Ram; being the tale of one Ramillies Anstruther, 1704-55 ..

by Taylor, Winchcombe

  As far as Richmond the roads had been fair and the ancient coach had stood the strain, even though Peg-Leg was scarcely the driver Williams had been. But now the way was a loblollv of mud, with constant danger of oversetting. A bedraggled Lucinda, Ram suspected, was regretting her insistence on making the trip.

  Though only September, it was already chilly. Well, let my lady see her domain and know what bitter cold means; then warm Georgia will attract her. "My love, you shiver." He drew a rug around her. "We climb from now on, but if Rob's arrived safe, we're expected."

  "How can folk live in this waste?" she wailed. "Sussex is kindly, even in winter. But this!" She snuggled close and he put an arm around her so that they swayed in unison to the coach's lurchings.

  He began worrjing if the 400 guineas Joseph had got by pledging the plate would suffice until he was established in America. He was amazed that women's clothes could be so costly. But how happy she was with all her new finery.

  He thought of what Holton had told him about the Oglethorpes. "Rankest Jacobites," the major had called them. "All save James, and he's what he's pleased to call a 'Hanoverian Tory'—against the Ministry but loyal to the Crown. Yet at heart he's probably a Stuart lover like the rest." He had spoken of James's father, Sir Theophilus, who had plotted so dangerously for James 11's return that he risked losing his head, before he'd had a change of heart and given allegiance to King William; of James's mother, "Old Fury," bom Eleanor Wall, and Irish, who'd never changed sides and had often, until her recent death, risked being sent to the Tower for treason.

  He had also told of James's sisters, "Young Fury" Anne, Molly, Eleanor and Fanny, who were still the Pretender's most devoted conspirators. Anne was thought to be even something more to him.

  Ram, still torn between friendship and suspicion, regretted he had overheard so much or so little outside the summerhouse. Would James betray the colony? The uncertainty was a spur. It would be India all over again; pitting one's wits against treachery.

  The coach was nearing Bowes. "Not far now, my love," he told his shivering bride. "Two more miles and we're at the lodge gates."

  Suddenly flustered, she took out a mirror and began repairing the ravages. A patch had fallen off and must be substituted; powdered chalk had to be applied without any of it spilling upon her gown.

  He watched her admiringly. Egad, if Rob's not given 'em a sparkling picture of her, I'll have his hide!

  Then the gates, with Abel bareheaded and bowing welcome to the new mistress. He said Rob had arrived yesterday and that all was ready for the bride.

  From the driveway Ram saw his uncle's house was now roofed. Just as well, for if Georgia failed Lucinda might not always welcome living with a host of kin.

  "Will they like me?" she cried in sudden panic.

  "They'll love you. See, sweet, home lies straight ahead."

  Peg-Leg reined in, the big door opened and Will stood on the threshold, with Joan and a blur of faces behind. Then, with kisses, exclamations and handshakes, they were escorted into the dining hall where a fine coal fire blazed. Hot tea was brought—Ram's dish being laced with brandy, as was his right.

  Then, thawed out, Lucinda was taken to her room by Joan while Will begged Ram to come with him and see what he would see. So out into a barn, where a wagon stood loaded with heavy shining bars.

  "Twenty pigs of t'best lead ye ever did see," Will gloated. "A York dealer's due any day t'buy 'em. We've labored hard, lad, and we'll have another load melted before snow stops work till spring."

  Ram admired the metal, listened to how rich they'd all be in time, then was permitted to return inside, where maids were setting the great table. Though he conceded Will's enthusiasm for mining, he was irritated that he hadn't said one word about Lucinda's beauty.

  Soon he was in Great-grandfather James's chair and looking down the table's candlelighted length to where his wife sat at the far end, with the rest of the family along either side. How ravishing she looks, how gay her talk! He glanced at Sue, who wore a gown of the silk he'd sent home so long ago, and also the bangles he'd given Gammer. Yes, she and Lucinda do look alike. But she's a simple country soul, and Lucinda has the airs of a fine town lady.

  Later, as all sat around the fire, she held them spellbound as she told of the London playhouse and of the grand folk who attended it.

  "Ram," came a whisper behind him. "I've something for you alone."

  "La, Cousin Susan, what deep secrets are ye exchanging with my husband?" Lucinda called gaily. "I'm most jealous, I vow."

