Lorna Doone: A Romance of Exmoor

by R. D. Blackmore

  CHAPTER LVI

  JOHN BECOMES TOO POPULAR

  No flower that I have ever seen, either in shifting of light and shade,or in the pearly morning, may vie with a fair young woman's face whentender thought and quick emotion vary, enrich, and beautify it. Thus myLorna hearkened softly, almost without word or gesture, yet with sighsand glances telling, and the pressure of my hand, how each word wasmoving her.

  When at last my tale was done, she turned away, and wept bitterly forthe sad fate of her parents. But to my surprise she spoke not even aword of wrath or rancour. She seemed to take it all as fate.

  'Lorna, darling,' I said at length, for men are more impatient in trialsof time than women are, 'do you not even wish to know what your propername is?'

  'How can it matter to me, John?' she answered, with a depth of griefwhich made me seem a trifler. 'It can never matter now, when there arenone to share it.'

  'Poor little soul!' was all I said in a tone of purest pity; and to mysurprise she turned upon me, caught me in her arms, and loved me as shehad never done before.

  'Dearest, I have you,' she cried; 'you, and only you, love. Having you Iwant no other. All my life is one with yours. Oh, John, how can I treatyou so?'

  Blushing through the wet of weeping, and the gloom of pondering, yet shewould not hide her eyes, but folded me, and dwelled on me.

  'I cannot believe,' in the pride of my joy, I whispered into one littleear, 'that you could ever so love me, beauty, as to give up the worldfor me.'

  'Would you give up your farm for me, John?' cried Lorna, leaping backand looking, with her wondrous power of light at me; 'would you give upyour mother, your sisters, your home, and all that you have in the worldand every hope of your life, John?'

  'Of course I would. Without two thoughts. You know it; you know it,Lorna.'

  'It is true that I do, 'she answered in a tone of deepest sadness; 'andit is this power of your love which has made me love you so. No good cancome of it, no good. God's face is set against selfishness.'

  As she spoke in that low tone I gazed at the clear lines of her face(where every curve was perfect) not with love and wonder only, but witha strange new sense of awe.

  'Darling,' I said, 'come nearer to me. Give me surety against that. ForGod's sake never frighten me with the thought that He would part us.'

  'Does it then so frighten you?' she whispered, coming close to me; 'Iknow it, dear; I have known it long; but it never frightens me. It makesme sad, and very lonely, till I can remember.'

  'Till you can remember what?' I asked, with a long, deep shudder; for weare so superstitious.

  'Until I do remember, love, that you will soon come back to me, and bemy own for ever. This is what I always think of, this is what I hopefor.'

  Although her eyes were so glorious, and beaming with eternity, thisdistant sort of beatitude was not much to my liking. I wanted to havemy love on earth; and my dear wife in my own home; and children in goodtime, if God should please to send us any. And then I would be to them,exactly what my father was to me. And beside all this, I doubted muchabout being fit for heaven; where no ploughs are, and no cattle, unlesssacrificed bulls went thither.

  Therefore I said, 'Now kiss me, Lorna; and don't talk any nonsense.' Andthe darling came and did it; being kindly obedient, as the other worldoften makes us.

  'You sweet love,' I said at this, being slave to her soft obedience; 'doyou suppose I should be content to leave you until Elysium?'

  'How on earth can I tell, dear John, what you will be content with?'

  'You, and only you,' said I; 'the whole of it lies in a syllable. Nowyou know my entire want; and want must be my comfort.'

  'But surely if I have money, sir, and birth, and rank, and all sorts ofgrandeur, you would never dare to think of me.'

  She drew herself up with an air of pride, as she gravely pronouncedthese words, and gave me a scornful glance, or tried; and turned awayas if to enter some grand coach or palace; while I was so amazed andgrieved in my raw simplicity especially after the way in which she hadfirst received my news, so loving and warm-hearted, that I never said aword, but stared and thought, 'How does she mean it?'

  She saw the pain upon my forehead, and the wonder in my eyes, andleaving coach and palace too, back she flew to me in a moment, as simpleas simplest milkmaid.

