บทที่ บทที่ 37 · 第37章

He was impatient for my coming out of my chamber, but finding me long,

he went downstairs and talked with my landlord about the parson.

My landlord, an officious though well-meaning fellow, had sent away for

the neighbouring clergyman; and when my gentleman began to speak of it

to him, and talk of sending for him, “Sir,” says he to him, “my friend

is in the house”; so without any more words he brought them together.

When he came to the minister, he asked him if he would venture to marry

a couple of strangers that were both willing. The parson said that Mr.

—— had said something to him of it; that he hoped it was no clandestine

business; that he seemed to be a grave gentleman, and he supposed madam

was not a girl, so that the consent of friends should be wanted. “To

put you out of doubt of that,” says my gentleman, “read this paper”;

and out he pulls the license. “I am satisfied,” says the minister;

“where is the lady?” “You shall see her presently,” says my gentleman.

When he had said thus he comes upstairs, and I was by that time come

out of my room; so he tells me the minister was below, and that he had

talked with him, and that upon showing him the license, he was free to

marry us with all his heart, “but he asks to see you”; so he asked if I

would let him come up.

“’Tis time enough,” said I, “in the morning, is it not?” “Why,” said

he, “my dear, he seemed to scruple whether it was not some young girl

stolen from her parents, and I assured him we were both of age to

command our own consent; and that made him ask to see you.” “Well,”

said I, “do as you please”; so up they brings the parson, and a merry,

good sort of gentleman he was. He had been told, it seems, that we had

met there by accident, that I came in the Chester coach, and my

gentleman in his own coach to meet me; that we were to have met last

night at Stony-Stratford, but that he could not reach so far. “Well,

sir,” says the parson, “every ill turn has some good in it. The

disappointment, sir,” says he to my gentleman, “was yours, and the good

turn is mine, for if you had met at Stony-Stratford I had not had the

honour to marry you. Landlord, have you a Common Prayer Book?”

I started as if I had been frightened. “Lord, sir,” says I, “what do

you mean? What, to marry in an inn, and at night too?” “Madam,” says

the minister, “if you will have it be in the church, you shall; but I

assure you your marriage will be as firm here as in the church; we are

not tied by the canons to marry nowhere but in the church; and if you

will have it in the church, it will be a public as a county fair; and

as for the time of day, it does not at all weigh in this case; our

princes are married in their chambers, and at eight or ten o’clock at

night.”

I was a great while before I could be persuaded, and pretended not to

be willing at all to be married but in the church. But it was all

grimace; so I seemed at last to be prevailed on, and my landlord and

his wife and daughter were called up. My landlord was father and clerk

and all together, and we were married, and very merry we were; though I

confess the self-reproaches which I had upon me before lay close to me,

and extorted every now and then a deep sigh from me, which my

bridegroom took notice of, and endeavoured to encourage me, thinking,

poor man, that I had some little hesitations at the step I had taken so

hastily.

We enjoyed ourselves that evening completely, and yet all was kept so

private in the inn that not a servant in the house knew of it, for my

landlady and her daughter waited on me, and would not let any of the

maids come upstairs, except while we were at supper. My landlady’s

daughter I called my bridesmaid; and sending for a shopkeeper the next

morning, I gave the young woman a good suit of knots, as good as the

town would afford, and finding it was a lace-making town, I gave her

mother a piece of bone-lace for a head.

One reason that my landlord was so close was, that he was unwilling the

minister of the parish should hear of it; but for all that somebody

heard of it, so at that we had the bells set a-ringing the next morning

early, and the music, such as the town would afford, under our window;

but my landlord brazened it out, that we were married before we came

thither, only that, being his former guests, we would have our

wedding-supper at his house.

We could not find in our hearts to stir the next day; for, in short,

having been disturbed by the bells in the morning, and having perhaps

not slept overmuch before, we were so sleepy afterwards that we lay in

bed till almost twelve o’clock.

I begged my landlady that we might not have any more music in the town,

nor ringing of bells, and she managed it so well that we were very

quiet; but an odd passage interrupted all my mirth for a good while.

The great room of the house looked into the street, and my new spouse

being belowstairs, I had walked to the end of the room; and it being a

pleasant, warm day, I had opened the window, and was standing at it for

some air, when I saw three gentlemen come by on horseback and go into

an inn just against us.