  "I—I'll tell ye later," Sue breathed, and moved away.

  He smiled indulgently. Tonight was Lucinda's.

  When he led her up to the master's chamber, which had once been Gammer's, he felt most sentimental. Here was to be their private world; here, in the same bed where he had crept to Gammer for comfort, their babes would be gotten and born.

  She permitted him to unlace her stays, but then, as usual, begged him to leave until she was modestly between the sheets. Obediently he went back down for a glass of Nantes with the menfolk and had to listen to more talk of the mines before he could escape upstairs again. Undressing quickly, he blew out the candle and got in beside his wife.

  "Does the old place please you, dearest?" he asked. "They've all taken you to their hearts. A few years abroad, and we'll be rich enough to return here for good."

  " 'Tis madness even to go," she said flatly. "Already I see much to be changed here. Forget America, and when your uncle's moved into his house, I'll make this indeed a grand home for you."

  He wound one of her tresses around his finger, delighting in its silkiness. "Dearest!" he murmured, drawing her to him.

  "Oh! You hurt me!"

  "Hurt you, darhng? How?"

  "That stupid stone." She touched it. "I'm sure it's left an imprint on my flesh. Do put it away. 'Tis doubtless some heathen talisman and surely not to be worn by a Christian in his own home."

  His ardor gave way to bewilderment. Heathen talisman! She'd never objected to it before. And how to tell her it was his secret link with Carla? But he snapped the thin chain and shoved it and the amulet under his pillow, then took his wife in his arms again.

  Next day, Ram rode with Will up to the mines. Much had been done since his last visit and now there were huts to house the ore-crushing machines and the smelter that was fueled by coal from an adjacent pit. Twenty men were employed. He was impressed.

  On the way back Will confessed that when he had raised the money for Ram he'd also borrowed 2,000 guineas to pay for the improvements. " 'Twill pay in t'end, lad," he promised.

  Sue awaited Ram at the house and said Rob had taken Lucinda for a ride around the property. "I'm glad, for what I have fer ye I'd give ye alone." She led him into Hannah's former office. There she handed him two letters. "For you, from Gammer herself. She bade me give you them when—when ye brought home your bride."

  The first was addressed: "For Ram's Bride." Nevertheless, he opened it and saw a lock of red-brown hair. Hannah had written:

  "Lass, whosoever ye might be. If your bairns is as handsoriie as when I snipped this off his poll ye will be most blessed."

  He blinked moistly. Gammer! Therc'd never be another like her.

  The other said merely: "Ye Rose captivates ye Heathen Souldier."

  "What sense is this?" he wondered. "What rose? What soldier?"

  "Sometimes I think she loved a jest more than any, yet there was always sense in her jesting," she said, studying it. "D'ye think she means the red chess piece that was lost? The Black King's a soldier on an elephant. Wouldn't the Red King be too?"

  "Ecod, yes! But the rose?"

  "Oh, come!" She raced him upstairs, then down the passage into his own bedchamber. "Look!" she pointed. "She had it moved up here when she began ailing, before your return."

  Hannah's writing desk.

  "See?" She pulled down the leaf. The pigeonholes were supported on either side by a small mahogany column, and in each was i
nlaid a small rose.

  Hands damp with excitement, he pressed the left one; it was solid. But the other! Sue gasped as the tinv ornament moved inward, releasing a catch. He pulled the column free, revealing an aperture in which lay a small paper-wrapped object—the Red King.

  He retrieved it and read: "What use is a great glass bauble to me?" Trembling, he twisted the base of the piece and it came free. Ganesha's great eye lay sparkling in his palm. Wealth!

  "Sue! Sue!" He caught her up, swung her around and kissed her full lips. "Sue, lass, I'm—"

  "La, I scarce thought ye'd dare fondle your doxy in my very chamber!" Lucinda, a picture of injured wifehood, stood in the doorway.

  "My love," he protested, " 'tis only we've found. . . ."

  Ignoring him, she turned to Sue. "So, ye thought I didn't note last night how ye mooned over my spouse like a lovesick cow? Indeed, ye presume too much to think to play the whore before my very eyes."

  "Lucinda!" He thrust the eye and the red king into his pocket. How dared she spout such filth at Sue? He knew suddenly that unless he mastered her now he would forever be her lackey.

  "If I'm mistress here, the girl goes—aye, and all her tribe!"