  'Oh, you fearful stupid, John, you inexpressibly stupid, John,' shecried with both arms round my neck, and her lips upon my forehead; 'youhave called yourself thick-headed, John, and I never would believe it.But now I do with all my heart. Will you never know what I am, love?'

  'No, Lorna, that I never shall. I can understand my mother well, and oneat least of my sisters, and both the Snowe girls very easily, but you Inever understand; only love you all the more for it.'

  'Then never try to understand me, if the result is that, dear John. Andyet I am the very simplest of all foolish simple creatures. Nay, I amwrong; therein I yield the palm to you, my dear. To think that I canact so! No wonder they want me in London, as an ornament for the stage,John.'

  Now in after days, when I heard of Lorna as the richest, and noblest,and loveliest lady to be found in London, I often remembered that littlescene, and recalled every word and gesture, wondering what lay under it.Even now, while it was quite impossible once to doubt those clear deepeyes, and the bright lips trembling so; nevertheless I felt how muchthe world would have to do with it; and that the best and truest peoplecannot shake themselves quite free. However, for the moment, I was veryproud and showed it.

  And herein differs fact from fancy, things as they befall us from thingsas we would have them, human ends from human hopes; that the first aremoved by a thousand and the last on two wheels only, which (being named)are desire and fear. Hope of course is nothing more than desire with atelescope, magnifying distant matters, overlooking near ones; openingone eye on the objects, closing the other to all objections. And if hopebe the future tense of desire, the future of fear is religion--at leastwith too many of us.

  Whether I am right or wrong in these small moralities, one thing is sureenough, to wit, that hope is the fastest traveller, at any rate, in thetime of youth. And so I hoped that Lorna might be proved of blamelessfamily, and honourable rank and fortune; and yet none the less for that,love me and belong to me. So I led her into the house, and she fell intomy mother's arms; and I left them to have a good cry of it, with Annieready to help them.

  If Master Stickles should not mend enough to gain his speech a little,and declare to us all he knew, I was to set out for Watchett, ridingupon horseback, and there to hire a cart with wheels, such as we had notbegun, as yet, to use on Exmoor. For all our work went on broad wood,with runners and with earthboards; and many of us still looked uponwheels (though mentioned in the Bible) as the invention of the evil one,and Pharoah's especial property.

  Now, instead of getting better, Colonel Stickles grew worse and worse,in spite of all our tendance of him, with simples and with nourishment,and no poisonous medicine, such as doctors would have given him. And thefault of this lay not with us, but purely with himself and his unquietconstitution. For he roused himself up to a perfect fever, when throughLizzie's giddiness he learned the very thing which mother and Annie werehiding from him, with the utmost care; namely, that Sergeant Bloxham hadtaken upon himself to send direct to London by the Chancery officers,a full report of what had happened, and of the illness of his chief,together with an urgent prayer for a full battalion of King's troops,and a plenary commander.

  This Sergeant Bloxham, being senior of the surviving soldiers, and avery worthy man in his way, but a trifle over-zealous, had succeeded tothe captaincy upon his master's disablement. Then, with desire to servehis country and show his education, he sat up most part of three nights,and wrote this very wonderful report by the aid of our stable lanthorn.It was a very fine piece of work, as three men to whom he read it (butonly one at a time) pronounced, being under seal of secrecy. And allmight have gone well with it, if the author could only
have held histongue, when near the ears of women. But this was beyond his sense as itseems, although so good a writer. For having heard that our Lizzie wasa famous judge of literature (as indeed she told almost every one), hecould not contain himself, but must have her opinion upon his work.

  Lizzie sat on a log of wood, and listened with all her ears up, havingmade proviso that no one else should be there to interrupt her. And sheput in a syllable here and there, and many a time she took out one (forthe Sergeant overloaded his gun, more often than undercharged it; likea liberal man of letters), and then she declared the result so good,so chaste, and the style to be so elegant, and yet so fervent, that theSergeant broke his pipe in three, and fell in love with her on the spot.Now this has led me out of my way; as things are always doing, partlythrough their own perverseness, partly through my kind desire to givefair turn to all of them, and to all the people who do them. If any oneexpects of me a strict and well-drilled story, standing 'at attention'all the time, with hands at the side like two wens on my trunk, and eyesgoing neither right nor left; I trow that man has been disappointedmany a page ago, and has left me to my evil ways; and if not, I love hischarity. Therefore let me seek his grace, and get back, and just beginagain.

