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

by Robert Neilson Stephens

  CHAPTER XXI.

  ROGER BARNET CONTINUES TO SMOKE TOBACCO.

  "The best man best knows patience."--_Thierry and Theodoret._

  The day dragged on,--grayest of gray Sundays. The snowfall ceased, butthe sky remained ashen, and the wind still moaned intermittently, thoughwith subdued and failing voice. In the great, silent house, faint creakshad the startling effect of detonations, and the flapping of tapestry inthe wind seemed fraught with mysterious omen.

  Marryott, in the course of his next round of the mansion, told the menof the loss of the provisions. Some of them had already known of it. Nocomplaint was uttered. The men replied with a half respectful, halffamiliar jest, or with good-humored expression of willingness to fastawhile. Fortunately, the supply of water was such as to obviate any neardread of the tortures of thirst.

  When he went to the room adjoining Mistress Hazlehurst's chamber,Marryott found Tom, Francis, and the robber, all three quiescent underthe ministrations of Oliver Bunch. Anthony Underhill, seated on a trunkthat he had placed on the end of the prostrate ladder, was observing theSabbath by singing to himself a psalm. Scarce audible as was his voice,it still had something of that whine which the early English Puritans,like the devoutest of the French Huguenots, put into their vocalworship, and from which some think the nasal twang of the Puritans' NewEngland descendants is derived.

  Mistress Hazlehurst either was, or wished to seem, asleep; for whenMarryott knocked softly upon her half open door, that he might morecourteously explain to her the lack of food, she gave no answer.

  He, thereupon, sent Kit Bottle to the oriel window to sound RogerBarnet's mind toward supplying the prisoner, who was indeed to beconsidered the pursuivant's ally, with food.

  Kit put the necessary question, taking care to show no more of hisperson than was needful, and to keep his eyes upon the firearms of thepursuivant and the two guards in the court.

  But Roger Barnet, who still sat smoking with a kind of hard, surlyimpassibility, made no movement as to his pistols. Neither did he show athought of ordering his men to fire. He evinced a certain grimsatisfaction at the evidence that the besieged had no provisions. Hethen expressed a suspicion that Kit was using the lady's name in orderto obtain food for his own party, and said that if Sir ValentineFleetwood desired the lady not to hunger, Sir Valentine might set herfree. He, Barnet, would provide her with an escort to some neighboringinn or gentleman's house.

  But Marryott, who was listening unseen at Kit's elbow, dared not yetrisk her describing himself as Sir Valentine Fleetwood to thepursuivant; and so he prompted Kit to reply that the lady was too ill togo at present from the house. To which Roger, between vast puffs ofsmoke, tranquilly replied that he feared the lady must for the presentgo hungry.

  Afire with wrath at this stolid churlishness, Hal caused Kit to remindBarnet that the lady had come into her present case through aiding thepursuivant himself. Roger answered that he had not requested the lady'sassistance. At Marryott's further whispered orders, Kit informed Barnetthat, but for her work, the latter should not at that moment have hadSir Valentine surrounded. Roger replied that he had only Kit's word forthat; moreover, what mattered it? He was not responsible for the lady'sill fortune, even if she were creditable with his good fortune. Inshort, and by God's light, he would not let any food enter that houseunless he and his men went in with it!

  "When your bellies will no more away with their emptiness, open thedoor and let us in," he added, phlegmatically, and replaced his pipe inhis mouth as if the last word had been said.

  "Nay, thou swinish rogue," said Kit, "we're better taught than to leavedoors open in March weather!" He then bombarded his old-time comrade ofWalsingham's day with hard names. Barnet showed no resentment, butcontinued to smoke stolidly. At last, when his reviler had well-nighexhausted the vocabulary of Thersites, Roger began to fingerabstractedly the butt of one of his pistols; at which gentle intimation,Kit suddenly disappeared from the window.

  "There is no help for it," said he to Marryott. "She must starve withthe rest of us unless you set her free."

