forth, trying to look as much as 
 possible like her good Aunt Doxy ; then she walked 
 at her stateliest, with the basket of strawberries, 
 picked for papa, in one hand, and the other tightly 
 clasped upon the bounding of her heart. But her 
 eyes were glancing right or left, like a fawn's 
 when a lion has roared; and even the youngest 
 trees saw quite well that, however rigid with ]\Iiss 
 Eudoxia the gliding form might be, it was poised 
 for a dart and a hide behind them at every crossing 
 shadow. 
 
 But fortune favours the brave. She won her
 
 A TALE OF THE NEW FOEEST. 73 
 
 own little sallyport without the rustle of a black- 
 berry-leaf, and thereupon rushed to a hasty and 
 ostrich-like conclusion. She felt quite sure that, 
 after all, none but the waters and winds could tell 
 the tale of her little coquetry. Beyond all doubt, 
 Cradock Nowell was deep in the richest mental 
 metalhu'ixy, tracing the vein of Greek iambics, as 
 he did before his beard grew ; and she never, never 
 would call them " stupid iambics" again. 
 
 Cradock, who had seen her, but turned away 
 immediately (as became a gentleman), did not, for 
 the moment, know his little Amy Rosedew. A 
 year and a half had changed her from a stripling, 
 jumping girl to a shy and graceful maiden, dread- 
 fully afraid of sweethearts. She had not been 
 away from Nowelhurst throughout that year and 
 a half, for her father could not get on without her 
 for more than a month at a time, and all that 
 month he fretted. But the twins had spent the 
 last summer in Germany, with a merry reading 
 (or talking) party ; and their Christmas and Easter 
 vacations were cbagged away in London, through 
 a strange whim of Sir Cradock Nowell ; at least, 
 they thought it strange, but there was some reason 
 for it. 
 
 Young Cradock Nowell was not such a muff as 
 to be lost in Greek senarii ; no trimeter acata- 
 lectics of truest balance and purest fall could 
 be half so fair to scan; not "Harmony of 
 the golden hair," and her nine Pierid daughters 
 round the ciystal spring, were worth a glance of
 
 74 CRADOCK NOWELL : 
 
 the mental eye, when fortune gi'anted bodily 
 vision of our unconscious Amy. But he did not 
 stand there watching mutely, as some youths would 
 have done ; for a moment, indeed, he forgot him- 
 self in the flush of admiration. The next moment 
 he remembered that he was a gentleman ; and he 
 did what a gentleman must have done — whether 
 marquis or labourer : he slipped away through the 
 bushes, feeling as if he had done some injury. 
 Then the maiden, glancing round, caught one 
 startled glimpse, as Nyssia did of the stealthy 
 Gyges, or Diana of Actseon. From that one 
 glimpse she knew him, though he was so like his 
 brother ; but he had failed to recognise the Amy 
 of his boyhood.
 
 A TALE OF THE NEW FOREST. 75 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Miss Eudoxia was now the queen of the little 
 household, and the sceptre she bore was an iron 
 one to all except her niece. John — that easy, 
 good-natured parson, who, coining in from the 
 garden or parish, any summer forenoon, would 
 halt in the long low kitchen, if a nice crabbed 
 question presented itself, take his seat outright 
 upon the corner of the ancient dresser, and then 
 and there discuss some moot point in the classics, 
 or tie and untie over again some fluffy knot histo- 
 rical (which after all is but a pucker in the tatters 
 of a scarecrow) ; and all the while he would appeal 
 to the fat cook or the other maid — for the house 
 only kept t^^^o servants ; and all the while ]\Iiss 
 Amy, 8iac()vXdTTov(7a deaiv, would poke in little pike- 
 points of impudence and ignorance — John, I must 
 confess at last, was threatened so with dishclouts, 
 pepper, and even rolling-pins, that the cook began 
 to forget the name of Plato (which had struck
 
 76 CEADOCK NOWELL : 
 
 her), and the liousemaid could not justly tell what 
 Tibullus says of Pales. 
 
 " John, you are so lamentably deficient in moral 
 dignity ! And the mutton not put down yet, and 
 the kidney-beans getting ropy! If you must sit 
 there, you might as well begin to slice the cucum- 
 ber. I dare say you'd do that even." 
 
 " To be sure, Doxy ; so I will. I sharpened my 
 knife this morning." 
 
 " Doxy, indeed ! And before the servants ! I 
 am sure Johanna must have heard you, though she 
 makes such a rattle in there with the rolling-pin, 
 like a doctor's pestle and mortar. She always does 
 when I come out, to pretend she is so busy ; and 
 most likely she has been listening for half an hour, 
 and laughing at yom* flummery. What do I care 
 about Acharnius ? — now don't tell me any jokes, if 
 you please, brother John ; with butter on both 
 your legs, too ! Oh, if I could only put you in 
 a passion ! I might have some hopes of you then. 
 But I should like to see the woman that could; 
 you have so little self-respect." 
 
 " Eudoxia, that is the very converse of Seneca's 
 proposition." 
 
 "Then Seneca didn't know how to converse, 
 and I won't be flouted with him. Seneca to me, 
 indeed, or any other heathen ! Let me tell you 
 one thing, John Rosedew" — Miss Eudoxia now 
 was wrathful, not nettlesome only, but spinous ; 
 perhaps it would be rude to hint that in this latter 
 word may Im'k the true etymon of " spinster" — " let
 
 A TALE OF THE NEW FOEEST. 77 
 
 me tell you one thing, and perhaps you'll tiy to re- 
 member it ; for, with all your wonderful memory, 
 }-ou never can tell to-morrow what I said to-day. 
 
 " Surely not, dear Doxy, because you talk so 
 much. It is related of that same Seneca that he 
 could repeat " 
 
 " Fiddlesticks. Now you want to turn off the 
 home-truth you feel to be coming. But you shall 
 have it, John Rosedew, and briefly, it is this : 
 Although you do sit on the dresser, your taste is 
 too eclectic. You are a very learned man, but 
 your learning gilds foul idols. You spend all your 
 time in pagans' company, while the epistles and 
 gospels have too little style for yo?/." 
 
 " Oh, Aunt Eudoxia, how dare you talk to my 
 papa like that, my own daddy, and me to hear you ? 
 And just now you flew into a pet becaiTse you 
 fancied Johanna heard him call you 'Doxy.' I 
 am astonished at it. Aunt Doxy ; and it is not true, 
 not- a word of it. Come with me, father, dearest, 
 and we won't say a Avord to her all the afternoon." 
 
 Even youFig Amy saw that her father was hit 
 very hard. There was so much truth in the accu- 
 sation, so much spiteful truth — among thy beauties, 
 inula Veritas, a smooth skin is not one — that poor 
 John felt as if Aristophanes were sewn up hence- 
 forth in a pig-sack. He slunk away quietly to his 
 room, and tried to suck some roots Hebraic, whence 
 he got no satisfaction. He never could have become 
 a great theological scholar. After all, a man must 
 do what God has shaped his mind for. So in a
 
 7b CRADOCK NOWELL : 
 
 week John Rosedew got back to his native ele- 
 ment; but sister Doxy's rough thrust made the 
 dresser for many a month like the bottom of a pin- 
 cushion, when the pins are long, and the bran has 
 leaked out at the corner. 
 
 Now Miss Eudoxia Rosedew was always very 
 sorry when she had indulged too much in the plea- 
 sure of hurting others. It was not in her nature 
 to harm any living creature; but she could not 
 understand that hurt is the feminine of harm — the 
 feminine frequentative, if I may suggest that ano- 
 maly. She had a warm, impulsive heart, and sided 
 almost always with the weaker party. Convinced 
 profoundly, as she was, of her brother's great 
 ability, she believed, whenever a question arose, 
 that the strength was all on his side, and so she 
 went "dead against him." One thing, and the 
 most material one, she entirely overlooked, as a 
 sister is apt to do : to wit, the breadtli and modesty 
 of her brother's nature. One thing, I say, for the 
 two are one, so closely are they united. 
 
 It is a goodly sight to see John Rosedew and his 
 sister upon their way to church. She supporting 
 the family dignity, with a maid behind her to carry 
 the books — that it may please thee to defend us 
 with a real footman ! — just touching John's arm 
 mth the tips of her glove, because he rolls so 
 shockingly, and even his Sunday coat may be 
 greasy; then, if a little girl comes by, "Lady 
 Eudoxia" — as the village, half in joke, and half in 
 earnest, has already dubbed her — Lady Eudoxia 
 never looks at her (they are so self-important now,
 
 A TALE OF THE NEW FOREST. 79 
 
 even those brats of children ! ), but she knows by 
 instinct whether that httle girl has curtseyed. If 
 she has, it is nicely acknowledged ; but if she has 
 not, what a chill runs down the lady's rigid spine ! 
 
 " John, did you see that ? " 
 
 " See what, Doxy ? — Three sugar-plums, my 
 little dear, and a few of our cough-lozenges. I 
 heard you cough last Sunday ; and you may suck 
 them in the sermon time, because they don't smell 
 of peppermint, and they are quite as nice as 
 liquorice. How is yoiu' mammy, my darling?" 
 
 " Well, John — well, ^Ii*. Rosedew ! — If you 
 have no more sense of propriety — and so near the 
 house of God " 
 
 And ]Miss Eudoxia walks on in front, while the 
 girl who failed to curtsey has thrust one brown 
 hand long ago into the parson's ample pahn, and 
 with the other is stoking that voracious engine 
 whose vernacular name is "mouth." Amy, of 
 course, is at the school, where this little girl ought 
 by rights to have been, only for her cough, which 
 would come on so dreadfully when the w-ords were 
 hard to spell ; and, when they meet Amy by the 
 gate (the double gate of the churchyard — both 
 sides only opened for funerals), how smooth, and 
 rich, and calm she looks — calm, yet -svith a heart of 
 triumph, as her own class clusters round her, and 
 won't even glimpse at the boys — not even the very 
 smallest boy — one of whom has the cheek to 
 whistle, and pretends that he meant the " Old 
 Hundredth." 
 
 But, in spite of all this Eudoxian grandeur, there
 
 80 CRADOCK NOWELL : 
 
 was not a poor man in Nowelhurst — no, nor even a 
 woman — who did not feel, in earnest heart, faith 
 and good-will towards her. For the worldly non- 
 sense was cast aside when she stood in the presence 
 of trouble, and her native kindness and vigour 
 shone forth, till the face of grief was brightened. 
 Then she forgot her titled grandmother — so often 
 quoted and such a bore, the Countess of Driddle- 
 drum and Dromore — and glowed and melted, as all 
 must do who are made of good carbon and water. 
 So let her walk into tlie village church with the 
 pride which she is proud of, her tall and comely 
 figure shown through the scarf of lavender crape, 
 her dark silk dress on the burial flags, wiping dust 
 from the memory of John Stiles and his dear wife 
 Susan. And oh, Johanna, thou goodly fat cook- 
 maid, dishing up prayer-books, and Guides to the 
 Altar, and thy gloves on the top ostentatiously — 
 gloves whose fingers are to thine as vermicelli to 
 sausages : Johanna, spoil not our procession by 
 loitering under the hollow oak to Avink at thy sweet- 
 heart, Jem Pottles. Neither do thou, oh hollow 
 oak, look down upon us, and tell of the tree only 
 one generation before thee. Under thy branches, 
 the Arab himself had better not talk of lineage. 
 Some acorn spat forth, half-crunched and be- 
 dribbled, by the deer or the swine of the forest, 
 and in danger perhaps of being chewed afterwards 
 by the ancestors of royalty — our family-trees are 
 young fungus to thee, and our roots of nobility 
 pignuts.
 
 A TALE OF THE NEW FOEEST. 81 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 The scenery of the NeAv Forest is of infinite 
 variety ; but tlie wooded parts may be ranged, per- 
 haps, in a free, loose-branching order (as befits the 
 subject), into some three divisions, which cross and 
 interlace each other, as the trees themselves do. 
 
 First, and most lovely, the glades and reaches of 
 gentle ])ark and meadow, where the beech-tree 
 invades not seriously, or, at any rate, not with dis- 
 cipline, l)ut straggles about like a tall centurion 
 amused by ancient Britons. Here are the open- 
 ings Avinged with fern, and ruffling to the west 
 wind; and the crimped oval leaves of the alder 
 rustic over the backs of the bathing cows. In and 
 out we glance, or gaze, through the gi'oined arcade 
 of trees, where the sun goes wandering softly, as 
 if with his hand before his eyes. Of such kind 
 is the Queen's Bower Wood, beside the Boldre 
 Water. 
 
 Of the second type, most grand and solemn, is 
 
 VOL. 1. G
 
 82 CRADOCK NOWELL : 
 
 tile tall beecli-forest, darkening the brow of some 
 lonely liill, and draping tlie bosomed valleys. Such 
 is Mark Ash Wood, four miles to the west of 
 Lyndhurst. Overhead, is the vast cool canopy; 
 underfoot, the soft brown carpet, woven by a 
 thousand autumns. No puny underwood foils the 
 gaze, no coppice-whispers circulate ; on high there 
 moves one long, unbroken, and mysterious murmur, 
 and all below grey twilight broods in a lake of 
 silent shadow. Through this the ancient columns 
 rising, smooth, dove-coloured, or glimpsed witli 
 moss, others fluted, crannied, bulging, hulked at 
 the reevings of some great limb ; others twisted 
 spirally and tortuously rooting ; a thousand giants 
 receding, clustering, opening lattice-peeps between 
 them, standing forth to stop the view, or glancing 
 some busy slant of light — in the massive depth of 
 gloom they seem almost to glide. 
 
 The third and most rudely sylvan form is that 
 of the enclosures, where the intolerant beech is 
 absent, and the oak, the spruce, and the Spanish 
 chestnut protect the hazel, the fern and bramble, 
 the dog-rose and the honeysuckle. 
 
 In a bowering, gleaming, twinkling valley, such 
 as I have first described, we saw Miss Amy Rose- 
 dew admiring her own perfections ; and now, some 
 three months afterwards, a certain young lady, not 
 wholly unlike her, is roaming in a deep enclosure, 
 thick with oaks and underwood. It lies about a 
 furlong from the western lodge of Nowelhurst, and 
 stretches away towards the sunset, far from the eye
 
 A TALE OF THE NEW FOEEST. 83 
 
 of liouse or hut. Even the lonely peatman, who 
 camps (or camped, while so allowed) beneath the 
 open sky, wherever the waste yields labour freely, 
 and no prescription bars him — even he finds nothing 
 here to draw his sauntering footstep. The gorse 
 prefers more open places, the nuts are few and hard 
 to reach, the fuel-turf is not worth cutting, and the 
 fuel-wood he dare not hew. In short, there is 
 nothing there to tempt him. As for shade, and 
 solitude, and the cr^'-stal rill, he gets a deal too 
 much of that sort of thing already. 
 
 By the side of that crystal rill, and where the 
 trees hung thickest, in the grey gloom of that 
 Michaelmas evening, walked the aforesaid maiden, 
 and (what we had not bargained for) a gentle 
 youth beside her. The light between the lapping 
 boughs and leaves — whose summer whisper grew 
 hoarse in autumn's rustle — the clouded light fell 
 charily, but showed the figures comely, as either 
 could wish of the other. 
 
 The maiden's face was turned away, but one 
 hand lay in her lover's ; with the other she was 
 drawing close the loose folds of lier mantle — her 
 flushing cheek was glad of shade, and the grass 
 thought her feet were trembling. 
 
 His eager, glistening, Avavering eyes told of hope 
 with fear behind it ; and all his life was waiting 
 for a word or look. But for the moment neither 
 came. She trembled more and more before him, 
 and withdrew a little, as the silver-weed at her feet 
 withdrew from the runnel's passion. She thought 
 g2
 
 84 CEADOCK NOWELL : 
 
 he would yet say more — she longed for him to say 
 more ; oh that her heart would be quiet ! 
 
 But never another word he said, till she turned 
 to him, sadly and proudly, with her soft eyes full 
 of tears. 
 
 " IS'h. Nowell, you are very eloquent ; but you 
 do not know what love is." 
 
 She lifted her left hand towards her heart, but 
 was too proud to put it there, and dropped it, 
 hiding the movement. 
 
 " I not know what love is ! And I have been 
 saying things I should have laughed at any fellow 
 for saying, though I am fit to cry while I say them. 
 Oh, how cold-blooded you are ; for I cannot make 
 you feel them !" 
 
 He looked at her so ardently, that her sweet 
 gaze fell like a violet in the May sun. 
 
 " No, Mr. Clayton Nowell, I am not cold- 
 blooded ; but, at least, my blood is pure, though 
 not in the eyes of the world so high and refined as 
 your own." 
 
 " What has that got to do with it ? My own — 
 
 own — own " He was in a great hurry to 
 
 embrace her, because she looked at him tenderly, 
 to palliate the toss of her head. 
 
 "Wait, if you please. Throughout all your 
 rhapsody" (here she smiled so that none could be 
 angry) " you have not said a single word to show 
 whether — that is — I mean to say whether " 
 
 She burst into tears, turned from him, and 
 clung to the dead arm of the old oak.
 
 A TALE OF THE NEW FOREST. 85 
 
 "Whether what?" asked Clayton, shai*ply, in 
 spite of her deep distress ; for he began to doubt 
 if he truly were loved, and to tire of the high- 
 strung suspense. "Whether I have got money 
 enough to support us both respectably ? Isn't that 
 the proper word for it ? And because I am the 
 younger son?" 
 
 He frowned very hard at the bark of the oak, 
 and crushed the grey touchwood under his foot, 
 though his hand was still seeking for hers. Then 
 she turned full upon him suddenly, too proud to 
 dissemble her tears. 
 
 " Oh, Clayton, Clayton Nowell, can you think 
 me so mean as that ? Though my father M'ould 
 cast me off, perhaps, in his gratitude to Sir Cra- 
 dock, do you think I would care for all the world, 
 so long as I only had you ? What I meant was 
 only that you never said if you meant me to be — 
 to be — ^your wife." Her long lashes fell on her 
 glistening cheeks, like the willow-leaves over the 
 Avon. 
 
 " Why, what — well, that beats cockfighting ! — 
 why, what else did you suppose I meant, you dar- 
 lin(>; of all born darlings?" 
 
 "I am sure I don't know, Clayton. Only I beg 
 your pardon." 
 
 He gave her no time to beg it twice, with those 
 wistful eyes upon him, but made her earn it tho- 
 roughly, with her round arms on his neck, and 
 other proceedings wherewithal we have no right to 
 meddle.
 
 86 CEADOCK NOWELL : 
 
 " Yes, you may call me now your own" — ever 
 so many interruptions — " your own ; yours only, 
 for ever." 
 
 " And you would rather have me than my elder 
 brother?" 
 
 " Sooner than a thousand elder brothers, all as 
 grave as Methusalem." 
 
 Clayton was so delighted hereat, that he really 
 longed to squeeze her, although it is a thing which 
 young ladies now-a-days never think of allowing. 
 Let them hope that he did not do it. The proba- 
 bilities are in their favour. 
 
 " Oh, Clayton, how can I be such a simpleton ? 
 What ivould my father say to me?" 
 
 " What do I care, my gem, my jewel, my warm 
 delicious pearl? For three long months I have 
 been dying to kiss you ; and now I won't be cheated 
 so. Surely you are not afraid of me, my beautiful 
 wild rose ? ' ' 
 
 Her gardening hat had fallen off, her eyes were 
 bright with tears, and the glow upon her cheeks 
 had faded to a pellucid gleam. So have I seen the 
 rich red Aurora weep itself, in a pulse-throb, to a 
 pearly and waxen pink. 
 
 " No, Clayton, I am not afraid of you. I know 
 that you are a gentleman." 
 
 " Well," thought Clayton, " she must be a witch^ 
 or the cleverest girl in the universe, as well as the 
 most beautiful. She knows the way to manage 
 me, as if we had been married fifty years."
 
 A TALE OF THE NEW FOREST. 87 
 
 He looked so disconcerted at the implied rebuke, 
 that she could have found it in her sweet heart to 
 ii'ive him fifty kisses : but, with all her warmth of 
 passion, she was a pure and sensitive maiden, full 
 of self-respect. Though abashed for the moment, 
 and bowing her head to the sunrise of young affec- 
 tion, she possessed a fine and very sensible will and 
 Avay of her own. She was just the wife for Clay- 
 ton Nowell — a hot, impulsive, wayward youth ; 
 proud to be praised by every one, more than proud 
 of deserving it. With such a wife, he would ripen 
 and stiffen into a fine, full character ; with a weak 
 and volatile spouse, he would swing to and fro to 
 his ruin. His goodness as yet was in the ma- 
 terial ; only a soft, firm hand could fashion it. 
 
 So she kept him at his distance ; except every 
 now and then, when her wtu'm, loving natm'e looked 
 forth from her eyes, for fear of hurting his feel- 
 ings. Hand in hand they walked along, as if they 
 still were children, and held much counsel, as they 
 went, about the difiiculties between them. But 
 happen what would, they made up their minds 
 about one thing; and for them henceforth both 
 plural and singular were entirely merged in the 
 dual. That sentence is priggish and pedantic, but 
 I think young lovers can solve it ; if not, let them 
 put their heads together, and unriddle it in 
 
 Nothing ever, ever, ever, in the world of fact, 
 or in the reach of imagination, should hold apart
 
 88 • tUADOCK NOWELL : 
 
 that faithful pair, Avhose all in all was to each the 
 other. This they settled with much satisfaction, 
 before discussing anything else. 
 
 "Except, of course, you know, darling," said 
 the more thoughtful maiden, " if either of us 
 should die." 
 
 Clayton shuddered at the idea, for it was a dark 
 place of the wood, and the rustle of the i"\y-leaves 
 seemed to whisper " die." Then he insisted upon 
 his amends for such a nasty suggestion ; and she, 
 with the tender thought movinc; her heart, could 
 not refuse strict justice. 
 
 " And so you say, love, I must stay at Oxford 
 until I take my degree. What a long time it does 
 seem ! Doesn't it ?" 
 
 " Never mind, dearest, how long it is, if we are 
 true to one another." 
 
 " Oh, that of course there's no doubt about. 
 And you think I must tell my father ? " 
 
 " Of course you must, Clayton. We are not 
 very old, you know; he will think that he can 
 part us, and that may make him less angry," — 
 here she laughed at her own subtlety, — " and put- 
 ting that out of the question, neither of us could 
 bear to be deceiving him so long. After all, you 
 are but a younger son ; and I am a lady, I hope. 
 I have been thoroughly educated ; and there is 
 nothins; but monev aijainst me." 
 
 She looked so proud in the shade of the spruce, 
 that lie was obliged to stop and admire her. At
 
 A TALE OF THE NEW FOEEST» 89 
 
 least lie tliouglit it his duty to do so, and the 
 opinion did not offend her. 
 
 "But what will your brother Cradock say? He 
 is so different from you. So odd, so determined 
 and — upright.*' 
 
 " I don't care tliat for what he says. Only he 
 had better be civil. He treated me very badly 
 that time about the Ireland. I have a very great 
 regard for Cradock ; he is a very decent fellow ; 
 but I must teach him his proper place." 
 
 " A nd you can beat him easily in Latin ; my 
 father says you can. What a shame that he 
 would not go in for the Hertford, that you might 
 turn the tallies upon him ! He would not even 
 have got a proxy, or whatever it was he gave you." 
 
 " I don't know that," said Clayton, who was 
 truthful in spite of vanity ; " very likely he would 
 have beaten me. But I have cut him out in two 
 things ; for I can't help thinking that he has a 
 hankering after you." 
 
 He looked at her vA\\\ a keen, shrewd glance, 
 for he was desperately jealous. She saw it, and 
 smiled, and only said — "Would you believe that 
 he could help it? But it happens that I know 
 otherwise." 
 
 " Oh, then, you Avould have had him, if you 
 could?" 
 
 "Now, Clayton, dont be childish. In your 
 heart you know better." 
 
 Of course he did, a m-eat deal better. Then
 
 90 CEADOCK NOWELL : 
 
 there was that to make up again, because she 
 looked so hurt and so charming. But we can't 
 stop here all day, or follow all these little doings, 
 even if honour allowed us. 
 
 " And another thing, not so important, though, 
 I have cut him out in, most decidedly," said Clay- 
 ton, lifting his head again ; " the governor likes me 
 long chalks better than he does Cradock, I can 
 tell you." 
 
 "No doubt of it, I should say, dear. But I 
 don't think you ought to talk of it." 
 
 " No, only to you. No secrets from one's wife, 
 you know. But you won't tell your father yet, 
 till I've opened upon Sir Cradock ? " 
 
 " Why not ? I intend to tell him directly I get 
 home. And one thing is certain, Clayton, he will 
 be more angry than yours will." 
 
 Clayton found it very difficult to change her 
 determination. But at last he succeeded in doing 
 so. 
 
 " But only for a week, mind ; I will only put it 
 off for a week, Clayton ; and I would not do that, 
 only as you say he would rush off at once to Sir 
 Cradock ; and I must give you time to take your 
 father at the very best opportunity." 
 
 " And when will that be, my sweet prime minis- 
 ter, in your most sage opinion ? " 
 
 "Why, of course, on my dear love's birthday, 
 next week, when all those rejoicings are to be at 
 his brother becoming of age."
 
 A TALE OF THE NEW FOEEST. 91 
 
 The young lady meant no mischief at all, but 
 her lover did not look gracious. 
 
 " My brother ! oh yes, to be sure, my brother ! 
 And I dreamed last night that I was the elder. 
 He used to talk about giving me half; but I 
 haven't heard much of that lately. As for my 
 majority, as the lawyers are pleased to call it, 
 nobody cares two straws for that. All my life I 
 shall be a minor." 
 
 " Yes, somebody cares for it, darling ; and more 
 than all the hundreds put together who will shout 
 and hurrah for your brother." 
 
 And she looked at him fondly from her heart. 
 What a hot little partisan ! The whole of that 
 heart was now with Clayton, and he felt its 
 strength by sympathy. So he lifted her hand to 
 his lips, as a cavalier does in a picture. For the 
 moment all selfish regrets lost their way in the 
 great wide world of love. 
 
 " And my fealty shall be to you," he cried, 
 kneeling half in play before her ; " you are my 
 knightly fee and fortune, my castle, my lands, 
 and my home." 
 
 They had stopped at a jioint where two forest- 
 paths met, and the bushes fell back a little, and 
 the last of the autumn sunset glanced through 
 the pales of a moss-grown gate, the mark whereby 
 some royalty, or right of chase, Avas limited. 
 Kneeling there, Clayton Nowell looked so courtly 
 and gentle, with the bowered light of the west half
 
 92 CEADOCK NOWELL : 
 
 saddening liis liappy, affectionate countenance, 
 that liis newly-betrothed must needs stoop gra- 
 ciously, and kiss his uncovered forehead. 
 
 While Clayton was admiring secretly the velvet 
 of her lips, back she leaped, as if stung by a 
 snake ; then proudly stood confronting. Clayton 
 sprang up to defend her; but there was no an- 
 tagonist. All he saw Avas a man on horseback, 
 passing silently over the turf, behind a low bank 
 crowned ^vith fern. Here a narrow track, scarce 
 visible, saved the traveller some few yards, sub- 
 tending as it did the angle where the two paths 
 met. Clayton could not see the horse, for the 
 thick brake-fern eclipsed him. But he felt that 
 the nag was rather tired, and getting sad about 
 supper-time. The rider seemed to be making a 
 face, intended to express the most abstract philo- 
 sophy possible, and superlunary contemplation. 
 Any rabbit skilled in physiognomy would have 
 come out of his hole again, quite reassured thereby. 
 A short man he was, and apparently one meant by 
 his mother for ruddiness ; and still the brick-red 
 of his hair proclaimed some loyalty to her inten- 
 tion. But his face was browned, and flaked across, 
 like a red potato roasting, and his little eyes, sharp 
 as a glazier's diamond, and twinkling now at the 
 zenith, belied his absent attitude. Then as he 
 passed by a shadowy oak, which swallowed him up 
 in a moment, that oak (if it had been duly vocal) 
 would have repeated these words — 
 
 " Well, if that ain't the parson's daughter, grind
 
 A TALE or THE NEW FOREST. 93 
 
 me micler a curry-stone. Wliat a sly minx ! — but 
 devilisli pretty. You're a deal too soft, John 
 liosedew." 
 
 As lie passed on towards Nowelliurst the lovers 
 felt that they had been seen, and perhaps watched 
 ever so long; and then they felt uncomfortable. 
 The young lady was the first to recover presence 
 of mind. She pressed on her glossy round head 
 the ]iat which had been so long in her left hand, 
 and, di'awing a long breath, looked point-blank at 
 the wondering stare of her sweetheart. 
 
 " Well, Clayton, we may make up our minds 
 for it now." 
 
 " For what, I should like to know ? Who cares 
 for that interlopiiig, beetroot-coloured muff?" 
 
 " He is no muff at all, I can tell you, but an 
 exceedingly clever man. Do you mean to say you 
 don't know him ? " 
 
 " Not I, from Esau or Ishmael. And he looks 
 like a mixture of both." 
 
 " He is Doctor Rufus Hutton." 
 
 Cla}i;on indulged in a very long whistle, in- 
 drawn, and not melodious. 'Twas a trick he had 
 learned at Oxford; it has long been discarded 
 elsewhere, but at both Universities still subsists, as 
 the solace of newly-plucked men ; the long-drawn 
 sound seems to wind so sootliingly down the horns 
 of dilemma. Then the youth jumped up, and 
 gathered a nut, cracked it between his white front 
 teeth, and offered it, husk and all, without any 
 thought of hygromctry, to his beautiful frightened
 
 94 CRADOCK NOWELL : 
 
 darling. She took it, as if his wife ah'eady, and 
 picked out the thin shell, piece by piece, anxiously 
 seeking the kernel. He all the while with admira- 
 tion watched the delicate fingers moving, the reflex- 
 play of the lissome joints, the spiral thread and 
 varying impress of the convex tips, and the faintly 
 flushing pink beneath the transparency of her nails. 
 Then she laughed and jumped, as it proved to be 
 a magnificent double nut — two fat kernels close 
 together, shaped by one another. Of course she 
 gave him one, and of coui'se we know what they 
 did about it. I will only state that they very soon 
 forgot all about Dr. Rufus Hutton, and could 
 scarcely part where the last branch-path was quite 
 near to the maiden's window. Even there, where 
 the walks divided, when neither could see the 
 othei', each steppped aside, very proud of love's 
 slyness, to steal the last of the other's footfall; 
 and soon, witli a blush of intuition, each knew 
 that the other was lingering, and each felt ashamed 
 of himself or herself, and loved the other all the 
 more for it. So they broke from the bushes, de- 
 tected and laughing, to put a good face upon it, 
 and each must go to tell the other how it came 
 about. They kissed once more, for they felt it 
 was right now that the moon was risen ; then 
 home ran both, with a warmth of remembrance 
 and hope glowing in the heart.
 
 A TALE OF THE NEW FOREST. 95 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 Whatever the age, or the intellect of the 
 passing age, may be, even if ever arise again such 
 a galaxy of great minds as dawned upon this 
 country three hundred years ago, though all those 
 great minds start upon their glorious career, com- 
 prising and intensifying all the light engendered 
 by, before, and since the time of Shakspeare, 
 Bacon, Newton ; then, though they enhance that 
 light tenfold by their own bright genius, till a 
 thousand waking nations gleam, like hill-tops 
 touched with sunrise — to guide men on the human 
 road, to lead them heaven-ward, all shall be no 
 more than a benighted river wandering away from 
 the stars of God. Do what we will, and think as 
 we may, enlarging the mind in each generation, 
 growing contemptuous of contempt, casting caste 
 to the winds of heaven, and antiquating prejudice, 
 nevertheless we shall never outrun, or e^•en o^-er- 
 take Christianity. Science, learning, philoso]:)hy.
 
 96 CKADOCK NOWELL 
 
 may regard it through a telescope : they touch it 
 no more than astronomy sets foot upon a star. To 
 a thoughtful man, who is scandalized at all the 
 littleness felt and done under the holy name, until 
 he almost begins to doubt if the good outweigh 
 the evil, it is reassurance to remember that we are 
 not Christians yet, and comfort to confess that on 
 earth w^e never can be. For nothing shows more 
 clearly that our faith is of heaven, than the truth 
 that we cannot rise to it until it raise us thither. 
 And this reflection is akin to the stately Avriter's 
 sentiment, that our minds conceive so much more 
 than our bodies can perform, to give us token, 
 ay, and earnest, of a future state. 
 
 Of all the creeds which have issued as yet from 
 God, or man, or the devil, there is but one 
 which is far in advance of all human civilization. 
 True Christianity, like hope, cheers us to continual 
 effort, exalts us to unbounded prospect, flies in 
 front of our best success. Let us call it a worn- 
 out garb, wiien we have begun to wear it ; as yet 
 the mantle is in the skies, and we have only the 
 skirt with the name on it. 
 
 Such thoughts as these were always stirring in 
 the heart of a man of power, a leading character 
 in my story, a leading character eveiywhere, 
 whithersoever he went. Bull Garnet was now 
 forty-five years old, and all who met him were 
 surprised at his humble place in the common- 
 wealth. A sense of power so pervaded even the 
 air he breathed, that strong men rebelled instinc-
 
 A TALE OF THE NEW FOEEST. 97 
 
 lively, though he urged no supremacy ; weak men 
 caught some infection from him, and Avent home 
 and astonished their families. Strong and weak 
 alike confessed that it was a mysterious thing 
 how a man of such motive strength, and self- 
 reliance illimitable, could be content with no 
 higher post than that of a common steward. But 
 neighbourly interest in this subject met with no 
 encouragement. Albeit his views of life expanded 
 into universal sympathy, his practice now and then 
 admitted some worldly-wise restrictions. And so, 
 while really glad to advise on the doings of all 
 around him, he never permitted brotherly inter- 
 ference with his own. 
 
 AVhoever saw Bull Garnet once was sure to 
 know him again. If you met him in a rush to 
 save the train, your eyes would turn and follow 
 him. "There goes a man remarkable, whether 
 for good or evil." Tall though he was, and large 
 of frame, with swinging arms, and a square ex- 
 pression, it was none of this that stopped the 
 bystander's glance into a gaze. It Avas the cubic 
 mass of the forehead, the span between the enor- 
 mous eyes, and the depth of the thick-set jowl, 
 which rolled with the volume of a timer's. The 
 rest of the face was in keeping therewith : the 
 nose bold, broad, and patulous, the mouth large 
 and well banked up, the chin big and liea\dly 
 rounded. No shade of a hair was ever allowed to 
 dim his healthy colouring, his head was cropped 
 close as a Pm'itan's, and when beard gi'ew fast he 
 
 VOL. I. U
 
 98 CRADOCK NOWELL : 
 
 shaved twice in a day. Higli culture was a neces- 
 sity to him, whether of mind, or body, or of the 
 world external; he would no more endm'e a 
 moustache on his lip than a frouzy hedgerow upon 
 his farm. That man, if you came to think about 
 him, more and more each time you saw how dif- 
 ferent he was from other men. Distinctness is a 
 great merit in roses, especially wdien the French 
 rosarians have so overpiled the catalogue. It is 
 pleasant to walk up to a standard, and say, " You 
 are 'Jules Margottin,' and your neighbour the 
 ' Keepsake of Malmaison ; ' I cannot mistake you 
 for any other, however hot the weather may be." 
 Distinctness is also a merit in apples, pears, and 
 even peaches ; but most of all in man. And so, 
 without knowing the reason, perhaps, we like a 
 man whom we cannot mistake for any other of 
 om' million brethren. The same principle tells in 
 love at first sight. But, lo ! here again we are 
 wandering. 
 
 Mr. Garnet's leading characteristic was not at 
 first sight amiable. It was, if I may be allowed 
 for once, upon the strength of my subject, 
 not to mince words into entremets — a fmnous, 
 reckless, damnable, and thoroughly devilish 
 temper. All great qualities, loving - kindness, 
 yearnings for Christian ideals, fell like sugai-canes 
 to a hui'ricane in the outbui-st and rush of that 
 temper. He was always grieved and deeply 
 humbled, when the havoc was done ; and, being a 
 man of generous nature, would bow his soul in
 
 A TALE OF THE NEW FOREST. 99 
 
 atonement. But in the towering of his wrath, 
 liow grand a sight he afforded ! as fine as the rush 
 of the wikl Atlantic upon St. David's Head. For 
 a time, perhaps, he woukl chafe and fret within 
 the straits of reason, his body surging to and fro, 
 and his mind making grasp at boundaries. Then 
 some httle aggravation, some trifle which no other 
 man would notice — and out would leap all the 
 pent-up fury of his soul. Plis great eyes would 
 gather volume, and spring like a mastiff from a 
 kennel ; his mighty forehead would scarp and 
 chine like the headland when the plough turns ; 
 and all his aspect grow four-square with more 
 than hydraulic pressure. Whoever then could 
 gaze unmoved at the raging fire of his eyes must 
 he either a philosopher or a fool — and often the 
 two are synonymous. 
 
 But touch him, even then, with a single word 
 of softness, the thought of some one dear to him, 
 a large and genial sentiment, or a tender memory 
 — and the lines of his face would relax and quiver,, 
 the blazing eyes be suffused and subdued to a 
 tremulous glow ; and the man, §o far beyond 
 reason's reach, be led back, like a boy, by the 
 feelings. 
 
 All who think they can catch and analyze that 
 composite, subtle, volatile gas — neither body nor 
 spirit, yet in fief to the laws of either — which men 
 call "human natm-e," these, I say, will opine at 
 once, from even this meagre description, that Mr. 
 Bull Garnet's natm'e was scant of that playful ele- 
 h2
 
 100 CRADOCK NOWELL : 
 
 ment, humour. If thought be (as German philo- 
 sophers have it) an electric emanation, then wit is 
 the forked flash, gone in a moment ; humour the 
 soft summer lightning that shows us the clouds and 
 the depth, the background and night of ourselves. 
 No man of large humour can be in a passion, with- 
 out laughing inwardly at himself. And wrath, 
 which laughs at itself, is not of much avail in busi- 
 ness. Mr. Garnet's wrath, on the contrary, was a 
 fine, free-boiling, British anger, not at all amenable 
 to reason, and therefore very valuable. By dint of 
 it, he could score at night nearly twice as much 
 work done in the day as a peaceable man could 
 have reckoned. Man or woman, boy or girl, Mr. 
 Garnet could extract from each all the cubic capa- 
 city, leaving them just enough of power to crawl 
 home stiff, and admire him. For the truth of it is, 
 as all know to their cost, who have had much to do 
 with spade or plough, hod or hammer, that the 
 British workman admires most the master Avho 
 makes him sweat most. Perhaps it ought not to 
 be so. Theoretically, we regard it thus, that a man 
 ought to perspire, upon principle, when he is work- 
 ing for another man. But tell us where, and oh ! 
 where, to find the model British labourer who 
 takes that view of the subject. 
 
 Sith it wdll na better be, let us out and look for 
 him. The sky is bright blue, and the white clouds 
 flock off it, like sheep overlapping each other. 
 What man but loves the open air, and to walk
 
 A TALE OF THE NEW FOEEST. 101 
 
 about and think of it, with fancies flitting lazily, 
 like fluff of dandelion ? What man but loves to sit 
 under a tree, and let the winds go wandering, and 
 the shadows come and play with him, to let work 
 be a pleasant memory, and hm'ry a storm of the 
 morning? Everybody except Bull Garnet.
 
 102 CKADOCK NOWELL 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 All the leaves of the New Forest, save those of 
 the holly and mistletoe, some evergreen spmes, and 
 the blmder sort, that know not a wink from a nod 
 — all the leaves, I mean, that had sense of their 
 position, and when to Llush and when to retire, and 
 how much was due to the roots that taught them — 
 all these leaves were beginning to feel that their 
 time in the world was over. The trees had begun 
 to stand tier upon tier, in an amphitheatrical 
 fashion, and to sympathise more with the sunset ; 
 while the sun every evening was kissing his hands, 
 and pretending to think them younger. Some 
 outspoken trees leaned forward, well in front of 
 the forest-galleries, with amber sleeves, and loops 
 of gold, and braids of mellow abandonment, like 
 liberal Brazilian ladies, bowing from the balconies. 
 Others drew away behind them, with their mantles 
 folded, leaning back into unprobed depths of semi- 
 transparent darkness, as the forest of the sky
 
 A TALE OF THE NEW FOEEST. 103 
 
 amasses, when tlie moon is rising. Some had cast 
 off their childi'en in parachutes, swirling as the 
 linden berries do throughout September; some 
 were holding their treasures grimly, and would, 
 even when they were naked. Now the flush of the 
 grand autumnal tide had not risen yet to its glor}^, 
 but was freaking, and glancing, and morrising 
 round the bays and the juts of the foliage. Or it 
 ruffled, among the ferny knaps, and along the 
 winding alleys. The sycamores truly were redden- 
 ing fast, and the chestnut palms growing bronzy ; 
 the limes were yellowing here and there, and the 
 sere leaves of the woodbine fluttered the cob of 
 clear red berries. But the gi'eat beechen hats, 
 which towered and darkened atop of the moorland 
 hollows and across the track of the woodman — 
 these, and the oaks along the rise, where the turtle- 
 dove was cooing, had only shown their sense of the 
 age by an undertint of olive. 
 
 It was now the fifth day of October — a day to 
 be remembered long by all the folk of Nowelhurst. 
 !Mr. Garnet stood at the end of his garden, where 
 a nan'ow pinewood gate opened to one of the forest 
 rides. Of course he was doing something, and 
 doing it very forcibly. His life was a fire that 
 burned very fast, having plenty of work to poke it. 
 But the little job which he now had in hand was 
 quite a relaxation : there was nothing Bull Garnet 
 enjoyed so much as cutting down a tree. He never 
 cared what time of year it was, whether the leaves 
 were on or off, whether the sap were up or down,
 
 104 CEADOOK NO WELL : 
 
 as we incorrectly express it. The sap of a tree ia 
 ever moving, like our own life-blood ; only it feels 
 the change of season more than we who have no 
 roots. Has a dormouse no circulation, when he 
 coils himself up in his elbowed hole ? Is there no 
 evaporation from the frozen waters'? The two 
 illustrations are wide apart, but the principle is the 
 same. Nature admits no absolute stoppage, except 
 as death, in her cradle of life ; and then she sets 
 to, and transmutes it. Why Bull Garnet so 
 enjoyed the cutting down of a tree, none but those 
 who themselves enjoy it may pretend to say. Of 
 course, we will not refer it to the reason assigned 
 in the well-known 'epigram, which contains such a 
 wholesale condemnation of this arboricidal age. 
 In another century, London builders will perhaps 
 discover, when there are no trees left, that a bit of 
 tuck-pointing by the gate, and a dab of mud- 
 plaster beside it, do not content the heart of man 
 like the leaves, and the drooping shadowy rustle, 
 which is the type of himself. 
 
 Bull Garnet stood there in the October morning, 
 with the gate wide open, flung back by his strong 
 hand upon its hinges, as if it had no right to them. 
 The round bolt dropped from the quivering force, 
 dropped through the chase of tlie loop, and bedded 
 deep in the soft, wet ground. With much satis- 
 faction the gate brought up, and felt itself anchored 
 safely; Bull Garnet gave the bolt a kick, which 
 hurled all the rusty screws out. Then he scarcely 
 stopped to curse the blacksmith ; he wanted the
 
 A TALE OF THE NEW FOREST. 105 
 
 time for the woodcutters. At a glint from the side 
 of his vast round eyes — eyes that took in every- 
 thing, and made all the workmen swear and believe 
 tliat he could see round a corner — he descried that 
 tlie axemen were working the tree askew to the 
 strain of the ropes. The result must be that the 
 comely young oak, just proud of its first big crop 
 of acorns, would swerve on the bias of the wind, 
 stagger heavily, and fall headlong upon the smart 
 new fence. There was no time for woi'ds — in a 
 moment he had kicked the men right and left, torn 
 off his coat, and caught up an axe, and dealt three 
 thunderino; strokes in the lao;£;ard twist of the 
 breach. Away went the young oak, swaying 
 wildly, trying once to recover itself, then crashing 
 and creaking through the brushwood, with a swish 
 from its boughs and leaves, and a groan from its 
 snaggy splinters. A branch took one of the men 
 in his face, and laid him flat in a tussock of grass. 
 