  That great despatch was sent to London by the Chancery officers, whomwe fitted up with clothes, and for three days fattened them; which instrict justice they needed much, as well as in point of equity. Theywere kind enough to be pleased with us, and accepted my new shirtsgenerously; and urgent as their business was, another week (as they bothdeclared) could do no harm to nobody, and might set them upon their legsagain. And knowing, although they were London men, that fish do livein water, these two fellows went fishing all day, but never landedanything. However, their holiday was cut short; for the Sergeant, havingfinished now his narrative of proceedings, was not the man to let ithang fire, and be quenched perhaps by Stickles.

  Therefore, having done their business, and served both citations,these two good men had a pannier of victuals put up by dear Annie, andborrowing two of our horses, rode to Dunster, where they left them, andhired on towards London. We had not time to like them much, and so wedid not miss them, especially in our great anxiety about poor MasterStickles.

  Jeremy lay between life and death, for at least a fortnight. If the linkof chain had flown upwards (for half a link of chain it was which tookhim in the mouth so), even one inch upwards, the poor man could haveneeded no one except Parson Bowden; for the bottom of his skull, whichholds the brain as in the egg-cup, must have clean gone from him. Butstriking him horizontally, and a little upon the skew, the metalcame out at the back of his neck, and (the powder not being strong, Isuppose) it lodged in his leather collar.

  Now the rust of this iron hung in the wound, or at least we thought so;though since I have talked with a man of medicine, I am not so sure ofit. And our chief aim was to purge this rust; when rather we should havestopped the hole, and let the oxide do its worst, with a plug of newflesh on both sides of it.

  At last I prevailed upon him by argument, that he must get better, tosave himself from being ignobly and unjustly superseded; and hereuponI reviled Sergeant Bloxham more fiercely than Jeremy's self could havedone, and indeed to such a pitch that Jeremy almost forgave him, andbecame much milder. And after that his fever and the inflammation of hiswound, diminished very rapidly.

  However, not knowing what might happen, or even how soon poor Lornamight be taken from our power, and, falling into lawyers' hands, havecause to wish herself most heartily back among the robbers, I set forthone day for Watchett, taking advantage of the visit of some troopersfrom an outpost, who would make our house quite safe. I rode alone,being fully primed, and having no misgivings. For it was said that eventhe Doones had begun to fear me, since I cast their culverin through thedoor, as above related; and they could not but believe, from my beingstill untouched (although so large an object) in the thickest of theirfire, both of gun and cannon, that I must bear a charmed life, proofagainst ball and bullet. However, I knew that Carver Doone was nota likely man to hold any superstitious opinions; and of him I had aninstinctive dread, although quite ready to face him.

  Riding along, I meditated upon Lorna's history; how many things werenow beginning to unfold themselves, which had been obscure and dark!For instance, Sir Ensor Doone's consent, or to say the least hisindifference, to her marriage with a yeoman; which in a man so proud(though dying) had greatly puzzled both of us. But now, if she not onlyproved to be no grandchild of the Doone, but even descended from hisenemy, it was natural enough that he should feel no great repugnance toher humiliation. And that Lorna's father had been a foe to the houseof Doone I gathered from her mother's cry when she beheld their leader.Moreover that fact would supply their motive in carrying off theunfortunate little creature, and rearing her among them, and as one oftheir own family; yet hiding her true birth from her. She was a 'greatcard,' as we say, when playing All-fours at Christmas-time; and if oneof them could marry her, before she learned of right and wrong, vastproperty, enough to buy pardons for a thousand Doones, would be at theirmercy. And since I was come to know Lorna better, and she to know methoroughly--many things had been outspoken, which her early bashfulnesshad kept covered from me. Attempts I mean to pledge her love to thisone, or that other; some of which perhaps might have been successful, ifthere had not been too many.