  "Enough! 'Tis we who go. We set out at dawn, for I fear our bracing Yorkshire air warps your good sense." He bowed to Sue, who was sobbing from shock and humihation. "Cousin, permit me to take you below. I'm so much in your debt I can never repay you. Come."

  "Ram!" Lucinda reahzed she'd gone too far. "I—indeed, Cousin Sue, I most humbly crave pardon." She giggled. "La, m'dears, don't ye know I was but playing a stage part? I was acting Lady Crave-forit in the School of Amour, a most gay comedy wrote in Restoration days. 'Twas a part that brought me high praise."

  For all Ram knew this could be true, but he also knew his goddess had feet of clay. "The town's delightful at this season, ma'am," he said coldly. "Besides, urgent business calls me there."

  Then, ignoring her now very real tears, he escorted Sue below and went out to warn Peg-Leg to make the coach ready.

  As they started south, Lucinda was contrite and sweetly yielding. Perhaps she really had been play-acting. Ram reasoned. Yet even after he'd made all excuses for her, he was left with a sense of bitterness.

  He was touched, however, on the first night—spent at a York inn—when shyly she returned the broken chain and amulet he had forgotten in the hurry of leaving.

  They lodged again with the Blands, and next day he went to the trustees' office, intending to withdraw from the project.

  "We've great news. Captain!" the secretar)', young Ben Martyn, greeted exuberantly. "I was about to write ye of it to Yorkshire. The first party's to sail the earliest moment—and Mr. Oglethorpe himself goes with it."

  "Eh?" This was news, though not what the secretary thought. What surer way to betray the colony than for James to go in person? Ram reversed his decision: now he had money to return whenever he wished, he'd go after all—and enjoy thwarting James's treachery.

  "The news sheets are full of it," Martyn was saying. "And all over England parishes collect funds, thinking thereby we'll take their wastrels and beggars, though that's far from our intention." He spread a large sheet. "Have ye seen the plat of the proposed city?"

  The town was to be laid out geometrically. All streets running

  north and south were bisected by others going east and west, so that the house lots were in blocks of ten, with open squares at intervals. "Where's it to be?" Ram was eager once more. "Perhaps, sir, I can give you an idea," a voice interposed. "Captain Anstruther, permit me to present ye to a fellow adventurer," Martyn said. "h. Noble Jones, who goes as our surveyor," Of about Ram's own age and with humor in his eye, Jones bowed politely. "You also go in an official capacity, Captain?"

  "I served with Mr. Oglethorpe at Belgrade," Ram explained. "He thinks my militar)- qualifications may be of use."

  "They will, sir. Already the Dons complain our project encroaches on their territor}', though certainly it belonged to Charles II when he granted it to the Carolina Proprietors in 1665." Jones unrolled a large map. "Here's the Savannah River, Carolina's southern boundarj'. Our town's to be on the south bank, but we'll not know just where till we're there." It was the most detailed map Ram had seen, at least along the coastline, though much of the interior was marked Unexplored. Soon his practiced eye noted a small coastal town high on the Florida peninsula and marked as a fortress.

  "Yes, St. Augustine's the rub," Jones agreed. "Sir Francis Drake took it in 1586 but didn't hold it. It's now a Spanish fortress." "When do the settlers sail?"

  "Before the year's end, for Mr. Oglethorpe's anxious to arrive in time for the spring planting," Martyn explained. "Captain, don't you agree we're most generous to them? A town lot each, five acres for growing garden stuff and forty-five for a plantation—truly a vast amount."

  Ram smiled. Dalesview had 170 acres, besides free commonage in the fells for cattle grazing, so he didn't think the settlers were getting so much, not in a colony thousands of miles in area.

  "How many servants must I take to obtain five hundred acres?" "Ten, sir, all hale, male and indentured for at least five years." The secretary beamed. "D'ye then contemplate a gentleman's grant?" Ram nodded and asked for a smaller grant for Rob. With military duties, he'd need an experienced farmer to care for things, and the rogue would go to the earth's ends to escape Dalesview. "Affairs call me to Holland, but I'll be back in a week." He left feeling

  elated. The die was cast, but no longer need he go as a mere discharged debtor. He chuckled. How delighted Lucinda would be he was taking a gentleman's grant!

  If not delighted, she was pleased; but more so that they were leaving immediately for Amsterdam. Happily she began deciding which of her new gowns would most impress the Dutch ladies.

