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

by Robert Neilson Stephens

  CHAPTER XX.

  ROGER BARNET SITS DOWN TO SMOKE SOME TOBACCO.

  "At least we'll die with harness on our back."--_Macbeth._

  The avenue by which the pursuivant and his men were approaching thehouse would lead them first near the wing in which was MistressHazlehurst's chamber. Marryott remembered the ladder still outside herwindow.

  "Devil's name!" he cried. "They may enter as Rumney did! Follow me,Kit!"

  He led the way to her chamber. In the outer room, the wounded robberbegged for the water that Marryott had promised. But Hal first pointedout to Kit the top of the ladder, and then proceeded with him to draw itup into the chamber. This was an act of some difficulty, by reason ofthe ladder's length and weight. When its top struck the roof of theapartment, it had to be turned to a horizontal position, and then moveddiagonally across the floor, so that its foremost end should passthrough the doorway to the outer room. While Hal guided this end,Bottle remained at the window, tugging at the ladder's rear.

  It thus befell that Bottle alone was at the window when the pursuivant'stroop--men far different in appearance and equipment from Rumney'sband--rode into sight.

  At one and the same instant, Bottle desisted from his exertions andstared down at the horsemen, and Roger Barnet halted his party with acurt gesture and gazed with hard coolness up at Kit.

  "I see thou know'st me, Hodge," growled Bottle, at last. At this,Marryott stood still, far within the chamber, and listened for theanswer.

  It came, without emotion, in a voice that suggested iron, as some voicesare said to suggest silver or gold.

  "I thought 'twas you, the night Sir Valentine Fleetwood ran away," saidBarnet. "And 'twas more certain, when louts by the way mentioned an uglybig rascal, red-faced of drink, and of never keeping fish-days."

  "I trust I may still be eating meat on fish-days, when thou'rt eaten ofworms!" replied Kit.

  "Thou'lt fast a long fast, fish-days and other days, when I carry theeto London!" said Barnet. "Hudsdon, take ten men; place five behind thishouse, five north of it. Look you, Bottle, tell Sir Valentine FleetwoodI would speak with him in the queen's name."

  "What if Sir Valentine Fleetwood be not here?"

  "Thy presence tells me he is."

  "And I also tell you that he is!" cried another voice, that of MistressHazlehurst, who had risen from her bed and rushed to the window. "He ishere, Master Pursuivant! He is in this very room! He has made a prisonerof me!"

  "'Tis well, mistress!" replied Barnet. "We'll soon make a prisoner ofhim."

  With that, and after designating men to guard this side of the house, herode with others toward the front, Hudsdon having already led away theten to watch the rear and the further side.

  Kit turned and looked at Marryott, but the latter had eyes for MistressHazlehurst only. The energy of her movement from the bed to the window,the vigor of her voice, gave the lie to her illness.

  "'Twas well feigned!" said Hal, quietly, after regarding her for a shortwhile in silence.

  There was a little sorrow in his tone, but no reproach. His thought wasthe same as hers, which she uttered while squarely meeting his gaze.

  "I had an enemy's right to use what means I could, having once declaredmyself, and the more so as I was your prisoner."

  "'Tis most true," assented Hal. He would have much liked to explain thatwhat saddened him was, not that she had counterfeited illness, but thatshe had counterfeited a willing response to his embraces. Why should shehave thought it necessary to carry the pretence so far? A choked,blinded feeling came upon him. But he dared not succumb to it. KitBottle was looking on, awaiting orders, and the injured robber wascrying for water. From the deceived, humiliated lover, Marryott becameperforce the alert commander of besieged fugitives.

  "This lady must be watched," he said to Kit. "Till I send Anthony totake your place see that she does not, by passing them this ladder, orby hanging curtains or such stuff from the window, give Barnet's men themeans of climbing into the house. Nay, mistress, our watchman will notdisturb your privacy. From the outer room he can look through the doorto your window. Seest thou, Kit?--the ladder lying flat through thedoorway will forbid her closing the door. If there come sign of her atthe window, or meddling with ladder or door, then thou must invade herchamber, and do as may seem best. You are warned, madam!"

  With a courteous bow he left her. Bottle established himself outside herdoor, squatting upon the ladder, his eye following its side-piecesacross her room to the window.

  In the hall, Marryott found Anthony Underhill listening passively tothe door-knocks of Roger Barnet, which were accompanied by calls uponSir Valentine Fleetwood to open in the queen's name. The Puritan assuredHal that the stable was now as strongly fortified as it had been ere hisdeparture in quest of provisions. Marryott, thereupon, sent him to takeKit's place at Mistress Hazlehurst's door, and then despatched OliverBunch (who had with some surprise discovered himself to be still alive)with water for the wounded robber, and with instructions to care for thelatter's injuries and for those of Tom and Francis.

  Hal then made again the round of the house. Moreton, Hatch, and theleast wounded of yesterday's deserters from Rumney, were at theiroriginal posts, to which Anthony had taken it on himself to order theirreturn. Each man reported that his door had been tried from without, butthat no violent attempt had been made to force entrance.

  Coming back to the hall, Marryott saw Kit Bottle mounted on a trestle,and surveying the quadrangle through a clear place in a window.

