  MIRIAM: A Tale of Pole Moor and the By D. F. E. SYKES, LL.B.
AUTHOR OF: “THE HISTORY OF HUDDERSFIELD,” “THE HISTORY OF THE COLNE VALLEY,” “BEN 0’ BILL’S, THE LUDDITE,” “TOM PINDER, FOUNDLING,” “SISTER GERTRUDE,” &c., &c. HUDDERSFIELD, 1912. Introduction MIRIAM: A Tale of Pole Moor and the Greenfield Hills links the protagonists to The Burn Platts, an area above Slaithwaite near Pole Moor where a group of Romanys or Gypsies lived around the time of an incident which took place, in 1832, at the Moorcock Inn, on the edge of the bleak moorland above Greenfield near Saddleworth. It was at this remote pub that the landlord and his gamekeeper son were violently murdered. The Burnplatters were described by MR. G. S. Philips in 1848 as a group of savages “living in log huts thatched with sods, and paying neither rent nor taxes. They were a community to themselves, and had their own wild laws and government. They were the terror likewise of all wayfarers, and it was dangerous for any man to go amongst them alone.” It includes substantial portions of dialect spoken at that time in the area when Greenfield was still part of the West Riding of Yorkshire. The author has attempted to reproduce this phonetically using the conventional alphabet. He is not always consistent in the way the dialect is transcribed though this in itself illustrates the nature of dialect. CHAPTER I. THE WAKES. IT was the first morning of the eagerly awaited Saddleworth Wakes in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and twenty-nine, a year so full of great doings in the country, and followed by a year of still greater doings, that there is little marvel that I call it easily to mind. I had been out of bed by cock-crow to steal across the bare, worm-eaten boards of the chamber floor as prattily as my six feet of height and fourteen stone of weight would permit, to peer through the long diamond-paned window of bottle-green glass up the valley towards Greenfield, the quarter whence we folk of Biggie got our weather. It was a glorious sun-rising and promised a glorious day, and so I stole back to bed in great content, glad that though it was not the Sabbath I could stretch my long limbs between the blankets—sheets were an unknown luxury for such folk as myself and fellow chamberer, Jim Haigh, sometimes called Jim o’ ’Lijah’s, sometimes Jim th’ Tuner, but more often simply Th’ Tuner. I suppose so small a bedroom rarely accommodated two men of our inches. For if I was six-feet-nothing in my stocking-feet, Jim o’ertopped me by a good four inches, and, whilst I was still, as it were, in the making, and lank and willowy, Jim, though but four years my senior, which made him four-and-twenty, was broad and deep chested, with the arms and legs of a very son of Anak. The turn-up bed, “Contrived a double debt to pay, A bed by night, a chest of drawers by day,” into which Jim insinuated himself very gingerly o’ nights, creaked and groaned under his weight, and every morning he woke with cold feet, for the simple reason that they stretched a good half yard out of the bottom of the bedstead. He could not stand upright in our little chamber, and as for yawning and stretching himself, as one does in rousing from insufficient sleep, it was sheer out of the question. A giant truly was my friend Jim, but surely the gentlest and simplest of all created mortals, save when roused to wrath (and that he was not easily), and then let lesser men beware, for Jim in those rare moods knew not his own strength, and I’d as lieve have countered a sledge-hammer in punier hands as met the fall of Jim’s clenched fists. Yet, curiously enough, this man of mighty girth and sinew held me in a sort of wondering reverence. For, despite my protests, Jim insisted to all and sundry of our common acquaintance that I was what he called a “powerful scholard”—I, whom my reverend father, the pastor of Pole Moor Chapel, had wept over and finally despaired of as a hopeless dunce and dullard, unfit for that ministry to which I had been destined from my cradle. Read and write I could ’tis true, nor could I truthfully say “the rule of three did puzzle me, and fractions drove me mad.” English history from the great Alfred’s time to poor, mad George the Third’s I knew fairly well, and could, under compulsion make out from the Latin how Balbus built a wall. But it was when my father set me to the Hebrew, maintaining that a minister of the Gospel should be able to read the Law and Prophets in their original,—it was then, I say that I struck and roundly declared that a parson I would never be. And so it came that I was bound ’prentice at Wrigley Mill to learn the full craft of a master clothier, pledging myself by solemn covenant “my master well and faithfully to serve, his secrets keep, Hurt or Damage to him not to do, Alehouses and ill Company not to frequent, nor Matrimony contract.” As if, commented Jim, when I read over to him these articles, a man would be likely to get wed on the “One shilling yearly for Pocket Money” which, with “Meat, Drink, Washing, Lodging, and two good Suits of Apparel as well Linen as Woollen,” was all I got for working like a slave for “th’ owd felly,” as my master was called by his hands. I had been boarded out by Mr. Wrigley with Mary Haigh, who lived in a small cottage in the mill yard, and it was Mary’s son who had been my true and constant friend from the first days of my apprenticeship, and who now lay slumbering soundly and snoring in the most determined manner in the turnup bed an arm’s length from my side. I must have dropped off into a morning dose, for when I came back again to consciousness Jim was sat on the side of his couch, a little rickety, spindle-shanked, rush-bottomed chair in front of him, against the back of which was propped a small mirror about the size of a sheet of note-paper, its usefulness and beauty much marred by a crack that ran diagonally across a blotted surface. The half of a cocoanut shell, which served Jim as a shaving pot, rested on the floor, and Jim was alternately stropping a very harsh-scraping razor, lathering his face and throat, and shaving himself as he wielded the razor in the right hand and pinched his nose firmly with the left. “Did ta’ ivver hear tell o’ th’ lad at th’ schooil at th’ inspector wer’ hearkening to read?" he broke off to ask, when he noticed that I had opened my eyes. “What about him?” I asked. “Well he come to one o’ them guisehanged long names i’ th’ Bible, an’ baulked at it. ‘Say summat sharp,’ whispers th’ schooilmester. ‘Razzer,’ says th’ lad, ‘Razzer’. But it wer’ noan this razzer I’ll go bail, for I’ve stropped it till mi shackle warks, an’ I’d as soon tha’ took a curry comb to me for comfort.” “You’re making yourself mighty fine to-day, Jim, and it isn’t one of your Sundays for Church,” I commented, noticing his knee-breeches, and that he had already donned polished shoon with buckles of nickel silver and a striped and starred linen shirt. “Church? No, thank God. It’s noan Church to-day. I’m off to th’ Wakes, and so are ta’, mi hearty. Why, man, it’s th’ Rushbearing, an’ aw’ve n’er missed th’ Rushbearing sin’ aw wer’ a little ’un, an’ aw n’er mean to. There’ll be some ale stirring to-day at th’ Church, aw can tell thee, an’ aw’st ha’ mi share on ’t, tha’ may bet thi Sunday booits.” “At the Church?” I queried. “Aye, th’ Church Inn, to be sure. Don’t thee act so gaumless. Ger up an’ don thee, lad. Aw do believe there’s a collop for breakfas’, aw hear it sizzlin’, an’ smell it, too, for that matter. So doant tha be so greedy on th’ porridge, leave a corner for th’ collop.” And if any assurance were needed that breakfast was well forward it was supplied by the shrill voice of Mother Haigh calling at the