Shrewsbury: A Romance

by Stanley John Weyman

  CHAPTER XXXVIII

  And doubtless it was this outbreak, or rather the suspicion of mewhich it sowed in Smith's mind, that occasioned the sequel of ouradventure; for when he had cursed me for a fool and had put on hiscloak, being now ready to go out, he seemed to be in two minds aboutit; as if he dared neither leave me where I was, lest I shouldcommunicate with Sir John, nor take me with him on his immediateerrand. More than once he went to the door, and eying me askance andsourly, came back; but in the end and after standing a whileirresolute, biting his nails, he made up his mind, and curtly bade mefollow him.

  "Do you think that I am to saddle for you, you whelp?" he cried. "Bestirring! and have a care, or I shall bore that hole in you yet. Takethat bag and go before me. By G----, I wish you were at the bottom ofthe nearest horse-pond!"

  His words had the effect he intended, of bringing me to my senses; butthey went farther. For in proportion as they cooled my temper theyawakened my fears; and though I obeyed him abjectly, took up my bagand followed him, it was with a sudden and horrible distrust of hispurpose. I saw that I had not only ceased to be of use to him, but wasnow in his way, and might be a danger to him, and the night--whichenveloped us the moment we crossed the threshold and seemed the moredreary and forbidding for the ruddy light and comfort we left behindus--reminding me of the long dark miles I must ride by his side, eachmile a terror to one and an opportunity to the other, I had much adonot to give way to instant panic there and then. However, for the timeI controlled myself; and stumbling across the gloomy yard to the spotwhere a faint gleam of light indicated the door of the stables, I wentin.

  The landlord was saddling our horses; and a little cheered by thewarmth of his lanthorn, I went to help him. Smith turned aside, as Ithought, into the next stall. But Brown was sharper and moresuspicious, and in a twinkling called to him lustily, to know what hewas doing. Getting no answer, "Devil take him," the landlord cried."He cannot keep from that horse! Here, you! What are you doing there?"

  "Coming!" Smith answered; but even as he spoke I caught the smartclick of iron falling on iron, and the horse in the distant stallmoved sharply with a hurried clatter of hoofs on the stones. "Coming!"Smith repeated. "What is the matter with you, man?"

  "You had better come," the landlord answered savagely. "Or I shallfetch you. Here you!" this to me, "lead yours out, will you. I want tosee your backs, and be quit of you!"

  I took my horse by the bridle, and led it out of the stable, whileBrown went to bit the other. And so, being alone outside, and the moonrising at the moment over the roof of the house and showing me theopen gates at the end of the yard, the impulse to escape from Smithwhile I had the opportunity came on me with overpowering force. Betteracquainted than the landlord with the villain's plans I had not adoubt that at that very moment he was laming Sir John's horse for thepurpose of detaining him; and the cold-blooded treachery of this act,filling me with as much terror on my own account--who might be thenext victim--as hatred of the perpetrator, I climbed softly to mysaddle, and began to walk my horse towards the gates. Doubtless Smithwas too busy, cloaking his own movements, to be observant of mine. Ireached the gates unnoticed, and turning instinctively from London--inwhich direction I fancied that he would be sure to pursue me--I kickedmy mare first into a quick walk, then into a cautious trot, finallyinto a canter. The beast, though far from speedy, was fresh from itscorn; it took hold of the bit, shied at a chance light in a cotter'swindow, and went faster and faster, its ears pricked forward. In aminute we had left Ashford behind us, and were clattering through themoonlight. With one hand on the pommel and the other holding theshortened reins I urged the mare on with all the pressure of my legs;and albeit I trembled, now at some late-seen obstacle, which proved tobe only the shadow of a tree, thrown across the road, and now at thesteepness of a descent that appeared suddenly before me, I neverfaltered, but uphill and downhill drove in my heels, and with fearbehind me, rode in the night as I had never before dared to ride inthe daylight.

  I had known nothing like it since the summer day twelve years beforewhen I had fled across the Hertfordshire meadows on my feet. The sweatran down me, I stooped in the saddle out of pure weakness; if thehorse pricked its ears forward I spread mine backward listening forsounds of pursuit. But such a speed could not be long maintained, andwhen we had gone, as I judged, two miles, the mare began to flag, andthe canter became a trot. Still for another mile I urged her on, untilfeeling her labour under me, and foreseeing that I must ride far, Ihad the thought to turn into the first lane to which I came, and therewait in the shadow of a tree until Smith, if he followed, should pass.

