A Gentleman Player; His Adventures on a Secret Mission for Queen Elizabeth

by Robert Neilson Stephens

  CHAPTER IV.

  THE UNEXPECTED.

  "The affair cries haste. And speed must answer it."--_Othello_.

  At two o'clock that afternoon,--it was Tuesday, the third day ofMarch,--Master Marryott and Capt. Christopher Bottle rode northward fromSmithfield bars, in somewhat different aspect and mood from those inwhich they had gone through their adventure in the same neighborhood theprevious night. They were well mounted; for Kit Bottle was not the manto be gulled by the jinglers of the Smithfield horse-market, and knew,too well for his own good reputation, how to detect every trick by whichthe jockeys palmed off their jades on buyers who judged only byappearances.

  They were fitly armed, too; for Hal, before rejoining the captain, hadprocured pistols as reinforcements to his rapier and dagger, and Kit hadso far exceeded instructions as to do likewise. The captain as yet knewnot what Hal's mission was, and he was too true a soldier to exhibit anycuriosity, if he felt any. But there was always a possibility of usefor weapons, in travelling in those days; even on the much-frequentedroad from London to St. Albans ("as common as the way between St. Albansand London," said Poins, of Doll Tearsheet), in which thoroughfare,until he should turn out beyond Barnet. Hal's course lay. It was ahighway that, not far out of London, became like all other roads of thetime narrow and rutty, often a mere ditch below the level of the fields,woods, or commons, at either side; rarely flanked, as in later times, byhedges, walls, or fences of any kind; passing by fewer houses, andthrough smaller villages, than it is now easy to imagine its doing.

  On this, as on every English road, most passenger travel was byhorseback or afoot, although the great, had their coaches, crude andslow-moving. Most transportation of goods was by pack-horse, thecarriers going in numerous company for safety; though huge, lumbering,covered stage-wagons had already appeared on certain chief highways,with a record of something like two miles an hour. The royal post forthe bearing of letters was in a primitive and uncertain state.Travelling by post was unknown, in the later sense of the term: such asit was, it was a luxury of the great, who had obvious means of arrangingfor relays of horses; and of state messengers, who might press horsesfor the queen's service. When ordinary men were in haste, and neededfresh horses, they might buy them, or trade for them, or hire them fromcarriers, or from stable-keepers where such existed. But the two animalsobtained by Bottle in Smithfield, though neither as shapely nor as smallas Spanish jennets, were quite sufficient for the immediatepurpose,--the bearing of their riders, without stop, to Welwyn.

  Islington and Highgate were passed without incident, and Hal, whilesoothed in his anxiety to perform his mission without a hitch, began tothink again that the business was too easy to be interesting. As a younggentleman of twenty-two who had read "The Faerie Queen" for the romanceand not for the allegory, he would have liked some opportunity to playthe fighting knight in service of his queen. On Finchley Common helooked well about, half in dread, half in hope; whereupon CaptainBottle, as taking up a subject apropos, began to discourse upon highwayrobbers. From considering the possibilities of a present encounter withthem, he fell to discussing their profession in a business light.

  "An there must be vile laws to ruin gentlemen withal, and hard peace totake the bread out of true soldiers' mouths, beshrew me but bold robbingon the highway is choicer business than a parson's, or a lawyer's, or alackey's in some great house, or even coney-catching in the taverns!When I was put to it to get my beef and clary one way or another, Istayed in London, thinking to keep up my purse by teaching fence; but'tis an overcrowded vocation, and the rogues that can chatter the mostItalian take all the cream. So old Kit must needs betake himself to agentlemanly kind of gull-catching, never using the false dice till thetrue went against him, look you; nor bullying a winner out of the stakeswhen they could be had peaceably; and always working alone, disdainingto fellow with rascally gangs. But often I have sighed that I did not asRumney did,--he that was mine ancient in the campaigns in Spain andIreland. When the nation waxed womanish, and would have no more of war,Rumney, for love of the country, took to the highways, and I have heardhe hath thrived well about Sherwood forest and toward Yorkshire. 'Twasmy choice of a town life hindered me being his captain on the road as Ihad been in the wars. I hear he calleth himself captain now! Though heputs his head oftener into the noose than I, and runs more risk of swordand pistol, his work is the worthier of a soldier and gentleman forthat. Yet I do not call Rumney gentleman, neither! A marvellous scurvyrogue! But no coward. Would that thy business might take us so far as weshould fall in with the rascal! I should well like to drink a gallon ofsack with the rascally cur, in memory of old times, or to stab him inthe paunch for a trick he did me about a woman in the Low Countries!"

  Finchley Common was crossed without threat of danger, the only roguesmet being of the swindling, begging, feigning, pilfering order, allpromptly recognized and classified by the experienced captain. Nor didWhetston or Barnet or Hatfield, or the intervening country, yield anyevent, save that a clock struck six, and the day--gray enough atbest--was on the wane when they passed through Hatfield. They had madebut five miles an hour, the road, though frozen, being uneven anddifficult, and Hal assuming that the pursuivant, ignorant of a plan toforewarn Sir Valentine, would not greatly hasten. He relied on thehour's start he had taken out of London, and he saved his horses to meetany demand for speed that might suddenly arise. At the worst, if theofficer and his men came up behind him, he could increase his pace andoutride them to Welwyn. And thus it was that he let no northbound riderspass him, and that when such riders, of whatever aspect, appeared in thedistant rear, he spurred forward sufficiently to leave them out ofsight.

  On the hill, two or three miles beyond Hatfield, he stopped and lookedback over the lower country, but could make out no group of horsemen inthe gathering darkness. His destination was now near at hand, and he wasstill unsettled between opposite feelings,--satisfaction that hiserrand seemed certain of accomplishment, regret that there seemed noprospect of narrow work by which he might a little distinguish himselfin his own eyes. The last few miles he rode in silence, Bottle havingceased prattling and become meditative under the influence of nightfall.