bottom of the stairs: “Are yo’ idle good-for-nowts goin’ to lig i’ bed till th’ wheel starts to morn? Th’ porridge’s bin ready this bit back, an’ th’ bacon’s welly stuck to th’ pan bottom Ger up, do." Was there ever so clean a kitchen as Mary Haigh’s, I wonder. Certainly there never was one oftener fettled. Jim’s mother had few household gods, but those I verily believe she worshipped. The floor was sanded, the hearth blue-storied, the steel fender shone like burnished silver, you could see your face reflected with queer distortions in the brass knob of the oven door, the oaken press and settle and the deal chairs fairly sparkled with what Mary called elbow grease, the top of the little round three-legged table was white almost as driven snow. And as for Mary herself, sure never was a nattier little woman in all Yorkshire or Lancashire to boot. Nor a harder working. She was a tewer, as all the country-side would tell you, and always had been since she had been left a widow with little Jim still at the breast. She’d kept herself and Jim too, and anyone could see that Jim at all events hadn’t wanted. Even yet she did some burling in the house, and many of the hands at Wrigley’s paid her no less than a penny a week—bar missings—to heat their dinners for them, and in summer time she brewed for the behoof of the mill-girls a sweet and heady beverage called treacle-drink, of which the great merit was that it cost only a meg, in other words a half-penny, the quart, but which, Jim avowed, more in sorrow than in anger, possessed the fatal drawback that you got no forrader on a bucketful. We’d an extra spread for this morning’s meal in honour of the Wakes. We started on the porridge. This Mary poured from the porringer into a large earthenware bowl, a dull russet colour on the outside, a highly glazed yellow on the inner. It stood in the centre of the table. Before Jim’s seat was a basin of “whom-brewed,” which he always took with his porridge. Mary and myself preferred buttermilk, which she fetched from Wrigley’s big house at Holly Grove every churning day. We helped ourselves from the central dish by long leaden spoons, and I’ve always attributed the size of my mouth to the fact that in my tenderest years. I had to use these large-bowled spoons or “go bowt.” Mary exhorted us to draw and eat heartily of the porridge she declared made by God a-purpose for growing lads. "You’ll noan start without sayin’ grace, Jim,” she expostulated as Jim made a flourish over the steaming pottage with his spoon. “What for water-porridge?” asked Jim. “Aw’ve n’er said grace for porridge mother, an’ aw’st noan begin. Ax Abel, he’s noan partickler.” “There’s collops when yo’n etten th’ porridge up, but not afore.” “Oh, collops. Well, then, here goes: ‘Sanctify these blessings—th’ collops aw mean, noan th’ watter porridge—to our use an’ us to Thy service, Amen.’ Nah, Abel, fair do’s. Eh! aw wish it were th’ Wakes six days a week, an’ all th’ year raand. Aw do like collop wi’ haver bread an’ plenty o’ mustard.” When I look back on those days that seem sometimes so far, far away, and at other times as though but yesterday, I blush to think how much I must be in Mary’s debt. For certain sure am I that the sum paid by Mr. Wrigley for my board and lodging never paid Mary. But she never stinted me, and the only times she grieved were the days I was off my food and could not eat my fill of the homely but wholesome fare she set before me. When I grew older and more noticing, as they say, I once hinted that my father should be asked to supplement Mr. Wrigley’s payment, though well I knew there was little to spare at the Manse at Pole Moor. But Mary had waxed wroth at this. “A bargain was a bargain,” she maintained with warmth. “She’d made hers and she’d stick to it. Besides, she never could abide a finicking eater, picking here an’ pishing an’ pshawing, as if th’ fooid weren’t good enough for ’im. Besides, didn’t I read th’ papper to her every week an’ a portion o’ th’ Scriptures, to say nowt o’ th’ ‘Pilgrim’s Progress.’ It were as gooid as having a parson i’ th’ house, wi’out his airs.” “How mich brass has ta?” whispered Jim to me, as he shredded his tobacco, the while his mother cleared the few pots and busied herself with washing—up. “Three shillings,” I confided, fingering the coins lovingly in my breeches’ pocket. “An’ I’ve four—seven shillin’ ’atween us. We’st ha’ to be careful. There’s th’ dobby—horses, an’ th’ swings, an’ Tom Wild’s show—aw wouldn’t miss ‘The Pirates’ Lair’ for owt—an’ th’ fat woman with a beard, an’ the three—legged hen, an’ th’ hot peas, an’ th’ brandy—snap, an’ th’ shooitin’ gallery, an’ th’ aunt sally, an’ th weighin’ machine, an’ th’ pig ’at counts up to twenty, an’ we ’st want a rattle apiece to scrat dahn th’ lasses’ shawls to mak’ ’em jump an’ squeal, an’ then there’s th’ ale, but there’s one comfort, tha’rt a poor supper—eh! aw dunnot see how it’s to be done wi’ th’ brass, but we’st happen meet a trump.” “What’s a trump?” I asked. “A chap wi’ more brass nor wit,” defined Jim, as he continued. “Then there’s a fairin’ for th’ mother. Aw munnot forget that if aw get as drunk as a wheel—head. ’Oo’d greet for a month ovver it. Nuts an’ brandy—snap. It’s my belief ’oo wraps ’em up i’ gilt papper an’ keeps ’em in th’ drawer wi’ them two silver spooins her gran’mother left her. ’Oo never eits ’em, that’s certain, but all th’ same yo’ munnot let me forget th’ fairin’ for th’ owd mother.” “Why, to tell the truth, Jim, I hadn’t thought of going this year. You can have my two or three shillings and welcome.” “And what for no, Abel?” “You see, I haven’t been to see old Mr. Turner for ever so long, and last time I was there he seemed to me to be failing. He seems ill of his mind, and he’s none too long for this world.” “Tha’ means th’ owd hermit, as they ca’ him, up at Dean yead? Aw could nivver mak’ aht how tha tak’ up wi’ such a God-forsaken owd scarecrow.” This from Mary, who had finished her pots, and came from the sink, drying her hands on her apron. “Why, the story’s simple enough and soon told, Mary,” I said. “And if you knew poor old Mr Turner as I know him I’m sure you’d feel for the poor man. “Aye, but pity wi’out relief’s like mustard wi’out beef,” quoth Mary, who was great on proverbs. “An’ aw dunnot see what aw could do for th’ man—more by token ’at he welly fieyed me to death th’ only time aw ivver clapped mi e’en on ’im, an’ that were i’ owd Betty’s at th’ Weigh Key, when he’d come to buy a penn’orth o’ snuff. He nobbut wanted a winding-sheet to mak’ him look like a corpse. He gay’ me a turn, aw know. It’s kitchen physic he’s wanting, if aw’m to judge. But how did ta’ come to leet on him, Abel?” “Why, you know, Mary, that when I walk home to Pole Moor I must needs cross over by Stanedge, and one day I’d turned off just below the “Floating Light” to take a sheep-walk that makes a short cut down to Marsden It came on to rain helter-skelter when I was in the very centre of the Moor, and n’er a tree nor a wall to crouch under for shelter. But a hundred yards or so from the path I saw an old ramshackle sort of building a one decker, that I thought might be a keeper’s hut. I made for it across the heather as fast as my two legs could carry me, for it was lightning and thundering to make matters worse. I knocked at the door, but there was no answer so I just lifted the sneck and walked in. There was no one in the house. I called and better called but I could make no one hear. There wasn’t even a cat, about the place and such a place. Poverty-stricken isn’t the word for it. It was clean enough, however. But just fancy, Mary. One chair, one table, a rack with one or two plates and mugs, and a truckle-bed in a corner, a smouldering fire, and a box of dried turf. But I cowered over the fire to dry me, and then I sat down by the table. There was a book on it. I opened it idly. You might have knocked me down with a feather, as you say. If it wasn’t a Greek Testament! I knew enough of my Alpha and Omega to make that out anyway, and just to pass the time I fell to trying how much of the first Gospel I could construe. I became absorbed in my task and did not hear the opening of the outer door, and nearly jumped out of my skin when I heard a voice: ‘You make yourself at home, young sir.’ I rose in confusion and made what apology I could, and was for going. Mr. Turner, however, for it was he, bade me stay till the storm abated. He himself was dripping wet, but seemed to make no account of it. He stood by the fire, Which I had mended, and the rain siped off him—.” “On to th’ clean fender, of course; just like a man,” interrupted Mary. “There wasn’t a fender. Just th’ ash-hole.” “Aw nivver did,” said Mary. “But go on.” “He was very silent, and I had time to observe him as he gazed into the fire, seemingly oblivious of my presence.” “Oblivious? What’s that?” asked Jim. “Forgetful,” I answered, somewhat testily. “Then why couldn’t ta’ say so?” said Jim. “Tha owt to ha’ bin a parson after all, an’ a gooid weaver spoiled.” I disdained retort and went on: “He was only a littlish man, very thin, shockingly thin, all skin and bone, and his clothes simply hung on him. They were threadbare and much patched, but of good cut and material—West of England broadcloth, if I’m a judge.” “Which you aren’t,” put in Jim. “His hair was white as snow, and his face well, I don’t wonder that Mary thought she’d seen a corpse. Yet though the frame was worn and bent, and the hair so bleached, the face did not seem that of an old man. Not fifty. It was deathly pale and waxen. Scarce a wrinkle seamed his brow, but in his sunken eyes there dwelt a look of woe unutterable. ‘A man of sorrow, and acquainted with grief.’ The old words came to my mind as I looked on those worn, wan features. ‘Have you far to journey?’ he asked me suddenly. ‘To Pole Moor in Scammonden, sir,’ I told him. ‘My father is minister there Mr. Holmes. You’ll have heard of him, the Reverend Mr. Holmes,’ I added, with just pride.” “Aw should think so, indeed”—Mary again. “‘Nay I have little acquaintance in this neighbourhood,’ the man answered. ‘But you will need food before you reach home. I have little to tempt you.’ But I made haste to assure him I wanted nothing to eat. To tell the truth I didn’t just relish sitting down to table with this strange creature—he looked so other worldish, and I didn’t know him then as I have come to know him since—aye, and to like him, too. I suppose he must have seen me look enquiringly at the Greek Testament, for he handed it to me and asked me to read him a few verses But I hadn’t stumbled over many lines before he stopped me. ‘This is how it should go,’ he said. And then he reeled it off, as if it had been plain English I thought my father could read Greek but he reads it but haltingly where Mr. Turner comes.” “As tak’ leave to doubt, that,” said Mary with conviction. “But by now the storm had cleared, and I anxious to be on my way, for it’s no joke being on Stanedge off the beaten track in the dark, or even in the dusk. So I thanked my host for the shelter he had afforded me, and, timidly, and with little hopes of success, begged that on other days, as I passed his cottage, homeward bent, I might call and pay my respects. He gave, as I thought, but a grudging assent, but assent after a fashion he did. And that’s how I came to know Mr. Turner, but who he is and what he is, and how a man of cultured refinement, for any fool can see he’s that, came to live all alone in that wretched hovel, for it’s little better, beats me.” “Oh, there’s all mak’s o’ tales about him,” said Mary. “He’s been th’ talk o’ th’ countryside this twenty year an’ more, to my knowledge. Some sayn one thing, an’ some another. I did hear he’d been a parson an’ had his frock ta’en off him for some prank or other. But it’s all ‘he says an’ shoo says,’ an’ I ma’ no count o’ them sort o’ tales. There’s wimmen i’ this parish as is nivver so happy as when they’re callin’ fro’ door to door an’ rakin’ up all th’ tittle-tattle they can gather an’ ladlin’ it out as they go, wi’ more to it. An’ all th’ time th’ breakfust pots is on th’ table, th’ asses on th’ hearth, th’ dust on th’ furniture, th’ beds just as they were ligged in, th’ slops i’ th’ pots, an’ th’ dinner for th’ poor fools ‘at’s teed to ’em takkin’ its luck on th’ hob or i’ th’ oven. Aw thank God aw’m noan o’ that mak’!” “No, that you’re not,” quoth Jim right heartily. “But come, Abel, lad, let’s be starting for th’ Wakes or we’st miss th’ rush cart. We’st be back bi ten o’clock, mother, an’ aw should like some browies for my supper.” “There’s nowt like browies to go to bed on when yo’n a skin full o’ ale,” Jim confided to me as we crossed the mill yard and made for the plank that crossed Diggle Brook and led on to the way to Woolroad and Dobcross, and so to Saddleworth. “And how’s that?” I asked, more to humour Jim’s loquacity than because I thought myself likely to need the specific. “Why, yo’ see,” expounded Jim, “th’ haver bread’s nourishin’ o’ itself and gives th’ ale summat to work on, but it’s th’ fat as does it. It swims your stoma’ an’ prevents th’ ale mountin’ to your yead. Tha can’t goa far wrong if tha sticks to ale n’ Owdham browies, an’ don’t yo’ forget it, an’ yo’ll have summat to thank Jim th’ Tuner for as long as yo’ live, if he is a fooil.” “I can’t see, Jim, why you should seem to make a point of getting more drink than usual at Christmas time and the Wakes,” I ventured, somewhat timidly, for this was a soreish point with my friend, who for three hundred and sixty-three days of the year was as temperate a man as ever walked on two legs, barring, of course, the members of that new-fangled sect, the teetotallers, that has sprung up since Jim and I were young men. Jim pondered deeply before he vouchsafed a reply. “Why, as to Xersmas time,” he said, as we strode blithely along the road, exchanging greetings with many a friend and neighbour all bent in the same direction with “holiday” written in dress and beaming face, “as to Xersmas time aw dunnot think th’ reason’s far to seek. There’s th’ frost an’ snow, an’ th’ log o’ th’ fire, an’ th’ waits, an’ th’ bells ringing an’ ros’ beef an’ th’ plum pudding—oh! Jerusalem—an’ ivverybody stoppin’ yo’ an’ shakkin’ hands, an’ wishin’ yo’ a Merry Xersmas an’ a Happy New Year, an’ lookin’ as if they meant it. Why, the very robin ’at hops i’ th’ hedge seems to know its Xersmas time. An’ so, somehow, it’s nat’ral to tak’ a drop, an’, maybe, a drop too much at Xersmas. But as for th’ Wakes, now, when aw come to think on ’t, guise hang me if aw know what they’re for or how they come about at all. But yo’ll know, aw’ll be bun, for thi’ yead seems to be stuffed wi’ all sorts o’ lumber ’at’s nowt to do wi’ weavin’ gooid broad cloth. What is th’ Wakes, anyway, Abel?” “Well, now, you know, Jim, it’s but a junketting and holiday-making. But it is held on St. Chad’s Day, and St. Chad was the patron saint of the old Church at Saddleworth. In the old evil Catholic times the monks used to wake all the night dedicated to St. Chad to burn candles and pray before the altar. And the people gathered rushes from the marshes and brook sides and brought them with great rejoicings to strew upon the mud floors of the Church. Then they made merry in token of their gratitude to God for planting His Church in their midst. But now all that was good and wholesome has died away, and all we’ve left is a senseless debauch, or so my father says.” “An’ wi’ all respect to yo’r worthy father, who’s a preicher hissen an’ bound to improve th’ occasion in season an’ out o’ season, aw’st tak’ leave to differ fro’ him. It’s a poor heart that nivver rejoices. Here’s you an’ me, an’ nearly every man Jack on us i’ all this Valley, toilin’ an’ moilin’ fro’ daybreak till sunset, an’ often ovvertime, little ’uns an’ big ’uns, it mak’s no differ. An’ when we’n done us wark we’re so tired ’at we’re fain to crawl to bed. It’s all bed an’ wark, wark an’ bed, except o’ Sundays, an’ even o’ Sundays some folk ’ud have us wark harder nor o’ warkdays, what wi’ Chapel o’ mornin’ an’ Chapel o’ th’ neet, an’ Sunday Schooil, an’ prayer meetin’s, an’ experience meetin’s, an’ Bible classes. Why, man, if it weren’t for Xersmas an’ th’ Wakes an’ Whissund there’d be nother life nor colour nor a gleam o’ sunshine in all th’ long life on us.” “Perhaps when this new Reform Bill comes—.” I began for I was by way of being a budding politician. “Reform Bill!” snorted Jim. “There’s only one mak’ o’ politics for th’ working man: ‘Fear God an’ honour the King, Eit thi porridge an’ howd thi din.’ But see yo’, yonder’s th’ rush cart. Let’s after it.” And the rush-cart sure enough it was—a great wain from which the shafts had been removed stout ropes being substituted, with stangs across six in all, and to each stang two stout young fellows: all gay in rosetted knee-breeches and with streamers of bright colours fluttering from their jaunty caps. And on the waggon was piled a huge cone of rushes cunningly plaited together, on whose summit perched, with precarious seat, Tim o’ Tame Water, who was regarded with fear and trembling by all the children for miles around, he being by way of being the village idiot, though, when I come to think of it, a man who can make a fairish living without doing a handstroke of work from January to December may not be quite such a fool as he’s reckoned. Tim was furnished with a long slender wand or pole, to one end of which was tethered an old, battered tin can, the which he thrust invitingly under the noses of the men and women who watched the progress of the rush-cart. And the coppers rattled in gaily and freely, for who so mean as to begrudge a penny’s fee to the burly lads who had scoured the countryside to gather the rushes, whose deft hands had plaited the reedy pyramid, and who now grunted and sweated behind the stangs as, swaying from side to side of the road, now lifting the stans above their heads, now bending their brawny shoulders to the strain, they drew the creaking wain towards the door of the Church. Old men and withered beldames stood on their dorsteps to watch the throng pass by, and I doubt not drew disparaging comparisons between the rush-cart of that day and those they had danced behind so trippingly when they were young and light of foot and heart; comely matrons dandled their babes in their arms, and held them aloft that their chubby fists might drop a coin into the rattling tin; sturdy urchins dodged about the labouring wheels of the groaning cart in a way to bring your heart into your mouth, till you remembered that a special Providence watches over drunken men and children; and, fairest sight of all, the pretty young lasses, all donned in their Sunday best, and wearing fragrant nosegays of every hue under the sun, ran by the waggon side with many a lilt of rustic melody. Following in the rear of the rush-cart, amid a jeering crowd, rode a man and his wife—their names and habitations I cared not to inquire—who were being “stanged”. The man rode behind his better, very much the better, half, with his face towards the tail of the sorry beast that bore this wretched couple. And as it plodded heavily through the throng the lads and lasses, aye, and even silly grown-up folk who ought to have had more sense, shouted the old nominy, “With a ran, tan, tan, on my old tin can, owd Betty”—I did not catch the name—”and her good man. She banged him, she banged him, for spending a penny when he stood in need, she up with a three-footed stool; she struck him so hard, she cut him so deep, till the blood ran down like a new stuck sheep.” “What a burning shame!” I said to Jim, “to shame the poor folk so.” “Not a bit on it,” laughed Jim. “It’s all in the fun o’ the fair. They’ll plaster their wounded feelings for ’em wi’ lashings o’ ale. I expect it’s a put up job.” And so we went along the highway, past the stalls where nuts, and brandysnap, and humbugs, and peppermint, and all the sorts of goodstuffs you can think of made your money burn in your pocket; past the Aunt Sallies and cocoanut shies—three shies a penny—and the weighing machines and thumping machines—I remembered that last Wakes Jim, being pressed to try his strength, had struck so shrewd a buffet that the indicator whirled all over the brazen face of the dial, and for anything I know is whirling yet, and sent the machine itself staggering across the road—past the pea saloons, and past the booths of the bearded woman and the learned pig, aye, even past Tom Wild’s great show, despite the allurements of an elderly-young lady, whom only two years ago I had counted as fairer than Venus herself, if indeed she was not that goddess incarnate, but upon whom I now looked with cold and critical eye as she paced the platform in front of the booth in pink tights and skirts of gauze that had once been white. “A brazen hussy,” I heard many an honest mother comment to her admiring daughter, “’oo ought to be ashamed o’ hersen, barein’ her legs i’ that fashion for all the world to see.” And so in merry fit we came at length to the Church Inn at Saddleworth, before whose hospitable doors the rush-cart came to a halt, the lads threw down their stangs right gladly, wiped their streaming brows on their coat sleeves, and called lustily for quarts of ale. Tim o’ Tame Water pouched the contents of the collecting-tin, and made his way within doors to change the coppers into less bulky coinage and to apportion the spoil among those who had furnished forth the cart. Jim looked on, somewhat gloomily, I thought. “Aw wish aw had yet aw’m fain aw didn’t,” he vouchsafed. “Wish you’d what?” I queried. “Wish aw’d weighed in wi’ th’ rush-cart. They wanted me to, but th’ owd mother were agin it. Aw’ll be bun they’ll finger a matter o’ haulf a guinea apiece out o’ this year’s Rush. It beats goin’ out wi’ th’ waits at Xersmas time, an’ as for goin’ a wassailing at th’ New Year, why, that’s babby work. To be sure it’s harder work, tho’ aw could tug that owd cart, rushes an’ all, awmost by missen on a pinch, but then, look yo, it’s warmer work, an’, by gosh, a felly nivver knows how nice a gallon o’ ale can taste till he’s poo’d a rush-cart fro’ Woolroad to th’ Church. Aw’ve heard tell o’ a chap at used to put ki-an on salt herrings so’s he could enjoy his liquor more, but aw’t back a rush-cart agen th’ best ki-an ivver come out o’ a pepper-box lid. But then, on t’ other hand, if aw’d had th’ fingering o’ another hauf guinea, besides what we’n getten o’ our own, aw should happen ha’ ended up whur aw see Neddy Thurkill is by now. It’s a weary an’ a contrary world, Abel, when yo’ can see six things for a thing an’ just hauf a dozen agin it.” “Why, what of Neddy Thurkill?” I asked, with quick misgiving. Now Ned was our dyer, and a very good dyer, too; but never a Saturday night came round but he was turned out of the Hanging Gate at Diggle, maudlin drunk, and half his good wages gone in drink. He spent Sunday in bed mending the clocks and watches of the villagers, and he was as good a clock doctor as he was a dyer. Jim jerked his thumb over his shoulder in the direction of the church, just opposite the inns and going to