  I did this, sprang down, and standing by my panting horse, in a marshyhollow, some two hundred paces from the road, listened intently, fortwenty minutes, it may be, but they seemed to be hours to me. Afterthe life I had been leading in London, this loneliness in the night ina strange and wild place, and with a relentless enemy on my track,appalled my very soul. I was hot and yet I shivered, and started atthe least sound. The scream of a curlew daunted me, the rustling ofthe rushes and sedge shook me, and when a sad wail, as of a multitudeof lost souls passed overhead, I cowered almost to my knees. Yet,inasmuch as these sounds, doleful and dreary as they were, were all Iheard, and the night air brought no trampling of distant hoofs to myear, I had reason to be thankful, and more than thankful; and my marehaving by this time got her wind again, I led her back to the road,climbed into the saddle and plodded on steadily; deriving a wonderfulrelief and confidence from the thought that Smith had followed meLondon-wards.

  Moreover, I had conceived a sort of horror of the loneliness of thewaste country-side, and to keep the highway was willing to run somerisk. I took it that the road I was travelling must bring me toRomney, and for a good hour and a half, I jogged with a loose reinthrough the gloom, the way becoming ever flatter and wetter, the windmore chill and salt, and the night darker, the moon being constantlyovercast by clouds. In that marshy district are few hamlets or farms,and those of the smallest, and very sparsely scattered. Once or twiceI heard the bark of a distant sheep dog, and once far to the left Isaw a tiny light and had the idea of making for it. But the reflectionthat a dozen great ditches, each wide enough and deep enough tosmother my horse, might lie between me and the house, availed to keepme in the road; the more as I now felt sure from the saltness of thenight air that Romney and the sea were at no great distance in frontof me. Presently indeed, I made out in front of me two moving lights,that I took to be those of ships riding at anchor, and my weary marequickened her pace as if she smelt the stable and the hayrack.

  For five minutes after that I plodded on in the happy belief that myjourney was as good as over, and I saved; and I let my mind dwell onshelter and safety, and a bed and food and the like, all awaiting me,as I fancied, in the patch of low gloom before me where my fancypictured the sleeping town. Then on a sudden, my ear caught the dullbeat of a horse's hoofs on the road behind me; and my heart standingstill with terror, I plucked at my reins, and stood to listen. Ay, andit was no fancy; a moment satisfied me of that. Thud-thud, thud-thud,and then squash-squash, squish-squish! a horse was coming up behindme; and not only behind me, but hard upon me--within less than ahundred paces of me. The soft wet road had smothered the sound up tothe last moment.

  The rider was so close to me indeed, and I was so much taken bysurprise that the moon sailing at that instant into a clear sky,showed me to him before I could set my horse going; and, as I started,whipping and spurring desperately, I heard the man shout. That wasenough for me; plunging recklessly forward along the wet, boggy road,I flogged my horse into a jaded canter, and leaning low in the saddlein mortal fear of a bullet, closed my eyes to the dangers that layahead, and thought only of escape from that which followed on myheels.

  Suddenly, and while I was still kicking and urging on my horse, beforethe first flush of fear had left me, I heard a crash and a cry behindme; but I did not dare at the moment to look back. I only leaned thelower, an
d clung the more tightly to my horse's mane and still pressedon. By-and-by, however, hearing nothing, it flashed on me that I wasriding alone, that I was no longer pursued; and a little later takingcourage to draw rein and look back wearily, I found that I could seenothing, nor hear any sound save the heavy panting of my own horse. Ihad escaped. I had escaped and was alone on the marsh. But as I soonsatisfied myself, I was no longer on the causeway along which I hadbeen travelling when the man surprised me. The wind which had then metme was now on my right cheek; the lights for which I had been headingwere no longer visible. The track, too, when I moved cautiouslyforward, seemed more wet and rough; after that it needed little toconvince me that I had strayed from the highway, probably at the pointwhere my pursuer had fallen.

  This, since I dared not return by the way I had come, terriblyperplexed me. I dismounted, and wet and shivering stood by my horse,which hung its head, and restlessly lifted its feet by turns as if italready felt the engulfing power of the moss. Peering out every way Isaw nothing but gloom and mist, the dark waste and unknown depths ofthe marsh. It was a situation to try the stoutest, nor did it need themournful sough of the wind as it swept the flats, or the strangegurgling noises that from time to time rose from the sloughs about meto add the last touch of fear and melancholy to the scene.