 "Serve you right, you lubber; I'm devilish 
 glad," cried Bull Garnet ; " and I hope you won't 
 move for a week." 
 
 The next moment, he went up and raised him, 
 felt that his limbs were sound, and gave him a 
 dram of brandy. 
 
 "All right, my fine fellow. Next time you'll 
 know something of the way to fell a tree. Go 
 home now, and I'll send you a bottle of wine." 
 
 But the change of his mood, the sudden soften- 
 ing, the glisten that broke through the flash of his 
 eyes, Avas not caused this time by the inroad of
 
 106 CRADOCK NOWELL : 
 
 rapid Christian feeling. It was the approach of 
 his son that stroked the down of his heart the right 
 way. Bull Garnet loved nothing else in this world, 
 or in the world to come, with a hundredth part of 
 the love wherewith he loved his only son. Lo, the 
 word " love" thrice in a sentence — nevertheless, let 
 it stand so. For is there a word in our noble 
 tongue, or in any other language, to be compared 
 for power and beauty with that little word " love ? " 
 
 Bob came down the path of the kitchen garden 
 at his utmost speed. He was like his father in one 
 or two thino;s, and most unlike in others. His 
 nature was softer and better by far, though not so 
 grand and striking — Bull Garnet in the young 
 Adam again, ere ever the devil came. All this the 
 father felt, but knew not : it never occurred to 
 him to inquire why he adored his son. 
 
 The boy leaped the new X fence very cleverly, 
 through the fork of the fingers, and stood before 
 his father in a flame of indignation. ]Mi*. Garnet, 
 with that queer expression which the face of a 
 middle-aged man wears when he recalls his boy- 
 hood, ere yet he begins to admire it, was looking 
 at his own young life with a contemplative terror. 
 He was saying to himself, " What cheek this boy 
 has got ! " and he was feeling all the while that he 
 loved him the more for having it. 
 
 " Hurrah, Bob, my boy ; you're come just in 
 time." 
 
 ]Mr. Garnet tried very hard to look as if he ex- 
 pected approval. Well enough all the time he knew
 
 ^ 
 
 A TALE OF THE NEW FOREST. 107 
 
 that he had no chance of getting it. For Bob loved 
 natui'e in any form, especially as expressed in the 
 noble eloquence of a tree. And now he saw why 
 he bad been sent to the village on a trifling errand 
 tliat morning. 
 
 " Just in time for what, sir ? " Bob's indigna- 
 tion waxed yet more. That his father should dare 
 to chaff him ! 
 
 '•' Just in time to tell us all about these wonderful 
 red-combed fvingi. What do you call them — some 
 long name, as wonderful as themselves ? " 
 
 Bob kicked them aside contemptuously. He 
 could have told a long story about them, and things 
 which men of thrice his age, who liave neglected 
 their mother, would be glad to listen to. Natui'e, 
 desiring not revenge, has it in the credulous itch 
 of the sons who have turned their backs on her. 
 
 " Oh, father," said Bob, with the tears in his 
 eyes ; " father, you can't have known that three 
 purple emperors came to this oak, and sat upon the 
 top of it, every morning for nearly a week, in the 
 middle of July. And it was tlie most handsomest 
 thirty-year oak till you come right to Brockenhurst 
 bridge." 
 
 " Most handsomest. Bob ! " cried Mr. Garnet, 
 glad to lay hold of anything ; " come along with 
 me, my son ; I must see to your education." 
 
 Near them stood a young spruce fir, not more 
 than five feet high. It liad thrown up a straight 
 and tapei'ing spire, scaled with tender green. Be- 
 low were tassels, tufts, and pointlets, all in triple
 
 108 CRADOCK NOWELL : 
 
 order, pluming over one another in a pile of beauty. 
 Tlie tips of all were touched with softer and more 
 glaucous tone. But all this gentle tint and form 
 was only as a framework now, a loom to bear the 
 web of heaven. For there had been a white mist 
 that morning — autumn's breath made visible ; and 
 the tree with its net of spider's webs had caught 
 the lucid moistm'e. Now, as the early sunlight 
 opened through the layered vapours, that little 
 spruce came boldly forth a dark bay of the forest, 
 and met all the spears of the orient. Looped and 
 traced with threads of gauze, the lacework of a 
 fairy's thought, scarcely daring to breathe upon its 
 veil of tremulous chastity, it kept the wings of 
 light on the hover, afraid to weigh down the 
 whiteness. A maiden with the love-dream nest- 
 ling under the bridal faldetta, a child of genius 
 breathing softly at his own fair visions, even an 
 infant's angel whispering to the weeping mother — 
 what image of humanity can be so bright and ex- 
 quisite as a common tree's apparel ? 
 
 " Father, can you make that ? " 'Mr. Garnet 
 checked his rapid stride ; and for once he admired 
 a tree. 
 
 " No, my son ; only God can do such glorious 
 work as that." 
 
 " But it don't take God to undo it. Smash ! " 
 
 Bob dashed his fists through the whole of it, and 
 all the draped embroidery, all the pearly filigree, 
 all the festoons of silver, were but as a dream 
 when a yawning man stretches his scraggy arms
 
 A TALE OF THE NEW FOREST. 109 
 
 forth. The little tree looked wobegone, stale, and 
 drao-sled with drunken tears. 
 
 " AATiy, Bob, I am ashamed of you." 
 
 " And so am I of you, father." 
 
 Before the bold speech was well out of his 
 mouth. Bob took heartily to his heels ; and, for 
 once in his life, Mr. Garnet could not make up his 
 mind what to do. After all, he was not so very 
 angry, for he thought that his son had been rather 
 clever in his mode of enforcing the moral ; and a 
 man who loves ability, and loves his boy still more, 
 regards Avith a liberal shrewdness the proof of the 
 one in the other. 
 
 Alas, it is hard to put Mr. Garnet in a clear, 
 bold stereoscope, without breach of the third 
 commandment. Somehow or other, as fashion 
 goes — and happily it is on the go always — a man, 
 and threefold thrice a woman, may, at this especial 
 ]ierio(l, in the persons of his or her characters, 
 break the sixth commandment lightly, and the 
 seventh with great applause. Indeed, no tale is 
 much approved without lese-majeste of them both. 
 Then for what subterranean reason, or by what 
 diabolical instrumentality (that language is strictly 
 parliamentary, because it is words and water), is a 
 writer now debarred from reporting Avliat his people 
 said, unless they all talked tracts and milk, or 
 rubrics and pommel-saddles? In a word — for 
 sometimes any fellow must come to the point — 
 Wliy do our judicious and highly-respecteil Sosii 
 score out all our d — ns ?
 
 110 CEADOCK NOWELL : 
 
 Is it not true that our generation swears almost 
 as hard as any? And yet it will not allow a writer 
 to hint the truth in the matter. Of covirse we 
 should do it sparingly, and with due reluctance. 
 But, unless all tales are written for women, and 
 are so to be accepted, it is a weak attempt at 
 imposture on our sons and grandsons to suppress 
 entirely in our pictures any presence not indecent, 
 however unbecoming. 
 
 Mr. Garnet was a Christian of the most advanced 
 intelligence, so far as our ideas at the present time 
 extend. He felt the beauty and perfection of the 
 type wdiich is set before us. He never sneered, as 
 some of us do, at things which were too large for 
 him, neither did he clip them to the shape of his 
 own oesophagus. Only in practice, like the rest of 
 us, he was sadly centrifugal. 
 
 Now with his nostrils widely open, and great 
 eyes on the ground, he was pacing rapidly np and 
 down his sheltered kitchen garden. Every square 
 was in perfect order, every tree in its proper com- 
 pass, all the edging curt and keen. The ground 
 was cropped wdth that trim luxuriance which we 
 never see except under first-rate management. 
 All the coleworts for the winter, all the well- 
 earthed celery, all the buttoning Brussels sprouts, 
 salsify just fit to dig, tmniips lifting whitely forth 
 (as some ladies love to show themselves), modest 
 savoys just hearting in and saying "no" to the 
 dew-beads, prickly spinach daily widening the 
 clipped arrowhead — they all had room to eat and
 
 A TALE OF THE NEW FOEEST. Ill 
 
 drink, and no man orudged his neighbour ; yet 
 Puck himself could not have skipped through with 
 dry feet during a hoar-frost. As for weeds, Bull 
 Garnet — well, I must not say what he loould have 
 done. Suddenly a small, spare man turned the 
 comer upon him, where a hedge of hornbeam, 
 trimmed and ch'essed as if with a pocket-comb, 
 broke the south-western violence. Most men 
 Avould have shown their hats above the narrow 
 spine, but Rufvis Hutton was very short, and sel- 
 dom earned a chimney-pot. 
 
 " Sir, what can I do for you ? " said Mr. Grarnet, 
 much suprised, but never taken aback. 
 
 " Excuse me, sir, but I called at your house, 
 and came this way to find you. You know me 
 well, by name, I believe ; as I have the pleasure 
 of knowing you. Rufus Hutton ; ahem, sir ! 
 Delightful occupation ! I, too, am a gardener. 
 ' Dumelow Seedling,' I flatter myself. Know 
 them well by the eye, sir. But wliat a difference 
 the soil makes ! Ah, yes, let them hang till the 
 frost comes. What a plague we have had with 
 earwigs ! Get into the seat of the fruit ; noAv just 
 let me show you. Ah, you beggars, there you 
 are. Never take them by the head, sir, or they'd 
 nip my fingers. Take them under the abdomen, 
 and they haven't room to twist upon you. There, 
 now ; what can he do ? " 
 
 "Not even thank you, sir, for killing him. 
 And now what can I do for you ? " 
 
 " Ish. Garnet, I will come to the point. A man
 
 112 CRADOCK NOWELL : 
 
 learns that in India. Too hot, sir, for much talk- 
 ing. Bless my heart, I have known the thermo- 
 meter at 10 o'clock P.M., sir — not in the barracks, 
 mind me, nor in a stifling nullah " 
 
 " Excuse me, I have read of all that. I have 
 an engagement. Dr. Hutton, at eight minutes past 
 eleven." 
 
 "Bless my heart, and I have an appointment 
 at 11.9 and five seconds. How singular a coin- 
 cidence !" 
 
 Bull Garnet looked down at the little doctor, 
 and thought him too small to be angry with. 
 Moreover, he M'as a practical man, and scarcely 
 knew what chaff meant. So he kept his temper 
 wonderfully, while Rufus looked up at him gravely, 
 with his little eyes shining like glow-worms be- 
 tween the brown stripes of his countenance. 
 
 "I have heard of you, Dr. Hutton, as a very 
 skilful gardener. Perhaps you M^ould like to look 
 round my garden, while I go and despatch my 
 business. If so, I will be with you again in 
 exactly thirty-five minutes." 
 
 " Stop, stop, stop ! you'll be sorry all your life, 
 if you don't hear my news." 
 
 So Rufus Hutton thought. But Mr. Garnet 
 was sorry through all the rest of his life that he 
 ever stopped to hear it.
 
 A TALE OF THE NEW FOREST. lliJ 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 Bull Garnet forgot his appointment for 
 eight minutes after eleven ; indeed it was ahnost 
 twelve o'clock when he came out of the summer- 
 house (made of scarlet-runners) to which he had 
 led Dr. Hutton, when he saw that his tale was of 
 interest. As he came forth, and the noonday sun 
 fell upon his features, any one who knew him 
 would have been surprised at their expression. A 
 well-knoA\m artist, employed upon a fresco in the 
 neighbourhood, had once described Mr. Garnet's 
 face in its ordinary aspect as " violence in repose." 
 Epigrammatic descriptions of the infinite human 
 nature are like tweezers to catch a whale with. 
 The man who unified so rashly all the Garnetian 
 impress, had only met ISIi*. Garnet once — had 
 never seen him after dinner, or playing with his 
 children. 
 
 Now Rufus Hutton, however garrulous, was a 
 kind and sensible man, and loth to make any mis- 
 chief, lie ran after ]SIr. Garnet, Iiotly. Bull 
 
 VOL. I. I
 
 114 CEADOCK NOWELL : 
 
 Garnet had quite forgotten him, and Avould take 
 no notice. The doctor made a short cut through 
 a quarter of Brussels sprouts (which almost knocked 
 off his wide-awake hat) and stood in the arch of 
 trimmed yew-tree, opening at the western side 
 upon the forest lane. Here he stretched his arms 
 to either upright, and mightily barred all exit. 
 He knew that the other would not go home, be- 
 cause he had told him so. 
 
 Presently Bull Garnet strode up : not with his 
 usual swing, however; not with his wonted self- 
 confidence. He seemed to walk off from a stag- 
 gering blow, which had dulled his brain for the 
 moment. He stopped politely before Mr. Hutton 
 (who expected to be thrust aside), and asked as if 
 with new interest, and as if he had not heard the 
 tale out — 
 
 "Are you quite sui-e. Dr. Hutton, that you 
 described the dress correctly?" 
 
 "As sure as I am of the pattern of my own 
 unmentionables. Miss Rosedew wore, as I told 
 you, a lavender serge, looped at the sides with 
 purple — a pretty di'ess for Christmas, but it struck 
 me as warm for IMichaelmas. Perhaps it was 
 meant for the IMichaelmas daisies ; or perhaps she 
 suffers from rheumatism, or flying pains in the 
 patella." 
 
 " And the cloak and hat, as you described them 
 — are you sure about them ? " 
 
 " My dear sir, I could swear to them both if I 
 saw them on a scarecroAV. Hoav can I speak of
 
 A TALE OF THE NEW FOEEST. 115 
 
 such a thing after tliat lovely creature ? Such an 
 exquisite fall of the shoulders — good wide shoul- 
 ders too — and such a delicious -waist ! I assiu'c 
 you, my dear sir, I have seen fine ■women in 
 India " 
 
 " Dr. Hutton," said ]SIi'. Garnet, sternly, " let 
 me hear no more of that. You are a newly- 
 manied man, a man of my time of life. I will 
 have no warm description of — of any young 
 ladies." 
 
 Ruf us Hutton was a peppery man, and not very 
 easily cowed. Nevertheless, his mind was under 
 the pressiu'e of a stronger one. So he only re- 
 lieved himself Avith a little bratj. 
 
 " Why, Mr. Garnet, you cross-examine me as I 
 did the natives when I acted as judge in Churra- 
 muttee, when the two chuprassies came before me, 
 and the water-carrier. I tell 3'ou, sir, I see more 
 in a glance than most men do in a long set stare, 
 when they are called in to appraise a thing. I 
 could tell ever}' plait in yom' shirt-front, and the 
 stuff and cut of your coat, before you could say 
 ' good morning.' It Avas only last Thursday that 
 Mrs. Hutton, who is a most remai'kable woman, 
 made an admirable observation about my rapid 
 perception." 
 
 " I have not the smallest doubt of it. And I 
 beheve that you fully deserved it. You will there- 
 fore perceive at once that this matter must go no 
 further. Did you see mv — son at the house 
 here?" 
 
 i2
 
 116 CRADOCK NOWELL : 
 
 " No. Only the maid-servant, avIio directed me 
 where to find you." 
 
 "Then you did not go in at all, 1 suppose?" 
 
 " No ; but I admired greatly your mode of 
 training that beautiful tropaBolum over the porch. 
 I must go and look at it again, with your kind 
 permission. I never neglect the chance of a 
 wrinkle such as that." 
 
 "Another time, Dr. Hutton, I shall hope to 
 show it to you ; though you must have seen it all 
 at a glance, for it is simpler than my shirt-fronts. 
 But my business takes me now to the Hall, and I 
 shall be glad of your company." 
 
 " Hospitable fellow, with a vengeance !" thought 
 little Ruf us. " And I heard he had some wonder- 
 ful sherry, and it's past my time for a snack. 
 Serves me right for meddling with other people's 
 business." 
 
 But while he stood hesitating, and casting fond 
 glances towards the cottage, jSlr. Garnet, without 
 any more ado, passed his powerful long arm 
 through the little wino; of Ruf us, and hurried him 
 down the dingle. 
 
 " Excuse me, sir, but I have never much time 
 to waste. This, as you know, is a most busy day, 
 and all the preparations are under my sole charge. 
 I laugh at the fuss, as a matter of course. But 
 that question is not for me. Cradock Nowell is a 
 noble fellow, and I have the highest respect for 
 him." 
 
 " Well, I rather prefer young Clayton. Having
 
 A TALE OF THE NEW FOKEST. 117 
 
 brought tliem both Into the Avorld, I ought to 
 understand them. But I hope lie won't make a fool 
 of himself in this matter we have been talking of." 
 
 Mr. Gai'uet jerked his companion's arm, and his 
 face went pale as Portland stone. 
 
 " Make a d — d rogue more likely. And he won't 
 be the first of his family." 
 
 " Yes, as you say," replied the doctor to all he 
 could catch of the muttered words, which flew over 
 the crown of his hat, " beyond all doubt the first 
 family in this part of the kingdom, and so they must 
 have their jubilee. But I trust you will use "with 
 the utmost caution what I thought it best to confide 
 to you, under the bond of secresy. Of course, I 
 could not think of telling papa, either of lady or 
 gentleman ; and knowing how you stand ■v\^th the 
 family, you seemed to me the proper person to 
 meet this little difficulty." 
 
 " Beyond a doubt, I am." 
 
 " Pooh, sir, a boy and a girl. I wonder you 
 think so much about it. ^len never know their 
 own minds in the matter until they arrive at our 
 age. And as for the chits on the other side — 
 whew, they blow right and left, as the feathers on 
 their hats do." 
 
 "That is not the case with my family. We 
 make up our minds, and stick to them." 
 
 " Then your family is the exception, which only 
 proves my rule ; and I am glad that it is not con- 
 cerned in the present question." 
 
 When they came to that part of the lawn in
 
 118 CEADOCK NOWELL : 
 
 front of the ancient Hall where the fireworks' stage 
 had been reared on a gently-rising mound, Cradock 
 Nowell met them, with a hook in his hand. To- 
 morrow he would be twenty-one ; and a more 
 honest, open-hearted fellow, or a better built one, 
 never arrived at man's estate, whether for wealth 
 or poverty. He had not begun to think very 
 deeply ; indeed, who could expect it, where trouble 
 had never entered ? It is pain that deepens the 
 channel of thought, and sorrow that sweeps the bar 
 away. Cradock as yet was nothing more than a 
 clever, fine young man, an elegant and accurate 
 scholar, follo-^ang thought more than leading it. 
 Nevertheless, he had the material of a grand un- 
 selfish character — of a nature which, when per- 
 fected, could feel its imperfections. Sorrow and 
 trial were needed for him; and God knows he 
 soon got enough of them. 
 
 He shoved away his Tauchnitz Herodotus in his 
 shooting-coat pocket. Neither of the men he met 
 was a scholar ; neither would feel any interest in 
 it. Being driven forth by his father's grumbling 
 at the little pleasure he showed in the fuss that was 
 making about him, he had brovight his genial, true 
 cosmopolite to show him a thing which his heart 
 would have loved. Cradock had doubled down the 
 leaf whereon was described the building of the 
 boat-bridge over the Hellespont. Neither had he 
 forgotten the interment of the Scythian kings. It 
 was not that he purposed to instruct the carpenters 
 thertce, or to shed any light on their doings ; but
 
 A TALE OF THE NEW FOREST. 110 
 
 that he hoped to learn from them some words to 
 jot down on the margin. He had discovered 
 ah'eady, being helped thereto by the tongue of 
 Ytene, that hmich-eds of forcible Saxon words still 
 lurk in the crafts to which the beaten race betook 
 itself — words which are wanted sadly, and pieced 
 out very unpleasantly by roundabout foreign 
 fanglements. 
 
 Even the gratitude now due to the good-will of 
 all the neighbourhood, had failed to reconcile his 
 mind to the turgid part before him. At Oxford 
 he had been dubbed already " Caradoc the Philo- 
 sopher;" and the more he learned, the less he 
 thought of his own importance. He had never 
 regarded the poor around him as dogs made for 
 him to whistle to; he even knew that he owed 
 them some duties, and wondered how to discharge 
 them. Though lired of high Tory lineage, and 
 corded into it by the twists of habit and educatiouy 
 he never could hang by neck and gullet ; he never 
 could show basement only, as a well-roped onion 
 does. Encased as he was by strict surroundings, 
 he never could grow quite straight and even, with- 
 out a seed inside him, as a prize cucumber does in 
 tlie cylinder of an old chimney-glass. 
 
 Some of this dereliction sprang, no doubt, from 
 his granulation, and some from the free trade of his 
 mind with the great heart called " John Rosedew." 
 
 Now he came up, and smiled, like a boy of four- 
 teen, in Mr. Garnet's face; for he liked Bull 
 Garnet's lai'ger qualities, and had no fear of his
 
 120 CEADOCK NOWELL : 
 
 smaller ones. Mr. Garnet never liked ; he always 
 loved or hated. He loved Cradock Nowell 
 heartily, and heartily hated Clayton. 
 
 " Behind my time, you see, Cradock. I am glad 
 jou are doing my duty. — Ha, there ! / see you, 
 my manr 
 
 The man was skulking his work, in rigging out 
 with coloured lamps an old oak fifty yards off. 
 That ancient oak, the pride of the chase, was to 
 represent, to-morrow night, a rainbow reflecting 
 "Cradock Nowell." Young Crad, wdio regarded 
 it all as ill-taste, if it were not positive sin, had 
 lifted his voice especially against that oak's bedizen- 
 ment. " It will laugh at us from every acorn," he 
 had said to his father. But Sir Cradock was now 
 a man of sixty; and threescore resents being 
 budded. The incision results in gum only. 
 
 At the sovmd of that tremendous voice, the man 
 ran recklessly out on the branch, the creaking of 
 which had alarmed him. Snap went the branch at 
 a cankered part, and the poor fellow dropped from 
 a height of nearly forty feet. But the crashing 
 wood caught in the bough beneath, which was 
 sound and strong, and there hung the man, un- 
 injured as yet, clinging only by one arm, and 
 struggling to throw his feet up. In a moment 
 Cradock had seized a ladder, reared, and fixed, and 
 mounted it, and helped the poor fellow to slide off 
 upon it, and stayed him there gasping and quiver- 
 ing. Bull Garnet set foot on the lowest rung, and 
 Rufus Hutton added his weight, which was not
 
 A TALE OF THE NEW FOKEST. 121 
 
 very considerable. A dozen workmen came run- 
 ning up, and the man, whose nerves had quite 
 failed him, was carefully eased to the ground. 
 
 " j\Ir. Garnet," said Cradock, with flashing eyes, 
 " would you have walked on that branch yourself ? " 
 
 " To be sure I would, after I had looked at it." 
 
 " But you gave this poor man no time to look. 
 Is it brave to make another do what you yourself 
 would fear?" 
 
 " Give me your hand, my boy. I was wrong, 
 and you are right. I wish every man to hear me. 
 Jem, come to my house this evening. You owe 
 your life to ^Ir. Cradock." 
 
 Nature itself is better than the knowledge of 
 hmnan nature. Mr., Garnet, by generosity quicker 
 than quickest perception, had turned to his credit 
 an incident which would have disgraced a tyrant. 
 A powerful man's confession of wrong always 
 increases his power. "While the men were falling 
 to work again, e-\-ery one under the steward's eyes, 
 Sir Cradock Nowell and Clayton his son came 
 cantering up from the stables. The dry leaves 
 crackled or skirred away crisply from their horses' 
 feet, for the day was fine and breezy; the nags 
 were arching their necks and pricking their ears 
 with enjoyment ; but neither of the riders seemed 
 t-o be in high spirits. The workmen touched their 
 hats to them in a manner very different from that 
 with which they received Mr. Garnet or Cradock 
 Nowell. There was more of distant respect in it, 
 and less of real interest.
 
 122 CEADOCK NOWELL : 
 
 Sir Cradock now was a perfect specimen of the 
 well-bred Englishman at threescore years of age. 
 Part of his life had been touched by sorrow, but 
 in the main he had prospered. A man of ability 
 and high culture, who has not sviffered deeply, is 
 apt, after passing middle age, to substitute tact for 
 feehng, and common sense for sympathy. Mellow 
 and blest is the age of the man who soberly can do 
 otherwise. 
 
 Sir Cradock Nowell knew his age, and dressed 
 himself accordmgly. Neither stiffness nor laxity, 
 neither sporting air nor austerity, could be perceived 
 in his garb or manner. He respected himself and 
 all whom he met, until he had cause to the contrary. 
 But his heart, instead of expandmg, had narrowed 
 in the loneliness of liis life; and he really loved 
 only one in the world — the son who rode beside 
 him. He had loved John Rosedew well and truly 
 for many an honest year ; of late, admiration was 
 uppennost, and love grown a thing to be thought 
 about. The cause of the change was his own 
 behaviom-, and John's thorough hate of injustice. 
 That old friend of the family could not keep 
 silence always at the preference of Clayton, and 
 the disparagement of Cradock. The father him- 
 self could not have told whence arose this prefer- 
 ence. Year by year it had been growing, for a long 
 time unsuspected ; suspected then and fought with, 
 then smothered at once and justified ; allowed at 
 last to spread and thrive on the right of its own 
 existence. And yet any one, to look at Sir Cra- 
 dock, would have thought him justice personified.
 
 A TALE OF THE NEW FOKEST. 123 
 
 And so he was, as Cliairmaii of the Quarter 
 Sessions. Clear intelligence, quick analysis, keen 
 perception of motive in others, combined with 
 power to dispense (when nature so does) with 
 reason, and used with high sense of honour — all 
 these things made him an oracle to every one but 
 himself. Although he had never been in the army, 
 he looked like a veteran soldier ; and his seat on 
 horseback was stiff and firm, rather than easy and 
 graceful. Tall, sjmre figure, and grey moustache, 
 Eoman nose, and clear, bright eyes, thhi lips, and 
 broad white forehead — the expression of the whole 
 bespoke an active, resolute, upright man, not easily 
 pleased or displeased. 
 
 As every one was to keep holiday, the fanners 
 had challenged the Ringwood club to play them a 
 game of cricket, and few having seen a bat till 
 now, some practice seemed indispensable. Ac- 
 cordingly, while Bull Garnet was busy among the 
 working men, the farmers, being up for play, were 
 at it in hard earnest, labouring with much applause 
 and merriment, threshing or churning, mowing or 
 ploughing, and some making kicks at the ball. 
 Rufus Hutton looked on in a spirited manner, and 
 Cradock was bowling with all his might at the legs 
 of a petty t3Tant, when his father and brother 
 rode up between the marquees and awnings. The 
 tymnnical farmer received a smart crack on the 
 shin, and thought (though he feared to say) 
 « d— n." 
 
 "Hurrah, Crad! more jerk to your elbow!" 
 cried Clayton, who also disliked the man ;
 
 124 CEADOCK NOWELL : 
 
 "Blackers, you mustn't break the ball, it's against 
 the laws of cricket." 
 
 Grinning sympathy and bad wit deepened the 
 bruise. of the tibia, till Farmer Blackers forgot all 
 prudence in the deej) jar of the marrow. 
 
 "Boul awai, meester, and be honged to you. 
 I carries one again you, mind." 
 
 To the great surprise of all present there, Sir 
 Cradock did not look at the speaker, but turned 
 on his son with anger. 
 
 " Sir, you ought to know better. Your sense of 
 justice will lead you, I hope, to apologise to that 
 man." 
 
 He did not wait to see the effect of this public 
 reproof, which was heard by a hundred people, but 
 struck his mare hastily on the shoulder, called 
 Clayton, and rode away. Cradock, who now had 
 the ball in his hands, threw it a hundred feet 
 high. 
 
 " Catch it who will," he said ; " I shall bowl no 
 more to-day. Farmer Blackers, I apologise to 
 you ; I did not know you were so tender." 
 
 Feeling far more tender himself (for all that was 
 the youth's bravado), he went away, doubting right 
 and wrong, to his own little room on the ground 
 floor. There he would smoke his pipe, and medi- 
 tate, and condemn himself, if the verdict were 
 true. That young fellow's sense of justice was 
 larger, softer, more deeply fibred, than any Sir 
 Cradock Nowell's.
 
 A TALE OF THE NEW FOKEST. 125 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 Men of high culture and sensitive justice, who 
 have much to do with ill-taught workmen, lie 
 under a terrible disadvantage. They fear to pre- 
 sume upon the mere accident of tlieu* own position, 
 they dread to extract more dues from another than 
 they in his place would render, they shrink from 
 saying what may recall the difference betwixt 
 them, they cannot bear to be stiff and dogmatic, 
 yet they know that any light word may be taken 
 in heavy earnest. True sympathy is the only 
 thing to bring master and man together ; and 
 sympathy is a subtle vein, direct when nature hits 
 it, but (;rooked and ungrammatical to the syntax 
 of education. Cradock No well often touched it, 
 without knowing how ; and hence his popularity 
 among the " lower classes." Clayton hit upon it 
 only in the softer sex. Bull Garnet knew how to 
 move it dee])ly, and owed his power to that know- 
 ledge, even more than to his energy.
 
 126 CEADOCK NOWELL : 
 
 Cradock was pondering these things in the 
 pijDe of contemplation, when a pair of keen eyes 
 twinkled in at the window, and a shrewd, shrill 
 voice made entry. 
 
 " Pray let me in, Mr. Cradock Nowell ; I want 
 to inquire about the grapes." 
 
 "What a wonderful man that is !" said Cradock 
 to himself, as he came from his corner reluctantly 
 to open the French window ; " there is nothing he 
 doesn't inquire about. Erotetic philosopher ! He 
 has only been here some three or four days, and 
 he knows all our polity better than we do ! I 
 wish his wife would come ; though I believe he is 
 an honest fellow." 
 
 Unconscious of any satirical antithesis, he opened 
 the window, and admitted the polypragmonic doc- 
 tor; and, knowing that homceopathic treatment is 
 the wisest for garrulous subjects, he began upon 
 him at once. Nor omitted a spice of domesticity, 
 which he thought would be sovereign. 
 
 "Now, Dr. Hutton, it is too bad of you to 
 wander about like a bachelor. How long before 
 we have the pleasure of seeing Mrs. Hutton?" 
 
 "My dear boy, you know the reason; I hope 
 you know the reason. Your roads are very rough 
 for ladies, especially when in delicate health, and 
 om- four-wheel is being mended. So I rode over 
 alone ; and what a lovely ride it is ! Ah, Clayton 
 — yes, I saw Clayton somewhere. But youi' father 
 has promised most kindly to send a carriage to-
 
 A TALE OF THE NEW FOEEST. 127 
 
 morrow to Geopharmacy Lodge — the name of our 
 little place, sir." 
 
 At tlie thought of his home, the little doctor 
 pulled up both his shirt-collars, and looked round 
 the room disparagingly. 
 
 " Oh, I am very glad to hear it. Meanwhile, 
 you would like to see our grapes. Let me show 
 you the way to the vinery ; though I cannot take 
 you without misgivings. Your gardening fame has 
 frightened us. Our old man, Snip, is quite afraid 
 of yoiu' new lights and experience." 
 
 " Sensible lad," muttered Rufus Hutton, who 
 was pleasantly conceited — "uncommonly sensible 
 lad ! I am not at all sure that he isn't a finer 
 fellow than Clayton. But I mvist take my oppor- 
 tunity now, while he has his stock off. There is 
 something wrong : I am sure of it." 
 
 " Excuse me a moment," said Cradock ; " I am 
 sorry to keep you waiting, but I must just put 
 on my neckerchief, if I can only find it. How 
 very odd ! I could have declared I put it on that 
 table." 
 
 " What's that I see on the floor there, by the 
 corner of the bookcase ? " Rufus pointed his 
 cane at the tie, which lay where himself had 
 thrown it. 
 
 " Oh, thank you ; I must be getting blind, for 
 I am sure I looked there just now." 
 
 While the young man stooped forward, the 
 little doctor, who had posted himself for the pur-
 
 128 CEADOCK NOWELL : 
 
 pose, secured a quick glimpse at the back of his 
 neck, where the curhng hair fell sideways. That 
 glance increased his surprise, and confirmed his 
 strange suspicions. The surprise and suspicion 
 had broken upon him, as he stood by the farmer's 
 wicket, and Cradock sprang up to the bowling 
 crease ; now, in his excitement and curiosity, he 
 forgot all scruples. It was strange that he had 
 felt any, for he was not ver}"- sensitive ; but 
 Cradock, with all his good nature, had a certain 
 unconscious dignity, from which Dr. Hutton re- 
 treated. 
 
 " Tlie grapes I came to inquire about," said 
 Rufus, with much solemnity, " are not those in the 
 vinery, which I have seen often enough, but those 
 on your neck, Mr. Nowell." 
 
 Cradock looked rather amazed, but more at the 
 inquirer's manner than at his seeming imper- 
 tinence. 
 
 " I really cannot see how the ' grapes,' as some 
 people call the blue lines on my neck, can interest 
 you, sir, or are important enough to be spoken of." 
 
 " Then I do, Cradock Nowell. Do you refuse 
 to let me see them ? " 
 
 " Certainly not ; though I should refuse it to 
 almost any one else. Not that I am sensitive 
 about such a trifle. You, as a medical man, and 
 an old friend of my father, are welcome to your 
 autopsy. Is not that what you call it, sir ? " 
 
 Nevertheless, from the tone of his voice, Rufus 
 Hutton knew that he liked it not — for it was a
 
 A TALE OF THE NEW FOREST. 129 
 
 familiarity, and seemed to the youth a childish 
 one. 
 
 " Sit down, young man, sit down," said the 
 doctor, very pom])ously, and waiying further dis- 
 cussion. "I am not — I mean to say you are 
 taller than when I first — ah, yes, manipulated 
 you." 
 
 As the doctor warmed to his subject, he grew 
 more and more professional, and perhaps less gen- 
 tlemanly, until his good feelings came into play, 
 for his heart, after all, was right. All the terms 
 which he used shall not be repeated, because of 
 their being so medical. Only this, that he said at 
 last, after a long inspection — 
 
 " Sir, this confirms to a nicety my metro- 
 stigmatic theory." 
 
 "Dr. Ilutton, I know not what you mean, 
 neither do I wish to know." 
 
 Cradock put on his neckerchief anyhow, and 
 walked to his chair by the mantelpiece, although 
 no fire was burning. The medical man said no- 
 thing, but gravely looked out of the windo\\'. 
 Presently the young gentleman felt that he was 
 not acting hospitably. 
 
 " Excuse me, sir, if I liaye seemed rude ; but 
 
 you do not know how these things 1 mean, when 
 
 I think of my mother. Let me ring for some 
 sheiTy and sandwiches ; you haye had no lunch." 
 
 " Ring for some brandy, my boy ; and giye me 
 a cheroot. Fine property ! Look at the sweep of 
 tlie land — and to think of losing it all !" 
 
 VOL. I. K
 
 130 CKADOCK NOWELL : 
 
 Instead of ringing, Cradock went and fetched 
 the cognac himself, and took down a glass from a 
 cupboard. 
 
 " Two glasses, my dear boy, two." 
 
 " No, sir ; I never touch it." 
 
 "Then take it now, for the first time. Here, 
 let me feel your pulse." 
 
 " Once for all, I beg you to tell me what is all 
 this mystery? Do you think I am a child i*^" 
 
 " Fill your pipe again, Avhile I light a cigar." 
 
 Cradock did as he was told, although with 
 trembling hands. Rufus Hutton went for a wine- 
 glass, filled it with brandy, and pushed it across, 
 then gulped down half a tumblerful ; but Cradock 
 did not taste his. 
 
 "Now, my boy, can you bear some very bad 
 news indeed?" 
 
 "Anything better than this suspense. I have 
 heard some bad news lately, which has seasoned 
 me for anything." 
 
 He referred to Amy Rosedew. 
 
 "It is this. You are not your father's heir; 
 you are only the younger son." 
 
 "Is that all?"" 
 
 "All! Isn't that enough? Good God! 
 What more would you have? — you don't deserve 
 brandy." 
 
 " My father will be glad, and so will Clayton, 
 and — perhaps one other. But I don't mean to say 
 that I am."
 
 A TALE OF THE NEW FOEEST. 131 
 
 " I should rather fancy not. But j^ou take it 
 most philosophically ! " 
 
 Dr. Hutton gazed at the poor young fellow in 
 surprise and admu'ation, trying vainly to make him 
 out. Then he reached over to Cradock's elbow, 
 took his glass of cognac, and swallowed it. 
 
 " This has upset me, my hoy, more than you. 
 How miserable I felt about it ! But perhaps 
 you place no faith in the assertion I have 
 made ? " 
 
 " Indeed, it has quite amazed me ; and I have 
 had no time to think of it. My head seems spin- 
 ning round. Please to say no more just for a 
 minute or two, unless you find it uncomfortable." 
 
 He leaned back in his chair, and tried to think, 
 but could not. 
 
 Kufus Hutton said nothmg. In spite of all his 
 experience, the scene was very strange to him ; and 
 he Avatched it out with interest, which deepened 
 into strong feeling. 
 
 " Now, Dr. Hutton," said the youth, trying to 
 look as he thought he ought, though he could not 
 keep the tears back, " I beg you to think of me no 
 more. Let us have the strictest justice. 1 have 
 not known you so long — so long as you have known 
 me — but I feel that you would not say what you 
 have said, without the strongest evidence." 
 
 " Confound me for a meddlesome fool ! My 
 dear boy, no one has heard us. Let us sink the 
 matter entii'ely. Least said, soonest mended." 
 k2
 
 132 CRADOCK NO WELL : 
 
 "What do you mean? Do you think for a 
 moment that I would be a blackguard ? " 
 
 " Hush ! — don't get so excited. AVhy, you 
 look as fierce as Bull Garnet. All I mean 
 is — you know the old saying — ' Quieta non 
 movere.'" 
 
 "The motto of fools and dastards. 'Have it 
 out,' is an Englishman's rule. No sneaking tricks 
 for me, sir. Oh, what a fool I am ! I beg yom' 
 pardon with all my heart; you will make allow- 
 ances for me. Instead of being rude, I ought to 
 be grateful for kindness which even involves your 
 honour." 
 
 And he held out his hand to the doctor. 
 " Crad, my dear boy," exclaimed Mr. Hutton, 
 with a big tear twinkling in each little eye, " the 
 finest thing I ever did was showing you to the day- 
 light. If I rob you of what has appeared your 
 birthright, curse all memorandum-books, and even 
 my metrostigmatic treatise, which I fully meant to 
 immortalize me." 
 
 " And so I hope it may do. I am not so calm 
 as I ought to be. Somehow a fellow can't be, when 
 he is taken off the hooks so. I know you will 
 allow for this ; I beg you to allow for nothing else, 
 except a gentleman's delicacy. Give me your rea- 
 sons, or not, as you like. The matter will be for 
 my father." 
 
 Cradock looked proud and beautiful. But the 
 depth of his eyes was troubled. A thousand
 
 A TALE OF THE NEW FOEEST. 133 
 
 tliouglits were moving there, like the springs thiit 
 feed a lake. 
 
 " Hah, ho, very hard work !" said Rufus Hutton, 
 puffing; "I vote that we adjourn. I do love the 
 open air so, ever since I took to gardening." 
 
 Rufus Hutton hated " sentiment," but he could 
 not ahvays get rid of it.
 
 134 CEABOCK NO WELL 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 On the morning of that same day, our Amy at 
 her father's side, in the pretty porch of the Kec- 
 tory, uttered the following wisdom : " Darling 
 Papples, Papelikidion — is there any other dimi- 
 nutivicle half good enough for you, or stupid 
 enough for me? — my own father (that's best of 
 all), you must not ride Corsebus to-day." 
 
 " Amy amata, peramata a me, aim of m}' life, 
 amicula, in the name of sweet sense, why not!" 
 
 " Because, pa, he has had ten great long carrots, 
 and my best hat full of new oats ; and I know he 
 will throw you off." 
 
 " Scrupulum injecisti. I shouldn't like to come 
 off to-day. And it rained the night before last." 
 So said the rector, proudly contemplating a pair of 
 new kerseymeres, which Channing the clerk had 
 made upon trial. "Nevertheless, I think that I 
 have read enough on the subject to hold on by liis 
 mane, if he does not kick unreasonably. And if
 
 A TALE OF THE NEW FOREST. 135 
 
 he ghes me time to soothe him — that horse is fond 
 of Greek — and, after all, the gromid is soft." 
 
 " No, (lad, I don't think it is prudent. And you 
 won't ha^e me there, you know." 
 
 " My own pet, that is too true. And with all 
 your knowledge of riding ! Why, my own seems 
 quite theoretical by the side of yours. And yet I 
 have kept my seat under very trying circumstances. 
 You remember the time when Corasbus met the 
 traliea?" 
 
 " Yes,' pa ; but he hadn't had any oats ; and I 
 was there to advise you." 
 
 " True, my child, quite true. But I threw my 
 equilibrium just as a hunter does. And I think I 
 could do it again. I bore in mind what Xenophon 
 says " 
 
 " Pa, here he is ! And he does look so fat, I 
 know he will be restive." 
 
 " Prepare your Aunt Doxy's mind, my dear, not 
 to scold more than she can help, in case of the 
 worst — I mean, if the legs of my trousers want 
 rubbing. How rash of me, to be sure, to have put 
 them on to-day ! Prius dementat. I trust sin- 
 cerely — and old Channing is so proud of them, and 
 he says the cut is so fashionable. Nevertheless, I 
 heard our Clayton, as he went down the gravel- 
 walk, treating, with what he himself would have 
 called 'colores orationis,' upon Uncle John's new 
 bags; OvXaKoi, I suppose he meant, as opposed to 
 dva^vpiBes. I was glad that the subject possessed so 
 lively an interest for him ; notwithstantUng which,
 
 136 CEADOCK NOWELL : 
 
 I Vt^as very glad Mr. Charming did not liear 
 him." 
 
 " The impudence ! Well, I am astonished. 
 And to sec the things he brou2;ht back from Ox- 
 ford — quince-coloured, with a stripe that wide, like 
 one of my fancy gourds. I'll be sure to have it 
 out with him. No, I can't, though ; I forgot." 
 And Amy looked down with a rosy smile, remem- 
 bering the delicacy of the subject. "But I am 
 quite sure of one thing, pa : Mr. Cradock would 
 never have done it. Rsebus, don't kick up the 
 gravel. Do you suppose we can roll every day? 
 Oh, you are so fat, you darling ! " 
 
 " When the sides are deep," said the rector, 
 quoting from Xenophon, " and somewhat pro- 
 tuberant at the stomach, the horse is generally 
 more easy to ride. What a comfort, Amy ! 
 Stronger, moreover, and more capable of enjoying 
 food." 
 
 " He has enjoyed a rare lot this morning. At 
 least I hope you have, you sweetest. Why, pa, I 
 declare you are whistling !" 
 
 " It also behoves a horseman to know that it is a 
 time-honoured precept to soothe the steed by 
 whistling, and rouse him by a sharp sound made 
 between the tongue and the palate." 
 
 " Oh, father, don't do that. Promise me now, 
 dear, won't you ? " 
 
 " I will promise you, my child, because I don't 
 know how to do it. I tried very hard last Wed- 
 nesday, and only produced a guttural. But I
 
 A TALE OF THE NEW FOREST. 137 
 
 tliink I shall xinderstand it, after six or seven 
 visiting days. At least, if the air is shai'p." 
 
