Anxious in good truth, and sick at heart! The listener held the door of his hiding-place open with his hand, and closely watched her son. Grip--alive to everything his master was unconscious of-- had his head out of the basket, and in return was watching him intently with his glistening eye.
"He flaps his wings," said Barnaby, turning almost quickly enough to catch the retreating form and closing door, "as if there were strangers here, but Grip is wiser than to fancy that. Jump then!"
Accepting this invitation with a dignity peculiar to himself, the bird hopped up on his master"s shoulder, from that to his extended hand, and so to the ground. Barnaby unstrapping the basket and putting it down in a corner with the lid open, Grip"s first care was to shut it down with all possible despatch, and then to stand upon it. Believing, no doubt, that he had now rendered it utterly impossible, and beyond the power of mortal man, to shut him up in it any more, he drew a great many corks in triumph, and uttered a corresponding number of hurrahs.
"Mother!" said Barnaby, laying aside his hat and stick, and returning to the chair from which he had risen, "I"ll tell you where we have been to-day, and what we have been doing,--shall I?"
She took his hand in hers, and holding it, nodded the word she could not speak.
"You mustn"t tell," said Barnaby, holding up his finger, "for it"s a secret, mind, and only known to me, and Grip, and Hugh. We had the dog with us, but he"s not like Grip, clever as he is, and doesn"t guess it yet, I"ll wager.--Why do you look behind me so?"
"Did I?" she answered faintly. "I didn"t know I did. Come nearer me."
"You are frightened!" said Barnaby, changing colour. "Mother--you don"t see"-- "See what?"
"There"s--there"s none of this about, is there?" he answered in a whisper, drawing closer to her and clasping the mark upon his wrist. "I am afraid there is, somewhere. You make my hair stand on end, and my flesh creep. Why do you look like that? Is it in the room as I have seen it in my dreams, dashing the ceiling and the walls with red? Tell me. Is it?"
He fell into a shivering fit as he put the question, and shutting out the light with his hands, sat shaking in every limb until it had pa.s.sed away. After a time, he raised his head and looked about him.
"Is it gone?"
"There has been nothing here," rejoined his mother, soothing him. "Nothing indeed, dear Barnaby. Look! You see there are but you and me."
He gazed at her vacantly, and, becoming rea.s.sured by degrees, burst into a wild laugh.
"But let us see," he said, thoughtfully. "Were we talking? Was it you and me? Where have we been?"
"Nowhere but here."
"Aye, but Hugh, and I," said Barnaby,--"that"s it. Maypole Hugh, and I, you know, and Grip--we have been lying in the forest, and among the trees by the road side, with a dark lantern after night came on, and the dog in a noose ready to slip him when the man came by."
"What man?"
"The robber; him that the stars winked at. We have waited for him after dark these many nights, and we shall have him. I"d know him in a thousand. Mother, see here! This is the man. Look!"
He twisted his handkerchief round his head, pulled his hat upon his brow, wrapped his coat about him, and stood up before her: so like the original he counterfeited, that the dark figure peering out behind him might have pa.s.sed for his own shadow.
"Ha ha ha! We shall have him," he cried, ridding himself of the semblance as hastily as he had a.s.sumed it. "You shall see him, mother, bound hand and foot, and brought to London at a saddle- girth; and you shall hear of him at Tyburn Tree if we have luck. So Hugh says. You"re pale again, and trembling. And why DO you look behind me so?"
"It is nothing," she answered. "I am not quite well. Go you to bed, dear, and leave me here."
"To bed!" he answered. "I don"t like bed. I like to lie before the fire, watching the prospects in the burning coals--the rivers, hills, and dells, in the deep, red sunset, and the wild faces. I am hungry too, and Grip has eaten nothing since broad noon. Let us to supper. Grip! To supper, lad!"
The raven flapped his wings, and, croaking his satisfaction, hopped to the feet of his master, and there held his bill open, ready for snapping up such lumps of meat as he should throw him. Of these he received about a score in rapid succession, without the smallest discomposure.
"That"s all," said Barnaby.
"More!" cried Grip. "More!"
But it appearing for a certainty that no more was to be had, he retreated with his store; and disgorging the morsels one by one from his pouch, hid them in various corners--taking particular care, however, to avoid the closet, as being doubtful of the hidden man"s propensities and power of resisting temptation. When he had concluded these arrangements, he took a turn or two across the room with an elaborate a.s.sumption of having nothing on his mind (but with one eye hard upon his treasure all the time), and then, and not till then, began to drag it out, piece by piece, and eat it with the utmost relish.