  "That I must not do till Tuesday morning," said Hal, with an inwardsigh. He went from the gallery, and told Francis, for MistressHazlehurst's information should she inquire, of the failure of hisattempt to obtain food for her. She still slept, or feigned sleep.

  Marryott then newly assigned the posts to be guarded, dividing thecompany into two watches, one headed by himself, the other by Bottle.The latter took the first period of duty. The men who were thus for atime relieved were prompt to assuage their thirst, though water was abeverage unusual to them; then they stretched themselves on the rushesin the hall to sleep. Hal also slept.

  At evening, being awakened by Kit, he and his quota of men arose to dosentinel duty during the first half of the night.

  "Is Barnet still yonder?" he asked Kit, before leaving the hall.

  "No; he has set Hudsdon in's place. Roger has divided his troop intowatches. He and some of his men have made their beds in the outhouses.Hudsdon and the rest have planted torches in a line around the house.There's not an ell's distance of the mansion's outside, from ground tosecond story, that cannot be seen by the torch-light. The men are postedbeyond the line, out of our sight; only here and there you may catch nowand then the light of a slow-match that some fellow blows. If we made asortie from the house into their torch-light, they would mow us downwith muskets and arquebuses from the dark."

  Marryott sat out his watch in a partly torpid state of mind. Thedeception that Mistress Hazlehurst had practised upon him, though heacknowledged an avowed enemy's and unwilling prisoner's right topractise it, had struck down his heart, benumbed it, robbed it of hopeand of its zest for life. He thought of nothing but present trifles--thewrithing of the flames in the fireplace, the snoring of the sleepers onthe hall floor--and his chances of accomplishing his mission. Allthings, he felt, could be endured,--all but failure in the task he hadso far carried toward success. Regarding his life, which indeed seemedto be doomed, he was apathetic.

  During the second half of the night, Marryott slumbered, Bottle watched.Dawn found Roger Barnet again at the fountain's edge, again smoking.But, as Kit observed while furtively inspecting him through a window, hepuffed a little more vehemently, was somewhat petulant in his motions,more often changed position. Bottle, from having known him of old, andfrom his slight lameness, took it that he was in some pain.

  His injured leg was, indeed, a seat of great torment; but of this, beingstoical as well as taciturn, the frowning man of iron gave no other signthan the tokens of irritation noticed by Kit.

  "I'm afeard Roger will be, later, of a mind to hasten matters," said thecaptain. "Peradventure his tobacco is falling low."

  "I pray 'twill last till the morrow," said Marryott.

  This morning (Monday) the sky was clear, but it was a cold sun thatshone down upon the world of snow around beleaguered Foxby Hall.Marryott was on the watch till noon. Then, Kit having taken his place,and before lying down to sleep, he went to see if Mistress Hazlehursthad aught to request. He felt that, though his position as her captorwas one of necessity, it nevertheless required of him a patientattention to all complaints and reproaches she might make.

  But she made none. To his inquiry, spoken after a gentle knock upon herdoor, she answered that she desired of him nothing under heaven but tobe left alone. If she must starve, she would choose to starve not beforespectators. He informed her that he intended to give her, on the morrow,her freedom, as the royal pursuivant had offered her an escort and mightbe trusted to treat a lady with respect. To this she made no reply. Halthereupon went away.

  When he was awakened to resume guard duty, at evening, he learned fromKit that the afternoon had been without occurrence. Roger Barnet hadcontinued to show signs of an ailing body, and hence of an ailingtemper, but had not deviated from his policy of waiting. The men in thehouse were very hungry; they had ceased jesting about their enforcedfast, and had betaken themselves to dumb endurance. Hal was ma
de awareby his own pangs of the stomach, his own feverish weakness of the body,how they must be suffering, though only two days of abstinence hadpassed.

  The precautions of the besiegers this evening were like those of thepreceding night. Marryott looked more than once, through narrowopenings in the windows, at the torches lighting up redly the snow thatstretched away from the walls of the mansion.

  Some time after dark, while Marryott was pacing the hall, Kit Bottlesuddenly awoke, and after gazing around a few moments, said, quietly:

  "Methinks, lad, 'tis eight o'clock, or after."