  And then, as her beauty grew richer and brighter, Carver Doone wassmitten strongly, and would hear of no one else as a suitor for her; andby the terror of his claim drove off all the others. Here too may theexplanation of a thing which seemed to be against the laws of humannature, and upon which I longed, but dared not to cross-question Lorna.How could such a lovely girl, although so young, and brave, and distant,have escaped the vile affections of a lawless company?

  But now it was as clear as need be. For any proven violence would haveutterly vitiated all claim upon her grand estate; at least as thoseclaims must be urged before a court of equity. And therefore all theelders (with views upon her real estate) kept strict watch on theyoungers, who confined their views to her personality.

  Now I do not mean to say that all this, or the hundred other thingswhich came, crowding consideration, were half as plain to me at thetime, as I have set them down above. Far be it from me to deceive youso. No doubt my thoughts were then dark and hazy, like an oil-lamp fullof fungus; and I have trimmed them, as when they burned, with scissorssharpened long afterwards. All I mean to say is this, that jogging alongto a certain tune of the horse's feet, which we call 'three-halfpenceand twopence,' I saw my way a little into some things which had puzzledme.

  When I knocked at the little door, whose sill was gritty and grimed withsand, no one came for a very long time to answer me, or to let me in.Not wishing to be unmannerly, I waited a long time, and watched the sea,from which the wind was blowing; and whose many lips of waves--thoughthe tide was half-way out--spoke to and refreshed me. After a while Iknocked again, for my horse was becoming hungry; and a good while afterthat again, a voice came through the key-hole,--

  'Who is that wishes to enter?'

  'The boy who was at the pump,' said I, 'when the carriage broke downat Dulverton. The boy that lives at oh--ah; and some day you would comeseek for him.'

  'Oh, yes, I remember certainly. My leetle boy, with the fair white skin.I have desired to see him, oh many, yes, many times.'

  She was opening the door, while saying this, and then she started backin affright that the little boy should have grown so.

  'You cannot be that leetle boy. It is quite impossible. Why do youimpose on me?'

  'Not only am I that little boy, who made the water to flow for you, tillthe nebule came upon the glass; but also I am come to tell you all aboutyour little girl.'

  'Come in, you very great leetle boy,' she answered, with her dark eyesbrightened. And I went in, and looked at her. She was altered by time,as much as I was. The slight and graceful shape was gone; not that Iremembered anything of her figure, if you please;
for boys of twelve arenot yet prone to note the shapes of women; but that her lithe straightgait had struck me as being so unlike our people. Now her time forwalking so was past, and transmitted to her children. Yet her face wascomely still, and full of strong intelligence. I gazed at her, and sheat me; and we were sure of one another.

  'Now what will ye please to eat?' she asked, with a lively glance atthe size of my mouth: 'that is always the first thing you people ask, inthese barbarous places.'

  'I will tell you by-and-by,' I answered, misliking this satire upon us;'but I might begin with a quart of ale, to enable me to speak, madam.'

  'Very well. One quevart of be-or;' she called out to a little maid,who was her eldest child, no doubt. 'It is to be expected, sir. Be-or,be-or, be-or, all day long, with you Englishmen!'

  'Nay,' I replied, 'not all day long, if madam will excuse me. Only apint at breakfast-time, and a pint and a half at eleven o'clock, and aquart or so at dinner. And then no more till the afternoon and half agallon at supper-time. No one can object to that.'

  'Well, I suppose it is right,' she said, with an air of resignation'God knows. But I do not understand it. It is "good for business," asyou say, to preclude everything.'

  'And it is good for us, madam,' I answered with indignation, for beer ismy favourite beverage; 'and I am a credit to beer, madam; and so are allwho trust to it.'

  'At any rate, you are, young man. If beer has made you grow so large, Iwill put my children upon it; it is too late for me to begin. The smellto me is hateful.'

