Peveril of the Peak Read online

  CHAPTER XLII

  ----On fair ground I could beat forty of them! --CORIOLANUS.

  It doubtless occurred to many that were present at the trial we havedescribed, that it was managed in a singular manner, and that thequarrel, which had the appearance of having taken place betweenthe Court and the Crown Counsel, might proceed from some privateunderstanding betwixt them, the object of which was the miscarriage ofthe accusation. Yet though such underhand dealing was much suspected,the greater part of the audience, being well educated and intelligent,had already suspected the bubble of the Popish Plot, and were glad tosee that accusations, founded on what had already cost so much blood,could be evaded in any way. But the crowd, who waited in the Court ofRequests, and in the hall, and without doors, viewed in a very differentlight the combination, as they interpreted it, between the Judge and theAttorney-General, for the escape of the prisoners.

  Oates, whom less provocation than he had that day received often inducedto behave like one frantic with passion, threw himself amongst thecrowd, and repeated till he was hoarse, "Theay are stoifling thePlaat!--theay are straangling the Plaat!--My Laard Justice and MaasterAttarney are in league to secure the escape of the plaaters andPaapists!"

  "It is the device of the Papist whore of Portsmouth," said one.

  "Of old Rowley himself," said another.

  "If he could be murdered by himself, why hang those that would hinderit!" exclaimed a third.

  "He should be tried," said a fourth, "for conspiring his own death, andhanged _in terrorem_."

  In the meanwhile, Sir Geoffrey, his son, and their little companion,left the hall, intending to go to Lady Peveril's lodgings, which hadbeen removed to Fleet Street. She had been relieved from considerableinconvenience, as Sir Geoffrey gave Julian hastily to understand, byan angel, in the shape of a young friend, and she now expected themdoubtless with impatience. Humanity, and some indistinct idea of havingunintentionally hurt the feelings of the poor dwarf, induced the honestCavalier to ask this unprotected being to go with them. "He knew LadyPeveril's lodgings were but small," he said; "but it would be strange,if there was not some cupboard large enough to accommodate the littlegentleman."

  The dwarf registered this well-meant remark in his mind, to be thesubject of a proper explanation, along with the unhappy reminiscence ofthe trencher-hornpipe, whenever time should permit an argument of suchnicety.

  And thus they sallied from the hall, attracting general observation,both from the circumstances in which they had stood so lately, and fromtheir resemblance, as a wag of the Inner Temple expressed it, to thethree degrees of comparison, Large, Lesser, Least. But they had notpassed far along the street, when Julian perceived that more malevolentpassions than mere curiosity began to actuate the crowd which followed,and, as it were, dogged their motions.

  "There go the Papist cut-throats, tantivy for Rome!" said one fellow.

  "Tantivy to Whitehall, you mean!" said another.

  "Ah! the bloodthirsty villains!" cried a woman: "Shame, one of themshould be suffered to live, after poor Sir Edmondsbury's cruel murder."

  "Out upon the mealy-mouthed Jury, that turned out the bloodhounds on aninnocent town!" cried a fourth.

  In short, the tumult thickened, and the word began to pass among themore desperate, "Lambe them, lads; lambe them!"--a cant phrase of thetime, derived from the fate of Dr. Lambe, an astrologer and quack, whowas knocked on the head by the rabble in Charles the First's time.

  Julian began to be much alarmed at these symptoms of violence, andregretted that they had not gone down to the city by water. It was nowtoo late to think of that mode of retreating, and he therefore requestedhis father in a whisper, to walk steadily forward towards Charing Cross,taking no notice of the insults which might be cast upon them, while thesteadiness of their pace and appearance might prevent the rabble fromresorting to actual violence. The execution of this prudent resolutionwas prevented after they had passed the palace, by the hasty dispositionof the elder Sir Geoffrey, and the no less choleric temper of GalfridusMinimus, who had a soul which spurned all odds, as well of numbers as ofsize.

  "Now a murrain take the knaves, with their hollowing and whooping,"said the large knight; "by this day, if I could but light on a weapon, Iwould cudgel reason and loyalty into some of their carcasses!"

  "And I also," said the dwarf, who was toiling to keep up with the longerstrides of his companions, and therefore spoke in a veryphthisical tone.--"I also will cudgel the plebeian knaves beyondmeasure--he!--hem!"