  "'Tis so, I think," replied Hal, softly.

  "Then 'tis full six days since we rode from Sir Valentine Fleetwood'sgate."

  "Ay, just six days."

  "Then thy work is done, boy!"

  "'Tis done, old Kit; and thanks to thee and Anthony, with your truehearts, strong bodies, and shrewd heads!"

  "Thou'rt a valiant and expert gentleman, Hal; beshrew me else!"

  Whereupon the old soldier turned upon his side, and slept again, and Hallooked dreamily into the fire.

  Their words had been no louder than whispers. Nor was Hal's feelingaught like the bursting elation, the triumph that would shout, the joythat intoxicates. It was but a gentle transition from suspense torelief, from anxiety to ease of mind; a mild but permeating glow ofsatisfaction; a sweet consciousness of having done a hard task, aconsciousness best expressed by a single sigh of content, a faint smileof self-applause.

  At midnight, giving place again to Kit, Marryott sank into a troubledsleep, in which he dreamed of juicy beef, succulent ham, every kind ofplump fowl, well basted, and the best wines of France, Spain. Italy, andthe Rhine. He woke to tortures of the stomach, and the news that RogerBarnet was still smoking, but peevishly walking, despite his lameness ofleg, to and fro in the courtyard.

  "I tell thee, Hal," said Bottle, after imparting this information, "wemay look to see things afoot soon! If Roger is a devil of pertinacitywhen he is upon the chase, and a devil of patience when he waits, he isa devil of activity when his body ails overmuch!"

  "We shall be the sooner forced, then, to set our lives upon a cast!"

  "Ay, and better work losing them, than stretching them out to theanguish of our bellies! This fasting is an odious business. The men arechewing the fire-wood and their leather jerkins."

  "Have they complained?" asked Hal.

  "Not a dog among 'em! These be choice rascals all! They bear hunger withno more words than dumb beasts. They'll starve with thee, or die withthee, to the last knave of them!"

  Marryott looked silently at Bottle; and saw in his face the verydog-like fidelity he described in the others. He knew whatuncomplaining, unpretending steadfastness there was in AnthonyUnderhill, too.

  "Brave hearts!" murmured Hal, and the next instant he had taken aresolution.

  "Is Roger Barnet a keeper of his word?" he asked.

  "When he hath not overmuch to lose by it," replied Kit, wondering at thequestion.

  "If, on condition of his letting mine innocent followers go free, Iproposed to shorten his task by giving myself up, and he agreed thereto,would he keep that agreement?"

  "But, God's death, Hal, thou'lt propose no such thing!"

  "Thou'lt propose it for me; till all is done I must not show my face.And thou'lt not name me as Sir Valentine Fleetwood, but speak of memerely as the gentleman you serve. So when Barnet discovers I am not theknight, he will find himself still bound by his word to the condition."

  "But old Kit will never be go-between to buy his life with thy givingthyself up!"

  "'Troth, thou wilt! For, look you, since I must in any case be taken,why need also my men suffer? Wilt rob me of my one consolation, thesaving of my faithful followers? Wilt send me entirely sad of heart toLondon? Wilt not let me cheer myself with knowledge of having done thislittle deed befitting a gentleman? Have I not full right to get myself-approval by this act? Wouldst thou hinder my using the one right bywhich I may somewhat comfort myself? Thou wilt do as I bid thee, oldKit; else I swear on this crossed hilt I will go forth at once, andsurrender myself the more unhappily for that I may not save my men!"

  "Nay, Hal, softly! If the thing lies so to thy heart, 'tis not old Kitshall go against thy wish. But I have the right of giving myself up withthee. Save the rest an thou wilt, I shall not be sorry. But let KitBottle attend thee still, to the end of it!"

  "Now thou talkest arrant foolishness, Kit! For look you, if thou'rtfree, canst thou not serve me to the better effect? Consider how manymiles and days it is to London. Once I am this fellow's prisoner, andseem to have no will or spirit left, may not my guards grow heedless? Anthou art free, riding after me to London, who can say what chance maynot occur for rescue and escape? Let me but save thee and these truefellows by giving myself up; then may we look for means of saving myselfon the journey to London." Hal said this but to induce Kit to acceptfreedom with the others if it could be obtained, and it seemed to makethe desired impression.