 "No, pa, I hope you won't. It would be so 
 reckless of you ; and I know you will get a sore 
 throat." 
 
 "Sweet of my world, cor cordium, you have 
 wrapped me with three involucres tighter than any 
 hazel-nut. They will all go into my pocket the 
 moment I am round the corner." 
 
 " No, daddy, you won't be so cruel. And after 
 the rime this morning! Rsebus will tell if you 
 do. Won't you now, my pretty ? " 
 
 Corsebus was a handsome pony, but not a hand- 
 some doer. He could go at a rare pace when he 
 liked, but he did not often like it. His wind was 
 short, and so was his temper, and he looked at 
 things unpleasantly. Perhaps he had been dis- 
 appointed in love in the tenderness of his youth. 
 Nevertheless he had many good points, and next 
 to himself loved Amy. He would roll his black 
 eyes, put his nose to her lips, and almost leave oats 
 to look at her. His colour varied sensitively ac- 
 cording to the season. In the height of summer, a 
 dappled bay ; towards the autumnal equinox, a 
 tendency to nuttiness ; then a husky bristle of 
 deepest brown flaked with hairs of ginger ; after 
 the clips a fine mouse-colour, with a spirited sense 
 of nakedness, fierce whiskers, and a love of buck 
 jumps. Then ere the blessed Christmas-tide, 
 nature began to blanket him with a nap the coloiu" 
 of black frost; and so through the grizzle of
 
 138 ckadoce: nowell : 
 
 spring he came round to his proper bay once more. 
 Amy declared she could tell every month by the 
 special hue of Corgebus ; but, albeit she was the 
 most truthful of girls, her heart was many de- 
 grees too warm for her lips to be always at dew- 
 point. 
 
 Both in the stable and out of it, that pony had 
 a bluif way with his heels, which none but himself 
 thought humorous. He never meant any harm, 
 however — it was only his mode of expressing him- 
 self ; and he liked to make a point when he felt 
 his new shoes tingling. But as for lacking his 
 Amy, he was not quite so low as that. He would 
 not even jump abovit, when she was on his back, 
 more than was just the proper thing to display her 
 skill and figure. " Oh, you sad Oorseby," always 
 brought him to sadness ; and he expected a pat 
 from her little gloved hand, and cocked his tail 
 with dignity the moment he received it. Never- 
 theless, for her father, the rector of the parish, he 
 entertained, wlien the oats were plentiful, noncon- 
 formist sentiments, verging almost upon scepticism. 
 He liked him indeed, as the whole world must ; 
 he even admired his learning, and tui'ned up his 
 eyes at the Greek ; but he was not impressed, as 
 he should have been, by the sacerdotal office. 
 Fatal defect of all, he knew that the rector could 
 not ride. John Rosedew was a reasoning man, 
 and uncommonly strong in the legs, but a great 
 deal too philosophical to fit himself over a horse 
 well. He had written a treatise upon the Pele-
 
 A TALE OP THE NEW FOEEST, 139 
 
 tliroiiian Lapitlis (which he could never be 
 brought to read before a learned society), he knew 
 all about the Olympics and Pythics, and Xeno- 
 phon gave him a text-book ; but, for all that, he 
 never put his feet the right way into the stirrups. 
 
 " Look at him now," said John, as the boy led 
 the pony up and down, while Amy was knotting 
 the mufflers so that they never might come undone 
 again ; '' how beautifully Xenophon describes 
 him ! ' When the horse is excited to assume that 
 artificial air which he adopts when he is proud, he 
 then delights in riding, becomes magnificent, ter- 
 rific, and attracts attention ! ' And again, ' persons 
 beholding such a horse pronounce him generous, 
 free in his motions, fit for military exercise, high- 
 mettled, haughty, and both pleasant and terrible 
 to look on.' Pleasant, I suppose, for other people, 
 and terrible for the rider. But why our author 
 insists so much upon the horse being taught to 
 *rear gracefully,' I am not horseman enough as 
 yet to understand. It has always appeared to me 
 that Corgebus rears too much already. And then 
 the direction — ' but if after riding, and copious 
 perspiration, and when he has reared gracefully, 
 lie be relieved immediately both of the rider and 
 reins, there is little doubt that he will spontaneously 
 advance to rear when necessary.' What does that 
 mean, I. ask you? I never find it necessary, ex- 
 cept, indeed, Avhen the little girls jump up and 
 pull my coat-tails, in their inquisition for apples, 
 and then 1 am alwavs afraid that thev mav suffer
 
 140 CRADOCK NOWELL : 
 
 some detriment. But let us not overtask his 
 patience ; here he comes again. Jem, my boy^ 
 lead him up to the chair." 
 
 " Any jam in your pocket, father '? " 
 
 " No, my child, not any. Your excellent Aunt 
 Eudoxia has it all under lock and key. Now I 
 will mount according to Xenophon, though I do not 
 find that he anywhere jirescribes a Windsor chair. 
 '■ When he has well prepared himself for the ascent, 
 let him support his body with his left hand, and 
 stretching forth his right hand let him leap on 
 horseback, and when he mounts thus he will not 
 present an uncomely spectacle to those behind. 
 There, I am up, most accurately ; excellent horse, 
 and great writer ! And now for the next direc- 
 tion : ' We do not approve of the same bearing a 
 man has in a carriage, but that an upright posture 
 be observ^ed, with the legs apart.' " 
 
 "How could they be otherwise, pa, when the 
 horse is between them ? " 
 
 " Your criticisms are rash, my child. Jem, how 
 dare you laugh, sir ? I Avill buy a j)air of spurs, I 
 declare, the next time I go to Ringwood. Good- 
 bye, darling ; Aunt Doxy will take you up to the 
 park, when the sun comes out, to see all the won- 
 derful doings. I shall be home in time to dress 
 for the dinner at the Hall." 
 
 Sweet Amy kissed her hand, and curtseyed — as 
 she loved to do to her father ; and, after two or 
 three wayward sallies (repressed by Jem with the
 
 A TALE OF THE NEW FOREST. 141 
 
 gardening broom), Coraabus pricked his little ears, 
 and shook himself into a fair jog-trot. So with his 
 elbows well stuck out, and shaking merrily to and 
 fro, his nght hand ready to grasp the pommel in 
 case of consternation, and one leg projected beyond 
 the other, after the manner of a fowl's side-bone, 
 away rode John Kosedew in excellent spirits, to 
 begin his Wednesday parochial tour. 
 
 Being duly victualled, and thoroughly found, 
 for a voyage of long duration and considerable 
 hazard, the good ship "John Kosedew" set sail 
 every Wednesday for commerce with the neigh- 
 bourhood. This expedition was partly social, 
 partly ministerial, in a great measure eleemos}- 
 nary, and entirely loving and amicable. There 
 was no bombardment of dissenters, no firing of 
 red-hot shot at Papists, no up with the helm and 
 run him down, if any man laimched on the mare 
 magnum, or any frail vessel missed stays. And 
 yet there Avas no compromise, no grand circle 
 sailing, no luffing to a trade-wind ; straight was 
 the course, and the chart most clear, and the good 
 ship bound, with favour of God, for a haven 
 beyond the horizon. Barnacles and vile teredoes, 
 algJB and desmidious trailers : — I doubt if there be 
 more sins in our hearts to stop us from loving each 
 other than parasites and leeching weeds to clog a 
 stout ship's bottom. Nevertheless she bears them 
 on, beautifies and cleanses them, until they come 
 to temperate waters, where the harm has failed
 
 142 CEADOCK NOWELL : 
 
 them. So a good man carries with him those wlio 
 carp and fasten on him ; content to take theb Httle 
 stings, if the utterance purify them. 
 
 The parish of Nowelliurst straggles away far 
 into the depths of the forest. To the southward 
 indeed it lias moorland and heather, with ridges, 
 and spinnets, and views of the sea, and fir-trees 
 naked and worn to the deal hy the chafing of the 
 salt winds. But all away to the Avest, north, and 
 east, the dark woods hold dominion, and you seem 
 to step from the parish churchyard into the grave 
 of ages. The village and the village warren, the 
 chase, and the Hall above them, are scooped from 
 out the forest shadow, in the shape of a hunting 
 boot. Lay the boot on its side with the heel to 
 the east, and the top toAvards the north, and we get 
 pretty near the topography. The village scattered 
 along the Avax'ren forms the foot and instep, the 
 chase descending at right angles is the leg and 
 ancle, the top will serve to represent the house 
 with its lawns and gardens, the back seam may 
 run as the little river which flows under Nowel- 
 hurst bridge. The shank of the spm* is the bridge 
 and road, the rowel the church and rectory. Away 
 to the west beyond the toe, some quarter of a mile 
 on the Ringwood-road, stands the smithy kept by 
 the well-knoAvn Roger Sweetland, who can out- 
 swear any man in the parish, and fears no one 
 except Bull Garnet. Our sketchy boot will leave 
 unshown the whereabouts of the Garnet cottage, 
 unless we suppose the huntsman to insert just his
 
 A TALE OF THE NEW FOREST. 143 
 
 toe in the stiri'up. Then the top of the iron rung 
 will mark the house of the steward, a furlong or so 
 north-west of the village, with its back to the lane 
 which leads from the smithy to the Hall. And 
 this lane is the short cut from Nowelhurst Hall to 
 Ringwood. It saves three-quarters of a mile, and 
 risks a little more than three-quarters of the neck. 
 Large and important as the house is, it has no high 
 road to Ringwood, and gets away with some dif- 
 ficulty even towards Lyndhurst or Lymington. 
 Bull Garnet was always down upon the barbarity 
 of the approaches, but Sir Cradock never felt sore 
 on the subject, save perhaps for a week at Christ- 
 mas-tide. He had never been given to broad in- 
 discriminate hospitality, but loved his books and 
 his easy-chair, and his friend of ancient standing. 
 
 The sun came out and touched the trees "svith 
 every kind of gilding, as John Rosedew having 
 done the village, and learned every gammer's 
 alloverishness, and every gaffer's rheumatics, drew 
 the snaffle upon Cor^ebus longside of Job Smith's 
 pigsty, and plunged southward into the country. 
 He saw how every tree was leaning forth its gi'een 
 with yellowness ; even proud of the novelty, like a 
 child who has lost his m-andmother. And thouffh 
 he could not see very far, he observed a little thing 
 which he had never noticed before. It was that 
 while the other trees took their autumn evenly, 
 the elm was brushed with a flaw of gold while the 
 rest of the tree was verdure. A single branch 
 would stand forth from the others, mellow against
 
 144 CRADOCK NOWELL : 
 
 their freshness, like a han-est-sheaf set up perhaps 
 on tlie foreground of a grass-plot. The rector 
 thought immediately of the golden spray of iEneas, 
 and how the Brazilian manga glistens in the tropic 
 moonlight. Then soothing his pony with novel 
 sounds, emulous of equestrianism, he struck into 
 a moorland track leading to distant cottages. 
 Thence he would hear to the eastward, arrive at 
 his hostel by one o'clock, visit the Avoodmen, and 
 home through the forest, with the evening shadows 
 falling.
 
 A TALE OF THE NEW FOKEST. 145' 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 Beside the embowered stream that forms the 
 eastern verge of the chase, young Cradock Nowell 
 sat and gazed, every now and then, into the 
 water. Through a break in the trees beyond it, 
 lie could see one chimney-top and a streak of the 
 thatch of the Rectory. In vain he hoped that Dr. 
 Hutton would leave him to himself ; for he did not 
 wish to go into the proofs, but to meditate on the 
 consequences. Some bitterness, no oubt, there 
 Avas in the corner of his heart, when lit thought of 
 all that Cla}i;on now had to offer Am;, Rosedew. 
 He had lately been told, as a mighty secret, some- 
 thing which grieved and angered him ; and the 
 more, that he must not speak of it, as his straight- 
 forward nature urged him. The secret was that 
 innocent Amy met his brother Clayton, more than 
 once, in the dusk of the forest, and met him by 
 appointment. It grieved poor Cradock, because he 
 loved Amy with all his unchangeable heart; it 
 
 VOL. I. L
 
 146 CEADOCK NOWELL : 
 
 angered him, because he tliought it very mean of 
 Clayton to take advantage of one so young and 
 ignorant of the world. But never until the pre- 
 sent moment, as he looked at the homely thatch in 
 the distance, and the thin smoke curling over it, 
 had it occurred to his honest mind, that his brother 
 might not be like himself — that Clayton might 
 mean ill by the maiden. 
 
 And now for the moment it seemed more likely, 
 as he glanced back at the lordly house, command- 
 ing the country for miles around, and all that 
 country its fief and its thrall, and now the whole 
 destined for Clayton. He thought of the mean- 
 ness about the Ireland, and two or three other 
 little things, proofs of a little nature. Then he 
 gazed at the Rectory thatch again, and the smoke 
 from the kitchen chimney, and seemed to see pure 
 playful Amy making something nice for her 
 father. 
 
 " Good God ! I would shoot him if he did ; or 
 strike him dead into this water." 
 
 In the hot haste of youth he had spoken aloud, 
 with his fist gathered up, and his eyes flashing 
 fire. Rufus Hutton saw and heard him, and 
 thought of it many times after that day. 
 
 " Oh, you are thinking of Caldo, because he 
 snapped at me. There are no signs of hydro- 
 phobia. You must not think of shooting him." 
 
 " I was not thinking of Caldo. I hope I did 
 not mean it. God knows, I am very wicked." 
 
 " So we are all, my boy. I should like to see a
 
 A TALE OF THE NEW FOREST. 147 
 
 fellow that wasn't. I'd pay fifty pounds for his 
 body, and dissect him into an angel." 
 
 Cradock Nowell smiled a little at such a reward 
 for excellence, and then renewed his gaze of cbeary 
 bewilderment at the water. 
 
 " Now let me show you my tracings, Cradock. 
 Tlu'ee times I have pulled them out, and you won't 
 condescend to glance at them. You have made 
 up your mind to abdicate upon my ipse dixi. Now 
 look at the bend sinister, that is yours ; the bend 
 dexter is for the elder brother." 
 
 " Dr. Hutton, it may be, and is, I believe, false 
 shame on my part; but I wish to hear nothing 
 about it. Perhaps, if my mother were living, I 
 might not have been so particular. But giving, as 
 she did, her life for mine, I cannot regard it medi- 
 cally. The question is now for my father. I will 
 not, enter into it." 
 
 |ji.Oh the subjectiveness of the age !" saidRufus 
 Hutton, rising, then w^alkino; to and fro^ on the 
 bank, as he held discourse with himself; 'ihere is 
 a youth wdio ought to be proud, although at the 
 cost of his inheritance, of illustrating, in the most re- 
 markable manner, indeed I may say of originating, 
 my metrostigmatic theory. \ He carries upon the 
 cervical colmnn a clear impression of grapes, 
 and they say that before the show at Rorasey 
 the gai'dener was very cross indeed about his 
 choice Black Hamburgs. His brother carries 
 the identical impress, only with the direction 
 in^'erted — dexter in fact, and dexter was the 
 l2
 
 148 CRADOCK NOWELL : 
 
 mark of the elder son. This I can prove by the 
 tracing made at the time, not witli any view to 
 future identification, but from the interest I felt, 
 at an early stage of my experience, in a question 
 then under controversy. If I prove this, what 
 happens? Why, that he loses everything — the 
 importance, the house, the lands, the title ; and 
 becomes the laughing-stock of the county as the 
 sham Sir Cradock. What ought he to do at 
 once, then ? Why, perhaps to toss me into that 
 hole, where I should never get out again. By 
 Gad, I am rash to trust myself with him, and no 
 other soul in the secret !" Here Dr. Hutton shud- 
 dered to think how little water it would take to 
 drowTi him, and the river so dark and so taciturn ! 
 " At any rate, he ought to fall upon me with 
 forceps, and probe, and scalpel, and tear my evi- 
 dence to atoms. For, after all, what is it, without 
 corroboration ? But instead of that, he only says, 
 'Dr. Hutton, no more of this, if you please, no 
 more of this ! The question is now for my father."' 
 And he must know well enough to which side his 
 father -will lean in the inquiry. Confound the 
 boy ! If he had only coaxed me with those great 
 eyes, I would have kept it all snug till Doomsday. 
 Oh what will my Rosa say to me? She has 
 always loved this boy, and admired him so im- 
 mensely." 
 
 Perhaps it was his pretty young wife's high 
 approval of Cradock which first had made the testy 
 Eufus a partisan of Clayton. The cause of his
 
 A TALE OF THE NEW FOREST. 149 
 
 )iaving settled at " Geopharmacy Lodge " was, that 
 upon his retiu-n from India lie fell in love with a 
 Hampshire maiden, whom he met " above bar" at 
 Southampton. How he contrived to get intro- 
 duced to her, he alone can tell ; but he was a most 
 persevering fellow, and little hampered with diffi- 
 dence. She proved to be the eldest daughter of 
 Sir Cradock's largest tenant, a man of good stand- 
 ing and education, who lived near Fordingbridge. 
 As I^ufus had brought home tidy pickings from 
 his appointment in India, the only thing he had to 
 do was to secure the lady's heart. And this he 
 was not long about, for many ladies like high 
 colour even more than hairiness. First she laughed 
 at his dancing Avays, incessant mobility, and sharp 
 eyes; but very soon she began to like him, and 
 now she thought him a wonderful man. This 
 opinion (with proper change of gender) was heartily 
 reciprocated, and the result was that a happier 
 couple never yet made fools of themselves, in the 
 judgment of the world ; never yet enjoyed them- 
 selves, in the sterling wisdom of home. They 
 suited each other admirably in their very differ- 
 ences ; they laughed at each other and themselves, 
 and any one else who laughed at them. 
 
 " Well, I shall be off," said Dr. Hutton at last, 
 in feigned disgust ; " you will stare at the water all 
 (.lay, Mr. Cradock, and take no notice of me." 
 
 " I beg your pardon, I forgot myself ; I did not 
 mean to be rude, I assure you." 
 
 " I know you did not. I know you would never
 
 150 CKADOCK NO WELL : 
 
 be rude to any one. Good-bye, I have business 
 on hand." 
 
 " You will be back, Dr. Hutton, when my father 
 returns from his ride ? It is very foolish of me, 
 but I cannot bear this suspense." 
 
 " Trust me. I will see to it. But he wdll not 
 be back, they tell me, till nearly four o'clock." 
 
 " Oh, what a time to w^ait ! Don't send for me 
 if you can help it. But, if he wants me, I will 
 come." 
 
 "Good-bye, my lad. Keep your pecker up. 
 There are hundreds of men in the world with 
 harder lines than yours." 
 
 " I should rather think so. I only wish there 
 were not." 
 
 Cradock attempted a lively smile, and executed 
 a pleasant one, as Rufus Hutton shook his hand, 
 and set off upon his business. And his business 
 was to ride at once as far as the " Jolly Foresters," 
 that lonely inn on the Beaulieu-road, at the eastern 
 end of the parish, whereat John Rosedew baited 
 Coraabus at the turn of the pastoral tour. The 
 little doctor knew well enough, though he seldom 
 passed that way, how tlie smart Miss Penny of 
 former days, ^Irs. O'Gaghan's assistant, was now 
 Hie important ^ii's. George Cripps, hostess of the 
 " Jolly Foresters," where the four roads met. 
 
 Meanwhile, the scaffolds went on meiTily under 
 Mr. Garnet's care, and so did the aA'saiings, mar- 
 quees, &c., and the terraces for the ladies. The 
 lamps in the old oak being fixed, the boughs were
 
 A TALE OP THE NEW FOREST. 151 
 
 manned, like a frigate's yards, with dexterous fel- 
 lows hoisting flags, devices, and transparencies, all 
 prepared to express in fire the mighty name of 
 Cradock. All the men must finish that night, lest 
 any one lose his legitimate chance of being ances- 
 trally dnuik on the morrow. Cradock Nowell, 
 wandering about, could not bear to go near them. 
 Those two hom's seemed longer to him than any 
 year of his previous life. He went and told Caldo 
 all about it ; and that helped him on a little. 
 
 Caldo was a noble setter, pure of breed, and high 
 of soul, and heavily feathered on legs and tail. 
 His colour was such a lily white, that you grieved 
 for him on a wet fallow ; and the bright red spots 
 he was endowed wath were like the cheeks of 
 Helen. Delicate carmine, enriched with scarlet, 
 mapped his back with islands ; and the pink of his 
 cheeks, where the whiskers grew, made all the 
 young ladies kiss him. His nostrils were black 
 as a double-lined tunnel leading into a pencil-mine ; 
 and his gums were starred with violet, and his teeth 
 as white as new mushrooms. In all the county of 
 Hants there was no dog to compare with him ; for 
 he came of a glorious strain, made perfect at 
 Kingston, in Berkshire. Lift but a finger, and 
 down he went, in the height of his hottest excite- 
 ment ; wave the finger, and off he dashed, his great 
 eyes looking back for repression. For style of 
 ranging, all dogs were rats to him, anywhere in the 
 New Forest ; so freely he went, so buoyant, so care- 
 ful, and yet all the while so hilarious. Only one
 
 152 CEADOCK NOWELL : 
 
 fault he had, and I never knew dog without one ; 
 he was jealous to the backbone. 
 
 Cradock was dreadfully proud of him. Any- 
 thing else he had in the world he would have given 
 to Clayton, but he could not quite give Caldo; 
 even though Clayton had begged, instead of back- 
 ing his Wena against him. Wena was a very nice 
 creature, anxious to please, and elegant ; but of 
 a different order entirely from the high-minded 
 Caldo. Dogs differ as widely as we do. Who 
 shall blame either of us "? 
 
 Cradock now leaned over Caldo, with the hot 
 tears in his eyes, and gently titillating the sensitive 
 part of his ears, and looking straight into his heart, 
 begged to inform him of the trouble they were 
 both involved in. "Have they taken the shooting 
 from us ? " was Caldo's first inquiry ; and his eyes 
 felt rather sore in his head that he should have to 
 ask the question. "No, my boy, they haven't. 
 But we must not go shooting any more, until the 
 whole matter is settled." "I hate putting off 
 things till to-morrow," Caldo replied, impatiently ; 
 " the cock-pheasants come almost up to my kennel. 
 What the deuce is to come of it ? " " Caldo, please 
 to be frigido. You shall come to my room by-and- 
 by. I shall be able then to smoke a pipe, and we 
 will talk about it together. You know that I have 
 never cared about the title and all that stuff." 
 
 " I know that well enough," said Caldo ; " never- 
 theless, I do. It gives me a status as a dog, which 
 I thoroughly appreciate. Am I to come down
 
 A TALE OF THE NEW FOEEST. 153 
 
 from goodly paunches to liver and lights and 
 horses' heads and hounds' food? I tlon't think I 
 could stand it. But I would live on a crust a day, 
 if you would only come and live with me." And 
 he nuzzled up to his master, in a way that made his 
 tears come. 
 
 Cradock was sent for suddenly. Old Hogstaff 
 trotted across the yard (wherein he seldom ventm-ed) 
 to say that Sir Cradock Nowell wished to see his 
 son. Cradock following hastily, with all his heart 
 in his mouth, Avondered at the penny-wort, the 
 wall-rue, and the snap-dragons, which he had never 
 seen before. Hogstaff tottered along before him, 
 picking uneasily over the stones, bobbing his chin, 
 and muttering. 
 
 Sir Cradock sat in the long heaA^y room known 
 as the "justice-hall," Avhere he and his brother 
 magistrates held oyer of many a culprit. The great 
 oak table Avas dabbed Avith ink, and the gi*ey walls 
 with mop-shaped blotches, where sullen prisoners 
 had thrown their heads back, and refused to 
 answer. At the lower end was Rufus Hutton, 
 jerky, dogmatical, keenly important ; while the old 
 man sat at the head of the table, with his back to 
 the pointed window, and looked (perhaps from local 
 usage) more like a magistrate than a father. 
 Straight up the long room Cradock walked, as 
 calmly as if he were going to see where his quoit 
 was stuck ; then he made salutation to his father, 
 as his custom was, for many bygone fashions were 
 retained in the ancient family. Sir Cradock was
 
 154 CKADOCK NOWELL : 
 
 proud of his son's self-command and dignified 
 manly carriage, and if Dr. Hutton had not been 
 there, he would have arisen to comfort him. As 
 it was, he only said, with a faint and doubtfid 
 smile — 
 
 " So, sir, I find that, after all, you are but an 
 impostor." 
 
 Young Cradock was a proud man — man from 
 that day forth, I shall call him " lad " no longer — 
 ay, a prouder man, pile upon pile, than the father 
 who once had spoiled him. But his pride was of 
 the right sort — self-respect, not self-esteem. So 
 he did not appeal, by word or look, to the sym- 
 pathy ku'king, and no doubt working, in the pith 
 of his father's heart, but answered calmly and 
 coldly, though his soul was hot mth sorrow — 
 
 " Sir, I believe it is so." His eyes were on his 
 father's. He longed to look him down, 'and felt 
 the power to do it ; but ch'opped them as should 
 a good son. Although the white-haired man was 
 glad at the promotion of his favourite, his heart 
 was yearning towards the child more worthy to 
 succeed him. But his notions of filial duty — which 
 himself had been called upon to practise chiefly in 
 memory, having seen very little of his father, and 
 having lost him early — were of the stern, cold order 
 now, the buckle and bucla'am style ; though much 
 relaxed at intervals in Master Clayton's favour. 
 Finding no compunction, no humility in his son's 
 look, for a mistake which was wholly of others, 
 and receiving no expression of grief at the loss of
 
 A TALE OF THE NEW FOREST. 155 
 
 heirship, Sir Cradock liardened back again into 
 his proper dignity, and resumed his air of in- 
 quiry. " I wish John RosedeAv were here," he 
 thought, and then it repented liim of the wdsh, for 
 he knew how stubborn the parson was, and how 
 he would liave Craddy the foremost. 
 
 Rufus Hutton, all this time, was in the agony of 
 holding his tongue. He tried to think of his 
 Eosa, and so to abstract himself airily from the 
 present scene. He had ridden over to see her 
 yesterday, and now dwelt upon their doings. 
 Rosa was to come to-morrow, and he would go to 
 fetch his wife in a carriage that would amaze her- 
 Then he met Cradock Nowell's eyes, and won- 
 dered what he was thinking of. 
 
 "Now, Sir Cradock Nowell, tliis won't do at 
 all. How long are we to play fast and loose with 
 a finer fellow than either of us ? " Oh, that hot- 
 headed Rufus, what mischief he did then ! " Al- 
 though I have not the honour, sir, of being in the 
 commission of peace for this little county, I have 
 taken magisterial duty in a district rather larger 
 than Ireland thrown into Great Britain. And I can 
 grow, per acre, thrice the amount of corn that any 
 of yovu' farmers can." His coloiu* deepened with 
 self-assertion, like the central quills of a dahlia. 
 
 " We must have yoii to teach us. Dr. Hutton. 
 It is a thing to be thouglit about. But at pre- 
 sent you are kindly interested in — in giving your 
 evidence." 
 
 Even then, if Dr. Hutton, with all his practised
 
 156 CKADOCK NOWELL : 
 
 acumen, had mixed one grain of the knowledge of 
 men, he might have done what he Hked with Sir 
 Cradock, and re-estabhshed the dynasty ; unless, 
 indeed, young Cradock Avere bent upon going 
 through with everything. But the only mode 
 Rufus Hutton knew of meeting the world was 
 antagonism. 
 
 " Yes, sir, you may think nothing of it. But 
 I have hunted a thing for three hundred leagues, 
 and got at it through the biggest liars that ever 
 stole a white man's galligaskins." 
 
 " Thank you. Dr. Hutton," said Cradock, divert- 
 ing the contest ; " X(07ro8vTr]s is the w^ord you mean. 
 And I fear it applies to me also." 
 
 "Perhaps, young man," cried Rufus Hutton, 
 ^' you know more Hindustani than I do. Trans- 
 late ," and he pom'ed out a sentence which I 
 
 dare not try to wTite doAvn. " But, my good fel- 
 low, you forget it is we who are stealing yours." 
 
 " I think," said Sir Cradock, slowly, and seriously 
 displeased — Good Heavens ! to joke about the 
 succession to the Nowelhurst title and lands ! — " I 
 think, sir, this can hardly be looked upon as 
 evidence. I always cut short the depositions, sir. 
 As Chairman of the Quarter Sessions, I always cut 
 short the depositions." 
 
 " And so you wish to cut short, sir, the deposition 
 of your son." Rufus laughed at his own bad 
 joke, and expected the others to laugh with him. 
 It made things worse than ever. Sir Cradock w^as 
 afraid to speak, lest he might say anything un-
 
 A TALE OP THE NEW FOREST. 157 
 
 seemly to a visitor. The young man saw his 
 opportunity, and took advantage of it. 
 
 " Father, I beg you to let me go. You would 
 not wish me, I am sure, to be here ; only you 
 think it my right to be. If you please, I will 
 waive that right ; I can wholly trust your de- 
 cision." 
 
 He bowed to his father with cold respect, being 
 hurt at his rapid conviction, to Eufus Hutton with 
 some contempt and a smile at the situation. Then 
 he marched do^vn the long room placidly, and 
 whistled when he was out of it. The next moment 
 he bolted away to his bedroom, and wept there 
 very' heavily. 
 
 "Glorious fellow!" cried Dr. Hutton. "But 
 we don't at all appreciate him. Requires a man 
 of mind to do that. And now for JVIrs. O'^aghan ! " 
 Leaving Sir Cradock this speech to digest, he 
 arose and rang the bell sharply. He felt himself 
 fully invested now with supreme judicial authority, 
 and he longed to be at the IrisliAvoman, who had 
 called him a "red gossoon."
 
 158 CRADOCK NOWELL : 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 Biddy O'Gaghan was hard at work, boilinc 
 clown herbs and blessing them, drying and botthng 
 cleverly, scraping, and picking the cloves out. She 
 had turned the still-room of the house into her 
 private laboratory; and she saved all the parish 
 and half of the hundred from "them pisoners, as 
 called theirselves doctors." Now, she was one of 
 those powerful women — common enough, by-the- 
 by — who can work all the better for talking ; and, 
 between her sniffs at the saucepan-lids, and her 
 tests upon the drying-pans, she had learned that 
 sometliing strange was up, and had made fifty 
 guesses about it. Blowing the scum and the 
 pearly beads from a pot of pellitory of the wall 
 (one of her stamich panaceas), she received a 
 command most peremptory to present herself in 
 the justice-room. 
 
 " Thin was that the way as they said it, Dick ? 
 No sinse nor manners but that ! An' every bit of
 
 A TALE OF THE NEW FOEEST. 159 
 
 tlic blessed while they kiiowed it for my biliii'-day ! 
 Muckstraw, thin, is Bridget O'Gaghan no more 
 count than a pisonin' doctor ? Hould that handle 
 there, Dick. If iver you stirs it the bridth of one 
 on your carroty whiskers from that smut on the 
 firebar, till such time as you sees me agin, I'll do^vn 
 with it arl in your crooked back bilin', and youi" 
 chilthers shall disinherit it." 
 
 Leaving Dick rooted in trepidation, for she was 
 now considered a witch, she hurried into her little 
 bedroom ; for she had the strongest sense of pro- 
 priety, and would not "make herself common." 
 Then she dashed her apron aside, and softened the 
 fire-glow from her nose, and smoothed the creases 
 of her jet-black hau", which curled in bars like 
 crochet-work. This last she did, with some 
 lubricous staple of her own discovery, applying it 
 with the ball of her thumb. " The hairs of me 
 head," as she always called them, were thick of 
 number and strong of fibre, and went zig-zag on 
 their road to her ears, like a string of jockey's 
 horses shying, or a flight of jack-snipes. Then a 
 final glance at her fungous looking-glass, just to 
 know if she were all right ; the glass gave her back 
 a fine, A^arm-hearted face, still young in its rapid 
 expression, Irish in every line of it, glazed with lies 
 for hatred, and beaming with truth for love. So 
 Biddy gave two or three nods thereat, and knew 
 herself match for fifty cross-examiners, if she 
 could only keep her temper. 
 
 As she marched up to the table, with her head
 
 160 GEADOCK NOWELL : 
 
 thrown back, her portly shape made tlie most of^ 
 and the front of her strong arms ghstening, then 
 dropped a crisp curtsey to Sir Cradock without 
 deigning to notice Ins visitor, the little doctor's 
 experience told hira that he had caught a thorough 
 Tartar. All his solemn preparations were thrown 
 away upon her, though the biggest Testament in 
 the house lay on the table before him ; and a most 
 impressive desk was covered with pens, and paper, 
 and sealing-wax. 
 
 Dr. Hutton would not yet open his mouth, because 
 he wished to begin augustly. Meanwhile, Sir Cra- 
 dock kept Avaiting for him, till Biddy could wait 
 no longer. Turning her broad back full upon 
 Kufus, who appreciated the compliment, she made 
 another short scrape to her master, and asked, with 
 an ogle suppressed to a mince — 
 
 " And what wud your honour be pleased to want 
 with the poor widow, Bridget O'Gaghan, then?" 
 
 " Bridget, that gentleman. Dr. Hutton, has made 
 an extremely important discovery, affecting most 
 nearly my honour and that of the family. And 
 now I rely upon you, Bridget, as a faithful and 
 valued dependent of ours, to answer, without reser- 
 vation or attempt at equivocation, all the questions 
 he may put to you." 
 
 " Quistions, your honour 1 " and Biddy looked 
 stupid in the cleverest way imaginable. 
 
 " Yes, questions, Bridget O'Gaghan. Inquiries, 
 interi'ogations — ah ! that quite explains what I 
 mean."
 
 A TALE OF THE NEW FOREST. 161 
 
 '• Is it axing any harm, thin, any ondacency of a 
 poor lone Avidder woman, your honour -vvud be 
 afther?" She took to her brogue as a tower of 
 refuge. Bilingual races are up to the tactics of 
 rats with a double hole. 
 
 " Sir Cradock Nowell," said Rufus, from the 
 bottom of his chest, "you, I believe, are a magis- 
 trate for this county of Hants, Vice-Lieutenant, 
 Colonel of Yeomanry, the representative of the 
 sovereign. I call upon you now, in all these 
 capacities, to administer the oath to this pre- 
 varicating woman." 
 
 The penultimate word rather terrified Bridget^ 
 for she never had heard it before ; but the last 
 word of all reassured her. 
 
 She turned round suddenly on little Rufus, who 
 had jumped from his chair in excitement, and 
 standing by head and shoulders above him, she 
 opened her great eyes down upon him, like the 
 port-holes of a frigate. 
 
 " Faix, thin, and I niver seen this young man 
 at all at all. It's between the airms of the cheer 
 he were, and me niver to look so low for him ! 
 'Tis the black measles as he've tuk, and I've seen 
 as bad a case brought through with. The luck o' 
 the blessed saints in glory ! I've been bilin' up for 
 the same. If it's narse him I can to the toorn of 
 it, I'm intirely at your sairvice. Sir Craduck, I 
 likes to narse a base little chap, sin' there's no call 
 to fear for his beauty." 
 
 This last was uttered gently, and quite as a 
 
 VOL. I. M
 
 162 CEADOCK NOWELL : 
 
 private reflection; but it told more tlian all the 
 rest. For ever since Dr. Hutton had married a 
 woman half his age, he had grown exceedingly sen- 
 sitive as to his personal appearance. By a very 
 great effort he kept silent, but his face was almost 
 black with wrath, as he handed the great book to 
 Sir Cradock. The magistrate presented it very 
 solemnly to Bridget, wlio took it as patly as if it 
 had been a flat iron. A score of times she had 
 sworn according to what was thought good for her, 
 years ago, in Ireland. At the right moment of 
 dictation, she gave the book a loud smack that 
 required good binding to stand it, and then crossed 
 herself very devoutly, to take the taste away. Of 
 a heretic oath she had little fear, though she would 
 not have told a big lie to her priest. Then she 
 dropped her eyes, and chastened her aspect, as if 
 overcome by the sens9 of solemn responsibility. 
 
 " Bridget O'Geoghegan," began the worthy 
 doctor, emphasising slowly every syllable of her 
 name, and prepared to write down her replies, 
 " you are now upon your solemn oath, to declare 
 the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the 
 truth. And if you fail in this, remember, you 
 will place your precious soul in the power of the 
 evil one." 
 
 " Amin to that same, thin. And more power 
 to yer." 
 
 " Bridget, do you remember the night when 
 your master's children were born ? "
 
 A TALE OF THE NEW FOEEST. 163 
 
 " Sure an' I do, thin. Unless it Avur the mornin'. 
 How wnd I help reminiber it ? " 
 
 " And do jou remember the medical gentleman 
 who was suddenly called in ? " 
 
 " And if I wur ten times on my oath, I don't 
 remimber no gintleman. A bit of a red-haired 
 gossoon there was, as wor on the way to be trans- 
 ported." 
 
 " Do you remember his name ? " 
 
 " Remimber it ? Let me see, thin. It wor hardly 
 worth tlie throuble of forgittin. Button, or Mut- 
 ton ; no, faix.I b'lieve it wor Rubus Rotten." 
 
 " AYell, never mind his name " 
 
 " My faith, and I niver did, thin, nor the little 
 spalpin ayther. But to my heart I was sorry for 
 the dear, good, beautiful lady — glory be to her 
 soAvl — along o' that ignorant, carroty, sprawlin', big- 
 knuckled omadhawn. Small chance for her to git 
 over it." 
 
 " Silence, woman, how dare you ? " said Su' 
 Cradock, very angrily. 
 
 " And I thought it Avas arl the truth as yer 
 honour said I was to tell." Here Biddy looked 
 hurt and amazed. " Have the little clerk got it 
 all in black and white?" With a sigh for his in- 
 capacity, she peered over the desk at his paper. 
 
 "Now, Mrs. O'Gaghan, no trifling!" Her 
 master spoke sternly and sharply. But Rufus 
 could not speak at all. He was in such a choking 
 passion. 
 
 m2
 
 164 CEADOCK NOWELL : 
 
 " If SO be I have said any harm, sir, for tlie best 
 of us is errowneous, I axes a humble pardon. Iver 
 since I lose my good husband — and a better hus- 
 band there cudn't be, barrin only the bcllises, and 
 I wudn't deny upon my oath but what I desarved 
 the spout now and thin " 
 
 " Airs. O'Gaghan," said Dr. Ilutton, trying very 
 hard to look amiable, "do your best for once, I 
 entreat you, to prove yourself, if there is such a 
 thing, a respectable IrisJnuoman." 
 
 From that moment the tables were turned. Her 
 temper boiled up like a cauldron. It is quite of a 
 piece with a thing that is all pieces — the genuine 
 Irish nature — that, proud as they are of their 
 country, they cannot bear to be told of their citi- 
 zenship. 
 
 " Irish, thin, is it ? Irish indade ! Well, and 
 I knows I'm Irish. And if I ain't, what do I care 
 who knows I am ? " 
 
 She flung up her head superbly, and great tears 
 ran from her eyes. Kufus Hutton perceived his 
 advantage, and, though not at all a mean fellow, 
 he was smarting far too sharply from the many 
 attacks on his vanity, to forego his sweet revenge. 
 
 " You remember, then, when the doctor gave 
 you the first-born child, that he made some odd 
 remark, and told you to keep it separate ? " 
 
 " And how can a poor Irishwoman remimber 
 anything at all?" 
 
 "' Come, you know very well that you remember 
 that. Now, can you deny it ? "
 
 A TALE OF THE NEW FOREST. 1G5 
 
 " Is it likely you'll catch me deny anything as 
 is a lie, then, Irish or not, as you plases 1 " Her 
 bosom still was heaving with the ground-swell of 
 her injury. 
 
 " Well, now, for the honour of old Ireland, tell 
 us the truth for once. What were the words he 
 said?" 
 
 " Save me if evir a bit of me can tell. Mayhap 
 I might call to mind, if I heer'd them words 
 agin." 
 
 " Were they not these — ' Left to right over the 
 shoulder, and a strapping boy he is ? ' " 
 
 " Bedad thin, and they might have been." 
 
 " I want to know what they M^ere." 
 
 " Plow can I tell what they were ? I only know 
 what they was." 
 
 « Well, and what was that?" 
 
 " Thim very same words as you've said." She 
 turned towards the door with a sullen air, while he 
 looked at Sir Cradock in triumph. Nevertheless, 
 he still wanted her evidence as to the subsequent 
 mistake. He had been, as I said, to the "Jolly 
 Foresters" and seen the Miss Penny of old ; who 
 now, as the mother of nine or ten children, was 
 kindly communicative upon all questions of in- 
 fancy. 
 
 " So then, Mrs. O'Gaghan, with the best inten- 
 tions in the world, you marked the elder child with 
 a rosette, as I saw on the following day." 
 
 " Thrue for you as the Gospel. And what more 
 wud you have me do ? "
 
 166 CEADOCK NOWELL : 
 
 " Nothing. Only take a needle and thread to 
 it ; instead of crimping it into the cap." 
 
 Poor Biddy started from where she stood, and 
 pressed one hand to her heart. " It's the divil 
 himself," she muttered, " as turns me inside out so. 
 And sure that same is the reason he does be so 
 black red." Then aloud, with a final rally — 
 
 " And who say they iver see me take a needle 
 and thread? And if I did, what odds to them ?" 
 
 " No, that was the very thing you omitted to 
 do, until it was too late. But when you sent to 
 !Mrs. Toaster for her large butter-scales, what was 
 it you put on each side 1 " 
 
 " What was it? No lining at all. Fair play 
 for the both of them, as I hope to be weighed in 
 j)urgatory." 
 
 Sir Cradock was looking on, all this while, with 
 the deepest amazement and interest. He had not 
 received any hint beforehand of this confirmative 
 evidence. " And, pray, what was the reason that 
 you wanted to weigh them at all ? You know that 
 it is considered unlucky among nurses to weigh 
 infants." 
 
 " Why else wud I weigh them, except to see 
 which wm' the heaviest ? " 
 
 " And pray, Bridget, which was the lieavier?" 
 asked Sir Cradock, almost smiling. 
 
 ^' Mr. Cradock, as is now, your honour. I'd 
 swear it on my dying bed. Did you tliink, then, 
 I'd iver wrong him, the innocents as they was ?"
 
 A TALE OF THE NEW FOEEST. 167 
 
 " And did you weigli them with rosettes on ? " 
 Rufus Hutton had not finished yet. 
 " How cud I, and only one got it ?" 
 '■' Oh, then, you had fastened it on again ? " 
 " Do you think tliey was born with ribbons on?" 
 This was poor Biddy's hist repartee. She lost 
 heart and told everything afterwards. How she 
 had heard that there was some difference in the 
 marks of the infants, though what it was she knew 
 not justly; having, like most Irishwomen, the 
 clearest perception that right and left are only re- 
 lative terms, and come wa'ong in the looking-glass, 
 as they do in heraldiy. How, when she fomid the 
 rosette acMft, she had done the very best she 
 could, according to her lights, to work even-handed 
 justice, and up to this very day believed that the 
 heft of the scales was the true one. Then she fell 
 to a-crying bitterly that her darling Crad should 
 be ousted, and then she laughed as heartily that 
 her dear boy Clayton was in for it. 
 
 With timid glances at ]\Irs. O'Gaghan, like a 
 boy's at his schoolmaster, Jane Cripps came in, 
 and told all she knew, saying " please sir," at every 
 sentence. She had seen at the time Dr. Hutton's 
 sketch, which was made without Biddy's know- 
 ledge, because she never would have allowed it, on 
 account of the bad luck to follow\ And Mrs. 
 Cripps was very clever now everything was known. 
 She had felt all along that things went queerly on 
 the third day after the babes were born. She had
 
 168 CEADOCK NOWELL : 
 
 made up her mind to speak at the time, only IVIi's. 
 O'Gaghan was such — excuse her — such a dis- 
 ciplinarian, that — that — and then Lady Nowell 
 died, and everything was at sixes and sevens, and 
 no one cried more violent, let them say what they 
 like about it, than she, Jane Penny as had been. 
 