the door and pressing my way through a hustling, jeering crowd, I made my way to the space by the eastern wall of the churchyard, where stood the village stocks, and in them, in drunken gravity, with a churchwarden pipe brandished in one hand, and brandishing a pewter pot half full of ale in the other sat Neddy Thurkill. I turned away sadly enough for a better workman and a better hearted fellow than Ned never breathed, but for just this one fault and that a big one. I found Jim in the front room, which was crowded by a thirsty throng all clamouring for something to wash the dust out of their throats. I ordered my modest draught and managing by great good fortune to secure a seat on a settle near the window gazed moodily on the scene without. To tell the truth I was somewhat out of element in that crowded room of jovial roysterers. Though not averse to a kindly quencher after a long walk, I saw neither rhyme nor reason in guzzling mighty draughts of ale just for the sake of “getting forrader,” and I’d outgrown my boyish affection for nuts and brandysnap, and swing-boats and dobby-horses made me sick, and fat women, even when bearded, had lost their pristine charm. My thoughts wandered from the scene that my eyes gazed upon but scarcely saw, and I fell to musing idly about my strange acquaintance, the recluse of Deanhead, and I reproached myself for having been beguiled from my first intent to visit him in his hour of lonely sickness. I’d have been glad enough to shake the dust of the Wakes from my feet and hie me over the moors to the lonely cottage, or rather hovel, which was all the poor old hermit had to call a home. But I was under solemn vow to watch over the potations of that good natured giant, Jim, whose hearty voice I could distinguish even in that Babel, calling on all and sundry to come and “sup”. I calculated that at his present rate of progression his few shillings would soon be gone, and I made up my mind to slip out presently and expend my little stock in the “fairings” for Mary and one or two of the mill girls and neighbours’ children, that I might in all truth assure Jim I was spent up when he came, as come I knew he would, to see if I could replenish his exhausted exchequer. Then we’d have to go home, Jim willy-nilly. Bent on this goodly strategy, I made my way with no little difficulty along the narrow passage that led to the outer door, and stood a space upon the steps, glad to breathe again the air that stole down from Pots and Pans, and tasted all the sweeter after the mingled fumes of twist tobacco and stale ale of the room I had quitted. My slight elevation enabled me to see across and above the throng, and across the square and hard by the stocks I saw a sight that roused me smartly from my somewhat abstracted mood. I saw the two well-known gamekeepers that all the countryside knew as Bill o’ Jack’s, and Tom o’ Bill’s, William Bradbury and Tom, his son, men of bad repute, wenchers and ale-bibbers, and never so happy as when they could get some poor devil of a weaver into trouble with his betters for snaring a rabbit or bagging a bird. Tom was a fine upstanding fellow enough, but his father had an evil face, full of malice and guile. It was a common saying that Bill made the bullets and Tom shot them. But I’d no time just then for dwelling on family characteristics. I heard a scream and a voice, a young and sweet, pure voice, that cried, “Let me be, let me be.” “Not till I’ve had a kiss, my bonnie gipsy wench.” “Never, never; let me be, I say.” “Jim,” I cried with all my might and main, “Jim, I want you”; and I was through that crowd, how I never knew. And in the centre of a circle of jeering, laughing fools, that seemed to take what was passing as part of the fun of the fair, was Tom o’ Bill’s, flushed with drink and his exertions, in whose arms panted and struggled a young lass of some nineteen years. She was somewhat fantastically dressed in a long scarlet cloak, and her skirt was shorter by an inch or two than a modest maiden’s should be. She wore no headgear, and her long lustrous hair, black as midnight and with ripples that just escaped being curls, fell in wild confusion about a face of purest oval and over a pair of eyes that now gleamed with mingled terror and passion as she panted and writhed in the clasp of the burly gamekeeper, beating with small, brown, clenched fist the mocking lips he sought to press to hers. Near by another woman, an old, dishevelled hag, shrieked, and swore, and hit, and scratched, and kicked in the grasp of that drunken reprobate, Bill Bradbury. She, too, I guessed, was a gipsy, and it was clear she was striving to help the younger woman, while Bill urged his son: “Stick to it, Tom. I’ll hold the old bitch. Ha’ your will o’ the young ’un.” “By your leave, no,” I cried, as I inserted my right hand in Tom’s neck gear, and with a sudden wrench sent him reeling on his heels into the crowd. “You’ll reckon with me first.” “And who the hell are you?” he spluttered, as he recovered his balance. “Oh! it’s th’ parson’s lad o’ Pole Moor. Well, I’ve a score to settle with th’ owd ‘chart-i’-heaven, an’ I reckon I may as well pay it th’ young whelp.” And he came for me with a leap his arm crooked for a blow, and his huge fist clenched. “A feight a feight,” cried the mob. “Make a ring, and fair do’s.” A hurried glance showed me the girl, still panting and trembling, and arranging the folds of her disordered dress about a heaving bosom, clinging to the old beldam whom Bill had cast roughly from him when I sent his son whirling. Now I’m no fighting man, and never was. I had no more notion of the noble art of self-defence than a boy perforce picks up in his schooldays’ scrimmages. Moreover, my reverend father had always impressed upon me that if an adversary smote me on one cheek it was my Christian duty to turn to him the other also. But that was a doctrine I had always regarded as a counsel of perfection, and clearly, unless I had mind to be pounded to a jelly, which I certainly had not, this was no occasion for its practical application, for Tom o’ Bill’s fists were hovering about my head and chest, and I’d much ado to keep clear of them. Of course the odds seemed all against me, for your gamekeeper is ever at home in a brawl. But I was young and active, my brain and eye were clear, and I was as hard as pin-wire, whilst Tom had been keeping up the Wakes to some tune, and, though the drink had fired his blood, it served neither to steady his arms nor his legs. So I held my own fairly well, though I was conscious that my lips were beginning to swell and an eye to close up; and I think, maybe, I should have come off a little more than conqueror, as my father would have said, had not the old man, despite the protestations of the crowd which cried shame on him, joined in the fray and fetched me a sounding blow on the jowl that made the world spin round me. I almost lost consciousness, and beat my arms feebly in some sort of show of attack, and then became aware in a mazed sort of way that the tide of war had changed. For there was Jim, good old Jim, bristling and growling like a mighty mastiff, by my side. He had dealt Tom a blow that must have been like the kick of a stallion, and just as my senses cleared I saw him pick up the shrieking, cursing Bill o’ Jack’s, raise him high above his head, and hurl him a dozen yards or more into the midst of the cheering crowd. Tom o’ Bill’s lay on one elbow on the ground his nose streaming, and spitting out his front teeth. “Do yo’ want any more? There’s plenty wheer that came fro’,” quoth Jim to Tom. But Tom picked himself and, muttering “Yo’st both on yo’ pay for this,” limped off crest fallen. “And nah, lad, we’st best be going