  Though, for my own part, I sank in no farther than my ankles, thehorse by its restlessness evinced a strong sense of danger, and Idared not stand still. But as clouds had again obscured the moon andthe darkness was absolute, to advance seemed as dangerous as toremain. However, in fear that the horse, if I stood where I was, wouldbreak loose from me, I led it forward cautiously: and then the trackgrowing no worse but rather better, and the beast seeming to gainconfidence as it proceeded, I presently took courage to remount again,and dropping the reins allowed it to carry me whither it would. Thisit did slowly and with infinite caution, smelling rather than feelingthe way, and often stopping to try a doubtful spot. Observing howwonderfully the instinct of the beast aided it, and remembering that Ihad once been told that horses feared nothing so much as to be smoored(as the fenmen call it), and would not willingly run that risk, Igained confidence myself; which the event justified, for by-and-by Icaught the dull sound of sea-waves booming on a beach, and a fewminutes afterwards discerned in the sky before me the first faintstreaks of dawn.

  Heaven knows how welcome it was to me! I was wet, weary and shiveringwith cold and with the aguish air of that dreary place; which is sounwholesome that I am told the natives take drugs to stave off thefever, as others do ale and wine. But at the sight I pricked up, andthe horse too; and we moved on briskly; and presently by the help ofthe growing light, and through a grey mist which trebled the size ofall objects, I saw a huge wall or bank loom across my path. I wasclose to it when I discerned it; and I had no more than time todespair of surmounting it, before the horse was already clambering upit. Scrambling and slipping among the stones, in a minute or so andwith a great clatter we gained the summit; and saw below and before usthe smooth milky surface of the sea lifting lazily under the fog.

  So seen it had a strangely weird and pallid aspect, as of a dead sea,viewed in dreams: and I stood a moment to breathe my horse and admirethe spectacle; nor did I fail to thank God that I was out of thatdreary and treacherous place. Then, considering my future movementsand not knowing which way I ought to take--to right or left along thebeach--to gain the more quickly help and shelter, I was reining mymare down the sea side of the bank when a welcome sound caught my ear.It was a man's voice giving an order. I halted and peered through thesea-haze; and by-and-by I made out a boat, lying beached at the edgeof the tide, some hundred and fifty yards to my left. There were menstanding in it, I could not see how many; and more were in the act ofpushing it off the strand. Their voices came to me with singularclearness; but the words were unintelligible.

  The sight gave me pause: and for a moment I stood reconnoitring themen. To advance or not was the question, and I was still debating it,and striving to deduce something from the men's appearance, whensomething, I never knew what--perhaps some noise ill-apprehended--ledme to turn aside my head. Whatever the cause of the movement, itapprised me of something little suspected. Not fifty paces behind me Isaw the figure of a giant horseman looming out of the mist. He wasadvancing along the summit of the sea-wall below which I stood; henceI saw him before he made me out: and this gave me the start and theadvantage. I had time to take in the thing, and seize my horse by thehead, and move eight or ten paces towards the boat before he took thecue. Then on neither side was there any concealment. With a cry, ayell rather, the mere sound of which flung me into a panic, the manurged his horse down the bank shouting fiercely to me to stand; I inutter terror spurred mine across the beach towards the men I had seen.

  I have said that I had some sixty yards of start, and two hundred orso to cross, to reach the boat; but the horses were scarcely able totrot; a yard was a furlong; and the sand swallowing up the sound ofhoofs, it was a veritable race of ghosts, of phantoms, labouringthrough the mist across the flat, with the oily Stygian sea lappingthe shore beside us. He cried out in the most violent fashion, nowbidding me stay and now bidding the men stop me. And for all I knowthey might be in his pay, or at best be some of the recklessdesperadoes who on that coast live by owling and worse practices. Butthey were my only hope and I too cried to them; and with joy I sawthem put in again--they had before got afloat. Believing Smith to begaining, I cried pitifully to them to save me, and then my horsestumbling, I flung myself from the saddle, and plunged through thesand towards them. At that, two sprang out to meet me and caught meunder my arms; and in a moment, amid a jargon of cries in a foreigntongue whipped me over the side into the boat. Then they pushed it offand leaped in themselves, wet to the thighs; and as my pursuer camelurching down the beach, a pistol drawn in his hand, a couple ofpowerful strokes drove the boat through the light surf. Wavingfrantically he yelled to the men to wait, and rode to his boot-solesinto the water; but with a jeering laugh and a volley of foreign wordsthe sailors pulled the faster and the faster, and the mist lying thickon the water, and the boat sitting low, in half a minute we lost thelast glimpse of him and his passion, and rode outward on a greyboundless sea.