  It was seven o'clock when they rode across the brook into close view ofWelwyn church at the left of the road, and a few minutes later when theydrew up before the wall in front of Fleetwood house,--of which Hal knewthe location, through visits in former years,--and began to pound on thebarred gate with their weapons, and to call "Ho, within!"

  The mansion beyond the wall was a timbered one, its gables backed bytrees. It had no park, and its wall enclosed also a small orchard at therear, and a smaller courtyard at the front. At one side of the gate wasa porter's lodge, but this was at present vacant, or surely the knockingon the wooden gate would have brought forth its occupant. It seemed asif the house was deserted, and Hal had a sudden inward sense ofunexpected obstacle, perhaps insuperable, in his way. His heart beat alittle more rapidly, until Kit, having ridden to where he could see theside of the house, reported a light in the side window of a rearchamber. Hal thereupon increased his hallooing, with some thought ofwhat might occur if the pursuivants should come up ere he gotadmission.

  At length there appeared a moving nebula of light amidst the darknessover the yard; it approached the gate; steps were heard on the walkwithin; finally a little wicket was opened in the gate, and a long,bearded, sour face was visible in the light of a lanthorn held up by itsowner.

  "Who is it disturbeth the night in this manner?" asked a nasal voice, ina tone of complaint and reproof.

  "'Tis I, Master Underhill," spoke Hal, from his horse, "Master HarryMarryott, Sir Valentine's friend. I must see Sir Valentine without amoment's delay," and he started to dismount.

  "I know not if thou canst see Sir Valentine without delay, or at allwhatsoever," replied the man of dismal countenance. His face had thecrow's feet and the imprinted frown of his fifty years, and there wassome gray on his bare head.

&
nbsp; "Not see him!" blurted out Hal. "What the devil--open me the gate thisinstant or I'll teach thee a lesson! Dost hear, Anthony?"

  "Yield not to thy wrath nor call upon the foul fiend, Master Marryott,"said Anthony, severely. "I shall go decently and in order, and learn ifthou mayst be admitted." And he leisurely closed the wicket to return tothe house.

  Hal could scarce contain himself for anger. Being now afoot he calledafter the man, and hammered on the gate, but with no effect of recallingor hastening him.

  "A snivelling Puritan, or I'm a counterfeit soldier!" observed KitBottle, in a tone of contempt and detestation.[24]

  "Ay," said Hal, "and all the worse whiner because, out of inheritedties, he serveth a Catholic master. The old groaner,--that he should putme to this delay when Sir Valentine's life is at stake!"

  This was Hal's first intimation to Kit of the real nature of hisbusiness. The captain received it without comment, merely asking if heshould dismount.

  "No," said Hal, tying his own horse to the gate; "but when I amadmitted, ride you back to the village, and listen for the sound ofhoofs from the direction of London; if you hear such, come swiftly back,hallooing at the top of thy voice, and get off thy horse, and hold himready for another to mount in thy stead. A hundred curses on that TonyUnderhill! He hath been Sir Valentine's steward so long, he dareth anyimpertinence. And yet he never stayed me at the gate before! And hisgrave look when he said he knew not if I might see Sir Valentine! 'Twasa more solemn face than even he is wont to wear. Holy Mary! can it bethat they are here already,--that they have come before me?"

  "An it be men in quest of Sir Valentine, you mean," said Kit, who was ofquick divination, "where be their horses? They would scarce stable them,and make a visit. Nor would all be so quiet and dark."

  "And yet he looked as something were amiss," replied Hal, but partlyreassured.

  The faint mist of light appeared again, the deliberate steps were heard,and this time the gate was unbarred and slowly drawn a little spaceopen. In the lanthorn's light was seen the spare, tall figure that wentwith the long, gloomy face.

  "I will conduct thee to Sir Valentine," said Anthony. Hal steppedforward with an exclamation of relief and pleasure, and Kit Bottleinstantly started his horse back toward the village.

  Hal followed the Puritan steward through a porched doorway, across ahall, up a staircase that ascended athwart the rear, and thence along acorridor, to the last door on the side toward the back of the house.Anthony softly opened this door.

  Hal entered a chamber lighted by two candles on a table, and containingin one corner a large high-posted bed. On the table, among other things,lay an ivory crucifix. A plainly dressed gentleman sat on a chairbetween the table and the bed. To this gentleman, without casting a lookat his face, Hal bowed respectfully, and began, "I thank God, SirValentine--"

  "Nay, sir," answered the gentleman, quietly, as if to prevent somemistake; and Hal, looking up, perceived that this was not Sir Valentine,but a pale, watchful-looking man, with fiery eyes; while a voice,strangely weakened, came from the bed:

  "Thou'rt welcome, Harry."

  "What!" cried Hal, striding to the bed. "Sir Valentine, goest thou tobed so early?"

  "Ay," replied Sir Valentine, motionless on his back, "and have been abedthese two days, with promise from my good physician here of getting upsome six days hence or so."

  "Thou'lt not move for another week, at least, Sir Valentine," said thephysician, the gentleman whom Hal first addressed.

  "'Tis a sword wound got in a quarrel, Harry," explained Sir Valentine,feebly, and paused, out of breath, looking for a reply.

  But Hal stood startled and speechless. Not move for a week, and thestate officer likely to arrive in an hour! "And in every possible manneraid and hasten his departure from the country," her Majesty had said;and Hal had taken her money, and by his promise, by her trust in him,by every consideration that went to the making of a gentleman, a man ofhonor, or an honest servant, stood bound to carry out her wish.

  The errand was not to be so simple, after all.