  Now I only set down that to show how perverse those foreign peopleare. They will drink their wretched heartless stuff, such as they callclaret, or wine of Medoc, or Bordeaux, or what not, with no more meaningthan sour rennet, stirred with the pulp from the cider press, andstrained through the cap of our Betty. This is very well for them; andas good as they deserve, no doubt, and meant perhaps by the will of God,for those unhappy natives. But to bring it over to England and set itagainst our home-brewed ale (not to speak of wines from Portugal) andsell it at ten times the price, as a cure for British bile, and a greatenlightenment; this I say is the vilest feature of the age we live in.

  Madam Benita Odam--for the name of the man who turned the wheel provedto be John Odam--showed me into a little room containing two chairs anda fir-wood table, and sat down on a three-legged seat and studied mevery steadfastly. This she had a right to do; and I, having all myclothes on now, was not disconcerted. It would not become me to repeather judgment upon my appearance, which she delivered as calmly as if Iwere a pig at market, and as proudly as if her own pig. And she asked mewhether I had ever got rid of the black marks on my breast.

  Not wanting to talk about myself (though very fond of doing so, whentime and season favour) I led her back to that fearful night of the daywhen first I had seen her. She was not desirous to speak of it,because of her own little children; however, I drew her gradually torecollection of Lorna, and then of the little boy who died, and thepoor mother buried with him. And her strong hot nature kindled, as shedwelled upon these things; and my wrath waxed within me; and we forgotreserve and prudence under the sense of so vile a wrong. She told me(as nearly as might be) the very same story which she had told to MasterJeremy Stickles; only she dwelled upon it more, because of my knowingthe outset. And being a woman, with an inkling of my situation, sheenlarged upon the little maid, more than to dry Jeremy.

  'Would you know her again?' I asked, being stirred by these accounts ofLorna, when she was five years old: 'would you know her as a full-grownmaiden?'

  'I think I should,' she answered; 'it is not possible to say until onesees the person but from the eyes of the little girl, I think that Imust know her. Oh, the poor young creature! Is it to be believed thatthe cannibals devoured her! What a people you are in this country! Meat,meat, meat!'

  As she raised her hands and eyes in horror at our carnivorouspropensities, to which she clearly attributed the disappearance ofLorna, I could scarce help laughing, even after that sad story. Forthough it is said at the present day, and will doubtless be saidhereafter, that the Doones had devoured a baby once, as they came upPorlock hill, after fighting hard in the market-place, I knew that thetale was utterly false; for cruel and brutal as they were, their tastewas very correct and choice, and indeed one might say fastidious.Nevertheless I could not stop to argue that matter with her.

  'The little maid has not been devoured,' I said to Mistress Odam: 'andnow she is a tall young lady, and as beautiful as can be. If I sleep inyour good hostel to-night after going to Watchett town, will you comewith me to Oare to-morrow, and see your little maiden?'

  'I would like--and yet I fear. This country is so barbarous. And I amgood to eat--my God, there is much picking on my bones!'

  She surveyed herself with a glance so mingled of pity and admiration,and the truth of her words was so apparent (only that it would havetaken a week to get at the bones, before picking) that I nearly lostgood manners; for she really seemed to suspect even me of cannibalinclinations. However, at last I made her promise to come with me on themorrow, presuming that Master Odam could by any means be persuaded tokeep her company in the cart, as propriety demanded. Having little doubtthat Master Odam was entirely at his wife's command, I looked upon thatmatter as settled, and set off for Watchett, to see the grave of Lorna'spoor mother, and to hire a cart for the morrow.

  And here (as so often happens with men) I succeeded without any troubleor hindrance, where I had looked for both of them, namely, in finding asuitable cart; whereas the other matter, in which I could have expectedno difficulty, came very near to defeat me. For when I heard thatLorna's father was the Earl of Dugal--as Benita impressed upon me with astrong enforcement, as much as to say, 'Who are you, young man, to comeeven asking about her?'--then I never thought but that everybody inWatchett town must know all about the tombstone of the Countess ofDugal.