 " If Sir Cradock thought further evidence need- 
 ful, there was Mrs. Bowyer, a most respectable 
 woman, who washed thirty shilling a week, Mrs. 
 Cripps' first cousin and comate, who had heard at 
 the time all about the drawing, and had not been 
 easy about the scales, and had dreamed of it many 
 times afterwards, as indeed her Aunt Betsy know ; 
 and her husband was no man, or he never would 
 have said to her " 
 
 By this time the shadows came over the room, 
 and the trees outside were rustling, and you could 
 see them against the amber sunset, like a child's 
 scrawling on his horn-book. Volunteers through- 
 out the household longed to give their evidence. 
 Their self-respect for a week would be hostile, if 
 it were not accepted. But Sir Cradock kept the 
 door fastened, till Mrs. O'Gaghan slipped out, and 
 put all the wenches down the steps backwards. 
 Mrs. Toaster alone she durst not touch ; but Mrs. 
 Toaster will never forgive her, and never believe 
 the case tried on its merits, because she was not 
 summoned to depose to the loan of the scales. 
 
 Ha, so it is in our country, and among the 
 niggers also. When wealth, position, title, even 
 bastardom from princes, even the notoriety Avhicli
 
 A TALE OF THE NEW FOREST. 169 
 
 a first-rate murderer stabs for — when any of these 
 are in question, how Ave crowd into the witness- 
 box, how we feel tlie reek of the court an aureola 
 on our temples. But let any poor fellow, noble 
 imknown, an upright man now on the bend with 
 trouble, let him go in to face his creditors, after 
 the uphill fight of years, let him gaze around with 
 work-worn eyes — which of his friends will be there 
 to back him, who will give him testimony ? 
 
 After all, what matters it except in the score 
 against us? We are bitter Avitli the world, we 
 make a fuss, and feel it fester, we explode in small 
 misanthropy, only because Ave liaA'e not in our 
 heart-sore the true balm of humanity. No longer 
 let our AvatchAvord be, " Every man for liimself, 
 and God for us all," but " Every man for God, 
 and so for himself and all." So may Ave do aAvay 
 Avith all illicit process, and return to the primal 
 axiom that " the greater contains the less."
 
 170 CEADOCI-: XOWELL : 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 The rays of the level sun were nestling in the 
 brown bosom of the beech-clump, and the fugitive 
 light went undulating through the grey-arched 
 portico, like a reedy river ; when Cradock and 
 Clayton Nowell met in the old hall of their child- 
 hood. With its deep embrasures, and fluted piers, 
 high-corniced mantel of oak relieved with alabaster 
 figures, and the stern array of pike, and steel- cap, 
 battle-axe, and arquebus, which kept the stag- 
 heads over against them nodding in per^^etual fear, 
 this old hall was so impressed upon their earliest 
 memories, that they looked upon it, in some sort, 
 as the entrance to their lives. 
 
 As the twins drew near from opposite doors, 
 each hung back for a moment : knowing all that 
 had passed that day, how would his brother receive 
 him? But in that moment each perceived how 
 the other's heart was ; Cradock cried, " Hurrah, 
 all right !" and Clayton's arms were round his
 
 A TALE OF THE NEW FOKEST. . 171 
 
 neck. Clcayton sobbed hysterically — for lie liad 
 always been woman-hearted — while Cradock 
 coaxed him with his hand, as if he were ten 
 years the elder. It was as though the days of 
 childhood had returned once more, the days when 
 the world came not between them, but they were 
 the world to each other. 
 
 " Crad, I won't have a bit of it. Did you think 
 I, would be such a robber, Crad ? And I don't 
 believe one syllable of their humbugging nursery 
 stories. Why, every fellow knows that you must 
 be the eldest brother." 
 
 " Viley, my boy, I am so glad that it has turned 
 out so. You know that I have always longed to 
 fight my way in the world, and I am fitter for it 
 than you are. And you are more the fellow for a 
 baronet, and a big house, and all that sort of 
 thing ; and in the holidays I shall come every year 
 to shoot with you, and to break your dogs, and all 
 that ; for you haven't got the least idea, Viley, of 
 breaking a dog." 
 
 " Well, no, I suppose I haven't," said Clayton, 
 very submissively; at any other time he Avould 
 have said, " Oh, haven't I ? " for it was a moot 
 point between them. " But, Craddy, you shall 
 have half, at any rate. I won't touch it, unless 
 you take half." 
 
 " Then the estates must go to the Queen, or 
 to jSIr. Nowell Corklemore, your especial fiiend, 
 Viley." 
 
 Clayton was famed for his mimicry of the pom-
 
 172 CRADOCK NOWELL : 
 
 pous Mr. Corklemore, and he could not resist it 
 now, though the tears were still in his eyes. 
 
 " Haw, yes ; I estimate so, sir. A mutually 
 agreeable and unobjectionable arrangement, sir. 
 Is that your opinion? Haw!" and Clayton 
 stroked an imaginary beard, and closed one eye at 
 the ceilino;. Cradock laughed from habit ; and 
 Clayton laughed because Cradock did. 
 
 Oh that somebody had come by to see them 
 thus on the very best terms, as loving as when 
 they whipped tops together, or practised Sir Roger 
 de Coverley ! They agreed to slip away that 
 evening from the noise of the guests and the wine- 
 bibbing, and have a quiet jug of ale in Cradock's 
 little snuggery. There they would smoke their 
 pipes together, and consider the laws of inheritance. 
 Already they were beginning to laugh and joke 
 about the matter ; what odds about the change of 
 position, if they only maintained the brotherhood ? 
 Unluckily no one came near them. The servants 
 were gathered in their own hall, discussing the 
 great discovery ; Sir Cradock was gone to the 
 Rectory to meet John Rosedew upon his return, 
 and counsel how to manage things. Even the 
 ubiquitous Dr. Hutton had his especial alibi. He 
 had rushed aAvay to catch Mr. Garnet and the 
 illumination folk, that the necessary changes might 
 be made in the bedizenment of the oak-tree. 
 
 Suddenly Clayton exclaimed, " Oh, wliat a fool 
 I am, Craddy ! I forgot a most important thing, 
 until it is nearly too late for it."
 
 A TALE OF THE NEW FOREST. 173 
 
 " What ? " asked Cradock, cagerl}*, for he saw 
 there was great news coming. 
 
 " When I was out with the governor to-da}^, 
 what do you think I saw ? " 
 
 " What, what, my boy ? Out with it." 
 
 " Can't stop to make you guess. A woodcock, 
 sir ; a woodcock." 
 
 " A Avoodcock so early ? Nonsense, man ; it 
 must have been a hawk or a night-jar." 
 
 "Think I don't know a woodcock yet? And 
 I'll tell you who saw it, too. Glorious old Mark 
 Stote ; his eyes ai*e as sharp as ever. We marked 
 liiin down to a T, sir, just beyond the hoar-witheys 
 at the head of Coffin Wood ; and I should have 
 been after him two hours ago if it had not Ijeen 
 for this rumpus. I meant to have had such a 
 laugh at you, for I would not have told you a 
 word of it ; but noAv you shall go snacks in him. 
 Even the governor does not know it." 
 
 " Fancy killing a woodcock in the first week of 
 October ! " said Cradock, with equal excitement ; 
 " why, they'll put us in the paper, Viley." 
 
 " Not unless you look sharp. He's sure to be 
 off at dusk. He's a traveller, as Mark Stote said : 
 sailed on from the Wight, most likely, last night ; 
 he'll be off for Dorset, this evening. Run for your 
 gun, Crad, your pet Purday ; I'll meet you here 
 with my Lancaster in just two minutes' time. 
 Don't say a word to a soul. Mind, we'll go quite 
 alone." 
 
 " Yes ; but you bring your little Wena, and I'll
 
 174 CEADOCK NOWELL : 
 
 take my Calclo, and Avork him as close as possible. 
 I promised liim a run this afternoon." 
 
 Away they ran, out of different doors, to get 
 their guns and accoutre themselves ; while the poor 
 tired woodcock sitting on one leg, under a holly 
 bush, was drawing up the thin quivering coverlet 
 over his great black e}' es. 
 
 Cradock came back to the main hall first, with 
 his gun on his arm, and his shot-belt across him, 
 his broad chest shown by the shooting- jacket, and 
 the light of hope and enterprise in his clear strong 
 glance. Before you could have counted ten, Clay- 
 ton was there to meet him ; and none but a very 
 ill-natured man could have helped admiring the 
 pair of them. Honest, affectionate, simple fellows, 
 true West Saxons as could be seen, of the same 
 height and figure as nearly as could be, each with 
 the pure bright Nowell complexion, and the straight- 
 forward Nowell gaze. The wide forehead, pointed 
 chin, arched eyebrows, and delicate mouth of each 
 boy resembled the other's exactly, as two slices cut 
 from one fern-root. Nevertheless, the expression — 
 if I may say it without affectation, the mind — of 
 the face was different. Clayton, too, Avas beginning 
 to nurse a very short moustache, a silky bright 
 brown tasselet; while Cradock exulted rationally 
 in a narrow fringe of young whiskers. And Viley's 
 head was borne slightly on one side, Cradock's 
 almost imperceptibly on the other. 
 
 With a race to get to the door first, the twins 
 went out together, and their merry laugh rang
 
 A TALE OF THE NEW FOREST. 175 
 
 round tlie hall, and leaped along the passages. 
 That hall shall not hear such a laugh, nor the 
 passages repeat it, for many a winter night, I fear, 
 unless the dead bear chorus; 
 
 The moment they got to the kennel, which they 
 did by a Avay of their own, avoiding all grooms and 
 young lumbermen, fourteen dogs, of different races 
 and a dozen languages, thundered, yelled, and yelped 
 at the guns, some leaping madly and cracking their 
 staples, some sitting up and begging dearly, with 
 the muscles of their chest all quivering, some 
 di'awing along on their stomachs, as if they Avere 
 thoroughly callous, and yawning for a bit of acti- 
 vity ; but each in his several way entreating to be 
 the chosen one, each protesting that he was truly 
 the best dog for the purpose — whatever that might 
 be — and swearing stoutly that he would " down- 
 charge" without a hand beino; lifted, never run in 
 upon any temptation, never bolt after a hare. All 
 the while Caldo sat grimly apart ; having trust in 
 human natm-e, he knew that merit must make its 
 way, and needed no self-assertion. As his master 
 came to him he stood upon his hind-legs calmly, 
 balanced by the chain-stretch, and bent his fore- 
 arms as a mermaid or a kangaroo does. Then, 
 suddenly, Cradock Nowell dropped the butt of his 
 gun on his boot, and said, with his face quite 
 altered : 
 
 " Viley, I am very sorry ; but, after all, I can't 
 go with you." 
 
 " Not come with me, Craddy, and a Avoodcock
 
 176 CRADOCK NOWELL : 
 
 marked to a nicety ! And you witli your vamplets 
 on, and all ! What the deuce do you mean ? " 
 
 " I mean jnst what I say. Don't ask me the 
 reason, my dear fello"w : I'll tell you by-and-by, 
 when Ave smoke our pipes together. Now I beg 
 yovi, as an especial favour, don't lose a moment 
 in arguing. Go direct to the mark yourself, 
 and straight powder to you ! I'll come and meet 
 you in an hour's time in the spire-bed by the 
 covert." 
 
 " Crad, it's no good to argue with you ; that I 
 have known for ages. Mind, the big-wigs don't 
 dine till seven o'clock, so you have plenty of time 
 to come for me. But I am so sorry I shan't have 
 you there to wipe my eye as usual. Nevertheless, 
 I'll bring home Bill Woodcock ; and what will you 
 say to me then, my boy ? Ta, ta ; come along, 
 Wena, won't we astonish the natives ? But I wish 
 you were coming with me, Crad." 
 
 The brothers went out at the little gate, and 
 there Cradock stopped and watched the light figure 
 hurrying westward over the chase, taking a short 
 cut for the coverts. Clayton would just carry down 
 the spinney, where the head of the spring was, 
 because the woodcock might have gone on there ; 
 and if ever a snipe was come back to his home yet, 
 that was the place to meet him. Thence he would 
 follow the runnel, for about a third of a mile, down 
 to the spot in the Coffin Wood, where the hollies 
 grew, and the hoar-witheys. When quit of that 
 coppice, the little stream stole away down the valley,
 
 A TALE OF THE NEW FOKEST. 177 
 
 and so past ]VIr. Garnet's cottage to the Nowelhurst • 
 water beyond the church bridge. Now whether 
 this were the self-same brook on Avhose marge we 
 observed Master Clayton last week walking, not 
 Avholly in solitude, is a question of which I will say 
 no more, except that it does not matter much. 
 There are so many brooks in the New Forest ; and 
 after all, if you come to that, how can the most 
 consistent of brooks be identical with the special 
 brook which we heard talking yesterday ? Isn't it 
 running, running on, even as our love does ? Join 
 hands and keep yoiu' fingers tight ; still it will slip 
 through them. 
 
 When Clayton was gone but a little way over 
 the heather and hare-runs, his brother made oif, 
 with his gun uncharged, for the group still at work 
 in the house-front. Bull Garnet was there, with 
 Kufus Plutton sticking like a leech to him ; no 
 man ever was bored more sharply, or more bluntly 
 expressed it. The veins of his temples and close- 
 cropped head stood out like a beech-tree's stay 
 roots ; he was steaming all over with indignation, 
 and could not find a vent for it. ^Vlien Cradock 
 came up. Bull saw in a glimpse that he was ex- 
 pected to say something; in fact, that he ought, as 
 a gentleman, to show his interest, not his surprise. 
 Nevertheless he would not do it, though he loved 
 and admired Cradock ; and for many reasons was 
 cut to the heart by his paulo-postponement. So 
 he left Craddy to begin, and presented no notch in 
 
 VOL. I. N
 
 178 CKADOCK NOWELL : 
 
 his swearing. His swearing was tremendous, for 
 he hated change of orders. 
 
 " Mr. Garnet," said Cradock, at last, " I liave 
 heard a great deal of bad language, especially 
 among the bargees at Oxford and the piermen at 
 Southampton ; and I don't pretend to split hairs 
 myself, nor am I mealy-mouthed ; but I trust you 
 will excuse my observing, that up to the present 
 moment I have never heard such blackguardly lan- 
 guage as you are now employing." 
 
 Bull Garnet turned round and looked at him. 
 If Cradock had shown any sign of fear, he would 
 have gone to the earth at once, for his unripe 
 strength would have had no chance with Garnet's 
 prime in its fury. The eyes of each felt hot in the 
 other's, as in reciprocal crucibles ; then !Mr. Gar- 
 net's rolled away in a perfect blaze of tears. He 
 dashed out his hand and shook Cradock's mightily, 
 quite at the back of the oak-tree ; then he patted 
 him on the shoulders, to resume his superiority; 
 and said : 
 
 " My boy, I thank you." 
 
 "Well," thought Cradock, "of all the extraordi- 
 nary fellows I ever came across, you are the most 
 extraordinary. And yet it is quite impossible to 
 doubt your perfect sincerity, and almost impossible 
 to call in question your sanity." 
 
 These reflections of Master Cradock were not so 
 lucid as usual. At least he made a false antithesis. 
 If it had been possible to doubt Mr. Garnet's sin-
 
 A TALE OF THE NEW FOREST. 179 
 
 cerlty, he would not liave been by any means so 
 extraordinary as he was. 
 
 " Not much trouble, after all," cried Rufus 
 Hutton, rollicldng up like a man of thrice his true 
 cubic capacity ; " ah, these things are simple 
 enough for a man with a little vovs. I shall explain 
 the whole process to Mrs. Hutton, she is so fond of 
 information. Never saw a firework before, sir — at 
 least, I mean the machinery of them — and now I 
 understand it thoroughly; much better, indeed, 
 than the foreman does. Did not I hear you say so, 
 George?" 
 
 " Eh, my mon, I deed so " — the foreman was a 
 shrewd, dry Scotchman — "in yoiu* own opeenion 
 mainly. But ye havena peyed us yet, my mon, 
 for the dustin' o' your shoon." 
 
 Rufus Hutton began, amid some laughter, to 
 hunt his French pui"se for the siller, when the 
 foreman leaped up as if he Avere shot, and dashed 
 behind the oak-tree. " Awa, mon, awa, if ye value 
 your life ! Dinna ye see the glue-pot burstin' ? " 
 
 Rufus dropped the purse, and fled for his life, 
 and tlu'ew himself flat, fifty yards away, that the 
 explosion might pass over him. Even then, when 
 the laugh was out, and Mr. Garnet had said to 
 him, " Perhaps, sir, you will explain that process 
 for the benefit of jSIrs. Hutton," instead of being 
 disconcerted he was busier than ever, and took Mr. 
 Garnet aside some little way down the chase. 
 
 " They want to make a job of it, I can see that 
 n2
 
 180 CEADOCK NOWELL : 
 
 well enough. To charge for it, su' ; to charge 
 for it." 
 
 " Thank you for your advice, Dr. Hutton," re- 
 plied Bull Garnet, crustily ; he was very morose 
 that afternoon, and surly betwixt his violence ; 
 " but perhaps you had better leave them to me, for 
 fear of the glue-pot bursting." 
 
 " Ah, I suppose I shall never hear the last of 
 that most vulgar pleasantry. But I tell you they 
 can't see it, or else it is they won't. They are de- 
 termined to do it all over again, and they need 
 only change fom^ letters, and the fixings all come 
 in again. For the E. they should put an L, for 
 
 the D a Y ^Bless my soul, Mr. Garnet, what is 
 
 it you see there?" 
 
 No wonder Rufus Hutton asked what Mr. 
 Garnet saw, for the steward's eyes were fixed 
 intently, wrathfully, ferociously, upon something 
 not very far from the place where his home lay 
 among the trees. His forehead rolled in three 
 heavy furrows, deep and red at the bottom, his 
 teeth were set hard, and the muscles of his 
 shoulders swelled as he clenched his hands fast. 
 Dr. Hutton, gazing in the same direction, could 
 see only trees and heather. " What is it you see 
 there, Mr. Garnet?" Rufus Hutton by this time 
 . was quivering with curiosity. 
 
 "I'd advise you, sir, not to ask me:" then he 
 added, in a different tone, " the most dastardly 
 scoundrel poacher that ever wanted an ounce of
 
 A TALE OP THE NEW FOKEST. 181 
 
 lead, sir. Let us go back to the men, for I have 
 little time to waste." 
 
 " Cool fellow," thought Rufus ; " waste of time 
 to talk to me, is it ? But what eyes the man must 
 have!" 
 
 And so lie had, and ears too. Bull Garnet saw 
 and heard every single thing that passed within 
 the rim of his presence. No matter what he was 
 doing, or to whom he was talking, no matter what 
 was afoot, or what temper he was in, he saw and 
 heard as clearly as if his whole attention were on 
 it, every moving, breathing, speaking, or spoken 
 thing, within the range of human antennae. So a 
 spider knows if even a midge or a brother spider's 
 gossamer floats in the dewy unwoven air beyond 
 his octagonal subtlety. From this extraordinary 
 gift of Bull Garnet, as well as from his appear- 
 ance, and the force of his character, the sons of 
 the forest were quite convinced that he was under 
 league to the devil. 
 
 In half an hour's time or less, when the dusk 
 come down like wool, Cradock cast loose his fa- 
 vourite Caldo, and set out for the Coffin Wood. 
 From habit more than forethought, and to give 
 his dog some pleasure, there by the kennel he 
 loaded his double-barrelled gun. He had made 
 up his mind to shoot no more upon his father's 
 land, until he had express permission from Sir 
 Cradock Nowell. This was a whim, no doubt, 
 and a piece of pride on his part ; but the scene of
 
 182 CEADOCK NOWELL : 
 
 that afternoon, and his father's bearing towards 
 him, had left some hitter feeling, and a sense of 
 alienation. This was the reason why he would 
 not go with Clayton, much as he longed to do so. 
 Now, with some dull uncertainty and vague de- 
 pression clouding him, he loaded his gun in an 
 absent manner ; putting loose shot, No. 6, in one 
 barrel, and a cartridge in the other. " Hie away, 
 boy!" he cried to Caldo, who had crouched at his 
 feet the Avhile ; then he struck off hot foot for the 
 westward, with the gun upon his shoulder. But 
 just as he started, one of the lads, who was often 
 employed as a beater, ran up, and said, with his 
 cap in his hand, in a manner most insinuating — 
 
 " Take I 'long of 'ee, Meestur Craduck. I'll be 
 rare and keerful, sir." 
 
 " No, thank you, Charley, not this time. I am 
 not even going shooting, and I mean to go quite 
 alone." 
 
 Poor Cradock, unlucky to the last. Almost 
 ever\'thing he had done that day had been a great 
 mistake; and now there was only one more to 
 come, the deadliest error of all. 
 
 Whistling a dreamy old tune, he hurried over 
 the brown and tufted land, sometimes leaping 
 a tussock of bed-furze, sometimes following a 
 narrow hare-run, a soft green thread through the 
 heather. 
 
 The sun had been down for at least half an 
 hour, and under tlie trees there w\is twilight ; but 
 here, in the open, a tempered brightness flowed
 
 A TALE OF THE KEW FOEEST. 183 
 
 from some yellow clouds still lingering in the 
 west. You might still know a rabbit from a hare 
 at fifty or sixty yards off. And in truth both 
 bunnies and hares were about ; the former hop- 
 ping, and stopping, and peeping, and pricking 
 their ears as the fern waved, and some sitting 
 gravely upon a hillock, "svith their backs like a 
 home-made loaf; the hares, on the other hand, 
 lopping along, -svith their great ears drooping 
 warily, and the spring of their haunches gathered 
 up for a dash away any whither: but all alike 
 come abroad to look for the great and kind God 
 who feeds them. Then, from either side of the 
 path, or the sandy brows of the gravel-pit, the 
 diphthong cry of the partridge arose, the call that 
 tells they are feeding. Convivial and good-hearted 
 bird, who cannot eat "VN-ithout conversation, nor 
 without it be duly eaten ; no marvel that the 
 Paphlagonians assign you a brace of hearts. The 
 pheasants were flo^\^l to the coverts long ago 
 (they are fearful of losing the way to bed), two or 
 three brown owls were mousing about, and a 
 horned fellow came sailing smoothly from the 
 deep settlements of the thicket, as Cradock Nowell 
 leaped up the hedge, a hedge overleaning, over- 
 twisting, stubby, and crowded with ash, rose, and 
 hazel, the fence o^ the Coffin Wood. Though 
 Caldo had stood picturesquely at lea^t a dozen 
 times, and looked back at his master reproach- 
 fully, turning the white of his eye, and champing 
 his under lip, and then dropped as if he himself
 
 184 CRADOCK NOWELL : 
 
 were shot, when the game sped away with a whirr, 
 Cradock, true to his resolution, had not pulled 
 trigger yet. And though the repression was not 
 entirely based upon motives humane, our Cradock 
 felt a new delight in sparing the lives of those poor 
 things who have no other life to look to. At 
 least so we dare to restrict them. So merry and 
 harmless to him they seemed, so glad that the 
 dangerous day was done, so thankful for having 
 been fed and saved by the great unknown, but 
 felt. Feeder, Father, and Saviour.
 
 A TALE OF THE NEW FOREST. 185 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 Meanwhile Sir Cradock Nowell had found, at 
 tlie peaceful Rectory, a tumult nearly as bad as 
 that which he had left in his own household. In 
 a room which was called by others the book-room, 
 by herself "the library," Miss Eudoxia sat half 
 choked, in a violent fit of hysterics. Amy and fat 
 Jemima doing their utmost to console her and 
 bring her round. Sir Cradock had little expe- 
 rience of women, and did the worst thing he could 
 have done — that is to say, he stood gazing. 
 
 ^' Amy," groaned Miss Eudoxia — " Amy, if you 
 don't want to kill me, get him out of the room, my 
 child." 
 
 "Go, go, go!" cried Amy, in desperation. 
 " Can't you see, godpapa, that we shall do better 
 without you; oh, ever, ever so much?" 
 
 Sir Cradock Nowell felt a longing to box pretty 
 Amy's ears ; he had always loved his godchild, 
 Amy, and chastened her accordingly. He now
 
 18 G CRADOCK NOWELL : 
 
 loved Amy Ijest in the world, next to his pet son, 
 Clayton. To tell the truth, he had bathed himself 
 in the sunset-glow of match-making, all the way 
 down the chase. Clayton, proclaimed the heir and 
 all that, should marry Amy Rosedew ; what could 
 it matter to him about money, and where else 
 would he find such a maiden? Then, in the 
 course of a few more years — so soon as ever there 
 were five, or, say at the most six children — he. Sir 
 Cradock, Avould make over the management of the 
 property ; that is, if he felt tired of it, and they 
 were both very steady. And what of Cradock, 
 you planning father, what of your other son, 
 Cradock ? In faith, he must do for a parson. 
 
 Sir Cradock retired in no small flurry, and went 
 to the garden to look for Jem. Miss Eudoxia 
 became at once unconscious, as she ought to have 
 been long ago ; and thenceforth she would never 
 acknowledge that she had seen the intruder at all ; 
 or, indeed, that there had been one. However, it 
 • cured her, for a very long time, of those sad 
 attacks of hysteria. 
 
 This present attack was the natural result of a 
 violent conflict with Amy, who was not going to 
 be trampled upon, even by Aunt Doxy. It appears 
 that, early in the afternoon, the good aunt began 
 to wonder what on earth was become of her niece. 
 Of course she could not be at the school, because 
 Wednesday was a half-holiday ; she was not in the 
 library, nor in the back-kitchen, nor even out at 
 Pincher's kennel. No, nor even in the garden,
 
 A TALE OF THE NEW FOREST. 187 
 
 altlioiiii;Ii slic had a magnificent lot of bulbs to 
 plant, for -whicli she had saved up ever so much of 
 her little pocket-money. "Well," said Miss Eu- 
 doxia, who was thirsting for her gossip, which 'she 
 always held after lunch — "well, I must say this is 
 most inconsiderate of her. And I promised John 
 to take her to the park, and how am I to get ready? 
 Girls are not what they used to be, though Amy is 
 such a good girl. They read all sorts of trashy 
 books, and then they go eloping." 
 
 That last idea sent the good aunt in hot haste to 
 Amy's becU'oom ; and who should be there, sitting 
 by the wandow, with a small book in her hand, but 
 beautiful Amy herself. 
 
 " Vi'eW ! " cried ^liss Eudoxia, heavily offended ; 
 " indeed, I am sm'prised. So this is what you prefer, 
 is it, to your own aunt's conversation? And, I 
 declare, what a colour you have ! And panting, 
 as if you had asthma ! Let me see that book this 
 moment, miss!" 
 
 " To be sure. Aunt Eudoxia," said Amy, rather 
 indignantly ; " but you need not be in a pet, you 
 know." 
 
 " Oh, needn't I, indeed, when you read such 
 books as this ! Oh, what will your poor father say ? 
 And yoii to have a class in the Sunday-school!" 
 
 Of all the grisly horrors produced to make the 
 traveller s hair creep, one of the most re])ulsive and 
 glaring was in Amy's delicate hand. A hideous 
 ape, with an open razor, was about to cut a young 
 lady's throat. Chuclding, he drew her fair neck
 
 188 CKADOCK NOWELL : 
 
 to the blade by her dishevelled hau% At her feet 
 lay an elderly woman, dead ; while a man with a 
 red cap was gazing complacently in at the window. 
 The back of the volume was relieved by a ghost, a 
 death's head, and a pair of cross-bones. 
 
 "Well!" said Miss Eudoxia. Her breath was 
 gone for a long while, and she could say nothing 
 more. 
 
 " I know the cover is ugly, aunt, but the inside 
 is so beautiful. Oh, and so very wonderful ! I 
 can't think how any one ever could imagine such 
 splendid horrible things. Oh, so clever. Aunt 
 Doxy; and full of things that make me tingle, 
 as if my brain were gone to sleep. And I want 
 to ask papa particularly about galvanizing the 
 mummy." 
 
 " Indeed ; yes, galvanizing ! and pray does your 
 father know of your having this horrible book?" 
 
 "No; but I mean to tell him, the moment I 
 have got to the end of it." 
 
 " Good child, and most dutiful ! When you 
 have swallowed the poison, you'll tell us." 
 
 " Poison indeed, Aunt Eudoxia ! How dare you 
 talk to me like that ? Do you dare to suppose that 
 I would read a thing that was unfit for me ? " 
 
 " No, I don't think you would, knowingly. But 
 you are not the proper judge. Why did you not 
 ask your father or me, before you began this 
 book!" 
 
 " Because I thought you wouldn't let me read it." 
 
 " Well, that does beat everything. Candid im-
 
 A TALE OF THE NEW FOEEST. 189 
 
 pudence, I call that, perfectly candid insolence!" 
 Aunt Doxy's throat began to swell ; there was weak 
 ororge in the family. ^Meanwhile, Miss Amy, who 
 all the time had been jerking her shoulders and 
 standing upright, in a manner peculiarly her own 
 — Amy felt that her last words required some 
 explanation. She had her father's strong sense of 
 justice, though often pulled crooked by woman- 
 hood. 
 
 "You know well enough what I mean, aunt, 
 though you love to misrepresent me so. I mean 
 that you Mould not let me read it, not because it 
 Avas wrong (which it isn't), but for fear of making 
 me nervous. And upon that subject, at least, I 
 think I have a right to judge for myself." 
 
 " Oh, I dare say ; you, indeed ! And pray who 
 lent you that book ? Unless, indeed, in your self- 
 assertion, you Avent to a railway and bought it." 
 
 " That is just the sort of thing I would rather 
 tlie than tell, after all the fuss you have made 
 about it." 
 
 " Thank you ; I quite perceive. A young- 
 gentleman — not to be betrayed — scamp, whoever 
 he is." It was Clayton Nowell who had lent the 
 book. 
 
 " Is he indeed ? I wish you were only half as 
 upright and honourable." 
 
 Ilei'eupon Miss Eudoxia, who had dragged her 
 niece down to the book-room, with dialogue ail down 
 the stau's, muttered something about her will, that 
 she had a httle to leave, though not much, but
 
 190 CKADOCK NOWELL : 
 
 honestly her own — God knew — and down she went 
 upon the chair, with both hands to her side. At 
 the sequel, as we have seen, Sir Cradock Nowell 
 assisted, and took little for his pains. 
 
 After this, of course, there Avas a great recon- 
 ciliation. For they loved each other thoroughly; 
 and each was sure to be wild with herself for 
 having been harsh to the other. They agreed that 
 their eyes were much too red now to go and see 
 the nascent fireworks. 
 
 "A gentleman's party to-night ; my own sweet 
 love, how glad I am ! I ought to know better, Amy 
 dearest; and they have never sent the goulard. 
 I ought to know, my own lovey pet, that we can 
 trust you in everything." 
 
 " No, aunty dear, you oughtn't. I am as obsti- 
 nate as a pig sometimes; and I wish you would 
 box my ears, aunt. I hope my hair won't be right 
 for a month, dearest aunt, where you pulled it; 
 and as for the book, I have thrown it into the 
 kitchen-fire long ago, though I do wish, darling 
 aunt, you could have read about the descent into 
 the Maelstrom. I declare my head goes round ever 
 since! What amazino; command of lano-uage! 
 
 ~ Co 
 
 And he knows a great deal about cookinn;." 
 
 James Pottles, groom and gardener, who even 
 aspired to the hand, or at any rate, to the lips, of 
 the plump and gaudy Jemima, was not at all the 
 sort of fellow you would appreciate at the first 
 interview. His wits were slow and mild, ar.d had
 
 A TALE OF THE NEW FOEEST. 191 
 
 never yet been hurried, for his parents were un- 
 ambitious. It took him a long time to consider, 
 and a long time again to express himself, \Yhich he 
 did w-ith a roll of his tongiie. None the less for 
 that, Jem Pottles was quoted all over the village as 
 a sayer of good things. No conclusion was thought 
 quite safe, at least by the orthodox women, until it 
 had been asked with a knowing look — " And what 
 do Jem Pottles say of it?" Feeling thus his 
 responsibility, and the gravity of his opinion, Jem 
 grew slower than ever, and had lately contracted a 
 habit of shutting one eye as he cogitated. As 
 cause and effect always act and react, this added 
 enonnously to his repute, until IMark Stote the 
 gamekeeper, and Keuben Cviff the constable, ached 
 and itched with jealousy of that " cock-eyed, cock- 
 headed boy." 
 
 Sir Cradock found Jem quite at his leism*e, 
 sweeping up some of the leaves in the shrubbery, 
 and pleasantly cracking the filberts which he dis- 
 covered among them. These he peeled very care- 
 fully, and put them in the pocket of his stable 
 waistcoat, ready for Jemima by-and-by. He swished 
 away very hard with the broom the moment he saw 
 the old gentleman, and touched his hat in a way 
 that showed he could scarcely spare time to do it. 
 
 " A^'hat way, my lad, do you think it likely yoiu' 
 master will come home to-day ? " 
 
 This was just the sort of question upon which 
 Jem might commit himself, and lose a deal of
 
 192 CKADOCK NOWELL : 
 
 prestige ; so he pretended not to hear it, and 
 brushed the very ground up. These tactics, how- 
 ever, availed him not, for Sir Cradock repeated 
 his inquiry in a tone of irritation. Jem leaned his 
 chin on the broom-handle, and closed one eye deli- 
 berately. 
 
 "Well, he maight perhaps come the haigher road, 
 and again a maight come the lower wai, and I've a 
 knowed him crass the chase, sir, same as might be 
 fram alongside of Meester Garnet's house. There 
 never be no telling the wai, any more than the 
 time of un. But it's never no odds to me." 
 
 " And which way do you think the most likely 
 now?" 
 
 " Not to say ' now,' but bumbai laike. If so be 
 a cooms arly, a maight come long of the haigher 
 road as goes to the 'Jolly Foresters;' and if a 
 com'th middlin' arly, you maight rackon may be 
 on the town wai ; but if he cometh unoosial late, 
 and a heap of folks be sickenin, or hisself hath 
 pulled a book out, a maight goo round by Westacot, 
 and come home by Sqviire Garnet's wai." Rich in 
 alternatives, Jem Pottles opened the closed eye, 
 and shut the open one. 
 
 "What a fool the fellow is !" said Sir Cradock 
 to himself ; " I'll try the first way, at any rate. For 
 if John is so late, I could not stop for him, with 
 all those people coming. How I wish we were free 
 from strangers to-night, with all these events in 
 the family ! But perhaps, if we manage it well, 
 it will carry it off all the better."
 
 A TALE OF THE NEW FOREST. 193 
 
 Sir Cradock Nowell was in high spirits as he 
 started leisurely for a saunter along the higher 
 road. This was the road which ran eastward, both 
 from the Ilall and tlie Rector}-, into the depth of 
 the forest. In all England there is no lovelier 
 lane, if there be one to compare with it. Many of 
 the forest roads are in fault, because they are too 
 open. You see too far, you see too much, and you 
 are not truly embowered. In a forest we do not 
 want long views, except to rejoice in the amplitude. 
 And a few of those, just here and there, enlarge 
 the great enjoyment. What we want, as the main 
 thing of all, as the staple feeling, is the deep, 
 mysterious, wondering sense of being swallowed 
 lip, and knowing it : swallowed up, not as we are 
 in catacombs, or wine-vaults, or any railway tunnel ; 
 but in our own mother's love, with God around us 
 everywhere. To many of us, perhaps to most, so 
 placed at fall of evening, there is a certain awe, a 
 dread which overshades enjoyment. If so, it 
 springs in part at least from our unnatural nature ; 
 that is to say, the education which teaches us so 
 very little of the things around us. 
 
 How the arches spring overhead, and the brown 
 leaves flutter among them ! In and out, and 
 through and through, across and across, Avith deli- 
 cacy, veining the very shadows. For miles we 
 may wander beneath them, and see no two alike. 
 How, for fear of wearying us, after infinite twists 
 and turns — but none of them contortions — after 
 playing across the heavens, and sweeping away 
 
 VOL. I. o
 
 194 CRADOCK NOWELL : 
 
 the sunshine, now in this evening light they hover, 
 and rustle like the sku'ts of death. Is there one 
 of them with its lichen-mantle copied from its 
 neighbour's? Is there one that has borrowed a 
 line, a character, even a cast of complexion from 
 its own brother rubbino; against it ? Their arms 
 bend over us as we walk, we are in their odour and 
 influence, we know that, like the ]Magi of old, they 
 adore only God and His sun ; and, when we come 
 out from under them, we never ask why we are 
 sad.
 
 A TALE OF THE NEW FOKEST. 195 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 There is a long, mysterious thrill, a murmur 
 rather felt than heard, a shudder of profundity, 
 which traverses the woodland holloAvs at the sun's 
 departure. In autumn most especially, when the 
 glory of trees is saddening, and winter storms are 
 in prospect, this dark disquietude moves the wood, 
 this horror at the nightfall, and doubt of the 
 coming hours. Touched as with a subtle stream, the 
 pointlets of the oak-leaves rise, the crimped fans 
 of the beech are fluttered, and lift their glossy 
 ovals, the pendulous chains of the sycamore swing ; 
 while the poplar flickers its silver skirts, the tippets 
 and ruffs of the ivy are ruffling, and even the 
 three-lobed bramble-leaf cannot repress a shiver. 
 
 Touched with a stream at least as subtle, we, 
 who are wandering among the dark giants, shiver 
 and shrink, we know not why ; and our hearts 
 beat faster, to feel how they beat. Tlie cause is 
 the same both for tree and for man. Earthly 
 02
 
 106 CRADOCK NOWELL : 
 
 nature lias not learned to count upon immortality. 
 Therefore all her works, unaided, loathe to be un- 
 done. 
 
 Whether it were this, or his craving for his 
 dinner, that made Sir Cradock Nowell feel chilled, 
 as he waited under the shuddering trees for his 
 friend John Kosedew — far be it from me to say, be 
 cause it may have been both, sir. And the other 
 cause to which he always ascribed it — after the 
 event — to wit, a divine afflatus of diabolical pre- 
 sentiment, is one we have no faith in, until we own 
 to nightmare. Anyhow, there he was, for upwards 
 of an hour ; and no John liosedew came up the 
 hill, which Sir Cradock did not feel it at all his 
 duty to descend, on the very safe presentiment of 
 the distress revocare gradum. 
 
 Meanwhile John Kosedew was speeding merrily, 
 according to his ideas of speed (which were rela- 
 tive to the last degree), along a narrow bridle- way, 
 some two miles to the westward. It would be a 
 serious insult — so the parson argued — to the un- 
 derstanding of any man who understood a horse, 
 and now John Rosedew had owned Corsebus very 
 nearly nine months, and though he had never 
 owned a horse before, surely by this time he could 
 set papers in the harhara celarent of the most re- 
 condite horse-logic — or was it dialectics? — an 
 insult it would be to that Hippicus who felt him- 
 self fit now to go to a fair and discuss many points 
 with the jockeys, if anybody suggested to him that 
 Coraebus ought to trot.
 
 A TALE OF THE NEW FOREST. 197 
 
 "Trot, sir!" cried John Rosedew, to an ima- 
 oinary Hippodamas, " hasn't he been trotting for 
 nearly an hour to-day, sir? Quite an equus tolu- 
 tarius. And upon my word, I only hope he is not 
 so sore as I am." Then he threw the reins over 
 the pony's neck, and let him crop some cytisus. 
 
 " CorsBbus, have no fear, my horse, you shall not 
 be overworked. Or if Epirus or Mycenae be thy 
 home and birthplace — incertus ibidem sudor — thrice 
 I have Aviped it off, and no oaten particles in it ; 
 vrit aveiKP, so I suppose oats must dry the skin. 
 ' Ad terramque fluit devexo pondere cervix,' a line 
 not to be rendered in English, even by my Oradock. 
 How fine that Avhole description, but made up from 
 alien sources ! Oh how Lucretius would have 
 done it ! Most sad that he was not a Christian." 
 
 A believer was what John Rosedew meant. But 
 by this time he was beginning to look upon all his 
 classical friends as in some sort Christians, if they 
 only believed in their own gods. Wherein, I fear, 
 he was far astray from the text of one of the 
 Articles. 
 
 Cob Cornsbus by this time knew his master 
 thoroughly ; and exercising his knowledge cleverly, 
 made his shoes last longer. If the weather felt 
 muggy and " trying" — from an equine view of pro- 
 bation — if the road was roua;h and against the 
 grain, even if the forest-fly came abroad upon 
 business, Corajbus used (in sporting parlance) to 
 " shut up" immediately. This he did, not in a 
 defiant tone, not in a mode to provoke antagonism ;
 
 198 CRADOCK NOWELL : 
 
 he was far too clever a horse for that ; but with 
 every appearance of a sad conviction that his 
 master had no regard for him. At this earnest 
 appeal to his feelings, John Rosedew would 
 dismount in haste, and reflect with admu-ation 
 upon the weeping steeds of Achilles, or the mourn- 
 ing horse of Mezentius, while he condemned with 
 acrimony the moral conveyed by a song he had 
 heard concerning the " donkey wot wouldn't go." 
 Then he would loosen the girths, and, remonstrat- 
 ing with Corgebus for his want of self-regard, 
 carefully wipe with his yellow silk pocket-handker- 
 chief first all the accessible parts of the cob that 
 looked at all uncomfortable, and then his own 
 capacious forehead. This being done, he Avould 
 search around for a juicy mouthful of grass, or 
 dive for an apple or slice of carrot — Corsebus at 
 the same time diving nasally — into the depths of 
 his black coat pocket, where he usually disco- 
 vered his lunch, which he had altogether forgotten. 
 While the horse was discussing this little refresh- 
 ment, John would put his head on one side, and 
 look at him very knowingly, revolving in his mind 
 a question which very often presented itself, whether 
 Corsebus were descended from Corytha or Hir- 
 pinus. 
 
 However this may [have been — and from his 
 *' staying qualities " one would have thought him 
 rather a chip from the old block of Troy — he was 
 the first horse good John Rosedew had ever called 
 his own : and he loved and admired him none the
 
 A TALE OF THE NEW FOREST. 199 
 
 less for certain calumnies spread by tlie envious 
 about seedy-toes, splints, and spavins. Of these 
 crimes, whatever they might be, the parson found 
 no mention in Xenophon, Pliny, or Virgil, and he 
 was more than half inclined to believe them clumsy 
 modern figments. As for the incontestable fact 
 that Correbus began to whistle when irrationally 
 stimulated beyond his six miles an hour, why, that 
 John Rosedew looked upon as a classical accom- 
 plishment, and quoted a line from Theocritus. 
 Very swift horses were gifted with this peculiar 
 powder, for the safety of those who would otherwise 
 be the ^^ctims of their velocity, even as the express 
 train always whistled past Brockenhurst station. 
 
 After contemplating the animal till admiration 
 was exhausted, and wondering why some horses 
 have hairy, while others have smooth ankles, he 
 would refresh himself with a reverie about the 
 Numidian cavalry ; then declaring that Jem Pot- 
 tles was "impoiitioe notandus," he would pass his 
 arm through the bridle, and calling to mind the 
 Pseon young lady who unduly astonished Darius, 
 pull an old book from some inner pocket, and 
 stroll on, wath Coraebus sniffing now and then at 
 his hat-brim. 
 