  "He has had his men dismount and the horses led away," said Kit,alluding, of course, to Roger Barnet. "He has set two guards, I think,at the front end of each wing, and two in the court. He is sitting onthe edge of the fountain. He seems a little lame o' the leg."

  "What think you is his intent?" asked Marryott, not risking to Barnet apossible glimpse of his face, for fear of an untimely undeceiving.

  "'Tis for time to show. He will either attack or wait. But 'tis lesslike he will attack."

  "Why?"

  "Because he is a prudent dog and a patient. Those gaping bodies on thesnow tell how Rumney's gang fared 'gainst men firing from inside thesestout walls. Barnet thinks he has the hare mewed up, and 'tis as cheapto wait for't to venture out as 'tis to risk flesh and blood in tryingto come at it. And, moreover, a fight might give the man he seeks achance to die by sword or pistol, whereas 'tis a point of honor withBarnet to take his prisoner well and whole to London. He is a feeder ofheadsman's blocks and hangman's nooses! Ay, he has chosen to wait; 'tiscertain now."

  "How know'st thou?"

  "He is filling his tobacco-pipe, and motioning one of his men for use ofa slow-match. When Roger sits down to smoke, he hath made up his mindfor a season of waiting. And there is no man can out-wait Roger Barnetwhen he is sucking his Nicotian. He is then truly patience on amonument, as Master Shakespeare's comedy says."

  "If he wait till to-morrow night, my work for others will be done!'Twill be six days since we left Welwyn, and 'twill take four and over,in this weather, for any man to ride back thither."

  "And then 'tis a matter of our own necks, I ween! Let me tell thee this,lad: While Roger Barnet thinks the man he wants is in this house, hewill wait to starve him out, though he wait till doomsday. And if helearns 'tis not his man that he hath been chasing, he will infer thatthe other man is by that time 'scaped, and he will wait still for theman that has tricked him. He will carry some victim back to London forthis, be sure on't!"

  Kit had come down from the trestle, and was standing with Hal at thefireplace.

  "Well, after to-morrow," said Marryott, "we may use our wits, or ourvalor and skill, to break through the circle he has drawn around us."

  "'Twill take sharp wits to slip through Roger Barnet's vigilance, now hehas closed around us. As for valor and skill, what shall boot our smallforce 'gainst his, who are stout men all, well armed, and most of themclad above the waist in steel? Tut, lad, don't think old Kit isdisturbed upon it! I'll die as well as an
other, and better than most! Itell thee these things merely in fireside talk, as I should speak of theweather."

  "How if we shoot Barnet, from one of the windows?"

  "Twould not help. Firstly, as the preacher at Paul's Cross says, wemight miss him, or his cuirass and morion might save him. He might takeoffence, and act as if we forced a fight upon his patience; might setfire to the timber part of this house and burn us out betimes. Secondly,if we killed Barnet, his man Hudsdon might do the burning. Hudsdon, lookyou, is, in his particular humor, a man of as good mettle as Barnet.These be no Rumneys!"

  "But if we so diminished Barnet's troop, by shooting them one by onefrom the windows, then we might sally forth, fire or no fire, with fairchance of cutting our way through."

  "Ay, were it not that, for every man we slew, Barnet would send toHarmby or elsewhere for two men to fill the vacant post. As 'tis, thefoul weather, and the pride of doing his own work unhelped, will stayhim from demanding aid of the country; but an we force him to it, ere hegive us the upper hand he will use to the full his power of pressingmen, and requiring local officers, in the queen's name."

  "Why, then, is there no course, no chance?"

  "None but what time may bring, and time we shall gain by letting Rogerwait. He will stay where he is, in hope of starvation driving out hisman weak and easy to be taken, or of our knaves rebelling from hungrystomachs and delivering up their leader. But we'll see to it the men bestaunch; and some time must pass before our bellies take to grinding oneside 'gainst the other!"

  "'Tis well Anthony brought--" began Marryott, but was interrupted by theentrance of Oliver Bunch at the top of the stairs.

  "An't please your honor," said Oliver, "the lady desired I should askwhen she might have breakfast, for that she is faint with hunger."

  "Why, so am I; and the rest of us, I doubt not," said Marryott. "Weshall eat forthwith. Where are the provisions Anthony brought, Kit?"

  "I thought to have told you sooner," replied the captain, in a strangelyresigned manner; "in the fray outside the stable door, Rumney's knavesgot Anthony's bag of victuals from him, and when they ran off theyforgot to leave it behind!"

  There was a considerable silence, during which Kit Bottle looked darklyinto the fire, and Marryott muttered several times under his breath, "Amurrain on't!" Then, adopting the captain's mien of uncomplaint. Halsaid to Oliver:

  "Tell the lady we have no food and can get none. Later, I may contriveto obtain some for her, from the enemy that surrounds us."

  "Why," said Kit Bottle, as Oliver disappeared, "an thou dost that,thou'lt betray our empty state to Roger Barnet."

  "What matter?" said Hal. "We can hold out two days, that's certain. Andafter that,--Barnet will but know he need smoke the less tobacco tillour starving out, that's all!"