  When Ram told the Blands about Georgia, he found that Joseph had already heard of the colony from an accepted settler, ex-Sergeant Carwell. Soon he blurted that he and Maria wanted to go to America too. "Ye'll need us to serve ye, sir. And now the boy's gone, there's nothing for us here. You'll take us?"

  Ram swallowed hard. No questions about his finances or what he could guarantee; no, just the right to go with him. "My friend, true I must take servants, but farmhands and the like, not a butler and a housekeeper. Besides, you're a man of propert)-, so I doubt the trustees would consider sending ou out on the charity like Sergeant Carwell."

  "I'll sell the house and glad to, sir. I never thought but to pay our own way. We'll be no cost to you, Captain."

  "Ecod, then why not take servants of your own? Why not take out a grant alongside mine?"

  "Capital, sir! We'll make a rare go of it. I'll throw my land with yours and we'll be as ever, with Mrs. B. and me seeing to your needs. Oh, and Peg-Leg, sir, he wants to come too. He's a rare useful one he is, wooden pin or no."

  He went to the door and called, whereupon Tom Parker stumped in. "Reporting for duty, Captain. I got me rations ready for the campaign. Meaning, your honor, I can pay me whack."

  "But I need farmhands," Ram protested. "And this land's cut up b' rivers and marshes and bordered by the sea. How would you get about?"

  "Sir, I'm Lincolnshire born." Peg-Leg's eyes danced. "Me cradle was a punt and I can handle small craft in river, marsh or sea. Why, with half a gale blowing, I've taken a dinghy out of the Wash and into the North Sea! Sir, ye can't do without me!"

  "Damme, no! But if you've hard money, better come as Joseph does, with servants of your own, and take a grant with ours." While Joseph hurried below for wine with which to celebrate,

  Peg-Leg chuckled: "Captain, didn't I say ye'd be high again? Takes more'n ill luck to keep down Howe's Foot—or the Foot Guards!"

  He was back in London. Though the eye had not brought all he'd hoped, he now felt far wealthier with 3,500 guineas than when he'd come from Amsterdam before with nearly twenty times as much.

  His grant was already confirmed, and 100 acres each for Rob, Joseph and Tom, on condition they tak
e two sen'ants apiece.

  Also the projected city had just been named—Savannah.

  The Anne frigate, 200 tons, would take the first thirty-five families, their goods and sufficient stores. But since Ram was taking so large a party at his own expense, he'd need a vessel of his own. Trustee Tom Coram came to his aid. A former shipmaster who'd lived in Massachusetts, Coram, now wealthy, knew many English shipowners. So, on learning that Ram would get most of his people, stock and goods from Dalesview, he suggested Liverpool as his embarkation port and wrote there on his behalf. This meant, however, that Ram couldn't sail in consort with the Anne, even if he were ready in time.

  Joseph, meanwhile, had sold his house and must vacate it by the year's end. When Ram spoke to him about redeeming the plate he had pawned, he looked embarrassed. "I've had it safe for ye all the time, sir," he confessed. "No sense letting them sharks make profit on ye. I'd have advanced more, but 'twas all the readv money I had."

  Ram blinked. "But suppose I hadn't found the diamond again? You might have whistled for your money."

  "Didn't ye stand by us in our trouble? With the house money, I've more'n enough for me and Mrs. B. And don't think to repay me now, not till vour plantation's making profits."

  Ram protested, but for the first time Joseph was insubordinate. "Chartering ships and buying food and stores is costly. And I dare say even in America guineas are useful. You'll need 'em, sir."

  He was right. Soon Ram's capital was dwindling as he bought muskets, powder, ball, bolts of osnaburg for clothing, tools, tents, seed and, especially, food, for after feeding his people on the voyage he must provide for them until the first crop was in. At Oglethorpe's suggestion, he bought hatchets, pots, beads, mirrors, bright cloth, light hunting guns and ironware for trading with the natives.

  He met many of his fellow settlers: Thomas Causton, a bankrupt

  merchant, who was to be one of Savannah's three baihffs or magistrates; and Robert Parker, a former alderman of Lynn, in Norfolk. There were also Noble Jones's pretty wife and baby son, Wymberley; Mr. Cox, the surgeon; the Reverend Herbert, Lord Cherbun-'s son, who would care for their spiritual needs; and many more.