 To any one who bears in mind what a punctual 
 body Time is, this account of the rectors doings 
 will make it not incredible that he w^as often late 
 for dinner. But he never lost reckoning altogether 
 in his circumnavigation, because his leism'c did not 
 begin till he had passed the " Jolly Foresters ;" for
 
 200 CRADOCK NOWELL : 
 
 there he must be by a certain hour, or Corsebus 
 would feel aggi'ieved, and so would Mrs. Cripps, 
 who always looked for him at or about 1.30 p.m. 
 For some mighty fine company was to ])e had by a 
 horse who could behave himself, in the stable of 
 the " Jolly Foresters," about middle-day on a Wed- 
 nesday. Several high-stepping buggy-mares, one 
 or two satirical Broughamites, even some nags who 
 gave a decided tone to the neighbourhood, silver- 
 hamed Clevelands, and champ-the-bit Clydesdales : 
 even these were not too proud — that they left for 
 vulgarian horses — to snort and blow hard at the 
 " Foresters' " oats, and then eat them up like wink- 
 ing. To this select circle our own Corajbus had 
 been admitted already, and his conversational 
 powers admired, when he had produced an affidavit 
 that his master Avas in no way connected with 
 trade. 
 
 Corsebus uoav bade fair to be spoiled by all this 
 grand society. Every Wednesday he came home 
 less natural, more coxcombical. He turned up his 
 nose at many good horses, whom he had once re- 
 spected, fellows who Avandered about in the forest, 
 and hung down their chins Avhen the rain came ! 
 And then he became so affected and false, Avith an 
 interesting languor, Avhen Amy jumped out to 
 caress him ! Verily, friend Corsebus, thou shalt 
 pay out for this ! What call, pray, hast thou to 
 become a humbug, from seeing hoAV men do 
 flourish ? 
 
 John RosedeAv aAvoke quite suddenly to the laws
 
 A TALE OF THE NEW FOEEST. 201 
 
 of time and season, as the hazel branches came 
 over his head, and he could see to read no longer. 
 Tlie gre}^ wood closed about him, to the right hand 
 and to the left ; the thick shoots of the alder, the 
 da])pled ash, and the osier, hustled among the 
 taller trees whose tops had seen the sunset ; tufts 
 of grass, and blackberry-tangles, hipped dog-roses 
 leaning OA-er them, stubby clumps of buckthorn, 
 brake-fern waving six feet high where the ground 
 held moisture — who, but an absent man, would 
 have wandered at dusk into such a labyrinth ? 
 
 " ' Actum est' Avith my dinner," exclaimed the 
 parson aloud, when he awoke to the situation ; 
 " and wliat, perhaps, is more important to thee, at 
 least, Corajbus, thine also is ' pessum datum.' And 
 tlicre is no room to turn the horse round without 
 scratching his eyes and his tail so. Nevertheless, 
 this is a path, or at one time must have been so ; 
 ' semita, callis, trames ' — that last word is the one 
 for it, if it be derived from ' traho ' (which, how- 
 ever, I do not believe) — for, lo ! there has been a 
 log of wood dragged here even during a post- 
 diluvial period : we will follow this track to the 
 uttermost ; what says the cheerful philosopher : — 
 * navToir^v 0i6roio rdfjiois oSoi/.' Surely a gun, nay, two, 
 or, more accurately, two explosions ; now for some 
 one to show us the way. Cora^bus, be of good 
 cheer, there is supper yet in thy (pai-vj], not iv^i<jra ; 
 advance then thy best foot. Why not ? — seest 
 thou an etSwXov? Come on, I say, mine horse — 
 Great God! " And he was silent.
 
 202 CEADOCK NOWELL : 
 
 Tired as he was, Corjebus had leaped back from 
 the leading rein, then cast np his head and 
 snorted, and with a glare of terror stood trembling. 
 What John Rosedew saw at that moment was 
 stamped on his heart for ever. Across his narrow 
 homeward path, clear in the grey light, and seem- 
 ing to creep, was the corpse of Clayton Nowell, 
 laid upon its left side, with one hand to the heart, 
 the wan face stark and spread on the ground, the 
 body stretched by the final throe. The pale light 
 wandered over it, and showed it only a shadow. 
 John Rosedew's nerves were stout and strong, as 
 of a man who has injured none ; he had buried 
 hundreds of fellow-men, after seeing them die ; 
 but, for the moment, he was struck with a mortal 
 horror. Back he fell, and drove back his horse ; 
 he could not look at the dead man's eyes fixed 
 intently upon him. One minute he stood shiver- 
 ing, and the ash-leaves shivered over him. He was 
 conscious somehow of another presence which he 
 could not perceive. Then he ran up, like a son of 
 God, to what God had left of his brother. The glaze 
 (as of ground glass) in the eyes, the smile that 
 has swooned for ever, the scarlet of the lips turned 
 out with the chalky rim of death, the bulge of 
 the broad breast, never again to rise or fall in 
 breathing — is there one of these changes we do 
 not know, having seen them in our own dearest 
 ones ? 
 
 But a worse sight than of any dead man — dead, 
 and gone home to his Father — met John Rose-
 
 A TALE OF THE NEW FOREST. 203 
 
 dew's quailing eyes, as he turned towards the 
 opening. It was the sight of Cradock Nowell, 
 clutching his gun with one hand, and clinging 
 hard with the other, while he hung from the bank 
 (which he had been leaping) as a winding-sheet 
 hangs from a candle. The impulse of his leap 
 had failed him, smitten back by horror ; it was 
 not in him to go back, nor to come one foot 
 forward. The parson called him by his name, 
 but he could not answer; only a shiver and a 
 moan showed that he knew his baptism. The living 
 was more startled, and more startling, than the 
 dead.
 
 204 CRADOCK NOWELL 
 
 CHAPTER XXL 
 
 There was a little dog that crept and moaned 
 by Clayton's body, a little dog that knew no 
 better, never ha'V'ing been taught much. It was 
 a small black Swedish spaniel, skilful only in 
 woodcocks, and pretty well up to a snipe or two, 
 but actually afraid of a pheasant on account of 
 the dreadful noise he made. She knew not any 
 more than the others why her name was " Wena," 
 and she Avas perfectly contented with it, though it 
 must have been a corruption. The men said it 
 ought to be "Winifred;" the maids, more roman- 
 tic, "Rowena;" but very likely John Rosedew 
 was right, being so strong in philology, when he 
 maintained that the name was a syncopated form 
 of " Wadstena," and indicated her origin. 
 
 However, she knew her master's name better 
 than her own. You had only to say " Clayton," 
 anywhere or anywhen, and • she would lift her 
 tangled ears in a moment, jerk her little Avhisk of
 
 A TALE OF THE NEW FOREST. 205 
 
 a tail, till you feared for its continuity, and trot 
 about with a sprightly air, seeking all around for 
 him. Now she was cuddled close into his bosom, 
 moaning, and shivering, and licking him, staring 
 Anstfully at his eyes and the Avound where the 
 blood was welling. She would not let John Rose- 
 dew touch him, but snapped as he leaned over; 
 and then she began to whimper softly, and nuzzle 
 her head in closer. " Wena," he said, in a very 
 low voice — " pretty Wena, let me." And then she 
 understood that he meant well, and stood up, and 
 watched him intently. 
 
 John knew in a moment that all was over be- 
 tween this world and Clayton Nowell. lie had 
 felt it from the first glance indeed, but could not 
 keep hope from fluttering. Afterwards he had no 
 idea what he did, or how he did it, but the im- 
 pression left by that short gaze Avas as stern as the 
 death it noted. Full in the throat was the ghastly 
 wound, and the charge had passed out at the back 
 of the neck, through the fatal grape-cluster. 
 Though the bright hair flowed in a pool of blood, 
 and the wreck of life was pitiful, the face looked 
 calm and unwrung by anguish, yet firm and 
 staunch, with the courage summoned to ward 
 death rather than meet it. 
 
 John Ivosedew, shy and diffident in so many 
 little matters, was not a man to be dismayed when 
 the soul is moving vehemently. Now he leaped 
 straight to the one conclusion, fearful as it was. 
 
 ''Holy God, have mercy on those we love
 
 206 CEADOCK NOWELL : 
 
 SO* much ! No accident is this, but a savage 
 murder." 
 
 He fell upon his knees one moment, and prayed 
 with a dead hand in his own. He knew, of course, 
 that the soul was gone, a distance thought can 
 never gaze ; but prayer flies best in darkness. 
 
 Then, with the tears all down his cheeks, he 
 looked round once, as if to mark the things he 
 would have to tell of. In front of the corpse lay 
 the favom'ite gun, with the muzzle plunged into 
 the bushes, as if the owner had fallen with the 
 piece raised to his shoulder. The hammer of one 
 barrel was cocked, of the other on half-cock only ; 
 both the nipples were capped, and, of course, both 
 barrels loaded. The line of its fire was not towards 
 Cradock, but commanded a little by-path leading 
 into the heart of the wood. 
 
 Meanwhile, Cradock had fallen forward from 
 the steep brow of the hedge-bank ; the branch to 
 which he clung in that staggering way had 
 broken. Slowly he rose from the ground, and 
 still intent and horror-struck, unable to come 
 nearer, looked more like one of the smitten trees 
 which they call in the forest '• dead men," than a 
 living and breathing body. John Rosedew, not 
 knowing what he did, ran to the wretched fellow, 
 and tried to take his hand, but the offer was quite 
 unnoticed. With his eyes still fixed on his twin- 
 brother's corpse, the youth began fumbling clum- 
 sily in the pocket of his shooting-coat ; he pulled 
 out a powder-flask, and rapidly, never once look-
 
 A TALE OF THE NEW FOREST. 207 
 
 ing at it, dropped a charge into either barreh 
 John heard the click of the spring — one, two, as 
 quick as he coukl have said it. Then the young 
 man drew from his waistcoat-pocket two thick 
 patent Avads, and squeezed one into either cylinder. 
 All at once it struck poor " Uncle John" what he 
 was going to do. Preparing to shoot himself! 
 
 " Cradock, my boy, is this all the fear of God 
 I have taught you ? " 
 
 Cradock looked at him curiously, and nodded 
 his head in acknowledgment. It was plain that 
 his wits were wandering. The parson immediately 
 seized the gun, and sowed the powder broadcast, 
 then wrenched the flask away from him with a 
 hand there was no resisting. Then for the first 
 time he observed Caldo in the hedge, " down- 
 charging;" the well-trained dog had never moved 
 from the moment his master fired. 
 
 " Come with me at once, come home, Cradock ; 
 boy, you shall come home with me ! " 
 
 But the man of threescore was not quick enough 
 for the young despair. Cradock was out of sight 
 in the thicket, and Caldo galloped after him. 
 Wild Avith himself for his slowness of wit, John 
 Eoscdew ran to poor Clayton's gun, for fear of his 
 brother finding it. Then he took from the dead 
 ])oy's pocket his new and burnished powder-flask, 
 though it went to his heart to do it, and leaped 
 upon the back of Coraebus, without a thought of 
 Xenophon. Only Wena was left to keep her 
 poor master company.
 
 208 CEADOCK iS^OWELL : 
 
 How the rector got to the Hall I know not, 
 neither has he any recollection ; but he must have 
 sat his horse like a Nimrod, and taken a hedge 
 and two ditches. All we know is that he did eet 
 there, with Corgebus as frightened as he Avas, and 
 returned to the place of disaster and death, with 
 three men, of whom Dr. Hutton Avas one. Sir 
 Cradock was not yet come back to his home, and 
 the servants received proper orders. 
 
 As the four men, walking in awe and sorrow, 
 cast the light of a lamp through the bushes, they 
 heard a quick rustle of underwood, and crackle of 
 the dead twigs, but saw no one movino-. 
 
 " Some one has been here since I left," exclaimed 
 John Rosedew, trembling ; " some one has lain 
 beside the body, and put marks of blood on the 
 forehead." 
 
 Each of the men knew, of course, what it was 
 — Cradock embracing his brother ! 
 
 " A good job you took the gun away ; wonder 
 you had the sense, though," said Rufus Hutton, 
 sharply, to pretend he wasn't crying ; " I only 
 know what I should have done, if I had shot my 
 brother so — blown out the remains of my brains, 
 sir!" 
 
 " Hush ! " said John Rosedew, solemnly, and 
 his deep voice made their hearts thrill ; " it is not 
 our own life to will or to do with. In the hands 
 of the Lord are our life and our death." 
 
 They knelt around the pale corpse tenderly, 
 shading the lamp from the eyes of it ; even Rufus
 
 A TALE OF THE NEW FOREST. 209 
 
 could not handle it in a medical manner. One 
 of the men, who always declared that he had 
 saved Clayton's life in his childhood, fell flat on 
 the ground, and sobbed fearfully. I cannot dwell 
 <Mi it any more ; it makes a fellow cry to think 
 of it. Only, thank God, that I am not bound to 
 tell how they met his father. 
 
 VOL. I.
 
 210 CKADOCK NOWELL : 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 Maek Stote, the head - gamekeeper on the 
 Nowelhiu'st estate, was a true and honest specimen 
 of the West Saxon peasant — slow, tenacious, and 
 dogged, faithful and affectionate, with too much 
 deference, perhaps, to all who seemed " his betters." 
 He was now about fifty years old, but stui'dy and 
 active as ever, wdth a weather-beaten face and 
 eyes always in quest of something. His home was 
 a lonely cottage in one of the plantations, and 
 there he had a tidy and very intelligent wife, and 
 a host of little anxieties. His children, the span'ow- 
 hawks, the weasels, the young fellows who " called 
 theirselves under-keepers, and all they kept was 
 theirselves, sir," — what with these troubles, and 
 (worst, perhaps, of all) that nest of charcoal- 
 burners by the bustle-headed oak, with Black Will 
 at the head of them, sometimes, Mark Stote would
 
 A TALE OF THE NEW FOREST. 211 
 
 assure us, his head was gone " all \viv\'eiy * like," 
 and lie could get no sleep of night-time. 
 
 A niizzly, drizzly rain set in before the poor 
 people got home that evening with the body of 
 Clayton Nowell. Long mournful soughs of wind 
 ensued, the boughs of the trees went heavily, and 
 it blew half a gale before morning ; but it takes a 
 real storm to penetrate some parts of the forest. 
 Once, however, let the storm get in, and it makes 
 the most of the opportunity, raging "v\T[th triple 
 fury, as a lion does in a compound — the rage of 
 the imperious blast, when it finds no exit. 
 
 In the grey of the morning, two men met, face 
 to face, in the overhanging of the Coffin Wood. 
 Which was the more scared of the two, neither 
 could have said ; although each felt a little pleased 
 at the terror of the other. The one of strong 
 nerves was superstitious ; the other, though free 
 from much superstition, was nervous under the 
 circumstances. The tall and big man was ]Mark 
 Stote, the little fellow who frightened him Dr. 
 Rufus Hutton. The latter, of course was the 
 first to recover presence of mind, for ^lark Stote's 
 mental locomotion was of ponderous metal. 
 
 " What brings you here, ^li\ Stote, at this time 
 of the morning?" 
 
 "And what brings you here. Dr. Hutton?" 
 
 * " Wiwery," i. e. piddy and dizzy. — [?] " Weavery," from 
 the clack and thrum of the loom ; or, more probably, a softer 
 form of " quivery :" the West Saxon lores to soften words. 
 
 P 2
 
 212 CEADOCK NOWELL : 
 
 Mark might have asked Avith equal reason. He 
 wondered afterwards why he did not ; the wonder 
 would have been if he had. As it was, he only 
 said — 
 
 " To see the rights o' my young raeester, sir." 
 
 " The wrongs, you mean," said Rufus ; " Mark 
 Stote, there is more in this matter than any man 
 yet has guessed at." 
 
 " You be down upon the truth of it, my Avord 
 for it but you be, sir. I've a shot along o' both of 
 'em, since 'em wor that haigh, and see'd how they 
 thought of their guns, sir; Meester Clayton wor 
 laike enough to shoot Meester Cradock 'xidentually ; 
 but never wicey warse, sir, as the parson sayeth, 
 never wicey warse, sir, for I niver see no one so 
 cartious laike." 
 
 " Mark Stote, do you mean to say that Cradock 
 shot his brother on purpose ? " 
 
 Mark stared at Rufus for several moments, then 
 he thrust forth his broad brown hand and seized 
 him by the collar. Dr. Hutton felt that he was 
 nothing in that big man's grasp, but he would not 
 play the coward. 
 
 "Stote, let me go this instant. I'll have you 
 discharged this very day unless you beg my 
 pardon." 
 
 " That you moy then, if you can, meester. A 
 leetle chap coom fram Ingy, an' we bin two 
 hunner and feefty year 'long o' the squire and 
 his foregoers !" Nevertheless he let Rufus go, and 
 looked over his hat indignantly.
 
 A TALE OF THE NEW FOREST. 213 
 
 " You are an honest fellow," cried Hutton, 
 Avhen he got his breath again ; " an uncommonly 
 honest fellow, although in great need of enlighten- 
 ment. It is not in my natiu'e, my man," here he 
 felt like a patron, getting over his shaking, so 
 - elastic was his spirit ; '■' I assure you, Luke — ah 
 no, your name is ^latthew ; upon my word, I beg 
 your pardon, I am almost sure it is ^lark — ^L*. 
 Mark, I shall do my utmost for your benefit. Now 
 talk no more, but act, Mark." 
 
 " I oodn't a talked nothing, but for mating with 
 your honoui'." 
 
 " Then resume your taciturnity, which I see is 
 habitual with you, and perhaps constitutional." 
 
 !Mark Stote felt sore all over. Dr. Plutton now 
 was the collarer. ^lark, in his early childhood, 
 had been to school for a fortnight, and ran away 
 with a sense of rawness, Avhich any big word re- 
 newed. 
 
 " ]Mr. Stote, I Avill thank you to search in that 
 direction, while I investigate this way." 
 
 Mark Stote longed to suggest that possibly Dr. 
 Hutton, being (as you might say) a foreigner, Avas 
 not so Avell skilled in examinino- m-ound as a Avood- 
 man of thirty years' standing; and therefore that 
 he, old ^lark, should have the ucav part assigned 
 to him, before it Avas trampled by liufus. But 
 the gamekeeper kncAV not hoAv to express it ; sure 
 though he Avas (as all of us are, Avhen truth hits 
 the heart like a hammer) that something evil 
 Avould come of slurrine; the matter so feebh'.
 
 214 CRADOCK NOWELL : 
 
 But who are we to blame him ? — we who transport 
 a poor ignorant girl for trying to hide her igno- 
 miny, while we throttle, before she can cry, babe 
 Truth, who should be received in society with a 
 ^'Welcome, little stranger!" 
 
 With the heavy rain-drops hanging like leeches, *, 
 or running together, as they do, at every thorn or 
 scale of the bark, seeking provocation to come 
 down the nape of the neck of any man, E,ufus 
 Hutton went creeping under, trying not to irritate 
 them, pretending that he was quite at home, and 
 understood them like a jungle. Nevertheless he 
 repented, and did not thoroughly search more 
 than ten square yards. The things would knock 
 him so in the face, and the stumps would stick in 
 his trousers so, and the drops were so bad for his 
 rheumatism ; and, as it was quite impossible for 
 any man to make way there, what on earth was 
 there to look for ? 
 
 In spite of all this, he did find something, and 
 stowed it away in his waistcoat pocket, to be 
 spoken of, or otherwise, according to the turn of 
 events. And by this he meant no dishonesty, at 
 least in his own opinion, only he pitied young 
 Cradock most deeply, and would do all he could 
 in his favour. At the side of the narrow by-path 
 leading from that woodman's track (by which John 
 Eosedew had approached) into the far depth of 
 the thicket. Dr. Hutton found, under a black- 
 berry-bush, a little empty tube, unlike any tube 
 he had seen before. It was about two inches and 
 a half in length, and three-fourths of an inch in
 
 A TALE OF THE NEW FOREST. 215 
 
 diameter. Sodden as it was with the rain, and 
 opened partway along the seam, it still retained, 
 unmistakably, the smell of exploded powder. It 
 seemed to be made of mill-board, or some other 
 form of paper, with a glaze upon the outside and 
 some metal foil at the butt of it. What puzzled 
 Kufus most of all was a little cylinder passing 
 mto and across the bottom, sometliing like a boot- 
 tag. 
 
 Dr. Hutton Avas not at this time skilled in mo- 
 dern gunnery. lie knew how to load a fowling- 
 piece, and what the difference was between a 
 flint-gun and a percussion-gun ; moreover, he had 
 been out shooting once or twice in India, not 
 from any love of the sport, but to oblige his neigh- 
 bours. So he thought himself both acute and 
 learned in ariiving at the conclusion that this was 
 a cartridge-case. 
 
 "Mark, does Mr. Cradock Nowell generally 
 shoot Avitli cartridges?" 
 
 " lie laiketh mostways to be with a curtreege in 
 his toard barryel, sir." 
 
 " Oh, keeps a cartridge in his left barrel, does 
 he ; and fires first the right, I suppose ? " 
 
 Leaving Mark to continue the search, Eufus re- 
 turned to the Hall, after carefully taking the dis- 
 tances between certain important points. He was 
 bound, as he felt, to lose no time in making the 
 strictest examination of the poor youth's body. 
 For now, in this great calamity, the management 
 of everything seemed to fall upon Rufus Hutton. 
 Sir Cradock, of course, was overwhelmed; John
 
 216 CRADOCK NOWELL : 
 
 Rosedew, although so deeply distressed, for the 
 boys were like his own to him, was ready to do his 
 utmost ; but, as every one knew, except himself, he 
 was not a man of the world. Unluckily, too, Mr. 
 Garnet, always the leading spirit wherever he 
 appeared, had not yet presented himself in this 
 keen emergency. But his son came up, in the 
 course of the day, to ask how Su' Cradock No well 
 was, and to say, that his father was quite laid up 
 with a violent bilious attack. 
 
 Dr. Hutton worked very hard, kept his mind 
 on the stretch continually, ordered every one 
 right and left. He even contrived to repulse 
 all the kindred, to the twentieth collateral, who 
 were flocking in, that day, to rejoice at the 
 manhood of the heir. From old Hog-staff, who 
 knew all the family, kith and kin, and friends 
 and enemies, he learned the names of the guests 
 expected, and met them with laconic missives 
 handed through the closed gates at the lodges. In 
 many cases, it is to be feared, indignation over- 
 came sympathy ; " upstart insolence ! " was heard 
 through the clatter of carriage-windows, very 
 nearly as often as, " most sad occurrence ! " How- 
 ever, most of them were consoled by the prospect 
 of learning everything at the inquest on the morrow. 
 What could be clearer than that Cradock must be 
 hanged for Clayton's murder ? The disgrace would 
 kill the old baronet. " And then, it would be very 
 painful, but my wife would be bound, sir, for the 
 sake of her poor children, to prove her direct
 
 A TALE OF THE NEW FOREST. 217 
 
 descent from that well-known Sir Cradock Nowell, 
 who shot a man in the New Forest. Ah, I fear it 
 runs in the family." 
 
 But their ^Nnrath was most unphilosophical, un- 
 worthy of any moralists, when they found that 
 Ivufus had cheated them all as to the time of the 
 inquest. In every direction he spread a report 
 that the coroner could not attend until three o'clock 
 on Friday, while he had arranged very quietly to 
 begin the proceedings at noon. And he had taken 
 good care to secure the presence of all the chief 
 men in the neighbourhood — the magistrates, the 
 old friends of the family, all who were interested 
 in its honour rather than in its possessions. As 
 none of the baffled cousins could solace themselves 
 with outcry that the matter had been hushed up, 
 they discovered that kind feeling had made the 
 scene too sad for them. 
 
 The coroner sat in the principal room at the 
 " Nowell Arms ;" the jury had been to see the 
 body lying at the Hall, and now were to hear the 
 evidence. Six or seven of the county magistrates 
 sat behind the coroner, and their clerk was Avith 
 them. Of course they did not attend officially, 
 their jurisdiction being entirely several from that 
 of the present court. But there could be little 
 doubt that their action would depend, in a great 
 measure, upon what should now transpire. 
 
 The jury was chosen carefully to preclude, so 
 far as might be, the charge of private influence. 
 They were known, for the most part, as men of
 
 218 CKADOCK NOWELL : 
 
 independence and probity, and two of them as con- 
 sistent enemies to the influence of the Hall. As 
 for general spectators, only a few of the village- 
 folk allowed their curiosity to conquer their good 
 feeling, or, perhaps, I should say their discretion ; 
 for all were tenants under Sir Cradoc.k ; and, 
 though it was known by this time that Bull Garnet 
 was ill and in bed, prostrated by one of his old 
 attacks, eveiybody felt certain that he would find 
 out who dared to be present, and visit them pretty 
 smartly. 
 
 It would be waste of time to recount all the evi- 
 dence given ; for we know nearly all that Dr. 
 Hutton and the clerg}'man would depose. Another 
 medical man. Dr. Gall, had also examined poor 
 Clayton's remains; and the healing profession, 
 who cure us (like bacon) after they have killed 
 us, are remarkable for agreeing in public, and 
 quarrelling sadly in private life. So Dr. Gall 
 deposed exactly as Mr. Hutton had done. He was 
 very emphatic towards Eufus, in the use of the 
 proper prefix ; but we who know the skill displayed 
 presuppose the game certificate. 
 
 One part, however, of the medical evidence 
 ought to be repeated. Poor Clayton had not died 
 from an ordinary small-shot wound or wounds, but 
 from a ghastly hole through his tlu'oat, cut as if by 
 a bullet. As Dr. Gall, who knew something of 
 guns, very concisely put it, the hole was like the 
 hole in a door, when boys have fired, as they some- 
 times do, a tallow-candle through it. And yet it
 
 A TALE OF THE NEW FOKEST. 219 
 
 was fluted at the exit, in the fleshy part of tlie 
 neck, as no bullet could have marked it. That 
 was caused by the shot diverging, beginning to 
 radiate, perhaps from the opposition encountered. 
 
 '' In two words," said Dr. Gall, when they had 
 badgered him in his evidence, " the deceased was 
 killed eitlier by a balled cartridge, or by a charge 
 of loose shot fired within six feet of him." 
 
 " Very good," thought Ruf us Hutton, who heard 
 all Dr. Gall said ; " I'll keep my cartridge-case to 
 myself. Poor Crad shan't have that against him." 
 
 Hereupon, lest any mist (which goddesses abound 
 in, vide Homer passim) descend upon the eyes or 
 mind of any gentle follower of my poor Craddy's 
 fortunes, let me endeavour to explain Dr. Gall's 
 obscurities. 
 
 Cartridges, as used by sportsmen with guns 
 which load at the muzzle, are packages of shot 
 compact, and rammed down in a body. Some of 
 them have spu'al cases of the finest wire, covered 
 round with paper ; others, used for shorter distance, 
 have only cyKnders of paper to enclose the shot. 
 The interstices between the shots are solidified 
 vntli sawdust. The only use of these things is — 
 for they save little time in loading — to kill our 
 brother bipeds, or quadrupeds, if such we are, at a 
 longer distance. The shots are prevented from 
 scattering so widely as they love to do, when freed 
 from the barrel's repression. They fly in a closer 
 body, their expansive instincts being checked, when 
 first they leave the muzzle, by the constraint of
 
 220 CRADOCK NOWELL : 
 
 the case and the tightness of their brotherhood. 
 But it sometimes happens, mainly with wire-cur- 
 tridges, that the shot can never burst its cerements, 
 and flies in the compass of a sKig, until it meets an 
 obstacle. When this is so, the quarry escapes ; 
 unless a bullet so aimed would have hit it. This 
 non-expansion is called, in good English, the 
 " balling" of the cartridge. And those wdiich are 
 used for the longest distance, and for wild-fowl 
 shooting — green cartridges, as they are called, con- 
 taining larger shot — are especially apt to ball. 
 
 Dr. Gall was aware, of course, that no one beat- 
 ing for a woodcock would think of putting a green 
 cartridge into his gun at all ; but it seemed very 
 likely indeed that Cradock might have used a blue 
 one, for a longer shot Avitli his left barrel ; and the 
 blue ones, having wire round them, sometimes ball, 
 though not so often as their verdant brothers. It 
 only remains to be said that when a cartridge balls, 
 it flies with the force, as well as in the compass, of 
 a bullet. With three drachms of powder behind 
 it, it will cut a hole at forty yards through a two- 
 inch deal. 
 
 Vv hether it were a balled cartridge or a charge 
 of loose shot at six feet distance, was the mo- 
 mentous issue. In the former case, there would be 
 fair reason to set it down as an accident ; for the 
 place where Cradock had first been seen was 
 thirty yards from Clayton ; and he might so have 
 shot him thence, in the dusk, and through the 
 thick of the covert. But if that poor boy had
 
 A TALE OF THE NEW FOREST. 221 
 
 died from a common charge of shot, " Murder " 
 was the only verdict true men coukl return on the 
 evidence set before them. For Cradock must 
 have fired ^Yilfully at the open throat of his brother, 
 then flown to tlie hedge and acted horror Avhen he 
 saw John Rosedew. Where was Cradock 1 The 
 jury trembled, and so did Rufus Hutton. The 
 coroner repeated the question, although he had no 
 right to do it, at that stage of the evidence. 
 
 "Since it occurred he has not been seen," 
 whispered Rufus Hutton at last, knowing how 
 men grow impatient and evil when unanswered. 
 
 " Let us proceed with the rest of the evidence," 
 said his honour, grandly ; " if the young man cares 
 for his reputation, he will be here by-and-by. 
 But I have ridden far to-day. Let us have 
 some refreshment, gentlemen. Justice must not 
 be hurried."
 
 222 CRADOCK NOWELL : 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 It will have been perceived already that the 
 coroner was by no means " the right man in the 
 right place." The legal firm, " Cole, Cole, and 
 Son," had been knoAMi in Southampton for many 
 years, as doing a large and xery respectable busi- 
 ness. The present Mr. Cole, the coroner, who had 
 been the "Son" in the partnership, became sole 
 owner suddenly by the death of his father and 
 uncle. Having brains enough to know that he was 
 far from having too much, he took at once into 
 partnership with him an uncommonly wide-awake, 
 wary fellow, who had been head- clerk to the old 
 firm, ever biding his time for this inevitable result. 
 So now the firm was thriving under the style and 
 title of " Cole, Chope, and Co.," Mr. Chope being 
 known far and wide by the nickname of " Cole's 
 brains." Mr. Cole being appointed coroner, not 
 many months ago, and knowing very little about 
 his duties, took good care for a time not to attempt
 
 A TALE OF THE NEW FOEEST. 223 
 
 their discharge without having "Cole's brains" 
 Avith him. But this had been found to interfere 
 so sadly with private practice, that little by little 
 Cole plucked up courage, as the novelty of the 
 thing wore off, and now was accustomed to play 
 the coroner without the assistance of brains. 
 Nevertheless, upon an occasion so important as 
 this, he would have come with full cerebrum, but 
 that Cliope was gone for his holiday. ^Ir. Cole, 
 however, was an honest man — wliich could scarcely 
 be said of liis partner — and meant to do his duty, 
 so far as he could see it. In the present inquiry 
 he had less chance of seeing it than usual, for he 
 stood in great awe of ^Ir. Brockwood, a man of 
 ability and high standing, wdio, as Sir Cradock 
 Nowell's solicitor, attended to w'atch the case, at 
 the suggestion of Eufus Huttou. 
 
 Both the guns were produced to the coroner, in 
 the condition in which they were found, except 
 that John Rosedew, for safety's sake, had lowered 
 the right hammer of Clayton's to the half-cock, 
 before he concealed it from Cradock. Cradock's 
 own unlucky piece had been found, on the follow- 
 ing morning, in a rushy pool, where he had cast it, 
 as he fled so wildly. Both the barrels had been 
 discharged, while both of Clayton's were loaded. 
 It went to the heart of every man there who could 
 not think Cradock a murderer, when in reply to a 
 juryman's question, what was the meaning of cer- 
 tain lines marked with a watch-spring file on the 
 trigger-plate of his gun, it was explained that the
 
 224 CRADOCK NOWELL : 
 
 twins so registered the number and kind of the 
 season's eanie. 
 
 After this, Mark Stote was called, and came for- 
 ward very awkwardly with a deal of wet on his 
 velveteen cuffs, which he tried to keep from notice. 
 His eyes were fixed upon the coroner, with a kind 
 of defiance, but even while he was kissing the 
 book, he was glad to sniff behind it. 
 
 "Mr. Mark Stote," said the coroner, duly 
 prompted, " you have, I believe, been employed to 
 examine the scene of this lamentable occurrence?" 
 
 Mark Stote took a minute to understand this, 
 and a minute to consider his answer. 
 
 " Yees, my lard, I throwed a squoyle at 'un." 
 
 The representative of the Crown looked at Mark 
 with amazement equal at least to that with which 
 Mark was regarding him. 
 
 '" Gentlemen," asked Mr. Cole, addressing the 
 court in general, "what language does this man 
 talk?" 
 
 " West Saxon," replied Mr. Brockwood, speaking 
 apart to the coroner ; " West Saxon of the forest. 
 He can talk plain English generally, but whenever 
 these people are nervous, they fall back uncon- 
 sciously upon their native idiom. You will never 
 be able to vinderstand him : shall I act as inter- 
 preter ? " 
 
 " With all my heart ; that is to say, with the 
 consent of the jury. But what — I mean to say, 
 how " 
 
 " How am I to be checked, you mean, unless I
 
 A TALE OF THE NEW FOEEST. 225 
 
 am put upon oath ; and how can you cuter it as 
 evidence ? Simply thus — let your clerk take down 
 the original answers. All the iurv will under- 
 stand them, and so, perhaps, will he." 
 
 The clerk, who was a fine young gentleman, 
 strongly pronounced in attire, nodded a distinct 
 disclaimer. It would be so unaristocratic to un- 
 derstand any peasant-tongue. 
 
 "At any rate, most of the magistrates do. 
 There are plenty of checks upon me. But I am 
 not ambitious of the office. Appoint any one }ou 
 please." 
 
 '• Gentlemen of the jury," said the coroner, glad 
 to shift from himself the smallest responsibility, 
 " arc you content that ISIr. Brock^vood shoidd do 
 as he has offered?" 
 
 " Certain, and most kind of him," replied the 
 jury, all speaking at once, "if his honour was 
 unable to understand old English." 
 
 " Very good," said Mr. Brockwood ; " don't let 
 us make a fuss about nothing. Mr. Stote says 
 he 'throwed a squoyle;' that is to say, he looked 
 at it." 
 
 "And in what state did you find the ground?" 
 was the coroner's next question. 
 
 "Twearable, twearable. Dwont 'e ax ov me 
 vor gude now, dwont 'e." And he put up his 
 broad hand before his broad face. 
 
 "Terrible, terrible," said the coroner, going by 
 the light of nature in his interpretation ; " but I 
 
 VOL. I. Q
 
 226 CEADOCK NOWELL : 
 
 do not mean the extict spot only where the body 
 was found. I mean, liow was the ground as 
 regards dry and wet, for the purpose of retaining 
 footmarks ? " 
 
 "Thar a bin zome rick-rack wather, 'bout a 
 sannit back. But most peart on it ave a droud up 
 agin. 'Twur starky, my lard, moor nor stoachy." 
 Here Mark felt that he had described things 
 lucidly and powerfully, and looked round the room 
 for approval. 
 
 " Stiff rather than muddy, he means," explained 
 Mr. Brockwood, smiling at the coroner's dismay. 
 
 " Were there any footprints upon it, in the part 
 where the ground could retain them?" 
 
 "'Twur dounted and full of stabbles, in the 
 pearts whur the mulloch wur, but the main of 'un 
 tuffets and stramots." 
 
 "That is to say," IMr. Brockwood translated, 
 " the ground was full of impressions and footmarks, 
 where there was any dirt to retain them ; but most 
 of the ground was hillocky and grassy, and so 
 would take no footprints." 
 
 " When you were searching, did you find any- 
 thing that seemed to have been overlooked?" 
 
 "Yees, my lard, I vomid thissom" — producing 
 Crad's stubby meerschaum — "and thissom" — a 
 burnt felt-wad — " and a whaile vurther, ai vound 
 thissom." Here he slowly drew from his pocket a 
 very fine woodcock, though not over fat, with its 
 long bill tucked most carefully under its wing. 
 He stroked the dead bird softly, and set its feathers
 
 A TALE OF THE XEW FOREST. 227 
 
 professionally, but did not hand it about, as the 
 court seemed to anticipate. 
 
 "In what part, and from Avliat direction, has 
 that bird been shot ? " 
 
 " Ramhard of the head, my lard, as clane athert 
 shat, and as vaine a bird as iver I wish to zee. 
 But, all's me, her be a wosebird, a wosebird, if iver 
 wur wan." 
 
 Mark could scarcely control his tears, as he 
 thouo'ht of the bird's evil omen, and yet he could 
 not help admiring him. He turned him over and 
 over again, and dropped a tear into his tail coverts. 
 ^Ir. Brockwood saw it and gave him time ; he 
 knew that for many generations the Stotes had 
 Kved under the Nowells. 
 
 " Oh, the bird was shot, you say, on the right 
 side of the head, and clean through the head." 
 
 "Thank you," proceeded the coroner. "Now, 
 do you think that he could have moved after he 
 touched the ground?" 
 
 "Nivir a hinch, I allow, my lard. A veil as 
 dead as a stwoun." 
 
 " Now inform the court, as nearly as you can, 
 of the precise spot where you found it." 
 
 It took a long time to discover this, for ISIi-. 
 Stote had not been taught the rudiments of topo- 
 graphy. Nevertheless, they made out at last that 
 the woodcock had been found, dead on his back, 
 ■wnth his bill up, eight or ten yards beyond the 
 place where Clayton Nowell fell dead, and in a 
 direct line over his body from the gap in the hedge 
 q2
 
 228 CEADOCK NOWELL : 
 
 where Cradock stood. Dr. Ilutton must have 
 found the bird, if he had searched a little further. 
 
 " Now," said the coroner, forcibly, " Mr. Stote, 
 I will ask you a question which is, perhaps, a little 
 beyond the rules of Ordinary evidence, I mean, at 
 least, as permitted in a court of record" — here he 
 glanced at the magistrates, who could not claim the 
 rank of record — " which of these two unfortunate 
 brothers caused, in your opinion, the death of — of 
 that woodcock ?" 
 
 ISIi". Brockwood glanced at the coroner sharply, 
 and so did his own clerk. Even the jury knew, 
 by intuition, that he had no right to tout for 
 opinions. 
 
 " Them crink-crank words is beyand me. Moy 
 head be awl wivvery wi' 'em, zame as if my old 
 ooman was patchy." 
 
 " His honour asks you," said IMi-. Brockwood, 
 with a glance not lost on the justices — for it meant, 
 You see how we court inquiry, though the question 
 is quite inadmissible — " which of the brothers in 
 your opinion shot the bird which you found ?" 
 
 "Why, Meester Cradock, o' com*se. Meester 
 Cleaton 'ud needs a blowed un awl to hame, where 
 a stwooud." 
 
 " J^Ir. Clayton must have blown him to pieces, if 
 he shot him from the place Avherc he stood, at 
 least from the place where Mr. Clayton fell. And 
 poor Mr. Clayton lay directly between his brother 
 and the woodcock !" 
 
 Mr. Brockwood in his excitement forgot that he
 
 A TALE OF THE NEW TOEEST. 229 
 
 had no riglit to put this question, nor, indeed, any 
 other, except as formally representing some one 
 formally implicated. But the coroner did not 
 check him. 
 
 "By whur the blude wor, a moost have been 
 nai^h as cud be atwane the vern-patch and the 
 ■\vosebird." 
 
 "Veiy good. That fern-patch was the place 
 where Mr. Cradock dropped from the gap in the 
 hedge. ^Ir. Rosedew has proved that. Now let 
 us have all you know, Mark Stote. Did you see 
 any other marks, stabbles you call them, not, I 
 mean, in the path Mr. Rosedew came along, nor 
 yet in the patches of thicket through which poor 
 Cradock fled, but in some other direction ?" 
 
 This was the veiy question the coroner ought to 
 have put long ago. Thus much he knew when 
 Brockwood put it, and now he was angry accord- 
 ingly. 
 
 " Mr. Broclovood, I will thank you — consider, 
 sir, this is a court of record !" 
 
 "Then don't let it record stupid humbug!" 
 Mr. Brockwood was a passionate man, and his 
 blood was up. " I will take the responsibility of 
 anything I do. All we want to elicit the truth is 
 a little skill and patience ; and for want of that the 
 finest young fellow I have ever known may be 
 blasted for life, for this Avorld and the other. Ex- 
 cuse me, ^rr. Coroner, I have spoken precipitately ; 
 I have much reverence for your court, but far 
 more for truth.
 
 230 CRADOCK NO WELL : 
 
 Here !^[r. Brockwood sat doAvn again, and all 
 the magistrates looked at liim with nods of appro- 
 bation. Human passions and human warmth are 
 sure to have their way, even in Areopagus. At 
 last the question was put by the coroner himself. 
 Of course it was a proper one. 
 
 " Yees, I zeed wan," said Mark Stote, scratching 
 the back of his head (where at least the memory 
 ought to be) ; " but a wadn't of no 'count much." 
 
 " Now tell us where that one Avas." 
 
 "Homezide of tlie rue, avore you coams to 
 them hoar-witheys, naigh whur the bower-stone 
 stanneth. 'Twm' zumbawdy yaping about mebbe 
 after nuts as had lanced fro' the rue auver the 
 water-tabble." 
 
 Before this could be translated, a gi'eat stir was 
 heard in the outer-room, a number of people 
 crying "Don't 'ee-now !" and a hoarse voice utter- 
 ing "I will." The coroner was just dismissing 
 Mr. Stote with deep rehef to both of them, and 
 each the more respecting because he could not 
 understand the other. 
 
 " Mark Stote, you have given your evidence in a 
 most lucid manner. There are few peoj)le more 
 to be respected than the thorough Saxon game- 
 keeper." 
 
 "Moy un goo, my lard?" asked the patient 
 Mark, with his neck quite stiff, as he at first had 
 stuck it, and one eye cocked at the coroner, as 
 along the bridge of a fowling-piece. 
 
 " Mr. Stote, you may now depart. Your evi-
 
 A TALE OF THE KEW FOREST. 231 
 
 deuce does you the greatest credit, botli as tlie 
 father of a family, and as — as a conservator of 
 game, and I may say — ah, yes — as a faithful 
 family retainer." 
 
 " Thank 'ee, my lard, and vor my peart I 
 dwoau't b'Iceve now as you manes all the 'arm as 
 most volks says of 'ee." 
 
 Mark was louting low, tr}dng to remember the 
 fashion they taught him forty years since in the 
 Sunday-school, when the door flew back, and the 
 cold Avind entered, and in Avalked Cradock Nowell. 
 
 As regards the outer man, one may change in 
 fifty ways in half of fifty hours. Villanous ague, 
 want of sleej), violent attacks of bile, inferior claret, 
 love rejected, scarlet fever, small-pox, any of these 
 may make a man lose memory in the looking-glass ; 
 but all combined could not have wrought such 
 havoc, such appalment, such drought in the foun- 
 tains of the blood, as that young face now told of. 
 There was not one line of it like the face of Cra- 
 dock Nowell. It struck the people with dismay, as 
 they made room and let him pass ; it would have 
 struck the Koman senate, even with Cato speaking. 
 Times there are when we forget even our sense of 
 humour, absorbed in the power of passion, and the 
 rash of our souls along with it. No one in that 
 room could have laughed at the best joke ever was 
 made, while he looked at Cradock Nowell. 
 
 Utterly unconscious Avliat an}' fellow thought of 
 him (except perhaps in some under-current of 
 electric sympatln-, Avhose Avircs never can be cut, up
 
 232 CRADOCK NOWELL : 
 
 to the drop of the gallows), Cradock crossed the 
 chairs and benches, feeling them no more than the 
 vnnd feels the hills it crosses. Yet with the inbred 
 courtesy of nature's thorough gentleman, though 
 he forgot all the people there as thinking of him- 
 self, he did not yet forget himself as bound to think 
 of them. He touched no man on leg or elbow, be 
 he baronet or cobbler, witliout apologizing to him. 
 Then he stood in the foremost place, looking at 
 the coroner, saying nothing, but ready to be 
 arraigned of anything. 
 