whom. I’m spent up an’ awve fuffen,(fought) an’ if that doesn’t mak’ a gooid Wakes aw dunnot know what does. But what about these wenches here? Dost know ’em?” Now I thought I did. I turned to the younger of the two. “Aren’t you Burnplatters?” I asked. She cast down her head, and a hot flush suffused her face. “Yes, no, that is my grandmother…” “I thought I’d seen the old lady our way,” I explained. “Well, if I may make so free, you’d better be making your way toward Slaithwaite, for yon two are ugly customers, and it is best you kept out of their way. So, by your leave, Jim and I will set you on your road.” “Oh, please, don’t trouble. Granddam and I are used to taking care of ourselves. And oh! how can I thank you?” “Thank Jim,” I said. “Come along, if you don’t mind. It’s a tidy step over Stanedge, and the night draws in betimes these days.” So without more ado I took charge of the maiden, whose fluttering hand rested confidingly on my arm. Jim followed me with the elder woman as we made our way through the crowd. “Tha’s getten a sweetheart at last,” I heard a young mill lass cry to Jim. “An’ a beauty oo is to be sure. Yo’ll noan be feart o’ her layin’ away, that’s one comfort.” Jim disdained retort, and as we drew away from the Wakes, and the twain plodded steadily in our rear, I heard him more than once suggest to the poor old woman that they’d get on faster if he carried her on his back. As for my companion she wrapped herself in reserve, replying in monosyllables to my clumsy efforts to draw her into conversation. I gleaned, however, that her name was Miriam, and that she lived at Burnplatts with her grandmother. They had come to the Wakes to sell those little penny whisks of heather which housewives use for dusting, and I don’t think I was far wrong in guessing that the old lady had hoped to turn a copper or two by telling the fortunes of those swains and maids who were willing to cross her palm with the accustomed coin. But of this Miriam said nought. We conveyed the twain through the cutting on the top of Stanedge, set them with their faces towards Pole Moor, and so took our leave. But, though I had met with little encouragement, I vowed within my heart that by hook or crook I would hold Miriam’s little brown hand in mine again. CHAPTER II. THE BURNPLATTERS. ON the slope of the hill as it shelves down to the Colne from Pole Moor lies the little cluster of houses called Burn Platts, and there dwelt, if so nomadic a people could be properly said to dwell anywhere, those terrors of the countryside, the bogeys of all the children for miles around, the Burnplatters—horse-dealers, gipsies, fortune-tellers cloth-lifters, roost-spoilers poachers, tramps, thieves, whiskey-spinners, and evil-doers generally. I could not remember a time when I had not lived in awe of the Burnplatters. The direst threat my mother knew, when my little sister Ruth and I were more than ordinarily perverse, was to send us to the Burnplatters. The stories told of them and their wild doings were legion. They were said to have no religion of any sort of all, though, to be sure, it was conceded that when they were married they were properly tied at St. James’s Church. And a brave display they made at a wedding: bride and bridegroom, bravely decked, walking to and from the Church, a fiddler or two heading a procession of all the Burnplatters, old and young, male and female, twenty to thirty souls. The knot firmly tied, the procession made a round of all the public houses, in Slaithwaite, and finished the day with a sumptuous repast at the “Rose and Crown” on Cop Hill; and it was the general belief that the viands, of which there was no lack, were, to a chicken, either begged, borrowed, or stolen. Whether there was or ever had been any strain of Oriental blood among the Burnplatters I hesitate to say, though I incline to think there must have been some Spanish tinge, for no one could look upon Ephraim Sykes, the reputed leader of the gang, and credit him with nought but British blood. He was of about my own age. His face was tanned, his black hair curled close to his poll, his eye dark as night, and his passions as tumultuous as hell. A blow first and the word afterwards was ever his way. And he was as handsome as a picture. Half the girls in the valley were ready to forswear home, chapel, and respectability and join the Burnplatters at a word from Ephraim. He was the best horsebreaker between Leeds and Manchester. He feared nothing that went on four legs or two—men, dogs, horses or bullocks. When Armitage’s bull—Dick o’ Lijah’s that kept the “Rose” at the Cop—went mad they sent for Ephraim, and with my own eyes I saw him vault upon the raging creature’s back and ride it in a tearing rage twenty times round the paddock and then down to Booth Banks, and when they got back it was covered with foam and as quiet as a lamb. And Ephraim was popular even with the men folk, though feared. He made a mint, of money, horse—breaking, and it was light come, light go with him. Whenever he went into the “Silent Women,” or the “Globe,” or the “Star”, or the “Rose and Crown”, you should have seen the landlord’s face light up. It was open house while Ephraim was there, and, I’m sore to say it, there were in my young days more than two or three of the weavers and croppers of the Valley who liked a cheap drink if the Evil One himself had paid. In my boyhood I had struck up an acquaintance with Ephraim Sykes. A Yorkshire tyke that a devout member of my father’s congregation had presented to me had been the first bond of union. Ephraim had come across me as I wandered aimlessly about the fields, with Tear’em at my heels, and had unceremoniously introduced himself, by way of Tear’em, in whom he manifested an interest that clearly did not embrace myself. “Will she rot?” he asked, after surveying the bitch and commenting approvingly upon various points of perfection only patent to the eyes of a fancier. “Will she rot?” “Not till she’s dead, I hope,” I replied in all innocence. “Pool! thou ninny. Will she tak’ rotten?” and I gathered that he meant rats. “She could if she liked,” I asseverated boldly, seeing that this was expected of her. “But, you see, she has the best of everything at the Manse. I share my porridge with her night and morning.” “Porridge!” sniffed Ephraim disdainfully. “It’s rotten she wants, and rabbits. Han you a ferret” I confessed with shame that I had not. “Well, I han.” And Ephraim produced from his jacket pocket a long white, snakey, writhing thing that eyed me viciously, but which curled and cuddled about Ephraim as if it loved him, as I don’t doubt it did. “That’s the cliverest ferret this side o’ Owdham,” observed Ephraim in a tone that challenged contradiction. “Just yo’ feel the weight on him,” and he held out the creature in the palm of his hands. It eyed me as though to determine which was the juiciest part of my anatomy, and I declined the intimate acquaintance Ephraim was willing to press upon me. “Feart o’ a ferret!” he sneered. “Tha’rt noan as gam’ as thi feyther.” “What do you know of my father?” I asked quickly, for even as a lad I was jealous of that good man’s name and fame. “Why more, happen, than yo think, though I am a Burnplatter. Hasn’t he been to th’ Burnplatts preichin’ time an’ time agen, though we’n towd him plain we don’t want him? An’ hasn’t he towd us to our faces wheer we’re bun to end if we don’t mend our ways? Didn’t he plump down on his knees i’ th’ very midst o’ us, an’ pray to heaven to remove the scales fro’ our eyes, as he ca’d it? An’ didn’t he come neet after neet to sit an’ pray wi’ little Lil when she were down wi’ th’ sma’ pox, an’ owd Jackson th’ Slowit passon, wouldn’t come within a mile o’ Burnplatts for