  This, however, proved otherwise. For Lord Dugal had never lived atWatchett Grange, as their place was called; neither had his name becomefamiliar as its owner. Because the Grange had only devolved to him bywill, at the end of a long entail, when the last of the Fitz-Pains diedout; and though he liked the idea of it, he had gone abroad, withouttaking seisin. And upon news of his death, John Jones, a rich gentlemanfrom Llandaff, had taken possession, as next of right, and hushed up allthe story. And though, even at the worst of times, a lady of high rankand wealth could not be robbed, and as bad as murdered, and then buriedin a little place, without moving some excitement, yet it had been givenout, on purpose and with diligence, that this was only a foreign ladytravelling for her health and pleasure, along the seacoast of England.And as the poor thing never spoke, and several of her servants and herbaggage looked so foreign, and she herself died in a collar of laceunlike any made in England, all Watchett, without hesitation, pronouncedher to be a foreigner. And the English serving man and maid, who mighthave cleared up everything, either were bribed by Master Jones, or elsedecamped of their own accord with the relics of the baggage. So the poorCountess of Dugal, almost in sight of her own grand house, was buried inan unknown grave, with her pair of infants, without a plate, without atombstone (worse than all) without a tear, except from the hired Italianwoman.

  Surely my poor Lorna came of an ill-starred family.

  Now in spite of all this, if I had only taken Benita with me, or eventold her what I wished, and craved her directions, there could have beenno trouble. But I do assure you that among the stupid people at Watchett(compared with whom our folk of Oare, exceeding dense though being, areas Hamlet against Dogberry) what with one of them and another, and thefirm conviction of all the town that I could be come only to wrestle, Ido assure you (as I said before) that my wits almost went out of me.And what vexed me yet more about it was, that I saw my own mistake, incoming myself to seek out the matter, instead of sending some unknownperson. For my face and form were known at that time (and still are so)to nine people out of every ten living in forty miles of me. Not throughany excellenc
e, or anything of good desert, in either the one orthe other, but simply because folks will be fools on the rivalry ofwrestling. The art is a fine one in itself, and demands a little wit ofbrain, as well as strength of body; it binds the man who studies it totemperance, and chastity, to self-respect, and most of all to an evenand sweet temper; for I have thrown stronger men than myself (when I wasa mere sapling, and before my strength grew hard on me) through theirloss of temper. But though the art is an honest one, surely they whoexcel therein have a right (like all the rest of man-kind) to their ownprivate life.

  Be that either way--and I will not speak too strongly, for fear ofindulging my own annoyance--anyhow, all Watchett town cared ten times asmuch to see John Ridd, as to show him what he wanted. I was led to everypublic-house, instead of to the churchyard; and twenty tables were readyfor me, in lieu of a single gravestone. 'Zummerzett thou bee'st, JanRidd, and Zummerzett thou shalt be. Thee carl theezell a Davonsheer man!Whoy, thee lives in Zummerzett; and in Zummerzett thee wast barn, lad.'And so it went on, till I was weary; though very much obliged to them.

  Dull and solid as I am, and with a wild duck waiting for me at goodMistress Odam's, I saw that there was nothing for it but to yield tothese good people, and prove me a man of Somerset, by eating a dinnerat their expense. As for the churchyard, none would hear of it; and Igrieved for broaching the matter.

  But how was I to meet Lorna again, without having done the thing of allthings which I had promised to see to? It would never do to tell herthat so great was my popularity, and so strong the desire to feed me,that I could not attend to her mother. Least of all could I say thatevery one in Watchett knew John Ridd; while none had heard of theCountess of Dugal. And yet that was about the truth, as I hinted verydelicately to Mistress Odam that evening. But she (being vexed about herwild duck, and not having English ideas on the matter of sport, and soon) made a poor unwitting face at me. Nevertheless Master Odam restoredme to my self-respect; for he stared at me till I went to bed; and hebroke his hose with excitement. For being in the leg-line myself, Iwanted to know what the muscles were of a man who turned a wheel allday. I had never seen a treadmill (though they have one now at Exeter),and it touched me much to learn whether it were good exercise. Andherein, from what I saw of Odam, I incline to think that it does greatharm; as moving the muscles too much in a line, and without variety.