 Mr. Cole had never yet so acutely felt the loss 
 of his " brains ;" and yet it is likely that even 
 Chope would have doubted how to manage it. 
 The time a man of the world might pass in a dozen 
 common-places, passed over many shrewd heads 
 there, and none knew what to say. Cradock's deep 
 grey eyes, grown ligliter by the change of health, 
 and larger from the misery, seemed to take in 
 every one Avho had any feeling for him. 
 
 " Here I am, and cannot be hurt, more than my 
 own soul has hurt me. Charge me with murder if 
 you please, I never can disprove it. Keputation 
 is a thing my God tliinks needless for me ; and so 
 it is, in the despair which He has sent upon me." 
 
 Not a word of this he spoke, but his eyes said 
 every word of it, to those who have looked on men 
 in trouble, and heard the labouring heart. As 
 usual, the shallowest man there was the first to 
 speak.
 
 A TALE OF THE NEW FOREST. 233 
 
 " Mr. Nowell," asked the coroner, blandly, as of 
 a wealthy client, "am I to understand, sir, that 
 you come to tender your evidence ?" 
 
 " Yes," replied Cradock. His throat was tight, 
 and he could not manage to say much. 
 
 " Then, sir, I am bound to administer to you 
 the caution usual on these occasions. Excuse me ; 
 in fact, I know you will ; but your present deposi- 
 tion may be — I mean it is possible " 
 
 "Sir, I care for nothing now. I am here to 
 speak the truth." 
 
 " Very laudable. Admirable ! Gentlemen of 
 the jury — Mr. Brockwood, perhaps you will oblige 
 the court by examining in chief ? " 
 
 "No, your honour, I cannot do that; it would 
 be a confusion of duties." 
 
 " I will not be examined," said Cradock, with a 
 low hoarse voice ; he had been in the woods for a 
 day and two nights, and of course had taken cold, 
 — " I don't think I could stand it. A Avoman who 
 gave me some bread this morning told me what 
 you were doing, and I came here as fast as I could, 
 to tell you all I know. Let me do it, if you 
 please, in the best Avay I can ; and then do what 
 you like with me." 
 
 The utter despair of those last words went cold 
 to the heart of every one, and Mark Stote burst 
 out crying so loud that a woman lent him her 
 handkercliief. But Cradock's eyes were hard as 
 flint, and tlie variety of their gaze was gone.
 
 234 CKADOCK NOWELL : 
 
 The coroner hesitated a httle, and whispered to 
 his clerk. Then he said Avith some reHef, and a 
 look of kindness — 
 
 "The court is ready, IVIr. Nowell, to receive 
 your statement. Only you must make it upon oath." 
 
 Cradock, being dvdy sworn, told all he knew, 
 as follows : 
 
 " It had been agreed between us, that my — my 
 dear brotlier should ffo alone to look for a wood- 
 cock, which he had seen that day. I Avas to fol- 
 low in about an hour, and meet him in the spire- 
 bed just outside the covert. For reasons of my 
 own, I did not mean to shoot at all, only to meet 
 my brother, hear how he had got on, and come 
 home with him. However, I took my gun, be- 
 cause my dog was going with me, and I loaded it 
 from habit. Things liad happened that afternoon 
 which had rather upset me, and my thoughts were 
 running upon them. When I got to the spire- 
 bed, there was no one there, although it was quite 
 dusk ; but I thought I heard my brother shooting 
 inside the Coffin Wood. So I climbed the hedge, 
 v^itli my gun half-cocked, and called him by his 
 name." 
 
 Here Cradock broke down fairly, as the thouglit 
 came over him that henceforth he might call and 
 call, but none would ever answer. 
 
 " By what name did you call him ? " Mr. 
 Brockwood looked at the coroner angrily. What 
 difference could it make ?
 
 A TALE OF THE NEW FOEEST. 235 
 
 " I called, ' Viley, Viley, my boy ! ' three times, 
 at tlie top of my voice. I used to call him so in 
 the nm'sery, and lie always liked it. I can't make 
 out Avhy he did not answer, for he must have been 
 close by — though the bushes Avere very thick, cer- 
 tainly. At that instant, before I had time to 
 jump down into the covert, a woodcock, flushed, 
 perhaps, by the sound of my voice, crossed a little 
 clearing not thirty yards in front of me. I forgot 
 all about my determination not to shoot that day, 
 cocked both barrels in a moment, but missed him 
 clean with the first, because a branch of the hedge 
 flew back and jerked the muzzle sharply. But the 
 bird was flying rather slowly, and I got a second 
 shot at him, as he crossed a little path in the copse, 
 too narrow to be called a ride. I felt quite sure 
 that I shot straight at him, and I thought I saw 
 him fall ; but the light was very bad, and the trees 
 were very thick, and he gave one of those flapping 
 jerks at the moment I pulled the trigger, so per- 
 haps I missed him." 
 
 "That 'ee doedn't, ]\Ieester Craydock. Ai'se 
 lamed 'ee a bit too much for thic. What do 'ee 
 call thissom?" Here he held up the woodcock. 
 " Meester Craydock, my lard, be the sprackest 
 shat anywhur round these pearts." 
 
 Poor Mark knew not that in his anxiety to 
 vindicate his favourite's skill, he was making the 
 case more black for him. 
 
 "Mark Stote, no more interruptions, if you
 
 236 CRADOCK NOVELL : 
 
 please," exclaimed the coroner ; " ^Ir. Nowell, 
 pray proceed." 
 
 '• Dwoan' t 'ee be halsli upon un, my lard, dwoan't 
 'ee vaind un guilty. A coodn't no how 'ave doed 
 it. A wor that naice and pertiklar, a -vvoodn't 
 shat iven toard a gipsy bwoy. And his oyes be as 
 sprack as a merlin's. A cood zee droo a mokpie's 
 neestie." 
 
 Cradock's face, so j^ale and haggard but a 
 minute before, was now of a burning red. The 
 jur}^ looked at him with astonishment, and each, 
 according to his bias, put his construction upon the 
 change. Two of them thought it was conscious 
 guilt ; the rest believed it to be indignation at the 
 idea of being found guilty. It was neither; it 
 M'as hope. The flash and flush of sudden hope, 
 leaping across the heart, like a rocket over the sea 
 of despair. He could not speak, but gasped in 
 vain, then glutched (to use a forest word, Avhich 
 means gulped down a sob), and fell back into 
 John Rosedew's arms, faint, and stark, and rigid. 
 
 The process of his mind which led him to the 
 shores of light — but only for a little glimpse, a 
 glimpse and then all dark again — was somewhat 
 on this wise : " Only a bullet, or balled cartridge, 
 at the distance I was from him, could have killed 
 my darling Viley on the spot, as I saw him dead, 
 with the hole cut through him. I am almost sure 
 that my cartridge was in the left barrel of the gun, 
 where I always put it. And now it is clear that 
 the left barrel killed that unlucky bird, and lulled 
 
 i
 
 A TALE OF THE XEW FOEEST. 237 
 
 lihn with shot flying separate, so the cartridne 
 must have opened. Vilej, too, was ten feet under 
 tlic height the bird was fl3'ing. I don't believe 
 tliat I hit him at all. I had loose shot in my right 
 baiTel ; the one that sent so random, on account of 
 the branch that struck it. I am almost sure I had, 
 and I fired quite straight with the left barrel. 
 God is good, the great God is merciful, after all I 
 thought of Him." No wonder that he fainted 
 away, in the sudden reaction. 
 
 There is no need to dwell any longer on the 
 misery of that inquest. The principal evidence 
 has been given. The place where Cradock stood 
 in the hedge, and the place where Clayton fell 
 and died ; how poor Cradock saw him first, in the 
 very act of jumping, and hung like a nut-shuck, 
 paralysed ; how he ran back to his dead twin- 
 brother and could not believe in his death, and 
 went through the woods like a madman, with 
 nothing warm about him except his brother's 
 blood, — all this, I think, is clear enough, as it had 
 long been to the jury, and now Avas to the coroner. 
 Only Cradock awoke from his hope — what did he 
 care for their verdict ? He awoke from his hope 
 not in his moral — that there could l)e no doubt 
 of — but in his manual innocence; when, to face 
 ail circumstances, he had nothing but weak habit. 
 He could not swear, he could not even feel con- 
 fident (and we want three times three for swearing, 
 that barbarous institution) that he had rammed 
 the cartridge down the left barrel, and the charge
 
 238 CEADOCK NOWELL : 
 
 of shot down the right. All he could say was 
 this, that it was a very odd thing if he had not. 
 
 The oddity of a thing is seldom enough to 
 establish its contrary, in the teeth of all evidence. 
 So the juiy found that "Violet Clayton Nowell 
 had died from a gunshot wound, inflicted acci- 
 dentally by his brother Cradock Nowell, whom, 
 after careful consideration, they absolved from all 
 blame."
 
 A TALE OF THE NEW FOEEST. 239 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 Rurus HuTTON rode home that night to Geo- 
 pharmacy Lodge. He liad worked unusually hard, 
 even for a man of his activity, duiing the last 
 three days, and he wanted to see liis Rosa again, 
 and talk it all over with her. Of course he had 
 cancelled her invitation, as well as that of all 
 others, under the Avretched cu'cumstances. But 
 before he went, he saw Cradock Nowell safe in the 
 hands of the rector, for he could not induce him to 
 go to the Hall, and did not think it fair towards 
 his wife, now in her delicate health, to invite him 
 to the Lodge. And even if he had done so, 
 Cradock would not have gone with him. 
 
 If we strike the average of manldnd, we shall find 
 Rufus Hutton above it. He had his many little- 
 nesses — and which of us has few ? — his oddities of 
 mind and manner, even his want of charity, and 
 his practical faith in selfishness ; none the less for 
 all of that there were many people who loved him.
 
 240 CRADOCK NOWELL : 
 
 And those of us who are loved of any — save 
 parents, Avife, or daughter — loved, I mean, as the 
 word is felt and not interpreted, — with warmth 
 of heart, and moistened eyes (when good or ill 
 befalls ns) ; any snch may have no doubt of being 
 loved by God. 
 
 All this while, Sir Cradock Nowell had been 
 alone ; and, as Homer has it, " feeding on his 
 heart." Ever since that fearful time, when, going 
 home to his happy dinner with a few choice friends, 
 he had overtaken some dark thing, which he would 
 not let them hide from him — ever since that awful 
 moment Avhen he saw what it was, the father had 
 not taken food, nor comfort of God or man. 
 
 All they did — well-meaning people — was of no 
 avail. It was not of disgrace he thought, of one 
 son being murdered, and the other son his mur- 
 derer ; he did not count his generations, score the 
 number of baronets, and weep for the slur upon 
 them ; rave of his painted scutcheon, and howl 
 because this was a dab on it. He simply groaned 
 and could not eat, l)ecause he had lost his son — 
 his own, his sweet, his best-beloved son. 
 
 As for Cradock, the father hoped — for he had 
 not now the energy to care very much about it — 
 that he might not happen henceforth to meet him 
 (for all things now were of luck) more than once 
 a month, perhaps ; and then they need not say 
 much. He never could care for him any more; 
 of that he felt as sure as if his heart were become 
 a tombstone.
 
 A TALE OF THE NEW FOREST. 241 
 
 Young Cradock, though they coaxed and petted, 
 wept before him at the parson's, and still more 
 behind him, and felt for him so truly deeply that 
 at last he bm*st out crying (which did him Heaven's 
 own good) — Cradock, on his part, Avould not go to 
 his father, until he should be asked for. He felt 
 that he could fall on his knees, and crawl along in 
 abasement, for ha\dng robbed the old grey man 
 of all he loved on earth. Only his father must 
 ask for him, or at least give him leave to come. 
 
 Perhaps he was wrong. Let others say. But 
 in the depths of his grief he felt the need of a 
 father's love ; and so his agony was embittered be- 
 cause he got no signs of it. Let us turn to luckier 
 people. 
 
 " Rufus, Avhy, my darling Rufus, how much 
 
 more are j^ou going to put on that little piece 
 
 of ground, no bigger than my work-table ? " 
 
 IVIrs. Hutton had been brought up to " call a 
 spade a spade ;" and she extended this wise nomen- 
 clature to the contents of the spade as well. 
 
 " Rosa, why, my darling Rosa, that bed con- 
 tains one hundred and twenty-five feet. Now, 
 according to the great Justus Liebig, and his 
 
 mineral theory " 
 
 " One hundred and twenty-five feet. Rue ! Aiid 
 I could jump across it ! I am sure it is not half 
 so long as my silk measm'e in the shell, dear !" 
 
 " Dearest Rosa, just consider : my pet, get out 
 your tablets, for you are nothing' at mental arith- 
 metic." 
 
 VOL. I. E
 
 242 CRADOCK NOWELL : 
 
 " Indeed ! Well, you never used to tell me 
 things like that, Rufus ! " 
 
 " Well, perhaps I didn't, Roe. I would have 
 forsworn to any extent, when I saw you among 
 the candytuft. But now, my darling, I have got 
 you ; and from a lofty feeling, I am bound to tell 
 the truth. Consider the interests, Rosa " 
 
 " Go along with your nonsense, Rue. You talk 
 below your great understanding, because you think 
 it suits mg." 
 
 " Perhaps I do," said Rufus, " perhaps I do now 
 and then, my dear : you always hit the truth so. 
 But is it not better to do that than to talk Greek 
 to my Rosa?" 
 
 " I am sure I don't know ; and I am sure I don't 
 care either. When have I heard you say anything, 
 Rufus, so wonderful, and so out of the way, that 
 I, poor J, couldn't understand it ? Please to tell me 
 that, Rufus." 
 
 " My darling, consider. You are exciting your- 
 self so fearfully. You make me shake all over." 
 
 " Then you should not say such things to me, 
 Rufus. Why, Rue, you are quite pale !" — What 
 an impossibility ! She might have boiled him in 
 soda without bringing him to a shrimp-colour. — 
 " Come into the house this moment, I insist upon 
 it, and have two glasses of sherry. And you do 
 say very wonderful things, much too clever for me, 
 Rufus ; and indeed, I believe, too clever for any 
 woman in the world, even the one that wrote 
 Homer."
 
 A TALE OF THE NEW FOEEST. 243 
 
 Rosa Hutton ran into the house, and sought for 
 the keys high and low ; then got the decanter at 
 last out of the cellaret, and brought out a bumper 
 of wine. Crafty Rufus stopped outside, thoroughly- 
 absorbed in an autumn rose ; knowing that she 
 liked to do it for him, and glad to have it done 
 for him. 
 
 " Not a drop, unless you drink first, dear. Rosa, 
 here under the weeping elm : you are not afraid of 
 the girls who are making the bed, I hope !" 
 
 " I should rather hope not, indeed ! Rue, dear, 
 my best love to you. Do you think I'd keep a girl 
 in the house I was afraid to see through the 
 Avindow ? " 
 
 To prove her spirit, Mrs. Hutton tossed a glass 
 of wine off, although she seldom took it, and it 
 was not twelve o'clock yet. Ruf us looked on with 
 some dismay, till he saw she had got the decanter. 
 
 " Well done, Rosa ! What good it does me to 
 see you take a mere drop of Avine ! You are bound 
 now to obey me. Roe, my love, your very best 
 health, and that involves my ovm. You're not 
 lieaA^- on my shoulder, love." 
 
 " No, dear, I know that : you are so very strong. 
 But don't you see the boy coming? And that 
 hole among the branches ! And the leaves 
 coming off too ! Oh, do let me go in a moment, 
 Rue ! " 
 
 " Confound that boy ! I'm blest if he isn't 
 always after me." 
 
 The boy, however, or man as he called himself,
 
 244 CEADOCK NOWELL : 
 
 was far too important a personage in tlieir domestic 
 economy to be confounded audibly. Gardener, 
 groom, page, footman, knife-boy, and coachman, 
 all in one ; a long, loose, knock-kneed, big-footed, 
 what they would call in the forest a " yaping, 
 shammocldng gally-bagger." His name was Jonah, 
 and he came from Buckinghamshire, and had a 
 fine drawl of his own, quite different from that of 
 Ytene, which he looked upon as a barbarism. 
 
 "Plase, sir, Maister Reevers ave a zent them 
 traases as us hardered." Jonah's eyes, throughout 
 this speech, which occupied him at least a minute, 
 were fixed upon tlie decanter, with ineffable admi- 
 ration at the glow of the wine now the sun was 
 upon it. 
 
 "Then, Jonah, my boy," cried Rufus Hutton, 
 all animation in a moment, " I have a great mind 
 to give you sixpence. Rosa, give me another glass 
 of sherry. Here's to the health of the great horti- 
 culturist. Rivers ! Most obliging of him to send 
 my trees so early, and before the leaves are off. 
 Come along. Roe, you love to see trees unpacked, 
 and eat the fruit by anticipation. I believe you'll 
 expect them to blossom and bear by Christmas, as 
 St. Anthony made the vines do." 
 
 " Well, darling, and so they ought, with such a 
 gardener as you to manage them. — Jonah, you 
 shall have a glass of wine, to drink the health of 
 the trees. He has never taken his eyes off the 
 decanter, ever since he came uji, poor boy." 
 
 Rosa was very good-natured, and accustomed
 
 A TALE OF THE XEW FOREST. 2-45 
 
 to farm-house geniality. Eufus laughed and whis- 
 pered, " My love, my Indian sherry !" 
 
 " Can't help it," said Mrs. Hutton ; " less chance 
 of its disagi'eeing with him. Here, Jonah, you 
 won't mind drinking after your master." 
 
 " Here be vaine health to all on us," said Jonah, 
 scraping the gravel and putting up one finger as 
 he had seen the militia men do (in imitation of the 
 regulars) ; " and may us nayver know no taime 
 warse than the prasent mawment." 
 
 " Hear, hear !" cried Eufus Hutton ; " now, come 
 along, and cut the cords, boy." 
 
 Dr. Hutton set off sharply, with Eosa on his 
 arm, for he did not feel at all sure but what Jonah's 
 exalted sentiment might elicit, at any rate, half a 
 glass more of sheriy. They found the trees packed 
 beautifully; a long cone, like a giant lobster-pot, 
 weighing nearly two hundred-weight, thatched with 
 straw, and wattled round, and corded over that. 
 
 " Out with your knife and cut the cords, boy." 
 
 " Well, Eufus, you are extravagant ! " — " Eather 
 fine, that," thought Dr. Hutton, '' after playing 
 such pranks with my sherry ! " — " Jonah, I won't 
 have a bit of the string cut. I want every atom 
 of it. What's the good of your having hands if 
 you can't untie it ? " 
 
 At last they got the great parcel open, and 
 strewed all the lawn with litter. There were trees 
 of every sort, as tight as sardines in a case, with 
 many leaves still hanging on them, and the roots 
 tied up in moss. Half a dozen standard apples;
 
 246 CRADOCK NOWELL : 
 
 half a hundred pyramid pears, the prettiest things 
 imaginable, furnished all round like a cypress, 
 and thick with blossom-spurs ; then young wall- 
 trees, two years' trained, tied to crossed sticks, and 
 drawn up with bast, like the frame of a schoolboy's 
 kite; around the roots and in among them were 
 little roses in pots No. 60, wrapped in moss, and 
 webbed with bast ; and the smell of the whole was 
 glorious. 
 
 " Hurrah ! " cried Ruf us, dancing, " no nurseries 
 in the kingdom, nor in the world, except Sawbridge- 
 worth, could send out such a lot of trees, perfect 
 in shape, every one of them, and every one of them 
 true to sort. What a bore that I've got to go 
 again to Nowelhurst to-day! Rosa, dear; every 
 one of these trees ought to be planted to-day. The 
 very essence of early planting (which in my 
 opinion saves a twelvemonth) is never to let the 
 roots get dry. These peach-trees in a fortnight 
 will have got hold of the ground, and be thinldng 
 of growing again ; and the leaves, if properly 
 treated, will never have flagged at all. Oh, I wish 
 you could see to it, Rosa." 
 
 "Well, dear Rufus, and so I can. To please 
 you, I don't mind at all throwing aside my banner- 
 screen, and leaving my letter to cousin Magnolia." 
 
 "No, no. I don't mean that. I mean, how I 
 wish you understood it." 
 
 " Understood it, Rue ! Well, I'm sure ! As if 
 anybody couldn't plant a tree ! And I, who had
 
 A TALE OF TUE NEW FOREST. 247 
 
 a pair of gardening gloves when I was only that 
 high ! " 
 
 " Roe, now listen to me. Not one in a hnndrecl 
 even of professional gardeners, who have been at 
 it all their lives, knows how to plant a tree." 
 
 " Well, then, Rufus, if that is the case, I think 
 it very absurd of you to expect that I should. 
 But Jonah will teach me, I dare say. I'll begin 
 to learn this afternoon." 
 
 " No, indeed, you won't. At any rate, you must 
 not practise on 7ny trees ; nor in among them, 
 either. But you may plant the mop, dear, as 
 often as you like, in that empty piece of ground 
 where the cauliflowers were." 
 
 "Plant the mop, indeed! Well, Dr. Hutton, 
 you had better ride back to Nowelhurst, where all 
 the grand people are, if you only come home for 
 the purpose of insulting your poor wife. It is 
 there, no doubt, that you learn to despise any one 
 who is not quite so fine as they are. And what 
 are they, I should like to Imow? What a poor 
 weak thing I am, to be sure; no wonder no one 
 cares for me. I can have no self-respect. I am 
 only fit to plant the mop." 
 
 Hereupon the blue founts welled, the carmine 
 of the cheeks grew scarlet, the cherry lips turned 
 bigarreaux, and a very becoming fur-edged jacket 
 lifted, as if with a zephyr stealing it. 
 
 Rufus felt immediately that he had been the 
 lowest of all low brutes ; and almost made up his
 
 248 CKADOCK NOWELL : 
 
 mind on the spot that it wonld be decidedly wrong 
 of him to go to Nowelhurst that evening. We will 
 not enter into the scene of strong self-condemnation, 
 reciprocal collavidation, extraordinary admiration, 
 because all married people know it ; and as for 
 those who are single, let them get married and 
 learn it. Only in the last act of it, Jonah, from 
 whom they had retreated, came up again, looking 
 rather sheepish — for he had begun to keep a 
 sweetheart — and spake these winged Avords : 
 
 " Plase, sir, if you be so good, it baint no vault 
 o' maine nohow." 
 
 " Get all those trees at once laid in by the heels. 
 What is no. fault of yours, pray ? Are you always 
 at your dinner ? " 
 
 " Baint no vault o' maine, sir ; but there coom 
 two genelmen chaps, as zays they musten zee 
 you." 
 
 " Must see me, indeed, whether I choose it or 
 no ! And with all those trees to plant, and the 
 mare to be ready at three o'clock ! " 
 
 " Zo I tould un, sir ; but they zays as they must 
 zee you." 
 
 " In the name of the devil and all his works, 
 but I'll give them a bitter reception. Let them 
 come this way, Jonah." 
 
 " Oh dear, if you are going to be violent ! You 
 know what you are sometimes, Kue — enough to 
 frighten any man." 
 
 " Never, my darling, never. You never find
 
 A TALE OF THE NEW FOREST. 249 
 
 Rnfus Plutton formidable to any one who means 
 rightly." 
 
 " No, no, to be sure, dear. But then, perhaps, 
 they may not. And after all tliat has occurred to- 
 day, I feel so much upset. Very foolish of me, I 
 know. But promise me not to be rash, dear." 
 
 "Have no fear, my darling Rosa. I Avill never 
 injure any man who does not insult you, dear." 
 
 AVhile Rufus was lookinfT ten feet hio-h and 
 Mrs. Rufus tripping away, after a little sob and 
 a whisper, Jonah came pelting down the walk with 
 his great feet on either side of it, as if he had a 
 barrow between them. At the same time a voice 
 came round the corner past the arbutus-tree, now 
 quivering red wuth strawberries, and the words 
 thereof were these : 
 
 " Perfect Paradise, my good sir ! I knew it 
 must be, from Avhat I heard of him. Exactly like 
 my friend the Dook's, but laid out still more taste- 
 fully. Bless me, why, his Grace must have copied 
 it ! Won't I give him a poke in the ribs when he 
 dines with me next Toosday ! Sly bird, a sly l)ird, 
 I say, though he is such a capital fellow. Knew 
 where to come, I'm blest if he didn't, for taste, 
 ttue science, and landscape." 
 
 " Haw ! Yes ; I quite agree with you. But 
 his Grace has nothing so chaste, so perfect as this, 
 in me opeenion, sir. Haw ! " 
 
 The cockles of the Rufine heart swelled warmly ; 
 for of course he heard every Avord of it, though, of
 
 250 CRADOCK NOWELL : 
 
 coiu'se, not intended to do so. " Now Rosa ought 
 to have heard all that," was passing in his mind, 
 when two gentlemen stood before him, and were 
 wholly amazed to see him. One of them was a 
 short stout man, not much taller than Rufus, but 
 of double his cubic contents ; the other a tall and 
 portly signor, fitted upon spindle shins, with a 
 slouch in his back, grey eyebrows, long heavy 
 eyes, and large dewlaps. 
 
 The short gentleman, evidently chief spokesman 
 and proud of his elocution, waved his hat most 
 gracefully, when he recovered from his surprise, 
 drew back for a yard or so, in his horror at intru- 
 ding, and spoke with a certain flourish, and the air 
 of a man above humbug. 
 
 " ]\Ir. Nowell Corklemore, I have the honour of 
 making you known to the gentleman whose scien- 
 tific fame has roused such a spirit among us. 
 Dr. Hutton, sir, excuse me, the temptation was too 
 great for us. My excellent friend, Lord Thorley, 
 who has, I believe, the honour of being related to 
 ^Mrs. Hutton, pressed his services upon us, when he 
 knew what we desired. But, sir, no. 'My lord,' 
 said I, ' we prefer to intrude without the common- 
 place of society ; we prefer to intrude upon the 
 footing of common tastes, my lord, and warm, 
 though far more rudimental and vague pursuit of 
 science.' Bless me, all this time my unworthy 
 self, sir ! I am too prone to forget myself, at 
 least my wdf e declares so. Bailey Kettledi-um, sir, 
 is my name, of Kettledi'um Hall, in Dorset. And
 
 A TALE OF THE NEW FOBEST. 251 
 
 I have tlie enliglitenment, sir, to aspire to the 
 honour of yoiu' acquaintance." 
 
 Kufus Hutton bowed rather queerly to jVIr. 
 NoAvell Corklemore and ]\Ir. Bailey Kettledrum; 
 for he had seen a good deal of the world, and had 
 tasted sugar-candy. Moreover, the Kettledrum 
 pattern was kno^^'n to him long ago ; and he had 
 never found them half such good fellows as they 
 pretend to think other people. Being, however, 
 most hospitable, as are nearly all men from India, 
 he invited them to come in at once, and have some 
 lunch after their journey. They accepted very 
 warmly ; and !Mrs. Hutton, having now appeared 
 and been duly introduced, Bailey Kettledrum set 
 off with her round the curve of the grass-plot, as 
 if he had known her for fifty years, and had not 
 seen her for twenty-five. He engrossed her whole 
 attention by the pace at which he talked, and 
 by appeals to her opinion, praising all things, 
 taking notes, red-hot with admiration, impressively 
 confidential about his wife and childi'en, and, in a 
 word, regardless of expense to make himself agree- 
 able. Xotwithstandino; all this, he did not fjet on 
 much, because he made one great mistake. He 
 rattled and flashed along the high road leading to 
 fifty other places, but missed the quiet and pleasant 
 path which leads to a woman's good graces — the 
 path, I mean, which follows the little brook called 
 "sympathy," a winding but not a shallow brook, 
 over the meadow of soft listening. 
 
 !Mr. Nowell Corklemore, walking with Eufus
 
 252 CKADOCK NOWELL : 
 
 Hutton, -vvas, as lie was forced to be by a feeble 
 nature enfeebled, a dry and pompous man. 
 
 " Haw ! I am given to understand you have 
 made all this yourself, sir. In me 'umble opeenion, 
 it does you the greatest credit, sir ; credit, sir, no 
 less to your heart than to your head. Haw I " 
 
 Here he pointed with his yellow bamboo at no- 
 thing at all in particular. 
 
 " Everything is in its infancy yet. Wait till 
 the trees grow up a little. I have planted nearly 
 all of them. All except that, and that, and the 
 weeping elm over yonder, where I sit with my wife 
 sometimes. Everything is in its infancy." 
 
 " Excuse me ; haw ! If you will allow me, I 
 would also say, with the exception of something 
 else." And he looked profoundly mystic. 
 
 " Oh, the house you mean," said Kuf us. " No, 
 the house is not quite new ; built some seven years 
 back." 
 
 " Sir, I do not mean the house — but the edifice, 
 haw ! — the tenement of the human being. Sir, I 
 mean, except just ^/ti's." 
 
 He shut one eye, like a sleepy owl, and tapped 
 the side of his head most sagely ; and then he said 
 " Haw !" and looked for appi'oval. 
 
 And he might have looked a very long time, in 
 his stupidly confident manner, without a chance 
 of getting it ; for Rufus Hutton disliked allusions 
 even to age intellectual, when you came to re- 
 member that his Rosa was more than twenty years 
 younger.
 
 A TALE OF THE NEW FOEEST. 253 
 
 " All, yes, now it strikes me," continued Mr. 
 Corklemore, as they stood in front of the house, 
 " that little bow-window — nay, I am given to un- 
 derstand, that bay-window is the more correct — 
 haw! I mean the more architectural term — I 
 think I should have felt inclined to make that nice 
 bay-window give to the little gi'ass-plot. A mere 
 question, perhaps, of idiosyncrasy, haw!" 
 
 "Give what?" asked Rufus, now on the foam. 
 That his own pet lawn, which he rolled every day, 
 his lawn endowed with manifold curves and sweeps 
 of his own inventing, with the Wellingtonia upon 
 it, and the plantain dug out with a cheese-knife — 
 that all this should be called a " little grass-plot," 
 by a fellow who had no two ideas, except in his in- 
 tonation of " Haw !" 
 
 " Haw ! It does not signify. But the term, I 
 am given to understand, is now the correct and re- 
 cognised one." 
 
 " I wish you were given to understand anything 
 except your own importance," Rufus muttered 
 savageh', and eyed the yellow Ijamboo. 
 
 " Have you — haw ! excuse my asking, for you 
 are a great luminary here ; have you as yet made 
 trial of the Spergula pilif era ? " 
 
 " Yes ; and found it the biggest humbug that 
 ever aped God's grass." 
 
 Dr. Hutton was always very sorry wOien he had 
 used strong language ; but being a thin-skinned, 
 irritable, cut-the-corner man, he could not be ex- 
 pected to stand Nowell Corklemore's " haws."
 
 254 CEADOCK NOWELL : 
 
 And JVIr. Corklemore had of "haw" no less 
 than seven intonations. First, and most common 
 of all, the haw of self-approvah Second, the haw 
 of contemplation. Third, the haw of doubt and 
 inquiry. Fourth, that of admiration. Fifth, that 
 of interlude and hiatus, when words or ideas lin- 
 gered. Sixth, the haw of accident and short- 
 winded astonishment ; e.g. he had once fallen off a 
 hayrick, and cried "Haw!" at the bottom. Se- 
 venth, the haw of indignation and powerful re- 
 monstrance, in a totally different key from the 
 rest ; and this last he now adopted. 
 
 " Haw — then ! — haAV ! — I have been myen to 
 understand that the Spergula pilifera succeeds 
 most admirably with people who have — haw! — 
 have studied it." 
 
 " Very likely it does," said Rufus, though he 
 knew much better, but now he was on his own 
 door-step, and felt ashamed of his rudeness ; " but 
 come in, Mr. Corklemore ; our ways are rough in 
 these forest outsldrts, and we are behind you in 
 civilization. Nevertheless, we are heartily glad to 
 welcome our more intelligent neighbours." 
 
 At lunch he gave them home-brewed ale and 
 pale sherry of no especial character. But after- 
 wards, being a genial soul, and feeling still guilty 
 of rudeness, he went to the cellar himself and 
 fetched a bottle of the richest Indian gold. Mrs. 
 Hutton withdrew very prettily ; and the three 
 gentlemen, all good judges of wine, began to 
 warm over it luminously, more softly indeed than
 
 A TALE OF THE NEW FOREST. 255 
 
 they would liave done after a lieavy dinner. 
 Surely, noble mne deserves not to be the mere 
 operculum to a stupidly mixed hot meal. 
 
 " Have another bottle, gentlemen ; now do have 
 another bottle." 
 
 " Not one drop more for the world," exclaimed 
 they both, with then- hands up. None the less for 
 that, they did; and, what was very unwise of 
 them, another after that, until I can scarcely write 
 straight in trying to follow their doings. Mean- 
 while Jonah had prigged three glassfuls out of the 
 decanter left under the elm-tree. 
 
 " Now," said Ruf us, who alone was almost in a 
 state of sobriety, " suppose we take a turn in the 
 garden and my little orchard-house? I believe I 
 am indebted to that for the pleasm'e of your very 
 disagreeable — ahem, most agreeable company to- 
 day." 
 
 Bailey Kettledrum sprang up with a flourish. 
 " No, SU-, no, sir ! Permit me to defend myself and 
 this most marketable — I — I mean remarkable gen- 
 tleman here present, Mr. Nowell Corklemore, from 
 any such dis — dish — 'Sparagus, disparagizing knpu- 
 tations, sir. An orchard, sir, is very well, and the 
 trees in it are veiy well, and the fruit of it is a^ ery 
 good, sir ; but an orchard can never appear, sir, 
 to a man of exalted sentiments, and temporal — I 
 mean, sir, strictly intemperate judgment, in the 
 light of an elephant — irrelevant — no, sir, I mean 
 of course an equilevant — for a man, sir, for a 
 man!" Here Mr. Bailey Kettlfck'um hit himself
 
 256 CKADOCK NOWELL : 
 
 hard on the bosom, and broke the glass of liis 
 watch. 
 
 "Mr. Kettledrum," said Rufus, rising, "your 
 sentiments do you honour. Mine, however, is not 
 an orchard, but an orchard-house." 
 
 " Ha, ha, good again ! House in an orchard ! 
 yes, I see. Corklemore, hear that, my boy ? Our 
 admirable host — no, thank you, not a single drop 
 more wine — I always know when I have had 
 enough. Sir, it is the proud privi — prilivege of a 
 
 man Corklemore, get up, sir ; don't you see we 
 
 are waiting for you ? " 
 
 ]\Ir. Corklemore stared heavily at him ; his con- 
 stitution was a sleepy one, and he thought he had 
 eaten his dinner. His friend nodded gravely at 
 Dr. Hutton ; and the nod expressed compassion 
 tempering condemnation. 
 
 " Ah, I see how it is. Ever since that fall from 
 the hayrick, the leastest little drop of wine, prej — 
 prej. ^" 
 
 " Prejudge the case, my lord," muttered Mr. 
 Corklemore, who had been a barrister. 
 
 " Prejudicially affects our highly admired friend. 
 But, sir, the fault is mine. I should have stretched 
 forth long ago the restraining hand of friendship, 
 sir, and dashed the si — si — silent bottle " 
 
 " Chirping bottle, possibly you mean." 
 
 " Ko, sir, I do not, and I will thank you not to 
 interrupt me. Who ever heard a bottle chirp? 
 I ask you, sir, as a man of the world, and a man of 
 common sense, wlio ever heard a bottle chirp?
 
 A TALE OF THE NEW FOEEST. 257 
 
 What I mean, sir, is the siren — the siren bottle 
 from his lips. What is it in the Latin grammar — or 
 possibly in the Greek, for I have learned Greek, 
 sir, in the faulchion days of youth ; — is it not, sir, 
 this : improha Siren desidia ? Perhaps, sir, it may 
 have been in your grammar, if you ever had one, 
 improha chirping desidia^ As he looked round, 
 in the glow and sparkle of lagenic logic, Eufus 
 caught him by the arm, and hurried him out at the 
 garden door, where luckily no steps were. The pair 
 went straight, or, in better truth, went first, to 
 the kitchen garden ; Rufus did not care much for 
 flowers ; all that he left to his Rosa. 
 
 " Xow I will show you a thing, sir," cried Kufus 
 in his glory, " a thing which has been admired by 
 the leading men of the age. Nowhere else, in 
 this part of the world, can you see a piece of 
 ground, sir, cropped in the manner of that, sir." 
 
 And to tell the plain, unvinous truth, the square 
 to which he pointed was a triumph of high art. 
 The style of it Avas wholly different from that of 
 Mr. Garnet's beds. Bull Garnet was fond of no- 
 velties, but he made them square with his system ; 
 the result was more strictly practical, but less nobly 
 theoretical. Dr. Hutton, on the other hand, tra- 
 velled the entire porker ; obstacles of soil and sea- 
 son were as nothing to him, and when the shape of 
 the ground was wrong, he called in the navvies and 
 made it right. 
 
 A plot of land four-square, and measured to ex- 
 actly half an acre, contained 2400 trees, cutting 
 
 VOL. I. S
 
 258 CKADOCK NOWELL : 
 
 either way as truly as the spindles of raachineiy ; 
 there was no tree more than five feet high, the 
 average heiglit was four feet six inches. They 
 were planted just four feet asunder, and two feet 
 back from the pathway. There was every kind of 
 fruit-tree there, which can be made by British 
 gardeners to ripen fruit in Britain, without artificial 
 heat. Pears especially, and plums, cherries, apples, 
 walnuts (juglans prseparturiens), figs, and medlars, 
 quinces, filberts, even peaches, nectarines, and 
 apricots — though only one row, in all. of those 
 three ; there was scarcely one of those miniature 
 trees which had not done its duty that year, or now 
 was bent upon doing it. Still the sight was beau- 
 tiful; although far gone with autumn, still Cox's 
 orange-pippin lit the russet leaves with gold, or 
 Beurre Glairgeau and Capiaumont enriched the 
 air with scarlet. 
 
 Each little tree looked so bright and comely, 
 each plumed itself so naturally, proud to carry its 
 share of tribute to the beneficent Maker, that the 
 two men who had been abusing His choice gift, 
 the vine, felt a little ashamed of themselves, or 
 perhaps felt that they ought to be. 
 
 "Magnificent, magnificent !" cried Kettledrum, 
 theatrically ; " I must tell the Dock of this. He 
 will have the same next year." 
 
 " Will he, though !" said Rufus, thinking of the 
 many hours he had spent among those trees, and 
 of his careful apprenticeship to the works of their 
 originator ; " I can tell you one thing. He won't.
 
 A TALE OF THE NEW FOREST. 259 
 
 unless he has a better gardener than I ever saw 
 in these parts. Now let us go to the orchard- 
 house." 
 
 The orchard-house was a span-roofed building, 
 ver}- light and airy ; the roof and ends were made 
 of glass, the sides of deal with broad falling 
 shutters, for the sake of ventilation. It was about 
 fifty feet in length, twenty in width, and fifteen in 
 height. There was no ventilation at the ridge, 
 and all the lights were fixed. The free air of 
 heaven Avandered through, among peaches, plums, 
 and apricots, some of which still retained their 
 fruit, crimson, purple, and golden. The little 
 trees were all in pots, and about a yard apart. 
 The pots were not even plunged in the ground, 
 but each stood, as a tub should, on its own inde- 
 pendent bottom. The air of the house was soft 
 and pleasant, with a peculiar fragrance, the smell 
 of ripening foliage. Bailey Kettledi'um saw at once 
 — for he had plenty of observant power, and the 
 fumes of wine were dispersing — that this house 
 must have shown a magnificent sight, a month or 
 two ago. And having once more his own object 
 in view, he tripled his true approval. 
 
 " Dr. Hutton, this is fine. Fine is not the word 
 for it; this is grand and gorgeous. What a 
 triumph of mind ! What a lot you must pay for 
 wages!" 
 
 " Thirteen shillings a Aveek in summer, seven 
 shillings a week in the winter." This was one of 
 his pet astonishments. 
 
 s 2
 
 2 GO CEADOCK NO WELL : 
 
 " What ! I'll never believe it. Sir, you must 
 either he a conjuror, the devil, or — or " 
 
 " Or a liar," said Rufus, placidly ; " but I am 
 none of the three. Jonah has twelve shillings a 
 week, but half of that goes for housework. That 
 leaves six shillings for gardening; but I never 
 trust him inside this house, for he is only a clumsy 
 dolt, who does the heavy digging. And besides 
 him I have only a very sharp lad, at seven shillings 
 a Aveek, who works under my own eye. I have 
 in some navvies, at times, it is true, when I make 
 any alterations. But that is outlay, not Avorking 
 expense. Now come and see my young trees just 
 arrived from Sawbridgeworth." 
 
 " Stop one moment. What is this stuff on the 
 top of the pots here ? A\niat queer stuff ! Why, 
 it goes quite to pieces in my hands." 
 
 " Oh, only a little top-dressing, just to refresh 
 the trees a bit. This way, Mr. Kettledrum." 
 
 " Pardon me, sir, if I appear impertinent or in- 
 quisitive. But I have learned so much this after- 
 noon, that I am anxious to learn a little more. 
 My friend, the Dook, will cross-examine me as to 
 everything I have seen here. He knew our inten- 
 tion of coming over. I must introduce you to his 
 Grace, before you are a week older, sir; he has 
 specially requested it. In fact, it was only this 
 morning he said to Nowell Corklemore — but Cor- 
 klemore, though a noble fellow, a gem of truth 
 and honour, sir, is not a man of our intelligence ; 
 in one word, he is an ass !"
 
 A TALE OF THE NEW FOEEST. 2(31 
 
 " Haw ! Nowell Corklemore, No well Gorki emore 
 is an ass, is ho, in the wise opeenion of Mr. Bailey 
 Kettledrum ? Only let me get up, good Lord — and 
 perhaps he told the Dook so. There, it's biting 
 me again, oh Lord! Nowell Corklemore an ass!" 
 
 By the door of the orchard-house grew a fine 
 deodara, and behind it lay INIr. Corklemore, be- 
 yond all hope entangled. His snores had been 
 broken summarily by the maid coming for the 
 glasses, and he set forth, after a dozen " haws," to 
 look for his two comrades. With instinct ampeliue 
 he felt that his only chance of advancing in the 
 manner of a biped lay or stood in his bamboo. So 
 he went to the stick-stand by the back-door, where 
 he muzzily thought it ought to be. Mrs. Hutton, 
 in the drawing-room, was rattling on the piano, 
 and that made his head ten times worse. His 
 bamboo Avas not in the stick-stand; nevertheless 
 he found there a gig-umbrella with a yellow handle, 
 like the top of his fidus Achates. Relying upon 
 this, he made his Avay out, crying "haw!" at every 
 star in the oilcloth. He progged away all down 
 the walk, with the big umbrella ; but the button 
 that held the cord was gone, and it flapped like a 
 mutinous windmill. However, he carried on 
 bravely, until he confronted a dark, weird tree, 
 waving its sh"rouded arms at him. This was the 
 deodara ; so he made a tack to the left, and there 
 was hulled between Avind and water by an unsus- 
 pected enemy. This was Rufus Hutton's pet of 
 all pet pear-trees, a perfect model of symmetry.
 
 262 CKADOCK NOWELL : 
 
 scai'ce three feet six in height, sturdy, crisp, short- 
 jointed, spurred from keel to truck, and carrying 
 twenty great pears. It had been so stopped and 
 snagged throughout, that it was stiffer than fifty 
 hoHies ; and Rosa was dreadfully jealous of it, be- 
 cause Kufus spent so much time there. He 
 used to go out in the summer forenoon, when- 
 ever the sun was brilliant, and draw lines down 
 the fruit with a wet camel's hairbrush, as the 
 French gardeners do. He had photographed 
 it once or twice, but the wind would move the 
 leaves so. 
 