love or money? Oh! he’s a gam’ ’un, is thi feyther. He wouldn’t be feart o’ a bit o’ a ferret, aw’ll be bun. Why he’d tak’ it bi’ th’ scruff o’ th’ neck an’ dip it th’ font if he thowt it ’ud do it onny guid. That’s th’ sort he is.” This hearty commendation of my sire atoned no little for the slighting opinion Ephraim had evidently formed of myself—that and his approval of Tear’em for whom he volunteered to swop that wretch ferret, assuring me with tears in his eyes that the exchange would well-nigh—he said “welly”—ruin him, and that it was only the high regard he entertained for my father that prompted him to make this huge sacrifice. But part with Tear’em I would not. On this point I was adamant. “Well,” said Ephraim, “let’s see if she’ll tak’ a rabbit. I don’t suppose she will. Come to look at her, she’s nobbut a poorish sort. Not much breed about that cur, aw’ rekkon. Aw’m fain yo’ didn’t ha’ th’ ferret after all”—a remark that proved Ephraim was a philosopher of sorts, and knew how to console himself in affliction. But Tear’em had promptly falsified this last adverse judgment on her merits. Ephraim found a long drain that ran the length of a neighbouring field. The ferret went in at one end, whilst I nursed Tear’em at the other. Presently a rabbit bolted, and Tear’em tossed it in the air before it had run ten yards in the open. And so began my friendship with Ephraim Sykes. Lord! what times we had on those dear old moors. It was Ephraim taught me to swim in Clough House mill dam; it was Ephraim who made me horrid sick with my first pipe; Ephraim who knew every bird nest on ground, in hedge, or wall, or tree; Ephraim who haunted old laithes and mistals with his ferret and my Tear’em; Ephraim who skinned the rats and dried and cured their skins and made me a cap thereout; Ephraim who knew where the biggest trout lurked under the sides of the brooks that babbled down the hillsides into the river Colne; Ephraim, I blush to say, who knew the ways of the nesting grouse and took their young before they left the nest. He couldn’t read and he couldn’t write, and thought those accomplishments fit only for lawyers, doctors, and parsons. But of mother wit he’d enough to stock a parish. When I was not at my lessons we were inseparable though I could never get him to cross my father’s threshold, and to all my hints that I should visit him at Burnplatts he turned a deaf ear. And the years passed, and we grew older, and went our several ways—he frequenting horse fairs and feasts, and wakes, and thumps and I minding my warp at the tail of a loom. But Fate had much in store for Ephraim and me in common and what it was the patient reader will learn anon. * * * Now on the very Saturday after our junketing at the Wakes I announced to Mary my pious intent to visit my father at Pole Moor, and to call in upon Mr. Turner on my way. Jim, who heard me, eyed me narrowly, and then knowingly winked the dexter eye. “How far’s th’ Burnplatts fro’ Pole Moor?” was all he said, but said in such a tone as to make his mother glance questioningly from him to me. “Shall aw go wi’ thee, Abel?” “You can if you like,” I said curtly, and wishing that that confounded, tell-tale colour would desert my cheeks. “Well, aw calc’late not this bout, though mich obliged to yo’ for your hearty invitation. Aw nivver was so mich pressed i’ my life. But, as yo’ sen, there’s occasions when two’s company and three’s none.” Now I had said no such thing. “I tell you I’m going to see Mr. Turner on my way, and I’m not sure that he’d care to be moithered with company,” I explained, somewhat lamely, I fear. “And I’ve made him some beef-tea and a custard,” broke in Mary. “An’ mind yo’ see he eits ’em. Aw’d go wi’ yo’ mysen an’ red th’ house up for him, but to tell th’ truth aw’m noan so keen on folk ’at go live bi theirsen i’ a hut on a moor. It’s noan Christian, an’ there’s summat at th’ back on it, or my name’s not Mary Haigh.” It was a glorious day of early autumn, and I strode blithely up the steep ascent that led from the Valley to the Cutting. (The Cutting is a rather deep defile where the road over Stanedge dips into the Diggle Valley.) My young heart sang within me, and I felt almost ashamed of the glad glow of perfect health and rich content that made the mere living so rich a feast, even for one so poor as I, when I reached the hermit’s cot, and lifted the sneck of the door. There was no one in the bottom room or “house,” which was all uncared for—no fire in the grate, which argued badly for the comforts a sick man should have; and again I reproached myself that I had suffered myself to be beguiled into going to the Wakes, though a quick afterthought told me that to have missed the Wakes would have been to have missed one whose dark bright eyes had haunted me day and night ever since, dancing in and out with my shuttle at the loom, and mocking me in my dreams. I took off my clogs and stole in my stocking feet up the straight and narrow staircase that led to the upper chamber. Mr. Turner was tossing and turning on the pallet, muttering in a feverish sleep. So I lied me down again as softly as I could, raked out the embers from the rusty fireplace, kindled a fire, and set about warming up the beef-tea Mary’s forethought had provided. A violent fit of coughing waked the uneasy sleeper, and I carried up a basin-full of the broth, into which I had broken some haver-bread I found on a rack above the fireplace. Mr. Turner smiled and seemed pleased to see me. I propped him up in bed, covered his thin bent shoulders with an old frieze coat, and coaxed him to sip the broth out of a leaden spoon that I had found. “I knew you’d not forget me, Abel,” he said feebly, “and it’s good of Mrs. Haigh to have sent me this excellent soup. Convey to her my compliments and thanks. Or, stay, you’ll find a trinket or two in what I’m going to hand over to you in charge. Select a fitting one, and ask Mrs. Haigh to wear it when the old hermit’s gone; the others keep in memory of the man you have befriended, whose solitude you have shared.” I could scarce restrain a smile. I imagined Mary wearing anything the sick man would be likely leave behind him. I thought sure his wits were leaving him. But he went on: “Put your arm up the chimney yonder. You’ll have to pull out the sacking. Don’t be afraid of soot. It’s little enough there’s in that flue. Your right arm, and feel on the left side.” Wondering greatly, I did as I was bid, and felt my groping fingers touch what I rightly guessed to be the handle of a box. It was a rare weight, but I got the case down and took it to the bed-side. Mr. Turner, with trembling hands, undid the collar of his shirt, and took from a thin chain around his neck a small key. “Now, listen,” he said, “and as you value your peace hereafter keep the charge I commit to you. You’re young, Abel, and I’ve not known you long. But I think I can trust you. I am about to tell you what has never before passed my lips. I know you have wondered often who I am, and why I have lived this lonely and wretched life. It’s a sad, sad tale—a tale of sin and shame and sorrow but maybe I shall be the easier for the telling of it, and there’s that to be done which must be done if it can be done There’s retribution to be made if it can be made, and yours must be the hands to do it.” Now it must not be supposed that all this was spoken straight off, as I have written it. It was almost gasped out, and the cold, clammy sweat stood on the poor man’s brow as the words came feebly forth from his pallid lips. “You know me, as all about here know me, and have known me ever since, some twenty long years ago, I came to dwell, to drag out my weary years rather, in this wretched haunt in this