  Among the crowd who thronged around them, impeded, and did all butassault them, was a mischievous shoemaker's apprentice, who, hearingthis unlucky vaunt of the valorous dwarf, repaid it by flapping him onthe head with a boot which he was carrying home to the owner, so as toknock the little gentleman's hat over his eyes. The dwarf, thus renderedunable to discover the urchin that had given him the offence, flewwith instinctive ambition against the biggest fellow in the crowd,who received the onset with a kick on the stomach, which made the poorlittle champion reel back to his companions. They were now assaultedon all sides; but fortune complying with the wish of Sir Geoffrey thelarger, ordained that the scuffle should happen near the booth of acutler, from amongst whose wares, as they stood exposed to the public,Sir Geoffrey Peveril snatched a broadsword, which he brandished with theformidable address of one who had for many a day been in the familiarpractice of using such a weapon. Julian, while at the same time hecalled loudly for a peace-officer, and reminded the assailants that theywere attacking inoffensive passengers, saw nothing better for it thanto imitate his father's example, and seized also one of the weapons thusopportunely offered.

  When they displayed these demonstrations of defence, the rush whichthe rabble at first made towards them was so great as to throw down theunfortunate dwarf, who would have been trampled to death in the scuffle,had not his stout old namesake cleared the rascal crowd from about himwith a few flourishes of his weapon, and seizing on the fallen champion,put him out of danger (except from missiles), by suddenly placing himon the bulk-head, that is to say, the flat wooden roof of the cutler'sprojecting booth. From the rusty ironware, which was displayed there,the dwarf instantly snatched an old rapier and target, and coveringhimself with the one, stood making passes with the other, at the facesand eyes of the people in the street; so much delighted with his post ofvantage, that he called loudly to his friends who were skirmishingwith the riotous on more equal terms as to position, to lose no timein putting themselves under his protection. But far from being in asituation to need his assistance, the father and son might easily haveextricated themselves from the rabble by their own exertions, could theyhave thought of leaving the mannikin in the forlorn situation, in which,to every eye but his own, he stood like a diminutive puppet, tricked outwith sword and target as a fencing-master's sign.

  Stones and sticks began now to fly very thick, and the crowd,notwithstanding the exertions of the Peverils to disperse them withas little harm as possible, seemed determined on mischief, when somegentlemen who had been at the trial, understanding that the prisonerswho had been just acquitted were in danger of being murdered by thepopulace, drew their swords, and made forward to effect their rescue,which was completed by a small party of the King's Life Guards, who hadbeen despatched from their ordinary post of alarm, upon intelligence ofwhat was passing. When this unexpected reinforcement arrived, the oldjolly Knight at once recognised, amidst the cries of those who thenentered upon action, some of the sounds which had animated his moreactive years.

  "Where be these cuckoldly Roundheads," cried some.--"Down with thesneaking knaves!" cried others.--"The King and his friends, and thedevil a one else!" exclaimed a third set, with more oaths and d--n me's,than, in the present more correct age, it is necessary to commit topaper.

  The old soldier, pricking up his ears like an ancient hunter at the cryof the hounds, would gladly have scoured the Strand, with the charit
ablepurpose, now he saw himself so well supported, of knocking the Londonknaves, who had insulted him, into twiggen bottles; but he was withheldby the prudence of Julian, who, though himself extremely irritatedby the unprovoked ill-usage which they had received, saw himself ina situation in which it was necessary to exercise more caution thanvengeance. He prayed and pressed his father to seek some temporary placeof retreat from the fury of the populace, while that prudent measure wasyet in their power. The subaltern officer, who commanded the party ofthe Life Guards, exhorted the old Cavalier eagerly to the same sagecounsel, using, as a spice of compulsion, the name of the King; whileJulian strongly urged that of his mother. The old Knight looked at hisblade, crimsoned with cross-cuts and slashes which he had given to themost forward of the assailants, with the eye of one not half sufficed.

  "I would I had pinked one of the knaves at least--but I know not how itwas, when I looked on their broad round English faces, I shunned to usemy point, and only sliced the rogues a little."

  "But the King's pleasure," said the officer, "is, that no tumult beprosecuted."

  "My mother," said Julian, "will die with fright, if the rumour of thisscuffle reaches her ere we see her."

  "Ay, ay," said the Knight, "the King's Majesty and my good dame--well,their pleasure be done, that's all I can say--Kings and ladies must beobeyed. But which way to retreat, since retreat we must?"

  Julian would have been at some loss to advise what course to take, foreverybody in the vicinity had shut up their shops, and chained theirdoors, upon observing the confusion become so formidable. The poorcutler, however, with whose goods they made so free, offered them anasylum on the part of his landlord, whose house served as a rest for hisshop, and only intimated gently, he hoped the gentleman would considerhim for the use of his weapons.