 Now he had the pleasure of seeing Nowell Cor- 
 klemore flat on his back, with his pet Beurre Su- 
 perfin (snapped at the stock), and the gig-umbrella 
 between his legs, all a hideous ruin. The gig- 
 umbrella flapped and flapped, and the agonised pear- 
 tree scratched and scratched, till Nowell Corklemore 
 felt quite sure that he was in the embrace of a 
 dragon. The glorious pears were rolling about, some 
 crushed under his frantic heels, the rest with wet 
 bruises on them, appealing from human barbarism. 
 
 " Well !" said Rufus Hutton. He was in such a 
 rage, it would have choked him to say another 
 word. 
 
 " Haw ! I don't call it well at all to be eaten 
 up by a dragon. Pull him away for mercy's sake, 
 pull him away ! and I'll tell all about this busi- 
 ness." 
 
 At last they got him out, for the matter was
 
 A TALE OF THE NEW FOREST. 263 
 
 really serious, and Kufus was forced to hide Lis 
 Avoe at the destruction of the pear-tree. And after 
 all he had no one but himself to thank for it. Why 
 did he almost force his guests to cU'ink the third 
 bottle of sherry? 
 
 "Wonderful, perfectly wonderful!" exclaimed 
 Mr. Baile}' Kettledrum, as Rufus was showing 
 them out at the gate, before having his own horse 
 saddled. " The triumphs of horticultm-e in this 
 age are really past belief. You beat all of us. Dr. 
 Hutton, you may depend upon it ; you beat all of 
 us. I never would have believed that trees ought 
 to be planted with their heads down, and their 
 roots up in the air. Stupid of me, though, for I 
 have often heard of root-pruning, and of course 
 you could not prune the roots unless they grew in 
 that way." 
 
 Kufus thought he was joking, or suffering from 
 vinous inversion of vision. 
 
 " Kemember, my good friend Hutton — excuse 
 my familiarity, I feel as if I had known you for 
 years — remember, my dear friend, you have 
 pledged yoiu' word for next Wednesday — and ]\Irs. 
 Hutton too, mind — JNIrs. Hutton Avith you. We 
 waive formality, you know, in these countiy 
 quarters. Kettledrum Hall, next Wednesday — 
 honour bright, next Wednesday ! You see I know 
 the motto of your family." 
 
 " Thank you, all right," said Rufus Hutton ; 
 *• it's a deuced deal more than I know," he added,
 
 264 CRADOCK NOWELL : 
 
 going up the drive. "I didn't know Ave had a 
 motto. Well, I'm done for at last !" 
 
 No wonder he was done for. He saw what 
 Kettledrum had taken in the purest faith. All 
 those lovely little trees, dwarf pp'amids, &c., Avere 
 standing on the apex. Jonah, after all the sheny 
 given to and stolen by him, had laid them in by 
 the heels with a vengeance. All the pretty heads 
 were a foot under ground, and the roots, like the 
 locks of a mermaid, wooing the buxom air.
 
 A TALE OF THE NEW FOKEST. 265 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 That evening Dr. Hutton started, on his long 
 swift mare, for the Hall at Nowelhurst, where he 
 had promised to be. He kissed his Rosa many 
 times, and begged her pardon half as often, for all 
 the crimes that day comrfiitted. Her brother Ralph, 
 from Fordingbridge, who always slept there at short 
 notice, because the house was lonely, would be sure 
 to come (they knew) when the little boy Bob was 
 sent for him. Ralph Mohorn — poor Rosa rejoiced 
 in her rather uncommon patronymic, though per- 
 haps it means Cow-horn — Ralph Mohorn was only 
 too glad to come and sleep at Geopharmacy Lodge. 
 He was a fine, fresh -hearted fellow, only about 
 nineteen years old; his father held him hard at 
 home, and of course he launched out all the more 
 abroad. So he kicked up, as he expressed it, " the 
 devil's own dust" when he got to the Lodge, 
 ordered everything in the house for supper, with 
 a bottle of whisky afterwards — which he never
 
 266 CEADOCK NO WELL : 
 
 touched, only he liked the name of the thing — and 
 then a cardinal, or the biggest meerschaum to be 
 found in any of the cupboards. His pipe, how- 
 ever, was not, like his grog, a phantom of the ima- 
 gination ; for he really smoked it, and sat on three 
 chairs, while he " baited" Rosa, as he called it, with 
 all the bogeys in Christendom. It was so delicious 
 now to be able to throw her into a tremble, and 
 turn her cheeks every colour, and then recollect 
 that a few years since she had smacked his own 
 cheeks ad libitum. HoAvever, we have little to do 
 with him, and now he is a jolly farmer. 
 
 Rufus Hutton rode through Ringwood over the 
 low bridge where the rushes rustle everlastingly, 
 and the trout and dace for ever wag their pellucid 
 tails up stream. How all that water, spreading 
 loosely, wading over miles of meadows, grooving 
 leagues of reed and rush, mistress of a world in 
 winter, how it all is content to creep through a 
 pair of little bridges — matter of such mystery, let 
 the Christchurch salmon solve it. Dr. Hutton went 
 gaily over — at least his mare went gaily — but he 
 was thinking (beyond his wont) of the business he 
 had in hand. He admired the pleasant old town 
 as he passed, and the still more pleasant waters ; 
 but his mare, the favourite Polly, went on at her 
 usual swing, until they came to the long steep hill 
 towards the Picked Post. As he walked her up 
 the sharp parts of the rise, he began to ponder the 
 mysterious visit of those convivial strangers. It 
 was very plain that neither of them kncAv or cared
 
 A TALE OF THE NEW FOREST. 267 
 
 the tuni of a trowel about the frank art of garden- 
 ing ; that, of course, was only a sham ; then what 
 did they really come for ? Rufus, althougli from 
 childhood upwards he had been liospitable to his 
 own soul, that is to say, regarded himself with 
 genial approbation, was not by any means blindly 
 conceited, and could not suppose that his fame, for 
 anything except gardening, had spread through the 
 regions round about. So he felt that his \-isitors 
 liad come, not for his sake, but their own. And it 
 was not long before he suspected that they wished 
 to obtain through him some insight, perhaps even 
 some influence, into and in the course of events 
 now toward at Nowelhurst Plall. They had alto- 
 gether avoided the subject ; which made him the 
 more suspicious, for at present it was of course the 
 leading topic of the county. 
 
 However, as they were related to the family, 
 while he, Rufus Hutton, was not, it Avas not his 
 place to speak of the matter, but to let his guests 
 do as they liked about it. They had made him 
 promise, moreover, to dine with the Kettledrums 
 on the very earliest day he could fix — viz. the fol- 
 lowing Wednesday — and there he was to meet Mr. 
 and IVIrs. Corklemore. Was it possible that they 
 intended, and perhaps had been instructed, to sub- 
 ject the guest on that occasion to more skilful 
 manipulation than that of their rude male fingers ? 
 
 "I'll take Rosa with me," said Rufus to himself; 
 " a woman sees a woman's game best ; though Rosa, 
 thank Heaven, is not very Machiavellian. How very
 
 268 CEADOCK NO WELL : 
 
 odd, that neither of those men had the decency 
 to carry a bit of crape, out of respect for that 
 poor boy ; and I, wlio am noway connected with 
 him, liave been indued by my Roe with a hat- 
 band!" 
 
 Shrewd as our friend Rufus was, he coukl not 
 be charged with low cunning, and never guessed 
 that those two men had donned the show of 
 mourning, and made the most of it round their 
 neighbourhood to impress people with their Idnship 
 to the great Nowells of Nowelhurst, but that tlieir 
 guardian angels had disarrayed them ere they 
 started, having no desire to set Rufus thinking 
 about their chance of succession. As the sharp 
 little doctor began to revolve all he had heard 
 about Corklemore, his mare came to the Burley- 
 road where they must leave the turnpike. Good 
 Polly struck into it, best foot foremost, and, as she 
 never would bear the curb well, her rider had quite 
 enough to do, in the gathering darkness, and on 
 that cross-country track, to attend to their common 
 safety. 
 
 She broke from the long stride of her trot into 
 a reaching canter, as the moon grew bright between 
 the trees, and the lane was barred with shadow. 
 Pricking nervously her ears at every flaw or rustle, 
 bending her neck to show her beauty, where the 
 light fell clear on the moor-top, then with a snort 
 of challenge plmiging into the black of the holloAvs, 
 yet ready to jump the road and away, if her chal- 
 lenge should be answered: bounding across the
 
 A TALE OF THE NEW FOREST. 269 
 
 water-gulley and lookina; askance at a fern-sliadow ; 
 then saying to herself, " It is only the moon, child," 
 and up the ascent half ashamed of herself ; then 
 shaking her bridle with reassurance to think of 
 that mile of great danger flown by, and the mash 
 and the warm stable nearer, and the pleasure of 
 telling tliat great roan horse how brave she had 
 been in the moonlight ■ 
 
 " Goodness me ! What's that ? " 
 
 She leaped over road and roadside bank, and 
 into a heavy gorse-bush, and stood there quivering 
 from muzzle to tail in the intensity of terror. If 
 llufus had not just foreseen her alarm, and gripped 
 her with all his power, he must have lain senseless 
 upon the road, spite of all his rough-riding in 
 India. 
 
 " Who-hoa, who-hoa, then, Polly, you little fool, 
 you are killing me ! Cant you see it's only a 
 lady?" 
 
 Polly still backed into the bush, and her unlucky 
 rider, with every prickle running injto him, could 
 see the whites of her eyes in the moonshine, as the 
 great orbs stood out with horror. Opposite to 
 them, and leaning against a stile which led to a 
 footpath, there stood a maiden dressed in black, 
 with the moonlight sheer upon her face. She took 
 no notice of anything; she had heard no sort of 
 footfall ; she did not know of Polly's capers, or 
 the danger she was causing. Her face, with the 
 hunter's moon upon it, would have been glorious 
 beauty, but for the broad rims under the eyes, and
 
 270 CraDOCK NOWELL : 
 
 the spectral paleness. One moment longer she 
 stared at the moon, as if questing for some one 
 gone thither, then tmnied away with a heavy sigh, 
 and went towards the Coffin Wood. 
 
 All this time Rvifus Hutton Avas utterly blind to 
 romance, being scarified in the calf and thighs 
 beyond any human endurance. Polly backed 
 further and further away from the awful vision 
 before her — the wife of the horse-fiend at least — 
 and every fresh swerve sent a new lot of furze- 
 pricks into the peppery legs of Rufus. 
 
 "Hang it!" he cried, "here goes; no man with 
 a ha'porth of flesh in him could stand it any longer. 
 Thorn for thorn, Miss Polly." He dashed his spurs 
 deep into her flanks, the spurs he had only worn 
 for show, and never dared to touch her with. For 
 a moment she trembled, and reared upright in 
 wrath worse than any horror ; then away she went 
 like a storm of A^ind, headlong through trees and 
 bushes. It was all pure luck or Providence that 
 Rufus was not killed. He grasped her neck, and 
 lay flat upon it ; he clung with his supple legs 
 around her; he called her his Polly, his darling 
 Polly, and begged her to consider herself. She 
 considered neither herself nor him, but dashed 
 through the wild wood, wilder herself, not knowing 
 light from darkness. Any low beech branch, any 
 scrag holly, even a trail of loose ivy, and man and 
 horse were done for. T]ie lights of more than a 
 million stars flashed before Eufus Hutton, and he 
 made up his mind to die, and wondered how Rosa
 
 A TALE OF THE NEW FOREST. 271 
 
 would take ito Perhaps she would marry again, 
 and rear up another family who knew not the name 
 of Hutton ; perhaps she would cry her eyes out. 
 Smack, a young branch took him in the face, 
 though he had one hand before it. " Go it 
 again !" he cried, with the pluck of a man despair- 
 ing, and then he rolled over and over, and dug for 
 himself a rabbit-hole of sand, and dead leaves, and 
 moss. There he lay on his back, and prayed, and 
 luckily let go the bridle. 
 
 The mai'e had fallen, and grovelled in the rotten 
 ground where the rabbits lived; then she got up 
 and shook herself, and the stirrups struck fire 
 beneath her, and she spread out all her legs, and 
 neighed for some horse to come and help her. She 
 could not go any further ; she had vented her soul, 
 and must come to herself, like a lady after hysterics. 
 Presently she sniffed round a bit, and the grass 
 smelled crisp and dewy, and, after the hot corn and 
 musty hay, it Avas fresher than ice upon brandy. 
 So she looked through the trees, and saw only a 
 squirrel, which did not frighten her at all, because 
 she was used to rats. Then she brought her fore- 
 legs well under her stomach, and stretched her long 
 neck downwards, and skimmed the wet blades with 
 her upper lip, and found them perfectly wholesome. 
 Every horse knows what she did then and there, to 
 a great extent, till she had spoiled her relish for 
 supper. 
 
 After that, she felt grateful and good, and it 
 repented her of the evil, and she whinnied about
 
 272 CRADOCK NO WELL : 
 
 for the master who had outraged her feehngs so 
 deeply. She found him still insensible, on his back, 
 beneath a beech-tree, with six or seven rabbits, and 
 even a hare, come to see what the matter was. 
 Then Polh^, who had got the bit out of her mouth, 
 gave him first a poke with it, and then nuzzled him 
 under the coat-collar, and blew into his whiskers as 
 she did at the chaff in her manger. She was begin- 
 ning to grieve and get very uneasy, taking care not 
 to step on him, and went round him ever so many 
 times, and whinnied into his ear, when either that^ 
 or the dollop of grass half chewed which lay on his 
 countenance, revived the great spirit of Rufus 
 Hutton, and he opened his eyes and looked lan- 
 guidly. He saw two immense black eyes full upon 
 him, tenderly touched by the moonlight, and he 
 felt a wet thing like a sponge poking away at his 
 nostrils. 
 
 " Polly," he said, " oh, Polly dear, how could you 
 serve me so ? What will your poor mistress say?" 
 
 Polly could neither recriminate nor defend her- 
 self ; so she only looked at him beseechingly, and 
 what she meant was, " Oh, do get up." 
 
 So Rufus arose, and dusted himself, and kissed 
 Polly for forgiveness, and she, if she had only learned 
 how, would have stooped like a camel before him. 
 He mounted, with two or thi'ee groans for his back, 
 and left the mare to her own devices to find the 
 road again. It Avas very pretty to see in the moon- 
 light how carefully she went with him, not even 
 leaping the small water-courses, but feeling her
 
 A TALE OF THE XEW FOREST. 273 
 
 footing through them. And so they got into the 
 forest-track, some half mile from where they had 
 left it ; they saw the gleam of Bull Garnet's 
 windows, and knew the straight road to the Hall. 
 
 Sir Cradock Nowell did not appear. Of course 
 that was not expected ; but kind John Rosedew 
 came up from the parsonage to keep Rufus Ilutton 
 company. So the two had all the great dinner- 
 table to themselves entirely; John, as the old 
 friend, sat at the head, and the doctor sat by his 
 right hand. Although there were few men in the 
 world with the depth of mind, and variety, the 
 dainty turns of thought, the lacework infinitely 
 ricli^f original mind and old reading, which made 
 John Roscdew's company a forest for to wander in 
 and be amazed with pleasure ; Rufus Hutton, sore 
 and stiff, and aching in the back, thought he had 
 rarely come across so very dry a parson. 
 
 John was not inclined to talk : he was thinking 
 of his Cradock, and he had a care of still sharper 
 tooth — what had happened to his Amy ? He had 
 come up much against his Avishes, only as a duty, 
 on that dreary Saturday night, just that Mr. Hut- 
 ton, who had been so very kind, might not think 
 himself neglected. John had dined four liom-s aso, 
 but tliat made no difference to him, for he seldom 
 knew when he had dined, and when he was expected 
 to do it. Nevertheless he was human, for he loved 
 his bit of supper. 
 
 'My. Rosedew had laboured hard, but vainly, to 
 persuade Sir Cradock Nowell to send some or any 
 
 VOL. I. T
 
 274 CEADOCK NOWELL : 
 
 message to his luckless son. "No," he replied, 
 " he did not wish to see him any more, or at any 
 rate not at present ; it would be too painful to him. 
 Of course he was sorry for him, and only hoped he 
 was half as soriy for himself." John Rosedew did 
 not dream as yet of the black idea working even 
 now in the lonely father's mind, gaining the more 
 on his better heart because he kept it secret. The 
 old man was impatient now even of the old friend's 
 company ; he wanted to sit alone all day weaving 
 and unravelling some dark skein of evidence, and 
 as yet he was not so possessed of the devil as to 
 cease to feel ashamed of him. " Coarse language !" 
 cries some votary of our self-conscious eupheiij^sm. 
 But show me any plainer work of the father of 
 unbelief than want of faith in our fellow-creatures, 
 when we have proved and approved them ; want of 
 faith in our own flesh and blood, with no cause for 
 it but the imputed temptation. It shall go hard 
 with poor old Sir Cradock, and none shall gainsay 
 his right to it. 
 
 Silence was a state of the air at once unconge- 
 nial to Dr. Hutton's system and repugnant to all 
 his finest theories of digestion. For lo, how all 
 nature around us protests against the Trappists, 
 and the order of St. Benedict! See how the 
 cattle get together when they have dined in the 
 afternoon, and had their drink out of the river. 
 Don't they flip their tails, and snuffle, and grmit at 
 their own fine sentiments, and all the while they 
 are chewing the cud take stock of one another?
 
 A TALE OF THE NEW FOUEST. 275 
 
 Don't they discuss the asilus and oestrum, the last 
 ncAvs of the rinderpest, and the fly called by some 
 the cow-dab, and don't they abuse the festuca 
 tribe, and the dyspepsia of tlie sorrel? Is the 
 thrush mute when he lias bolted his worm, or the 
 robin over his spider's eggs ? 
 
 So Rufus looked through his glass of port, 
 which he took merely as a corrective to the sherry 
 of the morning, cocked one eye first, and then the 
 other, and loosed the golden bands of speech. 
 
 " Uncommonly pretty girls, Mr. Rosedew, all 
 about this neighbourhood." 
 
 " Very likely. Dr. Hutton ; I see many pleasant 
 faces ; but I am no judge of beauty." He leaned 
 back with an absent air, just as if he knew nothing 
 about it. And all the while he was saying to 
 himself, " Pretty girls indeed ! Is there one of 
 them like my Amy ? " 
 
 " A beautiful girl I saw to-night. But I don't 
 wish to see much more beauty in that way. Nearly 
 cost me my life, I know. You are up in the 
 classics so : what is it we used to read at school ? — 
 Helene, Helenaus, Helip — something — teterrima 
 belli causa fuit. Upon my word, I haven't talked 
 so much Latin and Greek — have another glass of 
 port, just for company ; tlie dry vintage of '34 
 can't hurt anybody." John Rosedew took another 
 glass, for his spirits were low, and the wine was 
 good, and the parson felt then that he ought to 
 have more confidence in God. Then he brought 
 his mind to bear on the matter, and listened very 
 T 2
 
 276 CKADOCK NOWELL : 
 
 attentively while the doctor described, Avitli a rush 
 of warm language and plenteous exaggeration, the 
 fright of his mare at that mournful vision, the 
 vision itself, and the consequences. 
 
 " Sir, you must have ridden like a Centaur, or 
 hkc Alexander. What will Mrs. Hutton say? 
 But are you sure that she leaped an oak-tree ? " 
 
 " Perfectly certain," said Rufus, gravely, " clean 
 through the fork of the branches, and the acorns 
 rattled upon my hat, like the hail of the Hima- 
 laya." 
 
 " Eemarkable ! Most remarkable ! " 
 
 " But you have not told me yet," continued Dr. 
 Hutton, " although I am sure that you know, who 
 the beautiful young lady is." 
 
 "From your description, and the place, though 
 I have not heard that they are in mourning, I 
 think it must have been Miss Garnet." 
 
 "Miss Garnet! What Miss Garnet? Not 
 Bull Garnet's daughter? I never heard that he 
 had one." 
 
 " Yes, he has, and a very nice girl. ]\Iy Amy 
 knows a little of her. But he does not allow her 
 to visit much, and is most repressive to her. Un- 
 wise, in my opinion ; not the way to treat a daugh- 
 ter ; one should have confidence in her, as I have 
 in my dear child." 
 
 " Oh, you have confidence in Miss Rosedew ; 
 and she goes out whenever she likes, I suppose?" 
 
 " Of course she does," said the simple Jolm,
 
 A TALE OP THE NEW FOREST. 277 
 
 wondering at the question ; " tluit is, of course, 
 "whenever it is right for her." 
 
 " Of which, I suppose, she herself is the judge." 
 
 " A^Hij, no, not altogether. Her aunt has a 
 voice in the matter always, and a very potent 
 one." 
 
 " And, of course, Miss Rosedew, managed upon 
 such enlightened principles, never attempts to 
 deceive you ? " 
 
 " Amy ! my Amy deceive me ! " The rector 
 tm'ned pale at the very idea. " But these questions 
 are surely unusual from a gentleman whom I have 
 known for so very short a time. I am entitled, in 
 turn, to ask your reason for putting them." Mr. 
 Rosedew, never suspecting indignities, could look 
 very dignified. 
 
 " I'm in for it now," thought Rufus Hutton ; 
 " what a fool I am ! I fancied the old fellow had 
 no nous, except for Latin and Greek." 
 
 Strange to say, the old fellow had nous enough 
 to notice his hesitation. John Rosedew got up 
 from his chair, and stood looking at Rufus Hutton. 
 
 " Sir, I will thank you to tell me exactly what 
 you mean about my daughter." 
 
 " Nothing at all, Mr. Rosedew. What do you 
 suppose I shoxdd mean?" 
 
 " You should mean nothing at all, sir. But I 
 believe that you do mean something. And, please 
 God, I will have it out of you." Rufus Hutton 
 said afterwards that he had two m'eat frights that
 
 278 CEADOCK NOWELL : 
 
 evening, and lie believed the last was the vi^orst. 
 The parson never dreamed that any man could be 
 afraid of him, except it were a liar, and he looked 
 upon Rufus contemptuously. The man of the 
 world was nothing before the man of truth. 
 
 " Mr. Rosedew," said Rufus, recovering himself, 
 " yoru* conduct is very extraordinary ; and (you will 
 excuse my saying it) more violent than becomes 
 a man of your position and character." 
 
 " No violence becomes any man, whatever his 
 position. I am sorry if I have been violent." 
 
 "You have indeed," said Rufus, pushing his 
 advantage : a generous man would have said, " No, 
 you haven't," at seeing the parson's distress, and 
 so would Rufus have said, if he had happened to 
 be in the right ; " so violent, Mr. Rosedew, that I 
 believe you almost frightened me." 
 
 " Dear me !" said John, reflecting, " and he has 
 just leaped an oak-tree ! I must have been very 
 bad." 
 
 " Don't mention it, my dear sir, I entreat you 
 say no more about it. We all know what a father 
 is." And Rufus Hutton, who did not yet, but 
 expected to know in some three months, grew very 
 large, and felt himself able to patronise the rector. 
 "Mr. Rosedew, I as well am to blame. I am 
 thoughtless, sir, very thoughtless, or rather I should 
 say too thoughtful ; I am too fond of seeing round 
 a corner, which I have always been famous for. 
 Sir, a man who possesses this power, this gift, this 
 — I don't know the word for it, but I have no
 
 A TALE OF THE NEW FOREST. 279 
 
 doubt YOU do — that man is apt to — I mean 
 to " 
 
 " Knock his head against a wall f suggested the 
 parson, in all good faith. 
 
 " No, you mistake me ; I don't mean that at all ; 
 I mean tliat a man with this extraordinary fore- 
 sight, which none can understand except those 
 who are gifted Avith it, is liable sometimes, is 
 amenable — I mean to — to ^" 
 
 " See double. Ah, yes, I can quite understand 
 it." John Rosedew shut his eyes, and felt up for 
 a disquisition, yet wanted to hear of his daughter. 
 
 " No, my dear sir, no. It is something very far 
 from anything so common-place as tliat. What I 
 mean is — only I cannot express it, because you 
 interrupt me so — that a man may have this faculty, 
 this insiglit, this perception, which saves him from 
 taking offence where none whatever is meant, and 
 yet, as it were by some obliquity of the \"ision, may 
 seem, in some measure, to see the wrong indi- 
 vidual." Here Kufus felt like the dwarf Alypius, 
 when he had stodged lamblichus. 
 
 ''That is an interesting question, and reminds 
 me of the state of appe-^la^ as described m the life 
 of Pyrrho by Diogenes Laertius ; whose errors, if 
 I may venture to say it, have been made too much 
 of by the great Isaac Casaubon, then scarcely 
 mature of judgment. It will give me the greatest 
 pleasure to go into that question with you. But 
 not just now. I am thrown out so sadly, and my 
 memory fails me" — John Ilosedew had fancied
 
 280 CKADOCK NOWELL : 
 
 this, by-tlie-by, ever since he was thirty years old — 
 " only tell me one thing, Dr. Hutton, and I am 
 very sorry for my violence ; you meant no harm 
 about my daughter 1 " Here the grey-haired man, 
 with the mighty forehead, opened his clear blue 
 eyes, and looked down upon Rufus beseechingly. 
 
 " Upon my honour as a gentleman, I mean no 
 harm whatever, I made the greatest mistake, and 
 I see the mistake I made." 
 
 " Will you tell me, sir, what it was ? Just to 
 ease my mind. I am sure that you will." 
 
 "No, I must not tell you now, until I have 
 worked the matter out. You will thank me for 
 not doing so.- But I apologise most heartily. I 
 feel extremely uncomfortable. No claret, sir, but 
 the port, if you please. I was famous, in India, 
 for my nerve ; but now it seems to be failing me." 
 
 Rufus, as we now perceive, had fully discovered 
 his mistake, and was trjang to trace the conse- 
 quences. The beautiful girl whom he saw in the 
 wood, that evening, with Clayton Nowell, was not 
 our Amy at all at all, but ISIr. Garnet's daughter. 
 He knew the face, though changed and white, 
 when it frightened his mare in the moonlight; 
 and, little time as he had to think, it struck him 
 then as very strange that Miss Rosedew should be 
 there. Bull Garnet's cottage, on the other hand, 
 was quite handy in the hollow.
 
 A TALE OF THE NEW FOEEST. 281 
 
 CHAPTER XXYI. 
 
 At this melancholy time, John Rosedew had 
 quite enough to do Avithout any burden of fresh 
 anxieties about his own pet Amy. Nevertheless, 
 that burden was added ; not by Dr. Hutton's vague 
 questions, although they helped to impose it, but 
 by the father's own observation of his darling's 
 strange condition. " Can it be," he asked himself, 
 and often longed to ask her, as he saw only lilies 
 where roses had been, and little hands trembling 
 at breakfast-time, " can it be that this child of 
 mine loved the poor boy Clayton, and is wasting 
 away in soitow for him ? Is that the reason why 
 she will not meet Cradock, nor Cradock meet her, 
 and she trembles at his name ? And then that 
 book which Aunt Doxy made her throw on the 
 kitchen fire — very cruel I now see it was of my 
 good sister Eudoxia, though at first I did not 
 think so — that book I know was poor Clayton's, 
 for I have seen it in his hand. Well, if it truly is 
 so, there is nothing to be done, except to be un-
 
 282 CRADOCK NOWELL : 
 
 usually kind to her, and trust to time for the cure, 
 and give her plenty of black-currant jam." 
 
 These ideas he imparted to the good Aunt 
 Doxy, who delivered some apophthegms (which 
 John did not want to listen to), but undertook, 
 whatever should happen, to be down upon Amy 
 sharply. She knew all about her tonsils and her 
 uvula, and all that stuff, and she did not want 
 John's advice, though she had never had a family ; 
 and thank God heartily for it ! 
 
 On Monday, when the funeral came to Nowel- 
 hurst churchyard, John Rosedew felt his heart 
 give way, and could not undertake it. At the risk 
 of deeply offending Sir Cradock, whose nerves that 
 day were of iron, he passed the surplice to his 
 curate, Mr. Pell, of Rushford ; and begged him, 
 M-ith a sad slow smile, to do the duty for him. Sir 
 Cradock Nowell frowned, and coloured, and then 
 bowed low with an icy look, when he saw the 
 change which had been made, and John Rosedew 
 fall in as a mourner. People said that from that 
 day the old friendship was dissevered. 
 
 John, for his part, could not keep his eyes from 
 the nook of the churchyard, where among the yew- 
 trees stood, in the bitterness of anguish, he who 
 had not asked, nor been asked, to attend as mourner. 
 Cradock bowed his head and wept, for now his 
 tears came freely, and prayed the one Almighty 
 Father, who alone has mercy, not to take his 
 misery from him, but to take him from it. 
 
 When the mould was cast upon the coffin, black
 
 A TALE OF THE KEW FOREST. 283 
 
 Wena came between people's legs, gave a cry, and 
 jumped in after it, thinking to retrieve her master, 
 like a stick from the water. She made such a 
 mournful noise in the grave, and whimpered, and 
 put her head down, and wondered why no one 
 said " Wena, deai'," that all the school-guds bm'st 
 out sobbing — having had apples from Clayton 
 lately — and Octavius Pell, the great cricketer, 
 wanted something soft for his throat. 
 
 That evening, when all was over, and the grave 
 heaped snugly up, and it was time to think of 
 other things and begin to wonder at sorrow, John 
 Kosedew Avent to Sir Cradock Nowell, not only as 
 a fellow-moiu'ner and a friend of ancient days, 
 but as a minister of Christ. It had cost John 
 many struggles ; and, what with his sense of 
 worldly favours, schoolday-friendship, delicacy, he 
 could scarce tell what to make of it, till he just 
 went down on his knees and prayed ; then the 
 learned man learned his duty. 
 
 Sir Cradock tm*ned his head away, as if he did 
 not want him. John held out his hand, and said 
 nothing. 
 
 " Mr. Eosedew, I am surprised to see you. And 
 yet, John, this is kind of you." 
 
 John hoped that he only said " Mr. Eosedew," 
 because tlie footman was lingering, and he tried 
 not to feel the difference. 
 
 " Cradock, you know what I am, as well as I 
 know what you are. Fifty years, my dear fellow, 
 fifty years of friendship."
 
 284 CRADOCK NOWELL : 
 
 " Yes, John, I remember when I was twelve 
 years old, and you fought Sam Cockings for me." 
 
 " And, Cradock, I thrashed him f ah*ly ; you 
 know I thrashed him fairly. They said I got 
 his head under the form ; but you know it was all 
 a lie. How I do hate lies! I believe it began 
 that day. If so, the dislike is subjective. Per- 
 haps I ought to reconsider it." 
 
 " John, I know nothing in your life which you 
 ought to reconsider, except what you are doing 
 now." 
 
 Sir Cradock Nowell began the combat, because 
 he felt that it must be waged ; and perhaps he 
 knew in that beginning that he had the weaker 
 cause. 
 
 " Cradock, I am doing nothing which is not my 
 simple duty. When I see those I love in the 
 deepest distress, can I help siding with them ? " 
 
 " Upon that principle, or want of it, you might 
 espouse, as a duty, the cause of any murderer." 
 
 The old man shuddered, and his voice shook, as 
 he whispered that last word. As yet he had not 
 worked himself up, nor been worked up by others, 
 to the black belief which made the living lost 
 beyond the dead. 
 
 " I am sure I don't know what I might do," said 
 John Rosedew, simply, "but what I am doing 
 now is right ; and in your heart you know it. 
 Come, Cradock, as an old man now, and one whom 
 God has visited, forgive your poor, your noble son, 
 who never will forgive himself."
 
 A TALE OF THE XEW FOKEST. 285 
 
 But for one word in that speech, John Rosedcw 
 would porliaps liave Avon his cause, and reconciled 
 son and father. 
 
 " My noble son indeed, John ! A very noble 
 thing- he has done. Shall I never hear the last of 
 his nobility? And who ever called my Clayton 
 noble ? You have been unfair throughout, John 
 Rosedew, most unfair and blind to the merits of 
 my more loving, more simple-hearted, more truly 
 noble boy, I tell you." 
 
 ]\Ir. Rosedew, at such a time, could not of 
 coui'se contest the point, could not tell the bereaved 
 old man that it was he himself who had been 
 unfair. 
 
 "^Vnd when," asked Sir Cradock, getting warmer, 
 " when did you know my poor boy Violet stick up 
 for political opinions of his own at the age of 
 twenty, want to drain tenants' cottages, and pre- 
 tend to be better and wiser than his father ? " 
 
 " ^Vnd when have you known Cradock do, at any 
 rate, the latter f 
 
 " Ever since he got that scholarship, that Scot- 
 land tiling at Oxford" — Sir Cradock knew the 
 name well enough, as every Oxford man does — 
 "he has been perfectly insufferable; such arro- 
 gance, such conceit, such airs ! And he only got 
 it b}' a trick. Poor Viley ought to have had it." 
 
 John Rosedew tried to control himself, but the 
 gross untruth and injustice of that last accusation 
 were a little too much for him. 
 
 " Perhaps, Sir Cradock Nowell, you will allow
 
 286 CRADOCK XOWELL : 
 
 that I am a competent judge of the relative powers 
 of the two boys, who knew all they did know from 
 me, and from no one else." 
 
 " Of course, I know you are a competent judge, 
 only blinded by partiality." 
 
 John allowed even that to go by. 
 
 " Without any question of preference, simply as 
 a lover of literature, I say that Clayton had no 
 chance with him in a Greek examination. In Latin 
 he wonld have run him close. You know I always 
 said so, even before they went to college. I was 
 surprised, at the time, that they mentioned Clayton 
 even as second to him." 
 
 " And grieved, I dare say, deeply grieved, if the 
 truth were told ! " 
 
 " It is below me to repel mean little accusa- 
 tions." 
 
 " Come, John Rosedew," said Sir Cradock, mag- 
 nanimously and liberally, " I can forgive you for 
 being quarrelsome, even at such a time as this. It 
 always was so, and I suppose it always will be. To- 
 day I am not fit for much, though perhaps you 
 do not know it. Thinking so little of my dead 
 boy, you are sm'prised that I should grieve for 
 him." 
 
 " I should be surprised indeed if you did not. 
 God knows even I have grieved deeply, as for a 
 son of my own." 
 
 " Shake hands, John ; you are a good fellow — 
 the best fellow in the world. Forgive me for
 
 A TALE OF THE NEW FOREST. 287 
 
 being petulant. You don't know how my licart 
 aches." 
 
 After that it was impossible to retm-n for the 
 moment to Cradock No well. But the next day 
 John renewed the subject, and at length obtained 
 a request from the father that his son should 
 come to him. 
 
 By this time Cradock hardly knew when he was 
 doing an}i;hing, and when he was doing nothing. 
 He seemed to have no regard for any one, no con- 
 cern about anything, least of all for himself. Even 
 his love for Amy Rosedew had a pall thrown over 
 it, and lay upon the trestles. The only thing he 
 cared at all for was his father's forgiveness : let 
 him get that, and then go away and be seen no 
 more among them. He could not think, or feel 
 surprise, or fear, or hope for anything ; he could 
 only tell himself all day long, that if God were 
 kind He would kill him. A young life wrecked, so 
 utterly wrecked, and through no fault of its own ; 
 unless (as some begin to dream) we may not slay 
 for luxuiy ; unless we have but a limited right to 
 destroy om* Father's property. 
 
 Sir Cradock, it has been stated, cared a great 
 deal more for his children than he did for his 
 ancestors. He had not been wondering, through 
 his sorrow, what the world would say of him, what 
 it would think of the Nowells ; he had a little too 
 much self-respect to care a fig for fool's-tongue. 
 Now he sat in his carved oak-chair, expecting his
 
 288 CEADOCK NOWELL : 
 
 only son, and he tried to sit upright. But the flat- 
 ness of his back was gone, never to return ; and the 
 shoulder-blades showed through his coat, like a 
 spoon left under the tablecloth. Still he appeared 
 a stately man, one not easily bowed by fortune, or 
 at least not apt to acknowledge it. 
 
 Young Cradock entered his father's study, with 
 a flush on his cheeks, which had been so pale, and 
 his mind made up for endurance, but his wits 
 going round like a swirl of leaves. He could not 
 tell what he might say or do. He began to believe 
 he had shot his father, and to wonder whether it 
 hurt him much. Trying in vain to master his 
 thoughts, he stood with his quivering hands clasped 
 hard, and his chin upon his breast. 
 
 So perhaps Adrastus stood, Adrastus son of 
 Gordias, before the childless Croesus ; and the 
 simple words are these. 
 
 " After this there came the Lydians canying 
 the corpse. And behind it followed the slayer. 
 And standing there before the corpse, he gave 
 himself over to Croesus, stretching forth his hands, 
 commanding to slay him upon the corpse, telling 
 both his own former stress, and how upon the top 
 of that he had destroyed his cleanser, nor was 
 his life now liveable. Croesus, having heard these 
 things, though being in so great a trouble of the 
 hearth, has compassion on Adrastus, and says to 
 him 
 
 " But Adrastus, son of Gordias, son of jSIidas, 
 this man, I say, who had been the slayer of his
 
 A TALE OF THE NEW FOREST. 289 
 
 womb-brother, and slayer of him that cleansed 
 him, when there was around the grave a fjuietude 
 from men, feeling that he was of all men wliom he 
 had ever seen the most weighed down witli trouble, 
 kills himself dead upon the tomb." 
 
 But the father now was not like Croesus, the 
 generous-hearted Lydian, although the man who 
 stood before him was not a runagate from Phrygia, 
 but the son of his own loins. The father did not 
 look at him, but kept his eyes fixed on the Avindow, 
 as though he knew not any were near him. Then 
 the son could wait no more, but spoke in a hollow, 
 trembling voice : 
 
 " Father, I am come, as you ordered." 
 
 " Yes. I will not keep you long. Perhaps you 
 want to go out" (" shooting" he was about to say, 
 but could not be quite so cruel). " I only wish so 
 to settle matters that we may meet no more." 
 
 " Oh, father — my own father I — for God's sake ! 
 — if there be a God — don't speak to me like that !" 
 
 " Sir, I shall take it as a proof that you are still 
 a gentleman, which at least you used to be, if you 
 will henceforth address me as ' Su' Cradock Nowell,' 
 a title which soon will be your own." 
 
 " Father, look me in the face, and ask me ; then 
 I will." 
 
 Sir Cradock Nowell still looked forth the heavily- 
 tinted window. His son, his only, his grief-worn 
 son, was kneeling at his side, unable to weep, too 
 proud to sob, with the sense of deep wrong rising. 
 
 VOL. L U
 
 290 CEADOCK KOWELL : 
 
 If the father once had looked at him, nature must 
 have conquered. 
 
 " Mr. Nowell, I have only admitted you that we 
 misht treat of business. Allow me to foro;et the 
 face of a fratricide, perhaps murder^err 
 
 Cradock Nowell fell back heavily, for he had 
 risen from his knees. The croAvn of his head 
 crashed the glass of a picture, and blood showered 
 down his pale face. He never even put his hand 
 up, to feel what was the matter. He said nothing, 
 not a syllable; but stood there, and let the room 
 go round. How his mother must have wept, if 
 she was looking down from heaven ! 
 
 The old man, having all the while a crude, dim 
 sense of outrunning his heart, gave the youth time 
 to recover himself, if it were a thing worth re- 
 covering. 
 
 " Now, as to our arrangements — the subject I 
 wished to speak about. I only require your con- 
 sent to the terms I propose, until, in the natural 
 course of events, you succeed to the family pro- 
 perty." 
 
 "What family property, sir?" Cradock's head 
 was dizzy still, though thje bleeding had done him 
 good. 
 
 ■" u Why, of course, the Nowelhurst property ; all 
 these entailed estates, to which you are now sole 
 heir." 
 
 " I will never touch one shilling, nor step upon 
 one acre of it."
 
 A TALE OF THE NEW FOEEST. 291 
 
 " Under jom' mother s — that is to say, under 
 my marriaiTe-settlement," continued Sir Cradock, in 
 the same tone, as if his son were only banterinij, 
 " you are at once entitled to the sum of 50,000^. 
 inyested in Three per Cent. Consols — Avhich would 
 have been — I mean, which was meant for younger 
 children. This sum the trustees will be pre- 
 pai-ed " 
 
 " Do you think I will touch it ? Am I a thief 
 as well as a murderer ? " 
 
 " I shall also make arrangements for securing 
 to you, until my death, an income of 5000/. per 
 annum. This you can draw for quarterly, and the 
 cheques will be countersigned by my steward, ]\Ir. 
 Garnet." 
 
 " Of course, lest I should forge. Once for all, 
 hear me. Sir Cradock Nowell. So help me the 
 God who has now forsaken me, who has turned my 
 life to death, and made my own father curse me — 
 every word of yours is a curse, I say — so helj) me 
 that God (if there be one to help, as well as to 
 smite a man), till you crave my pardon upon your 
 knees, as I have craved yours this day, I will never 
 take one yard of your land, I will never call myself 
 'Nowell,' or own you again as my father. God 
 knows I am very unlucky and little, but you have 
 shown yourself less. And some day you will 
 know it." 
 
 In the full strength of his righteous pride, he 
 walked for the first time like a man, since he 
 u2
 
 292 CRADOCK NOWELL : 
 
 leaped that deadly hedge. From that moment a 
 change came over him. There was nothing to 
 add to his happi^iess, but something to rouse his 
 manhood. The sense of justice, the sense of ho- 
 nour — that flower and crown of justice — forbade 
 him henceforth to sue, and be shy, and bemoan 
 himself under hedges. From that day forth he 
 was as a man visited of God, and humbled, but 
 facing ever his fellow-men, and not ashamed of 
 affliction.
 
 A TALE OF THE NEW FOREST. 293 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII. 
 
 With an even step, and no frown on his fore- 
 lieatl, nor glimpse of a tear in his eyes, youna; 
 Cradock walked to his own little room, his " nest," 
 as he used to call it ; where pipes, and books, and 
 Oxford prints — no ballet-girls, however, and not 
 so very many hunters — and whips, and foils, and 
 boxing-gloves — cum multis aliis quce nunc describere 
 lonrjum est ; et cui non dicta long ago ? — were han- 
 dled more often than dusted. All these things, 
 except one pet little pipe, which he was now come 
 to look for, and which Viley had given him a year 
 ago, Avhen they swopped pipes on their birthday 
 (like Dionied and the brave Lycian), all the rest 
 were things of a bygone age, to be thought of no 
 more for the present, but dreamed of, perhaps, on 
 a Christmas-eve, when the air is full of luxury. 
 
 Caring but little for any of them, although he 
 had loved them well until they seemed to injure 
 him, Cradock proceeded with great equanimity to 
 
 k
 
 294 CEADOCK NOWELL : 
 
 do a very foolish thing, which augured badly for 
 the success of a young man just pi'eparing to start 
 for himself in the world. He poured the entire 
 contents of his piu'se into a little cedar tray, then 
 packed all the money in paper rolls with a neatness 
 which rather astonished him, and sealed each roll 
 with his amethyst ring. Then he put them into a 
 little box of some rare and beautiful palm-wood, 
 which had been his mother's, laid his cheque-book 
 beside them (for he had been allowed a banking 
 account long before he w^as of age), and placed 
 upon that his gold watch and chain, and trinkets, 
 the amethyst ring itself, his diamond studs, and 
 other jewellery, even a locket wdiich had contained 
 two little sheaves of hair, bound together wath 
 golden thread, but from which he first removed, 
 and packed in silver paper, the fair hair of his 
 mother. This last, with the pipe which Clayton 
 had given him, and the empty purse made by 
 Amy's fingers, were all he meant to carry away, 
 besides the clothes he wore. 
 