Barnaby, for his part, having pressed his mother to eat in vain, made a hearty supper too. Once during the progress of his meal, he wanted more bread from the closet and rose to get it. She hurriedly interposed to prevent him, and summoning her utmost fort.i.tude, pa.s.sed into the recess, and brought it out herself.
"Mother," said Barnaby, looking at her steadfastly as she sat down beside him after doing so; "is to-day my birthday?"
"To-day!" she answered. "Don"t you recollect it was but a week or so ago, and that summer, autumn, and winter have to pa.s.s before it comes again?"
"I remember that it has been so till now," said Barnaby. "But I think to-day must be my birthday too, for all that."
She asked him why? "I"ll tell you why," he said. "I have always seen you--I didn"t let you know it, but I have--on the evening of that day grow very sad. I have seen you cry when Grip and I were most glad; and look frightened with no reason; and I have touched your hand, and felt that it was cold--as it is now. Once, mother (on a birthday that was, also), Grip and I thought of this after we went upstairs to bed, and when it was midnight, striking one o"clock, we came down to your door to see if you were well. You were on your knees. I forget what it was you said. Grip, what was it we heard her say that night?"
"I"m a devil!" rejoined the raven promptly.
"No, no," said Barnaby. "But you said something in a prayer; and when you rose and walked about, you looked (as you have done ever since, mother, towards night on my birthday) just as you do now. I have found that out, you see, though I am silly. So I say you"re wrong; and this must be my birthday--my birthday, Grip!"
The bird received this information with a crow of such duration as a c.o.c.k, gifted with intelligence beyond all others of his kind, might usher in the longest day with. Then, as if he had well considered the sentiment, and regarded it as apposite to birthdays, he cried, "Never say die!" a great many times, and flapped his wings for emphasis.
The widow tried to make light of Barnaby"s remark, and endeavoured to divert his attention to some new subject; too easy a task at all times, as she knew. His supper done, Barnaby, regardless of her entreaties, stretched himself on the mat before the fire; Grip perched upon his leg, and divided his time between dozing in the grateful warmth, and endeavouring (as it presently appeared) to recall a new accomplishment he had been studying all day.
A long and profound silence ensued, broken only by some change of position on the part of Barnaby, whose eyes were still wide open and intently fixed upon the fire; or by an effort of recollection on the part of Grip, who would cry in a low voice from time to time, "Polly put the ket--" and there stop short, forgetting the remainder, and go off in a doze again.
After a long interval, Barnaby"s breathing grew more deep and regular, and his eyes were closed. But even then the unquiet spirit of the raven interposed. "Polly put the ket--" cried Grip, and his master was broad awake again.
At length Barnaby slept soundly, and the bird with his bill sunk upon his breast, his breast itself puffed out into a comfortable alderman-like form, and his bright eye growing smaller and smaller, really seemed to be subsiding into a state of repose. Now and then he muttered in a sepulchral voice, "Polly put the ket--" but very drowsily, and more like a drunken man than a reflecting raven.
The widow, scarcely venturing to breathe, rose from her seat. The man glided from the closet, and extinguished the candle.
"--tle on," cried Grip, suddenly struck with an idea and very much excited. "--tle on. Hurrah! Polly put the ket-tle on, we"ll all have tea; Polly put the ket-tle on, we"ll all have tea. Hurrah, hurrah, hurrah! I"m a devil, I"m a devil, I"m a ket-tle on, Keep up your spirits, Never say die, Bow, wow, wow, I"m a devil, I"m a ket-tle, I"m a--Polly put the ket-tle on, we"ll all have tea."
They stood rooted to the ground, as though it had been a voice from the grave.
But even this failed to awaken the sleeper. He turned over towards the fire, his arm fell to the ground, and his head drooped heavily upon it. The widow and her unwelcome visitor gazed at him and at each other for a moment, and then she motioned him towards the door.
"Stay," he whispered. "You teach your son well."
"I have taught him nothing that you heard to-night. Depart instantly, or I will rouse him."
"You are free to do so. Shall I rouse him?"
"You dare not do that."
"I dare do anything, I have told you. He knows me well, it seems. At least I will know him."
"Would you kill him in his sleep?" cried the widow, throwing herself between them.
"Woman," he returned between his teeth, as he motioned her aside, "I would see him nearer, and I will. If you want one of us to kill the other, wake him."
With that he advanced, and bending down over the prostrate form, softly turned back the head and looked into the face. The light of the fire was upon it, and its every lineament was revealed distinctly. He contemplated it for a brief s.p.a.ce, and hastily uprose.
"Observe," he whispered in the widow"s ear: "In him, of whose existence I was ignorant until to-night, I have you in my power. Be careful how you use me. Be careful how you use me. I am dest.i.tute and starving, and a wanderer upon the earth. I may take a sure and slow revenge."