  Julian was hastily revolving whether they ought, in prudence, to acceptthis man's invitation, aware, by experience, how many trepans, as theywere then termed, were used betwixt two contending factions, each tooinveterate to be very scrupulous of the character of fair play to anenemy, when the dwarf, exerting his cracked voice to the uttermost, andshrieking like an exhausted herald, from the exalted station which hestill occupied on the bulk-head, exhorted them to accept the offer ofthe worthy man of the mansion. "He himself," he said, as he reposedhimself after the glorious conquest in which he had some share, "hadbeen favoured with a beatific vision, too splendid to be described tocommon and mere mortal ears, but which had commanded him, in a voice towhich his heart had bounded as to a trumpet sound, to take refuge withthe worthy person of the house, and cause his friends to do so."

  "Vision!" said the Knight of the Peak,--"sound of a trumpet!--the littleman is stark mad."

  But the cutler, in great haste, intimated to them that theirlittle friend had received an intimation from a gentlewoman of hisacquaintance, who spoke to him from the window, while he stood on thebulk-head, that they would find a safe retreat in his landlord's; anddesiring them to attend to two or three deep though distant huzzas, madethem aware that the rabble were up still, and would soon be upon themwith renewed violence, and increased numbers.

  The father and son, therefore, hastily thanked the officer and hisparty, as well as the other gentlemen who had volunteered in theirassistance, lifted little Sir Geoffrey Hudson from the conspicuous postwhich he had so creditably occupied during the skirmish, and followedthe footsteps of the tenant of the booth, who conducted them down ablind alley and through one or two courts, in case, as he said, any onemight have watched where they burrowed, and so into a back-door. Thisentrance admitted them to a staircase carefully hung with straw mats toexclude damp, from the upper step of which they entered upon a tolerablylarge withdrawing-room, hung with coarse green serge edged with gildedleather, which the poorer or more economical citizens at that time useinstead of tapestry or wainscoting.

  Here the poor cutler received from Julian such a gratuity for theloan of the swords, that he generously abandoned the property to thegentlemen who had used them so well; "the rather," he said, "that hesaw, by the way they handed their weapons, that they were men of mettle,and tall fellows."

  Here the dwarf smiled on him courteously, and bowed, thrusting atthe same time, his hand into his pocket, which however, he withdrewcarelessly probably because he found he had not the means of making thesmall donation which he had meditated.

  The cutler proceeded to say, as he bowed and was about to withdraw, thathe saw there would be merry days yet in Old England, and that Bilboablades would fetch as good a price as ever. "I remember," he said,"gentlemen, though I was then but a 'prentice, the demand for weaponsin the years forty-one and forty-two; sword blades were more in requestthan toothpicks, and Old Ironsides, my master, took more for rascallyProvant rapiers, than I dare ask nowadays for a Toledo. But, to be sure,a man's life then rested on the blade he carried; the Cavaliers andRoundheads fought every day at the gates of Whitehall, as it is like,gentlemen, by your good example, they may do again, when I shall beenabled to leave my pitiful booth, and open a shop of better quality.I hope you will recommend me, gentlemen, to your friends. I am alwaysprovided with ware which a gentleman may risk his life on."

  "Thank you, good friend," said Julian, "I prithee begone. I trust weshall need thy ware no more for some time at least."

  The cutler retired, while the dwarf hollowed after him downstairs, thathe would call on him soon, and equip himself with a longer blade, andone more proper for action; although, he said, the little weapon hehad did well enough for a walking-sword, or in a skirmish with such_canaille_ as they had been engaged with.

  The cutler returned at this summons, and agreed to pleasure the littleman with a weapon more suitable to his magnanimity; then, as if thethought had suddenly occurred to him, he said, "But, gentlemen, it willbe wild work to walk with your naked swords through the Strand, andit can scarce fail to raise the rabble again. If you please, while yourepose yourselves here, I can fit the blades with sheaths."

  The proposal seemed so reasonable, that Julian and his father gaveup their weapons to the friendly cutler, an example which the dwarffollowed, after a moment's hesitation, not caring, as he magnificentlyexpressed it, to part so soon with the trusty friend which fortune hadbut the moment before restored to his hand. The man retired with theweapons under his arm; and, in shutting the door behind him, they heardhim turn the key.

  "Did you hear that?" said Sir Geoffrey to his son--"and we aredisarmed!"

  Julian, without reply, examined the door, which was fast secured; andthen looked at the casements, which were at a storey's height from theground, and grated besides with iron. "I cannot think," he said, after amoment's pause, "that the fellow means to trepan us; and, in any event,I trust we should have no difficulty in forcing the door, or otherwisemaking escape. But, before resorting to such violent measures, I thinkit is better to give the rabble leisure to disperse, by waiting thisman's return with our weapons within a reasonable time, when, if hedoes not appear, I trust we shall find little difficulty in extricatingourselves." As he spoke thus, the hangings were pulled aside, and froma small door which was concealed behind them, Major Bridgenorth enteredthe room.