cold, bleak, inhospitable moor—known me as Mr. Turner, the mad hermit. But that is not my name—it is Garside, the Reverend James Garside, for I am a deacon, duly presented and admitted, of the Established Church. Aye, you may well start and stare. My father was a manufacturer in Manchester. His name, too, was James. I tell you this because you may need all the particulars I can furnish. He died when I was in my second year, leaving my mother in circumstances more than comfortable, I their only child. She was but young when my father left her a widow—he was her senior by many years. She never married again, but devoted her life to the upbringing of her unworthy son. My God! my God! how have I repaid that wealth of love so unstintingly lavished upon me. She could scarce bear me out of her sight, and as I grew older rejected the counsel of her few friends that I should be sent to the Grammar School. I must have a tutor, and be taught at home. “I think I must have been about ten years old when an event occurred that disturbed the even tenour of our placid life. One winter’s morning I had risen betimes, and it so chanced that I was the first to open the massive door that opened on to the street. The snow was falling in slow, heavy flakes. It was scarcely light. There were no passers-by. The street was deserted, and covered deep by snow. I was peering through the gloom, looking for I know not what, when I was startled by a feeble wail that seemed to come from my very feet. I became aware of a small bundle, nigh buried in the cold coverlet of snow, that rested on the top most step of the broad flight that led from the street to the door. I stooped and picked up the bundle, and brushed off the snow, and carried it hastily into the kitchen, where the maid was lighting the fire. Between us we undid the wraps, and within we found a tiny infant, but a few months old. A scrap of paper was pinned to the poor, thin dress in which the babe was clad, and on it was scrawled in a rude hand: ‘Her name is Esmeralda.’ My mother was hastily summoned from her room. I was banished the kitchen, and when I was suffered to return beheld the child washed and kempt and clad in soft, warm flannels, and slumbering peacefully before a roaring fire on my mother’s lap. “Now, whether it was that my mother’s heart yearned for a girl child, or that the forlornness and helplessness of the babe appealed to her, or that my own delight in the foundling—whom I made no delay in claiming as my own treasure-trove—influenced her, I know not, but to all the counsels of her friends to send the infant to the workhouse she turned a deaf ear. I cannot, for time presses, and my strength ebbs fast away, tell how the infant grew in years, in strength, and grace; how we were brought up together, as though she were indeed my little sister. Now when I was nineteen years of age, and she a beautiful dark-eyed maiden some nine years younger, I was sent to the University of Oxford to pursue my studies and qualify for the ministry, to which my mother had destined me from my cradle. My vacations were spent mostly in foreign travel, making the Grand Tour, as it used to be called in my young days. And so it chanced that I saw little of Esmeralda, until, education being considered complete, my degree taken, and I admitted to deacon’s orders, I returned in my twenty-seventh year to my mother’s house to await my first curacy. And I found the little maid I had nursed in my arms and dandled on my knees a beautiful, bewitching woman, with a beauty rare it made men thrill to look upon. I suppose there must have been some strain of Eastern blood in her, for though but seventeen she looked older; her form was fuller, more rounded than those of the maidens of our colder clime, and there was a seductiveness and a passionate warmth about her whole being that allured me probably all the more that both by temperament and from my training my passions were not lightly kindled. “I should have told you that some faint-hearted efforts had been made by my mother to ascertain the mystery of Esmeralda’s parentage. Advertisements had been inserted in the papers and the police had been communicated with shortly after Esmeralda was received into our household—more from a sense of duty on my mother’s part than from any desire she felt to part with the child. But these efforts, if efforts they could be called, bore no fruit. But I have reason to believe that when Esmeralda was in her early teens she received secret communications that revealed to her the mystery of her birth, and that she had established secret relations with the author of her being, who, I strongly suspect, preyed upon the slender allowance of pin-money my mother gave to Esmeralda. “But I must be brief. You will have guessed already that Esmeralda and I, thus brought together again when both were in the full flush of youth, and when nature clamours for love and love’s fulfilling, loved, and loved none the less ardently that we must conceal our passion. Though my mother for me ever a tender and thoughtful parent, her indulgence I knew to have its limits. She was proud of her kith and kin—the middle classes have their family pride, Abel, not less than and perhaps with as good a reason as the upper. Moreover she had long laid her plans for my alliance. I was to mate with the daughter of an old friend of my father’s, a manufacturer like himself, a girl fair enough to look upon and well dowered to boot, and whom ’tis like enough I should have learned to love had not my heart been engrossed by Esmeralda’s image. I knew that to thwart my mother in her long-cherished design would be to court my ruin, for gentle though she was she could ill bear crossing. “Have I told you that the man who had been my tutor as a boy and youth, who had accompanied me on my foreign travels, had remained all these years an inmate of my mother’s house, partly to guide the studies of the maid, Esmeralda, whom my mother intended for a companion, and perchance a nurse, and partly as my mother’s secretary and business manager—for my mother’s estate, so frugally did she live, and so jealously did she guard her store, had grown to no mean dimensions? This man, this viper I should rather call him, had wormed himself into my confidence. I regarded him as a friend. It was not so much that I confided to him my love for Esmeralda as that he divined it—the wonder is that my mother had not herself divined it. When I spoke to him of my fixed resolve to make Esmeralda my wife he professed the utmost alarm if my mother should become aware of my infatuation, as he termed it. He affected to dissuade me from my purpose, and when he found that I laughed his warnings to the wind he counselled me to a secret marriage—anything rather than tell my mother, though I am persuaded that had I but been frank and firm my mother’s love would in the end have proved stronger than her pride and she would have blessed our union. But, I yielded to the insidious advice of the tempter the more readily, doubtless, that I saw therein the means of gratifying my love and avoiding a rupture with a parent who, by a stroke of the pen, could leave me penniless save for the meagre pittance of a curate. “Let me hasten to the end. My tutor secured a charming cottage in the neighbourhood of Grasmere. My mother had gone to Matlock for a three months’ cure. Esmeralda and I journeyed by coach to Gretna Green, and there were made man and wife. Look in that box, and you will find a copy of the certificate of our marriage.” I found the document—I found other things as well that made me catch my breath, but of these anon. It was a certificate of what used to be called a “red-hot wedding,” welded on the anvil for an altar. It ran: |
|