"There is some dreadful meaning in your words. I do not fathom it."
"There is a meaning in them, and I see you fathom it to its very depth. You have antic.i.p.ated it for years; you have told me as much. I leave you to digest it. Do not forget my warning."
He pointed, as he left her, to the slumbering form, and stealthily withdrawing, made his way into the street. She fell on her knees beside the sleeper, and remained like one stricken into stone, until the tears which fear had frozen so long, came tenderly to her relief.
"Oh Thou," she cried, "who hast taught me such deep love for this one remnant of the promise of a happy life, out of whose affliction, even, perhaps the comfort springs that he is ever a relying, loving child to me--never growing old or cold at heart, but needing my care and duty in his manly strength as in his cradle-time--help him, in his darkened walk through this sad world, or he is doomed, and my poor heart is broken!"
Chapter 18.
Gliding along the silent streets, and holding his course where they were darkest and most gloomy, the man who had left the widow"s house crossed London Bridge, and arriving in the City, plunged into the backways, lanes, and courts, between Cornhill and Smithfield; with no more fixedness of purpose than to lose himself among their windings, and baffle pursuit, if any one were d.o.g.g.i.ng his steps.
It was the dead time of the night, and all was quiet. Now and then a drowsy watchman"s footsteps sounded on the pavement, or the lamplighter on his rounds went flashing past, leaving behind a little track of smoke mingled with glowing morsels of his hot red link. He hid himself even from these partakers of his lonely walk, and, shrinking in some arch or doorway while they pa.s.sed, issued forth again when they were gone and so pursued his solitary way.
To be shelterless and alone in the open country, hearing the wind moan and watching for day through the whole long weary night; to listen to the falling rain, and crouch for warmth beneath the lee of some old barn or rick, or in the hollow of a tree; are dismal things--but not so dismal as the wandering up and down where shelter is, and beds and sleepers are by thousands; a houseless rejected creature. To pace the echoing stones from hour to hour, counting the dull chimes of the clocks; to watch the lights twinkling in chamber windows, to think what happy forgetfulness each house shuts in; that here are children coiled together in their beds, here youth, here age, here poverty, here wealth, all equal in their sleep, and all at rest; to have nothing in common with the slumbering world around, not even sleep, Heaven"s gift to all its creatures, and be akin to nothing but despair; to feel, by the wretched contrast with everything on every hand, more utterly alone and cast away than in a trackless desert; this is a kind of suffering, on which the rivers of great cities close full many a time, and which the solitude in crowds alone awakens.
The miserable man paced up and down the streets--so long, so wearisome, so like each other--and often cast a wistful look towards the east, hoping to see the first faint streaks of day. But obdurate night had yet possession of the sky, and his disturbed and restless walk found no relief.
One house in a back street was bright with the cheerful glare of lights; there was the sound of music in it too, and the tread of dancers, and there were cheerful voices, and many a burst of laughter. To this place--to be near something that was awake and glad--he returned again and again; and more than one of those who left it when the merriment was at its height, felt it a check upon their mirthful mood to see him flitting to and fro like an uneasy ghost. At last the guests departed, one and all; and then the house was close shut up, and became as dull and silent as the rest.
His wanderings brought him at one time to the city jail. Instead of hastening from it as a place of ill omen, and one he had cause to shun, he sat down on some steps hard by, and resting his chin upon his hand, gazed upon its rough and frowning walls as though even they became a refuge in his jaded eyes. He paced it round and round, came back to the same spot, and sat down again. He did this often, and once, with a hasty movement, crossed to where some men were watching in the prison lodge, and had his foot upon the steps as though determined to accost them. But looking round, he saw that the day began to break, and failing in his purpose, turned and fled.
He was soon in the quarter he had lately traversed, and pacing to and fro again as he had done before. He was pa.s.sing down a mean street, when from an alley close at hand some shouts of revelry arose, and there came straggling forth a dozen madcaps, whooping and calling to each other, who, parting noisily, took different ways and dispersed in smaller groups.
Hoping that some low place of entertainment which would afford him a safe refuge might be near at hand, he turned into this court when they were all gone, and looked about for a half-opened door, or lighted window, or other indication of the place whence they had come. It was so profoundly dark, however, and so ill-favoured, that he concluded they had but turned up there, missing their way, and were pouring out again when he observed them. With this impression, and finding there was no outlet but that by which he had entered, he was about to turn, when from a grating near his feet a sudden stream of light appeared, and the sound of talking came. He retreated into a doorway to see who these talkers were, and to listen to them.
The light came to the level of the pavement as he did this, and a man ascended, bearing in his hand a torch. This figure unlocked and held open the grating as for the pa.s.sage of another, who presently appeared, in the form of a young man of small stature and uncommon self-importance, dressed in an obsolete and very gaudy fashion.