  "Why, there is something in that," said Kit, thoughtfully. "But we havebeen wasting talk. Roger Barnet, now that thy taking is but matter oftime, will not make terms. He is no man for concessions or half-waymeetings."

  "But he hath much to gain by my offer: the time saved, the certainty oftaking his man alive and without loss to his own party, the greater easeof carrying one prisoner than many to London. He should be glad ofpretext to be rid of the underlings."

  "Truly said, in sooth. But the nature of the man is against makingtreaty with an opponent, e'en though to his own advantage."

  Marryott thought for a moment. Then he said:

  "Let him not seem to make treaty with his opponent. Let the treaty bewith my seeming betrayers. This will better accord with his nature,methinks. My men shall offer to give me up to him, in purchase of theirown freedom. So will he regard my men as choosing to become his allies,and he will think that through them he gets the better of their master;he will have justification for letting them go free."

  "By my troth, thou'rt a knower of men, Hal! Roger would be ashamed toprofit by a treaty with his enemy, but not by treachery of that enemy'sfollowing. There'll be some relish in fooling him thus!"

  "Then set straightways about it. Speak to him from the oriel,stealthily, as befits the seeming treason."

  "I hate even to seem traitor to thee, Hal; but 'tis for thy purposes,and to make a gull of Roger Barnet."

  With which the captain mounted the stairs leading to the gallery,leaving Marryott waiting by the fire.

  Kit had the skill of gesture and grimace, to convey across thequadrangle to his one-time comrade that secret things were to be told,and that a truce, if granted, would not on his part be violated. Barnet,who could rely upon the steel he wore and the pistols he carried, aswell as on Kit's pantomimic word of honor, strode boldly over to a placebeneath the window. With an appearance of great caution, Kit asked him,on behalf of himself and his comrades, not of the gentleman they served,what would be done with them if they were taken. Roger lightly answeredthat he would see them hanged. This led naturally to the broaching ofKit's terms.

  The ensuing conversation was of some length, and carried on mostly byKit, who skilfully put before the pursuivant's mind the advantages to begained by accepting the offer. Now, as Barnet's warrant called for Kit'ssupposed employer only, as Barnet had been so many days from London, asthe lameness of his leg tried his patience, as the mansion lookedimpregnable, and as he was loath to resort to local assistance instorming it, it really seemed folly for him to reject an important birdin hand for the doubtful satisfaction of bagging a number ofinsignificant birds who might prove only a burden to him. He held out,however, until he could bring himself to relinquish the cherished hopeof conducting his old friend Bottle to the gallows.

  It was at last agreed that Kit and his comrades should deliver overtheir commander, disarmed and with wrists bound, at the main door,within half an hour.

  As soon as Marryott was informed of this, he summoned all
the men (saveKit, to whom was assigned the guardianship of Mistress Hazlehurst'schamber for the while), and told them of the agreement. They stared athim and at one another with little show of feeling, and in silence,excepting Anthony, who muttered:

  "I had as lief I had been left out of the purchase."

  "Go to Mistress Hazlehurst's door, Anthony," said Marryott, "and sendhither Captain Bottle, that he may tie my hands and deliver me forth.And conduct the lady hither, that she may go forth at the same time. Ithink she will not delay, for you will tell her she is to have herfreedom."

  He then divided his money among the men, that they might shift forthemselves after his surrender; obtained the promise of the able-bodiedto care for the wounded; and finally ordered them to remove the defencesof the door. Hal had previously furnished Kit's purse; Anthony had hisown supply of coin.

  When Mistress Hazlehurst came down the stairs, a little pale and haggardfrom her fast, but no less beautiful of eye and outline, and with noless clearness of skin, Marryott stood already bound, Kit at his side,the men waiting silently in the background. She noticed that Hal's handswere behind his back, but could not make sure whether they were tied.Slightly puzzled at the scene, she looked back at Anthony as for anexplanation.