 After locking the box he rang the bell, and 
 begged the man who answered it to send oldHogstaff 
 to him. That faithful servant, from whom he had 
 learned so many lessons of infancy, came tottering 
 along the passage, with his old eyes dull and heavy. 
 For Job had gloried in those two brothers, and 
 loved them both as the children of his elder days. 
 And now one of them was gone for ever, in the 
 height of his youth and beauty, and a whisper was 
 in the household that the other would not stay.
 
 A TALE OF THE NEW FOREST. 295 
 
 Of him, wliom Job liad ahvays looked upon as his 
 future master (for lie meant to outlive the present 
 Sii' Cradock, as he had done the one before him), 
 he had just been scoring upon his fingers all the 
 things he had taught him — to whistle " Spanka- 
 dillo," while he drummed it Avith his knuckles; 
 to come to the pantry-door, and respond to the 
 '"Who's there?" — ''A grenadier!" shouldering a 
 broomstick ; to play on the Jew's-harp, with vaiia- 
 tions, " An old friend, and a bottle to give him ;" 
 and then to uncork the fictitious bottle -Nntli the 
 pop of his forefinger out of his mouth, and to 
 decant it carefully with the pat of his gm-gling 
 cheeks ! After all that, how could he believe Master 
 Crad could ever forsake him ? 
 
 Now Mr. Hoc-staff's leo;s were i^ettino; like the 
 ripe pods of a scarlet-runner (although he did not 
 run much); here they stuck in, and there tliey 
 stuck out, abnormally in either case; his body 
 began to come forvrard as if warped at the small 
 of the back ; and his honest face (though he drank 
 but his duty) was September' d with many a 
 vintage. And yet, with the keenness of love and 
 custom, he saw at once what the matter was, as he 
 looked up at the young master. 
 
 "' Oh, Master Crad, dear ^Master Crad, whatever 
 are you going to do ? Don't, for good now, don't, 
 I beg on you. Hearken now ; do'ee heai'ken to an 
 old man for a minute." And he caught him by 
 both arms to stop him, with his tremulous, wrinkled 
 hands.
 
 29G CRADOCK NOWELL : 
 
 " O Iloggy, dear, kind Hoggy ! you are about 
 tlie only one left to care about me now." 
 
 " No, don't you say that. Master Crad ; don't 
 you say that, whatever you do. Wlioever tell you 
 that, tell a lie, sir. It was only last night Mrs. 
 Toaster, and cook, and Mrs. O'Gaghan, the Irish- 
 woman, was round the fire boiling, and they cried 
 a deal more than they boiled, I do assure you they 
 did, sir. And IVIr. Stote, he come in with some 
 rabbits, and he went on like mad. And the maids, 
 so sorry every one of them, they can't be content 
 with their mourning, sir; I do assure you they 
 can't. Oh, don't 'ee do no harm to yom'self, don't 
 'ee, Mr. Cradock, sir." 
 
 " No, Hoggy," said Cradock, taking his hands ; 
 " you need not fear that now of me. I have had 
 very wicked thoughts, but God has helped me 
 over them. Henceforth I am resolved to bear my 
 trouble like a man. It is the part of a dog to run, 
 when the hoot begins behind him. Now, take this 
 little box, and this key, and give them yourself to 
 Sir Cradock Nowell. It is the last favour I shall 
 ask of you. I am going away, my dear old friend ; 
 don't keep me now, for I must go. Only give 
 me your good wishes ; and see that they mind 
 poor Caldo : and, whatever they say of me behind 
 my back, you won't l^elieve it. Job Hogstaff, will 
 you?" 
 
 Job Hogstaff had never been harder put to it in 
 all his seventy years. Then, as he stood at the 
 open door to see the last of his favomite, he
 
 A TALE OF THE NEW FOEEST. 297 
 
 tliought of tlie tall, dark woman's words so many 
 years ago. " A bonnie pair ye have gat ; but ye'U 
 ha' no luck o' them. Tak' the word of threescore 
 year, ye'U never get no luck o' 'em." 
 
 Cradock turned aside from his path, to say 
 good-bye to Caldo. It would only take just a 
 minute, he thought, and of course he should never 
 see him again. So he went to that snuggest and 
 sweetest of kennels, and in front of it sat the king 
 of dogs. 
 
 The varieties of canine are as manifold and dis- 
 tinct as those of human nature. But the dog, be 
 he saturnine or facetious, sociable or contemplative, 
 mercurial or melancholic, is quite sure to be one 
 thing — true and loyal ever. Can we, who are less 
 than the dogs of the Infinite, say as much of our- 
 selves to Him ? Now Caldo, as has been implied, 
 if not expressed before, Avas a setter of large phi- 
 losophy and rare reflective power. I mean, of 
 course, theoretical more than pi'actical philosophy ; 
 as any dog would soon have discovered who tried 
 to snatch a bone from him. Moreover, he had 
 some originality, and a turn for satire. He would 
 sit sometimes by the hour, nodding his head im- 
 pressively, and blinking first one eye and then the 
 other, watching and considering the doings of his 
 fellow-dogs. How fashionably they yawned and 
 stretched, in a mode they had learned from a 
 pointer, avIio was proud of his teeth and vertebrai ; 
 how they hooked up their tails for a couple of 
 joints, and then let them fall at a right angle,
 
 298 CKADOCK NOWELL : 
 
 having noticed tliat fashion in ladies' bustles, when 
 they came on a Sunday to talk to them ; how they 
 crawled on their stomachs to get a pat, as a pro- 
 vincial mayor does for Ivuighthood ; how they 
 sniffed at each other's door, with an eye to the 
 rotten bones under the straw, as we all smell 
 about for the wealthy ; how their courtesy to one 
 another flowed from their own convenience — these, 
 and a thousand other dog-tricks, Caldo, dwelling 
 apart, observed, but did not condemn, for he felt 
 that they were his own. Now he hushed his bark 
 of joy, and looked up wistfully at his master, for 
 he knew by the expression of that face all things 
 were not as they ought to be. Wliy had Wena 
 snapped at him so, and avoided his society, though 
 he had always been so good to her, and even 
 thought of an alliance? Why did his master order 
 him home that dull night in the covert, when he 
 ^vas sure he had done no harm ? Above all, what 
 meant that moving blackness he had seen through 
 the trees only j^esterday, when the other dogs 
 (muffs as they were) expected a regular battue, 
 and came out strong at their kennel doors, and 
 barked for young Clayton to fetch them ? 
 
 So he looked up now in his master's face, and 
 guessed that it meant a long farewell, perhaps a 
 farewell for ever. He took a fond look into his 
 eyes, and his o^vn pupils told great volumes. Then 
 he sat up, and begged for a minute or two, with a 
 most beseeching glance, to share his master's for- 
 tunes, though he might have to steal his livelihood,
 
 A TALE OF THE NEW FOREST. 299 
 
 and never get any shooting. Seeing that this 
 could never be, he planted his fore-paws on Cra- 
 dock's breast (though he felt that it -was a liberty) 
 and nestled his nose right under his cheek, and 
 wanted to keep him ever so long. Then he 
 howled yviih a low, enduring despair, as the foot- 
 fall he loved grew fainter. 
 
 Looldng back sadly, now and then, at the tran- 
 quil home of his childhood, whose wings, and 
 gables, and depths of stone were grand in the 
 autumn sunset, Cradock Nowell went his way 
 toward the simple Ilectory : he would say good- 
 bye there to Uncle John and the kind Aunt 
 Dox}-; Miss Rosedew the younger, of course, 
 would avoid him, as she had done ever since. 
 But suddenly he could not resist the strange 
 desire to see once more that fatal, miserable spot, 
 the bidental of his destiny. So he struck into a 
 side-path leading to the deep and bosky covert. 
 
 The long shadows fell from tlie pale birch stems, 
 the hollies looked black in the sloping light, and 
 the brown leaves fluttered down here and there as 
 the cold wind set the trees shivering. Only six 
 days ago, only half an hour fiu'ther into the dusk, 
 he had slain his own twin-brother. He crawled 
 up the hedge through the very same gap, for he 
 could not leap it now ; his back ached with weak- 
 ness, his heart with despair, as he stayed himself 
 by the same hazel-branch which had struck his gun 
 at the muzzle. Then he shivered, as the trees did, 
 and his hair, like the brown leaves, rustled, as he
 
 300 CRADOCK NOWELL : 
 
 knelt and prayed that his brother's spirit might 
 appear there and forgive him. Hoping and fearing 
 to find it tliere, he sidled down into the dark wood, 
 and with his heart knockino; hard ao;ainst his ribs, 
 forced himself to go forward. 
 
 All at once his heart stood still, and every nerve 
 of his body went creeping — for he saw a tall, white 
 figure kneeling where his brother's blood was — 
 kneeling, never moving, the hands together as in 
 prayer, the face as wan as immortality, the black 
 hair — if it were hair — falling straight as a pall 
 drawn back from an alabaster coffin-head. The 
 power of the entire form was not of earth, nor 
 heaven ; but as of the intermediate state, wdien we 
 know not we are dead yet. 
 
 Cradock could not think nor breathe. The 
 whole of his existence was frozen up in awe. It 
 showed him in the after time, when he could 
 think about it, the ignorance, the insolence, of 
 dreaming that any human state is quit of human 
 fear. While he gazed, in dread to move (not 
 knowing his limbs would refuse him), with his 
 whole life swallowed up in gazing at the world 
 beyond the grave, the tall, white figure threw its 
 arms up to the darkening sky, rose, and vanished 
 instantly. 
 
 What do you think Cradock No well did ? We 
 all know what he ought to have done. He ought 
 to have walked up calmly, with measured yet 
 rapid footsteps, and his eyes and wits well about 
 him, and investigated everything. Instead of that,
 
 A TALE OF THE NEW FOKEST. 301 
 
 he cut and ran as liai'd as he could go; and I 
 know I sliould have done the same, and I beheve 
 more than half of you would, unless you were too 
 much frightened. He would never turn back 
 upon living man ; but our knowledge of Hades is 
 limited. We pray for angels around our bed ; if 
 they came, we sliould have nightmare. 
 
 Cradock, going at a desperate pace, with a 
 handsome pair of legs, which had recovered their 
 activity, kicked up something hard and bright 
 from a little dollop of leaves, caught it in his hand 
 like a tennis-ball, and leaped the hedge ww impetu. 
 Away he went, without stopping to think, through 
 the splashy sides of the spire-bed, almost as fast, 
 and quite as much frightened, as Rufus Hutton's 
 mare. When he got well out into the chase, he 
 turned, and began to laugh at himself; but a 
 great white owl flapped over a furze-bush, and 
 away went Cradock again. The light had gone 
 out very suddenly, as it often does in October, and 
 Cradock (whose wind was uncommonly good) felt 
 it his duty to keep good hours at the Rectory. So, 
 with the bright thing, whatever it was, poked any- 
 where into his pocket, he came up the drive at 
 early tea-time, and got a glimpse through the 
 window of Amy. 
 
 " Couldn't have been Amy, at any rate," he said 
 to himself, in extinction of some very vague ideas ; 
 " I defy her to come at the pace I have done. 
 No, no ; it must have been in answer to my despe- 
 rate prayer."
 
 302 CEADOCK NOWELL : 
 
 Amy was gone, though her cup was there, when 
 Oradock entered the cU'awing-room. " Well," he 
 thought, " how hard-hearted she is ! But it cannot 
 matter now, much. Though I never believed she 
 would be so." 
 
 Being allowed by his kind entertainers to do 
 exactly as he pleased, poor Cradock had led the 
 life of a hermit more than that of a guest among 
 them. He had taken what little food he required 
 in the garret he had begged for, or carried it with 
 him into the woods, where most of his time was 
 spent. Of course all this was very distressing to 
 the hospitable heart of Miss Doxy ; but her brother 
 John would have it so, for so he had promised 
 Cradock. He could understand the reluctance of 
 one Avho feels himself under a ban to meet his 
 fellow-creatures hourly, and know that they all are 
 tliinking of him. So it came to pass that IMiss 
 Eudoxia, who now sat alone in the drawing-room, 
 was surprised as well as pleased at the entrance of 
 their refugee. As he hesitated a moment, in doubt 
 of his reception, she ran up at once, took both his 
 hands, and kissed him on the forehead. 
 
 " Oh, Cradock, my dear boy, this is kind of 
 you; most kind, indeed, to come and tell me at 
 once of your success. I need not ask — I know by 
 your face ; the first bit of colour I have seen in 
 your poor cheeks this many a day." 
 
 " That's because I have been running, IMiss 
 Kosedew." 
 
 " JSiiss Rosedew, indeed ; and noio, Cradock !
 
 A TALE OF THE NEW FOREST. 303 
 
 Aunt Eudoxia, if you please, or Aunt Doxy, -with 
 all my heart, now." 
 
 He used to call her so, to tease her, in the happy 
 days gone by ; and she loved to be teased by him, 
 her pet and idol. 
 
 " Dear Aunt Eudoxia, tell me truly, do you 
 think — I can hardly ask you." 
 
 " Think what, Cradock ? My poor Cradock : oh, 
 don't be like that !"' 
 
 '' Not that I did — I don't mean that — but that 
 it was possible for me to have done it on purpose?" 
 
 " Done what on purpose, Cradock ? " 
 
 " Why, of course, that horrible, horrible thing." 
 
 " On purpose, Cradock ! My poor innocent ! 
 Only let me hear any one dream of it, and if I 
 don't come down upon them." 
 
 An undignified sentence, that of Aunt Doxy's, 
 as well as a most absui'd one. How long has she 
 been in the habit of hearing people dream ? 
 
 " Some one not only dreams it, some one actually 
 believes that I did it so." 
 
 " The low wretch — the despicable — who?" 
 
 " My own father." 
 
 I will not repeat what Miss Kosedew said, when 
 she recovered from her gasp, because her language 
 was stronger than becomes an elderly lady and the 
 sister of a clerg\Tnan, not to mention the Countess 
 of Driddledrum and Dromore, who must have been 
 wholly forgotten. 
 
 " Then you don't tliink, dear Aunt Eudoxia, 
 that — that Uncle John would believe it?"
 
 304 CRADOCK NOWELL : 
 
 " What, my brother John ! Surely you know 
 better than that, my clear." 
 
 "Nor — nor — perhaps not even cousin Amy?" 
 
 " Amy, indeed ! I do believe that child is per- 
 fectly mad. I can't make her out at all, she is so 
 contradictory. She cries half the night, I am sure 
 of that ; and she does not care for her school, 
 though she goes there ; and her flowers she won't 
 look^at." 
 
 Seeing that Cradock's countenance fell more 
 and more at all this, IS'Iiss Rosedew, who had long 
 suspected where his heart was dwelling, told him 
 a thing to cheer him up, which she had declared 
 she would never tell. 
 
 " Darling Amy is, you know, a very odd girl 
 indeed. Sometimes, when something happens very 
 puzzling and perplexing, some great visitation of 
 Providence, Amy becomes so dreadfully obstinate, 
 I mean she has such delightful faith, that we are 
 obliged to listen to her. And she is quite sure to be 
 right in the end, though at the moment, perhaps, 
 we laugh at her. And yet she is so shy, you can 
 never get at her heart, except by forgetting what 
 you are about. Well, we got at it somehow this 
 afternoon; and you should have heard what she 
 said. Her beautiful great eyes flashed upon us, 
 like the rock that was struck, and gushed like it, 
 before she ended. ' Can we dare to think,' she 
 cried, ' that our God is asleep like Baal — that He 
 knows not when He has chastened His children 
 beyond what they can bear? I know that he.
 
 \. 
 
 A TALE OF THE NEW FOREST. 305 
 
 wlio is now so trampled and crushed of Heaven, is 
 not tried thus for nothing. He shall rise again 
 more pure and large, and fresh from the hand of 
 God, and do what lucky men rarely think of — the 
 will of his Creator.' And, when John and I 
 looked at her, she fell away and cried terribly," 
 
 Cradock was greatly astonished : it seemed so 
 unlike young Amy to be carried away in tliat 
 style. But her comfort and courage struck root 
 in his heart, and her warm faith thawed his despair. 
 Still he saw very little chance, at present, of doing 
 anything but star\ang. 
 
 " How wonderfully good you all are to me ! 
 But I can't talk about it, though I shall think of 
 it as long as I live. I am going away to-night. 
 Aunt Doxy, but I must first see Uncle John." 
 
 Of coru'se Miss Rosedew was very angry, and 
 proved it to be quite impossible that Cradock 
 should leave them so ; but, before very long, her 
 good sense prevailed, and she saw that it was for 
 the best. "While he stayed there, he must either 
 persist to shut himself up in solitude, or wander 
 about in desert places, and never look vnth any 
 comfort on the face of man. So she went with 
 him to the door of the book-room, and left him 
 with none but her brother. 
 
 John Rosedew sat in his little room, with only 
 one candle to light him, and the fire gone out as 
 usual : his books lay all around him, even his best- 
 loved treasures, but his heart was not among them. 
 The grief of the old, though not wild and passionate 
 
 VOL. 1. X
 
 30 G CRADOCK NOWELL : 
 
 as a young man's anguish, is perhaps more pitiable, 
 because more slow and hopeless. The young tree 
 rings to the keen pruning-hook, the old tree groans 
 to the grating saw ; but one will blossom and bear 
 again, while the other gapes with canker. None of 
 his people had heard the rector quote any Greek or 
 Latin for a length of time unprecedented. When 
 a sweet and plajrful mind, like his, has taken to 
 mope and be earnest, the effect is far more sad 
 and touching than a stern man's melancholy. Iron- 
 works out of blast are dreary, but the family 
 hearth moss-gi'own is woeful. 
 
 Uncle John leaped up very lightly from his 
 brooding (rather than reading), and shook Cradock 
 Nowell by the hand, as if he never would let him 
 go, all the time looking into his face by the light of 
 a composite candle. It was only to know how he 
 had fared, and John read his face too truly. 
 Then, as Cradock turned away, not wantmg to 
 make much of it, John came before him with 
 sadness and love, and his blue eyes glistened 
 softly. 
 
 " My boy, my boy ! " Avas all he could say, or 
 think, for a very long time. Then Cradock told 
 him, without a tear, a sigh, or even a comment, 
 but with his face as pale as could be, and his 
 breath coming heavily, all that his father had said 
 to him, and all that he meant to do through it. 
 
 " And so, Uncle John," he concluded, rising to 
 start immediately, " here I go to seek my fortune, 
 such as it vnW and must be. Good-bye, my best 
 and only friend. I am ten times the man I was
 
 A TALE OF THE NEW FOREST. 307 
 
 yesterday, and sliall be grander still to-morrow." 
 He tried to pop off like a lively cork, but John 
 Kosedew would not have it. 
 
 " Young man, don't be in a hurry. It strikes 
 me that I want a pipe ; and it also strikes me 
 that you will smoke one with me." 
 
 Cradock was taken aback by the novelty of the 
 situation. He had never dreamed that Uncle 
 John could, under any possible circumstances, ask 
 him to smoke a pipe. He knew well enough that 
 the rector smoked a sacrificial pipe to Morpheus, in 
 a room of his own up-stah'S ; only one, while chew- 
 ing the cud of all he had read that day. But 
 Mr. Rosedew had always discouraged, as elderly 
 smokers do, any young aspirants to the mystic 
 hierophancy. It is not a vow to be taken rashly, 
 for the vow is irrevocable; except with men of 
 no principle. 
 
 And now he was to smoke there — he, a mere 
 Ijubble-blowing boy, to smoke in the middle of 
 deepest books, to fumigate a manusci'ipt containing 
 a lifeful of learning, which John could no more 
 get on with; and — oh ISIiss Eudoxia! — to make 
 the hall smell and the drawing-room ! The oxy- 
 moron overcame him, and he took his pipe : John 
 Rosedew had filled it judiciously, and quite as a 
 matter of course ; he filled his own in the self-same 
 manner, Avith a digital sldll worthy of an ancient 
 fox trying on a foxglove. All the time, John 
 was shyly wondering at his own great force of 
 character. 
 
 x2
 
 308 CRADOCK NOWELL : 
 
 " Now," said John Rosedew, still keeping it 
 up, " I have a drop of very old Schiedam — Schnapps 
 I think, or something — of which I want your 
 opinion ; Crad, my boy, I want your opinion, before 
 we import any more. I am no judge of that sort 
 of thing ; it is so long since I was at Oxford." 
 
 Without more ado, he went somewhither, after 
 lighting Cradock's yard of clay — which the young 
 man burnt his fingers about, for he wouldn't let 
 the old man do it — and came back like a Bac- 
 chanal, with a square black-jack beneath his arm, 
 and Jenny after him, wondering Avhether they had 
 not prayed that morning enough against the 
 devil. It was a good job Miss Amy was out of 
 the way ; the old cat was bewitched, that was 
 certain, as well as her dear good master. Miss 
 Doxy was happy in knowing not that she Avas 
 called " the old cat" in the kitchen.
 
 A TALE OF THE NEW FOEEST, 309 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIIT. 
 
 " Now, Craddj, my dear, dear boy," said Uncle 
 John, when things had been done witli lemon and 
 cold water, and all that wherein discussion so ut- 
 terly beats description, " you know me too well to 
 suppose that I wish to pass things lightly. I know 
 well enough that you will look the hard world full 
 in the face. And so should I do, in your case. 
 All I wish is that ^-ou should do it, not with spite, 
 or bile, or narrowness, but broadly as a Christian." 
 
 " It is hard to talk about that now," said Cra- 
 dock, inhaling charity, and puffing away all acri- 
 mony ; " Uncle John, I hope I may come to it as 
 my better spirit returns to me." 
 
 " I hope it indeed, and believe it, Crad ; I don't 
 sec how it can be otherwise, with a young man of 
 your breadth of mind, and solid faith to help you. 
 An empty lad, who snaps up stuff because he 
 thinks it fine, and garbles it into garbage, would
 
 310 CRADOCK NOWELL : 
 
 become an utter infidel, under what you have suf- 
 fered. With you, I beheve, it will be otherwise ; 
 I believe you will be enlarged and purified by 
 sorrow — the night which makes the guiding-star 
 so much the clearer to us." John Rosedew was 
 drinking no Schiedam — allow me to explain — 
 though pretending rare enjoyment of it, and 
 making Cradock drink a little, because his heart 
 was down so. 
 
 After they had talked a pipeful longer, not great 
 weighty sentiments, but a deal of kindly stuff, the 
 young fellow got up quietly, and said, "Now, 
 Uncle John, I must go." 
 
 " My boy, I can trust you anywhere, after what 
 you have been telling me. Of human natm-e I 
 know nothing, except" — for John thought he did 
 know something — " from my own little experience. 
 I find great thoughts in the Greek philosophers ; 
 but somehow they are too general, and too little 
 genial. One thing I know, we far more often 
 mistrust than trust unwisely. And now I can trust 
 you, Cradock ; in the main, you will stand ujoright. 
 Stop, my boy ; you must liave a scrip ; I was 
 saving it for your birthday." 
 
 " You don't despise me, I hope?" said Cradock; 
 "you don't think me a coward for running away 
 so ? After what has happened to-day, I should go 
 mad, if I stopped here. Not that that would matter 
 much ; only that, if it were so, I should be sure to 
 do it" 
 
 John Eosedew had no need to ask what he
 
 A TALE OP THE NEW FOREST. 311 
 
 meant by tlie last two words, for the hollow voice 
 told him plainly. But for him, it is likely enough 
 that it would have been done ere this ; at any rate, 
 in the first horror, his hand alone had prevented it. 
 The parson trembled at the idea, but thought best 
 not to dwell upon it. 
 
 " ' Keformidare mortem est animi pusillanimi,' 
 but ' ref ormidare "\dtam' is ten times worse, because 
 impious. Therefore in your case, my boy, it is 
 utterly impossible, as well as ignoble towards us 
 who love you so. Remember that you will break 
 at least two old hearts you owe some duty to, if 
 you allow your own to be broken. And now for 
 your viaticum ; see how you have relieved me. 
 While you lived beneath Hymettian beams in the 
 goods of Tyre and Cyprus, I, even I your god- 
 father, knew not what to give you. The thought 
 has been vexing me for months, and now what a 
 simple solution ! You shall have it in the original 
 dross, to pay the toll on the Appian road, at least 
 the South-Western Railway. Figs to Athens, I 
 thought it would be, or even as eels to Copa'is ; 
 and now ' serves iturum Csesarem.' I believe it is 
 at the twenty-first page of my manuscript, such as 
 it is, upon the Sabellian elements." 
 
 After searching in three or fom' drawers — for 
 he was rather astray at the moment, thoiigh gene- 
 rally he could put his hand, even in the dark, upon 
 any particular one of his ten tliousand books — he 
 came upon the Sabellian treatise, written on backs 
 of letters, on posters, on puffing circulars, even on
 
 312 CEADOCK NOWELL : 
 
 visiting-cards, and cast-away tradesmen's tickets ; 
 and there, at tlie twenty-first page or deltis, lay a 
 501. Bank of England note, with some very tough 
 roots arranged diamond-wise on the back, and 
 arrows, and hyphens, and asterisks, flying about 
 thickly between them. These he copied off, in a 
 moment, on a piece of old hat-lining, and then 
 triumphantly waved the bank-note in the air. 
 It was not often poor Uncle John got hold of so 
 much money ; too bitterly knew Aunt Doxy how 
 large was the mesh of his purse. 
 
 Wliile Cradock gazed with great admiration, 
 John Rosedew, with his fingers upon his lips, and 
 looking half ashamed of himself, went to a cup- 
 board, whose doors, half open, gave a glimpse of 
 countless sermons. From among them he drew a 
 wide-mouthed bottle of leeches, and set it upon the 
 table. Then he pulled out the stopper, unplugged 
 it, and lo ! from a hole in the cork fell out two 
 sovereigns and a half one. As this money rolled 
 on the table, John could not help chuckling a 
 little. 
 
 " Ha, good sister Eudoxia, have I oveiTeached 
 thee again? Double precaution there, you see, 
 Crad. She has a just horror of my sermons, and 
 she runs at the sight of a leech. ' Non missura 
 cutem' — be sure, not a word about it, Crad. That 
 asylum is inviolable, and sempitern, I hope. I shall 
 put more there next week." 
 
 Cradock took the money at once, with the deepest 
 gratitude, but no great fuss about it ; for he saw
 
 A TALE OF THE XEW FOREST. 313 
 
 how bitterly that good man would feel it, if he were 
 small enough to refuse. 
 
 I shall not dwell upon their good-bye, as we have 
 had enough valediction ; only Cradock promised to 
 Avrite from London, so soon as he coidd give an 
 address there ; then leaving sadness behind him, 
 carried a deal of it with him. Only something 
 must yet be recounted, which befell him in Nowel- 
 hurst. And this is the first act of it. 
 
 While he was in his garret packing a little bag 
 of necessaries, forced upon him by Miss Doxy from 
 John's wardrobe and her own almost indiscrimi- 
 nately, and while she was pulling and struggling 
 up-stairs with John, and Jemima, and Jenny — for 
 she would have made Cradock, if she could, carry 
 the entire house with him — he, stowing some 
 things in his pocket, felt what he had caught up 
 so hastily, while flying out of the wood. He 
 examined it by the candlelight, and became at 
 once intent upon it. It had lain beneath a drift 
 of dead leaves backed by a scraggy branch, whence 
 anything short of a grand " skedaddle" would never 
 have dislodged it. 
 
 And yet it was a great deal too pretty to be 
 treated in that way. Cradock could not help ad- 
 miring it, though he shuddered and felt some wild 
 hopes vanish as he made out the meaning. It 
 was a beautiful gold bracelet, light, and of first- 
 rate workmanship, harmonious too with its purpose, 
 and of elegant design. The lower half was a strong 
 soft chain of the fabric of Trichinopoli, which
 
 314 CKADOCK NOWELL : 
 
 bends like tlie skin of a snake ; the front and face 
 showed a strong right arm, gauntleted, yet en- 
 tirely dependent upon the hand of a lady. No 
 bezilling, no jewel whatever, except that a glorious 
 rose-shaped pearl hung, as in contest, between 
 them. 
 
 Cradock wondered for some little time what 
 could be the meaning of it. Then he laiew that 
 it Avas Clayton's offering to the beloved Amy. No 
 doubt could remain any longer, when he saw in the 
 hollow of the back the proposed inscription pen- 
 cilled, " Rosa debita," for the dead gold of the 
 lady's palm, " Rosa dedita" for the burnished gold 
 of the cavalier's high pressm'e. With ingenious 
 love to help him, he made it out in a moment. " A 
 rose due, now a rose true." That was what it came 
 to, if you took it in punster fashion. Just one of 
 poor Viley's conceits. 
 
 Cradock had no time to follow it out, for Miss 
 Eudoxia then came in with a parcel as big as a 
 feather-bed, of comforters, wrappers, and eatables. 
 But, after he had left the house, he began to think 
 about it, in the little path across the green to the 
 \'illage churchyard. He concluded that Amy must 
 have been in the wood that fatal evening. She 
 must have come to meet Clayton there ; and yet it 
 was not like her. Facts, however, are facts, as sm'e 
 as eggs are eggs ; though our knowledge makes no 
 great advance through either of those aphorisms. 
 But a growing sense of injury — though he had no 
 right to feel injured, however it might be — this
 
 A TALE OF THE NEW FOREST. 315 
 
 sense had kept him from asking for Amy, or leav- 
 ing the flirt a good-bye. 
 
 He entered the quiet churchyard, A^th the moon 
 rising over the tombstones, a mass of shadow cast 
 by the great tower, and some epitaphs pusliingwell 
 into the hght, Hke the names which get poked into 
 historj". The wavering glance of the diffident moon, 
 uncertain yet what the clouds meant, slipped along 
 the buttressed walls, and tried to hold on at the 
 angles. The damp corner, where the tower stood 
 forth, and the south porch ran out to look at it, 
 drew back like a ghost who was cmlseying, and 
 declining all further inquiry. Green slime was 
 about, like the sludge of a river ; and a hundred 
 sacred memories, growing weaiy and rheumatic, 
 had stopped their ears with lichen. 
 
 Oradock came in at the rickety swing-stile, and, 
 caring no shadow for ghost or ghostess, although 
 he had run away so, took the straight course to the 
 old black doorway, and on to the heart of the 
 churchyard ; for he must say good-bye to Clayton. 
 All Nowelhurst still admired that path ; but those 
 who had paved and admired it first were sleeping 
 on either side of it. The pavement now was over- 
 lapped, undertucked, and crannied, full of holes 
 where lobworms lived and came out after a thun- 
 derstorm, and three-cornered dips that looked 
 glazed in wet weather, but scm'fy and clammy in 
 drought. And some of the flags stole away and 
 gave inider, as if they too wanted bm'ial, while 
 others jerked up, and asserted themselves as
 
 316 CKADOCK NOWELL : 
 
 superior to some of the tombstones. There in the 
 dark, no mortal with any respect for his grand- 
 father, nor even a ghost with unbevilled soles, could 
 go many steps without tripping. 
 
 AYho will be astonished, then, when I say that the 
 lightest and loveliest foot that ever tripped in the 
 New Forest not only tripped but stumbled there ? 
 At the very corner where the side walk comes in, 
 and the shade of the tower Avas deepest, smack 
 from behind a hideous sarcophagus fell into Cra- 
 dock's arms the most beautiful thing ever seen. 
 If he had not caught her, she must have cut the 
 very sweetest face in the world into great holes 
 like the pavement. Stunned for a moment, and 
 then so abroad, that she could not think, nor even 
 speak — " speak nor think" I would have said, if 
 Amy had been masculine — she lay in Cradock's 
 trembling arms, and never wondered wliere she 
 was. Cradock forgot all despair for the moment, 
 and felt uncommonly lively. It was the sweetest 
 piece of comfort sent to him yet from heaven. 
 Afterwards he always thought that his luck turned 
 from that moment. Perhaps it did ; although 
 most people would laugh who knew him after- 
 wards. 
 
 Presently Amy recovered, and was wroth with 
 herself and everybody. Kuddier tlian a Boursalt 
 rose, she fell back against the tombstone. 
 
 " Oh, Amy," said Cradock, retiring ; " I have 
 known it long. Even you are turned against 
 me."
 
 A TALE OF THE NEW FOKEST. 317 
 
 " I turned against you, Mr. Nowell ! What 
 right have you to say that of me ? " 
 
 " No right to say anything, Amy ; and scarcely 
 a right to think anything. Only I have felt it." 
 
 '■'■ Then I -wouldn't give much for your feelings. 
 I mean — I beg your pardon — you know I can 
 never express myself." 
 
 " Of course, I know that," said Cradock. 
 
 " Oh, can't I, indeed '? " said Amy ; " I dare say 
 you think so, jSIr. Nowell. You have always 
 thought so meanly of me. But, if I can't express 
 my meaning, I am sure my father can. Perhaps 
 you think you know more than he does." 
 
 " Amy," said Cradock, for all this was so unlike 
 herself, that, loving that self more than his own, 
 he scarce knew what to do with it ; " Amy, dear, 
 I see what it is. I suspected it all along." 
 
 " Wliat, if you please, Mr. Nowell ? I am not 
 accustomed to be suspected. Suspected, indeed !" 
 
 "Miss Rosedew, don't be angry with me. I 
 know very Avell how good you are. It is the last 
 time I shall ever see you, or I would not restore 
 you this." 
 
 The moon, being on her way towards the south- 
 east, looked over the counter-like gravestone, and 
 Cradock placed on the level surface the bracelet 
 found in the wood. Amy knew it in a moment ; 
 and she burst out crying — 
 
 " Oh, poor Clayton ! How proud he was of it ! 
 Mr. Nowell, I never could have thought this of 
 you; never, never, never!"
 
 318 CEADOCK NOWELL : 
 
 " Thought what of me, Amy ? Darling Amy, 
 what on earth have I done to offend you ?" 
 
 " Oh, nothmg. I suppose it is nothing to remind 
 me how cruel I have been to him. Oh no, nothing 
 at all. And all this from your 
 
 In a storm of sobs she fell upon Jeremy Wattle's 
 tombstone, and Cradock put one arm around her, 
 to prevent her being hurt. 
 
 " Amy, you drive me \Ndld. I have brought it 
 to you only because it is yours, and because I am 
 going away." 
 
 " Cradock, it never was mine. I refused it 
 months ago ; and I believe he gave it — yovi know 
 wdiat he was, poor dear — I believe he transferred 
 it, and something else — oh no, I can't express my- 
 self — to — ^just to somebody else." 
 
 " Oh, you darling ! and who was that other ? 
 What a fool he must have been ! Confound it, I 
 never meant that." 
 
 "I don't know, Cradock. Oh, please keep 
 away. But I think it was Pearl Garnet. Oh, 
 Cradock, dear Cradock, how dare you ? No, I 
 won't. Yes, I will, Crad ; considering all your 
 misery." 
 
 She put up her pure lips in the moonlight — for 
 Cradock had got her in both arms by this time, 
 and was listening to no reason — her sweet lips, 
 pledged once pledged for ever, she put them up 
 in her love and pity, and let him do what he 
 liked with them. And the moon, attestino; a
 
 A TALE OF THE NEW FOREST. 319 
 
 thousand seals hourly, never witnessed one more 
 bindino;. 
 
 After all, Cradock Nowell, so tried of Heaven, 
 so scourged with the bitterest rods of despair, your 
 black web of life is inwoven now with one bright 
 thread of gold. The purest, the sweetest, the 
 loveliest girl that ever spunTTappiness out of sor- 
 row, or smiled through the veil of affliction, the 
 truest and dearest of all God's children, loving all 
 things, hating none, pours into your heart for ever 
 all that fount of love. Freed henceforth from 
 doubt and wonder (except at her own happiness), 
 enfranchised of another world, enriched beyond 
 commercial thoughts, ennobled beyond self, she 
 blushed as she spoke, and grew pale as she 
 thought, and who shall say which was more beau- 
 tiful? Cradock could tell, perhaps, if any one 
 can ; but he only knew that he worshipped her. 
 And to see the way she cried with joy, and how 
 her young bosom panted ; it was enough to warm 
 old Jeremy Wattle, dead and buried nigh four- 
 score years. 
 
 Cradock, all abroad himself, full of her existence, 
 tasting, feeling, tliinking nothing, except of her 
 deliciovisness, drew his own love round to the light 
 to photograph her for ever. Poor Cla^-ton was 
 dead ; else Crad would have thought that he de- 
 served to be so, for going away to Pearl Garnet : 
 but then the grapes were som\ How he revelled 
 in that reflection ! And yet it was very wrong of 
 him.
 
 320 CEADOCK NOWELL : 
 
 Amy stood up in the moonlight, not ashamed to 
 show herself. She felt that Cradock was poring 
 upon her, to stereotype every inch of her ; and 
 yet she was not one atom afraid. She knew that 
 no man ever depreciates his own property, except 
 in the joke which is brag. It is a most wonderful 
 thing, what girls know and what they loon^t know. 
 But who cares now for reflections ? 
 
 Her thick hair had all fallen out of her hat, 
 because she had been crying so ; her delicate form, 
 still so light and girlish, leaned forward in trust 
 of the future, and the long dark lashes she raised 
 for her lover glistened with the deep light under 
 them. Shame was nestling in her cheeks, the 
 shame of growing womanhood, the down on the 
 yet ungathered fruit of love. Then she crept in 
 closer to him, to stop him from looking so much at 
 her. 
 
 "Darling Cradock, my own dear Cradock, don't 
 you know me now ? You see, I only love you so 
 because you are so unlucky, and I am so dreadfully 
 obstinate." 
 
 " Of course, I know all that, my pet ; my beauty 
 inexpressible. And, remember that I only love 
 you so becau^se you are such a darling." 
 
 Then Amy told him how sorry she was for 
 having been so fractious lately ; and that she 
 would never be so again, only it was all his fault, 
 because she wanted to comfort him, and he 
 would not come and let her — here the softest 
 gleam fluttered through her tears, like the Maza-
 
 A TALE OF THE NEW FOEEST. 321 
 
 rine Blue among dewdrops — and that only for 
 the veriest chance, and the saucer she had broken 
 — but what of that, she would like to know ; it 
 was the surest sign of good luck to them, al- 
 though it was the best service — only for that, her 
 Crad would have gone — gone away for ever, and 
 never known how she loved him ; yes, with all 
 her heart, every single atom of it, every delicious 
 one, if he unust know. And she would keep it 
 for him for ever, for ever ; and be thinking of him 
 always. Let him recollect that, poor darling, and 
 think of his troubles no more. 
 
 Then he told her how Uncle John had behaved 
 — ^how nobly, how magnanimously ; and had given 
 every bit of money he possessed in the world for 
 Cradock to start in life with. John Rosedew's only 
 child began to cry again at hearing it, and put her 
 little hand into her pocket in the simplest way 
 imaginable. " Yes, you will, dear ;" " No, I Avon't ; " 
 went on for several minutes, till Amy nestled quite 
 into his bosom, and put her sweet lips to his ear. 
 
 " If you don't, I will never believe that you love 
 me truly. I am your Httle wife, you know ; and 
 all that I have is yours." 
 
 The marriage-portion in debate was no more than 
 five and sixpence, for Amy could never keep money 
 long; so Cradock accepted the sweet little purse, 
 only he must have a bit of her hau' in it. She 
 pulled out her little sewing-case, which she always 
 took to the day-school, and the small bright scissors 
 flashed in the moonlight, and they made a great 
 
 VOL. 1. Y
 
 322 CEADOCK NOWELL : 
 
 fuss over them. Two great snips were lieard, I 
 know ; for exchange, after all, is no robbery. 
 
 Then hand in hand they went together to see 
 poor Claj'ton's grave, and Cradock started as they 
 approached, for something black was moving there. 
 "Little dear," said Amy, as the doggie looked 
 mournfully up at them, "she would starve if it 
 were not for me. And I could not coax her to eat 
 a morsel until I said, ' Clayton, poor Clayton !' 
 And then she licked my hand and whined, and 
 took a bit to please me. She has had a very nice 
 tea to-night; I told you I broke the saucer, but 
 that was all my own clumsiness." 
 
 "And what has she got there? Oh God! I 
 
 can't stand it ; it is too melancholy." 
 
 f~~ Black Wena, when it was dark that evening, and 
 
 '. Clayton must have done dinner, had stolen away 
 
 to his dressing-room, and fetched, as she had been 
 
 , taught to do, his smoking- jacket and slippers. It 
 
 took her a long time to carry the jacket, for fear it 
 
 should be wet for him. Then she came with a 
 
 very important air, and put them down upon his 
 
 grave, and wagged her tail for approval. She was 
 
 lying there now, and wondering how much longer 
 
 , till he would be ready. 
 
 I Cradock sobbed hysterically, and Amy led him 
 ■ softly away to the place where his travelling-bag 
 was. 
 
 "Now, wait here one moment, my poor dear, 
 and I will bring you your future companion." 
 Presently Amy came back, with Wena following
 
 A TALE OF THE NEW FOKEST. 323 
 
 the coat and the slippers. " Darling Cradock, take 
 her vdih you. She is so true and faithful. She 
 will die if she is left here. And she will be such a 
 comfort to you. Take her, Cradock, for my sake" 
 
 The last entreaty settled it. Cradock took the 
 coat and slippers, and carried Wena a little way, 
 while she looked back wistfully at the churchyard, 
 and Amy coaxed and patted her. They agi'eed on 
 the road that Amy Rosedew should call upon Miss 
 Garnet to restore the bracelet, and should mark 
 how she receiyed it ; for Amy had now a strong 
 suspicion (especially after what Cradock had seen, 
 which now became intelHgible) that Pearl knew 
 more of poor Clayton's death than had been con- 
 fessed to any one. 
 
 " My own Cradock, only think," said Amy ; " I 
 have felt the strongest conviction, throughout, that 
 you had nothing to do with it." 
 
 " Sweetest one," he replied, with a desperate 
 longing to clasp her, but for Wena and the carpet- 
 bag, "that is only because you love me. Never 
 say it again, dear ; suspense, or even doubt about 
 it, would kill me like slow poison." 
 
 Amy shuddered at his tone, and thought how 
 different men were : for a woman would live on the 
 hope of it. But she remembered those words wlien 
 the question arose, and rejoiced that he knew not 
 the whole of it. 
 
 And now with the great di'ops in her eyes, she 
 stood at her father's gate, to say good-bye to her 
 love. She would not let him know that she cried ;
 
 324 CRADOCK NOWELL. 
 
 but Wena was welcome to know it, and Wena 
 licked some tears off, and then quite felt for Amy. 
 
 "Good-bye, my own, my only," said Cradock, 
 for the twentieth time ; even the latch of the gate 
 was trembling ; " God loves us, after all. Amy. 
 Or, at any rate. He loves you." 
 
 "And you, and you. Oh, Cradock! if He 
 loves one, He must love both of us." 
 
 " I believe He does," said Cradock ; " since I 
 have seen you, I am sure of it. Now I care not 
 for the world, except my world in you." 
 
 "Dearest darling, life of my life, promise me 
 not to fret again." 
 
 " Fret, indeed, with you to love me ! Give me 
 just one more." 
 
 Cradock, with a braver heart than he ever 
 thought to own again (and yet with a hole and a 
 string in it, for, after all, he did not own it), bein^ 
 begged away at last by the one who then went 
 down on her knees, only to beg him back again, — 
 that hapless yet most blessed fellow strode away as 
 hard as he could, for fear of running back again ; 
 and the duslcy trees closed round him, and he knew 
 and loved every one of them. Then the latch of 
 the gate for the last time clicked, when he was out 
 of sight, and the laurustinus by the pier, beginning 
 to bud for the winter, glistened in the moonlight 
 with a silent storm of tears. 
 
 END OF VOL. I. 
 
 LONDON : 
 PRINTED BY C. WHITING. BEAUFORT HOUSE, STRAND. 
 
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