"Good night, n.o.ble captain," said he with the torch. "Farewell, commander. Good luck, ill.u.s.trious general!"
In return to these compliments the other bade him hold his tongue, and keep his noise to himself, and laid upon him many similar injunctions, with great fluency of speech and sternness of manner.
"Commend me, captain, to the stricken Miggs," returned the torch- bearer in a lower voice. "My captain flies at higher game than Miggses. Ha, ha, ha! My captain is an eagle, both as respects his eye and soaring wings. My captain breaketh hearts as other bachelors break eggs at breakfast."
"What a fool you are, Stagg!" said Mr Tappert.i.t, stepping on the pavement of the court, and brushing from his legs the dust he had contracted in his pa.s.sage upward.
"His precious limbs!" cried Stagg, clasping one of his ankles. "Shall a Miggs aspire to these proportions! No, no, my captain. We will inveigle ladies fair, and wed them in our secret cavern. We will unite ourselves with blooming beauties, captain."
"I"ll tell you what, my buck," said Mr Tappert.i.t, releasing his leg; "I"ll trouble you not to take liberties, and not to broach certain questions unless certain questions are broached to you. Speak when you"re spoke to on particular subjects, and not otherways. Hold the torch up till I"ve got to the end of the court, and then kennel yourself, do you hear?"
"I hear you, n.o.ble captain."
"Obey then," said Mr Tappert.i.t haughtily. "Gentlemen, lead on!" With which word of command (addressed to an imaginary staff or retinue) he folded his arms, and walked with surpa.s.sing dignity down the court.
His obsequious follower stood holding the torch above his head, and then the observer saw for the first time, from his place of concealment, that he was blind. Some involuntary motion on his part caught the quick ear of the blind man, before he was conscious of having moved an inch towards him, for he turned suddenly and cried, "Who"s there?"
"A man," said the other, advancing. "A friend."
"A stranger!" rejoined the blind man. "Strangers are not my friends. What do you do there?"
"I saw your company come out, and waited here till they were gone. I want a lodging."
"A lodging at this time!" returned Stagg, pointing towards the dawn as though he saw it. "Do you know the day is breaking?"
"I know it," rejoined the other, "to my cost. I have been traversing this iron-hearted town all night."
"You had better traverse it again," said the blind man, preparing to descend, "till you find some lodgings suitable to your taste. I don"t let any."
"Stay!" cried the other, holding him by the arm.
"I"ll beat this light about that hangdog face of yours (for hangdog it is, if it answers to your voice), and rouse the neighbourhood besides, if you detain me," said the blind man. "Let me go. Do you hear?"
"Do YOU hear!" returned the other, c.h.i.n.king a few shillings together, and hurriedly pressing them into his hand. "I beg nothing of you. I will pay for the shelter you give me. Death! Is it much to ask of such as you! I have come from the country, and desire to rest where there are none to question me. I am faint, exhausted, worn out, almost dead. Let me lie down, like a dog, before your fire. I ask no more than that. If you would be rid of me, I will depart to-morrow."
"If a gentleman has been unfortunate on the road," muttered Stagg, yielding to the other, who, pressing on him, had already gained a footing on the steps--"and can pay for his accommodation--"
"I will pay you with all I have. I am just now past the want of food, G.o.d knows, and wish but to purchase shelter. What companion have you below?"
"None."
"Then fasten your grate there, and show me the way. Quick!"
The blind man complied after a moment"s hesitation, and they descended together. The dialogue had pa.s.sed as hurriedly as the words could be spoken, and they stood in his wretched room before he had had time to recover from his first surprise.
"May I see where that door leads to, and what is beyond?" said the man, glancing keenly round. "You will not mind that?"
"I will show you myself. Follow me, or go before. Take your choice."
He bade him lead the way, and, by the light of the torch which his conductor held up for the purpose, inspected all three cellars narrowly. a.s.sured that the blind man had spoken truth, and that he lived there alone, the visitor returned with him to the first, in which a fire was burning, and flung himself with a deep groan upon the ground before it.
His host pursued his usual occupation without seeming to heed him any further. But directly he fell asleep--and he noted his falling into a slumber, as readily as the keenest-sighted man could have done--he knelt down beside him, and pa.s.sed his hand lightly but carefully over his face and person.
His sleep was checkered with starts and moans, and sometimes with a muttered word or two. His hands were clenched, his brow bent, and his mouth firmly set. All this, the blind man accurately marked; and as if his curiosity were strongly awakened, and he had already some inkling of his mystery, he sat watching him, if the expression may be used, and listening, until it was broad day.