  Kit Bottle motioned one of the men to open the door; he then indicatedto Mistress Hazlehurst, by a gesture, that she might pass out. She didso, in some wonder. Francis, whose head was bandaged, followed her.Anthony stopped at the other side of Marryott than that on which KitBottle was.

  Beyond the porch outside, and facing the door, stood Roger Barnet;several men were in line on either hand of the way. The pursuivantlooked at Anne as if she were not the one he expected. He made way forher to pass, however; but as soon as she had done so, she turned andlooked curiously back at the open door.

  Forth came the supposed Sir Valentine Fleetwood, walking listlessly,his hands still behind his back. Kit and Anthony grasping him by eithershoulder.

  "Take your man, master pursuivant," said Bottle, huskily. He and thePuritan then stopped, and seemed to thrust their prisoner slightlyforward for Barnet's acceptance; but they still held his shoulders.

  Barnet, whose left hand clasped a document, took a step toward theprisoner, who perforce remained motionless. Then the pursuivant paused,and stared at Hal with a mixture of bewilderment and slow-gatheringdismay. The armed men craned their necks to see the object of their longpursuit.

  "Why," said Barnet, his voice faltering for once, "this is not the man!"

  Mistress Hazlehurst became acutely attentive.

  "'Tis the gentleman we have served these last six days," replied KitBottle, with great composure.

  "God's life!" cried Barnet, having recovered full vocal energy, "thereis a scurvy trick here, to give Sir Valentine Fleetwood chance ofleaving this house while I'm befooled! But 'twill not serve! All sidesare watched! Into the house, you four; search every corner, and drag outthe fox!"

  The men to whom Barnet spoke hastened to obey, leaving four of theircomrades with their leader.

  "They'll find naught, Roger," said Kit. "I swear this gentleman is hewe have been travelling with from Welwyn."

  "He says truly, pursuivant!" cried Mistress Hazlehurst, stepping forwardto Barnet's side. "'Tis Sir Valentine Fleetwood, of a surety; for I,too, have travelled with him these six days."

  "I don't gainsay you have travelled with him, lady," said Barnet. "Butif you take him for Sir Valentine Fleetwood, either you know not SirValentine as well as I do, or your eyes play you tricks!"

  "Nay," put in Marryott, quietly, "blame not others' eyes, man, till yourown eyes never see false!" With which he thrust out his left elbow,stiffened his neck, and took on what other outward peculiarities he hadcaught from Sir Valentine.

  "By the foul fiend," said Barnet, in a tone that befitted his dark,wrathful look, "there has been some kind of vile player's work here!'Twas a false beard, that night!"

  "Ay!" spoke up one of his men. "I have wondered where to place thegentleman. Your word player sets me right. He is an actor I have seen atthe Globe, and in the ale-houses. I forget his name."

  "Is it Marryott?" asked Barnet, remembering what he had learned inClown.

  "Ay, that's it! I drew him many a pot of beer when I was a tapster."

  "Then by the devil's horns," quoth Barnet, irefully, "he hath played hislast part when he hath played upon me, with his false beard and likedevices! If, indeed, you have led me off, Master Marryott, and SirValentine Fleetwood hath fled over seas, by God, it shall go hard butyou die in's place for aiding a traitor! I take you in the queen's name,Sir Player. Nay, question not my right; I have blank warrants foremergent use; your name is soon writ; and back to London you shall ride,with your feet tied 'neath the horse's belly! Mistress, this is partyour doing; for you told me 'twas Sir Valentine passed you i' the roadthat night. You have had all your labor for the wrong man, and given theright one time to 'scape both you and me!"

  But his words might have fallen upon the ears of a statue. Anne hadrealized in a flash all that words could tell her, and this much more:that the captured man loved her, and was a prisoner through her use ofhis love; and that, even though she had had the resolution to feignillness,--

  Thought failed her, and she stood leaning on the shoulder of her page,pallor and inertia betokening the utter consternation of her heart.