It was not to be concealed, nor was it so doubtful as to leave me any

room to question it, but the second of the three was my Lancashire

husband. I was frightened to death; I never was in such a consternation

in my life; I thought I should have sunk into the ground; my blood ran

chill in my veins, and I trembled as if I had been in a cold fit of

ague. I say, there was no room to question the truth of it; I knew his

clothes, I knew his horse, and I knew his face.

The first sensible reflect I made was, that my husband was not by to

see my disorder, and that I was very glad of it. The gentlemen had not

been long in the house but they came to the window of their room, as is

usual; but my window was shut, you may be sure. However, I could not

keep from peeping at them, and there I saw him again, heard him call

out to one of the servants of the house for something he wanted, and

received all the terrifying confirmations of its being the same person

that were possible to be had.

My next concern was to know, if possible, what was his business there;

but that was impossible. Sometimes my imagination formed an idea of one

frightful thing, sometimes of another; sometimes I thought he had

discovered me, and was come to upbraid me with ingratitude and breach

of honour; and every moment I fancied he was coming up the stairs to

insult me; and innumerable fancies came into my head of what was never

in his head, nor ever could be, unless the devil had revealed it to

him.

I remained in this fright nearly two hours, and scarce ever kept my eye

from the window or door of the inn where they were. At last, hearing a

great clatter in the passage of their inn, I ran to the window, and, to

my great satisfaction, saw them all three go out again and travel on

westward. Had they gone towards London, I should have been still in a

fright, lest I should meet him on the road again, and that he should

know me; but he went the contrary way, and so I was eased of that

disorder.

We resolved to be going the next day, but about six o’clock at night we

were alarmed with a great uproar in the street, and people riding as if

they had been out of their wits; and what was it but a hue-and-cry

after three highwaymen that had robbed two coaches and some other

travellers near Dunstable Hill, and notice had, it seems, been given

that they had been seen at Brickhill at such a house, meaning the house

where those gentlemen had been.

The house was immediately beset and searched, but there were witnesses

enough that the gentlemen had been gone over three hours. The crowd

having gathered about, we had the news presently; and I was heartily

concerned now another way. I presently told the people of the house,

that I durst to say those were not the persons, for that I knew one of

the gentlemen to be a very honest person, and of a good estate in

Lancashire.

The constable who came with the hue-and-cry was immediately informed of

this, and came over to me to be satisfied from my own mouth, and I

assured him that I saw the three gentlemen as I was at the window; that

I saw them afterwards at the windows of the room they dined in; that I

saw them afterwards take horse, and I could assure him I knew one of

them to be such a man, that he was a gentleman of a very good estate,

and an undoubted character in Lancashire, from whence I was just now

upon my journey.

The assurance with which I delivered this gave the mob gentry a check,

and gave the constable such satisfaction, that he immediately sounded a

retreat, told his people these were not the men, but that he had an

account they were very honest gentlemen; and so they went all back

again. What the truth of the matter was I knew not, but certain it was

that the coaches were robbed at Dunstable Hill, and £560 in money

taken; besides, some of the lace merchants that always travel that way

had been visited too. As to the three gentlemen, that remains to be

explained hereafter.

Well, this alarm stopped us another day, though my spouse was for

travelling, and told me that it was always safest travelling after a

robbery, for that the thieves were sure to be gone far enough off when

they had alarmed the country; but I was afraid and uneasy, and indeed

principally lest my old acquaintance should be upon the road still, and

should chance to see me.

I never lived four pleasanter days together in my life. I was a mere

bride all this while, and my new spouse strove to make me entirely easy

in everything. Oh could this state of life have continued, how had all

my past troubles been forgot, and my future sorrows avoided! But I had

a past life of a most wretched kind to account for, some of it in this

world as well as in another.

We came away the fifth day; and my landlord, because he saw me uneasy,

mounted himself, his son, and three honest country fellows with good

firearms, and, without telling us of it, followed the coach, and would

see us safe into Dunstable. We could do no less than treat them very

handsomely at Dunstable, which cost my spouse about ten or twelve

shillings, and something he gave the men for their time too, but my

landlord would take nothing for himself.